Scotto's Wall Scrawls

Lots going on this week. Lets see...

Amy Arrived during the weekend, and will be off on the coming Sunday - Allowed me to give BHK a birthday gift early - Lego Harry Potter for the Wii.

First Day of new gig on Monday. I worked pretty late, and it was a mixed bag. I am enjoying it quite a bit overall.

Funeral for Ch'Naca Chris on Tuesday. BHK attended, though I could not due to the gig. Chinese Food for dinner, consolation prize for not being able to go to Laughing Buddha for dinner on Birthday Wednesday.

Physically ill yesterday morning - Gut was very unhappy. Severe cramps, dry heaving. Pain has mostly abated, but still sore in the belly, arms and chest.

Call from my first paying client - needs me to set up her restaurant system - possibly for Saturday. I will try to aim for a week from then, just so I can spend some time with our guests. - timing seems off.

It was BHK's birthday last night. I made her a card and a heart out of craft-clay, and she got the earrings we got on our last road trip.

Cousin David arrived with his parents, to visit before he journeys off to Hungary on Saturday. His parents left last night, I think.

1 year ago - party follow-up, Duncan likes cats who hide in boxes
2 years ago - work not too friendly, good middleman, Biden pro-RIAA and other minuses, Sweden bans teaching religion classes in govt approved schools, Neanderthals vs Homo Sapiens
3 years ago - Simpsons movie, BHK cake pic, hot out!, atw man missing tv pic, Tina party & loot, Danny back to school
4 years ago - back from an all too brief visit, nose buttering, bunny suicides, events of the day, liberty city psp home brew hack, Jojo the cannibal kid, maple cookies, folks, met Adam / Future In-laws
5 years ago - power out phone post, hurricane Katrina aftermath pictures (and Newt), Bro out, Techs unavailable
6 years ago - BK heads north, random visit to a 2001 entry, behavior variances, quiet-please
7 years ago - sleep schedule, zombie game (poor thing aborted), monkey helpers, first lost child.
8 years ago - Deer Hunter, Apache, Equality/freedom Poll, Emerson, flying saucer, heroclix 200 point armies, McD hot dogs, wpoison
9 years ago - that piercing woman , lj vibe change, many links (not all work anymore)
10 years ago - Godzilla, quizzes, leftyrok added me (Thanks, photoc), IMT threatens to move all operations north to Tampa, dean martin

         

Dictionary Dabble, Carcassonne – New World, and Valley of the Mammoths played.

BHK Did really well – Winning all (She and I tied in Dabble) I think it was the green knit cap I got her for Christmas – Mandy said she looked like toad (a mushroom person) from Super Mario… of course, BHK had to take that and run with it (see above)

Amy is off to NY again – We’ll miss her! BHK and I are going to have lunch in Deale soon with the in-laws. tomorrow, Sean is coming over for some year-end games, too, maybe we can whomp on him and Andrew a bit then!

Random thought in my head lately – I really like grappling hooks. One of my fave gadget / tools in video games, RPGs or even just in general. Swung by hand or fired from a gun, it doesn’t matter.

1 year ago – BHK and I go to Geppi’s, Gabby Hayes, Ravens/Orioles stadium pix, leap second added
2 years ago – breakfast, xmas books to read
3 years ago - officially done with ACIM, Danny covered for b day, calvert library
4 years ago - Spanish channel shenanigans, big brain issues, ACIM paperwork, crunks,walkabout pics, palm cam picture spin (visiting Deerfield)
5 years ago - picture beliefs, cheese
6 years ago - Dang Dick, Kindly Kahuna, and Scotto Stuff. Alliteration!
7 years ago - RFL pictures, PT Barnum, Malawi vampires, Morse code
8 years ago - Treebeard and Entwife, Met Denise & Sara @ Danny's Party, Mai Kai, eclipse
9 years ago - Calcutta Chromosome, Got shoo as a pal, Amitav Ghosh, Saw D&D movie with Danny, and Andy running the yellow Pompano comic shack

I’ve been cheating quite a bit – I prefer to post verbal over visual content. I’ll admit that I like to see pictures of Christmas, family and the kitties as much as the next guy, but to me, a photograph with just a small caption is strangely silent, especially coming from me.

What have I been up to lately, dear journal? Let’s see.

On Wednesday, I went to a job fair in Northern Virginia… I’m thankful that my background allows me to qualify for a good clearance ranking. DC area seems to prefer folks with an ability to do so.

Yesterday, BHK, Chris and I went to the Mexico restaurant for supper – aside from that, I went to physical therapy and rested in bed with the boys. Tonight we’re scheduled to visit the Manspergers for some baked Ziti and good conversation – Sean has been very helpful, in helping me to seek out opportunities in this region.

I’m looking forward to a snowy day tomorrow. Supposed to be 12-20 inches in my neck of the woods!

Amy is coming to visit from the 26th to the 30th! Right on!

I’m digging the new statistics page for livejournal. Makes it easier to track hits than by hiding little sensors in each post, certainly. The “my guests” feature is especially engrossing – I never know so many flyby’s happened to old entries!

I’m glad the tv show lost is in it’s final season. I don’t hate the show… but I am tired of the hype. I watched the first season or so, and then stopped, when it occurred to me that they’d keep making shows as long as advertisers would pay to keep ‘em on the air, and not because there’s a solid plot going from beginning to end. I feel the same about Heroes, sadly.  If there had been something more engaging than “what is the answer” and one I’d never get, I’d probably dig both of those shows.

Also, I think Blade should’ve been in Twilight, not Buffy.

New Years, I’m planning on doing the Polar bear plunge, unless my health isn’t into it. Current holiday loot breakdown – all of it wonderful!

• Mom and Wilton – Oranges, Honey and assorted grove goodness from Florida.
• Ish & company –  a tin of yummy cookies, a picture of Newt drawn by Li’l bit, two wonderful tree ornaments – one says “we <3 u infinity”, and a pair of sea stars in beach gear and a great hand-done card, complete with glitter!
• Karen (Kev’s sis)– super friends Cartoon DVD (via Amazon… BHK and I didn’t recognize her married name, so it took me a sec to figure out who it was!)
• Cathy and Dave – Cookies! and three wrapped gifts to put under the tree!

Just a reminder to folks on Steam or Windows live gaming – I’m user Scottobear there (and just about everywhere else, too) – If you want to friend me there, please do! I’d love to do a little left 4 dead or borderlands with a pal. My official new year’s resolution for 2010 – do the yearly countdown daily again, if possible.
 
1 year ago – Dexter season 1, gifts from Kev, and the folks in Florida, tired but getting better,
2 years ago - started my minicity - (still doing ok, though neglected), icy footing, f'ing programming, tell me meme, my snazzy new custom sneakers
3 years ago - Dinner with C&D, Big Brain, Xmas card, silly holiday lj toys
4 years ago - Xmas card, condo Xmas party, calm a llama down
5 years ago - salty seas, Christmas toy, year in review, Celebrex, anime fans, con folk
6 years ago - trade invites for play $$, dreams
7 years ago - How to attain old age, got my epidural
8 years ago - Crime & Punishment, heterodox, evil news, HP question, pooter poop, bagpipe, egoboo, giant bee
9 years ago - met Tarpo (I still have the holiday mix cd) and Isis, LJ sea Chantey, AOK-ing, Christmas Blues
10 years ago – heat miser / snow miser song.

Only 360ish days until 2010. I wonder what people will do for crazy new years glasses for 2011? no more double zero years for eye holes until 2020!

Danny's Birthday Today... and one month until I turn 40. Kat's Birthday is speeding up in about a week or so, too, and Duncan-Dad Shaun's B'day is the end of this month.

Lets see - today - Early Morning - Amy heads home - the dog bite on her arm is too infected, and she's worried about properly treating it. I think it'll be ok, but I can understand having concerns.

I get an emergency visit to the dentist - turns out my earache was the result of my crown - too high, and my jaw was adjusting to make it fit properly while I slept. TMJ turned into an ear infection. warm compresses and antibiotics should fix it soon. (I hope!)

After the dentist, I hit the doc's - got some ear drops to relieve the head pain, and looked into some treatment for some of the other issues I've been having. Got some new meds for that, and a consult to see some specialists in the area. We'll see how it goes, I'm hopeful. I should've just done my allergy shots today... but I guess that doesn't matter, since I'm to every other week now.

Jaw is painful, but not terrible. I guess that's one way to prevent overindulgence during the holidays!

Unique hits to my journal, by country - 30,998 total in the last 6 months - slightly down.

Running total of visits to scottobear.livejournal.com since 12 Jun 2006: 460,758

Current Country Totals
From 15 Jun 2008 to 1 Jan 2009

US	-	United States	21,313
CA	-	Canada	1,731
GB	-	United Kingdom	1,499
DE	-	Germany	502
AU	-	Australia	460
MX	-	Mexico	299
FR	-	France	263
IN	-	India	251
SE	-	Sweden	198
NL	-	Netherlands	190
ES	-	Spain	175
SA	-	Saudi Arabia	167
BR	-	Brazil	155
IT	-	Italy	153
IE	-	Ireland	135
PH	-	Philippines	134
RU	-	Russian Federation	117
SG	-	Singapore	115
PL	-	Poland	97
BE	-	Belgium	90
ID	-	Indonesia	89
TR	-	Turkey	87
JP	-	Japan	85
NO	-	Norway	80
TH	-	Thailand	78
MY	-	Malaysia	78
FI	-	Finland	77
NZ	-	New Zealand	75
AR	-	Argentina	72
GR	-	Greece	68
PT	-	Portugal	68
ZA	-	South Africa	67
HU	-	Hungary	66
IL	-	Israel	66
RO	-	Romania	66
DK	-	Denmark	62
CH	-	Switzerland	58
KR	-	Korea, Republic of	58
CL	-	Chile	54
PE	-	Peru	48
AT	-	Austria	47
CZ	-	Czech Republic	45
HK	-	Hong Kong	42
AE	-	United Arab Emirates	39
EG	-	Egypt	38
UA	-	Ukraine	37
PK	-	Pakistan	35
RS	-	Serbia	34
PR	-	Puerto Rico	33
CO	-	Colombia	33
HR	-	Croatia	28
VN	-	Vietnam	26
TW	-	Taiwan	25
BG	-	Bulgaria	22
CN	-	China	21
LT	-	Lithuania	21
LV	-	Latvia	21
VE	-	Venezuela	20
IR	-	Iran, Islamic Republic of	18
EE	-	Estonia	16
SK	-	Slovakia	16
KW	-	Kuwait	15
JM	-	Jamaica	15
SI	-	Slovenia	14
QA	-	Qatar	13
DO	-	Dominican Republic	12
EC	-	Ecuador	11
IS	-	Iceland	11
MT	-	Malta	10
EU	-	Europe	10
JO	-	Jordan	10
CY	-	Cyprus	8
TT	-	Trinidad and Tobago	7
DZ	-	Algeria	7
SV	-	El Salvador	7
CR	-	Costa Rica	7
LK	-	Sri Lanka	6
PS	-	Palestinian Territory	6
PA	-	Panama	6
HN	-	Honduras	6
BD	-	Bangladesh	5
MK	-	Macedonia	5
SD	-	Sudan	5
BA	-	Bosnia and Herzegovina	5
GE	-	Georgia	4
AL	-	Albania	4
LB	-	Lebanon	4
AP	-	Asia/Pacific Region	4
OM	-	Oman	4
GU	-	Guam	4
KE	-	Kenya	4
BH	-	Bahrain	4
AN	-	Netherlands Antilles	4
MA	-	Morocco	4
CI	-	Cote D'Ivoire	3
SY	-	Syrian Arab Republic	3
GH	-	Ghana	3
MV	-	Maldives	3
PY	-	Paraguay	3
MU	-	Mauritius	3
BY	-	Belarus	3
GT	-	Guatemala	3
NG	-	Nigeria	3
BS	-	Bahamas	3
LU	-	Luxembourg	2
MN	-	Mongolia	2
TC	-	Turks and Caicos Islands	2
BO	-	Bolivia	2
UY	-	Uruguay	2
AW	-	Aruba	2
KY	-	Cayman Islands	2
ME	-	Montenegro	2
MM	-	Myanmar	2
YE	-	Yemen	2
ZM	-	Zambia	1
CU	-	Cuba	1
CD	-	Congo, The Democratic Republic of the	1
LY	-	Libyan Arab Jamahiriya	1
PF	-	French Polynesia	1
TN	-	Tunisia	1
NA	-	Namibia	1
DM	-	Dominica	1
FJ	-	Fiji	1
GQ	-	Equatorial Guinea	1
AZ	-	Azerbaijan	1
MD	-	Moldova, Republic of	1
NP	-	Nepal	1
NI	-	Nicaragua	1
VG	-	Virgin Islands, British	1
TG	-	Togo	1
SR	-	Suriname	1
SN	-	Senegal	1
BN	-	Brunei Darussalam	1
KN	-	Saint Kitts and Nevis	1
BZ	-	Belize	1
BB	-	Barbados	1

1 year ago - Danny bday, Kat, Pam, age thoughts about myself, growing more beard for winter, beast sock monkey, webcomics, meme, polar bear swim

2 years ago - polar bear swim review, polar bears in general

3 years ago - prisoner commentary on my lack of things to say, linkies to cams, mugshots, thumbs up, tiny & affordable computers, ultimate showdown, windows security hole psa

4 years ago - Mel's Gram moves in, Dan doesn't meet her, on call, A&E, smallware, a resolution I fairly succeeded at, curry on the brain

5 years ago - dropload, shoot around corners, I first hear about how capital punishment is a far more expensive system than one whose maximum penalty is life in prison, Urban Exploration Florida

6 years ago - bro/taxi trouble, conquer the world, smoking gun mug shots

7 years ago - Random Name Generator, gunplay dream, family channel, Scotto's head,2001 review, Japanese space shuttle, Afghan sports, pee color

8 years ago - words within words, I disagree with Georgia O'Keeffe, LJ bumpy

Got my serum at last/ at last, and EKG was done. I'll know more after my doc reviews it.

Yellow Trike at Starbucks, man with bumblebee helmet - Man not shown. Nice Guy - goofy fan of his new ride... made a comment about lack of cup holders.

We went to Starbucks - BHK found a $15 gift card, so we figured we'd go - BHK's pumpkin spice coffee was pretty nasty - I remember why we don't go to that starbucks (or really any these days.) My lemonade/ passion fruit tea was jim-dandy.

 ...

Went to the BIG book sale, but I didn't get anything, and BHK only got maybe 5 rather than our usual take of a big ikea bag's worth. I think it got fairly picked over before we got there... earlier next time, perhaps.

Selby Sub Shop with in-laws, I had egg salad which was yummy. prior to that, I played spore for a bit while BHK dug on her new books, and Larry cut down the dead bits of our garden with the edge trimmer.

Amy's taking a pass on vacationing here this week - sick mom at home and she want's to stick by her there. Hopefully her mom feels better soon. We'll likely see her in October-December sometime.

Best part of the night was coming home and having a "no power night" - lights low, relaxing to 40s music on the couch, reading a book while curled up with BHK.

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Google Maps map annotated with all the places Marco Polo visited during his travels to China and back. Larger map here. (via short schrift)

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Saturday: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 79.

Saturday Night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 68. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

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1 year ago - figuring out my volume and time spent on lj, shopped for presents, DuClaw, Deal Bluegrass show planned

2 years ago - goodies, 008 is landon, kill windows nag, mr t - be somebody, rfjason - wtf prank, kitty combo

3 years ago - Red Thread, Postcard, walking weather, work, 2nd life, battersea

4 years ago - visit meme, case against voodoo, freeflow thought, Mexico Wal-mart Protest

5 years ago - Newt-vet, shoutcast, tiny cities, Why I dislike leiberman, Frankie mooches again, Turkish Hairballs

6 years ago - Lots of robots, World Affairs, palm art

7 years ago - Shocked awake, Nostia, folks scamming relief, weather, programming, lovely chat

8 years ago - Pompano Weather, Warghetz, Suzy News, Censorship, Loved

Let's see... to recap the weekend -

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Friday - Gem show was fairly nifty... I got to fool with a $109,000 aquamarine stone, and ate some tasty dessert with the in-laws and BHK.

Positives : Played with Rocks, Tasty food, Obtained a little knowledge on Lapidary, Got some ideas about what to get BHK as presents, Rock Cutter reminded me of Todd, discovered "sno cone" cut

Negatives: 4-5 hours is too long in a folding chair, Mouthy lady across from me, Had to wear nice clothes, heavy rain, we were tardy, I notice occlusions and stone flaws too easily, BHK low blood sugar, Newt accidentally in the walk-in closet the whole time we were gone.

Final Score: More win than fail. If I had to do it again I wouldn't complain, but would plan for uncomfy chairs a bit.

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Saturday - We were going to spend a little time doing chores and then go to the flyball tourney with Amy and her sisters, but got sidetracked after we were invited to breakfast with Larry and Chris. Post Bob Evans, we got the tickle to pick up our copy of Zombie Fluxx at Aardvark in Solomon's.... That sort of turned in to a family trip to BJ's Wholesale with the in-laws, once they heard we were heading south for a moment. Larry And Chris suffered a little bit from sensory overload at Aardvark's, but we were in and out quickly. Just fast enough to grab our ZF and go. I found out that they don't carry warhammer minis, but instead do war machine. I wonder if Eryx and his crew mix and match figures, or if they're purely WH? Once we got to BJ's, a quick trip for some tires for Larry's car turned into Shop-o-rama 2007. BHK and I picked up a few things that we needed, Halloween candy for the kiddies, and two wonderfully discounted wii games ($20 each) - Rampage and Ninjabread Man. Chris decided to play Santa, and bought our cart of goodies as well as their own!

While grocery Shopping, we found some Theme Chocolate -



Sexual Chocolate I've heard of... Forgiveness? interesting. Tranquil and Renew... what happens if you eat all of these at once?

On our way south, there was a trailer on the side of the road hawking flowers, apples and baked goods. By the style of dress, I thought at first that one of the vendors was Amish, but on evaluation of the trailer, she must've been Mennonite - Horses would've had a tough time pulling the thing, but a truck hitch would be fine. Also went to the post office, and got Danny's Anniversary Present, and a Fluxx card "Zombies Eat Brains" promo... you use it in the standard deck, but has a Zombie theme, to be sure (The player who has Death on the table wins if the Brain is on the table.) The Boxed version of HEY! That's My Fish! I was a cruel and heartless player, and beat BHK 3 out of 3 games. I fear my victories will grow fewer in number as we get more players - I'm much better with 4 penguins than with 2.

We also stopped off at Maerten's to get our wedding rings engraved - inside of mine will be "Wing To Wing" and BHK's will be "Oar To Oar", referencing Robert Frost's The Master Speed - last lines of which are:

Two such as you with such a master speed
Cannot be parted nor be swept away
From one another once you are agreed
That life is only life forevermore
Together wing to wing and oar to oar.

The full poem is on my bio page here.

Positives: Zombie Fluxx obtained (Aardvark sold out and was on it's second order!), Hey! That's My Fish!, Free Candy, Free Wii Games, Free Houshold supplies, Social time with the in-laws, ginger snaps and apples, offer to teach me old school biscuit baking techniques.

Negatives: Delayed visit to Amy for a day, no chores done - will probably have to buckle down next weekend, a little skittish about not having my wedding ring

Final Score: BIG WIN! I really can't find much to complain about getting games, chocolate and a lot of good conversation and giggles out of a Saturday. Tried Ninjabread Man, and the controls are tricky, but not bad once you're used to 'em. I bet Bugah will be quite good at it.

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Sunday (Today) - I slept in until 10:30! I never sleep that late, but it must've been quite needed.

BHK and I hustled out the door to visit with Amy before she headed back for New York - got to give a friendly wave and offer support. We didn't ge tto eat together, but BHK and I took in some gorgeous weather, and went for pizza at 3 brothers - Sicilian with ricotta and garlic, BHK got meatballs on the side. Really, really good. Enough left over for dinner and for me to take to work tomorrow for lunch... and for BHK to have a nibble for lunch, too.

Stopped in Annapolis to look at couches at Jennifer's to replace the pink Torquemada-inspired beasties on the living room wall. Some solid, affordable options there... most light at the end of that tunnel yet. Nothing totally sings, but we have a few ideas about what to do now.

ATW man changed to Spidey for Halloween!

.

I dig his boots.

We got home and flopped in front of the TV in the treehouse, caught up with The Office, Earl, and Midnight.... and just enjoyed snuggles with Newt in bed. Chris called to invite us over for Veggie soup, but I was too pooped out to get dressed and head over there. They understood, and BHK worked our way downstairs to catch up with some of the Ugly betty and cake making challenge video we had saved there - got sleepy, and we hit the sack shortly thereafter.

Positives: walkabout, moon pies on the road with diet cranberry splash, super good pizza, maybe a new couch soon, offered Amy a chance to come visit, ATW man, Further along on couch search, lots of nice time with BHK.

Negatives: The day was too short!

Final Score: Solid win. Comfy, Autumnal, lovey day.

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1 year ago - on honeymoon in SC, ripley's, voice posts
many pages of pictures taken that day! 1 2 3 4 5 Hooray for Honeymoon!

2 years ago - wilma update, peanuts meets lovecraft
more hurricane fallout pictures taken that day

3 years ago - adp and ri battle, kamal, punkinheads, clock change, katherine harris run over, willed body lawsuits

4 years ago - hospital trip, mr Charlie

5 years ago - babynamer, Drawbacks of a name, newt-tadpole pics, candy-corn thoughts, cat heroclix sculpts, PBS-SOP

6 years ago - musical coding, Network

7 years ago - Hanging out with buddies.

8 years ago - Newt's eyes begin to turn color

Blueberry pancake breakfast! Yum. What more can be said? The in-laws came over and we devoured the pancakes, after a visit to the garden. Too hot to do much outside.

Well, today I slept midday, just to regain some lost time during the past week - I intended to do a 30 minute quickie, but ended up grabbing quite the 2-hour snooze. I spooked BHK and Amy a smidgen when I awoke, as I ascended the creaky stairs to the loft while they were watching Kolchak (both the old and the new series) - I creeped them out during the "cult leader" episode of the 2005 series.

We got a lot of parlor games in over the afternoon and evening, paused in the middle with a fantastic dinner at Mama Lucias with the in-laws. They were really on top of their business tonight - all of the food was delicious, arrived quickly, was presented well, and service was right on the money. BHK and I did halfsies on Tortellini and peas with sun-dried tomatoes in Alfredo sauce supplemented by eggplant parm and spaghetti. It was all done just the way I like, and I was in gustatory heaven.

Games played were:

Lunch Money - didn't go over so well... maybe with a different crowd it'd do better. I liked it, but the gals weren't into the combat.

Chez Goth - not popular with Amy, but BHK liked it.  i think I liked the color more than the actual rule set. 2 games of that, I won one, and BHK got one. I'd try it again, but I think Looney Labs has spoiled us a bit.

Chrononauts - I think that was the clear winner of the week, actually. We played two games, and I *really* want to do a few alternate nexus points in history versions.

Aquarius - always a fun, quickie game. I think we got 3 games or so in before we had to head out to supper.

Pirates - 2 games, 40 points each. BHK played the 2nd game with a pair of Crabs that ended up at the bottom of Davy Jones' Locker. We didn't get to fight Amy's giant shark, but she did quite well with human-crewed vessels, winning the last game by whittling one of my 6-masted junks down to kindling. Playing over appletinis didn't slow her down a bit. My maggie moo's cake-batter w/brownie-fueled aggression didn't help me in the end. (I blame the scoop of chocolate banana for throwing off my internal clock... or maybe not.)

Next thought - Car wars... card game, and if it sticks, evolution to the wargame.

1 year ago - starting yoga, newtcam pics, visiting pals, comics, wrestler name, Jonathan Coulton - Bigfoot & Leonard Nimoy, cool cartoon, spoof caller id service,

2 years ago - met the Lisas, strawberry shortcake, Kamandi, cat cartoons, I remind JL of Rob from High Fidelity, meme-y thing, out with Dan

3 years ago - turtlenecks, skinbags, touchscreen, firestarter, recent tunes, oomiaq, walkies, manatees

4 years ago - tour guides, politics, bollywood, starmark, windows psa

5 years ago - swastika, dreams, newt, birds of prey, lizard droppings, zebrelle

6 years ago -WoG III, Chai, bro, coloring book, lj down

7 years ago -no-thang

Dreams of being in Colonial Williamsburg with BHK - pursued by the police in minuteman garb... muskets with bayonets, breeches, the full uniform of Paul Revere-type garb. Most disturbing were the tri-cornered hats and braided ponytail, tied with blue bows.

When we were spotted, they blew into a silver whistle - standard pipe style, and the tri-corner hats unfurled into flying stingrays, the ponytails becoming some sort of antenna or navigational aid - remaining attached to the hat rather than the colonial-style policeman. A high-pitched wailing rose up from them, not too unlike a police siren - fortunately they were easily dispatched by running indoors.

I have no idea what were were supposed to have done to warrant a chase. Maybe because we weren't dressed in period clothing?

Yeah, that's it... because colonist law enforcement used flying, screaming stingrays to fight crimes against continuity.

After work, BHK, Amy and I came back to the house and noshed on queso and pizza with the in-laws and TM - TM headed home before the pizza arrived, poor gal's beat after putting in a double time week. We watched Bridget Jone's Diary (the first time I'd seen it in one piece) and then after the in-laws left, the remainders put in a couple of rousing games of Chronoauts. It was better than I thought it'd be, and I had some fairly high hopes. I wouldn't mind getting Early American Chrononauts so we can play UberChronauts, now.

We still haven't done Chez Goth or Lunch Money yet, but perhaps tomorrow after the girls comeback from the tennis / shopping spree they have planned. I've started an account at board game geek just to keep track, at this point.

1 year ago - Japan's underground photography, free wifi attractive nuisance, 2nd life updates, tough times in the congo, fishbone, ape-o-naut doodle / gays in space

2 years ago - A/c unhappy, Lisa/Lisa plans, Jacques the Monkey, Candice fickle, shots, Tom Waits, Abandoned amusement and theme parks, grumping, "shut it", mallah and the brain

3 years ago - monkey doodle, palm pictures from the bus, lavender-newt, notes from the road, atm jam, CoH, lj-flower, monkey yawn

4 years ago - palm doodles, power-outage, all consuming, power of burqas, sonic bullets

5 years ago - some day tripping, cool squirrel, Belgium is a myth, tongue-trimming, lj hot-or-not, Life imitates Real Genius!!!

6 years ago - overtired & grumpy, cockaigne, evil news, flash, evil news

7 years ago - wanting to go on a group outing, discover marquee

Gummi Chicken feet. They're tasty and disturbing.

I neglected to mention the taste sensation that BHK and I enjoyed throughout last night's movie. (Amy chose to stick with M&Ms.)


Gummi Chicken feet.

Pretty dang good, actually. right thickness and texture for a good gummy candy - fruit flavored. Grotesque to look at, but still nifty. (ours weren't in this cool packaging, but rather just a big plastic bag, which is all the more cool, as far as I'm concerned.

Who thought that it was a good idea?

Who hired a sculptor to carve chicken foot molds for candy?

I wish that I'd counted them before eating - I wonder now if there were an even number to account for 2-per chicken, or if one of the Gummi-creatures was a pegleg.

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via evandorkin -

A plan to sell classic novellas in retro cigarette packs via cigarette vending machines after a U.K smoking ban in enclosed public places goes into effect. At least I think they're going to (try to?) sell these in actual vending machines. Whatever the case, they're called Tankbooks, and are being produced by Tank, a think tank, creative agency and publishing outfit. Dunno if this is a P.R. stunt, an art project, an honest effort to sell books in an interesting manner, or all of the above. Nifty-looking packages, whatever the case.

I think that decks of cards would be cool, too. Standard Decks of 52, or even some Fluxx flavors, maybe? Possibly a Barfly version of Munchkin ? Speaking of which, BHK won at Munchkin Bites tonight.

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For future reference, as I think it's pretty generally known right now:

LiveJournal was unavailable between approximately 2pm and 9:30pm PDT on Tuesday, July 24, 2007. Apparently, they weren't the only ones with a power outage issue. Sites that are affected include CNET, Craigstlist, Technorati, Yelp and all Six Apart properties, TypePad, LiveJournal and Vox. I didn't even notice, as I was at work and at the movies - I wonder how many people too the opportunity to breathe a little fresh air and feel sunlight on their skin?

See what happens when you don't have geographically split clusters? I wonder how hard it would be to back up all of those guys... there's got to be a monster amount of data there.

I find myself looking forward to being snowed in at home, with BHK, the kitties and me all playing card or board games in the living room. I think that maybe we can call a "virtual snow day" at the house sometime where we can just do that very thing, without waiting for a total power outage.

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Netflix must think we're insane. "We've received Apocalypto - and have sent out your copy of My Super Sweet 16: The Movie"

Adam's off to his missionary work in Guatamala -A quick summary of his itinerary:

6:30 PM tonight - he arrives at the Hope of Life Mission Center.
Tomorrow- Sr. Center, plant flowers and trees, painting
Friday- mostly off-site construction
Saturday- visit orphans
Sunday- Boat Trip
Monday- More construction, painting, etc.
Tuesday- Food Distribution/Evangelism
Wednesday- more painting, hand out meals
Thursday- arrive home

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For work, I'm doing a distillation of a few hundred pages of documentation into bite size bullet-point chunks for next week... Tricky, but not impossible.

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Farewell, Weekly World News. I'm glad you lasted for as long as you could. I hope that the website will at least continue for a bit.

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1 year ago - break in dream, barometric pressure?, ogden nash, wtc movie, I'm a lucky, lucky boy, no danny, cost of being poor, hide the navstrip, food delivery, paintbot, times are changing

2 years ago - secret agent dream, teachers, dan reads wee free men, humor-type, vnc2swf, magic, don ho shock the monkey mp3, v for vendetta trailer, blood cholesterol, travel journal gig, net times journalist trouble, survey, scary villain picture

3 years ago - candy, incense, my mental room, cannibals, ka-boom, CoH

4 years ago - viking on newtcam, hulk adds my graphic to his journal, starmark, poop, Chinese food, mage knight

5 years ago - ISS, bear-lynching, beauty, Conroy books

6 years ago - bro's breakup, cej, exhort, more majestic, mailing tardiness, news, Dr. Ernest Freaky Bootygrabber, Radio, time for life poll

7 years ago - Friends assessment, Spiritual Beliefs