Scotto's Wall Scrawls

Out for some "fresh air" as we've been cooped up for quite a spell. Visited chnaka - BHK picked up some circular knitting supplies and I got a lovely replacement for my lost glass monkey bead at bag-o-beads.

Then, we did a quick stop at Wal-Mart and got some valentine supplies - chocolate hearts and some buttons to go with BHK's knits.

Visited Ledo's (back next door to chnaka again - found out that buy one / get one free calzone night is the same evening as the Wednesday Knitting Circle - While we ate, (and for a bit after) we chatted with Veronica and Bill Frostbutter in the booth next to us. I like to think BHK and I will be much like them (after another 40 years or so have gone by - Veronica is a little Chatty-Cathy like BHK, and Bill is a more quiet, but friendly cohort... not unlike myself.) I think that Veronica and Bill Frostbutter should be our aliases sometime... awesome name.

We got home, and went to take care of little Stormy next door- and we proceeded to lock ourselves out of the house. Thankfully, I had the Naille's keys on us, so we called the in-laws to let us out, while we played with little Stormy for a bit.

Of note to literati - You may flip through Poe manuscripts digitally! - http://research.hrc.utexas.edu/poedc/results.cfm?cat=1  The Edgar Allan Poe Digital Collection

1 year ago - hospital, boom blox, pot pie soup!, newton watching the starlings pic

2 years ago - pye on cam, bhk and Cathy, paper ballot in MD, walker nightmare, self-portrait (see yesterday for same place), stinging hands memory, pueblo zip, punch a tyrannosaurus in the face, Human sacrifice by General Butt naked

3 years ago - zombie astronaut, gun runner dream, paper moon pix

4 years ago - missing cj, superhero dream, youtube b&B, fat bat cat, herm patient, pug in lucha mask, endless forest, birthday counter.

5 years ago - Chilly, doodle, facial morphs (monkey scotto is still my fave), food, height comparisons, a/b meme, warning labels, toybox mooch, scythes

6 years ago - happy Newt, nipples off, palm post - bus stop, tummy ache. penguin poop, giant nostril

7 years ago - Tests, truth, rumor, links and history, lj spam, Kev in court

8 years ago - I got my camera, Alvin gets fired from work for stealing overtime, unsolved mysteries, snap club, mcd's employees, nifty moon site.

9 years ago - Reflections on the old regime, The Litter Box Song *snerk*, Cow Saliva, "parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme", rehiring some of the fire-ees

...                             

Backdated – couldn't post ‘em earlier, because they’re Christmas prezzies. BHK made scarves for Adam, Amy, Mandy and Chris for the holidays – Adam’s is UMD gray and red, Mandy's is green and tan, Amy's is purple ribbed, and Chris's the fuzzy mohair.

We went to "kids at the farm" day w/ jay, duncan, sean, and Jay's sister & nephew.

Jay's sister is basically Flip Wilson's Geraldine incarnate. I kid you not, dear journal.

After visiting the baby animals, we swung by the Lusby Mexico - the food there is still great, and the cost is cheap. Thank goodness for buy one/get one coupons! I suspect that Lusby's cook is a smidgen better than the closer one.

Seen below - security tricycle from last weekend, annapolis police, a plant we're trying to ID, dolly-doggie, monty-doggie, misc flowers, Maize lawn darts (Indian style!), oyster shells and a spine in a food refuse pile, totem pole head thingie, assorted huts, (a pano interior photo), scarecrows, bunnies, engine of destruction, goats, tiny pony, more bunnies, duck, more horses, activity for being a pig or a sheep, duncan, pelts, tractors and cows.

1 year ago - bhk & I sick, blueberries - pie, bugah's ballgame, aardvark's, boardgames

2 years ago - garden pepper pic

3 years ago - LOTR online beta, valleyschwag, Newt defends me during a pirate game, yawny-poll, mermaids- traditional and feegee, monkey chow diaries, abc mp3, stealth-wing parachute, router hack, bro case update, of mice & men, freaturing superman and bizarro

4 years ago - teensy work text, human hamster balls, google-found webcams, old gi joe comics, jogging for jesus, Florida judges are tossing out DUI cases when defendants ask to see the source code for the breathalysers that busted them, Ex-deputy gets life for molesting boys, bro picked up for trespassing

5 years ago - zombie quiz, metamorpho with GP, Square-boy, Walken sings, Chainsaw owies, ST emulator, Bulldozer rampage, I go to a new host.

6 years ago - bro, pub-crawling with Danny, flowerpop clones my interests and flies off.

7 years ago - hero costume poll, sogyo poetry, fumigation finished, scopes sea monkey trial

8 years ago - baby helmet, deep sleep, grogginess, wag, folks sick all over LJ, shoe size poll, adaptation of science, spark words.

9 years ago - My life unapproved by the Comic's Code Authority

Forgotten image taken by BHK on our trip to the Baltimore museum with Alice. I actually rather enjoyed the giant magnetic poetry room.

Still feeling a bit out-of-whack, but getting there. Did walkies today, and we made it to the post office, goodie shop, and candy store - maybe not the most healthy way to go for a nice constitutional, but I do love the sponge candy.

see also -



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Adjective

out of whack (comparative more out of whack, superlative most out of whack)

1. (idiomatic) (generally) Wrong, broken; specifically:
1. Not in proper balance; unbalanced.

our priorities have gotten out of whack

2. Not in proper alignment.

the floor is so out of whack that the door hits it when opened

3. Not working or operating properly.

banged up left knee is out of whack

Alternative spellings

* out-of-whack

Usage notes

* The unhyphenated spelling is usually used predicatively, and the hyphenated spelling usually occurs when the phrase appears before the word it modifies.

hand at ann-marie cardens. about 5 feet tall.

I neglected to mention that the love cube (our Honda element) is now repaired... they replaced the whole hood - BHK think that it may be from a different model, and she might be right. I haven't seen any good photos of 2006 vs other element hoods online yet, but we'll get to the bottom of it, if it requires us to go to a car lot somewhere and look in person.

Last night at about 5:30ish, there was a storm that knocked out power to both Chesapeake Beach and North Beach... not to mention the surrounding towns, too. No juice means no oven, and since I was still dressed from work, I figured it'd be nice to take BHK out to dinner, seeing as she's been craving meatballs all day. We tried Ledos, Asia Cafe and Mama Lucia's north to no avail.. apparently everyone else had the same idea about eating out... even mexico was too mobbed, so we continued onwards to Mama Lucia's south - The service was a bit on the weak side until BHK politely asked the waitress (while I was washing my hands in the men's room) . Service improved after that.... we got home and both towns were still dark, save for places with generators.

I used the flashlight on my key chain to get us inside, and we lit a few rechargeable candle-style lamps for some ambient light. We have access to a lot of battery-powered light - cell phones, pda, laptops, flashlights... I think we could go days without running totally out of lamp-juice. That said - I want to recharge the candle-lights, since we hadn't done them fully beforehand.The emergency flashlight and radio lit up the bathroom area nicely as a night lite - we opened the bedroom windows and went to bed, hoping that the heat wouldn't be too bad... it wasn't... but poor BHK didn't sleep very well... I was snoring big time, as the CPAP runs on juice, too. Next time, I'll bring the UPS from the computer room in to run it.

So, power was restored at about 2am this morning, and we were all able to get an hour or two's rest before it was time for me to get up and get rolling to work. I hope to catch a little nap sometime tomorrow in order to try and catch up.

See also - BHK's version of what happened -




Today is Chris and Larry's 33rd wedding anniversary, and plans are to hit Selby Sub Shop for a nice little nosh. We've got to pick up a lemon meringue pie and sneakily get it past the parental guards.

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The longest service disruption in Netflix history has apparently been resolved, with normal service resuming today. The company will compensate affected customers by adding a 15% credit automatically to their next bill. via Physorg

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Random pictures from the pyecam archive. of particular interest to me are the leaping/motion ones. No special preference is being given to Newt - he just goes on cam more.


. ...

The above are all shots of the boys leaping to the top tier of the cat tower.


. . . .
Stetchy / yawny shots

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1 year ago - train issues, farewell to R & P, tasty supper, covenant

2 years ago - raccoons, giant ants, moldy bread and freemasons make me smile, movies, geocaching, lj on venture brothers, gentle morning off, quotes meme

3 years ago - greasemap, foreign ducktales, apricot scarves... Tony Randall and vanity, Jean Charles de Menezes, bckev's keeno covers, kayla/susie drama, hugs, top 20 pics, elvis the robo-cat, newton nibble pic, tubby newt pic

4 years ago - AvP movie. bus schedules switch, walkabout pics, Punta Gorda - Yikes

5 years ago - last skeletor and gang, insect macro photos, apartments made from text,hello kitty warhammer, human/rabbit chimera, scotto is a fuzzy monkey,frankie knocks, wondering about crusaders planting vinyards, drunkensailor quiz, complete sherlock holmes, some detective work, pursecontents, fun with google calc

6 years ago - both machines upgraded and cleaned up, fun linkies, MRE talks about writing his junk, signage systems

7 years ago - eye dialect, latitudinarian, weird dream poll, set up alternates to LJ, Newt comes to work, cool news, freaky dream

8 years ago - loony, first hints suzy using, foodies

I haven't been recalling my dreams lately. Less fitful sleep, but I wake up with a cough and some nausea most mornings. BHK made some yummy soup last night, but I wasn't up to much eating for one reason or another. Maybe I'm getting a little cold or something?

Watched the last two episodes of house... the finale was pretty sad stuff... but I dn't know how much I go in for the pseudo-surreal hypnoscapes and memory retrieval elements... and the fact that nobody checked out the jane doe was a pretty weak plot point, given the other in-depth review of the case.

Put an order in for Hive and the Mosquito expansion at Aardvark - it should be in by June 12 (a little under a week)! A little expensive, but the bakelite pieces will endure a long time.

Maybe I'll make some out of glow in the dark fimo... or do variant pieces with other bugs. How would a ladybug move... or what might a lightning bug be able to do to switch up the game?

I already fear BHK will toast me at the game... she's got a good mind for some of these logic puzzle hex territory things.. like hazienda.

Playing it online is fun, but I love the feedback of face to face and handling the game pieces. Plus, if the power goes out, you're still set. (With the exception of pente and go I prefer most all games offline.) I first coded a version of pente for my good ol' atari ST back in the day... the AI was weak, but not terrible. I think that I've learned a few more strategies since then, but there is no lack of humans to play with... and there are better AIs out there, too.

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These free paper foldables are pretty keen. The cat in the vet collar is particularly inspired.

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Bambi II: Oh yes... there will be blood. (thank theweaselking)

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L. Ron Hubbard's 5 Most Impressive Lies (Besides Scientology)

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1 year ago - 150 questions meme

2 years ago - tuesday like buddy holly, poetry, long phone talk, csi project, under cold blue stars, 3 girl rhumba,

3 years ago - Org of American States, South America, Local Journals, burlesque, rain to sun, icons, journey to the center of the earth, I don't much like Cap'n Jack, PO CHU-I, florida slave labor, rose garden, the Way-Outs, Spanish mixup at work.

4 years ago - D-Day / Normandy, Cold Reading, plague cookies, shockwave, meme, chill out, first appearance of eryx_uk in my comments.

5 years ago - Hobbit Pub w/danny pics, DARPA

6 years ago - Troublesome evacuation issues for fumigation

7 years ago - evil news, laconic, hobbit names, aimbot, hungry, lj DDos, glow text abuse, misc wacky html, Scotto quirk, COPS, long chat with CEJ, Rudy-fibber, poo-health chart.

8 years ago - no-thang

 

Shots, and off to southern states to grab a couple of pepper plants - saw an adorable pair of kids. Little girl in riding pants and very friendly, and her little brother who reminded me of JD at 6 years old. We also picked up some thistle seed for the finches (so Pye and Newt have a little outside wildlife to watch)

 

After that a lovely church wine and craft show... We got a Christmas ornament with a pair of origami cranes (cherry blossom pattern paper) inside of a rounded cube.... and a lovely packet of bake sale goodies. Aggression cookies (oatmeal), molasses and chocolate chip.

 

Episcopal church had the following on the bulletin board:

The comedian Robin Williams is an Episcopalian, and he has created a funny "Top Ten" List of reasons to be an Episcopalian.

 

10. No snake handling.

9. You can believe in dinosaurs.

8. Male and female, God created them; male and female, we ordain them.

7. You don't have to check your brains at the door.

6. Pew aerobics.

5. Church year is color coded!

4. Free wine on Sunday.

3. All of the pageantry, none of the guilt.

2. You don't have to know how to swim to get baptized.

And the number one reason for being an Episcopalian:

1. No matter what you believe, there's bound to be at least one other Episcopalian who agrees with you.

I can dig that.

 

After the Church shindig, we Shakespeare on the Boardwalk - Much ado about nothing. TM's neighbor Kevin was in it, as was Guppy (twin beach players )

 

after a bit of local and classic culture, we headed home to catch up with The Office and My Name is Earl.

 

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Added a syndicated feed of BHK's favorite meteorolgist - Kim Martucci - I should notify Kim that she's being syndicated here, just so she knows to check. It's not a full feed, just a clip and a link to the main site - which is *quite* a^c_tⁱ_v^e and colorful, if you follow my fonts. Her journal gave BHK a quickie girl-crush on Kim.

also via BHK -

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Friday Five on a Saturday -

1. Who do you adore?
BHK, Newton and Pye

2. Who adores you?
BHK, Newton and Pye

3. What's in your pockets?
Wallet holding a red thread, trinkets, petty cash and ID, inhaler, keys

4. Who can you talk with for hours?
BHK, Danny, GP and Kat (haven't in a long time, though), Dave, Kev... most nice people with common interests, I guess!

5. What sounds great today?
Playtime with the family!

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1 year ago - Elephant escape doodle, payday, Calvert County work info, dream fragments, books: both digital and paper, weather love, shaved ice / "dumb ol' cherry", railway museum trip

2 years ago - red mood doodle, super power desire as a lad, waiting room pic, newton and I on the porch pics, sand art

3 years ago - story stuck, food cravings, national ID, locla lj leads to illegal sex, anti-abortion extremist Neal Horsley admitted to engaging in homosexual and bestiality sex.

4 years ago - net out, bro bonds out, walkabout pics, sci-fi cliches, gabbed with sedef, bee vs wasp massacre.

5 years ago - Nature vs Pringles, Dan delivers Groceries, menstrualhut breaks 1000 users (now a bit more than twice that), Bush's Military Record

6 years ago - J-bee points me at CBS Mystery theater, Sat tracking, Newtie yawn icon source, Friday five

7 years ago - swollen uvula (side effect of no cpap, snoring beat me up), dumbass Astley late with his bargain basement hardware

Went to Supper at Mama Lucias with BHK and the in-laws... food was good and it was nice to sit around the table and make small talk. BHK and I split gnocci with marinara and eggplant parm.

No ghosts seen or dealt with last night, despite Walpurgisnacht.

New month - Things to do today - pay mortgage, check doctor's appointments and meds, and finish making out my will. (no particular reason, dear journal, just that it's out of date.)

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Modular robot reassembles when kicked apart

One step closer to crawling hands and unstoppable robot zombies, I say. About time.

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Nerdy thought of the moment.


Self-comparison to Owlbear: Scottobear

Frequency: Unique
No. appearing: 1
Armor Class: 8 (7)
Move: 6" (bad back/leg- if repaired, 12")
Hit Dice: 2
% in lair:50%
Treasure type: K, W in lair
(if you know how to use a credit card or a checkbook)
No of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: By weapon type (usually 2-8, I think)
Special Attacks: Hug
Special Defenses:nil
Magic Resistance:Standard
Intelligence:Very
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Size: L (6'6" tall, Broad)
Psionic Ability:Nil
Attack/Defense Modes:Nil

This intelligent, but docile creature will flee an attack if possible, but if cornered or if his home or family are threatened, will fight fiercely. His habitat is a cottage near the bay, with his mate and two cats. His hide is worth between 500 to 2000 gold pieces if sold to the right collector.

Both of us have hugs as special attacks.

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She's just bein' Miley is stuck in my head... thanks, BHK!

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I want to go with BHK to DC's month long multi-media event, ARTOMATIC. (www.artomatic.org ). At last count, over 1000 artists are participating, and it's totally free to attend - it looks fantastic. (Plus, Britishink will be there, doing tattoos, so we can give Cyn her b'day prezzie!)

Britishink will be be recreating a working Victorian Tattoo Parlour, complete with a display of the history of tattooing, machines, art, and tattoo related photography. If you want to be part of the art, they can accommodate you and tattoo you there. (Cyn's portfolio is here and more stuff here - take a gander, she does keen stuff - our wedding present from her was a drawn (not inked on us) love knot that was gorgeous.)

Capitol Plaza I
1200 First Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
Metro: Red Line, New York Ave., M St exit

ARTOMATIC opens on Friday, May 9th. Days and hours are:
Wednesday: 5pm-10pm
Thursday: 5pm-10pm
Friday: Noon - 2am (yes, you read that correctly)
Saturday: Noon - 2am
Sunday: Noon - 10pm
Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays
The last day is June 15th

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Cute overload has tempted me too far. Must go see the baby elephant in baltimore.

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Wikipedia has more to say about May Day than I might, this year. North Beach has a Maypole by the bay... I wonder when it'll be danced beneath?

I think it's neat that most maypoles are made of maple. I have no idea of the origin of the word maple, but somehow I doubt it's due to the holiday.

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Random factoid - "Mayday" is the internationally recognized voice radio signal for ships and people in serious trouble at sea. Made official in 1948, it is an anglicizing of the French m'aidez, "help me".

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1 year ago - May day thoughts, newt and pye sharing, my zombie eyes, chimney cleaners, Walpurgisnacht

2 years ago - charmed and dr who, bob ross, 20% , houses and kitties, tummy ache, lennon quote, i like monkeys, may day

3 years ago - family factoids, mail forwarding booboo, skipped air show, costcocremation urns, Classic Cheesy Comics, Minneapolis Beggars Guild?,Burrito Weapon

4 years ago - rough night on call, may day, Spanish channel family feud answers,budget assist, air and sea, Dan's students put up a site, Newt-parrot,mum issue, memories, cam pics

5 years ago - There, mayday, top40 drop, ortho, on Workmans comp

6 years ago - free scoop, invaders, stuff meme

7 years ago - buck rogers, geography and climate, nightclub, trundle, lj-cut ponder, misc evil news, organ donor poll, wild party

Happy first day of Spring!!

 

Egg-dying went well... the white spots denote 4 eggs that cracked, and the ones TM took home for herself and MO. Adam took one - he'll be giving it to a girl at school - and he certainly enjoyed the fajitas that BHK made. Larry and Chris (and mostly Adam and Tina, too) spent the bulk of the visit glued to the tube while BHK and I did the majority of coloring. My faves are the family eggs (there's a Scotto, BHK, Pye and Newt in the mix) as well as a couple of oddballs - speckeld ones and hot pink / green... both of which are more vibrant than this photo shows. more in depth pictures later, possibly.

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GP's got me interested in Encounter Critical. It's by S. John Ross, an added bonus (I dig the mechanics of Risus, though I've never played it.)

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twitterwise, I'm on the Orange Team. icons when in civilian duds, and on team business.

.

How could I choose another color?

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I really want the cell phone legislation banning use of a handset while driving in Maryland to pass. The beltway is rough enough without people crimping necks and not looking at the road. Whatever happened to the idea of pulling over to talk?

I'd love to see some sort of magic technology that blocks non-emergency cell phone use in the driver's side of a car while the wheels are moving.

Same goes for the front-seat DVD players, and audio systems that go louder than a range of safely hearing what's going on outside of the vehicle, as far as I'm concerned. Color me a fascist, but I don't need anyone being more distracted than they already are... If I could find a way to implement a breathalyser / urine tester for safe driving, I'd probably do that, too. And bumper-transponders that forbid tailgating based on the speed of the vehicles in question.

Heck, just use my magical wishing ring to stop all accidents - one of my characters, miniMAX first developed his size-changing abilities by trying to develop desolidity tech for vehicles... they never crash into one another!

After all those years, I still want a hyper-intelligent 4-inch tall talking ape to be my lab partner in fighting crime and solving the world's ills... or clean, safe teleportation technology. Or a magic wishing ring that can put people in protective bubbles, and heal them when they're hurt.

Thoughts about this is coming from the fact that I'm having trouble feeling a lot of sympathy for TM's uncle.... he apparently tried to kill himself by driving his car into oncoming traffic. Seriously... I understand being in pain and lashing out, but there are *PEOPLE* driving and acting as passengers in the other cars! If you want to off yourself, I have no problem with that... but leave everyone else out of it.

I feel bad for TM, though - she's been dealing with his nonsense for a long time, and right before this happened, she blew him off via the phone, and her other family did the same. I don't know all the details, but I hope that once he's out of the hospital he gets worthwhile treatment, and a maximum sentence for attempted suicide / attempted vehicular homicide / assault with a deadly weapon(car). I know his head is full of bad wiring, but I'm finding it very hard to forgive his behavior, no matter how sick he is. I just have to understand that he's not in his right mind, and hope that he is removed from driving and doing anything that can hurt anyone else until he is sufficiently repaired.

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50 things I've done meme continues with item 38. I...

38. 'have written 9200 journal entries prior to this one, the vast majority of them posted publicly to the world. Some entries are only a line or two long, others are entire short stories, continued across a few posts, because each entry only holds a maximum of 65,535 bytes. (That's about 16,000 4-letter words.) The journal will be 8 years old in just under two months.

39.'has owned scottobear.com since 1998... that was 10 years ago, March 12. It will need to be renewed again before March 11, 2013. I've got some time to scrape up the money to do so... it's pretty dang cheap. My website's look has changed a few times over the years, as has the content under the hood... it is quite due for a fresh coat of paint, and a revisit to the links contained inside. I started my first website with ol' geocities in 94-ish, back when it was free, and before it was owned by yahoo. that arcane url is lost to me, maybe forever? Who knows if I can dig it up form the web sometime? either way, it was migrated to scottobear.com about 4 years later, and has remained there ever since.

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From assorted sources (vchip, mgk, time) - a photo series of rival Kenyan tribes fighting for land with bows and arrows.

Look closely. This is Kenya, specifically a hill overlooking the Olmelil Valley, where Maasai warriors are clashing with members of the Kalenjin tribe on a regular basis. The tribal violence is a depressing comment on a country that only a year ago was promoted as a stable democracy in volatile West Africa. TIME has an interesting photo journal of the battles.

“We were using swords but they were not effective,” says Sylvester, 24, slashing a knife in the air. “In a day we can make between 80 and 100 [arrows],” he adds, refusing to give his last name out of fear. Community members pool money together to buy the necessary tools in secret; the arrows are then distributed within the neighborhood. Local leaders know about the arrow factories, but police forces do not.

"Victims with arrows, sometimes poisoned, lodged in their heads and chests have become increasingly common", say officials in Rift Valley hospitals.

"We cannot know the time of day when they (Kalenjins) will come. If they catch you off guard, you're dead," says Samuel, 25, holding a bundle of ready arrows.

Kalenjin elders train their boys how to use bows and arrows from an early age, the Kikuyu men say. But Kikuyus have had to learn quickly to fight back with the same tools. Several secret workshops employing 50 workers churn out bows and arrows for munition. "We have no other choice for now," he says.

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1 year ago - first full day at the calvert gig, bhk and I go shopping for work clothes, grownup table talk, spam attractive entry

2 years ago - rebis picture, deaf language, chacarron, math, phallic removal, open source, fake cigs as meds, prisoner comic book

3 years ago - Brady Kids welcome the equinox, shamrock shake, cosmic truth, mp3s,experimental gameplay, get your tasty hot sweet potatoes in Japanese,teen kidnappers, good advice, invisible mermaid airfare

4 years ago - openoffice, Visited w Dan, open door poll, people of worth

5 years ago - Al gore, Blue's clues, Cranky Finn

6 years ago - Spring!, Socks, overturned issues, Linda let go from FMM, LJ directory, cool picture link

7 years ago - walkies, 2 chris-sites, both have long since been left dormant, lj broken