Scotto's Wall Scrawls

Blokus and dinner with Cathi, Dave, Mayah and Hailey! visited Zen-kitty, Sage, Luna, and Kissy.

Cathy and Dave came over for a "farewell dinner" - they're moving to Colorado next week. They shuffled out of the house pretty early last night - we had some delicious baked ziti, zucchini parm and ice cream and pie for dessert... over a game of apples to apples. I dominated the first round, but the second was much ore neck-in-neck with BHK. Surprisingly, there were no tears or sad goodbyes - I guess because they're still going to be around for a week or so.

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via PAD -

Disney has announced that they intend to shutter the Adventurers Club in downtown Pleasure Island come the end of September. I want to try and convince them otherwise.

It's not as if the AC has been singled out; they're closing down all the clubs in the area with the stated intent of making the area more "family friendly."

Although the various over-18 venues on the island might fall under the label of not being conducive to family enjoyment, this most definitely does not describe the Adventurers Club. Yes, it has an active bar, but so what? If the presence of a bar made something adult-oriented, TGI Fridays would not be a family establishment. The fact is that every time we have attended the Adventurers Club, there have been kids of all ages in attendance, entranced by the club and its wildly talented cast.

For those unfamiliar with it, the Adventurers Club purports to be a 1930s private club for globe-spanning adventurers, having a pledge drive for new members. Guests mingle freely with colorful characters, interact with animatronic statues and puppets, and watch demented improv comedy and shows by the Club's "daredevil" officers. If you have been there, then you know a night at the Club is always great entertainment. If you have not had the opportunity, then we're about to fight to save it so that you may yet have the chance.

There is an on-line petition going on that already has thousands of signatures, and I wish them well (and have indeed signed it myself). But on-line petitions only go so far. What corporate types respect is actual letters, because it means that the writers took the time to write it, put it in an envelope and slap a stamp on it.

If you want to help preserve one of the single greatest entertainment experiences in Disney, then I urge you to write to:

Robert Iger
Chief Executive Officer
Walt Disney Corporation
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-4873

I cannot stress enough: Keep letters civil. Polite. Family-friendly, if you will. If you have attended the AC, talk about your experiences and how much the place means to you. If you haven't been, underscore the good things you've heard about it and your intention to attend in the future.

And never forget the Adventurers Club credo:

We climb the highest mountains,
just to get a better view.
We plumb the deepest oceans,
because we're daring through and through.
We cross the scorching desert,
martinis in our hand.
We ski the polar ice caps,
in tuxedos looking grand.
We are reckless, brave, and loyal,
and valiant to the end.
If you come in here a stranger,
you will exit as a friend.
KUNGALOOSH!

Feel free to cross post this wherever you think it will do any good.

I've only ever been to the Adventurers Club once, but it was great fun... I'd really like the opportunity to take BHK with me to see it again with fresh perspective. A place at Disney styled after the pulps, with Tom Leher music and the occasional cocktail (with or without alcohol) ? Yeah, I'd say that's worth keeping.

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Amazing Promotion Film for More4’s Stanley Kubrick Season … a 65 second one-take tracking shot following Kubrick’s point-of-view as he walks through the set of The Shining … ‘Your Script, Mr Kubrick.’

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Sunglasses that Hide your Face from Cameras - Article and video:

They work by mounting two small infrared lights on the front. The wearer is completely inconspicuous to the human eye, but cameras only see a big white blur where your face should be. Building them is a snap: just take a pair of sunglasses, attach two small but powerful IR LEDS to two pairs of wires, one wire per LED. Then attach the LEDs to the glasses; the video suggests making a hole in the rim of the glasses to embed the LEDs. Glue or otherwise affix the wires to the temples of the glasses. At the end of the temples, attach lithium batteries. They should make contact with the black wire, but the red wires should be left suspended near the batteries without making contact. When you put them on the red wire makes contact, turning the lights on. It's functional, but we're thinking that installing an on/off switch would be more elegant and it would allow you to wear them without depleting the batteries.

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1 year ago - mysql code, hot outside, cacls, ram's head plans (did neither), ad&d stats, backpack question, commute pictures on the way home,

2 years ago - phone post from keys... riding the bus is about all I did that day.

3 years ago - power outage, cool magicians, my eyes are blue, klaxons, past life/ice cream/coffee, stem cell steaks

4 years ago - pizza with dan, adp screws up, paid users get lj-priority, making fiends, Fiona apple mp3, Miami Travel Piccies, condo

5 years ago - trolls, naughty hulk, wonder woman movie

6 years ago - Wave of Husband killings, apple nipple monkey, star trek chairs auctioned, Ashcroft afraid of kitties

7 years ago - brackish , some broken links, dancing poll, tried mcD's yogurt & fruit, Le Petomane, band name poll, bid farewell to some junk

8 years ago - angry beavers, scary movie, don't look behind you

Dinner with Cathy & Dave tonight... say goodbye to any saved points when I have a slice of birthday cake. (sans army men). We played a bit of apples ot apples afterward, with Larry winning the first round, I won the second.

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Added image to "The Good Life" for photo Friday - me and Newt Snoozing. (#127 )

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50 things I've done meme continues with item 34. I...

34.'helped to plan, plant and harvest a family garden for the first time last spring. I really thought a 10 x 12 foot patch wouldn't produce more than a little vanity salad food, but we got a huge crop, especially of peppers, zucchini and cucumbers. My faves were the potatoes and zucchini.. oven baked goodness. BHK turned my lifelong disdain for zucchini into love with her baked veggies in soy flour, and covered in tomato sauce. Yum. Potatoes, I've always had a fondness for.

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I guess I'm coming late to this info, but per springheel jack - "RIP Basic (ad-free) Accounts. Your current 'basic' accounts are supposedly grandfathered (until they decide otherwise), but no new ones can be created. Communities too."

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The 8th Icehouse Game Design Competition is underway, and any previously unpublished game that uses Looney Labs’ Icehouse pyramids can be submitted. The deadline for entry is June 20th. Whether or not you enter, you can participate in the judging process. Details at the link above.

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Current day's eats:

Breakfast -

two breakfast granola bars

snack -

unsweetened applesauce / pretzel sticks
diet coke

lunch -

veggie pocket pie
veggies and rice

dinner -

3 slices of medium cheese and veggie pizza
Birthday cake and ice cream!

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1 year ago - kitty feeding, the host, no cable modem yet.

2 years ago - sleepy, newt playing and chitty chatting, palm doodle, wifi hotsync, safety ape, sex offenders, mulligrubs

3 years ago - hello tomorrow, Robots movie, found art pictures, alligator sounds/swamp witch, silly putty, pi day, IR webcam hack, free fonts, tallyhall, ashes scattered, polar bears, open records, memory meme

4 years ago - subpages broken, Shazam!, Dead Like Me, CS sucks as a tech, vamp game

5 years ago - walkabout pics, lovieness, got unreal server hopping

6 years ago - mush, Roman tub, dreams of owning a pet grooming store, insurance woes, and palm doodles

7 years ago - Happy b'day kundalinidreams (no longer ljing), Dkmfkmkglklkgbkvbkbv,looking for a job as demagogue...(I'll still take it, if anyone's wanting), happy unbirthday to me, uck!, edit this page (now dead),sop, a timeline of Scotto history,veggie lo mein, muppet trivia, and Rolf singing you and I and George

Cathy and Dave over tonight for Lasagna, conversation (they're moving to Colorado once the house is sold) and a couple of games of apples to apples. BHK swept the night by winning both games, despite Cathy's extending the winning conditions from 8 to 10, and then 12 cards on the 2nd game.

Oddball winner of the night - "Cuddly" - Al Pacino, Quicksand, and Warts. Pacino won over Quicksand by a smidgen.

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True or False - unasked for help is interference.

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via lore - Hey, I didn’t know that there was a blog devoted to redesigns of superhero costumes. That’s neat. Some are serious (in a fun sort of way), while others are a little more invested in subverting the superhero paradigm (also in a fun way).

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Current meme thingie -

Comment on this post. If you're interested, I will choose seven interests from your profile and you will explain what they mean and why you are interested in them. Post this along with your answers in your own journal so that others can play along.

Christin picked - animal rights, exotic cuisine, horror, libraries, pyewacket, roadside attractions, vikings

• animal rights - Critters have been a pet project for me for as long as I can remember. Something just feels fundamentally wrong when folks don't hurting something - why not, if it's only a "stupid animal". I've been around a number of creatures that are more than just food or clothing, and would prefer that they be neither in a perfect world. I understand that it isn't a perfect world... but I try to treat critters well.

• exotic cuisine - I like new foods and flavors... it seems like every place has a different idea about what is tasty and what flavors work well together. I've developed a special fondness for some of the more commonly available ethnic foods... Thai, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, Mongolian, Ethiopian, German, Italian all bring something spiffy to the table both in traditional and Americanized forms. Nothing that walks on more than one foot, or less than six to eat, though... thanks.

• horror - I enjoy the genre. More in literature than in film lately, though I can get into a scary movie here and there. Some of the best books I know shine a light at odd angles on stuff that lurks in my imagination, making the shadows large and frightening.

• libraries - worked in one the better part of high school and college. great places, lots to see and do - plus there are books out the wazoo. I have many fond memories from the library. It's where I first gamed, back in 6th grade.

• Pyewacket - he got his name from bell, book and candle (which in turn got it from this Pyewacket) - He's the baby of our family, 4ish to Newton's 7ish years old. He's very laid back, and when you pick him up, you can cradle him like an infant. He's been a wonderful addition to my family, and I love him dearly.

• roadside attractions - BHK and I stopped at a number of Ripley's Believe it or Not locations on the side of the road during our honeymoon, and there's something equally fascinating to me about oddball bits of Americana... Urban Ruin plus Muffler Men = wonder to my mind. Weird water towers, tourist traps and whatnot. The chintz factor bleeds over a little bit into horror for me, too. Best place for a zombie uprising is an old mini golf course. See also recent entries on the ATW man, or http://www.lostamerica.com/roadside.html
  

• vikings - Some people favor pirates... I lean to the more Norse cousins... the romanticized version, of course... sailing to new worlds in ships with serpent heads, burying an axe in your oath-breaking cousin, casting runes and thinking about times when the world was a still cooling body of a giant. What's not to like? The Norse Eddas are some of my favorite old stories.

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1 year ago - kissy pic - with ponytail and without, rockin little guy,

2 years ago - newton kitten war stats, nice compliment, newt nudges newtcam, pulp book d/l, quizzes, ND thanks

3 years ago - newt smokes, pelt fade, botmail, fake gyno

4 years ago - mobile phones destroy ghosts, lego casemod, LotR sand sculpt, Newbie/RI don't take call, bro care, Escher ,camel sim

5 years ago - work drama, october, finn/big boss, talking head thingie, wedding traditions

6 years ago - enterprise prem, simarena, headache, poll, birthdays, zugzwang &approbation, candy corn pops, macro for work, gator warning, rainthoughts, windows services

7 years ago - peace river, bro bails, exorcist, Song of Solomon 6: 8, bible porn, meanies, latin, sodaplay, road to wellville

Fantastically real dreams last night...vivid to the point of blurring the line of reality...I could remember everything from colors to sensations and tastes. However, they are of a personal (yet happy) nature, so no public posting of such, dear journal.

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Out with Danny this morning, and hopefully Dave this afternoon. I hope it won't be too hot... I may opt to just stick with A/C until the sun goes down.

Today
Partly sunny with a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms.Highs in the lower 90s inland to the upper 80s near the coast. East winds 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight
Mostly clear. Lows in the lower 70s inland to the mid 70s near the coast. Northeast winds 5 mph.

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( Kitty doodles )

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Glad to have Point, Line, Circle, and Buckyball up to snuff. A pity Sphere is lost to us, but the next replacement may get the moniker of Sphere2 or Orb, if it's weaker than Bucky here.

(Point - PDA, Line - Lappie, Circle - Newtcam Server, Buckyball - Sphere's Replacement after the longest "customer service" delay I've ever had to deal with.)

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It's odd to look back, and see such large, meaty entries in the past. I used to have so much free time by the ol' machine to just type and ramble away... these days it's mostly quick one or two pieces written on a scratch pad, and tossed between linkies divided by horizontal rules.

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2006 GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test

For the second year in a row, we conducted the GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test, fielding a study to gauge the driving knowledge and practices of the American public. The study was divided into two sections: the first section asked standard written driving test questions (taken from state driving tests) and the second section asked driving behavior questions. The results are eye-opening!

take the test

You may not have brushed up on the rules of the road since you were 16. We invite you to see if you would pass a state driving test if you had to take it again today.

(My score was 80%...so that means I got four wrong, but would still have been given my DL. Not too bad for not having had a license for a bit over a decade.)

According to the Cone Zone

"The Sunshine State was tied for No. 40 with South Carolina, ahead of Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia and — in last place —Rhode Island.

The results of the second annual GMAC Insurance National drivers test suggests that millions of motorists lack basic driving skills and exhibit alarming behavior on the road. Nearly 18 million drivers — one out of every 11 on the road — would fail if they had to take a state drivers test."

One of the most disturbing findings was that one in three drivers usually don’t stop for pedestrians, even if they are in a crosswalk or at a yellow light. At least one in five drivers do not know that pedestrians have the right of way at a marked or unmarked intersection.

Among the bad habits that people have while driving are: talk on cell phone (71 percent), eat (62 percent), send text messages (24 percent), select songs on iPod (20 percent), put on makeup (8 percent), change clothes (8 percent) and read (4 percent)."
I've been guilty of eating behind the wheel, but none of the others. I can personally attest to the pedestrian statistic... I've often said that crossing the street is a martial art.

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Moment of Lyric - (youtube)

( ... )

Sometimes I don't speak right
But yet I know what I'm talking about

Why can't we be friends
Why can't we be friends
Why can't we be friends
Why can't we be friends

I know you're workin' for the CIA
They wouldn't have you in the Ma-fi-a

( ... )

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1 year ago - out and about with with Danny, pics, palm doodles, Lost season 2 trailer, web screenplay, classic story role - wayfarer, year of the monkey, fridge magnet piccies, work senora, kalpa

2 years ago - beekeeping, silly rainbow, day after tomorrow palm review, COH, Danny pic at sushi, D&B, feeling sickie, bro issues

3 years ago - ljmatch, checkup, wet out, bob hope 100, letter from Rachel, banning superman as a baby name, dr doom sued.

4 years ago - bookstore, Viking ships, braids, Underoos, bad Iran Barbie grammar,people watching, photogenic folks, brothel/church/bowling memory

5 years ago - evil news, phaster search, music poll, first sighting of the man-monkeyin Delhi, The Gambler, meemee sent me a colored picture of bubbles, candid newt pic (one red eye, one green eye!), south of the border, story about my brother and myself when I was 8, space movies.

6 years ago - thankful for memorial day

Landlord came, visited for all for 15 seconds and moved on. Works for me.. save me having to put a stamp on the rent check, and inspires me to do more research into a purchased home. One of the potential buyers was having a Dr. Pepper and a fistful of Hershey's kisses.

Ravi,the new nurse came by and was good about changing the dressing.. but it was done so fast that I forgot to ask her to take a pic of the wound. still mending nicely, no infection.

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Monsterism..I wanted to design the grotto like this at one point.. map based tabs and 2 and 1/2D traveling.

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Cold fudgesicle works wonders for grumbles... throat's still a little sore... the cold chocolate ice melting makes it feel better, and I get the comfort-food factor in as well. Mostly quiet today, now. I think Nap-time will happen soon. I wonder how fast I'll work through the comfort food over the next week.

Still sleeping off and on, but more soundly than the night prior. I wonder where the raccoons that used to live around here are these days.

Cathi's 8 months into her pregnancy! It seems like only the other day she was carrying Mayah. I worry that they have more work cut out for them than they can handle, but Dave's a pretty sturdy guy. If he whips through the house and lasts through it, the benefits will be great.

Thinking about my sweetie right now, and she brings comfort and good feelings. Contemplating a "November" skin for once Halloween passes. Nothing's leaping to mind, though.

Found out the new scenes in the Special Edition of Alien are minimal (you may not notice them at all), but the cleaned-up print looks better than most movies made today, and the brilliant sound design--now remixed in digital surround--makes one of the scariest movies ever made even more frightening. Sounds good to me!

I'm craving wasabe peas... settling instead for garlic tobasco mixed in with cooked green beans. Not as crunchy, but has a nice bite, and texture.

Got a nice call from my brother, checking up on me, He starts his new gig Monday...I hope that he sticks with it and does well.

Nap-time. Until later, dear journal!

current music: La Historia del mamut
current mood: Ok.

I don't know what it is, but it seems I attract friends that are super-transient. I don't think I'm going to chum up with computer programmers anymore especially as I've had the worst luch with them moving off to Texas, California, and other points west, near places with deserts. Ray & Kathleen, Alex, Jim, and no doubt, shortly (when leases are up?) Robb, Brian, and Heather (If she and Brian can keep it together. I'm pretty surprised it's lasted this long... maybe she needs to marry a guy, before relationships start to fragment? Maybe Brian was what she needed? Who knows? I'm happy if they're happy, and I'll be saddened when it they go through what I feel is the inevitable breakup.) I'm very fortunate to have a few friends that are more securely anchored. Danny, Dave, Cathi are solid... Suzy's good, but more needy on that spectrum.