Scotto's Wall Scrawls

Neighborhood shakeup tonight at about 7pm - A minivan chasing another - apparently the second vehicle had 2-4 people inside with the side doors open and guns showing. The vehicle being chased was honking and swerving all over the place to avoid being shot.

BHK called 911, and the response time was *terrible*, and she was never questioned by the police for a report on the matter. I'll be investigating that situation more tomorrow after work.

I'm just glad that she's ok.

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Random factoids and semi-specific things about people I know (or knew):

My brother is *really good* at shucking oysters. At least 4-5 times faster than me, or 2-ish times faster than anyone else I've ever met in the service industry.

My wife is a superb analyst, and can get to the core of a matter quite swiftly. She's going to be an awesome lawyer. (and dangerous gamer)

Steve Jacoby has some beautiful children, and has the makings for a pretty cool dad.

Tina keeps a lovely home... everything is crisp and neat, even with a pair of kitties, a bunch of birds, and living the software company lifestyle.

Bruce can make me misty with just a bowl of cheerios .

Ray has a very real skill at blending words and experience into story.

Kathleen has a great memory, to the point of us calling her queen index when we were gaming. If she doesn't have knowledge, she can find it fast.

Cyn has a fantastic skill at illustration, both on paper and skin.

Doug Wu has a near encyclopedic knowledge of comics from the silver age. Knows more than anyone else I've ever met.

Danny is a mill that grinds slowly, but exceedingly fine. He's a living example of "the devil is in the details."

Father-in-law is loved by everyone he meets. *Nobody*, and I mean *nobody* has anything sideways to say about him. That's amazing.. and due to him.

Mother-in-law is a superb cook. Some wicked good queso, for example.

Mother is a master multitasker. I've never seen her with too much on her plate.

Wilton is an excellent carpenter - can put all manner of stuff together with quality and speed.

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Got a calendar? Circle this date: Sunday, August 12th. Next to the circle write "all night" and "Meteors!" Attach the above to your refrigerator in plain view so you won't miss the 2007 Perseid meteor shower.

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LONDON (Reuters) - Lawyers and judges are to break with centuries-old tradition and cease wearing horse-hair wigs of white fake curls in non-criminal cases, the head of the country's judiciary announced on Thursday.

Wing collars and bands can also be dispensed with in such cases according to the reforms, while judges will need just one gown in future instead of a variety of colourful outfits currently required.
The wigs will still be worn in criminal courts.

"At present High Court judges have no less than five different sets of working dress, depending on the jurisdiction in which they are sitting and the season of the year," Phillips said in a statement.
"After widespread consultation it has been decided to simplify this."

A review carried out in 2003 found that more than two thirds of respondents wanted to eliminate the wigs in civil cases, although most said criminal court judges should still wear them.

Opponents of wigs thought they were anachronistic, as well as uncomfortable and expensive.

A shoulder-length ceremonial wig costs more than 1,500 pounds while the shorter ones worn by lawyers cost about 400 pounds each.

However, the idea of abolishing them has been met with disapproval from some lawyers who feel the wigs give them an air of authority as well as anonymity.

"While there will never be unanimity of view about court dress, the desirability of these changes has a broad measure of agreement," Phillips said.

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1 year ago - venture bros good, lj ugly nav bar, bye bye black rhino, angel / shovel / burrito, simulated lost case-630am, Arvis book in comments!

2 years ago - Last Day w/Magda, invisi-bro, chrono-lifting, breakfast foods, zombies invade sca event, crab, autostitch bus, minor drama, commendation

3 years ago - KoL, Bollywood, Patriot Act, Felix the Cat

4 years ago - sleep troubles, Andromeda Strain, 4-legged man , system crash - modem drivers (Service pack 4 for win2k caused Norton trouble) , Stalin vs Hitler comic, newtcam pic, discovered title-tags, strickland a/c die-lemma

5 years ago - more swell chatties, Roanoke (including odd reply from Boughman), Dreams of Lake Conoy with zombie mist, sweet possum sugar, mother goose

6 years ago - Evil news, riposte, dream of the jungle, If I were... meme, time, sleepy, Dumbass Tenochtitlan Saucermen,chat, aura colors, personality disorder test, Louvre

7 years ago - Bad things with April, super power question

good-ish vibes about the Deerfield place.. they're checking me out financially and socially and criminally, and I think I've passed any tests they might have.

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Newt and I had a fun frolic for his b'day... nice, gentle evening, all told. A vid or two may be forthcoming, depending on how they turned out.

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( Autumn / D&D class quiz )

Also, a Terrasque? Whiskey Tango Hotel?

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Saw my first episode of the new Nightstalker. - Not my thing. I'm going to have to watch old episodes of the original series now to see if my fondness for it is nostalgic or actually based on good stuff. I agree with jwz...This new show is a badly-written X-files.

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Still processing this information:

Doug Wu called... he's a dad... Sired a child with illyana (a gay woman who initially dated Cathy Wu, but that didn't work out and Illlyana inherited Doug as a pal after his marriage to Cathy dissolved.)

It seems that Illyana wanted a kid and Doug is the biological father... the girl Kayla (sp?) will be raised in a household of four singles. She's seven days old at this point, and I hear that she's beautiful, and quite healthy. I think Doug'll be quite nurturing and give boundless love to his daughter.

I had no idea that Illyana was gay.. I somehow was under the impression that she was Doug's SO rather than POSSLQ... I suspect there's more of a family vibe there, all things considered, too.

Discovered some interesting things I didn't know... Doug's working as a caregiver for folks with cerebral palsy and the like, his household has no real internet access and they seem to frown on gaming (viewed as a colossal waste of otherwise useful energy) . It also seems that Doug is the primary breadwinner for the unit, with two of the members out of work

I talked to him for about an hour last night, and we caught up on things... we didn't know what sort of work the other was doing these days... oddly, I don't think we talked about comics once, even though he's pretty much the Ancient One to my Stephen Strange when it comes to TV/Comic book history and remembrances.

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Night of the Living dead - in the form of a podcast/radio drama mp3

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Moment of Lyric: mp3

Instrumental.

I'm beginning to dig Frigg. (Acoustic Nordic folk music with touches of American Appalachian and country & western music)

As soon as I get some more good mp3s, I'll share.

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Dolphins sing 'Batman' theme

( Read more... )

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1 year ago - John Edwards looks rather like Jack Tripper. cocktail party, condo poop.

2 years ago - snail-men attack, visiting the doc, palm doodle, Wet memories, German festivals kept quiet, site down, Admin tools.

3 years ago - mickey one,*many* palm doodles, mush, cpap, newt pics, cupboard, dead phone dream, bookstore, mk army idea, bro debt,

4 years ago - Spider-man, fixing the A/C at my old place, hussites, season opener for prairie home companion, a day for love.

5 years ago - Plunging pirates off the empire state, small, and "warchilds death", a troll visits

Rob came by today, picked up my fans and tossed them in. I really appreciate the help he's been lately. Hopefully now Mr. computer and his little brother will stay cool, collected, and properly shared.

A lot of ACIM calls today, but I was pleased to hear from Doug, as well. I need to call him back shortly, as we got our convo truncated when I had fiddle with PCAnywhere.

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Mr. Deadguy.

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Random War & Death Factoids - 313 union army soldiers died of sunstroke during the U.S. Civil War and 60% of Military Casualties in the Civil War was a result of disease... the worst fatality rate of any war in U.S. History. (When you assemble a large number of strangers in crowded, unsanitary conditions, you not only have an army, you also have the finest breeding ground for infectious disease.)

Tartars, (circa 1350) used bodies of plague victims as catapult ammunition versus the cities they were besieging.

The gas chamber has two chairs; so two criminals can be executed at once. (The last double gas execution was in 1962) Of the 38 states with capital punishment, only Arizona, California, Maryland, Missouri and Wyoming still allow for the use of lethal gas and all offer lethal injection as an option.

A study of the execution records of 113 prisoners executed at San Quentin showed that the average time taken to kill them was 9.3 minutes. The prisoner will usually loose consciousness between one and three minutes after the gas hits their face and the doctor will pronounce them dead in around ten to twelve minutes. An exhaust fan then sucks the poison air out of the chamber. The corpse is sprayed with ammonia, which neutralizes traces of the cyanide that may remain. After about half an hour, prison staff enters the chamber, wearing gas masks and rubber gloves. Their training manual advises them to ruffle the victim's hair to release and trapped cyanide gas before removing him.

woo. Or even Wu! (Doug, that is) harper #1 in my book, and all around swell guy apparently called danny up last night, giving out his new phone number... sadly, he either doesn't have the line hooked up yet, or some other weirdness is causing conection trouble. but rest assured that we'll hear from him soon.

I have no plans for saturday...what to do. maybe just have a rest? my forward week is looking busy, update ID, take car eof a few bills for Suzy while she's in the pokey, birthday goodies for Derek & Kevin. I should spend some time with Danny and Ray this weekend, I really haven't spoken to Ray since oh, maybe a month or so ago. Perhaps Saturday will be good for that.

reviews on the googly eyed scotto are mixed... I think I'll save it for 'surprised or hyper' moods when I get my paid account.

Doing a contract job for food for the poor. I have mixed feelings about feeding people overseas when there are hungry folks in my city. Is it wrong to want things better locally first, and then spread out from there? Another tactic is to hit the hungriest first, and go to the less hungry, I suppose... but how does a person calulate that sort of stuff? "Well, 1000 people died here last week... only 800 in haiti died." The economy of human life is a difficult one for me to calculate. Is it wrong to feed the hungry at all? Opposing nature? (Don't look at me, I'm totally in favor of good works... and opposing nature. If I wasn't all my friends with glasses would be much worse off, not to mention the my back, athsmatics, and other 'defectives')