Good Mornin‘, Livejournal. I had wonderful dreams last night. Wrote them in my paper journal, and will transcribe when I have more time.

Well… it’s Sunday morning, and I’m going to get together with my brother today, his treat for my birthday. 🙂 I’m not sure what we are going to do… I suspect lunch and maybe a trip to the IMAX, maybe a promenade down riverwalk. I will get more recent pictures. Taking the bus down Federal.

I’m from Boston, originally, and I’m glad that the Patriots made it to the Super Bowl. aside from that and some of the nifty commercials that result, I’m not a big NFL head.

The little girl next door is running in the courtyard, and Newt is chasing her along the window sill… I don’t think the munchkin even realises that ol’ Newty-boy is hunting her. I got a mental image of a Tiger in the Asian jungle, ready to gobble her up. Shere Khan in miniature. (I guess that’d make Blackie kindly Bagheera….) Somehow, I don’t think Newtie is in danger of any Buffalo herds running him down… (Mowgli doesn’t defeat him in the book, Disney fans.) as long as he’s an indoor tiger, no fear fo cars, either.

Time for me to hop in the shower, dress, and be on my way. A full report will follow upon my return. I want spicy, crispy tofu for lunch!

MmMMM… I just had a lovely birthday. 🙂

my feelings today are muted. I have a mix going, a little numb coverage overall. I’ve got a mild headache. [update 6:21- headache has passed, feeling better physically]

With the exception of the lovely emails and calls, it doesn’t really feel like my birthday. Just sort of hanging around and having some lunch. I turned down an invite to go out ot lunch and another to go see ratdog… not in the mood for it. I paid off the landlord for the month (he was supposed to be by yesterday, but never showed up.Tardiness. A peeve.)

Sat out front, and watched the goodyear blimp fly by… heard back from Robyn, but not sure where the website thing is going. She’s a nice woman.

I missed the ice cream man by inches. bah… I wanted a tofutti cup of super-chocolatty chocolate. ’twasn’t meant to be.

My birthday haiku –

time for a good nap?
surf the net, pet the kitty….
procrastination

Take a look at skinema. All about celebrity skin conditions, including moles, wrinkles, and acne scars (doesn’t the name “Edward James Olmos” spring to mind? That guy is one great big pockmark.) Presented by a dermatologist, which only proves that doctors can come up with some pretty funky stuff on the web when they’re not prodding you with strange objects and writing out illegible prescriptions. Oddly compelling.

Well, all this talk of superbowl food is making me hungry, and there’s precious little in my cupboard. A-shopping I shall go.

Happy Birthday to me! 🙂 Thanks to for the piccie. 🙂

By the way, I saw my shadow…

Man forced to stay 11 years at Paris airport now won’t leave

By Ray Moseley Chicago Tribune

Continue reading story note reference. →

newt pic o’ the day.. in my amazon box from sweetie.. note ancient birks in the background.

Newt album is here.

woke up late this morning, had a memorable dream last night. I was in a prison break and got hold of a machine gun. I was pinned down behind a concrete wall, but was getting some pop-up fire in. I saw my pal Dave was one of the guards, and tossed down my weapon, not wanting to hurt him. I lay down on my face, and put hands on my head. something happened, and we flash forwarded to an escape method… some sort of tunnel built into a soda machine. I was too big to make it through… I made sure Dave got out, and somehow my sweetie and Newt were there, and needed help escaping too. It spun off into some sort of vacation place…some sort of portal that allowed you to travel to a location stored on video. I ran off with my buddies to the Amazon, and then stole the machine so nobody could follow us. It turned out that the movie we hopped into was made in 1999, so we were three years in the past, give or take. I woke up amidst trying to call myself in the then to get myself to flee.

elephant talk – neat! thanks to for having me look into it. Fascinating stuff.

Called back the camera people…. the gal there says it’ll be refunded today…. I certainly hope so. 🙂 I submitted my negative review to C-net, and got a lovely form letter back. I’ll call the bank at 3 today, and make sure it’s all back to where it needs to be.

What’s the connection between the human menstrual cycle and the moon? Do cycles last exactly one lunar month for a reason, or is it just a coincidence?

It looks like it’s coincidence. In Science and the Paranormal (1983), astronomer George O. Abell writes, “The moon’s cycle of phases is 29.53 days, while the human female menstrual cycle averages 28 days (although it varies among women and from time to time with individual women); this is hardly even a good coincidence! The corresponding estrus cycles of some other mammals are 28 days for opossums, 11 days for guinea pigs, 16 to 17 days for sheep, 20 to 22 days for sows, 21 days for cows and mares, 24 to 26 days for macaque monkeys, 37 days for chimpanzees, and only 5 days for rats and mice. One could argue, I suppose, that the human female, being more intelligent and perhaps aware of her environment, adapted to a cycle close to that of the moon, while lower animals did not. But then the 28-day period for the opossum must be a coincidence, and if it is a coincidence for opossums, why not for humans?”

Then again, who knows? People have figured there was a connection between the lunar month and menstruation for as long as women have been getting the monthlies. Moon, month, and menstruation are all related etymologically. No less an authority than Charles Darwin believed that menstruation was linked to the moon’s influence on tidal rhythms, a legacy of our origin in the sea. The coincidence between the lunar and menstrual cycles is closer than George Abell would have us believe–studies have found the average menstrual period is 29 days and change. At least some critters’ biologies are linked to the lunar cycle; in the lemur, for example, estrus and sex tend to occur around the time of the full moon.

Efforts to turn up similar patterns in humans have had unimpressive results, however. Several researchers over the years have claimed to detect lunar rhythms in menstrual onset and such; others see nothing. Biologist Winnifred Cutler, in a 1980 paper, found that 40 percent of women in a random sample showed “a preponderance of menses onsets in the light half-cycle of the month” (the two weeks centered on the full moon). To me this suggests 60 percent of the women didn’t show any coincidence. If there really is a moon-menstruation link, it hasn’t been convincingly proven yet.