I dreamt last night that I was playing at a beach, or at least very sandy park… coming down the slide I found what was first a silver ball, but sort of changed and flattened into a hockey puck with some autograph on it in gold. I took it up to the boardwalk, where there were a lot of kids with machine guns who escorted me to a sort of bank window. Behind bullet-proof glass an older guy demanded the puck from me in a gruff voice. Looking around at the guns, I shrugged, and slid it through a metal drawer to him, and asked if there was a reward for bringing it back… he snarled and said that his gift to me was that I had one minute before he told the kids to open fire.

I sort of accepted that and started sprinting away, jumping over the side of the boardwalk and into the thick grasses below. It was less than a minute later when gunfire erupted, sending leaves into movement around my head and whizzing sounds near my ears. The terrain changed to a more inland-type with heavy scrub and wrought-iron fences… a graveyard appeared and granted a lot of cover from the now less frequent gunfire. From behind one of the crypts there was a rope-grid leading up over a wall, and there were more of those silver pucks at the base. I picked up two and put one in each front pocket before climbing the makeshift ladder over the taller fence, pulling it off the top of the fence, so my hunters would have trouble following.

Losing them, I went to a lifeguard station up the coast that also has a police sub-station nearby. (this is actually a place near the pompano pier… the land was more even and the beach was now in view. In my waking reality, there are no graveyards or giant play areas that close) right out fornt of the station, I was recounting the events to my ex-boss’s son, who didn’t believe me…”I didn’t hear any gunfire… you’re full of shee-it”. I was miffed and handed him a puck, and told him to take a walk up coast a bit, and show it to any of the kids up there, then. His ‘dad’ shows up, (It wasn’t my ex-boss, but some skinny guy that sort of looks like Lance Hendrickson) and tells him not to… for some reason I think he’s responsible for security on the beach. I demand that he do something about the gun-toting teenagers and the old guy… he just replies that “Even the police are afraid to go in there. It’s easier to just let them have the land.” I start calling him names, as he walks away… “Coward! C–ksucker!”… about this time, I got a little lucid, (maybe because I don’t call anyone c–ksucker, even when annoyed… maybe an a–hole, at the worst), and just started yelling psuedo-insult words that begin with ‘c’… “Cookie Crook”, “Cheeze Cracker”, “Cheerleader”, “Cabbage Patch Kid!”…

upon which Newt woke me up by patty-patting my forehead, looking for snuggles. I gladly obliged him, mulling this over in my mind before getting up and typing it out here.

totally unrelated…. or is it? – thank-you-ma’am

I overslept… no time for walkies today. Somehow, I’m disappointed. I sort of want to walk to the beach, now.

aa (ah-ah) noun

Lava having a rough surface.

[From Hawaiian, apparently from the sound one emits on touching the hot lava surface.] (Italics mine)

Aa is one of the two kinds of lava typically found in Hawaiian volcanoes.
The other kind is pahoehoe, one with a smooth, ropy surface. You can see their pictures at:
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/Products/Pglossary/aa.html
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/Products/Pglossary/pahoehoe.html

“Aa has a surface that’s broken into blocks with sharp, spiny projections.”
Ian Skilling, Lavas and Life, The World & I (Washington, DC), Jul 1998.

“With so much to memorize, trying to recall that aa is a kind of solidified lava or that an ai is a three-toed sloth, would tax the brain unnecessarily. Mr. Keskaroonkul estimates he knows nearly 110,000 words, or nearly 70% of Webster’s New World Dictionary, published by Merriam-Webster. In comparison, the average college graduate is said to have an active vocabulary of 10,000 to 15,000 words.”Joseph Pereira, Hard Scrabble: Thais Who Play Very Well Learn the Dictionary — But Some Have No Idea at All What the Words Mean; Why Clutter Up the Mind?, The Wall Street Journal (New York), Jul 19, 1999.

Here’s a fascinating story about a failed 1940s collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali. oooh… I’d love to see it.

Also, some folks might want to check out TCUP – The Collective Unconsciousness Project… a place I store some of my dreams. a fun place to travel around, too, now that it’s been rewritten. Hooray for spell check and keywords!

Explore Updates:
* Choose which keyword you want to travel with.
* Search for a keyword of your choice.
* See how many unread dreams are associated with each keyword.
* The system now remembers your font size preference.
* 20 new photographs.
* A new scrollbar.

Log Updates:
* You can now title a dream, which will show in your dream log area.
* There is now a spell check.

Overall Updates:
* Conversion of all pages to XHTML,
for increased compatibility with current and future web browsers.
* The interface is cleaned up a little.

all the hep kids are doing it.. not heroin!

aa (ah-ah) noun

Lava having a rough surface.

[From Hawaiian, apparently from the sound one emits on touching the hot lava surface.] (Italics mine)

Aa is one of the two kinds of lava typically found in Hawaiian volcanoes.
The other kind is pahoehoe, one with a smooth, ropy surface. You can see their pictures at:
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/Products/Pglossary/aa.html
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/Products/Pglossary/pahoehoe.html

“Aa has a surface that’s broken into blocks with sharp, spiny projections.”
Ian Skilling, Lavas and Life, The World & I (Washington, DC), Jul 1998.

“With so much to memorize, trying to recall that aa is a kind of solidified lava or that an ai is a three-toed sloth, would tax the brain unnecessarily. Mr. Keskaroonkul estimates he knows nearly 110,000 words, or nearly 70% of Webster’s New World Dictionary, published by Merriam-Webster. In comparison, the average college graduate is said to have an active vocabulary of 10,000 to 15,000 words.”Joseph Pereira, Hard Scrabble: Thais Who Play Very Well Learn the Dictionary — But Some Have No Idea at All What the Words Mean; Why Clutter Up the Mind?, The Wall Street Journal (New York), Jul 19, 1999.

Here’s a fascinating story about a failed 1940s collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali. oooh… I’d love to see it.

Also, some folks might want to check out TCUP – The Collective Unconsciousness Project… a place I store some of my dreams. a fun place to travel around, too, now that it’s been rewritten. Hooray for spell check and keywords!

Explore Updates:
* Choose which keyword you want to travel with.
* Search for a keyword of your choice.
* See how many unread dreams are associated with each keyword.
* The system now remembers your font size preference.
* 20 new photographs.
* A new scrollbar.

Log Updates:
* You can now title a dream, which will show in your dream log area.
* There is now a spell check.

Overall Updates:
* Conversion of all pages to XHTML,
for increased compatibility with current and future web browsers.
* The interface is cleaned up a little.

all the hep kids are doing it.. not heroin!

ugh, tired of security cameras.

Racist cabbie this morning, put a mild damper on my good mood. I hate talking to idiots. He knew I do “computer stuff”, so he was asking me how to set up an online radio / TV show from his house so he can spread his imbecilic nazi-like views. I told him that he could probably find the information he wanted on the internet. (That’s actually more help than I wanted to give… I didn’t give him any links or anything… just told him to try the ‘net.)

My biggest problem with this guy in particular was that he couldn’t pick up on my cues that I don’t share his beliefs. No, I don’t think the “Massive Jewish Conspiracy” controls the media, and even if they did, people have the power to turn off the TV. Please. When I say things like “I’m trying to read, here” take the hint, and shut your hole. I’m normally a very polite guy, and that was the nicest thing I could think to say… but it didn’t shut him up. I think he suffers from a need to hear his own voice aloud confirming his opinions, on the off chance a conversation hook will lull someone into either debating his unchangeable mind, or some mutual back-patting if he finds some other racist to agree with him. (Chupa prattles on and on at work, just to hear her own voice, too. I look forward to the door between our offices being shut, lowering a cone of silence over her gibbering tongue.) At least the cabbie didn’t have me confined next to the Chupa nose-death combination of BO, stale cigs, and bad breath. What does she eat to emit that stench?

oh! A new episode you say?

http://www.weirdemma.com

most groovy.

Photo taken on walkies…I just liked the color, and how it was sticking way out of the ground. I don’t know if the sand fell away or if some goombah installed it badly. It looks better full-size, and brings to mind the song “no parking on the dance floor” somehow.

alton brown has a new rant… and it shows once again how I can be a fan of his cooking show.

Lately, in my own arena, getting complete stories to stick to the page has been like trying to tattoo my signature on the belly of a crazed weasel; it’s leaving me with wounds and I’m not sure the weasel looks much better for all the effort. The best I can hope for is a few “illuminated scenes”. The first act and the resolution of a story can be the most difficult parts for me to write… I think that my style sometimes is stuck in a sort of journalistic feel… plot progression has always been one of my weaker story points.

I don’t know if it’s just the images I’m tripping over, but the LALJ bash people look maybe a little too rowdy for my tastes… I don’t think I’d be crazy about doing body shots off of people I knew were married. Maybe just more folks are into swinging than I’d realized before. Yuck, in my opinion. There seems to have been a lot of tacky stuff happening, but I imagine that it was nice to meet up with some folks there, too. I wonder what the final tally of ljers was?

I still want to make a wooden elephant toy for my sweetheart. Maybe I’ll hit the hobby store this week, when I go to breakfast with Dan on Thursday.

That’s my baby‘s sound is slightly off, so it appears that I’m watching something dubbed from another language. I like the effect. I half expect the infant alpacas to do some kung fu. There’s one baby that seems to have chia-hair… fungus / mold? Also, the giraffe (Geoffrey) from the new Toys ‘R’ Us commercials sounds like Tom Hanks to me.

Finally, from Salon, this cracked me up –

Halle Berry made history last night, not so much for being the first African-American woman to win an Oscar in the best actress category, but for freaking horribly, uncontrollably out and making the worst, most hysterically rambling, discomfiting and liquefied acceptance speech in Oscar’s 74-year history, and I thought Julia Roberts was going to hold that title for a long time. I know it was a big deal for Halle, who claimed her award for All Black Women Everywhere Ever, but her acceptance tantrum had such an alarming cringe factor, I had to leave the room. When they tried to pry her off the stage, she made that screeching Bilbo Baggins monster addiction-face when he Wants the Ring. It was a heavy, strange, grand-mal meltdown. America squirmed.

hmm… freaky “batman villian angle” on that one. Mostly uneventful day at work, discovered a few new ways of doing things. That clear sky popped out about 10 minutes before I decided to head into work… Looks like Maryland is getting the rain we had earlier…showers through wednesday.

Looks like Danny’s getting spring break just in time…I suspect his burnout is hitting a new high. well, he’s got until thursday, then a week and a half oof, then another month and a half to summer vacation. he needs to get out of the high school arena, and into college, and quick. I’ll be going out to breakfast with him Thursday, before he goes on the road with his wife… I hope he gets to decompress, and doesn’t get wound tighter by being trapped in the car for a week (I suspect the latter, sadly).

from – A geek, a cat, and way too much time I enjoy the profile shots for image recognition.

My mood, right this moment –

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
Gyre and gimble in the wabe
Where Alph the Sacred River Ran
Through caverns measureless to man,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

found via … can asians think? in salon.

it’s a study of two mental universes. I feel the title is a bit inflammatory, but it fits that person’s beliefs…an interesting interview.

also digging the new llamas in ‘s journal. so sweet!

That’s my baby is the one with the lab & the x-rays…it’s very neat to see 8 puppies in skeletal form in the mom. The ultrasound is nifty, to, but there’s less sharpness. They give up the dog for 6-7 weeks while the babies are born and weaned…I don’t know how I’d feel if Newtie had to spend two months away from home. I’d miss him so much! I sort of think the term “brood bitch” is funny, in a juvenile way. Watching the babies being born is fascinating…I’m sure most women are happy that a brood of 8 or so isn’t the norm for them…or would it be easier, because the kids would be smaller, and more easily passed through the birth canal? Listening to the baby pups squeal is melting my heart. aww…

It’s spring break in South Florida. there are parts that you don’t want to visit now, until Easter passes…unless you want to be in a “Girls gone wild” video, or worse, a “Drunken Dumb Fratboy gets arrested” video. Great of the kids to bring businesses money, but I’ll be happy to see them go, too. Surprisingly, the kids are better tippers than the fully-grown Quebec visitors, on the whole. (They look better in revealing bathing suits, too.) Harder to get cabs this month, unless you’re on the beach. Evening rides home would be nearly impossible from the zone I’m in, if I didn’t know a few drivers personally. (Yellow cab totally stinks down here… city cab or central are superior in every way. much smaller fleets, but they’re more timely.)

I don’t remember last night’s dreams… I woke up very groggy, and showered any remnants of the evening down the drain.

I did pretty well on the oscar pool…I made into the top ten, anyhow. (top 6, if you go purely by score) did poorly…came in 30th. (of 50 players!) what happened to his mighty guessing skills? And poor scored even lower! (I won’t mock her, though, because she wasn’t bragging all over the place beforehand.) For the record, I didn’t watch the show… sort of a yawny thing to me. got first place! you go girl!

full scores below

Looks like next week’s weather is going to be rainy and sleepy. I was planning on restarting my walkies tomorrow morning, but perhaps that’s going to have to be postponed for a little while. We’ll see how grim it looks when I get up.

I wonder if my sweetie is still sleeping off last night’s gabfest and flu-bug… I, myself slept a solid 12 hours last night. That’s unheard of for me, unless the body’s sick. I’ve been puttering a bit today, fiddling like a dilettante with art programs and writing a little. working on a new, silly icon. Newton and I will live on for another 500 years, at least.

This is possibly the oddest thing I’ve seen in the RC hobby: Flying Steam Engines. You’ve got to admire the engineering skills involved.

I give you: the Color Schemer. Pick a color and view a selection of 16 harmonious hues. Then, read up on what it’s doing. found while seeking out another form of generator (more of those wacky title / location / plot creators) The superhero name generator is fun enough. 🙂 Just call me the Karate Thief! They’ve got generators for books, sentai stories, and other silly things.

looking for clip art for my web page…. and discovered stuff here

a few other things here and there

The Little Red Riding Hood Project has an archive containing sixteen English versions of the fairy tale that’s fun to look through if one immediately skips past the sparse-looking “Hello, I was made in 1995” looking home page, and starts with the text and image index. Interesting reading.

I don’t think my “7” rating should be as high, or my “8” so low. go figure. I think 3 does belong at the bottom of the list, though, and suspect that I ‘m more of a 4 than a 9. five is pretty accurate though, I think.

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