Wearing my gi pants and reading a bit of lj before retiring for the night.

I want a magic wand to wave that’ll make everyone I care about happy, healthy, and comfortable. The best I can do is to be there for ’em in the tough times as well as the swell ones.

I feel my mental gears slipping into place on my new project at work… crystal reports is coming to me rapidly and is very powerful. not really using it for the web, but for an internal network system. very clean. It looks like a good skill to have.

I think I’m going to name my network for Virtues… Hope, Faith, Charity and Fortitude? (gives me room to add three more, later, too)

China’s First Emperor was killed by a meteor?

Just got a call from my brother… his back is killing him tonight, now… apparently he overexerted himself, and now he’s laid up in bed. (this is more fallout from the cop accident.) I tried to convince him to let me bring him stuff tonight, but he’s not into it. tomorrow morning, if he’s not feeling any better, I’ll bring him some gel-packs for cold therapy on his back, and some non-narcotic painkillers… naproxin sodium, probably. I don’t want to give him percocet or oxycontin… I think of those drugs as sort of a loaded gun. I don’t think that two alieve = one percocet, so the chart below really isn’t additive, just a one-to-one comparison. I am worried about his health and well-being.

I guess the magic statement above jinxed as I was writing it. I need a pair of wands. two hands, no waiting.

Really, if popup ads weren’t enough, now we’re going to have to deal with popup downloads? I would say that a general uprising of disgust by the web community would put and end to this kind of thing, but I suspect it wouldn’t, given that popup ads are not only alive, but present on a ton of otherwise respectable sites these days. Mozilla has an option to prevent the ads, but since I haven’t found a site with the downloads, I don’t know how it deals with them; it’s about time for Internet Explorer to follow suit, though.

Enough negativity. Time to end on an upnote or two.

Regarding Animal Crackers – The product we know today as Animal Crackers came into being in 1902, but it they had existed in similar forms for generations. In the late 1800s, “Animals” (animal shaped fancy cookies) were imported from England. Many of the small, local bakeries in America made different versions called ‘Animals’ or ‘Circus Crackers’. Bakeries began to unite into larger companies with regional and eventual national distribution at the end of the 19th century. One of these was the National Biscuit Company. (Nah-biz-co…Ding!) Packaging became an important factor in marketing on a national scale. Their “Animal Biscuits” were officially renamed ‘Barnum’s Animals’ in 1902. During the Christmas season, the package was redesigned as a circus wagon with a string attached to it, so it could be hung as a Christmas tree ornament. They sold for 5 cents, and they were an immediate hit.

In total there have been 37 different varieties of animal crackers since 1902. The current 17 varieties of crackers are tigers, cougars, camels, rhinoceros, kangaroos, hippopotami, bison, lions, hyenas, zebras, elephants, sheep, bears, gorillas, monkeys, seals, and giraffes. There are 22 crackers per box.

More than 40 million packages of these are sold each year, and they are exported to 17 countries. They are turned out at the rate of 12,000 per minute, and nearly 6,000 miles of string are used on the packages…. I want to give my beloved a custom bowl of all elephant crackers to go with vanilla pudding.

“Animal crackers, and cocoa to drink,
That is the finest of suppers, I think.
When I’m grown up and can have what I please,
I think I shall always insist upon these.”
— Christopher Morley.

I dig animal crackers because army men can hunt them on safari, and then I can eat them. Invarably, the minesweeper guy gets trampled by hippos and ellies, before the melee is over. Ironically, Animal crackers are vegetarian, being made with no dairy or animal fat. I wonder how well a version with a “chocolate backing” would sell, leaving the beige critter-shapes on the front to admire.

I think I’m going to pick up a box or two tomorrow. make it three. One for me, one for my sweetie, and one for my brother.

Animal Cracker Combat Rules

Ages: Two and up (young babies can eat and enjoy animal crackers, but will miss the point of the game)

Number of Players: One or more

Nutrition Information: 140 cal; 4 g of fat; 0 g Cholesterol; 2g Protein (2 servings per box)

Instructions:

1. Acquire a box of animal crackers.
2. Shake box well (if you are a small child, you have probably already done this).
3. Wagers may be taken at this point, where legal. Note: we do not recommend this in games involving small children.
4. Each player should remove one animal cracker. If you are playing alone, remove two.
5. Determine which animal would win in a fight. For example: would the headless lion win against the zebra missing two legs?
6. Rules for determining the winner are open to many variations. See below.
7. The losing animal (cracker) should be eaten first.
8. Return to step three (until there are no more animal crackers, then return to step one).

Rules for determining a winner:

• Whole animals always beat animal parts.
• Carnivores generally beat herbivores.

Further variations:

• Best argument in support of an animal wins
• Monkeys wild
• Head beats any other limb
• Head alone loses to any other limb
• Winning animal remains for next round

Nighty night, dear journal.

Each medication receives a POWER SCORE ranging from 0-10. A score of zero [0] indicates that the medicine listed is WEAK in comparison to others listed, where a ten [10] is a VERY POTENT pain medication. You will notice that on a PILL-FOR-PILL comparison, many medicines are almost the same. You may even be surprised to find that Percodan is not as good as it may sound, although is much harder to get from your physician. Each listed is rated at ONE TABLET OR CAPSULE unless noted in (parentheses):
SCHEDULE V NON-NARCOTIC ANALGESICS::OVER-THE-COUNTER/NON-PRESCRIPTION
(1000mg)Tylenol/ACETAMENOPHIN=[2] (400mg)Advil/IBUPROFEN=[2.5]
(650mg)Anacin/ASPIRIN=[1] (500mg) Aleve/NAPROXEN SODIUM=[3]

SCHEDULE III/IV NARCOTIC ANALGESICS::PHYSICIANS PRESCRIPTION REQUIRED
Tylenol w/Codeine #2=[3] Tylenol w/Codeine #3=[4] Tylenol w/Codeine #4=[6]
Vicodin=[5] VicodinES=[6] VicodinHP=[7] Vicoprofen=[5.5] Norco=[6] Lortab 2.5=[3] Lortab 5=[4.5] Lortab 7.5=[5] Lortab 10=[7] Lorcet=[7] Lorcet Plus*=[5.5] (Tylenol#4 is better than basic Vicodin)
*deceptive:”Lorcet Plus” contains LESS hydrocodone than basic “Lorcet”

SCHEDULE II NARCOTIC ANALGESICS::TRIPLICATE PRESCRIPTION REQUIRED
Percodan=[6] Percocet=[6] Percodan-Demi=[4] Tylox=[6] Demerol 50mg=[4] Dilaudid 2mg=[9] OxyContin 40*=[8.5] MS Contin 30*=[9] Morphine 20mg=[10]
*Sustained Release: these are slow-release capsules designed to last 12 hours. When chewed before swallowing, a large amount of pure narcotic medicine is released all at once and this may be dangerous.

DIFFERENT MEDICATIONS FOR PAIN::NON-STEROIDAL ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DRUGS (NSAIDs) and MUSCLE RELAXANTS
Lodine 400=[3] Motrin 800=[3.5] Toradol=[3] Darvocet-N 100=[3.5]
Flexeril=[4] Soma=[3]