7219 – PSA (via lorianne)

Panthergirl is a fervent supporter of greyhound rescue and rehab, and she’s offering to donate $2 to the cause for every comment she receives on today’s blog-post. So don’t sit and stay: instead, race like a greyhound over to Panthergirl’s blog, leave a comment, and tell ’em Newt sent you. Good boy!

at this link – http://thedogsbreakfast.blogspot.com/2005/03/before.html

[edited to update – 173 COMMENTS left on yesterday’s fundraising post for Greyhound Rescue & Rehab!

Since some people accidentally put their comments on the previous day’s post, and some emailed me because the “line was busy” on my haloscan comments, I’m going to round up to 180…which translates to $280 that I’m forking over for the greyhounds!

You guys are awesome! Thanks also to many of you who cross-posted about the event on your own blogs. ]

7217 – Monday.

As a self-imposed writing assignment, I went through a couple of published interviews, and trolled for good resource questions. I came upon this one – “Everyone has one or more “life defining moments” that shape the type of person we will become. What do you consider some of your LDMs? What has helped shape the type of man you are now?”

I got to thinking about that. I think the majority of what has shaped my life is interacting with other life around me. More people than events, although there have been a few things, like hurting my back. Every one of my really good friends has impacted me in a life-changing way. Some folks I’ve never met, but usually those who I’ve sat at a table with and played games, had conversations with… my mind is certainly opinionated, but those opinions can usually be changed with a reasonable argument.

Other things… let’s see, discovering classical music as a kid was a big one. I gravitated to Russian composers first (Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky), then standbys like Bach and Beethoven took over afterwards. My music teacher in the third grade really helped me to see patterns and to hear more than one instrument at a time, or the “group noise” of a symphony all together.

This is something I’m going to have to think a lot about. Major life changing events. Moving out on my own, Adopting Ol’ Newtster, learning how to read…still working through a rough draft.

As a side note, I wonder if Grant Morrison, Hunter Thompson and Harlan Ellison are (were) really all the self-absorbed jerk personas (personae?) they wear for the sake of being interviewed? I like the product that they all produce, but the production units themselves have an exaggerated creep factor when taken firsthand. There’s a lot of anger, hostility and venom being shown that is just plain unattractive in a person that is otherwise seen by me as very talented.


No RI for the next 2 and a half weeks (give or take). That puts it all on the Big Kahuna, and to a lesser degree, me. RI was showing signs of burnout, so I think her departure for a bit is pretty timely. I’ll be interested in seeing how well ADP and BK get along without the RI buffer… I almost suspect that they might get along better, if they both just work, and neither lets ego get in the way of the jobs at hand. If that happens, ADP will certainly be fired on the spot.


Elevator Prank. cute movie.


I could really go for some animal crackers. What a dopey craving. I also want to go get my eyes, teeth and general health checked.


I’ve been guilty of this. (Fortunately, Newt is tolerant, too.)


Screaming Turtle! (farked a long time ago, but I just saw it.)


I didn’t leave the house once on Sunday. I opened the front door once, to toss old sand of his into the can outside after cleaning Newt’s litter box. Sunburn has faded to regular color, but the tops of my ears and tip of my nose is a bit tender.


Lost won’t be showing any New episodes for a month or so –

Next air dates –

  • Deux Ex Machina b: 13-Apr-2005 (A Locke-centric episode.)
  • Do No Harm b: 20-Apr-2005 (A Jack-centric episode.)
  • The Greater Good (a.k.a. Sides) b: 27-Apr-2005 (A Sayid-centric episode.)

Wow… This guy has over 95% of all Dr. Demento Shows archived online.

Random Scotto factoid – I first heard They Might Be Giants on Dr. Demento in 1985, and became an instant fan. The Songs were “Cowtown” and “Shoehorn with Teeth”

Another random Scotto factoid – When I was 10, I once dumped a bucket of ballyhoo (bait fish) on top of a pelican that bit my little brother. The bird retreated, and was attacked by about a half-dozen other pelicans. It was brief, because the meanie-pelican flew off. My dad took bro to the hospital to get stitches. I initially wanted to throw the cast net (We were using it to get bait.) over him, but my brother was too close.


Random gamer dorkness – Ray screwed things up as the weakest mental link at the critical moment in both Ghostbusters and the Sequel. If they were in a gaming group, I think that he’d have to be a NPC or buy that low ego off. Also, GB1=Good! GB2=BLEH! (which is why you see GB2 on tv so often, the rights to play it are very low… alternately, GB1 is expensive, so it won’t be on the air nearly as often. A pity tv suffers from “lowest bidder” syndrome, too.) The Ghostbusters DVD is really good, too. The commentary by Harold Ramis, director Ivan Reitman and associate producer Joe Medjuck, can be played with “Mystery Science Theater 3000”-type silhouettes and with the subtitled production notes. Other goodies include deleted scenes, featurettes, storyboards with split-screen comparisons, theatrical trailers.


weather / sailor tracking – track tides, currents, cruise ships, research vessels, and all sorts of research info.


video.google.com has an interesting tv-show search engine. Apparently there’s a Scotto family with delicious recipes making the rounds lately. As of ths writing, no entries for livejournal, plenty for blog.

Lost brings up a recent episode (including times for upcoming episodes), and a lot of infomercials about lost weight. Interesting is that it uses the closed captions from the show to grab bits of text to search. You can also do title:lost to narrow the search down.

Actually, this will help me seek out local news, too.

about google video.


RB added a rockin’ soundtrack to a Nasa Clip– via record brother (he’s got a lot of good mp3s to grab, too.)


Moment of Lyric:

The closer you get
The better you see
The closer you are
The more I see
Why everyone says
That I look happier
When you’re around


Freeware alternative list (Graphics, Anti-Virus, Spyware removal, Audio / Video tools, Network tools, programming/development, browser stuff, webcam software, and other assorted goodies)


Interaction Quiz