The camera I want is on back stock, so I’ll have to wait and not get it today. Today will be spent finishing Big Brain… He’s got a few issues to resolve, and hopefully it’ll be polished off with a minimum of fuss.

He’s currently wearing Windows 2000…no XP or Me(h) until they’re more stable or I need one for a program I can’t run any other way.

Hardware / Tech things to do in the future, as time and mood permits, in semi-order.

• Install sound card on little brother’s machine. (Fairly independant from the others)

• Make the 2nd monitor fire up properly. So far, it’s not being recognised properly. Error 10.
• Configure DSL and dial-up internet connection
• Set up networking between Lappie and Big Brain (or Worker1 and Queen Bee on the “Hive” as it were)
• Backup Lappy projects to CDs via the network
• Backup D: drive to CDs.
• Reformat D: as NTFS instead of Win32
• Restore data to D:
• Make big brain dual boot Win 2k and *nix.
• Make *dang sure* that Big Brain is running like a top (a good week or two), and then reformat Lappie and restore backups on it.

AWWWWW…

Drunks and losers,
Dwarves with limps,
Flos and ho’s and one-eyed pimps
Down the alleyway they creep
They’re all your friends when you can’t sleep!

Come with me and you will see
A late-night-freak-show-Jubilee!
Kick the sandman in his sack
Stay up late – Insomniac!

This is what I’m making tonight –

Cinnamon Pecan Bread

(May be baked on regular, rapid, or delayed cycles)

Add ingredients in order:

• 1 1/8 cup water
• 1 ½ tbsp powdered milk
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ cup butter
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• ½ cup chopped pecans
• 3 1/3 cups breadmaker flour
• 1 ½ tsp breadmaker yeast

It’s going to be goooood.

It’s looking like this is the camera I’ll be getting. (at the $284 price)

I want something nice to take piccies during time off and walkies, and I think this is up to the task (I hope!) Fortunately, I have rechargeable batteries already, due to the palm, so all I’ll end up getting extra is maybe a 64 meg compact flash card.

There’s a lot of photographers out here… anyone care to give me any warnings or advice before I dive into this decision? I think my research is pretty good, but who knows… perhaps I forgot something.

Camera will be my Christmas Prezzie to self, and a new Bicycle for my birthday… a nice combination, I think. I’m look forward to showing pictures of the pompano Cemetary, the strip mall of sin, the mall of the dead and Miss Cleo’s house off!

Quote of the day – Ireland is a land full of myth and wonder. And giant killer-robot factories.

Miss Cleo! looks like you’re in for it now, beebee. The link is a little backstory about here and telephone psychics in general from a local paper.

I never told you she was a local?

Pompano Beach mall (now mall of the dead) was the site of her first tv commercials. Since that old entry, all the bookstores have left, and Yvette is no longer at the pompano 18, which has run down, rapidly. The Goth / swingers club has folded, too.

Note to self, do a reprise of that area, and the strip mall of sin.

Well, it got officially cold enough last night for me to turn on the “heater-fan”… more for Newt than for me, but it was a welcome addition of warmth. I’m going to go for walkies in a few, but I think I’ll just wait for the sun to finish rising first. It may not seem that cold to you, but weather in the 30s in South Florida is quite a switch, considering it was in the mid 70s yesterday noon. It’s 40 now, and “feels like 33”.

By the time the sun comes out, it’ll be in the upper 50s, maybe mid 60s, which is just about perfect for me. Crisp walking weather.

elements of last night’s dream, convoluted:

watching my sweetheart do pencil and ink drawing, a lot of snow, spiderweb imagery, ocean imagery, an ancient graveyard. I woke up rather abruplty,so the steam of thought is gone.

Obligatory test results –

I don’t like the word defleshing. Fascinating stuff, though.

AOL says Instant Messaging service flaw fixed

all better. 🙂

I want a nappie-time, too! I feel the bedchamber calling me… why, oh why must I work in a place where there’s no after-lunch hammocks?

Duh. Amazon.com just reminded me that my birthday was coming up.

Who are they to say I don’t want salad tongs?

*note to self, wrap some sage smudge sticks tonight.

now to decide on which to use… White? Grey? Mix with Cedar? Lavender? Sweetgrass? I wonder if there’s any Juniper left…

My “hippy’s supply cabinet” is pretty full, I may need more thread, though. I could use hemp, but colored string is better, if I’m going to make an assortment, to figure out the different types.

First real use of my new jackknife! I love doing handmade stuff. 🙂

The Amityville Horror
The Shining
Hell House
The Haunting (of Hill House)

“The Amityville Horror” got a lot of press because it was “a true story” and all of that. It really wasn’t all that good in my opinion, and only it’s status as “real” made it of any interest. When I read it I remember thinking it was the most uncoordinated haunting I’d ever read about. Seeing through walls, black gunk in the toilet, missing money, glowing red eyes, what the heck? It doesn’t hang together, there’s no *theme*, just a bunch of disconnected happenings.

“The Shining.” Ah, haunted *hotel*. Now we’re cookin’. Hmmm. Not really sure if the dad was nuts before he got there, or if the place made him wacky. The idea of haunting being like an electrical charge, and the hotel wanted Danny and his shining to give it enough boost to break loose. Cabin fever, hidden history, going for the weak points… yeah. The family dynamic, the idea of “Tony” giving Danny advice from the future. Not bad.

“Hell House.” Can’t go wrong with Richard Matheson. Ghosts as an electromagnetic phenom. The creepy history making it the “Mount Everest of haunted houses.” The characters and weak points to be exploited, the clues to assemble and the ultimate secret to discover. It had everything Amityville lacked, and paid off with a lot of action.

“The Haunting.” Hey, don’t show *anything*. I’m speaking of the book, the play, and the older movie. I try to pretend the new film never happened. Having it “narrated” by Eleanor’s internal monologue. The parallels in personal history and house history. Nothing is seen but turning doorknobs and a bulging door. Loud noises and a little girl crying. Carvings and wallpaper that become faces when you look at them long enough.

Different approaches to a classic concept. “Hell House” and “The Haunting” even resemble each other in the situation presented, but they aren’t anything alike.

I have a writing task that I’d like to throw out to the LJ gang.

What I would like are rumors, lies, and heresies. The sort of stuff that people tell each other in the occult underground. It’s meant to completely muddy the waters and cause wacky urban legends…. a story seed for something a little (or a lot) weird.

Each bit should be no more than three or four sentences, and as short as one. Some examples:

• There’s an old man in Kansas who can only tell true stories, even if they haven’t happened yet.
• Bill Gates is putting magickal formulae into the code for Windows XP. It’s tied to a specific date, like a virus, and when it activates the world is going to change.
• The world is secretly ruled by pre-verbal children. When they start to become verbal, they forget all about their early months of abstract domination.

I’d like a bunch of these, so feel free to go nuts. So many wonderful creative people and writers on my friend’s list…I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Japan to develop space shuttle. Unfortunately will not transform in walking, talking robot.

What’s the Afghan idea of a good game? Sort of like a cross between polo and a street fight, with a headless goat instead of a ball. Do you suppose the Salt Lake City Olympic committee would . . . naaaah.

One more test before book and bedtime.

I am a lemming. I like to do what the general populous does. I am common. I will jump off the cliff along with everyone else. Take the ‘Am I A Lemming?’ Test.

You know what?

Looking back on 2001, I think it was my best year, so far to date.

Everything there went as well for me as can be reasonably hoped for. Powerful love, good health, kept comfortable and warm…I managed to move into a better apartment, find some decent side-jobs to help with the cash flow, and my back has treated me as well as I’ve treated it. Not to say some rough things didn’t happen, but I think my act really came together this go-round. I can honestly say that I owe the gross majority of my happiness to my sweetheart and Newt, both of whom I cherish beyond words, and am thankful daily for having them in my life. I’m also glad that my brother is actively in my life, and that I forgave my mom this past year. No point in carrying that sort of baggage around.

What’s 2002 going to bring? More of the same, and better, I hope. Even if it just breaks even with last year, I’ll be well on my way to “Happily ever after”.

Seriously, for me, the 90s were the pits, especially the early years. I can only pray that the 00s are as good as the 90s were bad. so far, I think they’re living up to it. So, to whom it may concern, Thanks. Keep up the great work!