Tag Archives: garden

9386 – monday


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Cukes and Newton hanging on the ledge… leg all pork-chop like!



Today was mostly rest after work- busy weekend of lounging, work me out. BHK, Newt and Pye all snuggled up close while we watched top gear and venture brothers over more tasty ratatouille … now it’s time to crash. g’nite, dear journal.



1 year ago – picked up some icehouse pieces at aardvark, tv watching, no hits on amnesty day, kids today (super sweet 16)

2 years ago – Danny’s last summer vacation day, pictures, hovering sombrero, many memes done in comments, hidden gp address in comments

3 years ago – cute mousie, taken, chatitn’, elevator express, ks sex preds

4 years ago – riding the bus, mystery creature, tv music in my head, a great new euphemism, maps, dr who, avengers, creep

5 years ago – COPS, nifty interfaces, Creatures, TV, Clay-o-rama rules

6 years ago – Signs movie, cancerless cigs, hellboy movie, scary bunny, 2nd wishes,Oz scary, zombies land on beach, Anna Nicole show hurt to watch

7 years ago – Oz quiz, Dictionaraoke, Day planning

8 years ago – Florida panthers, everglades restoration efforts, lj adds interests Geotarget

9377 – Tuesday-

The backyard cornucopia strikes again!

veggie mania

More from the garden. Pumpkin, squash, a ton of white eggplant, some skinny purple and green eggplant, tomato and cucumber. Nice mix of colors in the back yard!

BHK made pseudo-chicken in cream sauce with peas over a bed of egg noodles… side of green beans in sesame oil. yummmy goodness.

Middleman – titanic tuba episode is maintaining quality nicely.



http://rolcogames.com/ -cool site for pawns, little meeples, whatnot. The Game inventor kit is brilliant.



Matt Thompson has some advice for you: stop buying cheap-ish pseudo-generic drugs from Walgreens, Rite-Aid, and Duane Reade and start buying really cheap true generics.

As you might know, Benadryl (available at Walgreens.com for $5.29 for a box of 24 capsules) and Wal-dryl ($3.99 / 24 capsules) are otherwise known as “25 mg. of diphenhydramine HCI.” Compare [with the true generic available at Amazon]. Yes, that is 400 tablets containing 25 mg. of diphenhydramine HCI, for about $10 when you factor in shipping.

Heed his words. Here’s 300 tablets of generic Claritin for $11.00, 100 tablets of generic Zyrtec for $6.99, 240 tablets of generic Zantac, 1000 capsules of generic Benadryl for $20.34, 1000 tablets of generic Advil for $11.70, and 1000 caplets of generic Tylenol for $13.91.




Seek the Six – New Prisoner “puzzle” promo. Fairly slow loading a the start, but nifty. (I am number 952805… apparently it’s not news to most!)


1 year ago – Blueberry pancakes, naptime, gaming with BHK and Amy

2 years ago – starting yoga, newtcam pics, visiting pals, comics, wrestler name, Jonathan Coulton – Bigfoot & Leonard Nimoy, cool cartoon, spoof caller id service

3 years ago – met the Lisas, strawberry shortcake, Kamandi, cat cartoons, I remind JL of Rob from High Fidelity, meme-y thing, out with Dan

4 years ago – turtlenecks, skinbags, touchscreen, firestarter, recent tunes, oomiaq, walkies, manatees

5 years ago – tour guides, politics, bollywood, starmark, windows psa

6 years ago – swastika, dreams, newt, birds of prey, lizard droppings, zebrelle

7 years ago -WoG III, Chai, bro, coloring book, lj down

8 years ago -no-thang Geotarget

9375 – Monday

This morning’s Harvest – BHK plucked this beastie before I headed to work.

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picture of giant tomato from the garden!

If you enlarge the photo, or look carefully, you’ll see Tsuro, Marriage material, Canasta Caliente, Rook, Kahuna, Balloon Cup, Catan Dice, umm.. Carcassone H&G, and nibs and nabs of other part of the game shelf. Some printer cartriges and screen wipes.

Looks like I’m going on a trip to Port of Baltimore either Thursday or Friday next week! I’ll be in the field that day from 9:30ish to 2:30ish, give or take.

That’s a good thing… my port knowledge could use a little visual update – my last trip through Port Everglades was years ago.

Polished off the Tim Powers fault lines stuff I’d been meaning to read again… I may have to get back to Fluke and polish it off this week!

Big salad and a side sammich for dinner tonight… those quick pickles are lasting a long time!



I missed a veggie hot dog eating contest?!?! I bet I’d have cleaned up. (via Mr T in DC )



Forgot to mention that we pre-ordered Monty Python Fluxx, Marian Fluxx, and Pink Treehouse at Aardvark‘s. Just doing our part to keep the Looneys in business!

Gentle night tonight – I got home, we unwound and hit the sack fairly early. Until Later, dear journal!



1 year ago – abandoned italian village, doodle of me with a pyramid nose by bhk, minisodes, coloring book, girls at tennis, quiz, kitty pic

2 years ago – 8484, monet, 12 monkeys, talking with danny, walkabout pictures, crypto trivia (useful for playing hangman!), netflix goodies, I get my yoga pack from BHK, hungarian wellness mud, bus stop, sunrise

3 years ago – shots, Danny and wee free men, glowing breast implants, saturn’s radio emissions, little 12-toes, cool flying star wars ships, Teele suicides

4 years ago -thoughts on journaling, $20 recovered, retro science book covers

5 years ago – bro, woolly panda, mood scents, anti-piracy vid, alphabet meme, bubba ho-tep, visible embryo, deaths, reunified my homepage

6 years ago -Peter Gabriel bald, change the flavor of your sexual secretions, abunch of broken picture links, worh1000 coolness – Persian elephant

7 years ago -chores, Tron 2.0, tick quote

8 years ago – got invited to an everway group, palindromes, food, translations Geotarget






9369 – Wednesday

Chinese dinner tonight with BHK, and the In-laws. We watched Definitely, Maybe, and I thought it wasn’t bad at all for a “chick flick.” Good amount of schmaltz, not a bad vehicle for a slice of life info. I still think he’s a swine, re: the book… he had postcards and whatnot.

Next on our netflix list – Machine Girl. Hopefully, BHK will enjoy that as much as I enjoyed tonight’s feature.


Pointless Scotto trivia of the moment – animal crackers eaten today, roughly in the order consumed.

whole –

  • gorilla
  • hippo x 2
  • seal
  • monkey
  • tiger
  • polar bear x 3
  • horse
  • lion
  • rhino
  • zebra
  • koala 2
  • sheep 2
  • kangaroo
  • camel


partials –

  • 3-legged tiger
  • tailless kangaroo
  • headless lion


amazing number of intact critters in my barnum box. (60g) Sadly, no elephants. I’ve been to the circus, and always seen ellies – can’t say the same about koalas or polar bears, though they are both adorable and cool, too.

Come to think of it, I’ve never seen a hippo or rhino at the circus, either. Or a gorilla. (well, maybe a clown in a gorilla suit) What are they trying to pull??



0722082148.jpg

4th of July ATW man – note his pop-eyes, manic grin, and huge firecracker.
seen on the way home after Journey 3-d last night



beans for dinner tonight!!

Today’s harvest – Looks like beans for dinner tomorrow!

also shown, first tomato of the season, cukes, eggplant, and a sneaky, slimy okra.



1 year ago – cyn’s house, ATW man pics as a pirate, (first mention of atw man), salmagundia, Mr. Tawky Tawny kills a man with a sitck, recently listened tracks, bierce, famous poems rewritten as limericks, amy arrives

2 years agothis will be our year (it still makes me cry every time I hear it), ring wearing, flemish ( The TRUTH About “Belgium” – The New World Order’s Belgian Conspiracy) , cat’s got knees / I like your pants, rust monster, underground city, lake okeechobee, ninja turtles /zoom, good sleeps,

3 years ago – GrayP, Allergy results, Candice gives me her number, google hybrid, love song / mind control

4 years ago – I Robot, The Flo, LiveJournal Gallery, 1000 white cards revisited

5 years ago – Evil Fish, Bro, Brace, bazillion questions meme, crow tools, Elton Ock, LJ pings for you

6 years ago – Janet Reno, 1000 blank white cards, lost links, Dumpster Diving,singing kitty, palm sketches, snickitty-snackitty man, managing activism

7 years ago – melted heart, epizootic, hair bears, playing majestic

8 years ago – bedtime thoughts Geotarget


9365 – Monday –

Fresh harvested this morning for ratatouille tonight. delicious. Larry had hot dogs, as he’s not a veggie guy, excepting corn… more ratatouille for Chris, BHK, and me!

0721080615.jpg

The garden keeps tossing us more eggplant! ichiban, white and green. yum. note the sneaky, almost camouflaged placement of another okra. Hm.

Slow night tonight… just visiting and eating for the most part. Back tweaked up a little bit, but nothing to be concerned about.

Until later, dear journal.



Goodbye, Blue crab. I’m sorry you’re so low on the survival priority totem pole.



1 year ago – Adam’s 18th birthday with pics, cake info, Mr. Nelson (a teacher) bringing alcohol to minors, wrote to bro, all the lonely people

2 years ago – mixed bag day, newt pics-color filters, tp-roll shreds, outback with gg, toes poem, shiny superman pic,

3 years ago – RIP Scotty, bleeder likes my eyes, thumb drive apps, paper rocket, logo toy, taters, London transport

4 years ago – politics, monster poll, last time meme, job market

5 years ago – mah jongg, zombie movies

6 years ago – Visiting Danny, played Pokemon, orcs n the hood, reign of fire with Dave, beef recall

7 years ago – eremite, watched the sun come up, poll creation, why I trim, cooking poll

8 years ago – got the first LJ client, movie pondering Geotarget

9362 – Friday

Drive-in date night! We arrived early – The place opens at 6:30, we got there at 6:50, after stopping off to fill the cooler with ice and getting fresh batteries for our radio. (You can listen on the car radio, but we’re going to spend most of our time on lawn chairs in front of the element, I think. For funzies while we wait, brought catan dice, rook, canasta caliente. Other Drive-in supplies: bug-off, pen for scoring the games, blankets to sit on / warm under come the cool of late night, tablecloth to keep things neat, a ton of throw pillows. We’ll see how much we need.

The back row of the lot is already nicely filled, but the front left is open, and likely the best remaining parking for a vehicle our size.

The playground under the screen is ample – folks playing bocce, riding the swing sets and slides – just having a good time. Our neighbors on the right are nice folks – The husband (whose name I’ve forgotten already…) has been coming to Bengies since he was a little boy. He’s 53, now.

The snack bar is in full swing – Heading there now. More of a review tomorrow, dear journal!


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First Pumpkin from our garden. It may be the last, as it’s choking out the zucchini… but I hope we can keep at least a few vines and fruit for halloween.



Today was a “Code Red” air quality day. What a Code Red forecast means: Children, the elderly and people with heart or respiratory ailments, emphysema, asthma or chronic bronchitis should reduce outdoor activities. Healthy people should limit strenuous outdoor work or exercise.

The upside of that is that the buses ran for free today – a response to get people to take mass transit rather than pollute the air more, especially during peak hours. they don’t seem to publicise that very well, as no more or fewer folks were on the roads or on my bus today than any other.



1 year ago – rusty thing, the soup, dan’s rocks, walking score, compleat strategist replies to criticism, tin foil hats fail (in comments)

2 years ago – morning breaks doodle, sleepy, heat of the moment, training a tech, sailboat doodle, stop motion space invaders, voice pdf files, deaths

3 years ago – bro court, auto-stitch of an alley no longer there, graffiti pics, harry potter, zombie game, bards tale ends, mimicked, Reverse Polish Notation, top40

4 years ago – manatee trip pictures, Miami travel shots

5 years ago – Aol gives up on netscape, random poster form the past, I get fan mail from desert butterfly, reading list retreat

6 years ago – princess sultanas circle, hug meme, joy machine, angry corn ghosts burn police cars, hydrogen fuel cars, got tested for diabetes (none here!),baseball bat poll, Bush & Women’s rights, spooky patent office logo

7 years ago – evil news, arriviste, clochard & myopic, gilligan’s lessons,contraception myths, Leisa’s 2 months pregnant, zeppelins, tuck in thoughts

8 years ago – xanadu, sleep study prep, name meaning Geotarget

9358 – Tuesday, the ides of July.

Big salad and fried zucchini chips tonight. BHK made some fried okra, but ate it all up save for one tiny morsel which I tried, and really didn’t taste any “okra-ness”.

Middleman continues to entertain – Zombie-venom bite snakehead-type fish and a cola scheme for “!!!” soda.

Random Scotto and BHK factoids. I am fairly distantly related to Ludwig II, and on a pretty solid connection to the original Frankensteins and (not the Fictional Scientist, but the family that built the castle.) I’d settle for having a time-share at Linferhof Palace. All told, I’m just glad I don’t have to go through the same stuff Benita Falkenheyn did.

BHK is more “American” as a fairly direct descendant of Davy Crockett, and has more than a little native American in her bloodline as well. (great grandma) – Not to mention Ma & Pa Barker. (And a little French Huguenot according do Mother-in-Law.)

*SOME*body is rearranging netflix queues so that girly movies arrive before scary monster flicks. I wonder who it could be?

BHK is sneaking in and adding to my journal again! Her latest:

“S’ok cause I really love girly movies—-don’t tell anyone dear journal but I squealed like a giddy school-girl while watching Bridget Jones’ Diary!!”


Bleah and Bah, I say to that.



More crops from the garden.. it seems limitless!

more crops! squash and such!

Cukes, Zukes, squash.. and a .. green pepper? BHK also gave away lal our green beans to the neighbor – he thought that they were offered and took ’em -BHK didn’t have the heart to take ’em back.



1 year ago – creaky, smoothie reparations, Compleat Strategist a bomb, gaming, Alan at the piano, Lebanese Butcher, art talk

2 years ago – furniture, kevin smith & superman, pocket windows (note- add to new flash drive), coral square mall pictures, fin fang foom, algorithm march w/ninjas, girls on walls

3 years ago – broward and fed autostitch, visited kev, walkabout pictures with rastas and shirtless, tell-tale heart in street signs, overheard

4 years ago – spidey, weather, let them sing it for you, freddy vs gb

5 years ago – remembering the keys, overtime psa, comic books, workman’s comp, prostate cancer

6 years ago – newt in sink, bro gets viper fins sponsor, pesky security, badly drawn images on a bumpy road, punquin finds my 125 item list

7 years ago – Evil News, bad joke, crux, random journals, nice thing poll, designer’s lament, laptop space bar weird, hatt-baby, email plain text

8 years ago – Enjoyed the X-men movie, 1974 memory visiting Florida, reprint of Scooby & the occult, insomnia Geotarget

9357 – Monday

Random Thought – My niece (via Momster’s younger sis Diane & ) Inger is 17…. I can remember when she was born, and wore the candle headdress at age 4! How the heck did 13 years skip on by that fast?

We watched the most thinly-veiled possible telephone ad / infomercial on the tube last night.. Picture This. Poor Kevin Pollak. Ah well, I was happy just to relax on the couch and veg for a little while. Note – It is not a “hilarious coming of age teen comedy.”



Today’s Harvest – Okra and three kinds of eggplant!

today's harvest via bhk



recent listens –

Bjork – odd duck and Grinspoon – gone tomorrow



Mamihlapinatapai:considered the hardest word to translate.

It describes a look shared by two people with each wishing that the other will initiate something that both desire but which neither one wants to start. This could perhaps be translated more succinctly as “eye-contact implying ‘after you…'”. A more literal approximation is “ending up mutually at a loss as to what to do about each other”.




at the suggestion of MGK – I’ve added Zero Effect to my netflix.



1 year ago – college park – drove by looney labs, got chrononauts, nasty smoothie king, collector’s crypt, liberty books

2 years ago – rip webmonkey, skipping dragon*con, personal growth post recap, newt on porch pic

3 years ago – mp, kev, $, Rs, the love god mp3, update info about me, tag cloud, allergy

4 years ago – construction webbing, fonts, celebs, web cam fights crime

5 years ago – braced, zombie pumpkin fights, insanity script, insurance stupidity

6 years ago – dream about graypumpkin at the paint store, little people, domed 3d displays,great ape project, 28 things quiz, sue the teacher trend, mental comfort

7 years ago – cool mini or not, vatic, cool things about moving, smoothies, misc news, age poll, counter testing, chocolate bees, Victorian Sex Cry Generator, what’s for supper, coloring book concept germ

8 years ago – Newtcam’s own page posted Geotarget

9355 – Saturday-

This week seemed to go more swiftly than imagined, and today was pretty dang full of stuff.

Shots, then swung by Trott’s farmers market for corn, zucchini (we need zucchini?!?) and eggplant (we need eggplant?!?)

BHK is veggie-crazed, and wants more of the tasty stuff than our victory garden is producing. Mystery veggie is pumpkins after all – we’ll have some gourds to carve for Halloween! (they sprung from the seeds of the rotting pumpkins we tossed into the garden area last November.)

We picked up the in-laws, and hit the Selby Sub Shoppe – white pizza for Chris, Hamburger for Larry, Chicken Parm for BHK, and a black bean for me. They make their own bread, and it was all really tasty!

Came home, cooled our heels a bit and then went to go see the US Navy band play a free concert on the boardwalk by the bay. The bluegrass band went into more mainstream country and southern rock – they were quite skilled, though still had a little newbie edges on ’em. The singer was 2 days into the band, and his voice was excellent. I wonder what the difference between “Musician, 1st Class” and “Chief Musician” is in rank and pay grade for the Navy? The Banjo guy was my fave of the lot.

Mother in law, reading the local news while we were at the free concert on the bay.
0712081908.jpg
Note the vital sombrero placement in the picture.

We all came home, and had ice cream while watching Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. (I hadn’t seen it since the theater.)

The folks left, and now BHK is asleep, leaning on me while I watch and old Episode of Star Trek – The Cloud Minders – I don’t even remember this one, and it seems for good reason… the writing and acting were of a lower par than usual.

mp3 link to current music (no relation to the band we just saw) –  – mp3 -jersey-walk



MIT scientists just figured out how to make solar energy forty times more efficient in a manner that allows one to upgrade old solar cells too!



Ray Gun Puts Voices Inside Your Head – The Sierra Nevada Corporation claimed this week that it is ready to begin production on the MEDUSA, a damned scary ray gun that uses the ‘microwave audio effect’ to implant sounds and perhaps even specific messages inside people’s heads.



1 year ago – factoids about folks I know, armed car chase through the neighborhood, Perseid shower reminder, brits start to ditch wigs in court

2 years ago – venture bros good, lj ugly nav bar, bye bye black rhino, angel / shovel / burrito, simulated lost case-630am, Arvis book in comments!

3 years ago – Last Day w/Magda, invisi-bro, chrono-lifting, breakfast foods, zombies invade sca event, crab, autostitch bus, minor drama, commendation

4 years ago – KoL, Bollywood, Patriot Act, Felix the Cat

5 years ago – sleep troubles, Andromeda Strain, 4-legged man , system crash – modem drivers (Service pack 4 for win2k caused Norton trouble) , Stalin vs Hitler comic, newtcam pic, discovered title-tags, strickland a/c die-lemma

6 years ago – more swell chatties, Roanoke (including odd reply from Boughman), Dreams of Lake Conoy with zombie mist, sweet possum sugar, mother goose

7 years ago – Evil news, riposte, dream of the jungle, If I were… meme, time, sleepy, Dumbass Tenochtitlan Saucermen,chat, aura colors, personality disorder test, Louvre

8 years ago – Bad things with April, super power question Geotarget



9351 – Tuesday

Okra harvest!

Okra has come in with the first zucchini – vile, slimy okra. We’ll see if BHK can win me over to this veggie, like she did with Zucchini.


John R Cambron (who lives in North Beach!) has an excellent track map showing the layout of all switches, yards and platforms in the Metrorail system. Now, he’s expanded that map based on the Metro 2030 vision to create a potential 2030 track layout. – via



In the first case to review the government’s secret evidence for holding a detainee at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a federal appeals court found that accusations against a Muslim from western China held for more than six years were based on bare and unverifiable claims. The unclassified parts of the decision were released on Monday.

With some derision for the Bush administration’s arguments, a three-judge panel said the government contended that its accusations against the detainee should be accepted as true because they had been repeated in at least three secret documents.


The court compared that to the absurd declaration of a character in the Lewis Carroll poem “The Hunting of the Snark”: “I have said it thrice: What I tell you three times is true.”


more here at the NY times



So, how many human rights advocates are going to boycott all of the sponsors of the 2008 Summer olympics in Beijing ?


Numerous human rights violations have taken place in China because of the Olympics, according to an Amnesty International report. In 2006, Beijing implemented a detention without trial scheme called “Re-education Through Labor” which targets people who have committed minor offenses and are forced to work long hours and can be detained for 4 years. Concerns over the games also include the potential for boycotts from pro-Tibetan organizations such as Students for a Free Tibet as well as from organizations such as Amnesty International upset with China’s involvement in the crisis in Darfur.


Biggest tricks for me to avoid would be be –

Johnson and Johnson – very big company – not sure if we could dodge every tendril. I can rattle off at least 5 of those items in our home right now.

GE – everywhere, also owns a ton of stuff – (including TiVo, Universal Studios, and USA network, home of Psych)

Coca-cola – everywhere, but avoidable if you take note of what you’re drinking, including water.

Visa – well, that’s my bank’s debit card, and almost every place on the planet takes it… so, unless I want to live and trade with cash-only businesses, that’s a deal breaker. Too big to defeat.



Items of little to no difficulty –

McDonalds – not hard for me to miss out on – we only ever go for shamrock shakes or pumpkin at halloween. Easily avoided.

Samsung / Panasonic – easy peasy. I get 99% of my electronics from other sources, though our tv is a samsung right now.

VW? Awww… you guys let me down. Would I have to boycott playing punch-buggy?

Adidas – no problem missing out on them.

UPS – I do use them on occasion, but there are alternatives.

Snickers, Tsingtao, and Budwiser – I can do without all of those.

Kodak – plenty of other options there, too, but they’re in a lot of places. depending on the extremism, some might want to forego any book that used kodak photography or processes. Movies, etc.They are teamed with Motorola and Lexar, for that matter.

Who can say? I won’t be that extreme, but sometimes I feel that I should.



‘Zero’ chance lottery tickets stun some players – Through a request filed under the Freedom of Information Act, Fishwick’s firm was able to obtain records that showed the Virginia State Lottery sold $85 million in tickets for which no top prize was available.


1 year ago – hot brain, hot pixel, night of the comet, the frighteners, Louise and in-laws at supper, dinner pix, shag and klondike bar

2 years ago – nearly naked neighbors, gray day, mob supply pic, newt pics

3 years ago – talked to Arnie’s Sec, newt and graffiti pix, autostitch, wifi theft arrest, reality show premises, j-walk on podcasts, programmer joke, google maps goodies, flightgear, wifi hotspot backpack, my messy office, bear-knocking, sex pred info pages

4 years ago
– combos/snausages , wisdom, serving sizes, ramen, Rockford Files, Planetarium pictures, weather, sock thief

5 years ago
– call block, snapple, intelligence gathering, Batroc, flashback cartoon, addictive data

6 years ago
– oz/floyd connection, pimps at sea, rss feeds start, cat dreams

7 years ago
– cej returns, unpacking videos, 1992 tax info, the challenge, corn chowder, kubrick quiz

8 years ago
– Rowlf sings, April actually kicks back a few bucks, pondering a new recorder Geotarget




9348 – saturday –

Nutshelling –

  • got allergy shots

  • lunch at ledos

  • picked green beans from the garden.. another two grocery bags full!

  • Farmers Market provided supplemental eggplant, green pepper, blueberries.

  • Coffee Tea and Whimsy – bowls, raspberry mead, white wine, a cute voodoo doll toothpick holder.

  • watched movies:
  • no country for old men – bleh
  • I’m not there – bleh.
  • danny deckchair – good!

  • pizza night with the in-laws – used kits – made one pepperoni, one plain cheese an one veggie. all were delicious.


  • ice cream cones with fudge ripple for dessert!




OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets

OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets


This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

  • sex (5x)
  • death (3x)
  • hell (2x)
  • cannibal (1x)




1 year ago – pg-13 rating, cinco de julio, memory erasing drug, minisodes, kwik-e-mart, letterboxing vs geocaching

2 years ago – zaphod costume for dragon*con, I’m a star, i/o brush, newt’s power move wikified

3 years ago – Movies with bro, razors-clubs-guns, zombies, 2600 yr old tortured corpse, lil bit, pictures, ujiko search, sex-offender journal, q&a, predator info

4 years ago – more Vizcaya pics, vandal of Venice, veggie benefits, Lego Spidey, Estonian wife-carrying, small-world syndrome

5 years ago – Newt and fireworks, bacta tank, printing plate castle, giant monster games

6 years ago – 8-legged freaks, planting, many pictures that no longer link (curse you picture stage!), Harry potter fake book out, baby laff, octothorpe poll, 7

7 years ago – Growing impatient, beverage poll, evil news, cudgel

8 years ago – horrid stream of thought unformatted entry…I still eat much the same stuff, introspectionGeotarget

9343 – tuesday

We have blooms on our rose bushes – it appears that we have tea roses instead of the regular large sized ones… but BHK seems to be ok with that.

Garden progressing nicely – I swear that I can see the cucumber plants grow by inches every day.

My Life’s current settings –

Spectra-Analyzer (Monochrome / 4-Color / True-Color / Thermograph / X-Ray )
MPAA Rating (G / PG / R / NC-17)
Kill switch (Off / On / Wanton Murderous Rage)
Weirdness Tank (Empty / Low / Half / High / Full)
Laugh-O-Matic (Serious / Satirical / Witty / Wacky / Insane)
Cliche Blender (Pulse / Blend / Puree / Oh, Ugh!)
Global Soundtrack Volume (off, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11!)
Personal Soundtrack Volume (off, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11!)
Batteries (Empty / Low / Half / High / Full)



If being captured and tortured makes you ready to be president, there’s a whole Guantanamo full of candidates the Republicans haven’t even considered.

I’m actually a bit fearful of McCain winning. I shouldn’t be, but I was burned by Kerry and Gore, both of which I’d have thought had it in the bag.

Dave’s trying to put me at ease – I hope he’s right. (Though I am annoyed about Obama’s recent campaign actions, too – the aforementioned Supreme Court tossing the D.C. gun ban / Obama’s faith based initiatives / pandering like flags on lapels and “values” as part of a campaign ads.)



Ray Harryhausen turned 88 a couple of days ago – I thought he had passed on. I’m glad I was wrong.



Looks like our condo issues are about up, now. The new management company has contacted us, our bill to be paid actually has an itemized list we can agree with, and it should be smoother sailing as far as that building is concerned.




I’m often surprised when I meet people who are… well, to put it in gaming terms, “built on a lot more or a good deal fewer points” than me. I keep myself in the thought of “everyone is created equal”, but it’s really just not true. I’ve met a couple of people that are practically super-heroes, and pulp-style doc savage types, at that. (I worked with his opposite number at the library, years ago, too) Here and there I come across a person who is amazingly put together – talented, good-natured, physically, socially and mentally fit. Granted, it’s not often that this happens – I figure most people have at least one or two attributes that are at least along the mean, if not sub-par. Then there’s the other side of things… someone who is neither kind to the eyes, particularly intelligent, healthy or easy to get along with. How did they get such a short end of the stick?

I know it’s a pipe dream, but shouldn’t everyone be beautiful and ugly somewhere obvious after talking to them for a moment or thirty? When I get blindsided by folks falling on one side of the bell curve or the other, I have this need to find something contrary to the rest of the model… and I get a little distressed if I can’t spot the hidden flaw or silver lining of the cloud. I know it won’t always be obvious, like Hawking’s mind trapped in his body (or Anna Nicole Smith’s Body [at prime] trapped containing its brain.) Those two aren’t the best examples as I’ve never met either before, but I suspect that they’re fair ones.

I think that the first thing most gamers do when given a system of measuring certain skills and abilities is to build themselves, just to see where they stand. (or, if you’re extra goofy like I am, you’ll do your whole game group, and then compare notes.)



Last night, while watching Astronaut Farmer – Chris asked if the main character was going to die. My answer of “yes, eventually” was not well received.


Ten original designs have been submitted in the 8th Icehouse Game Design Competition, and anyone willing to rank at least two of the ten designs is welcome to serve as a judge. The deadline for judging is July 18th. For details on judging, as well as links to all of the designs, head to the Icehouse Game Design page. (I don’t have any entries this time, but Logger looks fun, at least in theory, as does Ambush.)

I most certainly prefer German-type boardgames (somewhat abstract, largely non-confrontational, and relatively short in playing time), rather than American-style (games that are heavy in theme, aggressive, and requiring an entire evening to play.)

That said, I think we’re going to slow down on our game purchases now – our closet is pretty full. I’d like to trot out a few games for the 3-4th of July time off, especially since we’ll have Alan, Jesus, The Mama, Chris, Larry, BHK and me available to play, plus the possibility of Tina and Matt. I suspect it’ll turn into Apples to Apples fest, but I’d like a few other 3+ player games to get a workout then too… maybe Witch Trial or Super Munchkin would be fun and easy enough for a bigger crew… I’d even like to see a mob-sized Carcassone H&G game.

Other Possibilities are Clue, Aquarius, and Fluxx (Zombie, eco, family or regular… or a mix!)

I doubt we could get ’em to do Chrononauts. That’ll be for when Amy comes over. BHK and I love it, but the gang might not be into the learning part. (same for Crime Lords or Arkham Horror )

We could play Werewolf if we get at least 8 people that want to play. It’d be better with 13… I wonder where Adam, Eric, Jimmy and Joe will be this weekend?)

Speaking of Gaming –
Game Table Online is moving from subscription-based play to free, open gaming for all users as of July 1. (Lord of The Fries ! Kill Dr. Lucky !



1 year ago – geocaching, tinkle pig in the graveyard (she may still be there – we should go back and check.), aardvark, bro in rehab, vampire peacock

2 years ago – spidey, bats and naraj team up, porch post – better day, playing catch up, getting ready for my trip to the keys with boop and weez, life settings, saw superman returns, it don’t mean a thing, ambient sound post,

3 years ago – good things, snaily-pic, dealing with bro/dmv/belize, Newt and Magda hang out, giant black butterflies, palmetto bugs / Brent memory, enature, opera gloves in comics, platelet donation pics, Ken Jenne sells out the public (and is still in office a year later)

4 years ago – spidey 2 was keen, samoflange, table test, republican confession, Angry Ghost Rips Worker’s Arm Off

5 years ago – Netmeeting, riblets, GP/Austin, cej-chat

6 years ago – wonderful dreams, learning the neighborhood, notes never followed up on

7 years ago – saw Ornj off on her trip, bro’s got a win 95 box, monkey fishing a fib, due amici sub, leaves of grass, database link access to web, Kneel before zod!

8 years ago – nothingGeotarget



9341 – monday

Back to work – but it’s a short week this go ’round.

Newtcam and Pyecam may be a bit messy for the next couple of days as the house gets put back in order. Or maybe not… the images are a bit outside the primary shuffle-zones.

Hits on the side links for both have been down lately – I wonder why? They’ve been mighty cute recently and viewings is still pretty high, but nobody wants to go through the ads. I can understand that. I’m just surprised that there aren’t more things interesting to folks on the sidebar. I should probably add more text at the bottom to mix the feed up a bit.

In-laws came over for pizza and the 2nd half of astronaut farmer – movie didn’t do much for me, but I didn’t totally hate it either. BHK was about the same, I think.






I keep thinking of Winston Churchill’s quotation, made in a radio broadcast in October 1939:

“I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.”

Just the “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma” part.



0628081339.jpg

Nutmeg J Salmonella – the little box turtle that lives in our back yard, near the vegetable garden. Nutmeg – named for a turtle I had as a Kid in Delray Beach (named nutmeg, because that was the name on the pen we had for him to live in – prior resident was a brown rabbit of the same name.) Salmonella – well, because he’s a turtle nothing personal, I assure you, dear journal. I love his shell-patterns.. remind me of raccoon footprints. J, because it’s standard procedure to give J as the middle initial, isn’t it?

We also have a multitude of tadpoles living right next to our bedside window – there’s a drainage ditch filled with water that gets just the right amount of sun. I hope all the little froggies are viable, and take care of the mosquitoes that have been appearing since summer hit. They can leave the lightning bugs alone if possible, too.



1 year ago – desktop tower defense, space views, annoyance update, newsoms arrive, games and hot dogs

2 years ago – goodbye june, i live for you, teddy bear gun

3 years ago – Missing the good ol’ days- Sam and Max, a9 maps, Chee-chee gone, pumpkins are berries, flickr-google earth hack, movie plans, maps

4 years ago – planning a trip, big rock candy mountain, getting journal-spam

5 years ago – Heroclix Icon, Playboy Mystery, The Thorns, Octopus hot dogs, KingKong, Acme Illustrated Catalog, Newtcam pic (see the day prior for oneof his gut sticking out), Lunch with Danny, Las Olas Walkies, awonderful surprise chat.

6 years ago – settling in, south beach remote cam, Newt-lassie comparisons, power puff/marley

7 years ago – Rookie Bodine, good thoughts, crash test dummy plot seeds, redolent, the power of cheese, Ornj goes camping

8 years ago – shotgunGeotarget


9335 – Thurs

That Meme –

Post 3 things you’ve done in your lifetime that you don’t think anybody else on your friends list has done. See if anybody else responds with “I’ve done that.” If they have, you need to add another. Have your friends cut & paste this into their journal to see what unique things they’ve done in their life.

1.  met my wife as a result of livejournal. (and honeymooned by visiting a whole mess of the ripley’s believe it or not museums up and down the east coast – from St. Augustine, FL  to Myrtle Beach, SC)

1. became a vegetarian on the 5th of july, 1990. (still do dairy and eggs – now crustaceans, too. )

2. discovered (after we broke up) that one of my ex-girlfriends was married and had kids the entire time we were romantically entangled.

3.adopted 2 cats, despite a strong allergy to them. (Fortunately, I’m used to Newt and Pye now!)
3. Helped recover hundreds of missing kids and elderly/confused adults (most just wander-offs, but at least six real kidnappings) over the course of three and some years.




Students studying computing in the UK and US are outsourcing their university coursework to graduates in India and Romania. Work is being contracted out for as little as £5 on contract coding websites usually used by businesses. Students are outsourcing everything from simple coursework to full blown final year dissertations. It’s causing a major headache for lecturers who say it is almost impossible to detect.


The irony of course is that if they actually get jobs in the sector, this will be how they actually work anyway.



Another Mummy movie coming out, in two months? I didn’t even know it was being filmed! Looks like no Rachel Weisz though. That’s not really a big loss – I liked her in the first film, but she sort of bleemed out on the sequel for me.

That, and I didn’t hear about the new Blood Bowl game. I’m really out of the entertainment loop lately! At least I can have a good violent Dwarfs vs Lizardmen football combat game before end of year.

See also – G is the latest kaiju monster mash to take Japan like storm, and features a giant robot made of tin.



Bill Clinton has offered his support to Barack Obama. When asked about his attacks on Obama during the primaries, Clinton remarked, “It depends on what your definition of ‘hollow, fork-tongued, naïve, flip-flopping little diaper baby’ is.”


green beans from our garden!

Green beans from our garden! Zucchini is soon to follow, and the eggplant is coming in nicely. We’re having the beans tonight for supper. yum-yummo!



1 year ago – pirate battle royale with BHK and Danny, tough schedule, visitors, good condo news, gigantor memorial, Danny with simpsons standee

2 years ago – Norman E. Borlaug, cartoons and superheo database, hitler cats, wildflower guide, words pants and trousers obscene, go your own way, lj vs Vox = FUD, the Zombies – music, comment meme, snake pic, bad day at work – amber link made by kids for kids – “we pass the slavings on to you!”

3 years ago – opening three of four windows, Batman Begins, keel evening, beverly domain, cjr’s guide to ownership, tickle a girl simulator, kind of creepy bumper sticker, broadcast list, las olas pic,

4 years ago – webalizer, laser keyboard, heat vision & jack, steak-umms, rasputin’s penis, bro issues, bandwidth

5 years ago – tired, mark twain burial, harrison ford finger-pointy, hot dogs, ditko, sodomy, sleepy

6 years ago – walkies, 1800autopsy, poddish feelings, Captain Kirk’s chair auctioned, peg legs, signed lease.

7 years ago – Noticing Newt’s getting to be so big (remember, I have a size 15 foot), got an email from Robin Tunkel, Evil News, horrible dream, Santie “quits” FMM, top 100 banned/challenged books of 1990-2000, why read poll, my free pc didn’t work out

8 years ago – Ockdiggity, poop troopGeotarget

9315 – Thursday

Was a bit sicker in the am, but was feeling better by midday. It seems that mornings are the most difficult now, post sleep and shower. One day until Friday!

BHK and I went out to Thursday’s for supper with Chris and Larry – took a walk on the boardwalk afterward. Nice night, only a couple of mosquitoes.

Today is Buddy’s Wake – Adam’s grandfather didn’t make it, sadly.



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More fruit from the blueberry plant! Had a little nibble on them with lunch today, in yogurt.

We also have eggplant blossoms, two peppers coming in nicely and tons of squash, bean and potato blossoms!



scribbls – a fun little doodle/game thing. (most faved is worth a peek) – I suspect that Kat will dig it, with that tablet!



Robert Downey Jr. says he gave up drugs
after Burger King served him “a cheeseburger so disgusting that it forced him to reassess his entire life.” The burger was so nasty that he suddenly felt like something terrible was going to happen to him, so he threw all his drugs into the ocean and has been clean ever since.



1 year ago – carcassonne, blink, masonic temple pic, moonbase blackhellkat (in comments)

2 years ago – bangs!, 70s nostalgia, net neutrality, heifer.org, zombie powered car, blondie, smothers brothers, hurricane, tv openings, far out space nuts, 3’s company, tomi’s vette, electrawoman and dynagirl

3 years ago – Going postal, free pie, Global Frequency, Who, Kim Possible, writing, JC & fish sammiches, mouse update, UN food force, Hav, Work Sanity, fridge cleanup, Chloe-pup, sweet farm girl mp3, Hunter-Newt face pics (vs. a paper strip)

4 years ago – Astronauts, Hound Dogs, doodles, $0.21, CoH rough, Camels vs Tigers, Hustler Store on its way

5 years ago – there-music, vampires, Bollywood posters, billy the kid

6 years ago – wondering about hover cars and jetpacks, mad shark, bad tattoos,rainbow in every teardrop, kid at work day, wondering about my own,Freedom force supers, misc bro & Danny get togethers

7 years ago – irenic & potatory, recovering from yuck, idea12, waving, coffee flavored cereals, evil news, html brad hoax, plucking out a worm, l-struck

8 years ago – fooling myself, Superman is JC, site poetry via cmdrtacoGeotargetVisitor Map