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9584 – Saturday

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Well, the stars were out of alignment this morning – 7 degrees to start, and the ground was frozen an inch thick.

BHK and I slept in a bit, and then I hopped into the shower, to get ready for my appointment at the MVA to get my license – turned on the water and… nothing came out of the nozzle.

It turns out that water solidifies, or "freezes" at certain cold temperatures – sort of like those little cubes you put in drinks to cool lemonade on a hot day.

Water can also freeze in pipes, as well as cube trays, it seems. Lacking water, and the desire to rush to a neighbor or in-laws to bather properly, I opted to instead go another day – Tuesday might be good, given that I have the day off, an everyone will be in DC that day for the inauguration. If they’re open, I’ll visit. I know they’re closed on Monday – MLK day shuts it down.

The neighbors were helpful, offered a torch to melt the ice in the pipes, but we figured we’d wait it out and see.

The in-laws came over, and we assessed the situation – it turns out the water came back at about 11am – so BHK made pancakes for everyone, and I scrubbed up in the now-working shower.

After that, we went outside, and surrounded the drafty parts of the house, and pipe areas with insulation (that’s how I know the ground was frozen, and how deep). It seems that the bedroom is benefiting most, upping in temp a few degrees already.

After that, BHK, in-laws, and I watched The Namesake -I liked it a lot – after the in-laws left, BHK and I continued with the The Darjeeling Limited, also pretty good – (I still Prefer The Life Aquatic, but it’s a good second to that Anderson film)

Now, it’s time for bedski.

1 year ago – MRI, snow, dentist, pizza hangman, psych

2 years ago – pic @ papermoon cafe with Alice and BHK

3 years ago – thick head, bro has coin, iguana / scream like a girl / game show, florida homeless beating, sand game, now with stick men, i am god toon, walking ghost

4 years ago – mel day, dick tracy’s alien connection, translations, site search

5 years ago – MM in an arranged wedding, global pals, cow brain burger, celebration(FL) sold, cool supermarket photos

6 years ago – bavarian, Ana at gallery, they wait below, Sappho compliments me, cat piccies, scintillate, firefly

7 years ago – Trimaris, school dream, little suck-a-thumb, James Earl Jones gets called James Earl Ray (Whoops!), Immigrant song, band name poll, Sasha and Misha move away, some silly linkies.

8 years ago – Analog never did print it, Bilbo’s Guide to life, textbooks responsible for stupid teens. Geotarget

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9542 – Monday

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Well, Today was sure a Monday.

Early this morning the sewer backed up into the bathtubs,and overflowed the toilets. Gross, disgusting, yuck. Some sort of pipe issue there, but long story short, I worked form the house today. Still had access to the internet and phone, but a shower was right out. fortunately, the blue house is right up the street, so we could stop by and use the facilities as needs, but it’s still a hassle to plan ahead to use a bathroom or take a shower. This happened once last year, so the plumber is going to come out and replace the pvc pipe that has roots growing into it and replace it with something tougher – shouldn’t have to call anyone to roto-root out the issue again, unles tree roots become armor piercing.

so, I worked in my pjs, until a break time availed itself, and I took a quick shower between phone meetings and data repair.

After work, I was already home! BHK and I went out to Homestead garden store which was all decked out for the holidays (see the wrapped tree lights, and previous years)


Saw toy trains at homestead gardens – attached a vid from flickr, via cell phone. It was cuter in person!

We picked up a few holiday ornaments, all of which sum up one or both of our personalities:

A resin santa in green, a pair of little victorian postcard santas, and blown glass versions fo a pirate ship, a gorilla, a taco, and a zucchini. (pictures to follow, no doubt.) We also got a present or two, but I can’t speak of them here, in case they’re reading.

The place was essentially empty – a wonderful thing when you go christmas shopping on a Monday at 5:30 pm. They’re shoulder-to-elbow packed on weekends, and worse at this time of year.

Polished off the day by coming home, watching Big Bang Theory, and noshing on subway sammiches. (we opted out of chinese food, due to the latrine issue, and murphy’s law)

The Plumber should be by tomorrow, first thing in the morning – and David should by by after work tomorrow night. We’ll likely ge ttogether with the inlaws and hang out.

1 year ago – got our tree, met a man named cheeto, bluegrass, chitchat with the in-laws

2 years ago – city data North Beach, dinner with lj friends and family, PH day

3 years ago – Saw Renee, sysadmin song, liz quit, year in review meme, the jumping party

4 years ago – Work blues, hey ya cb, marvel stamps, ufo theme

5 years ago – annoying words, possible friends list alteration, marshmallows &volcanoes, Rick James/Hulk, on call reduction, CS work-dolt, MM arrival, JL RIP.

6 years ago – mighty shopper, LA Story, keywords, rain

7 years ago – economics, WID gig, good gab, holiday cards

8 years ago – AOK, R d’E, RIP Klink, Golden goat Geotarget

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8941 – Wednesday

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One year until 08/08/08!

I found out today that the family across the street from us has lived in that house for the last 23 or so years. Adam, the youngest son at age 18 has lived in the same home his whole life. I wonder how often that happens anymore? I don’t think I’ve put more than five years of life in the same building – I didn’t even spend more than 2 years in the same school until I hit 9th grade as my folks moved around quite a bit.

I’m not sure I can even imagine how intimately familiar a person comes to be with that sort of environment… that kid must know every stone and fence within a 10-mile area. He must’ve seen some very significant changes over the last two decades.. North Beach was a bit of a biker town before it got an influx of bay front property money. There is quite a cultural microcosm these days, but the upper-middle class seems to be taking the lead.

Today’s weather is *evil* – Current Temperature is 100°F, “feels like” 109. And that’s at “partly cloudy”. How much hotter would it be with full-bore sun?

Totally random thought formed on the train – do the words cowherd (someone who herds cows) and coward (someone who shows fear in the face of danger) have a connection? I need to research that.

[edit – Well, I guess not. Word History: A coward is one who “turns tail.” The word comes from Old French couart, coart, “coward,” and is related to Italian codardo, “coward.” Couart is formed from coe, a northern French dialectal variant of cue, “tail” (from Latin cda), to which the derogatory suffix -ard was added. This suffix appears in bastard, laggard, and sluggard, to name a few. A coward may also be one with his tail between his legs. In heraldry a lion couard, “cowardly lion,” was depicted with his tail between his legs. So a coward may be one with his tail hidden between his legs or one who turns tail and runs like a rabbit, with his tail showing.]

BHK picks up Em tomorrow!
DSCN5614
She’ll be visiting from Thursday through Sunday. I expect a *lot* of fun and a probably a couple of interesting challenges. (She’s little, and will likely miss her folks on one or two nights.)

After thinking about it, I feel that a variant of Oshi might work well with the Icehouse pyramids. (Other possibilities at the World of Abstract Games )

1 year ago – priceline beats expedia, register to vote, Chinese Ghost Festival, exfoliate/defoliate, hangin’ round the ceiling, walkabout/geocache plans

2 years ago – meetings, school restarts, club shuffle, thank you – sim-sim-salabim, danny the street, vidcam hacks, google total, unf. kids books, How bona to vada your eek!, teacher, miami storm pic

3 years ago – Bro health care, lj post issues, losing some gentleness, scotto-flaws& nice things, vintage newspaper strips, no jack black as GL, funw/google searches, older archives, deep sea images, phone safe,keylogger, slowed chipmunks, JL cartoon, character makeups, europreart

4 years ago – Teen Titans, Antidepressants, narghile, steve burns, ebonics, red kryptonite poll, bro health

5 years ago – ZIM!, fun fact, fumbuckery, added newt pic to bio, after he shocked me, site reboot that didn’t come to fruition

6 years ago – some thoughts about gamers/negative side, including a dragon-con flashback (that caused some upset in the role-players community), who in a crowd?, Upside-down, RPG poll, caterwaul, Name Generator, dinos in your region, Wally Caught stealing, begins the end of the WDB era at IMT.

7 years ago – grumpy, in general and regarding TV Geotarget

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8901 – Monday

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Restless night sleeping, accidentally booted Newt off the bed once, but he stuck with me throughout the night. BHK was restless too, but I didn’t leg-sweep her out. Pye visited briefly, but high-tailed it after the barest commotion. I dreamt that BHK and I were hunting animals, tagging them for reference, and re-releasing ’em into the wild. A side effect of geocaching, perhaps?

Bugah & Neil went fishing – to no avail, as the water was too choppy.

Half day tomorrow! North Beach Fireworks are going to be something else!

via jwz – Search for Lonesome George mate is long shot

While scientists search for a mate for “Lonesome George” — the last known survivor of a species of Galapagos tortoise — some say the effort to fend off extinction may be in vain. Even if a mate is found, George has not been interested in reproducing in the past and may not know how, former keepers and others who have worked with him said.

“He has problems … he probably never saw a female and male of his own species reproducing,” said Swiss biologist Sveva Grigioni, who worked with George 13 years ago.

Grigioni, now back in Switzerland, said she could normally get tortoises to ejaculate within minutes, but spent months manually stimulating George and never extracted semen from him.


Age is not George’s problem. He is estimated at between 60 and 90 years old, and could live to be 200 and still reproduce, scientists say.

The visual differences in tortoises from different islands were among the features of the Galapagos that helped 19th Century British naturalist Charles Darwin formulate his theory of evolution. Since then, the tortoises have been hunted by pirates for their meat and their habitat eaten away by goats introduced onto the islands. George, who weighs 198 pounds, was found on Pinta in 1971.

Reviewing Openads for the company’s ad server for the web. it seems pretty reputable and reliable, thus far.

Fire drill this morning was a welcome break in the day – cool outside, everyone seemed laid back and calm – helped move the rest of the time that much more rapidly. the 2pm meeting went well… lots of good information for me to ruminate over the next few projects. I really dig that I’m in an environment that will allow me to use the skills I have! (Last gig wasn’t bad, but a lot of repetition. This time, there’s a lot of room for creative thought along with brute force.

Day closed with S’mores over a fire pit, some preview fireworks, and then Bugah and I played a bit of “Destroy All Humans”. Not a bad thing.

GeotargetVisitor Map

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8891 – entered via palmtop at lunch

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We had our pirate “battle royale” 3-way 100 points each pirate fleet combat… BHK was quite menacing with two giant crabs helping her ships, but Danny took the game in the end via gold. I got really tired the last hour of the game – the start delayed by abut 2ish hours due to our wonderfully “grand central station” aspect of the house… it is always preferable to visit with family and friends than to hunker down and play.

Tonights plans include eating home made mac & cheese, playing Hunter & Gatherers, Witch Trial and then watching Shaolin Soccer.

I really like having Danny over, but I am a bit fatigued by the work/play/sleep/repeat method. I look forward to just vegging out a little bit. After Danny launches, Misti and the gang are coming, and then Amy. July will be is a busy month.

Got good news regarding the condo issue – via some counter-commandoes

Yesterday I spoke with Harold Hyman, chief of compliance with DBPR here. He confirmed the good news that, as I was told last week, they had basically found everything dealing with the election scam in our favor and the decision was confirmed by his boss in Tallahassee. The report is being prepared and we should get it in a few days. He also added however that, although they are firm in their decision, the board can and probably will appeal. This will delay things by maybe a few weeks. Knowing Horst, Phoenix and Tucker & Tighe, an appeal (and maybe other tricks) would seem inevitable. Well, we will rid ourselves of them this summer no matter what they do!

We’ll see. I am glad that the condo regime is getting a bit of a shakeup.

via Beaucoupkev – Life-sized Gigantor memorial to be erected

Kobe, Japan will be the home of a life-sized Gigantor statue.

The 18 meter high, 70 ton Ironman-28 will carry the price tag of 135 million yen. The project is expected to be completed in the spring of 2008.

Debuting in 1958, Tetsujin 28-gō was the first “giant robot” series, which became a staple in Japanese pop culture.

The statue will serve as a double memorial, marking both the birthplace of creator Mitsuteru Yokoyama, who passed away in 2004 in an apartment fire, as well as celebrate the revitilization of the area, which was devastated in the 1995 Kobe earthquake. GeotargetVisitor Map

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8550 – this sammich tastes funny

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The Rapture Index – The prophetic speedometer of end-time activity

I wonder what part “banner ads” have in the movement to the end times? We’re currently at 155?

Lovely, giggly day yesterday. Tracheotomy Pooh-bear and stories of “Sleeping Booty” made it dash by.

Michael Jantzen’s Wind Pavilion is a nice facelift to the rotating apartments concept that debuted in Curitib, Brazil back in 2004. This particular version of the wind pavilion is proposed to be a lightweight structure primarily made of fabric to randomly rotate in the wind. Rotation would not only provide the building with an ever changing shape, but also electrical power to light the building. Michael proposes that the building could be made out of various materials and could take on many different functions such as an apartment complex.

Link to my Current listen – I created a Screamin’ Jay Hawkins Station on Pandora. Have a listen if you like, dear journal. (Here’s my regular listen)

App-Stick – Directory of Free Portable Applications for Your USB Memory Stick

Family pictures from 25+ years ago

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8422 – Sunday morning… after a solid night’s sleep

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Woke up on Saturday with a slight pinch in my back… must’ve slept a little funny the night prior… a hot shower and some stretching took care of the bulk of the problem in fairly short order.

Had a lovely day meandering about, looking for proper goodies to put in the apartment, sniffing at teak and rattan-type stuff. Saw a few things that had some potential, and a truly grotesque table that was also a drum made from zebra skin (and legs made from the hooves) which will give the more sensitive folk nightmares for weeks.

As always, we got a lot of good gab-time in, and I always enjoy a day’s worth of social-time.

After doing some legwork, we swung by Tijuana Taxi, and the food was jim-dandy. The place was basically a Mexican version of Crabby Jack’s – with better food. I’ll certainly be back. (I’ve got 2 additional good reasons to swing by there, it’s near both Danny’s house and Tina’s.) Since the refried beans were made with lard, I had the chile-cheese smashed potatoes, and they were tasty, though it took a moment to get used to the idea of mashed potatoes with a south of the border flair. I think I’ll have to get something a little lighter next time, because the veggie Chimichanga was just too much after an appetizer.

When we finished, I took the BCT home… route 2 to the West Terminal, Route 22 to Central, and Route 10 right on home. I ate so much, I was *still* feeling a bit overfed 2 hours later.

The bus ride was nice, too… the rain started to pound down, coming in sheets to the point where I couldn’t see more than 25 feet in any direction. Thankfully, the terminals are well covered against the elements. (most street stops aren’t so blessed.) By the time I got home, the streets were clean, but the skies had fairly dried up, for the final walking-leg home.

walkabout pics – found objects and stencil graffiti

hairbrush, beer and onions?mask
Hairbrush, beer and onions & Mask over archives

stairwellYou're loved
Stairwell to Tattoo place & “Relax, You’re Loved” at Chiropractor’s window

optimus prime - near minimalistar2d2
Stencil Graffiti – Optimus Prime and R2-D2

herman munsterprofile
Stencil Graffiti – Herman Munster and Face in profile

detail - keepin mullets evilgraffiti
TNT- Keepin Mullets Evil. (I’m sure that’s really hard work)

pencilsketch
unpainted life-size pencil sketch of some skate-kid.

Current Music – Instrumental – Mp3

Because of the rotation of the earth, an object can be thrown farther if it is thrown west.

1 year ago – weary, Alex Toth’s last birthday, journal entry length, stumbleupon, silver bullets, bso pics, data munging, dork, smashing pumpkins, dalek mood theme, call forwarding, testing flickr’s autopost, newtcam pic!

2 years ago – Ubermensch Baby, walk the drunk, hulk returns to blogville, talked with sedef, tiki beach doodle

3 years ago – sernya, Zod is Jor-El, plushie supers

4 years ago – random adds, new place, sleeping late with cat, riaa shaman defeats bad magic box, Francesco skips out, no cable.

5 years ago – oblation, wonderful world, chopping block

6 years ago – threadsGeotarget

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8285 – Hey! I’m wearing purple!

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Dan mentioned that maybe Friday the 14th will be a good day to hang out after I get off of work (he’s a teacher and will be enjoying spring break) … we haven’t done anything since January, so there’s a lot of lost time to cover.

Axis and Allies is certainly on the list. Maybe go out and get an ethical massage, too.

Bug inspectors coming by the apartment today, and then a trip to the doc. Didn’t get to sleep in, because my on-call tech had to wake me for verification of a launch in California at 6:30am (2:30 their time)

Ah well, I’ll be able to take a midday nap as a treat, anyhow.

Had the blues a bit yesterday, but they’ve pretty much faded out for now. Probably a spring thing. I’m still a bit miffed about the unsolved mystery, but I’m just chalking it up to laziness for now.

Moment of Lyric: MP3 (many thanks again, Firpo!) [Hear more of them here]

There’s something Graypumpkin won’t hear on Bob!

Start wearing purple wearing purple
start wearing purple, for me now
all your sanity and wits, they will all vanish
I promise, it’s just a matter of time…
I know you since you were a twenty and i was twenty,
but thought that some years from now
a purple little little lady will be perfect
for dirty old and useless clown…
I know it all from Diogenes to Foucault
from Lozgechkin to Paspartu
I ja kljanus obostzav dva paltza
schto muzika poshla ot Zvukov Mu!…
Party!
So Fio-Fio-Fioletta! Etta! Va-va-va-vaja dama ti moja!
Eh podayte nam karetu, votetu, i mi poedem k ebenjam!
So yeah, start wearing purple wearing purple!
Start wearing purple for me now!
All your sanity and wits, they will all vanish,
I promise, it’s just a matter of time!…

Translation of the Russian portion: (via)

And I swear, having pissed on two fingers,
That the music originated in Sounds of Moo

So Violetta! My lady!
Hey, get ready a coach, this one,
We will go to nowhere.

1 year ago – apology-but, making fiends in bulgarian, free photos, broken people, TSiC

2 years ago – 22 questions, DST, Ft. Laud Mellowed, 4-4-4

3 years ago – Met with Meter Made, don’t confuse courtesy with subservience, pics for the day, Speedy off CN, Sample McDougald house letter

4 years ago – walkies, dream, taking stuff poll, Moment of Waponi, Killian’s, bkveggie (the old one), long music ramble, production meeting at IMT

5 years ago – Slander-drama / resolution (Honestly, I think that part of the issue started from here.) I wonder how that “FBI Investigation” turned out.Geotarget

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8257 – I’d like to stay in bed with the cat, please.

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I like hanging out with pirates that enjoy Pink Floyd and smart, pretty girls that wear dragonfly wings. So, why am I bored with the ren-fest?

Chacarron is still stuck in my head, despite my best efforts to purge it with: One Nigh tin Bangkok, The Love Boat Theme, and Old McDonald Had a farm (with butterflies, paramecium and giraffes)

ualuealuealeuale ualuelaelaellalea, alsualsualualauusualulus… alsualsualualauusualulus Chacarron.

The Scientologists have found me out…

thelivingshadow2

I am in league with Xenu, in exchange for his dark powers, and cool space lear jet. Also, I like to make underlings dump water on their heads.

Condo Commando meeting last night gave me brain drain, but the day at work went well. Busy, but positive. CCM was a lot of old people talking loudly and not listening to each other. Got Kudos at work, as did ECN for fine performance on call, and handling weird situations.

160 gig drive finally showed up, so the big brain drama is officially over. Started Nov. 10, 2005 – Ended March 20, 2006. Rest in peace.

For what it’s worth, here are the names of the devices on my network:

Point – (PDA)
Circle – (Lappie)
Sphere – (Frankenbox / Newtcam server)
Buckyball – Newest device.

Moment of Lyric (mp3)

I keep on fear, keep on loathing
Nothing brings it on I keep on falling
Decide what it is I can not find
It’s subsides what you make it
Never feel like you’re gonna break it
It’s gonna be all right all right
Sleep until the morning comes
The sun will warm your soul
Sleep until the morning comes for you
‘Til the morning it’s all right
I can walk into the sunlight, into the day, into the day, to the day
I feel it falling, nothing comes to my mind
Bring it on in a different tide
I feel all right, all right
I feel strong, I feel rigid
It’s nothing to do with the vision
Oh feels so right, so right
Sleep on tight, sleep on tight
Sleep until the sunlight
Sleep until sunlight
Sleep on tight
Sleep on tight
Sleep on tight
Sleep on tight, ’til the sunlight
Sleep on tight, ’til the sunlight burns you happy
‘Til the sunlight burns you happy, till the sunlight burns a happy hole in
Your heart,
In your heart
In your heart…

Sandra Day O’Connor, a Republican-appointed judge who retired last month after 24 years on the supreme court, has said the US is in danger of edging towards dictatorship if the party’s right-wingers continue to attack the judiciary.

Ralph McQuarrie Concept Paintings for Star Wars (he’s got a lot of nifty flickr sets to eyeball )

Don’t you walk through my words you got to show some respect
Don’t you walk through my words ’cause you ain’t heard me out yet

Your Political Profile
Overall: 15% Conservative, 85% Liberal
Social Issues: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal
Personal Responsibility: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal
Fiscal Issues: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal
Ethics: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal
Defense and Crime: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal

1 year ago – Fragments, Chatted a cutie, BEAR TRAP/ PUNCH!, homeopathy=placebo, ref desk, giant sea monkeys, walkabout pics, rhemish, Parallel Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy

2 years ago – local search sillies, copyright disclaimer, zombie minis, missed bro

3 years ago – palm pic, whiskerliscious-fuzzy-paw newt-pic, cat eaters, the coffee song, interviewed @ starmark

4 years ago – radiology, reading lensmen books, riker in trouble for DVDing, corpse Tupperware, Elisabeth, and a bunch of dead links.

5 years ago – IMT politics, and so onGeotarget

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7980 – Monday? Already?

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GeotargetLike Barney says before he steals Fred’s Holiday Pebbles cereal… “Ho, Ho, Ho, I’m Huh, huh, hungry!”

A bowl of cinnamon life will do in a pinch. Slices of banana sound weird with cinnamon, but it’s pretty tasty. Bananas are better tossed into pancakes or monkeys, I think.

Oh, the joys of the holiday season. Dave Barry’s annual gift guide is here.

This is not your ordinary gift guide, the kind that features gifts that somebody might actually want or use. The gifts in this guide were selected because they meet a very strict criterion, which is that when we saw the item advertised, we said to ourselves: ”Are they SERIOUS?” The idea is, if you give one of these items to somebody on your list, that person will be much less likely to want to exchange gifts with you in the future.

Finally, some real humor in the Cathy comic strip. AAAHH!

Moment of Lyric: mp3

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