Tag Archives: monkey

9659 – Tuesday

Again slow to rise this morning – I need to hit the sack earlier during the week.


I brought some snacks for Franklin, but he was nowhere to be found this morning.


Open BVE Train sim!  – probably only interesting to me and Larry, dear journal.

European researchers have discovered that chimpanzees have a built-in mental GPS, keeping ‘a geometric mental map of their home range, moving from point to point in nearly straight lines.’ Using GPS, two primatologists followed 15 chimpanzees for 217 days, and determined that the apes were ‘using a mental map built around geometric coordinates.’ They’re not just identifying landmarks in their surroundings, and in fact, even when swinging through trees, the chimps planned out their route several trees in advance. Here’s the paper in the journal Animal Behavior.


Comcast was difficult again this evening, but I called and they reset the modem – hopefully it’ll be smooth sailing, now. BHK made tasty pretend chicken and creamy noodles with peas for supper.. until later!

1 year ago – into the wild, easter basket contents

2 years ago – buzz-cut pic, shoofly pie, arizona pizza, a little sick

3 years ago – funnel clouds, nice gabbing, alligators door-to-door, you go to my head, black and white 2, v for vendetta, musical meme

4 years ago – readablog, banksy, laughing boy audio, pictures, birth chart

5 years ago – condo falls through, lj being bad, GIMP, AIM games, chimp mask, first remarked on how the Roanoke/Lumbee entry is still active, origin poll, Calliope fest

6 years ago – cool chemical reactions, pronunciation query, gael returns , a pic of newt

7 years ago – Happy chats, urban ruins links, some website renewal ideas, old icons

8 years ago – Baron Munchausen, computer needs fixifying, Coconut song, Oscar Picks, Crayola Crayon color time lineGeotargetVisitor MapGeotarget

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


9333 – Tuesday

Tomorrow I go to the doctor for a review and another epidural. Hopefully I’ll get a lead on something for my nagging cough.

Went to go see the Hulk movie (I’m sleeping in until 7:30 tomorrow, so I can pull it off) – It was a whole lot better than what I was expecting. BHK liked the movie more than Iron Man, and I am certainly more sympathetic to Banner – I feel that Iron Man was better acted and had better effects, but Hulk was more enjoyable overall – I didn’t mind the CGI Hulk and Abomination at all.

Watched the 2nd episode of Middleman, and it was a lot smoother than the pilot. I’m enjoying it so far.

Nasty thought, resulting from last weekend’s dining out – “Crab dip stuffed crust pizza”. I bet it would make a mint along the Chesapeake… sprinkle a little old bay seasoning on the pie, and I suspect that you’ve got Maryland gold…. and I’ve got a tummy ache just thinking about it.

Joke of the day –

Q.What’s Brown and rhymes with Snoop?

A: Dr. Dre.


Well, BHK thought it was funny, dear journal.

Forget about the joke and just gaze into the eyes of telekinetic monkey. Ooeeeooooeeeoo! I hope he uses his powers for good!




Got this in the mail at work – That’s pretty cool of the building to do for the critters.

The saying is something like: "Don't ever come between a Mother and her babies"
 
Well, here in Calverton, it's proving to be true.  There is a Mother 
Eastern Kingbird nesting in one of the trees in the back parking lot (*)
that has felt a little threatened by some of our staff members. She's
even attacked a few staff members. (thankfully, they are OK)
 
(*)She's in one of the trees at the right of the rear entrance in the
first island that is parallel with the building. Currently, 8:45 a.m,
there is a black truck parked near "her" tree.
 
PLEASE DO YOUR BEST TO STAY AWAY FROM THAT TREE AREA AND LET HER HATCH
HER BABIES.  WE DON'T WANT ANYONE HURT BY HER PROTECTIVE INSTINCT AND WE
DEFINITELY DON'T WANT HER TO ABANDON HER NEST.
 
Kate Flint did some research and found out some facts about Eastern
Kingbirds:
 
*   The Eastern Kingbird is highly aggressive toward nest predators
and larger birds. Hawks and crows are attacked regularly. A
kingbird was observed to knock a Blue Jay out of a tree and cause it to
hide under bush to escape the attack. 
 
*   During the summer the Eastern Kingbird eats mostly flying
insects and maintains a breeding territory that it defends vigorously
against all other kingbirds. In the winter along the Amazon, however, it
has a completely different lifestyle: it travels in flocks and eats
fruit. 
 
*   Parent Eastern Kingbirds feed their young for about seven weeks.
Because of this relatively long period of dependence, a pair generally
raises only one brood of young per nesting season.
 
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Eastern_Kingbird.html




1 year ago – voice post, pictures of Danny, BHK and me, sea shells and fountains and a truck

2 years ago – bus stop view in broward, peter gabriel, danny brief

3 years ago – sleep, mai-kai, danny, cleo2525, RJD2 – 1976, whale burgers, liverank, orange newt pic, entp

4 years ago – gmail bids low, my nightmare ’08 prez ticket, aventura mall w/danny (& pics)

5 years ago – graypumpkin / danny / rik update, blogpulse, vampire rank, gali, booth mgt sys, gaming memories

6 years ago – Scotto is…..(google), Francesco issues, Bed Sizes, Rate my kitten

7 years ago – evil news, game poll, fight poll… (One of my fave theoreticals), weather, crayon poll, a little mush, What’s in the kitchen?, shaving poll. (I must’ve just discovered the poll feature)

8 years ago – no-thangGeotarget

9332 – Monday

Good solid day of work today – getting a lot done and covered. Met the new VP, and he seems like a really nice guy who knows his stuff. I wish I could advise him more on commuting, but he’s a car guy, and not a train or bus sort.

After work, BHK and I went out to lemongrass for a little date – the food was excellent and the company wonderful. It was raining like gangbusters outside, so we stayed for dessert… the Thai doughnuts and fried ice cream were also great, but I tihnk I ate way too much. After the weather let up a bit, we went to petsmart to look at the critters, and saw an army gal with a haircut that made her look a bit like donald duck.

Went home, watched the pilot of middleman. I liked it – it was a little sticky, but forgivable in a pilot episode… There was a super-intelligent gorilla in a tracksuit, which was pretty cool, but I’d prefer that they not mention comics so much. I didn’t need a Grodd reference. He was more like the Mod Gorilla boss to me, anyhow. The “filthy paws / damn dirty ape” quote was expected, but really, that’s forgivable. I’ll be watching it again, and expect it’ll gain some momentum if all goes well.



In honor of Swarm of the Snakehead, I made my own proto – snakehead beastie (you can download him at the link) in Spore yesterday. BHK’s bitey monopod will be uploaded soon, too.

snakehead for spore



George Carlin passed away. I think that his routines in recent years got a little… I don’t know… Lame? Turned more from radical or wacky to just whiney “get off my lawn you kids” humor? I feel the same way about him the way I feel about a lot of folks I liked more when I was younger – maybe I outgrew him, like I did Harlan Ellison’s angry young guy shtick as it turned into an angry old guy bit. As I age, it gets harder to be entertained by that sort of thing. Maybe they both just ran out of whatever mojo kept them fresh and interesting to me. I still like the old stuff. Not as angry, not as bitter… things can have bite and not seem just sad. He was a great satirist during the bulk of his life, and I’m sure he will be missed.

I saw him in “concert”, at FAU, ages ago with Jeremy Dawsey. I don’t remember where James was, or why he wasn’t along. We had a *fantastic* time, and it was likely the only time I’ve seen a comedian in the last 20 years that wasn’t “schticky”… fat guy telling fat jokes, lesbian telling lesbian jokes, black guy doing black jokes, prop comics… etc, etc, etc.

I’ll just choose to remember this:

Some people say the glass is half empty.
Others say the glass if half full.
I say the glass is too big.

–George Carlin



Illustrator Rafa Toro scanned in a set of monster trading cards and presents them in blog format: Monstruos Diabolicos. El Hombre Lobo! El Payaso Diobolico!or my fave… El Agusanado!



LOS ANGELES — Hollywood will enshrine an eclectic bunch in its famous curbside Walk of Fame next year, including Hugh Jackman, Ben Kingsley, The Village People and fictional Tinker Bell.


Recipients of the sidewalk stars also include Felicity Huffman, William H. Macy, Cameron Diaz, Robert Downey Jr., Tim Burton, Leslie Caron, Charles Durning, Ralph Fiennes, William Petersen, Kyra Sedgwick, John Stamos, Mark Burnett, Chuck Lorre, Kenny “Baby Face” Edmonds, Dave Koz, The Miracles, Doug Morris, Rush, Shakira, KFI radio personality Bill Handel and KCRW host Harry Shearer, who also provides voices for characters on “The Simpsons.”


Cheeta isn’t on the list. The animal actor, whose credits include the 1967 comedy “Doctor Dolittle” and the “Tarzan” movies, was trying for the seventh time to get a sidewalk star.


His handlers had launched an online petition to get supporters to urge the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to give him a star in 2009.


Guinness World Records has called the 76-year-old chimp the oldest living, non-human primate. Cheeta is retired and lives in Palm Springs.


The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce’s Walk of Fame Committee chose the recipients, who were ratified by the board of directors Thursday.



Seriously? Tinkerbell got a star, instead of Cheeta? She didn’t speak, and has only starred in one film! Cheeta’s an actual being, not just a drawing. What’s next? The NBC Peacock?



1 year ago – wifi / magnetism allergy, carcassone, munchkin, witch trial, lj mindmap meme, Danny still visiting, heard about polarity

2 years ago – spinny video, can’t get behind that, danny bails, manatee journal, soulroom quiz

3 years ago – too much goin’ on, pyramids, bq weds, yawnies

4 years ago – Elin, Miami-cam, BBC broadcasting Mort, The Dead Case, TV Newscasters, Florida voter PSA

5 years ago – GP writes me after however many years, reader influx, bro behaving,insensitive online transgender Columbina gets snotty with D, lovey-newt.

6 years ago – a very well thought-out email about getting a journal code for japaneseblossom, 100 questions, Newt-acrobatics, beanbag sofas, rate kittens.

7 years ago – mephitic, sweetie-yodeling, quiet mood, sponge bob, bad science, sexy factoids

8 years ago – Nothing.. not updating regularly yetGeotarget

9313 – Tuesday

I still feel pretty-lousy, but went in to work – too much needs to be hands-on today – meetings, etc.

My shoulder muscles and ribs / stomach are all especially tender from the coughing. I’m being extra lazy with my entries until I feel more up to speed.

BHK made pizza tonight… I had two slices of green pepper and cheese. First real food eaten since Sunday. It was delicous, but I couldn’t consume more than that… or any pie for fear of retribution.

I can’t imagine a homemade blueberry pie lasting a week in my house. I must’ve been terribly sick, indeed.

Cut and paste links ahoy!



Three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame have gone to the dogs, so why can’t Cheeta the chimp get some love? The animal actor, whose credits include the 1967 comedy “Dr. Doolittle” and the “Tarzan” movies, is trying for the seventh time to get a sidewalk star and become the first monkey to get the honor. His handlers have launched an online petition to get supporters to urge the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to give him a star in 2009.

The 76-year-old chimp, who the Guinness World Records has called the oldest living, non-human primate, is retired and lives in Palm Springs. Cheeta also has a MySpace page. (see also – http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/GoCheeta/ )



John McCain wants to kill folks on dialysis.



This video – A Washington DC news crew goes down to Union Station to interview someone from Amtrak about people who have been stopped from taking pictures even though there’s no policy against it. As the Amtrak spokesperson is explaining that there is no policy against photography, a guard comes up and tries to stop them from filming, saying it is against the rules.





1 year ago – justice frozen in carbonite pic (taken at the courthouse where I was married… and across the street from where I worked)

2 years ago – chatting with tomi & tina, redd foxx fairly suxx, many mp3s, cat trees bear, the hoff sings, weather

3 years ago – sleepies, bro on upswing, free lunch, tropical storm Arlene, ice cream truck music, newt, bus stop and pics, Coprology, hurricane, I spy

4 years ago – hungry-boy, Shambhala, lawn chair boat, Alan Yu vs. the invisible shrinking psi-agents.

5 years ago – good ol’ days, There-stuff, mummy locator

6 years ago – wonder twins movie optioned, Baiso, Rose Red, Bunko Shenanigans

7 years ago – Uddercream, Eugene Mirman, evil news, lit-quiz, chachi and opium

8 years ago – bubble, simpleGeotarget

9297 – Thursday

Adam’s grandfather is in a bad way – he was sent to the hospital last weekend, was looking better on Tuesday, not as good yesterday. I hope he hangs in there, and mends up… at his age and level of health, I suspect he may be about done.

Was a bit sick this morning – nervous about the epidural , maybe… or low blood sugar. No food after 8am, minimal sips of water if needed. Still pretty sore afterward, but I should feel a lot bette rni the next few days.

BHK made Thai for me last night – make my last meal before the fast a good one. Green Curry veggies over rice, with a side of tofu in peanut sauce. The lady knows what I like to eat. After the epidural, we got Mexican – it was good, but I couldn’t finish my plate. Leftovers lasted until about 9pm.


Why the kitties like the windowsill – .newtcamleep2.newtcam bird. Clicks embiggen, as always.

Side note – Newt and Pyecam were down part of the day last monday – ftp server was broken, but it booted back up once I let the provider know.



Creepypasta – are short stories designed to unnerve, disturb or scare the readers of a Creepy Thread on 4chan. (could be upsetting to some viewers / nsfw, etc – it is on encyclopedia dramatica and 4chan after all.)



"A team at the university of Pittsburgh has finally advanced a 2002 technology enough for use in prosthetic limbs, the targeted application all along. Training computer models to the firing patterns of the neurons in the parts of the brain that control motion, they are able to project the intentions of a monkey to a robotic arm, which follows the will of the animal. The sad thing about the articles is that the beauty of the mathematics used to create and train the models is totally ignored."


Coverage at the BBC – This of course brings significant hope to amputees and other other people with physical disabilities.
(Note that this research has been going on for quite some time.)



1 year ago – outline of the day in reverse, pictures, annapolis, iana, tasty food, gastric psa from BHK,

2 years ago – weather, doodles, network, nat’l drivers test, why can’t we be friends,

3 years ago – out and about with with Danny, pics, palm doodles, Lost season 2 trailer, web screenplay, classic story role – wayfarer, year of the monkey, fridge magnet piccies, work senora, kalpa

4 years ago – beekeeping, silly rainbow, day after tomorrow palm review, COH, Danny pic at sushi, D&B, feeling sickie, bro issues

5 years ago – ljmatch, checkup, wet out, bob hope 100, letter from Rachel, banning superman as a baby name, dr doom sued.

6 years ago – bookstore, Viking ships, braids, Underoos, bad Iran Barbie grammar,people watching, photogenic folks, brothel/church/bowling memory

7 years ago – – evil news, phaster search, music poll, first sighting of the man-monkeyin Delhi, The Gambler, meemee sent me a colored picture of bubbles, candid newt pic (one red eye, one green eye!), south of the border, story about my brother and myself when I was 8, space movies.

8 years ago – thankful for memorial dayGeotargetVisitor Map

9292 – Saturday

It’s the Weekend!!!

monkeybubbles



NASA is bracing for “seven minutes of terror,” when an unmanned craft landing on Mars may wake a dormant robot army that could rise up to invade and crush our civilization… oh, wait. They’re saying the space ship might tip over. That’s all.



Spent most of the day shopping for a new couch and a new bed – found the bed we wanted at a decent price – we pick it up tomorrow, and our old bed goes to the blue house for storage. We have a new Queen Size pillow top marshmallow (but firm) – feels good at the store – can’t wait to try it at home.



Gaming in my brain –

Next game I want to pick up is Hive. (with the mosquito ) I like the insect theme and bakelite tiles a lot – I’ll have to see if Aardvark can order it for us.

Unlike the US government, Hasbro lets you print out your own Monopoly money. There are PDFs for 1,5,10,20,50,100, and 500 dollar bills.

Good for any money-handling game, really. Witch Trial comes immediately to my mind. (which uses our monopoly money more than monopoly does)



From New Scientist Tech: (or, a better use of a Newt/Pye cam?)

To try and develop a more sophisticated model, the team recorded the responses of 49 individual neurons in a part of a cat’s brain called the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). The LGN receives and processes visual information from the retina, via the optic nerve, before sending it on to the cerebral cortex.


The data made it possible to build a software model of the LGN that can approximate how the neurons would respond to real scenes. The model was tested against scenes recorded from a “catcam” camera attached to a cat’s head.


“We chose the catcam because it was the most natural stimulus we could think of, the closest to what a cat would see when walking around,” Matteo Carandini told New Scientist. Because the catcam footage lacked elements moving independently from the rest of the scene, the researchers also used a scene from Disney’s animated film Tarzan.


The model’s predictions proved to be 80% accurate when shown artificial scenes, but this figure fell to 60% with the natural scenes or the Tarzan movie.


The ultimate goal of the research, still years distant, is to develop an implant that uses visual data to directly stimulate the LGN of blind people whose optic nerve or retina has degenerated from lack of use.


“For these people, a prosthesis in the eye doesn’t help,” Carandini explains. Only people who have recently become blind can benefit from such implants – currently being tested in humans – that stimulate the retina or optic nerve


Work on monkeys last year showed it is possible to stimulate the LGN using electrodes to alter their vision, something previously thought impossible. Software models like that developed by Carandini and colleagues would be vital for an implant to stimulate the right neurons to create a mental impression of vision.



1 year ago – birth control, thursday, Catching up with TD, good stuff, gp and kat vanishment

2 years ago – man-bear, joker laughs, day off, but on call, if meme

3 years ago – Simple short film expressing life and death, first auto-post, bears, MP calls me, zombies, rapture, flip top box, cannibal, birthday meme, RIP Thurl Ravenscroft, 6 questions meme

4 years ago – robo-scotto, LLAP-Goch, arms, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Fire Cracker Labels, freaky man-made island, bro

5 years ago – yale bombing, kiwano, doodle fizzles, D & I in There

6 years ago – dead picture trail links, bad dreams, re: pus jars, long weekend, train and bus smells, wondering what sci-fi geeks will watch with Buffy and x-files gone. Hm… I guess smallville is it? I don’t watch much regular TV, ikkyu poem, ARQuake.

7 years ago – blue rosebuds, gnomon, Herman the human mole, word association, evil news, scottsquatch returns, jelly jack, Joel gorilla

8 years ago – my first user icon – ,Heather outs Alex as a cheater and a bisexual (remember kids, post something publicly on the net, and the world can see it, even people you know.)

GeotargetVisitor Map

9291 – Friday

Long weekend is almost upon us. I think we’ll be staying close to home and walking a bit in the nice weather that’s expected.

Not much to say today – off to work in a few – but have a few links from here or there.



I forget if I linked to this recently or not – It bears repeating-

Austrian court agrees to hear arguments that a chimpanzee should be considered a legal person.



Best Bumper sticker seen recently – “I Bet Jesus Would Use His Turn Signal”



Am I too young to be nostalgic for Johnny Carson? I think not. I can’t believe it’s been 16 years since he retired.

My favorite swami Carson bit was the gag where gave the answer to questions sealed in envelopes.

The Answer : “A dog with wings”

The Question “Who Is Linda McCartney?”




I have no good reason to want a curta calculator, other than it’s cool. Curse you for putting the idea in my head, jwz, but thanks for the link to the flash curta emulator!



1 year ago – museum camera sign picture

2 years ago – puffball collective, mm plans, bro mooching, pilar meme, tarpo scavenger hunt, sedef and weez coming, carmen sandiego, tiny text, coffee bomb

3 years ago – superhero meme ,Wayne Dyer not my thing, alien invasion from the ocean tv themes, vader 20Q, Tofu flavored like human flesh (for the vegetarian cannibal), It only makes me laugh, walkabout graffiti pix, tiny tiny text!

4 years ago – S&W apart, Dawn of the dead, Saw Shrek 2 last night, palm doodle, walkabout pictures, lilo & stitch experiments, pre-inca graveyard found, silly snape / puppetpals, Apeshit, bro

5 years ago – wants, slashdot blocked, best family guy line ever, nig newtie-eyes, book meme, rain

6 years ago – I was compared to Travis Tritt, an image of MyCn18, a broken link or 2,genetic music, Sleestak music, fresca and goldfish crackers, got the complete prisoner TV series on DVD, I restocked some clothes,discovered line-through deleted journals on bio-page.

7 years ago – propitiate, chaplet, sweetheart went out for ice cream, I’ve got naughty thoughts, brasilein, friends only review of new work arrivals. (all but one of whom still work at FMM.)

8 years ago – April interviewed for Barnies, EMAGE goes downhill, my first ‘who I am’ post. I was friended by sunusku, meemee & christin, and first thoughts about developing NewtcamGeotarget

9279 – Thursday – It was all a dream.

Dreamt last night that we were touring a pair of Monasteries – Tibetan style, Buddhist things. Apparently, I wasn’t too interested in the firs tone, and had to rush to the second before the bell rang – doors would lock and wild dogs tore apart anyone not inside one of the two feuding temples when the bells summoned them.

The ground between the two buildings slid and shifted… I (much more nimbly than I might’ve in waking life) leaped from stepping stone to stepping stone, avoiding too-clear water that was running thickly, like syrup. Once on the second place’s stairs, the dogs curled up and went to sleep.

The building itself was very nifty – all sorts of oddities inside, not unlike a Ripley’s. One was closed off with a curtain – a skeletal mammoth with an elephant-sized, but human shaped skull – save for a single tusk/horn curling upwards from the tip of the chin area of the mandible. I went to take a picture of it, but a guard (I don’t recall his garb – if he was a mall security type or a warrior-sort.. I just knew he worked there, wasn’t just some guy) told me that it was forbidden. He then smiled at me, took a picture with his cell phone and was promptly gored by the skeleton. The tusk tore a rip in him from crotch to throat and where he opened up, rose petals fell until the body was just an empty skin.

A different member of the monestary showed up and apologized to me – I couldn’t attend service, because the priest was shorter than me. However another fellow, taller than me would be available to walk me through services on Tuesday, at 8:30. I asked if he meant morning or night, and he laughed… “Don’t you work? – it’s at night.. it’ll be 8:30 pm to 10pm, then there’ll be snacks, bell ringing and wheel turning. Does your wife dance?”

I said that she did, though we really have never been.

I’ve never been to a Tibetan monastery… now, I suspect that I’ll be a bit disappointed.

After telling her about it, BHK says that I’ll never get hot dogs grilled with onions and green peppers for dinner again. I hope that’s not the case.



ok these are awesome: http://www.instantrimshot.com/ and http://www.sadtrombone.com/



Gorilla mask-wearing robber demands money, pants.



Police believe they have arrested the man who, wearing a gorilla mask, robbed a 62-year-old woman at gunpoint Monday night and later ordered another man to hand over his pants.


The woman was getting into her car at the 3035 Hamilton Church Road Wal-Mart at 10:15 p.m. when the masked gunman appeared. He pulled the car door open and tried to wrestle away her purse, police said. She fought back and kicked her assailant.


He, along with an accomplice, then got into a maroon Pontiac SUV and fled.


Less than an hour later, two 27-year-old men were walking back to their apartment from a Bell Road convenience store when a Pontiac SUV pulled up beside them. A gunman wearing a gorilla mask got out and demanded not only money, but the black cargo pants worn by one of the men.


The pair gave them money and the pants, and the gunman got back into the Pontiac and fled, police said.


At midnight, Officer Shaun Hardin spotted a maroon Pontiac Aztec and stopped it on Haywood Lane near Faulker Drive. The driver, Adrian Cornelius Alexander, 23, of Highland Ridge Drive in LaVergne, did not have a valid license and was taken into custody, police said. In the vehicle, police found a gorilla mask, bandanas, two bullets, several pairs of latex gloves and the black cargo pants belonging to one of the Bell Road robbery victims.


The victims identified Alexander as the robber, police said. He, along with his passenger Antwan Haynes, 18, of LaVergne, have been charged with two counts of aggravated robbery, police said.


Charges for the Wal-Mart attack are expected to be placed in the next two days, police said.






I just noticed that it’s the anniversary of my father’s death. It was ages ago… I miss him, now that I think about it, but I haven’t really had him in my thoughts much in recent times. I wonder why… I wouldn’t have realized if I hadn’t seen the archives, at least not until I saw 5/15 on my calendar at work, I guess.



1 year ago – Father’s Death Anniversary, Mom hears from Bro re: his sentencing, my challenges, happy to be “up north” and out of FL, people who have moved, more shaved ice (with pix)

2 years ago – bird flu / monkey pox, walkabout, podcasts, newtcam pics, jack lemmon, hoot, saucermen, exploding pants, bus ride poll, hail,

3 years ago – MP gift, pabst t, won rum, don lapre’s vitamin, personality defect, walkabout pics, monkey at large/safety in numbers, vampire sugar fuel cell, florida medicine is stupid, I smell good

4 years ago – first palm doodle on new palm, wireless sync, pics from houstons (hypno-orb), Library of Alexandria Discovered, Bones Found In Bag At Florida Cemetery

5 years ago – palm doodles, dreams / reflections on the old crew, chicken hawk cards,mailbox mystery, lunar eclipse, first use of publix grocery deliveries,Teen Girl Squad #3

6 years ago – saw waking life, dream thoughts, prep for star wars expedition

7 years ago – evil news, tumor thoughts, astley gives me defective hardware, humors,hunger-poll, Tsarist Russia photos in color, Paid users get fasterservers, Florida JokeGeotarget

9259 – Wednesday

And so, April comes to an end. Seeya next year, April! Wasn’t too bad of one this year, all told. Some stresses, some solutions… it seems to have come and gone fairly rapidly.

Was I just doing taxes 2 weeks ago? It seems like months. I’m still getting the occasional treat at http://drop.io/scottobear , feel free to drop something off, or pick something up. I removed the m4ps, but the mp3 music is still out there.

Had the in-laws over – BHk made pseudo-beef stroganoff, baked zucchini and corn on the cob – a fine dinner which caused me to consume with gusto… and too much.

Back was doing pretty well until I hit the sack – laying straight caused some medium discomfort. I think I’ll take my night meds a half hour before bed for maximum ease.


Recent photos –

.0428081946.jpg - I have no idea what he's supposed to be doing. relaxing, I guess! .0429080544.jpg .0429080544a.jpg

ATW man is just sitting on the roof.. waiting for the owner to come up with a new plan, I guess… Mother’s Day is coming… maybe we’ll get to see his mama!

Also shown, our dancing robots, captured in the wee hours of the morning. I think that the designers gave the girl a lot more personality, but I think that they’re both very cute.

 Oh, I forgot one – speaking of robots – the Wall-E bench.

0428081814.jpg

there’s a heart on the seat – Wall-E + Eve



A google search for scottobear homebrew gives about 86 results. So, BHK – I do use the term homebrew every here and there! neener neener. Funny thing is that BHK did a search independent of mine, and got a more valid result of about 31. She just thinks it’s a funny word for me to use.



spear fishing ape

A male orangutan, clinging precariously to overhanging branches, flails the water with a pole, trying desperately to spear a passing fish.

It is the first time one has been seen using a tool to hunt.

The extraordinary image, a world exclusive, was taken in Borneo on the island of Kaja, where apes are rehabilitated into the wild after being rescued from zoos, private homes or even butchers’ shops.

“Orang hutan” means “forest man” in one of Indonesia’s many languages and our long-armed cousins do indeed show a remarkable ability to mimic our behaviour.

This individual had seen locals fishing with spears on the Gohong River.

Although the method required too much skill for him to master, he was later able to improvise by using the pole to catch fish already trapped in the locals’ fishing lines.

The image is part of a series taken for a new book, The Thinkers Of The Jungle, which also includes the first photograph of an orangutan swimming.

Thinkers Of The Jungle, by Gerd Schuster, Willie Smits and Jay Ullal, is published by Ullmann Publishing on May 5.



1 year ago – TM sullen, gardening, ohio offer, heroes, rpg supers, free software

2 years ago – plazes, car accident, mustache finger tattoos, bibliochaise, rush arrested, barking kitty, orbit cam, Guten Drudennacht! Time for der Hexen-Orgie!, greathatsby

3 years ago – Hitchhiker’s, Dr. Who, Dont Cry Kitty, torrents, ebay victory, front pages, walkies pix, key/class quiz

4 years ago – Drudennacht (Walpurgisnacht), email dopes, gmail auction, gamedevelopers, Mod a disposable cam into a stun-gun, Chickens like to eat scorpions, T2 espanol question

5 years ago – Where the hell meme, boobah, timetable entry, tripped and went to the hospital on my back, slow trip home

6 years ago – a day in the life doodle, Osbournes, Chupa/tia fight, Star Map (Awesome! I forgot about this!), give bro some DVD-fu, broken pic links I have to fix

7 years ago – music confession, bug farts, fiction, wrote a encryption toy for CEJ and me to chit chat, underwear poll, AL Amarjan Slang, McCafe, lederhosen,SOP – “you forgot the gravy”Geotarget

9255 – Saturday

Garage sale across the down today after shots… Our first blush on the way to the doctor wasn’t that successful.. saw old clothes and lots of little bits of junk here and there. Quickie lunch at Mexico and then back to the town to shop. 

Our hope was to find some good furniture – nothing amazing really stood out. BHK asked what I’d want to see at my ideal yard sale… my response was a mummified monkey head, some old heathkit robots maybe, and maybe a retired super-scientist’s collection of prototype death rays and forcefield belts. 

What we did was pick up a few dvds, more than a couple of “chick lit” books, wall art, a teaching chess set, two toy robots and A ROBOT MONKEY !

We didn’t spend more than $20 total for the lot – The ‘bots were the bulk of the cost, at $4.50 each. Puzzles were a quarter, dvds a buck a pop, and books were a big bundle for $3.

Came home, chilled out and enjoyed BHK’s nom nom nommy thai cabbage soup. 

Forgot to mention that yesterday also heralded the arrival of our blue robot boy to pair up with our pink robot hula girl. The girl is cuter, but they make a fine little dancing pair.


1 year ago – calvert coworkers, 6 months thoughts, palm doodles, mr mind, pollen

2 years ago – world history, folkvine, pocket charger, jw cordon

3 years ago – Egyptian origins, clown confession, big brown bear, trix returns to simplicity, hugs, fleet week, chitchat w myid8myego, kind entry, country bears movie, human gene in rice, funeral dance, FL gun law self defense, energy crisis, Cheney & Abadullah

4 years ago – Godchecker’s Mythology Encyclopedia, Andy Griffith factoid, CS out, Cute Newt Pic

5 years ago – seafood fest, gift exchange

6 years ago – Foomy goes poof, nifty human tricks, Quick little story, full moon thoughts, Prof. Eben Norton Horsford.

7 years ago – bricolage, misc news, email tags, lj burp, uck, how to catch a polar bear, prezziesGeotargetVisitor Map

9252 – humpeee-humpday

Ugh, stressful cat-herding day today, but I think we’re almost out of the woods now. We’ll see what tomorrow’s mail brings. I’ve had a colossal headache since about 10am, but it’s finally beginning to fade.

Yummy supper with Chris and BHK – BHK made grilled cheese and we ate a veggie plate and leftover split-pea soup. Quite an excellent repast. We watched Titus, The Gorilla King on Nature afterward, once Larry made it to our place. Quite good, and I think that Gorilla babies (or of any age really) are adorable.

BHK is getting into Dexter – I haven’t had a chance to really check it out yet, but the series is available to view on Netflix, at least the first season with the second one arriving shortly. Maybe I’ll download it and watch it one the PSP during transit. Of course, I still haven’t even caught up with Corner Gas, Chuck, Masterpiece and whatever else is being tivo’ed upstairs. I suppose that one day I’ll be snowed in for a week without internet and we’ll catch up.



This is interesting research: given a security patch, can you automatically reverse-engineer the security vulnerability that is being patched and create exploit code to exploit it?

Turns out you can.

What does this mean?

Attackers can simply wait for a patch to be released, use these techniques, and with reasonable chance, produce a working exploit within seconds. Coupled with a worm, all vulnerable hosts could be compromised before most are even aware a patch is available, let alone download it. Thus, Microsoft should redesign Windows Update. We propose solutions which prevent several possible schemes, some of which could be done with existing technology.

Full paper here.




The MacBook’s mysterious WiFi dropout problem is still unsolved

Despite Apple’s recent spate of Airport updates, complaints on discussion boards keep climbing over long-standing problems with MacBooks and MacBook Pros holding their WiFi connection. While the WiFi technology chain is complex and problems can be transient, Apple is taking a quality-assurance beating on this issue.

Highlights-

Forget 802.11N. A number of posts suggested that moving backwards to 802.11G or 802.11B fixes the problem. Of course, it’s not as fast as the N mode. You must set your wireless router to the slower mode.


 

Check the WiFi channel. Some users said that other wireless routers in the neighborhood appeared to be causing interference that can bother the MacBook.



1 year ago – misc steve memories, jolly ranchers, po’ folks, high school, middle school

2 years ago – sunrise, newt pic, entry analysis, searching for mp3, newts new doc, mootube, footbrint, danny visit, mighty heroes, quiz meme, RI screws up

3 years ago – EN issues, gabbed with sammy and uber, Kung fu hustle, Newt dream, ‘thulhu toons

4 years ago – I want a rest, CoH beta final night, Tornado, d’s Birthday, screen caps

5 years ago – drugstore screw up, dream, bro issues

6 years ago – chopping block, little-boy voice, I want to be Diplomat to gorilla city, tesselations, z-cardz, morikami

7 years ago – red riding hood, web hits, rear windowGeotarget



9201 – thursday

Happy first day of Spring!!

 S6301505

Egg-dying went well… the white spots denote 4 eggs that cracked, and the ones TM took home for herself and MO. Adam took one – he’ll be giving it to a girl at school – and he certainly enjoyed the fajitas that BHK made. Larry and Chris (and mostly Adam and Tina, too) spent the bulk of the visit glued to the tube while BHK and I did the majority of coloring. My faves are the family eggs (there’s a Scotto, BHK, Pye and Newt in the mix) as well as a couple of oddballs – speckeld ones and hot pink / green… both of which are more vibrant than this photo shows. more in depth pictures later, possibly.


GP‘s got me interested in Encounter Critical. It’s by S. John Ross, an added bonus (I dig the mechanics of Risus, though I’ve never played it.)


twitterwise, I’m on the Orange Team. icons when in civilian duds, and on team business.

orangenewt - regular twitter icon.orangenewt2 - orange team icon

How could I choose another color?


I really want the cell phone legislation banning use of a handset while driving in Maryland to pass. The beltway is rough enough without people crimping necks and not looking at the road. Whatever happened to the idea of pulling over to talk?

I’d love to see some sort of magic technology that blocks non-emergency cell phone use in the driver’s side of a car while the wheels are moving.

Same goes for the front-seat DVD players, and audio systems that go louder than a range of safely hearing what’s going on outside of the vehicle, as far as I’m concerned. Color me a fascist, but I don’t need anyone being more distracted than they already are… If I could find a way to implement a breathalyser / urine tester for safe driving, I’d probably do that, too. And bumper-transponders that forbid tailgating based on the speed of the vehicles in question.

Heck, just use my magical wishing ring to stop all accidents – one of my characters, miniMAX first developed his size-changing abilities by trying to develop desolidity tech for vehicles… they never crash into one another!

After all those years, I still want a hyper-intelligent 4-inch tall talking ape to be my lab partner in fighting crime and solving the world’s ills… or clean, safe teleportation technology. Or a magic wishing ring that can put people in protective bubbles, and heal them when they’re hurt.

Thoughts about this is coming from the fact that I’m having trouble feeling a lot of sympathy for TM’s uncle…. he apparently tried to kill himself by driving his car into oncoming traffic. Seriously… I understand being in pain and lashing out, but there are *PEOPLE* driving and acting as passengers in the other cars! If you want to off yourself, I have no problem with that… but leave everyone else out of it.

I feel bad for TM, though – she’s been dealing with his nonsense for a long time, and right before this happened, she blew him off via the phone, and her other family did the same. I don’t know all the details, but I hope that once he’s out of the hospital he gets worthwhile treatment, and a maximum sentence for attempted suicide / attempted vehicular homicide / assault with a deadly weapon(car). I know his head is full of bad wiring, but I’m finding it very hard to forgive his behavior, no matter how sick he is. I just have to understand that he’s not in his right mind, and hope that he is removed from driving and doing anything that can hurt anyone else until he is sufficiently repaired.


50 things I’ve done meme continues with item 38. I…

38. ‘have written 9200 journal entries prior to this one, the vast majority of them posted publicly to the world. Some entries are only a line or two long, others are entire short stories, continued across a few posts, because each entry only holds a maximum of 65,535 bytes. (That’s about 16,000 4-letter words.) The journal will be 8 years old in just under two months.

39.’has owned scottobear.com since 1998… that was 10 years ago, March 12. It will need to be renewed again before March 11, 2013. I’ve got some time to scrape up the money to do so… it’s pretty dang cheap. My website’s look has changed a few times over the years, as has the content under the hood… it is quite due for a fresh coat of paint, and a revisit to the links contained inside. I started my first website with ol’ geocities in 94-ish, back when it was free, and before it was owned by yahoo. that arcane url is lost to me, maybe forever? Who knows if I can dig it up form the web sometime? either way, it was migrated to scottobear.com about 4 years later, and has remained there ever since.


From assorted sources (vchip, mgk, time) – a photo series of rival Kenyan tribes fighting for land with bows and arrows.

Look closely. This is Kenya, specifically a hill overlooking the Olmelil Valley, where Maasai warriors are clashing with members of the Kalenjin tribe on a regular basis. The tribal violence is a depressing comment on a country that only a year ago was promoted as a stable democracy in volatile West Africa. TIME has an interesting photo journal of the battles.

“We were using swords but they were not effective,” says Sylvester, 24, slashing a knife in the air. “In a day we can make between 80 and 100 [arrows],” he adds, refusing to give his last name out of fear. Community members pool money together to buy the necessary tools in secret; the arrows are then distributed within the neighborhood. Local leaders know about the arrow factories, but police forces do not.

Victims with arrows, sometimes poisoned, lodged in their heads and chests have become increasingly common“, say officials in Rift Valley hospitals.

“We cannot know the time of day when they (Kalenjins) will come. If they catch you off guard, you’re dead,” says Samuel, 25, holding a bundle of ready arrows.

Kalenjin elders train their boys how to use bows and arrows from an early age, the Kikuyu men say. But Kikuyus have had to learn quickly to fight back with the same tools. Several secret workshops employing 50 workers churn out bows and arrows for munition. “We have no other choice for now,” he says.


1 year ago – first full day at the calvert gig, bhk and I go shopping for work clothes, grownup table talk, spam attractive entry

2 years ago – rebis picture, deaf language, chacarron, math, phallic removal, open source, fake cigs as meds, prisoner comic book

3 years ago – Brady Kids welcome the equinox, shamrock shake, cosmic truth, mp3s,experimental gameplay, get your tasty hot sweet potatoes in Japanese,teen kidnappers, good advice, invisible mermaid airfare

4 years ago – openoffice, Visited w Dan, open door poll, people of worth

5 years ago – Al gore, Blue’s clues, Cranky Finn

6 years ago – Spring!, Socks, overturned issues, Linda let go from FMM, LJ directory, cool picture link

7 years ago – walkies, 2 chris-sites, both have long since been left dormant, lj brokenGeotarget

9185 – Thursday –

Last night, we decided to try out a place that just opened up – Bilvil. It wasn’t what I was expecting – the subname is "A Beachfront Cafe".. I somehow expected more coffee and casual fare.

Oddball hours, closed on Tuesday… from the outside, the place looks clean, fresh and new! I look forward to taking the wife there tonight… when it’s open!

We returned the following night, Wednesday.

The setting was nice, if a little noisy…. estimate that the place was about 1/2 to 2/3 full at 25 people sitting.

There’s a limited menu right now – they opened right at the top of March 2008. Two weeks in, and the dust is pretty well settled, though.

The roasted beet salad with feta cheese and walnuts was tasty (My wife’s favorite part of the meal!), as was the citrus salad, made with oranges, grapefruit, watercress, broccoli, cauliflower and mustard dressing.

The main course for my wife was the pork loin and beans/greens combo… maybe a bit over-savory. my Crab cake was really fantastic, however – it was a good size and the fried potatoes and broccoli went well with it.

The dessert left a little bit to be desired. choice of three when we went – carrot cake, crustless cheesecake and chocolate mousse.

we both went for the carrot cake – no raisins… but maybe no flour, either. It has a nice taste, and was dense… with an a rubbery / fleshy texture.

There was nice wine list, and a fair selection of beer.

Our cost was about $80 for the two of us, there’s a way to combine three items (in our case, salad, main course, and dessert) for a set cost of about $32 each, before drinks.

I think that they’ll be a place worth hitting regularly, if the price comes down a bit, and the menu expands some… for now, it’s off to a nice start, and I look forward to seeing it grow.


Sometimes, I see a flicker in my vision in front of me – where I’m walking, and I wonder if it’s a future image of myself passing that spot. I wonder if I’d feel the same way if I saw the flicker behind me… would I think that light reflecting off my jacket was just slow to catch up?


I’m really getting into playing loco roco in the mornings… levels are short enough to do on the bus… and I think my newest unlock (the black one with the little tooth buds, lower right ) has some awesome music and reminds me a bit of pyewacket. I do my journal writing on the ride home, generally, unless I really want to polish off a round. Themini-games aren’t bad, but the meat is the primary puzzles. However, now I’m near a net-hotspot, and the PSP has streaming radio these days, a journaling I shall go. (see also)


Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta are now claiming to have identified and located the speech center of the chimpanzee brain. Lead by Jared Taglialatela, the team used a PET scan to image activity in the brains of three chimps after doing two tasks. In one, the chimps asked for food by making grunts and other noises. In another they passed rocks out of their cages in exchange for food. The former activity lit up a specific area of the chimp’s brains that the latter did not.

So what does this all mean? Simply put, it means that as soon as some scientist decides to experiment with aiming a gamma ray cannon at that hemisphere of a chimpanzee’s brain, we’re only a few thousand years away — max — of Charlton Heston screaming "It was Earth all along!" in front of the ruined fragments of Statue of Liberty. Great. Thanks again, science.

What Separates You From Chimps [Live Science]


50 things I’ve done meme continues tomorrow with 27.

Instead, a quickie – answer in 3 words –

1. Where is your cell phone?

on my belt

2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend?:
is my wife

Continue reading 9185 – Thursday –