Tag Archives: rant

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

8919 Tuesday

24 generations =16,777,216 ancestors. I guess I won’t be taking my family tree that far!

I’m drinking way too much soda pop and coffee type stuff. Maybe it’s time to go on a Soda Sabbatical.

Crazy early morning wake up today… I had trouble getting out of bed again… it’s too comfy cozy under the covers with the kitties and BHK.

Dear Fox news. You’ve confirmed my thoughts about you again and again, but this is totally ridiculous. (via ecto – warning, justifiably foul language in the text) – Fox news making a claim that Fred Rogers was evil. Not as a joke, or ironically. Fox news should recognise evil… it sees it in the mirror every day. Reporting like that is beyond just evil.. they live in a world of lies and madness.

From the link –

It’s a disgusting, vile little piece and it’s very likely that you won’t be able to get through all of it. To summarize. Fox News’ argument for Mr. Rogers being “evil” goes like this: he told two entire generations of children that they were “special just the way they are.” Then, in what can only be described as a despicable lie, the Fox News anchors claim that that’s precisely where Mr. Rogers left off. He never taught children anything except to merely exist in a static state of selfish self-entitlement. And that’s why my entire generation is comprised entirely of rapists, murderers, welfare recipients and drug addicts.

There are a lot of reasons to be offended by this, but the biggest reason is that Fred Rogers was the kindest, most inspiring and most loving man to have lived in the last 100 years. His love for children and his passion for their education and well-being were absolute and unhypocritical. Watch this clip from Mr. Rogers’ testimony to the US Senate in 1969 to increase funding for PBS. If you disagree with Mr. Rogers politically, that’s okay, but there is no mistaking the sincerity of his passion for child development.

In other news, millions of years ago there were human-sized penguins.

Giant penguins. Is there anything not awesome about the phrase “giant penguins”?

1 year ago – defective materials, algo march 2, control freak, McCain on Lieberman, Michigan fairy doors, random flickr

2 years ago – Kev day, pictures of train station/toys/etc, mr moonlight

3 years ago – mind flayer doodle, travel plans, blue ink, Warriors…., phone posts

4 years ago – odd dreams, Gary hart, pizza box solar oven, hunting for Bambi hoax, walnut walks with a belly dancer

5 years ago – CHiPs, Spreading rumors

6 years ago – Music Mystery Solved, exegesis, evil news, Earhart’s wreck perhaps found, I discover Google image search, sea creature poll, why poop is brown

7 years ago – Scheduled Departure time set in stone, something at Archie McPhee no longer there, sitcom nudity-logic Geotarget

8914 – Friday the 13th!

It was beautiful, foggy morning on the way to the train station. (not my image, but cool, nonetheless). Lots of mist hanging, especially over the water.

Saw Fantastic Four – Silver Surfer after work with BHK, and it was a fun little bit of entertainment.


Cool! The DC Train maps are now on google!(via dcist)


We’re not going to Salem this weekend. Instead, I think we’re just going to cool our collective jets, and regroup a bit.


I’ve been watching season 6 of The Shield on my commute to and from work lately… and the writing is still quite good. I think the child molester subplot was a bit transparent, but aside from that, it has been interesting seeing what’s going on with Vic’s crew. It sounds like they’re already wrapping up season seven, now, even though the sixth was supposed to be the final one.

After I whittle that one down my travel show is going to be The Riches, I think. Never did catch up with that on the Tivo upstairs, and BHK seems to have lost interest.


Positive thing about summer. Local corn. The best I’ve ever had, anywhere. Seriously, it’s amazing.

I’m really loving the local corn crop.
mousecorn

By the way, to my anonymous commenter: Not everyone in the world is racist. Not everyone in the world is sexist. “All [insert skin color / gender / geographic point of origin / religious belief / sexual preference / whatever here] stick together” is untrue. Sure, there are a lot of ’em, but humans lack cooperation on that level. Not to say that *a lot* might. Special interest groups, Armies, and the like. If you could get *any* group of people of that size to really work together, the world would be a different place – and probably a scary one, since I don’t tend to agree with any one group’s agenda.


Atheists can cuss by taking someone else’s lord’s name in vain. It’s not like snarling “Random Chance!” or “Darwin!” is nearly as good as Jesus Christ come to think of it… blurting “Vishnu”, “Zeus” or “Zoroaster” is sort of dorky sounding too. David and Abraham are in too much usage to be any good, either. Solomon?

Maybe I’ll just stick to Comic Book / Cartoon Exclamations… Merciful Rao! Sufferin’ Sappho/Succotash! Leapin’ Lizards! Sweet Christmas! Good Grief! Great Hera! By Crom!

I am guilty of saying “My Stars” – not due to Henry McCoy, but Samantha Stevens.

By the Vishanti is too cumbersome. Imperious Rex is just dopey. Dumber than saying Spoooon! in fact.

I do like to say Zoroaster, though. It’s a fun name. Zoroaster. Say it with me, dear journal. Zoroaster. Zarathustra, in the native.

If we were to ever get a gray kitten, I’d like to name him Zoroaster. (That is not to say that we’re getting a gray kitten any time soon.)


Regarding this article about faith and democratic candidates … I can’t get the phrase “Pillory Hillary” out of my head.


1 year ago – pirate quiz, pirates w/Dan, 61 questions, walkabout pics, bus stop self portrait, newtcam silly pic

2 years ago – bro visit, good exp games, Karl Rove a rat, mood settings, big ol’ Locust

3 years ago – perspective via work, kitty-bot, rain, diseases

4 years ago – Movies w/ danny, LED-suit, Lupin quiz, dinosaur haiku, new tv, LXG, html tests, ghoulishness

5 years ago – Ian McCracken, zork 404, branleur, got my bike

6 years ago – evil news, longueur, spoliation, space fungus, superstition poll, fri-13 reasoning, I’m Neutral Good

7 years ago – Traditional trolls, Catholics handy in a pinch Geotarget

8545 – Ariella B


Ariella B
Originally uploaded by michelle.sas.

I like people, they’re the ones who can’t stand
They’re the ones who can’t stand
I see smoke signals coming from them
They say “We are out of furniture”

Stand on your own head for a change
Give me some skin to call my own
Stand on your own head for a change
Give me some skin to call my own

You made my day, now you have to sleep in it
Now you have to sleep in it
I love the world and if I have to sue for custody, I will sue for custody

Stand on your own head for a change
Give me some skin to call my own
Stand on your own head for a change
Give me some skin to call my own
Stand on your own head
Stand on your own head for a change
Stand on your own head

8322 – Camo-man lurks at the Bus Station.

Strange things afoot at the Bus Station yesterday morning. Unusual man lurking about, patrolling all of the bus bays, hiking at a good clip.

Click here to see him meander past on shaky-animated gif style video. – about 1 meg.

camoman3
Camo-man has powers similar to the yeti and loch ness monster, as cameras cannot photograph him properly. Is it the suit? His magical giant old-lady sunglasses (complete with rhinestones)? That huge hand-carved walking stick?

See more of Camo-man

8104 – system still out for repair.

GeotargetThis card is my problem with compusa, along with really poor communication or support /offering of alternatives.

In a nutshell, it’s been since November 10th that my Computer has been at the shop… everything else needing repair is fixed according to them.

Verto GeForce FX 5950 Ultra Video Card, AGP, 256MB DDR
Nvidia
Manufacturer: PNY   
Mfg Part #: VCGFX595APB
Product Number: 308120
$499.88

However, that bad boy has been out of stock at the manufacturer, and at all known compusa stores in a 50-mile radius for the last 8 weeks.

With a $500 price tag, I’m obliged to wait, because I really can’t drop that chunk of change on something that I should be getting under warranty.

The guys at the shop have given me two timelines, both of which have passed, now. I’m not quite sure what I can do, save for waiting.

Meanwhile, I have to do my work on poor ol’ Battered lappie, My Toshiba satillite back from a time when Windows Me (I’ve long since replaced that with win2k pro) was “cutting edge”.

I’d say that the only time I’ve had worse customer service/ communication was with Comcast… I have since boycotted them, though I’ve heard that they might not be so bad in other areas outside of SoFla.

Not having big brain has cost me some very significant social chat and play time in 2nd Life, LAN party activities with the old FMM crowd are out of the picture… plus, all of my downloaded movies / Netflix DVD archives are ground to a halt while the machine is gone… not to mention a lack of Newtcam.

I never realised how many people watched good ol’ Newt during the day… I’ve gotten somthing like 80 emails politely requesting when he’ll be back online again. If Big Brain is down another week, I’ll hook Newtcam up to Lappie so folks can get an orange kitty fix.

I can only imagine what happens when pretty girls shut off their webcams. I suspect horny stalker-type guys aren’t nearly as polite as cat fanciers.

Raisin cinnamon swirl oatmeal is yummy! It is indeed a tasty way to start the day. (I do confess, I made 2 packets) … 1/5 of my calories of the day, give or take.

I’m shopping for a good multi-vitamin. I’m guessing Walgreen’s or Eckerd’s will have one, but I’m going to research it a bit. (Anyone reading want to offer a recommendation?)

Two hundred years ago, the human race got, on average, 30cm taller. Now, on average, the human race is obese. A researcher from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine claims that the obesity pandemic is a new fundamental shift in the shape of human bodies, brought on by the same kinds of technological changes that made us taller.

“Pandemic” obesity was the result of an abundance of high-energy, aggressively marketed foods, and sedentary lifestyles induced by television and computers, said Professor Prentice.

I forgot to mention on Friday… People at work are telling me how to mourn. “Drive with your lights on. Wear Black, Wear Red White and Blue”… etc etc etc.

I imagine your heart’s in the right place, but stop, ok? I don’t need to hear “Scotto wore green and khaki on the big day! Is he supporting terrorists? Does he hate America? ”

No. I’m just not making it a friggin’ Saint Patrick’s Day, or the Fourth of July. I don’ t dress up for December 7, or Memorial Day, either. I’ll wear what’s in my closet and clean that day, and hopefully it’ll match.

I save colors for festive holidays. Halloween… Christmas… Valentines Day. You’ll see me in costume dress then, or at least colors. I do feel bad about the tragedy of lost life and our lost security… but I’m not going to buy a “Memorial black armband” to wear on Sept 11 every year from now on. Come on…I’m not going to not make this a hallmark moment. I hope that I just have a few office busybodies, and that this isn’t a national annoyance.

On a lighter note – Forget the sheep jokes. Scottish men are taking to a new form of kinkiness: sex with traffic cones. Yes, these nubile, rubber beauties with their come-hither looks and wanton, orange attire are all the rage in Scotland for a midday shag.

With that, I’m off to work. Until later, dear journal.

No nightgown under my clothes, by gum. 😉

read the dictionary sometime –

*sigh*

So many emotions.

My current pleasant surprise is that people are realizing that not all of Islam is behind all if the recent hubbub, but a non-peaceful, misguided splinter fringe.

Why can’t these same folks realize that other religions are the same way? When I say something is Christian, I mean it as a compliment… some folks I know use it as an insult. It’s really a small, misguided percentage of the whole who claim to be Christian, too. They’re not all Pat Robertson… many more are kind, giving people that are quite tolerant, working to make the world a better place.

Continue reading read the dictionary sometime –