Tag Archives: tm

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

9200 – Wednesday

Egg-dying tonight! Tina, Adam, possibly in-laws and BHK for coloring chicken ovals! Pictures to follow tomorrow, no doubt. Chris is a bit late picking me up, so I can keyboard away at this for a little bit.


Haiku in my brain –

that piece of paper
covered in doodles and such
where did I put it?


50 things I’ve done meme continues with item 37. I…

37.’was the data librarian for the Atari computer club, back when Atari actually made a home computer or twelve that were actually useful as office-type gizmo as well as game machines. I had an 800XL with a bank of happy chip modded 1050 floppy drives that I used for a BBS, but I also had an Atari ST, that I learned the bulk of my first usable programming knowledge on. (LOGO on the TI-99/4a notwithstanding – come to think of it, I did some Spirograph stuff on the ST, too.) When the club dissolved, I was left with a huge crate of free software… including some nifty CAD stuff, and a pile of MIDI music software. I dabbled for a while with both, but the programming was more interesting to me at the time. I suspect if you asked me now, I’d be fooling with a keyboard and midi cables. I built my first homebrew sound digitizer on the ST, and used it mostly to do startup, shutdown noises.. not to mention the occasional silly soundboard program.


Chewbacca is quite the dapper Victorian don’t you think?


Via sci-fi scanner – Doctor Who Originally Conceived As an Insane, Malevolent LSD Junkie

 

Everyone knows Doctor Who: He’s the malignant alien time-traveler hopping around the galaxy in an invisible UFO, right? With eyes filled with madness and a heart dripping with hate, he constantly pops tabs of LSD to relive the horrors of his immortal past. When he’s not under the throes of a hallucinogen-induced bender, he is using his time-traveling UFO to pop into the past and stop the caveman from inventing the wheel, Isaac Newton from discovering gravity and Gutenberg from inventing the printing press… all to consolidate a horrific vision of the future that is entirely of his insane devising. Right? Right?

Well, no, of course not: The good Doctor is a benevolent force who hops around the universe in his TARDIS, trying to do good deeds and help the people he loves whenever possible. But bizarrely, this was not the original idea for Doctor Who, as the notes coming out of the BBC’s archives make clear. Rather, he was originally brainstormed to be an insane, malevolent LSD junkie.

“A feature of the new Doctor will be the humour along the lines of the sardonic humour of Sherlock Holmes. The metaphysical change which takes place over 500 years or so is a horrifying experience… in which he relives some of the unendurable moments of his long life…” the archives read. “It’s as if he has had the LSD drug and instead of experiencing the kicks, he has the hell and dank horror which can be its effect.”

Needless to say, the producer shot this idea down, giving us the good Doctor we’ve all grown to love. But, my god. I would kill for this vision of the Doctor: an insane, time-traveling Dr. Gregory House.

A reactionary on a bad LSD trip – Doctor Who?


Say what you want about Obama, but that’s a heck of a speech right there. No doubt I’m the 1,795,403,543rd news source to mention it this morning.


1 year ago – newt and pye on cam, first day at county, Ze:The Show is over, squid vs yellow submarine,

2 years ago – condo area pic with duck, i don’t like cricket

3 years ago – Lunsford, Atlantis, car crash test, voice post

4 years ago – club 977, Wine & Food, itunes, lj spam, Fri-5, nearby donations,First hint of New Dr Who, Newt big-head pic, color associations

5 years ago – heat, bad job recruiter, UT

6 years ago – city relic quiz, got into an argument with Astley, work nonsense, happy ending

7 years ago – awake but paralysed for surgery, com ideas, animal eyesGeotarget

9197 – monday

Happy St. Patty’s, All you Irish!
(And I think everyone is Irish today.)

Happy Saint Patty's!

Not much to say today – BHK invited TM, Chris, Larry and Adam over for dinner tonight – veggie-loaf and split pea soup (or hot dogs for larry) – Adam couldn’t make it, but we planned an egg-dying session for Wednesday.


WWCalc – Mar 17, 08 (4.0.6 USA) – went over my set by .3 – teach me to have a smidgen of cake!

Water: 5 Veg/Fruit: 5 Milk: 1
Points: 40.8 Adj: 0 Act: 3.5 Rem: -0.3
Bank: -0.3 Adj: 0
Bank Max: 15 Point: 15 Act: 4
Vitamins: Yes

Breakfast: 4.0 points
2.9: granola breakfast bar
1.1: Rice; white; glutinous; cooked; 1/3 cup

Lunch: 10.9 points
0.4: Salad dressing; italian; commercial;diet;2 calories per tsp
0.0: Lettuce; iceberg (includes crisphead types); raw
0.1: Cucumber; peeled; raw
3.4: quorn nuggets 3-4
3.4: quorn nuggets 3-4
0.6: Applesauce; canned; unsweetened
3.0: Medium Cheese Slice

Dinner: 17.7 points
4.4: Soup; split pea; prep w/eq vol milk
4.4: Soup; split pea; prep w/eq vol milk
4.4: Soup; split pea; prep w/eq vol milk
1.9: Gardenburger
1.6: Bread; italian
1.0: Cake; baby slice

Snack: 8.2 points
4.4: Pretzels; hard; plain; salted- 10 minis
3.8: vanilla almonds ~24 nuts

Activity Log: (Min:Int:Points Desc)
12:L:1.0 Bus-walk
30:L:2.5 Crazy office


I want this freaky quadruped robot. It can carry 340 lbs, and is as sure footed as a mountain goat. Maybe If I put a robo-llama head on it, BHK will want one, too.


1 year ago – St. Pat’s, the ikea nightmare begins, newtcam returns to 24/7

2 years ago – st pats, snake son a plane, 4 things poll, lighter elements

3 years ago – Irish stuff, work, dog, hippie, writing

4 years ago – St Pats, Ordered CoH, email fixed, bro rant, work issues

5 years ago – St Pats, Purim, post #5490

6 years ago – many now-dead links, last sentence quiz, doctor, newt fetch

7 years ago – St PatsGeotarget

9189 – sun

Turned the clocks and we stayed in bed pretty late. We finally got up and at ’em at about noon.. er, 1pm.

I neglected to mention our trip to the B.I.G. book sale after shots yesterday… one giant blue ikea bag’s worth of books for $30. BHK got a ton of cookbooks, Edith Wharton, and some Ursula LeGuin – about 17 or so – I got a time-life book for Larry (with the “look and feel” of real hand-tooled leather!) on railroading, and picked myself up a few things, too (about 15 books) – Including Gene Wilder’s Autobiography, John Stewart’s Naked Pictures of Famous People (already read… it’s no Cruel Shoes. Additionally, I snagged a bunch of random stuff – Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett ,(fun to see the Baltimore side of classic pulp fiction) a ton of other pulps and misc sci fi/ fantasy. Biggest weakness of being such a book magpie is our lack of shelving (see left side of image in newtcam ). BHK will be grabbing some more shelves for us later this week, I think.

I think we made out AOK there! – Thanks to BHK for reminding me of probably the best part of yesterday!

Anyhow, as far as sunday goes – We rose late, grabbed a sammich or two for the road – BHK, the love cube and I all rolled comfortably to points south. First stop was Aarvarks.. sadly, my schedule was off, and none of my books had arrived yet. I hope my Jonah Hex Showcase is there next time! They still have a ton of treehouse and fluxx… and I realised we *still* are late about sending off eryx’s loot. at this rate, it’ll be easter before he gets a christmas treat!

Instead of normal fare, we got the new Tank Girl Compilation and Gloom Cookie – Tank girl is looking pretty good these days.. she’s weathered the movie well. I’ll probably pick one up to give to ol’ danny for next time.

Post Aardvark, we swung by McD’s for a shamrock shake. It’s a tradition! The taste was good, though the mint was subtle… the shake itself was a fine neon green.

From last year – still the same – I wonder if we’ll see my rainy-day chicken stalker this year? I sort of hope so.

Shamrock shake!

Nicely dosed on dairy, mint and dye – it was time to sally forth to the wal-mart. Obtained much-needed undershirts, and not so needed, but still cool dinosaur and robot easter eggs… pictures to follow. Surprisingly, BHK didn’t want the girly-girl eggs. Also snagged into the wild for larry.. the kids parents live nearby, interesting to see someone you know represented in movie form.

Closed the day with a trip to Mexico to visit with Tina M and Matt O… Tina was a little quiet, but we all chitty chatted about misc stuff – mostly food and travel.


1 year ago – David and Gill visit, movies and feed.

2 years ago – New brain arrives, peel, crack sellin’, swing on a star

3 years ago – banana man, dindin with mom, hollow men, voted, did a good deed, renewed domain until 3/11/2008

4 years ago – cool snail mail, Best commentary on “the Passion”, star trek on ice, Spalding Gray found, lj spam, SOP

5 years ago – Laundry w/bro, flaming justice, birds with arms, hulk dance

6 years ago – Who are you quiz, seven wonders, breakfast for dinner, Bfast poll

7 years ago – declaration of love, celeb pet names, payday, tmbg, yeti-scottoGeotarget

9072 – Saturday

Again, for any who care – “Black Friday” is *not* the busiest shopping day of the year. (Though it is generally in the top 10)


Today in a nutshell:

Allergy shots – quick like a wink.

Greek Festival – crafts were interesting – more art glass and felting.

  • More nifty to me was the interior of the church.
  • Jesus has a little smudge on his face.
  • Gold Bells
  • Augustine and Helen Mosaic.
  • Devil and Squid.
  • Merman and angels? No answer from guide. Photos to follow. Squid says “I don’t care! I don’t care!”. Satan is balding, but has braided pigtails.
  • Marble vs Ivory.

Homestead Gardens – 3 new ornaments.

  • robot – retrobot reminds BHK of me.
  • love bugs – BHK and I all snuggly.
  • popcorn – our fondness for movies.

Preacher cookies at the in-laws. (Chocolate cookie, made with oats. yummy.)

nap, no sleep, just rest.

Picked up dinner for the crew, and we saw will at the Chinese food place.. is he making a resurgence? He seemed to have seen us, and appeared to hide out in the Roland’s while we got our food. We saw him head back to the Chinese food place as we were driving off.

Back at in laws for General Tso’s Tofu and a viewing of Christmas Vacation – I dozed off a few times.

Home again, and deep sleeps.


Fire on Friday’s Creek, originally uploaded by cynroux.

Beautiful capture of local color by Cyn! Amazing grab of local autumn colors.


1 year ago – coughing, sickies one day to one month

2 years ago – William Burroughs Thanksgiving, Adam Sandler Counterpoint, I left home at Thanksgiving (1987), collection of questions, Bwain, quiz results, Herm gets snow!, thank you songs, grover smash puny human

3 years ago – toasted orange marmalade sammiches, weather, getting porn spam, Italian vampires must have it rough, comic books, non-net folks, Frost, I want to…, GREG photoplay made by me from secret squirrel episode way back when!, I like bananas

4 years ago – Dr. Who, Mail, Ellies, Pods, mininukes

5 years ago – chores, 7 seas, supah-tofutti, Proverbs 15:1

6 years ago – met with tarpo and isis, tarot, fair-palm synch, LJ-ish quotes

7 years agoKids in the Hall bits, things I’m thankful for, what’s love?, dream Geotarget

9007 – sun

Newt hears migrating birds outside, and raids the window. Pye was soon to follow. Newt’s pooch there isn’t a big tummy, just fur.
0929070834.jpg
Brisk weather outside – lovely stuff, helps my breathing quite a bit. I could actually see my breath the other night when we picked up last minute gift bags for Tina’s party last night…we’re hitting my seasonal weather of choice. I’m looking forward to wearing a jacket.

Dashed off to the Giant with BHK – we bought some cold cuts and cheese to make ourselves some picnic lunch outside… sat on the bench and made each other sammiches. Best meal I’ve had in a while – I’d rather eat stuff that fresh and enjoy the weather than go to a big restaurant. I really preferred it to tonight’s spaghetti dinner, in fact. Louise is renowned for for her spaghetti sauce, but I’m more of a fan of (Gordon Ramsey alert) Simple / Rustic style of cooking. In fact, BHK and I both have been found using that as commentary on food (and whatever else) these days. Like calling Marco Polo out… if one of us says Simple there is bound to be an echo of Rustic not too far behind. Hey, it’s better than picking up his swearing habit, I guess.

Louise’s sauce and pasta was supplemented by Tina’s new beau Matt’s meatballs, which I hear were pretty tasty, especially the beef. The turkey ones looked good, but maybe a bit dry. His sauce looked decent – I wonder how it mixed with Louise’s?

The in-laws brought salad, and BHK made the birthday cake – carrot, with autumnal colored sprinkles in the cream cheese frosting. it was pretty darn tasty – somehow, still warm after our meal.

Tina got a lot of jewelry as loot – we gave her 1001 places to see before you die , some pedicure knickknacks and a necklace with a pearl and a pink shell motif. Louise did pearls for her too.. very similar to those she got BHK for her b’day. In-laws got her a heart necklace and earring set in sterling (I think), and some nice black gloves. I don’t know what Matt got her.

I won our game of apples to apples (that’s what we picked up last minute earlier – it was that or play boggle… and not a lot of folks have the scrabble / spelling ferocity or Carcassonne bent that BHK and I do) – since there were 7 of us (Adam had to bail early for his church group) we played to 5 victories best answer was Larry’s “wood chipper” to “sappy”.

1 year ago – robot post while I’m elsewhere, actors, locusts, pogo-legs, moot-b-day

2 years ago – Lost season 2, remixed movie trailers, 2l issues, white lines by bush, okcupid test, selfports on newtcam, puppy eats a knife, pervwatch, mistaken abduction

3 years ago – School Training at a library, Auntie’s, Spicy Sancocho recipe

4 years ago – Hoom! maps, Monkey Heaven, Robyn goes Psychic on me, Private William D.Huff, Tumbless things, palm doodle, BK breakfast, monochrome=sleepy buspics

5 years ago – landlord a/c, Dorky dinosaur, art ljs, audio books

6 years ago – minor panic, Oyl Family, Red Dog the Pirate Guy, blackjack, mush,revised beliefs, Laundry, freeflow, nosey lj-poll, Newton’s Nightmaregame, love poem

7 years ago – apple jacks, chores, bday, CPAP Geotarget

8971 – tues

Extra-Random very rough draft entry. Read at own risk, dear journal.


Current health issues – getting corrected a little at a time

  • Allergies – need to get blood work done in top of October for shots
  • Teeth – Bridge for broken tooth, and 2 fillings. Floss, kids!
  • Back-leg ortho workup.

Monday night after our appointments, BHK, Chris, Larry and I all met at the Lebanese Taverna for Half-price Mondays… yum on the falafel!

I also got a new shirt for work at good ol’ Value City – White with blue pinstripes.

Tonight after work there was a big traffic slowdown…Suitland was a parking lot, and all of i-4 was shut by police and helicopters. A cursory search online mentioned no specifics, and the traffic radio was of little detail as well. I wonder what was up? Chris speculated terrorist stuff, but there was really no hint as to what it might be at all. I made it to Tina’s about 30 minutes later than usual. When I realized I wasn’t going to be there by 7:15, I called and they ate ahead of me.. I got there in time to watch the last half of Gilmore Girls – BHK and Tina set tentative plans for a girls trip sometime in the near future.

This weekend, BHK and I will be taking a little day trip somewhere… maybe West Virginia to see the mountains, maybe Outpost Games, possibly both on different days.

We still haven’t been back to the Compleat Strategist… I want to give ’em a second chance, but it might be a while… too many other places to go and see.


Graffiti seen when we went to the movies last weekend –

Robot of love – says hate
(he cannot be fully erased!)

0826071340.jpg - hate robot
Boy says bait?
0826071342.jpg = Bait?

That rhymes!


1 year ago – pom, apples and limeade, GP ahooga, close to the edit, burrito/screech butt, god lj, more ernesto a-comin’!

2 years ago – katrina track, toyota safe vs falling knives, brothers grimm, eco footprint, The Outbursts of Everett True , caffeinated death quiz, cat toy, superheroes and goats, office has no juice

3 years ago – on call all weekend, cej packet returned, super hero movies, charities, spectral analysis

4 years ago – begging for freebies, cases, frankie, wifi, paper toys

5 years ago – comic book ads, genetic ID card, lifegems, happy tree friends, Bheesh got a vette, free fonts, and Pynchon paper dolls

6 years ago – sci-fi dorkness (pity enterprise is so bad), red headed wildcat, bacchanalia, ultima Thule, stinky cab driver, lj “post limit hububb”

7 years ago – zoo day, de-compartmentalized some pals, Brown, turtle Geotarget

8968 – sunday funday!

Still too hot to do much of anything out and about in the Crisco soup-like atmosphere, so we opted to take in lunch at the Sbarro’s in the Annapolis Mall and then hit a movie. Who knows why we woke up at 7:30 on a Sunday, but it gave us a solid head start.

We finally caught the Simpsons Movie on the big screen… I was surprised – it was a lot better than I was expecting… pretty solid TV episode from back when it was funny. We only saw 3 bits that would make it warrant a PG-13 rating – an instance of nudity, a curse word (or two) and some drinking / drug use. I could see them showing all of it after 10pm on network tv unedited, or without those three instances any time at all.

On the way home, we noticed that ATW has changed the sign again, as the search for “the man” continues. (atw is now a tag just for my ease of searching the story thread and pictures, now.)

Click to view larger
0826071649.jpg atw tv
ATW NEWSROOM
‘THE MAN’
BOOT RECOVERED
FINGERS POINTED
Police say ‘NO Statement – NO case’
Meanwhile, Man Sightings run rampant
Psychic to be called.

It was a good thing we caught an early show as the later part of the day was comprised of –

BHK Birthday Part II: Electric boogaloo!
allisonbdaycake

Party at Tina’s place… Mexican food! Both Meat and veggie protein varieties – Tina’s not a big carnivore, either. Matt (her new boy) seems like a nice enough fellow and I hope they have maximum fun / minimum glum together. He’s certainly more social and generally conversational than DR or W. Dessert was yellow birthday cake with chocolate icing, compared favorably to yesterday’s lemon cake with lemon icing. Added bonus, BHK’s mom didn’t absent-mindedly start slurping the frosting off of the removed candles like last night, rather than giving them to the b’day girl to taste.

Aside from Tina and Matt, Adam, Jimmy, Louise, Chris and Larry all made it to celebrate. We fit pretty comfortably at Tina’s townhouse… I wasn’t sure if we’d all be able to manage, but it worked out quite well.

BHK’s Loot received:

from Louise : Necklace and bracelet of multi-colored pearls.
from Tina : A pair of Peridot Earrings / Hello Kitty purse (which looks like ms. kitty is making a gesture I’m sure wasn’t intentional)
from Larry & Chris – Red Coral necklace and Earrings / and some lovely crockery
from Danny – A swell looking green-stoned ring in gold. (and he got Tina some yellow-stoned earrings, too!)
from my Mom and Wilt – Turquoise and silver necklace, Halloween Snow globe, a little cornucopia and a really lovely card.
from me – a lot of knickknacks – Grease & Grease 2, a pair of pink pseudo-crocks, some stripy socks that mismatch/match, a pink headband with little jolly rogers, bath scrubbie, black cat bowl, a green wire basket, some fuzzy slippers and a gift cert to scalped.

I’m the only person that didn’t get her any jewelry… she told me specifically *not* to get her any. Now, I understand why.

May’ve recruited Adam and Jimmy into a parlor game night. Who knows, maybe they’ll lure Kendall and Amanda into it, too, and we’ll have a big night of it sometime!

I don’t know if Matt is into parlor games… I do know he digs the Redskins and is willing to put up with chick flicks. come to think of it, I don’t know for sure if Tina is interested in boardgames or not… I suspect that she, like the in-laws aren’t really into abstract games. Louise is a good candidate, but is harder to reel in to a date or time than the teens. The last time we saw her was her birthday, about 6 weeks ago.

Poor Danny has students in his classes now – he’s back to running the Sci-fi club, and is incorporating Pirates into the after school program. I should send him a bucket of heroclix or mage knight commons/doubles as a donation. He really liked the Superhero stamps and Lord of the Rings Risk game we shot off to him a little while back.

1 year ago – back from an all too brief visit, nose buttering, bunny suicides, events of the day, liberty city psp homebrew hack, jojo the cannibal kid, maple cookies, folks, met Adam / Future In-laws

2 years ago – power out phone post, hurricane katrina aftermath pictures (and Newt), Bro out, Techs unavailable

3 years ago – BK heads north, random visit to a 2001 entry, behavior variances, quiet-please

4 years ago – sleep schedule, zombie game (poor thing aborted), monkey helpers, first lost child.

5 years ago – Deer Hunter, Apache, Equality/freedom Poll, Emerson, flying saucer, heroclix 200 point armies, McD hot dogs, wpoison

6 years ago – that piercing woman , lj vibe change, many links (not all work anymore)

7 years ago – Godzilla, quizzes, leftyrok added me, IMT threatens to move all operations north to Tampa, dean martin Geotarget

8966 – Friday

A year ago today, I landed in Maryland. Life’s been pretty damn good ever since.

A lot of groundbreaking stuff has happened in the year between then and now.. most of it documented here, some not so much, as I’ve been really spending a lot of time enjoying life more than documenting it.

I’m married, living in a new state, a new job, a new everything, really…. I really officially started on that path a year ago. It’s been a mighty fine journey so far… I can hardly wait for the years ahead.

Moment of Lyric – Jason Falkner “This Will Be Our Year” (Zombies cover)

The warmth of your love
is like the warmth of the sun
and this will be our year
took a long time to come

don’t let go of my hand
now darkness has gone
and this will be our year
took a long time to come

and I won’t forget
the way you held me up when I was down
and I won’t forget the way you said,
“Darling I love you”
You gave me faith to go on

Now we’re there and we’ve only just begun
This will be our year
took a long time to come

The warmth of your smile
smile for me, little one
and this will be our year
took a long time to come

You don’t have to worry
all your worried days are gone
this will be our year
took a long time to come

and I won’t forget
the way you held me up when I was down
and I won’t forget the way you said,
“Darling I love you”
You gave me faith to go on

Now we’re there and we’ve only just begun
and this will be our year
took a long time to come

Yeah we only just begun
yeah this will be our year
took a long time to come


Note to self- check out some local gaming – 8/31-9/3 – http://barkingmad.org/Laurel’s about an hour’s drive… I think that perhaps it’s time to start our own gaming warren in North Beach. Granny at Yucata suggested as much last night. Alternately, the Games Club of Maryland looks promising. (Annapolis meets every other Saturday from 6-11pm, for example.)


via ectomo

I’m a French Toast man myself, but this week’s Photoshop Phriday theme is utter genius: Grindhouse Breakfast Cereals. I would start buying breakfast cereal if the boxes looked like this. My friend Stacey, an immortal bride of Count Chocula, is sure to be disappointed when she clicks the link though.

Grindhouse Breakfast Cereals @ Something Awful


Friday 5:

1. At the end of today, do you think you’ll feel spent or refreshed?
Probably pretty spent! Work, out with BHK, Tina and the In-laws at cheeburger^2 for dinner, some light shopping, and I’m wiped!

2. Do you like back rubs?
Who the devil doesn’t like a back rub?

3. When did you last mislead someone?
I’m not sure… probably tricking BHK about some aspect of her Birthday party tomorrow.

4. What color are your eyes?
Blue.

5. Friday fill-in:
Lastly, let me know how I’m doing, right or wrong.


1 year ago – points north, liberty city, psp ebooks, palm entries begin for a bit

2 years ago – mending, green beans, saudi swimsuits, batman, zombie astronaut, robocop art, pat robertson can bite me, gaming group, nostalgia, who meme, newt pic, evil twin, katrina-storm

3 years ago – more travel pix, ice cream novelties, Black widow, newtcam, harlequin gallery, helpful phrases, bag lady

4 years ago – watching walnut & his mamma on cam, goofy snl, she spies

5 years ago – Wreck of the Medusa, Feral, Muso, my trading card, LJ meet, taught Dave Heroclix, misc pix, ft laud sunset

6 years ago – yellow bellies

7 years ago – questions Geotarget

8954 – fri

Got looked over by the doc, following yesterday’s health issue – Nothing so severe as strep or a heart attack, but a really bad allergy fit. Swollen throat, trouble breathing, tightness in the chest…I was told that my heart is more than fine… it’s strong as can be.

Blood pressure – 121 / 71, pulse 74

Got a ‘scrip for zyrtec for the allergies, and a topical for the ongoing eczema on my neck. Thank goodness for insurance!

Thank you to everyone who gave well-wishes… they were greatly appreciated!

Bad news – my camera died.. the motor that spits out and retrieves the lens is out of whack, and I fear it’s probably kaput. I’ll get another eventually, but I fear that any photos will be taken with the cell phone for the immediate future – kills the resolution and spontaneity of image-taking.

Tonight we celebrated Larry’s b’day by gifting him with, and then watching Wild Hogs. It was a lot better than I’d expected, though it petered out with typical Deux Ex Machina at the end. He also got the new Vine gill 4-cd set, and banana puddin’, as is his fondness. Tina and Chris stuck around through our tasty veggie-dogs/veggie chili cookout – I was still feeling pretty woozy throughout, but I think I’m getting better now.


1 year ago – hacking xp, gaming due to love of school supplies, airplay map, weird Maryland,

2 years ago – New Orleans Lisas, moon base mars, flash earth, ed wood directs, devo,blue beetle & lithium, bush 5 years and no “nos”, spidey-enema,SCOAI, word colors

3 years ago – missed oneeyed, bro scams mom, no donkey basketball, t-mobile good gesture, scale model of city, lenny kravitz warning, cemetery stroll urge, Bermuda Triangle, Saturn’s 33 moons, flash game tutorial

4 years ago – Newt vs measuring cup, astronaut jones, free router stuff

5 years ago – Saturday mornings, heroclix, band names, toad turmoil, recorder, fun gab

6 years ago – page pondering

7 years ago – bakery-dog, factoids-lieoidsGeotargetVisitor Map

8951 – tues

BHK is taking Pomonkey and Ripley off to their new foster home tomorrow. I’ll miss ’em, though I’ve gotten used to the idea that they’re just visiting, not permanent family members. It’s hard not to get emotionally attached to little baby animals.

Newton and Pye both weigh a ton next to those little critters… I’d say Pye weighs four to five times as much, at least. No fat, either, all kitty muscles.


Marty put me onto a nifty tool alternate to Filezilla called WinSCP (WinSCP is a SFTP client and FTP client for Windows. Its main function is the secure file transfer between a local and a remote computer. It uses Secure Shell (SSH) and supports, in addition to Secure FTP, also legacy SCP protocol.)


TM let it be known that she’s dating a new guy – I’m guessing that it’s been a few weeks now? I’m trying to mentally do the math, but I’m not sure I can think of how fast she got back on the horse after the breakup with DR. I hope she finds what she’s looking for with the new fellow.


Tech Issues recently solved:

http://wiki.avectra.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
Correspondence template specifics:
http://wiki.avectra.com/index.php?title=Correspondence_Template
Resize Options:
http://wiki.avectra.com/index.php?title=Internet_Explorer_Settings

How to Open Excel Files in Excel (rather than browser)

These instructions do NOT work in Vista but should work in XP but must be done on each client computer.

1. Go to Windows Explorer.

2. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options, and then click on the File Types tab.

3. From the Registered file types list box, select the XLS extension, and then click Advanced.

4. In the Edit File Type dialog box, set the Confirm open after download to selected.

5. Make sure the Browse in same window option is not selected, and then click OK.


1,700 vintage game manuals as watermark-free PDFsThis is over three gigabytes of manuals, schematics, and general information about arcade machines, scanned in by an anonymous army of dedicated people, and going back up to 30 years.


1 year ago – vacation day, graffiti pics, skateboarders, fountain geocache, sugar sand park,

2 years ago – goth girl, walken ’08, dane cook re: superman shirts, silly tiger, scotto is, strikeout meme, newt pic at my old apt,

3 years ago – palm doodle, storm disastrous, necco wafers, hurricane journal-guy

4 years ago – wwcalc, Mexican casserole, newt sniffing, sewer travels, blackouts

5 years ago – cool comics, broken links, memories from 1981, hump-day

6 years ago – good feelings, abusive employee/employer relations, wonder tomato condiment poll, evil news, taught chmod

7 years ago – sleep study follow-up, peace Geotarget

8950 – mon

So… Amazon does groceries, now? Nice idea, especially if they don’t charge shipping on bills more than $25. That’s good to know, in the event of some rare items going missing… I wonder if there’s a way to order stuff that’s very local?

I totally agree with MightyGodKingIf more history books were like Warren Ellis’ and Raulo Caceres’ Crêcy, this would not be a problem. At all.
(Warning, language.. as if I have to tell you, dear journal.)

Yesterday was a beautiful day, even though we spent the majority of it indoors. I think the weather is just about perfect for kayaking now… not too hot, but nice, clear and sunny. 88 degrees is doable – 112… not so much.

BHK and TM pulled potatoes today!

From our garden – that’s a big ol’ spud!
0813071232a - that's a spud!

After such a long, hot week, that was some beautiful weekend, wasn’t it? And apparently, the beauty of the weekend is spilling out on to Monday morning: Karl Rove, President Bush’s controversial deputy chief of staff and senior political adviser, will resign at the end of August. After he packs up his Palisades home and heads back to the Texas Hill Country, Rove will reportedly leave politics and plans to write a book about the Bush years — do you still get to claim executive privilege when your job involves working in your slippers?

1 year ago – pics from britta’s birthday and walkabout, ocean movies

2 years ago – strawberry shortcake, silas stingy, bus ride video, video watching, about me meme, errors at work

3 years ago – np tech fizzed out, disney rides, bro gets 2 years probation, CoH, hurricane Charley, RvsB-internet, Horny Toad

4 years ago – Gelatinous Cube, Chimera / Mosaics, Schwarzenegger, I work with fools blog, David Carlson, wonder woman, cockroaches/dominoes, AAA vs speed traps, director, google calc, teen titans theme cracked

5 years ago – cheaters, fartlek, Gamera, Nation of Victims, Nimoy sings about Bilbo

6 years ago – random journal reading, suasion, hobson, pancake bunny, misc news, super powers/poll

7 years ago – went for sleep study Geotarget

8948 – Saturday

Yesterday, I forgot to mention that I received Martian coasters, filler colors of icehouse stashes, and other ordered loot. I’m looking forward to playing them with BHK at our earliest convenience.

Awoke early – about 6:45 on a Saturday. EM was up at about 6:30, I think.

Read in bed:

  • Oliviaclassic. Olivia would be Eloise, if Eloise were a pig. She is good at singing 40 very loud songs and is very good at wearing people out. And scaring the living daylights out of her little brother, Ian, particularly when he copies her every move. She is also quite skilled at reproducing Jackson Pollock’s “Autumn Rhythm #30” on the walls at home. When her mother tucks her in at night and says, “You know, you really wear me out. But I love you anyway,” Olivia precociously pronounces, “I love you anyway too.”
  • Ain’t gonna Paint No more – pretty spiffy, good rhythm, color and song.
  • 93 in my family Now *that*’s a fun kids book. Reads well, stuff to look at on every page, terribly cute, and gives a message that’s neat, too. Plus, a carsick hamster named Ed. We need more like this one.
  • Where Have The Unicorns Gone? – Lovely Art, poorly written – it just doesn’t flow.

BHK was tuckered out, and fell back asleep about midway through Olivia, so Em and I got up after reading and made necklaces with wooden beads and string from Em’s kit – very pretty stuff.

Played some simple stacking and lining up games with dominoes and red & blue icehouse pyramids with Em while BHK slept – may have developed the seed of a new game! Stacking Pyramids on top of a domino board to collect points. Needs a little work, but if I can teach the basics to a 4-year-old and it’s challenging to me, there could be a fun concept waiting to burst out.

Once BHK woke up, we all got cleaned up and headed out to take care of TM’s kitties (see picture in yesterday’s post ).

After many kitty snuggles, we all went to the marine museum to see the otters and the stingrays – it was also a Cradle of the Invasion day – folks dressed in garb of 1812, WWII, and modern style, showing how Marines in wartime lived and worked in the area. pretty neat. Apparently, in the 30s-40s, Tropical chocolate was mixed with paraffin wax so it wouldn’t melt… the K rations had basically a chocolate candle to eat along with government supplied cigarettes. Lots of items about amphibious warfare that didn’t interest Em too much, but I’d like to go back next time and spend a little while talking to the folks and getting some perspectives on things. My Grandfather on my mom’s side was a Marine during WWII, and he never really talked too much about it, short of taking me to the VFW and hanging out with other vets. (That’s where I got my first Shirley Temple.)

[edit – I forgot that we went to the amish market, and saw ducks and geese and chickens and goats and puppies and horses, and amish folks, and bought gingerbread and blueberry jam, and lemon meringue pie for Larry, and shoo-fly pie for us, and peppers to stuff with yum! – Sakes, we were busy]

Getting close to Lunch, so we headed off to Burt’s [Edit – dang, why do I always call it Fred’s?] for veggie burgers (em got popcorn shrimp) – good stuff, but I suspect the kids meal had more food than our veggie burger platter! We got puzzle place mats and crayons so we could color while we waited for our food.

Went to Aardvarks to pick up Early American Chrononauts (and ice cream – Play-doh is still my favorite… vanilla ice cream dyed bright yellow with red and blue chunks of sugar cookie dough mixed in. ) I suspect that I like Early American more than standard Chrononauts.

Chris and Larry’s for Dinner – Hot Dogs on the Grill, beans, slaw, and all sorts of yum. BHK had to duck out and tend to Tina’s Kitties again while Chris, Larry, Em and I hung out and chitty-chatted. Emily was very well behaved, and barely persnickety or bossy at all. She played very nicely with Tigger for hours.

Quote of the night was by Em – “I would never hurt beautiful Uncle Scott!”

Full and happy we all came home and crashed out.


Before I bail: a meme from Tarpo –

THE RULES:

1. Leave me a comment saying anything random, like your favorite lyric to your current favorite song. Or your favorite kind of sandwich. Something random.
Whatever you like.

2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.

3. Update your LJ with the answers to the questions.

4. Include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.

5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.

Mine were –

1) Where did you meet your girl? Livejournal, actually – Sixish years ago, at least, when I was dating someone else. I think that I traded up nicely.

2) Is Newt still a vicious man-eater? He can be pretty aggressive to some folks, and a love to others. He hasn’t seen any Newfs lately, but he still attacks most smokers with great vigor.

3) Recommend 3 fairly cheap 2 player, easy to learn, fun games that are outside the normal Milton Bradley/Hasbro line. Well, you already know about Fluxx and Carcassone, so I’ll toss out Treehouse at about $10, you can’t go too far wrong (see links above) (which is a gateway drug to other fun games, too) and Chrononauts, also linked above, a little bit more pricey at $20, (with both games the more the merrier, but two can play handily.)

4) Without sounding offensive and I hope you don’t take this in the wrong way at all.. Has anyone ever mentioned that there is more than a slight resemblance between my Ex Wife and your Current Wife? Short of this question, nobody has… From what I can recall of her face, I don’t really see the resemblance! Eyes, nose, facial shape, hair and skin all seem pretty different to me!

5) Suggest something for a future DoWhatIDo
How about a picture of a favorite item, like a toy or book?


1 year ago – thread tracking, mallah/brain, sistine ceiling full view, 330 mpg car under $20k, hardest geometry problem in the world,

2 years ago – Delirium box, laundry good deed, matches, chain reaction game, Friday 5, autostitch pic, 200 e Broward pic

3 years ago – hr tag abandonment,Doug / tony memory trick, factoids about me, elevator breaks

4 years ago – Neverwhere, childhood memories circa ’74-75ish – lunch and Tonka toys,linked to hulk’s blog, bro stuff, Elvis & his prosthetic limb factory

5 years ago – Spanish TV, broken links, new he-man cartoon, mark quits FMM before he’s caught stealing, puppy pictures and palm doodles.

6 years ago – Soylent Green Tea Ice Cream at the Frieze in Miami, after seeing Kiss of the Dragon with my bro, cavort, first exp w/ Samurai Jack, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

7 years ago – saw the hollow man, and played Everway, day before sleep study Geotarget

8947 – Friday

Work is getting solid now – doing a lot of testing and validation of some programs going live. It’s fun – I’m getting a chance to flex some SQL muscle on queries that can range from simple to fairly complex.

After work, Chuck E Cheese with Em and BHK – We were there for a bit… had some pizza (not too bad, really!) played some skee-ball and other ticket-type redemption games. Scored 420 tickets, and made the obligatory reference to the prize-guy behind the counter… he laughed and happily doled out her loot… A Hello Kitty coin purse, some stickers, a little pink bracelet and a cinderella magnet. Not a bad haul for doing something that was fun anyway. BHK is pretty dang good at the ol’ Skee-Ball, while I’m a bit better at shooting hoops.

Hm, “Redemption Games” sounds like some sort of Tom Clancy book about a Chaplain in the Green Berets. File that for later tongue-in-cheekiness.

On our way home, we checked in with Tina’s Kitties – Keiki was happy to be a little love-muffin all over Em. Chai was affectionate, too, but not all up in her business (which is how Em likes her kitties.)

keiki keezes

1 year ago – nifty clock, internal words, writing slowdown, eyes, mediocre bad guys, tv, milk pocky

2 years ago – Magda’s Bday, allergy shots, dreamt of killing my sister, PM memory, brown bag, meteor shower, bad breath detection, google homepage

3 years ago – construction, fay wray RIP, dan’s school blocks lj,alcohol, SPcharacter, aerial photos, UK Prozac pee taints water supply, LC’s scrapbook, CoH tempting battle cries, flower meme

4 years ago – Puzzle Pirates (with a cutie mermaid), Arabia-cam with Mom and Daughter(I met oneeyed and sedef as a result of sweet’s poochie’s booty-ticks.), vamp-game, Kings of Africa, lovely chat

5 years ago – man killed for playing the banjo, Trek happening a dud, but we discover heroclix, (already thinking customs), rorschach poll

6 years ago – 3 things poll, deracinate, cormorant, broken newt pic, 25 things to keep in mind, ja da, rate your risk (links now broken)

7 years ago – spent out, color quiz, looking forward to going to breakfast, Rowlf sings, Beaker sings Geotarget