random scotto factoid -

Schoolhouse rock can make me cry. The final five lines have always choked me up. I'm a sentimental pod, at times. I miss a cousin with 2 spare foot-digits that I've never met. Fine, funky beat, too. I could see Phish doing a cover.

Little Twelvetoes

Music & Lyrics: Bob Dorough

Sung by: Bob Dorough




Now if man had been born with 6 fingers on each hand, he'd also have

12 toes or so the theory goes. Well, with twelve digits, I mean

fingers, he probably would have invented two more digits when he

invented his number system. Then, if he saved the zero for the end,

he could count and multiply by twelve just as easily as you and I do
by ten.

Now if man had been born with 6 fingers on each hand, he'd probably
count: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, dek, el,
doh. "Dek" and "el" being two entirely new signs meaning ten and
eleven. Single digits! And his twelve, "doh", would be written 1-0.

Get it? That'd be swell, for multiplying by 12.



Hey little twelvetoes, I hope you're well.

Must be some far-flung planet where you dwell.

If we were together, you could be my cousin,

Down here we call it a dozen.

Hey little twelvetoes, please come back home.


Now if man had been born with 6 fingers on each hand, his children
would have 'em too. And when they played hide-and-go-seek they'd
count by sixes fast. And when they studied piano, they'd do their
six-finger exercises. And when they went to school, they'd learn the
golden rule, and how to multiply by twelve easy: just put down a
zero. But me, I have to learn it the hard way.

Lemme see now:

One times 12 is twelve, two times 12 is 24.

Three times 12 is 36, four times 12 is 48, five times 12 is 60.

Six times 12 is 72, seven times 12 is 84.

Eight times 12 is 96, nine times 12 is 108, ten times 12 is 120.

Eleven times 12 is 132, and 12 times 12 is 144. WOW!


Hey little twelvetoes, I hope you're thriving.

Some of us ten-toed folks are still surviving.

If you help me with my twelves, I'll help you with your tens.

And we could all be friends.

Little twelvetoes, please come back home.




listen for yourself.(save it locally, the server is too slow to stream)



Well, I can't go to bed feeling misty. Let's turn this boat around, and I'll show another schoolhouse rock song that makes me feel goofy and smiley.



Nighty night, dear journal.




Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla



Now I have a friend named Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla

and I could say that Rufus found a kangaroo

That followed Rufus home

And now tbat kangaroo belongs

To Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla ...

Whew! I could say that, but I don't have to

Because I have pronouns I can say,

He found a kangaroo that followed him home

And now it is his

You see, he, him and his are pronouns

Replacing the noun Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla,

A very proper noun,

And it is a pronoun replacing the noun kangaroo.

Now comma,

Now Rufus has a sister named Rafaella Gabriela Sarsaparilla

If she found a kangaroo I'd say to you

She found a kangaroo that followed her home

and now it is hers but I can't say that

Because she found an aardvark

That fell in love with her and they're so happy.



And my name is Albert Andreas Armadillo

(No relation to the Sarsaparillas)

Because of pronouns I can say

I wish she would find a rhinoceros for me

And we'd be happy.

You see, a pronoun was made to take the place of a noun

Because saying all those nouns over and over

Can really wear you down.


Now I could tell you Rafaella Gabriela

and Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla and

Albert Andreas Armadillo found

an aardvark, a kangaroo and a rhinoceros

And now that aardvark and that kangaroo

and that rhinoceros belong respectively to

Rafaella Gabriela Sarsaparilla

and Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla

and Albert Andreas Armadillo

Whew! Because of pronouns I can say in this way,

We found them and they found us

And now they are ours and we're so happy

Thank you pronouns!

A pronoun was made to take the place of a noun

Because saying all those nouns over and over

Can really wear you down.



Sometimes when we take them all on the bus

People really raise a fuss

They start shouting out pronouns at us

Like, "Who brought that rhinoceros on the bus?"

And "What made that horrible noise?"

And "Which one of them's getting off first?"

Who what and which are special pronouns

which can ask a question in the sense

where you do not know the name of the noun.



But I know

I have mine and she has hers and he has his

You have yours

They love us and we love them

What's ours is theirs, that's how it is with friends.

And pronouns, you are really friends.

Cause saying all those nouns over and over

can really wear you down.




listen for yourself! (save it locally, the server is too slow to stream)



Had a very nice walk this morning.. headed up to the beach...population was low, so it was pleasant to roam a little. On the beach walk, I saw two different people walking with toothpick in their mouths...I wonder if they came from the same eatery. Things locally have pretty much calmed down, with most of the drunken school party-folk headed back to an education of a more institutional sort.



Last night I dreamt that friend's memoirs had been published and was being very well recieved by the public.... but he'd forgotten to get permission to name names before setting the tome in print. People kept coming over to his house, with highlighted copies of the book in hand. For every incedent of the person's name they were allowed to take one item from his house. Some folks went easy on him, taking little things... (like a spoon or videocasettes). A jealous "friend" took all the doors in his house... apparently he was mentioned a number of times, and wanted a cut of the profits. A lawyer was making sure that the things taken weren't "disposable"... I asked if I could just take a paper towel, and was denied.



Off to shower, though the weather wasn't really hot enough to warrant it. just a good jump start for the day.

Joe: What is that, a teddy bear?
Waponi chief: No, it is my soul.
Joe: I hope you don't lose it.
Waponi chief: So do I.







Freedom Force is cool. I'll be buying it once my other projects calm to a simmer. (And I finish galactic battlegrounds and no one lives forever... birthday gifts as yet unplayed.)



Time change is coming up this Sunday... sort of surreal that most of the timepieces here reset by themselves... the VCR, computers, caller ID phone, palmtop. sometime in the morning, an hour will just distintigrate. I used to like staying up, and waiting for it to happen. I sort of got a kick out of *blink* and presto! an hour has flown! (or even better, later on...presto! rewind!)



The Poem Tag project is out of control... 131 and growing! that's crazy... just follow the linkies. Well, I won't abandon it, but I'm only going to add a maximum of ten a day.



I want the day to fly by, so I can get the weekend rolling, or a robot double to fill in for me at work. I'm looking forward to tonight.



Got a new supplier of tech, so I think I might build a web server for laughs, and just abandon the big brain project... use him for scrap. I can get a 1.7 machine for cheap-cheap, and it has a load of goodness. I will snag all the good bits out of big brain, (just the burner, and video card, really) , but the new machine will be XP / 2000 / *nix multiple boot, for brewing, doing software and net fiddling. Also, with the video card in place, newtcam will go 24/7 or so again! :)

*yawn*



Newt is sleepy too! Talking to the little boy this morning...noticed something.




Have you seen the blue eagle on the new US 57 cent stamp? Ye gods, it would be right at home at a Nuremburg rally. Someone actually wrote about it.



I don't agree with those written opinions, but looking at the conspiracy theorist under a magnifying glass... you can see the knowledge he has, and the misapplication of same. A lot of the information *is* sound, but the reaching involved cracks me up. That sort of rant makes for a perfect additional spooky-loony character that gets killed off after explaining the plot to an invesigator or main character.



The guy seems to forget that the eagle is the national emblem of the USA. Has been for over 200 years, and that nobody has a market on art deco design. I wonder what shaped that guy's perspectives to the current leaning. Is he just saying stuff to be inflammatory, or sell to a market? Does he really believe what he's blathering about?



I just synched the whole oz series into my palmtop. great popcorn books... I can tear through them fast or wander through slowly. I forsee swallowing them pretty quickly... they're good bedtime books, and remind me of when I was a little bear. I'd like to read these books to my beloved in bed, as I'm pretty sure she's never read them.... I wonder how interesting they are to an adult that never saw them as a kid? as for the meaty books to go with the popcorn, I'm devoting that area of my brain for the next month or so to building .net skills to a more valuable level.



but for now... nighty night, dear journal.



I dreamed last night about living on a cruise ship that was in dry dock, and had been converted to deluxe apartments. We had a bank of rooms, a dance floor, banquet area, and an insanely big library with a lot of overstuffed chairs by a fireplace. The walls there were a deep, stained wood with dark red upholstry. It was very homy, though large, reasonably well lit, but had a strong cozy atmosphere.



I really wish that I could remember more, but the rest was shampooed away with the morning scrub.





By the way, Button-Bright's real name is Saladin Paracelsus de Lambertine Evagne von Smith. He says there really is more to his name, but he's forgotten it.(not bad for a 4 year old.)



I miss having regular access to vending machines that would drop a cup, and fill it with cocoa, soup or coffee... The kind that had playing cards on the side, and you'd get points. We had one where I interned that you could even bring your own cup, if you didn't want to be environmentally unfriendly. people I know drink a few cups a day... add that up over a year, and you have a *huge* pile of trash.



I also miss free vending. The place I'm at now would never make it... I could see folks in the mailshop emptying all the twinkies and soda, and taking them home, instead of living up to the honor system.



Here's a list of fun stuff that has been found in vending machines. the idea of the art-o-mat is very cool, indeed. I would probably buy things from there weekly. This stuff reminds me of the weird junk you could get at hotel machines, or bowling alleys. Smoking monkeys, disposable razors, gag junk like magic tricks and packs of cards.



this rosetta stone for unix is far too useful... nice to have it all in one place.