lost in gentle thoughts
curled close against a pink nose
My yawn makes Newt sneeze.

The guy at the gift shop asked about my posting their cow on the web. Here it is again, in case they're peeking in.



It was originally posted for Halloween at this link - http://www.livejournal.com/users/scottobear/day/2002/10/31

That cow about doubled my normal daily hits. :)

Out walking by Eckerd’s, a carful of guys thought they knew me. Apparently I look like a guy named "Porkchop" or "Larry", depending on who was doing the yelling. Anyone who knows me is aware that I'm more of a Tofu Scotto.

I didn't get to see a movie today... My travels took too long, and I preferred to return home, rather than sitting tight in a movie theatre with a big bag o'prezzies. Everyone is done, except Dave... I'm sure I'll think of something in the next day or two. Meanwhile, I've got wrapping to do. That goes by fast, if I've got the TV on. Now, I've just got to find a comic book or five that are ready to be sacrificed for the cause.

I was sorely tempted in the Circuit City / Comp USA / Toys R US... but I was good. I bought myself a cool finger puppet set at the little gift store. They've got all sorts of Archie McPhee-type doodads there for half off.

Kiss Your Face... assorted folks done up as the clown-faced band.

A year ago - 's Birthday, pumpernikel, a newt pic, trident gum, ICQ suckage, Potty-talk and dinopoop.

Two years ago - Many folks had the flu-bug (seems to be rucurrent, this time of year), Fight game, silly links, Happy Birthday (Again), 18 Beans through Christine, broken mail server, and please click on the hunger site.

One day Chuang Tzu and a friend were walking by a river. "Look at the fish swimming about," said Chuang Tzu, "They are really enjoying themselves."

"You are not a fish," replied the friend, "So you can't truly know that they are enjoying themselves."

"You are not me," said Chuang Tzu. "So how do you know that I do not know that the fish are enjoying themselves?"

12:20pm
Lotto is up to $100 million. I got in on the office pool... 12 people playing including the two newest members of the company. Dick and Joe. I'm going to withhold lasting personality judgment on both of them for a bit, but first impressions are - Joe = Repetitive, and no sense of schedules. If I say something will be ready in 30 minutes, don't call me every 10 minutes to ask how it’s looking. He may have to be trained with the "Every time you call or interrupt, it's going to double the time I said it would take." method. He's *really* be more of a problem for Santie, Kev and Sappho. Dick, on the other hand is quiet, but friendly.

Joe said that if he won in the lotto pool, he'd keep working there. The rest of us in the room laughed and told him it'd be peaceful for him, all alone like that.

Ugh, sometimes my news of the strange feed picks the wrong time to send me stuff... first thing in the morning! - Homosexual killing and eating ritual shocks Germany , CNN story here - less the more gory details. The phrase "cannibalistic and homosexual tendencies" is off to me... I don't think it's the political correctness of it... but the two being linked seems disparate.

Sylvester Stallone has a quote in Death Race 2000... "Some people may think you're cute, Babe. But to me you're one very large baked potato!"

Well, it's time to pick up a few stocking stuffers... 4-legged and crawling creatures, mostly. I've yet to find a good pet store on federal highway in this vicinity. I’ll take another look-see as I pick up other stuff. Perhaps I'll go see a movie, too. I'm interested in Equilibrium, Star Trek, Treasure Planet, Harry Potter, and Die another Day.. All of which would be nicer on the big screen rather than in Kazaa-pirate format. That'll be my treat to myself if I finish early. Ooh... and maybe a trip to the Chinese market for some wasabe peas and pocky.

Have a wonderful day, dear journal.

D-Debt - $1302

12/13/02 -4am
Yikes. It was a nightmare of some sort. I knew it. Frightening enough to wake me from a sound sleep, and jarring enough that I don't remember a moment of it.

back to bed.

11am
First phrase heard after waking - "Everybody loves mass-produced cream-filled pastries!" - Dan Ackroyd in Caddyshack 2. (It's been since switched back off)

Fell back asleep shortly after waking up, and slept another 4 hours. Newt was good enough to not patty-pat my face until about 8:30, so I think I have enough rest under my belt. I recall bits and fragments of the dreams from that time. Baked Alaska? I've not had that in ages. There was a large library, and there was a baked alaska on a table in the middle. I'm not sure if people were there... I don't remember talking to any, or running from any (the two main things I do with most folks in dreams) though there was some sort of problem with the room... a gas leak or electrical trouble.

The Balloonhats project: two balloon-hat making photographers who toured the world, convincing strangers to wear balloon hats and pose for photos.

Anyhow… off to catch a bus. until later, dear journal.

P.S. Hey! It's Friday the thirteenth! That Calls for a song!

The sky is blue, and all the leaves are green
The sun's as warm as a baked potato I think I know precisely what I mean
When I say it's a shpadoinkle day
As I ride with my girl
She's my best friend in the whole world
We move along, set our goals high
With eyes full of hope as we aim for the ...

Sky is blue and all the leaves are green
My heart's as full as a baked potato
I think I know precisely what I mean
When I say it's a shpadoinkle day!
When I say it's a happy-go-moinkly, Shpadoinkle-ly day

Thank you Zoe for the holiday fudge, and Newt *loves* his little fuzzy dinosaur...the perfect size. We're playing fetch with it right now!

Zen stories to tell your neighbors

Zombie Jamboree

It was a Zombie Jamboree
Took place in a New York cemetery
It was a Zombie Jamboree
Took place in a New York cemetery

Zombies from all parts of the Island
Some of them was a great Calypsonians
Although the season was Carnival
We get together in bacchanal
And they singing

Back to back, belly to belly
I don't give a damn, I done dead already
Oho back to back, belly to belly
At the Zombie Jamboree

One female Zombie wouldn’t behave
See how she jumping out of the grave
In one hand a quarter rum
In the other hand she knocking Congo drum
Believe singer start to make his rhyme
The Zombies are racking their bones in thyme
One bystander had this to say
'Twas a pleasure to see the Zombies break away

Back to back, belly to belly
I don’t give a damn, I done dead already
Oho back to back, belly to belly
At the Zombie Jamboree

I goin' talk to Miss Brigit Bardot
And tell her miss Bardot take it slow
All the men think they're Casanova
When they see that she’s bare foot all over
Even old men out into beaker
Find their hearts getting weaker and weaker
So I goin' to ask her for your sake and mine
At least to wear her ear rings part at the time

Back to back, belly to belly
I don't give a damn, I done dead already
Oho back to back, belly to belly
At the Zombie Jamboree

A lot of World leaders talkin' 'bout war
And I'm afraid they're going too far
So it's up to us you and me
To put an end to Catastrophe
We must appeal to their goodness of heart
And ask them to breech in and please do their part
Cause if this Atomic war begin
They won't even have a part to breech in

Back to back, belly to belly
I don't give a damn, I done dead already
Oho back to back, belly to belly
At the Zombie Jamboree

Recorded by Harry Belafonte, Noel Anthony, Kingston Trio, The Merrymen and Rockapella.


Danny and I won with our entry in the California Tomato Recipe contest. Loot consists of a lovely handwritten letter of congratulations, a XL T-shirt, a fridge magnet, and a pen as well a set of California Recipe cards. (It was a group effort, so I'm claiming the fridge magnet, and he's keeping the rest of the stuff) Groovy! First Chex mix, now this! For the record, the tomato recipe we used was made up whole cloth, not unlike Sven Berg.

12/12/02
Cheddar Chex mix, while normally tasty and delicious, is a poor choice for a snack first thing in the morning, especially right after brushing one's teeth. Bleh.

Newt's sleeping with his paws up on the wall. I've never seen him do that before.



He was awake just a moment ago.



Very nifty-named hot sauces. thanks, Dave!



Which Neon Genesis Evangelion Character Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
You are Misato! You are Shinji's caregiver in Neon Genesis, and also his teacher and tutor. You are rather wild, but you curb that wildness into responsibility and practicality. You can take the lead in most situations, and keep things under control. You have an alluring charm that makes most men want to bed you, but you're waiting for the right one (though rumors may differ) Overall you're a sassy, intelligent creature, filled with common sense and charisma

Treebeard Action figure....It Talks!!! don't look if you don't want spoilers. Here's a gallery of other artist's conceptions. This may be a gifty I get for myself.

Ok, I admit it, I thumb through thew weekly world news online. Latest wacky article I'm fond of? Chinese digging tunnel through center of the earth to invade America. - “Roughly 500 million bloodthirsty, screaming Chinese troops will come pouring out of that hole -- hell-bent on a bold mission to conquer the United States, reduce our people to slavery and seize all our women.”

Bald Bears!

Froogle... Google shopping. hmm. oh, this is evil. I could be made to spend a lot of money with only a little prodding.

Thank you for the beautiful homemade card, ! The Sticker is still pine-y fragrant, too!

Monkeys prefer gender specific toys - Researchers at the University of London gave a bunch of toys to some monkeys. The boy monkeys played with boy toys, and the girl monkeys played with girl toys.

Hmm... your own genitals as a refrigerator magnet... or as soap!

Ok... everyone on my friend's list that's sick... get better, already. My sweetie's doing well now, thank goodness.



'Declarations
option explicit
Private wrkDefault As Workspace
Private dbsNew As Database
Private tdfNew As New TableDef
Private cnn As New ADODB.Connection
Private cmd As New ADODB.Command
Private strcnn As String
Private rs As New ADODB.Recordset
Private sDataBaseName As String


'Code:
'******--------PS: Reference ADO 2.5 and DAO 3.6***********-

Private Sub CreateDB()
On Error GoTo err

sDataBaseName = "c:\NewDB.mdb"
Set wrkDefault = DBEngine.Workspaces(0)
Set dbsNew = wrkDefault.CreateDatabase(sDataBaseName, _
dbLangGeneral, dbEncrypt) 'Create New DataBase
Set dbsNew = wrkDefault.OpenDatabase(sDataBaseName, True, False) 'open the created Database
Set tdfNew = dbsNew.CreateTableDef("NewTable") 'Create Table

With tdfNew
.fields.Append .CreateField("NewField", dbtext) 'Create a new field with text as data type
End With

dbsNew.TableDefs.Append tdfNew 'add the table to the DB
dbsNew.Close 'close database
err:
If err.Number = 3204 Then 'DB exists
Kill sDataBaseName
Resume
End If
End Sub

Private Sub populateDB()
cnn.ConnectionString = "ODBC;DBQ=" & sDataBaseName & ";UID=;PWD=;Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)}"
cnn.open
Set rs = New ADODB.Recordset
strcnn = "SELECT * FROM NewTable"
rs.open strcnn, cnn, adOpenDynamic, adLockOptimistic
rs.addNew
rs.fields("NewField").Value = "Hello"
rs.Update
' To read from the DB into say a textbox named text1
' text1.text=rs.fields("NewField").Value

rs.Close
Set rs = Nothing
cnn.Close

MsgBox "Done. Database can be found at " & sDataBaseName, vbInformation + vbOKOnly

End Sub







'Declarations
'the correctly functionality of code is necessary activate in references of proyect the Microsoft DAO 3.51 LIBRARY
Public db As Database

'Code:
'databas as path of Database

Function OpenDB()As Boolean
On Error GoTo Erroropening
Set db = DBEngine.Workspaces(0).OpenDatabase(databas)
OpenDB = True
Exit Function
Erroropening:
OpenDB = False
MsgBox "Error: " & Err.Number & " - " & Err.Description
End Function


Function CloseDB()As Boolean
On Error GoTo Errorclose
db.Close
Set db = Nothing
closeDB = True
Exit Function
ErrorClose:
CloseDB = False
End Function


I saw something tonight that's going to give me dreams.. or maybe nightmares.. I wonder what.

What element of today's journey through the hours is going to play back in my sleep theatre?

gave me some games on CD today... Serious Sam and house of the dead 2... Killin' Zombies. It was nice of her... she knows I dig stuff similar to that.

Well, I have a windows update here.. time to reboot and see what happens. Night night, dear journal.

12/11/02
Slept deeply last night, recovering charge...the dreams seem distant, even up on awakening... I couldn't recall them enough to note them by the side of my bed.

I'm thinking about my sweetheart this morning, sending her thoughts of comfort and peace. She deserves to be bathed in starlight, cocooned in a gentle wrapping of blankets and held close in my arms as she drifts to a deep, pleasant sleep... and then awakening refreshed and clear so that we can frolic. I want to share with her my strength and huge degree of care.

I'm contemplating having holiday oranges... with a little vanilla yogurt and walnuts... a meme introduced to me about two years ago by bookfoole and sweetalyssm (Bookfoole had the oranges and walnuts...Sweetalyssm had the stroke of decadent genius to add the yogurt.)

My gosh, Christmas is in two weeks. I've got to get the rest of my goodies in the mail. I'm going to bring my cards to work, I think.

I rode the bike all the way home tonight, and I made better time than the bus. (Or at least equal.) I maintained an average speed of about 15 mph for the 7ish miles home, stopped at 7-11 for a bottle of water and some treats for my bro, and myself… and still got in the house by 9pm.

Joe Ostezewski at the 7-11 on the way home from work today. I knew him in my freshman / sophomore year in high school, before he became some kind of football guy for FSU. He recognized me before I recognized him. I'd say he's put on quite a little weight since I saw him last, but he still looks healthy and happy. He was driving an SUV, but there were no other people in the car. I'll write about the Ostazewski twins and my teaching them how to use the crappy "color computer II" (how's that for dating myself?) for word processing a homework report, while I felt so smug to myself about having an Atari 800 at home with all the stuff shown here and a fidonet hub. I

I'm happy that I've got wave one of my holiday cards out... another batch and I'll have 'em done.

I'm unwinding now… painting tiny cemetery stone walls with the following scheme- chaos black, heavy dry brush - codex gray, light dry brush- fortress gray, highlights 50% skull white - 50% fortress gray. Turning out better than the reddish-rust 'natural stone' of the ruins I've been putting together over the last week or so.

Monkey Weiner pendant. I can see those catching on in the more flamboyant parts of town. see also the donkey parking sign

I've been hearing a lot more swearing lately in my travels. The C-word... rhymes with punt. The N-Word, Rhymes with bigger. Does every letter of the alphabet have a nasty word associated with it? I know there's an F-word and cheap commitment hating-comedians call Marriage the M-word.

Is there a K-word? An I-Word? I'd like the official L-word to be Llama. Not because it's a curse word, but it's got two L's in it, and it's more cool (just a bit) than Lloyd, and they're cute as the dickens.

12/10/02

Four Radioactive rubber monsters agree. The earth is lovely when it glows green in the sky. They like Sock Monkey.

It looks like picture trail is going to dissolve my free hosting of my old palm pics and a few other images, because I won't buy an account. I logged in, and downloaded the pictures for rehosting elsewhere... there are about 60 of 'em, so what'll probably happen is that as I look back over time, I'll upload and replace the old links If I catch them. I'm glad that I have a few other sources, now. Plenty of room on my current host, and I think that one day in the future, I'll have a static number for my home system, so I can just host from the hard drive, and not sweat these other host-toasties.

I'd like to stay home today, but my work ethic forbids it.

It amazes me that I can have so many feelings in my emotional palate, and yet each one feels distinct at the same time. Happy, concerned, hopeful, curious, thoughtful, irritated and loving all bubble on the brew that is my mind. How can you be joyous and irritated at the same time? That's not really the term "bittersweet". More like jalapeno-chocolate...it tastes good, but maybe not something you'd ask for. Each bubble, a different color, never mixing with the others, but swirling so close that the lines that separate can be hard to see, unless you look close enough to dye your nose. Different feelings bubble to the surface, splashing open, and covering some of the others, only to be covered themselves by the next bubble. I'm pleased that the base broth of the mental stew is of love, hope and strength. I understand that even the more harsh feelings can add some flavor to an otherwise possibly over-mellow blend. In the old days, they thought humors controlled temperament... The four primary humors being blood, phlegm, choler (yellow bile) and melancholy (black bile) would signify patterns of speech, behavior and other qualities that predominate in a human being. That's where we get the terms Choleric (ego/blood), sanguine (nervous system), phlegmatic (etheric or life body), and melancholic (physical body).

Must research - ah, here.

Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy , describes the four humors: (see also here)

"Blood, a hot, sweet, tempered, red humor, prepared in the meseraic veins, and made of the most temperate parts of the chylus (chyle) in the liver, whose office it is to nourish the whole body, to give it strength and color, being dispersed through every part of it. And from it spirits are first begotten in the heart, which afterwards in the arteries are communicated to the other parts.

"Pituita, or phlegm is a cold and moist humor, begotten of the colder parts of the chylus (or white juice coming out of the meat digested in the stomach) in the liver. His office is to nourish and moisten the members of the body.

"Choler is hot and dry, begotten of the hotter parts of the chylus, and gathered to the gall. It helps the natural heat and senses.

"Melancholy, cold and dry, thick, black and sour, begotten of the more feculent part of nourishment, and purged from the spleen, is a bridle to the other two humors, blood and choler, preserving them in the blood, and nourishing the bones.

"An exact balance of the four primary humors makes the justly constituted man, and allows for the undisturbed production of the concoctions or processes of digestion and assimilation."

The word feculent is *awesome*. Use it today, won't you?

Shirt and skivvies that were hanging from last night's torrent are dry enough to toss in the hamper... Khakis, however, need more hang time, and my birks are still waterlogged. I'm going to have to wear the ancient ones to work today instead. Note to self, don't forget the rain gear again, though it was cool and refreshing, arriving that way at work would be a perhaps too much. Ew, just discovered that my folding money is soaked. I'm glad I have a Zip-lock baggie for the camera and palmtop, for just such events.

Some morning linkitude-
I need to get more Turkish movies. Star Trek?,star wars, wizard of oz

Jane Goodall thinks a bigfoot breed may exist.

A year ago, Bear vs. armor, foofraw, tic tacs falling from my mouth, Mayah pics

two years ago, nifty links, Fidel Castro’s John Lennon statue, and life's perfectly swell.

*Sending healing & huggo vibes to my sweetheart... She's got a pesky winter virus. Don't confuse the tea set with the neti pot!

Hurricane season is over, but last night was the most torrential rain I've seen all year.

I'm going to try this. - Virtual crop circles Land art created by traveling around with a GPS to make giant drawings... some are most excellent.

I’m thinking about getting one of these for my brother's Christmas prezzie. (Bro, if you're reading this, don't click the link... it's not for sure yet, and it's a secret) Hooray for lindows!

Well, off the machine, and into a good book. Happy dreams, dear journal.

12/9/02


Dreams of the Desert...It wasn't too hot, traveling during twilight. Barefoot, I was walking a camel laden with goods to some distant destination. It was like walking on the beach.. My sweetheart was riding in front, scouting ahead and I had the tethers to both beasts in hand. I can still see her smile as she turned to me and confirmed that we were indeed heading in the proper direction. I don't recall any other animals visible.. not a lizard on a rock or a fly in the air. The sun was low enough in the sky that everything was painted a shade of orange, and a sense of good feeling was in the air. There were a few palms (Dates? Coconuts? I don't remember what sort) and an oasis with water rippling from a slight breeze.

Which desert was it? I'm not sure. It looked livable... not harsh or scrubby at all quite comforting, in fact. Maybe a good place to build a yurt... I would guess that the place we were heading would have ample supplies, and the kitty-boys would have plenty of room to run and play. I'm guessing they could chase more wakeful wildlife after the sun went all the way down.

On a completely different topic - Kitten "no hands" gallery

Well, with caravan thoughts on my mind, I'm off to work. Until later, dear journal.


Holy Guacamole.

It's been raining, hard, non-stop since 8ish.

I rode my bike a mile home from the bus station in that. *Phew*

I arrived home about 20 minutes ago, soaked to the skin.... and the back yard is *full-o-agua*, as are the side boxes of plants on the south (front) and east (side)... I hope what's there can handle being hydroponics for the duration.

I took a hot shower to counteract the cool shower on the way home... my fingertips are wrinkled, but I smell dang good. The upside of getting stuff at bath and body is that I can pick something up for myself, too.

It's fun tracking stuff that's being shipped to or from me. UPS shows each little hop, and it makes it fun to see where things have visited, and been acknowledged.




Current Ft. Lauderdale conditions:

current temp: 68°F
real feel: 62°F
relative humidity: 100%
barometer: 30.01 inches
wind speed: 12 mph
direction: NNE
visibility 13 miles

H-RAIN
77/72
updated: 10:10 PM 12/09/02

12/8/02 - 10:10 am
I am mighty!

I got all my chores, (including laundry) done, and picked up the little kid-gifites that I wanted to take care of today!

It's barely 10am!

*pounds chest*

12:49 -




in case thelinks expire (in about 3 months...)

To get there, go to www.PictureStage.com, and log in as a Guest using the
following information:

Log-in ID: scottobear
Guest Password: newton

Hope you enjoy my media collection!

Getting together with Dave in a bit to go Christmas Shopping for a few hours... Toys R us, and a few other spots here and there. Who knows? Maybe I'll get finished today after all.

I hope I get to talk to my sweetie tonight... been thinking about her quite a bit.

Nice Trip... got some nice stocking stuffers, and holiday cards.

Mayah was a fuss-budget when we were in the car, but as soon as we got out, she calmed down, and behaved nicely.

Newt likes some of the smells from Bath & Beyond... he went fro my wrist when I returned home.

Well, time now to start addressing...If you sent me you address before, and I didn't email you yesterday... please resend me your address at scottobear@livejournal.com .

I lost my snail-mail master list. dagnabbit!

I've got a good, and positive attitude... Thinking and reflecting on experience usually makes things work that way.

My gosh…has it been two months since my sweetheart's birthday already? It's hard to believe that it's practically Christmas...after that my birthday will be along in no time!

L.A. Story is a great movie.

Beautiful sounding rain coming down right now.... rustling and soothing.

Merry Christmas