12/28/02

Hmmm...I've been so out of the loop, I don't know what the "hot item" was this year, toywise... The Cabbage Patch Kid / Ninja Turtle / Power Ranger / Tamagotchi / Furby / Tickle Me Elmo of 2002?

Watching Terror of Mechagodzilla with Newtzilla asleep at my side, getting belly rubs... Dave loaned the DVD to me yesterday. It's been a while since I've seen this one. A fun giant rubber monster show, certainly. Psychic powers, three monsters, space aliens and 70s clothes. Not too shabby.

I'm of a mind to curl up with my sweetie and watch Gamera movies.

Wow...I slept like a log last night...went to bed at 3, and didn't awaken until the phone jangled me at 11. Usually, I'm up by at least 9ish. Bro says that it got cool again last night...but it doesn't seem that brisk. Maybe the upper 50s. Not like that day midmonth when it hit the 40s. Just checked. He's full of beans.

Ushering in either a brave new world or a spectacular hoax, a company linked to a religious sect that believes in space aliens announced Friday that it has produced the world's first cloned baby. A healthy 7-pound girl, nicknamed Eve by scientists, was delivered by Caesarean section Thursday somewhere outside the United States, said Brigitte Boisselier, chief executive of Clonaid. Boisselier said the girl is an exact genetic copy of the American woman who gave birth to her.

Hollywood Florida is a stone's throw from here...regarding the clone; I'm going to wait and see, but it smells of fibs to me currently.

12/29/02

Woke up at a reasonable time this morning...only slept for about four hours.

I want to bring the term "Jive Turkey" back into regular acceptable usage.

It's not racist, sexist, or vulgar (as far as I know)... and it's goofy enough to make sure that there is a minimum of hard feelings.

If I annoyed someone with my opinion, and he or she petulantly muttered "Jive Turkey"... I don't think I'd mind much. I'd probably laugh, and ask for their take on what was being said.

Another term I've not heard in a while is "Neutron Bomb". Has all research into those things stopped? Are they still feasible, but just not the trendy weapon of destruction, now that bioweapons are popular?

a year ago - how to diaper a monkey, (dead link), newt meds, holiday prezzies, hoogerbrugge, midget village, shopping, eclipse.

two years ago - noodles, sweetie showed me bejeweled, Dan stress, Jell-O flavors, snot production.

Feeling creaky... off to the showers with me!

Can't sleep. Making up for my snoozing late this morn?

Wishing I had some square sheets of paper, to make some star wars origami for Newt to fetch.

"Get the X-wing! Git it! Git it! There's a Porkins-shaped treat in that one! Yum!"

Not wanting to read, which is what usually knocks me out.

I'm looking for patterns in the shadows, window-shopping on ebay for weirdness, Newt's sleeping at the foot of the bed.

I've got a craving for a homemade bierock sandwich and a glass of beer. I haven't had one since the early 80s... I would lunch at Brent's Gramma & Great-grandma's house (with Brent, of course) on the odd Saturday, after helping out around the yard and doing assorted chores. Faux-Gramma Ashland made a sandwich in a bread pocket with a filling of ground beef, sauerkraut, onions, and seasonings. It was fantastically filling and tasty meal, especially when she'd slip some swiss cheese in there (infrequently). I probably ate a thousand of those things over 1983/1984. Note...I've never had one with a glass of beer. She served 'em with milk. That woman took great joy in feeding me, and I enjoyed eating what she set out, a sweet arrangement all around. (Best food I ate that decade, I'd wager.) She'd chide Brent terribly about how picky he was... He would always have grilled cheese or a grilled bologna sandwich with tomato soup. That was it. No bierocks, no homemade liverwurst, no goblin-fart bread, no cabbage or kraut. He wouldn't even eat potato pancakes. Little wonder he was so thin.

I bet I could make some outstanding (and far more healthy) ones with "soy beef". I'm not sure what seasonings she used...let's see what the internet says...quite a few hits just say salt and pepper to taste.... some less palatable looking than others. I'm going to go with this one. Looks pretty simple, though I've never made anything inside a bread shell before.


Krautranzen or Bierocks - 4 servings

Dough

1 tsp salt
2 tbsp (scant) active dry yeast
3 1/2 c bread flour
1/2 c lukewarm water
1 1/2 c lukewarm milk
Dissolve yeast in warm water until bubbly. Heat milk to lukewarm. In mixing bowl combine shortening and sugar and beat well. Add eggs and beat. Add milk and salt.

Gradually add 3-3 1/2 cups flour. If using mixer with dough hook, finish according to machine directions. If kneading by hand, turn dough out onto lightly floured board and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes. Place dough in greased bowl, turning to grease top of dough. Cover with plastic wrap, set in warm place and let rise until doubled in bulk.

[hooray for scotto's bread machine, and it's dough feature!]

Filling

1 lb lean ground beef [replacing with 'soy beef']
1/2 c soft shortening
1 medium-sized head of cabbage
1/2 c sugar
1 large onion, chopped
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet brown beef and season. Drain off excess fat. Add onion and cabbage and steam until cabbage is tender. Salt and pepper to taste and cool.

Punch dough down. Divide in half and roll out onto lightly floured board. Roll dough into 12"x24" rectangles. Divide dough into 8 equal parts. Divide half of the filling equally on each square. Wet edges of dough with water. Bring opposite corners of squares together. Pinch edges together tightly. Place, seam side down, on a greased baking sheet. Cover lightly and let stand in a warm place until light. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Bake at 350 degree F. for about 15 minutes. Brush with margarine while still hot. Cool. Serve warm or cold.

From Mennonite Foods and Folkways From South Russia by Norma Jost Voth.

It's so strange to think that those days are so long gone... I can remember some of the goofy jokes and conversations we'd have over doing lawn duty, picking up pine cones and hedge cuts into trash bags. Talking about Vladimir the evil spy, Scout Troop 395, Pete, designing the Delsig, programming on the new Apple ][e.

Harpo Marx was an undercover agent for J. Edgar Hoover, running secret documents out of the Soviet Union.


FBI chief 'recruited' Harpo
By John Harlow in Los Angeles
23dec02

IN the golden age of Hollywood, Harpo Marx was the definitive clown - a wild-haired mute in a dirty raincoat who chased women, sounding a loud horn.

Yet the most anarchic of the Marx Brothers - in order of age, Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo and Zeppo - was a secret agent for the US government. J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI, was so impressed he wanted Harpo to work for him as well, according to US records to be released soon.

The 165cm-tall comedian was inducted into the dark corridors of espionage in the winter of 1933 when - after the commercial failure of the slapstick comedy Duck Soup - the brothers agreed temporarily to go their separate ways. Joseph Stalin, who was a fan, authorized a six-week tour of the Soviet Union for Harpo, a skilled harpist and mime who played with comedians across the country.

At the end of the tour, Harpo told his family, he was asked by the US ambassador in Moscow to take home some "diplomatic mail", which he was instructed to conceal in his socks. The nature of the documents remains classified.

Marx Brothers enthusiasts who heard these stories after Harpo's death in 1964 were unsure whether to trust them, but the records indicate there was more than a grain of truth in the comic's tale.

Hoover spent much of his tenure as director of the national police force from 1924 to 1972 seeking allies to fight communist infiltration of the Hollywood community.

One letter from the FBI archives, signed by Hoover in 1949, congratulates Harpo on his "loyal past services" to his country.

Hoover hoped they might meet in the near future, saying: "There may be ways that you can help your country again."

Although Harpo went on to entertain US troops during the Korean war, his family believes he felt his spying days were behind him.

His widow, Susan Fleming, who married him in 1936, still lives in Los Angeles. "Who knows what might have happened? Harpo Marx could have been the first James Bond," a friend said.

12/30/02







That's my L4/5 spinal region. The black lines are needles, and the dark streaks are colored dyed so the doc can make sure medicine is going to the right places. I should have images from today's procedure by next week.

BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) -- Horrifying stories about vampires attacking villagers in the dead of night and sucking their blood have forced Malawi's government to wage a campaign to fight the rumors and calm the public.

The rumors, which began three weeks ago in the south of the poor African nation, have intensified in recent days.

Last week, scared villagers beat to death a man suspected of being a vampire, attacked and nearly lynched three visiting priests, and destroyed an aid group's encampment they feared was the vampires' headquarters.

President Bakili Muluzi called the rumors unfounded and malicious. He accused unnamed opposition groups of trying to undermine him by accusing his government of giving aid agencies human blood in exchange for food aid.

"No government can go about sucking (the) blood of its own people," Muluzi said Sunday. "That's thuggery."

The rumors were hurting efforts to pull the nation out of its severe hunger crisis, Muluzi said, since many families were too scared to leave their villages to tend their fields.

A series of separate statements from the police, Information Ministry, Home Affairs Ministry and Internal Security Ministry have condemned the rumors and top government officials have journeyed to the districts of Thyolo, Mulanje, Chiradzul and Blantyre to try to quash the stories.

"There is no truth in this. There is no such thing as blood suckers anywhere in Malawi," said Joseph Aironi, the police inspector general.

But the fears have continued.

Some villagers have begun fleeing to the city of Blantyre for safety.

Others sleep clutching drums so they can wake up the village if they suspect they are about to be attacked.

A mob in the southern tea-growing district of Thyolo last week beat to death a man accused of being a vampire, police said.

Three visiting Roman Catholic priests also were beaten in Thyolo by a mob of angry villagers who did not recognize them and suspected them of being vampires, police said. The priests were held overnight until a local Catholic family identified them. They were treated for severe bruises.

In the same district, villagers destroyed tents pitched by an aid group that was in the area to drill wells for drinking water. The villagers believed the vampires were using the tent camp as their headquarters. No one was injured in the attack.

The frenzy has been fed by several people's stories of being attacked by vampires.

Edna Kachisa said the vampires drilled a hole in her mud-and-thatch house and sprayed a suffocation gas inside. The attackers fled after she banged on a drum and awoke the village, she said.

"Because of the smoke I inhaled I could not speak for three days and I am still suffering from a recurrent stomach ache," she said.

Another woman outside Blantyre showed journalists a mark on her forearm she said was where vampires inserted a needle to try to draw her blood.

Currently Reading The Autobiography of P.T. Barnum... fascinating stuff, and best taken with a grain or better yet, a shaker of salt, considering who it is doing the writing...but it's a good read none the less. I figure I'll finish it sometime tonight or tomorrow.
RFL - Having that done today at 3:45, and if all goes well. I'm hoping that this will solve the majority of my problems.

Fasting right now. I'm going to be a hungry boy...looking forward to going out and getting something delicious and celebratory afterwards.
Trip didn't go very well...I'm going to have to look into other methods, it seems. We'll see how I feel after a few hours have gone by.

12/31/02
More pictures of my spine. This is from Yesterday. I like these images more than the last.








From The Tablet, Top read Newspaper of Painted Rocks, Capital of Scottovia

(Wednesday Science Insert)
New breed of crab discovered in the lower income areas of the Coast, nicknamed "The Hermit Scorpion"

The hermit crab protects its soft and vulnerable body by inhabiting the empty whorls of dead shellfish, hereby acquiring a nacreous armor it could not produce by itself, and swaps shells that have become too narrow for more spacious ones.

Following the same principle, the Scottovian Hermit Scorpion uses empty syringes, devoid of their plunger, both as shells and as attack and defense weapons. It possesses four pairs of legs, the pair nearest the head being manipulators, pinchers. However, on one side, and only one side of its body, three of the legs are in fact elongated claws, which not only allow the hermit scorpion to retract or move out of the barrel of the syringe, but also permit it to manipulate and use the syringe's needle as a sting, when the hermit scorpion has totally withdrawn its body from the barrel. A metal syringe needle is indeed a useful tool to pierce the strong chitinous exoskeleton of insects, and hermit scorpions impale roaches, ants and other various insects before eating them. However, the syringe needle also finds a use in defending the hermit scorpion from potential predators. The sting of the needle might not be a strong offence against larger species, but then again, sometimes enough chemicals linger (not a coincidence, read on) on the needle or in the hub that the sting causes far worse trouble than would originally be expected.

Hermit scorpions are insectivores and carrion-eaters, as well as solitary creatures, though they can be found in large numbers near places where great quantities of used syringes are available. They experience 18 mating seasons a year, with the males parading and fighting each other off in order to seduce the slightly larger females. Note that the bigger the syringe, the older the hermit scorpion. The oldest hermit scorpions lair in high capacity veterinary syringes.

Also note that some hermit scorpions appear to have the ability to synthesize the last chemical product contained in the syringe in which they chose to live, in very low quantities, in order to fill the needle canula with it. Some people claim to have been cured from illnesses after being stung by a hermit scorpion, but nothing conclusive has been proven from these rumors. Desperate, terminally ill patients will sometimes seek hermit scorpions and gamble on a curative sting, and this is not recommended.

Hermit scorpions are currently being researched upon by Scottovia's Department of Science in Painted Rocks. If you see these dangerous animals, give them a wide berth, and call animal control as soon as possible. Calls resulting in a capture of these animals will result in a reward based on the size and condition of the specimen(s).

Musical Acts I've seen live, as they occur to me (Idea swiped from ) Some I've seen more than once.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some...I've enjoyed all of the ones below.

• Cyndi Lauper


• Styx


• Talking Heads


• Grateful Dead


• Devo


• Paul Simon


• Lenny Kravitz


• Bob Dylan


• GWAR


• They Might Be Giants


• Depeche Mode


• Genesis


• Phil Collins


• ELO


• REO Speedwagon


• Concrete Blonde


• B-52s


• The Who


• Wall of Voodoo


• Steppenwolf


• Aerosmith


• The Three Tenors


• The Beach Boys


• Phish


• George Benson


• Meat Loaf


• The Cranberries


• 10,000 Maniacs


• Violent Femmes


• Stomp


• String Cheese Incident


• R.E.M.


• James Brown


• Rusted Root


• Chubby Checker


• Soul Coughing


• Ziggy Marley


• Pearl Jam


• Midnight Oil


• Cake


• The Police


• Weird Al Yankovic


• AC/DC


• Tom Petty


• Cowboy Junkies


• Boston Philharmonic


• Florida Philharmonic


• Manhattan Transfer


• Marie Osmond (At a Fair. Yes, she was good.)


• Fleetwood Mac

a year ago - gray pumpkin, new years resolutions, frankenquirrel, pig eyeballs, spam, new years wishes

two years ago - watching spongebob with mah sweetie, D&D movie, fresh birks, shopping, saw Andy, chilly night

Slow day... taking it easy. Scritching his chin to bib, Newt's deep, nearly subsonic-purrs are making me drowsy...thinking about her eyes... mirroring her inner beauty. *Smitten*

I'm disappointed that there's no mail delivery today. I'm expecting a few things and can hardly wait for them to arrive.

Calling the doc tomorrow at 9am sharp to find out what the story is...I'd like a solid solution quickly, now that there are some possibilities open.

Mild peeve: Once Danny gets an idea into his head of how or why something works, it can be very difficult to get him to take another point of view and accept it. I think he resigns himself to some situations too quickly, rather than taking an extra step or two to make life a little nicer in the long run. That, and there are some things that he just doesn't want to think about. I don't know how that particular mindset works...If I have a question or a fear about something, I confront it, and dig until I get a halfway decent answer, even if the answer is "to the best of our knowledge, that answer is unknown". I hate to say it, but he's far more fatalistic than I am, though I can be much more of a cynic and sophist when the crankiness takes me over.

Tomorrow's Danny's Birthday... he's turning 41. Time to finally hook him up with a DVD player. Maybe burn him a couple VCDs to go with for later, too. (get him hooked on invader zim or sponge bob) That tells me that my birthday is in a month. I've not gotten myself a special treat for Christmas this year, so perhaps I can double up and do an extra special something for the B-day. I've got a few things that I'd like to pick up... A Bed in a Bag, pair of birks, and bring in some new clothes. Not sure what toys I'll grab... Sappho and Riker's remote control cars (not the super tiny ones, about the size of a bar and a half of soap.) Maybe set up a lindows box on the wireless network to act as the web server from home. It depends on what static addys cost these days.

I finished the Barnum book... starting with The Agony and the Ecstasy - about Michelangelo...it's a "biographical-novel" rather than a "pure biography" as I thought. I picked the book up months ago, and am just getting around to reading it. It's gotten good reviews, and the deMedicis are a fascination group of folks to read about.

A year ago - TZ marathon, people requesting money for reading their journal, country specific euros, 2nd instance of 1 Corinthians 13:5&6 and Happy Newt Year!


Two years ago Resolutions, some dead news links, good links to marbles, bejeweled, alchemy, etc, 1st instance of 1 Corinthians 13:5&6, reflections on old games, norman bates, ralph waldo emerson, and a new writing style.
's llamas!

Quinalt looks strangely clever. He's got a hidden underground base beneath the yurt, I bet.

It's raining hard out now, with strong winds. Exciting to hear that by the pale light of the laptop. It's a great sound...just came out of nowhere. The scent of ozone and cleanliness is filling my room.

Random South Florida Factoids from the Ice Age - Florida was quite a bit different 12,000 years ago. There were no Florida Panthers, but did play home to the largest saber-toothed cat that ever lived, Smilodon floridon, which sank its massive canines into prey over an area twice the size of modern Florida. Camels trekked the landscape — the animal is actually native to North America but moved into Asia over the Bering Strait. Some things, however, haven't changed. Manatees were still roaming the (propeller-free) waters, and Florida was still the Sunshine State — despite most of the world being frozen solid, Florida was only about 10 degrees cooler than it is today.

I'm overly happy that the numbers in 2003 add up to 5.

For the New Year, I've submitted my journal to the ageless project. Nifty page...it is showing the diversity of folks with web pages out there... and they disallow popups. It's relatively young... Nobody else on there with my birthday yet... (02/02/1969) Only two Feb 02s listed at al so far, '71 and '83 they do have members born from as early as the 30s, and as recently as the 90s.

I wonder how many people won't get into it because they don't want to tell how old they are? I like it because there's a random button, and unlike LJ, I won't skew to a 16 year old girl from California.

Positive vibes of peace, health, and happiness for everyone for the coming year.

My closing thoughts of 2002 and the opening ones of 2003 are of love for my sweetheart... I look forward to our love growing even more over the years ahead.

Something I've quoted every New Year since being with her - powerful words, with deep meaning.

Love is
is not rude,
it is not self seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices in truth.
It always protects,
always trusts,
always hopes,
always perseveres.

1 Corinthians 13:5&6

I've plumbed the depths of my heart, and she is ever there. Our love is a thing of wonder... existing in all varieties. I'm looking forward to exploring it more.