Tuesday, December 23, 2003

CS is going on vacation starting tomorrow.... good thing, as he was getting on my last nerve by end of day. Though on call, I'll take comfort in being home for the next couple of days. He just pisses me off, because he seems unable to comply with any request I put to him. Today, I just asked that he copy files to the network, so we have some sort of back up, and he gave me annoying sass and crap over it. I seriously doubt that he'll last very long, at this point. If he cops the same stupid attitude too many times with the kahuna, he'll get bounced out of there. He just can't seem to get it through his skull that there is a time and place for innovation, and another for grunt work, and yet another for fun.

Friday, I get to Train MM some more, and put the Georgia and Florida Newsletters on the site... that should be fairly peaceful. I think I'll increase the size of the 51, too.

The Galka are a hulking race of powerful warriors. The Galka's capital city, located in the Altepa desert of Zepwell Island in the southwest corner of the Quon continent, fell to an attack from giant ant creatures six hundred years ago. The surviving Galka spread throughout Vana'diel, and a large number of them eventually settled in Bastok. The sheer strength of their powerful physiques is second to none. They have used their skills to contribute to the construction and development of the numerous mines in Bastok. However, it seems that some Galka have less than fond feelings for members of the Hume race.I'm going to try playing a little FFXI with the PGM crew tonight, if I can. Sammy & D will be good guides there. I'm going to be connecting to the Bismarck server, if anyone wants to look for a Galkan warrior. I'm going to shoot for a name similar to Scotto, but not sure what to go with, as yet. I'm sort of fond of the Tarutaru, too. You can tell this game has it's origins in Japan... cat girls and all pseudo babeage. I managed to avoid everquest, but FFXI has the allure of people I know playing.

[update] - If I didn't have friends there, I might not give it a second chance. I think you need some sort of degree in game dynamics to leap into it immediately... it's the first game I've ever *needed* someone to show me how to move, talk and act. I'm sort of annoyed that I will probably have to actually read the manual, because the interface is not Scotto-intuitive at all. The short time I was there, it was fun, and very pretty. I will continue to fiddle with it and see if I get better at the interface. If you're on the Bismarck Server, and you see a big galkan named Scottobear, say hi! Meanwhile, I think I'll play some more in There. (New client for there at - downloads.there.com/download/there_tla5.exe ) a mere snip at 101 megs. Maybe my bad attitude was influenced by my end of day mindset with ACIM. I'm a little tired of things defying me. Site Metermoss man!Random thought as I get ready this morn... Moss-man is really cool on the new He-man cartoon. He's like a juiced up post Khund-apocalypse (Giffen Legion) Chlorophyll Kid. If anyone knows what I'm talking about, they're a big geek like me, too. Transformed from sort of a joke (a green, leafy spy and master of camo, basically) to a really useful and powerful person. Biggest bonus? Maybe this means there'll be fuzzy, green action figures again?

Dan got me the Hulk game for Christmas... pretty fun smash-'em-up. The graphics are interesting, strangely posterized or something, but the game play is pretty keen.

I'm happy to say that I don't have to report to ACIM tomorrow morning... it was looking like a half-day there for a bit.

Thinking about my beloved, wondering where she's at, and what she's up to this morn... good stuff, I like to hope.

PLAY-DOH George Foreman Grill uh, wha?

Harold von Braunhut, The Inventor of Sea Monkeys and X-Ray Spex died... and was a neo-nazi?

Harold von Braunhut, who used comic-book advertisements to sell whimsical mail-order inventions like Amazing Sea Monkeys, tiny shrimp that pop to life when water is added, died on Nov. 28 at his home in Indian Head, Md. He was 77.

His wife, Yolanda, said that he died after a fall but that the exact cause was not known.

Von Braunhut was to quirky inventions what Barnum was to circuses. His X-Ray Specs, which advertisements said allowed wearers to see through flesh and clothing, are still selling after 50 years of guffaws. Hermit crabs as a pet? Thank von Braunhut for Crazy Crabs.

And, yes, perhaps only this verbally snappy holder of 195 patents could have realized that what the world needed was Amazing Hair-Raising Monsters, which allow a child to add water to a card and watch hair grow on the previously bald pate of the monster depicted there.

But von Braunhut's piece de resistance was Sea Monkeys, which come from dried-up lake bottoms, not the sea, and are not monkeys but brine shrimp. His extravagant claims for the crustaceans - for example, that they come back from the dead and that they can be trained and hypnotized - are convincing because they are sort of true. (The shrimp do follow light.)

Billions of shrimp have been sold, not to mention a Sea Monkey aphrodisiac and a wristwatch filled with swimming shrimp. There are Web sites for Sea Monkey fans; CBS briefly had a Sea Monkeys series on Saturday mornings; 400 million of them went into space with John Glenn in 1998; and, for the lazy, a new Sea Monkey video game allows a player to "virtually" care for a shrimp colony, lest the animals "virtually" die.

Von Braunhut gravitated toward life's crazier edge, racing motorcycles as the Green Hornet and managing the career of a man who dived from 40 feet into a kiddie pool filled with 12 inches of water. He sold invisible goldfish by guaranteeing that owners would never see them.

In a radically different sphere, von Braunhut's hard right-wing beliefs drew notice. According to a 1996 Anti-Defamation League report, he belonged to the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nations.

The Washington Post in 1988 published an article on him and his affiliations, adding that his relatives said he was Jewish. He repeatedly refused to discuss his beliefs on race or his own religious background.
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