From DRAWN:
Update: Orphan Works Act of 2008 NOT officially dead
- View my page on KAHRUVEL
The New York Times
Rings Up the Somali Pirates
'Mr. Sugule said that his men are treating the crew members well (the pirates would not let the crew members speak on the phone, saying it was against their rules). “Killing is not in our plans,” he said. “We only want money, so we can protect ourselves from hunger.”
When asked why the pirates needed $20 million to protect themselves from hunger, Mr. Sugule laughed over the phone and said: “Because we have a lot of men.”'
Thank heavens they don't have a lot of dogs as well.
29 September 2008
A few weeks ago I was in bodega when a new person wandered by. We began talking, and it turned out she was from Istanbul. In SL I've met people from many places, but this was the first time I'd met someone from Turkey, I think.That charm is from Turkey - Amanda brought it back for me many years ago (pre-SL). I've always liked those warding-off-the-evil-eye type charms; I used to give nice silver and semi-precious stone bracelets to my graduating female students, but one student was so goth I gave her an evil eye bracelet instead.
Giant House Spiders
I'll preface this by saying I an not afraid of most spiders, and this house has thousands.*
This house has Giant house Spiders, which can be big. I looked up and spontaneously gasped a bit ago as an enormous one (conservatively pegged at 3.5 inches with legs, body 1.5 inches) stood coltishly upon the place where the wall turns into the ceiling. I went off to drag over the stupid in-the-wall-vacuum-system hose and actually had to check before entering the spider room in case it had moved to, say, the AREA ABOVE MY HEAD UPON ENTERING =========:o. It hadn't, so I sucked up that one and a lot of small ones.
*SJ on Friday: What do they EAT????
Me: I think the ones which don't build webs probably eat other spiders.
SJ: But what do the ones in webs eat? I don't see any insects.
Me: Or any dead insects in the webs.
Labels: spiders birds
Another Treasure Trove
I found wurlitzer-rolls.com and emailed the site owner:
Your website is an incredible treasure trove of music from the past - thank you for sharing it with everyone. You'll think this is a very strange request for information, I'm sure, but for the past few years I've been doing performances inside the virtual world Second Life and currently have a vaudeville troupe of about twelve or so people. Our shows feature original acts, and we perform for fun. A video record (in 4 parts) of the 2007 show is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
We use interesting public domain or open source music - found in various places on the internet (credits are at the end of the video which is Part 4). Is any or all of the organ roll music on your site music that can be used in such a way (live performance and most likely a video documenting the show)? We are currently looking for music to fit acts for a flea circus - yes, we become fleas :-D In any event, I'm glad I stumbled across your website!
I received a prompt reply brimming with information about pre-1923 public domain music and the confused state of copyright of later music, and other things. For love of these paper rolls and the forgotten music contained therein, the site owner created a way for everyone to listen to the music. Indeed, the internet is wonderful for that very thing - putting things that would've lost their audience out for the world to remember or discover. My hat is off :-D
Labels: Intarwebz
The Truth About Griefers
It's a little known fact that most (if not all) griefers are menopausal women who are irrititable and out of sorts, and who pass out of their griefing stage when their ordeal has run its course. The proof: all those griefer fires are a wordless protest against the agonies of hot flashes.
The Battle of the Pile Driver
Anonymous, Frank says this building is being built at the port and that a different building not so far north, built by the state, has finished driving its piles. In other words, I said, "Someone told me this is a new GA building and the port parking garage has not been started yet," and he snorted derisively (well, not really). I was probably wrong in thinking the two months of thump... thump... thump... came from one site.
Anonymous, your turn.
A Reverse Cloverfield
Warning: If you haven't seen Cloverfield you will not be interested in this post. And maybe not even then.
I was reading Smithsonian and, upon turning the page, was startled by this ad which reminded me of Cloverfield (the monster from outside the Earth's atmosphere drops down and wreaks mayhem, during which time a news crew happens to notice that the dandruff falling from the monster is actually spritely little monsterettes that are not shy and which, apparently, have nasty bites ("We've GOT A BITE HERE!1!!!1!!! **sploosh**).
Yes, the monsterettes look somewhat like a king crab.* This advertisement definitely doesn't make me want to go to Norway (and TASTE as a caption makes me reel). However the monster dropping down from outside the atmosphere in this picture is the human, who is wreaking mayhem on the proper denizens.** I suppose we invent the stories that we live, but we have a hard time recognising ourselves when the tables are turned.
*Alternate ending: the Great Chefs of the world converge upon New York City with pots and clarified butter and create a feast that would be never-ending except that the monster itself, nonplussed by the sight of its little friends (or offspring, or lice, or w/e) being gleefully cracked open and injested, flipped a hasty bird and flew off to despoil in another dimension.**I used to enjoy walking in the evening when the light was fading but people had not yet drawn therir curtains, as it's so very interesting to see how they decorate their houses. All KINDS of weird uh... things... A friend told me about some friends (one of those friend of a friend things heh) who had a king crab mounted on a plaque over their couch.
Anji sent me some photos a few weeks ago, including this one of my brother Steven* and Anji's two children, which made me feel better.
*Anji and I always say "my brother, your father," or "my father, your brother," as her spousal unit is named Steven, too.
Labels: Australia
I SWEAR TO GOD I just heard
this a few minutes ago on the car radio:
Talk show host* talking about the failed bail-out bill in Congress: "If they can't get together on a toothless bill how are they going to get together on a toothsome one?"
/me blinks then bursts out laughing.
*Dave Ross, who is actually teh schmart and just MIGHT have been making a joke.
28 September 2008
The youtuber comments frequently make me laugh, but here's one gently addressed to the viewers of the Monty Python tobacconist sketch ("My hovercraft is full of eels.) who had taken exception to the "Hungarian" spoken near the end of the video:
"Dear fellow watchers of this video,
We understand that this is not Hungarian. I am personally deeply interested in linguistics. It's anyway very easy to tell even for a non-Hungarian that it is not Hungarian.
And some of us DO know that Hungary is called Magyarorszag, just as Germany is called Deutchsland, Finland is called Suomi and Albania is called Shqipëria.
THAT IS NOT RELEVANT AND TAKES THE FUN OUT OF THIS VIDEO! Can we PLEASE stick to the topic and have fun watching this great clip?"
Labels: yootoob
I have quite a few images that we haven't used in Combat Cards so far, like this one, a sandwich of Joh against a picture I took in the spring of the sim Syncretia (I always take the avatar picture and the background picture separately). It's one of my faves even though we haven't used it yet. ONE DAY I'll get that picture of Ida sitting on a pile of skulls ;-D but alas I doubt now that the Young-swinging-from-a-chandelier will ever become a reality.
Labels: Combat Cards
27 September 2008
Born Into Brothels
Excellent documentary.
Labels: Netflix
Uh... WTF?
A person is quoted in the New Yorker thusly: "When you think about it, five to eight billion dollars isn't that much.'
/me thinks.
That is an amount beyond my comprehension. Five to eight... uh... wait, I have the five to eight part down ok. Five to eight dollars isn't that much. Billion... billion... can't do it.
She was talking about a sum backing a private charitable foundation (well, ok, Leona Helmsley's foundation for dogs).
I have nothing against the foundation and its goals, and the quoted person is not a foundation employee, but the founder of a New York non-profit hoping to make improvements in the way animals are treated (a non-profit that is in line for some Helmsley bux), but jF on a stick - to claim five to eight billion dollars "isn't that much" is insane.
Labels: Dept. of jF
LA Times
"A U.S. destroyer and a Russian warship headed Saturday for a possible confrontation with pirates who hijacked a cargo ship off the Somali coast loaded with battle tanks, machine guns and a crew of 21.
Despite being pursued by ships from two of the world's biggest naval powers, the pirates showed no sign of surrendering the Ukrainian vessel Faina, which they boarded Thursday as it headed to Kenya. Instead, unconfirmed reports said they were demanding a $35 million ransom to turn over their unconventional booty that includes 33 Russian-built T-72 tanks."
Labels: Dept. of jF, Dept. of This Will Not End Well
I have a wee bit of money in WaMu as I use that debit card for online transactions. I was a WaMu customer* in toto years ago, but when a credit union gave a presentation at Wa He Lut one year I switched to them (they sent a email the other day, "Your money is safe").
I STILL have a wee bit of money in WaMu and was looking at the online banking site on Tuesday or Wednesday, just poking about (it was unchanged) because people kept screaming, "Get your money ouuuutttttttt." As I say, it's just a bit.
On Thursday WaMu was siezed and sold to Chase, which, I read, cherry-picked the less FAIL bits. Today I went to see the Wamu website and there's (of course) a notice:
WaMu Customers, Welcome to JPMorgan Chase!
We're proud to welcome you to one of the nation's largest banks; as of September 25, 2008, All WaMu customer deposits are now deposits of JPMorgan Chase, one of the strongest financial institutions in the world.
Too bad it didn't say All your base are belong to us, but anyway, here we are. A link led to a press release:JPMORGAN CHASE ACQUIRES THE DEPOSITS, ASSETS AND CERTAIN LIABILITIES OF WASHINGTON MUTUAL’S BANKING OPERATIONS
Highly attractive, strategic transaction significantly strengthens consumer franchise.
It made me wonder if "certain" is like "certain death." I felt a puff of pride as my wee bank account was included in the "highly attractive" reference. So now I have a wee bit of money in Chase, which reminds me irresistably of my old snail-racing days, as one place we'd race was Chase's Manhattan.
I'm not sure why anyone would be surprised at this series of collapses as the weakness was quite obviously and openly moving throughout many areas for a number of years.*When I first moved to Washington my bank was Central Federal, which I thought was a hilarious name - a blank name. They were a weird, small bank and did things like give plastic piggy banks away, and toasters, and operated like it was 1951 and housewives everywhere bought Duz washing detergent for the rose-patterned towels buried in the powder. I thought the whole thing was a scream. Then they merged and became Central Evergreen Federal, then Evergreen, and I left as there was nothing interesting about the name Evergreen. That's when I put my 11 cents into Washington Mutual. It was more convenient than my former bank as it had... branches... haha!
Tateru Nino writing at Massively reports that LL is beginning a move towards Class 6 hardware that will be 64 bit. That will be nice, when it arrives, as it will raise the cap on sim resources.
Combat Cards
Although I’m still working on the RL printed cards, you can do us a good turn (and have fun to boot) by printing out the cards at home from these pdf files, and seeing if you can follow Doc’s instructions.
Fantasy series cards are HERE, including energy tokens and a draw card.
Horror series cards are HERE, including energy tokens and a draw card.
Doc’s instructions are HERE.
They are much lower res than the real cards, of course, but should print easily and without needing any printer meddling (no resizing to fit). I left the corners squared so you can cut them more easily, but the real cards will have rounded corners.
It looks like this on my printer set-up: 
Combat Cards print-at-home game by Doc Boffin and Osprey Therian is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Labels: Combat Cards
25 September 2008
Yahoo destroys NetDisaster :[
Back in August I posted links to NetDisaster, which was a clever site with many different disasters from which to choose and apply to a webpage. Pick one - say, Ants - and ants would stream onto your screen, gathering up elements of the webpage, and pile them up. It was good fun, and the site creator was inventive and playful.
Enter a humorless security firm in the employ of Yahoo (ptui) which somehow managed to get the whole thing shut down. /me shakes her fist. Jerks.
Labels: ...Is Teh Debbil
24 September 2008
Crappy Cat
Interactive Game
As seen on Drawn
Contest 42: BURNING LIFE
Theme: Burning Life, the SL version of Burning Man, which takes place from 27 September through 5 October 2008. Also eligible: photos from previous Burning Life celebrations.
From the wiki:
"Because Burning Life is a mirror in spirit of a real life event, albeit with the unique and creative twists only Second Life can offer, we follow suit. Together, we will build a city, and we voluntarily accept many of the same restrictions that Nature imposes on the real thing. We do this to see how creative we can be with the same palette of materials and to revel in the beauty of simplicity. We use the same blank, desert landscape, and many of the things we build are naked or primitive in structure, easily revealing to the casual viewer how they were constructed. Just pretend that you're bringing everything you need with you in your car or truck and you're going camping. Extreme Camping. Really Extreme Camping. "
The wiki is here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Burning_life
Cash prizes.
You may make something like an animated texture or other cool thing if you want. You don't have any tight limits. If you make something cool that doesn't seem to fit the "textures" requirement just enter it anyway.
Straight snaps or manipulated - it's all good.
DATES
Enter by: 19 October 2008
Exhibition: 21 October - 22 November 2008 in the Photography Studio upstairs gallery.
Burning Life
The machinima is a record of my BL'06 build, a garbage dump made by soliciting contributions from passers-by. In '04 I made a garden of alien plants; in '05 I was part of Dream House, a wonderful place with all manner of things in it (I had a water-filled room with static-y televisions depicting artworks and my thoughts, and a cupboard that I asked everyone in the house to add objects to - the back wall was a rapidly scrolling inventory list). Armath was across the hall :-D
In '07 I had stones and crop circles of stone that spilled particles into the air when walked upon, but it needed to be worked on and I lost heart and was sickened when the intense fighting began and didn't get it going correctly. I had vowed not to participate this year, but Molly got me fired up and, like an old milk horse I went and claimed land and began building geysers that blew paint gushers into the air at random intervals. I'd REALLY just wanted to plonk a few down on the playa as a small contribution, and wasn't in a place, physically, to be able to build anything meaningful, so, as my energy dribbled almost to nothing I released my plot.
My contribution this year will be the photography contest - Contest 42: Burning Life. I hope I get a good amount of entries. The celebration runs just one week, unless it's prolonged (quite possible).
Sandworms >:[
For the past two months a pile driver has been thump...thump...thumping away in Olympia driving pilings for a Port of Olympia parking garage. When I have jin shin, as is my wont, I listen to the thump... thump... thump..., which usually stops at oh... 9:45 so the workers can (I suppose) have a break. This morning I had this conversation with Frank:
Me: (listening to thump... thump... thump) That is going to attract sandworms.
Frank: ??
Me: Haven't you read Dune?
Frank: OH! SANDWORMS. You should write an article.
Me: Well, the truth is there are no sandworms around here...
Frank: How do you know?*
Me: ...but after two months of this the ones in Eastern Washington** are going to be taking notice. There are lots of them in Eastern Washington.
Frank: You're right!
* I know because they'd've been here before now if they were nearby, plus hardly anyone here has blue-tinted spicey eyeballs.
** Eastern Washington is prime sandworm habitat.
23 September 2008
DOT MATRIX REVOLUTION from superbrothers on Vimeo.
SLACKER UPRISING
Michael Moore has released this documentary and wants word to spread. It's about the 2004 election, and an effort to get Bush out of the White House. The Slacker Uprising tour itself succeeded in driving young voters to the polls to vote out Bush, however a combination of idiocy, greed, and dirty tricks resulted in 4 more years of fascist agenda. American voters have another chance coming up, and although the Republicans will resort to anything including voter fraud, the ultimate responsibility to rid the world of this nest of vipers rests with them.
Your Caption Here
Originally uploaded by Laughing Squid
Scott Beale's mannikin photo caption contest is just BEGGING for a caption like, "[Resolved] Inventory Issues."
22 September 2008
Art Cars 2008
21 September 2008
Although I have an avatar with my meatspace name, and the trend for all the rabid metaverserers is to be linked to the meatspace identity, I've gone the other way and dragged Osprey Therian into reality. I'm more Os than Vivian, so I my tiny heart was gladdened by this conversation:
Looper: I still get that 404 message. Help!
Later...
Me: Was fixed this morning by what I did yesterday.
Looper: Thank you for doing this, Osprey Therian.
Made me think of "Thank you, mask man" so I'll see if I can find that and put it below.
Labels: Department of Bwuhahahaha
Corpus Clock
20 September 2008
Alonso has reviewed 2046, a lovely film by Wong Kar Wai. I have to type his words into Doctalk, and have to adjust the spellings to get something near what I want. I was amused that "Belly knee" made a suitable composer for Norma.
Alonso has to review anything with beautiful android girls in it, but this has little to do with androids and much more to do with Hong Kong itself.
17 September 2008
I saw in the New Yorker yesterday that the Fashion Institute of Technology (in NYC - Richard's sister is a graduate) is having a Goth exhibition, which, it seems to me, would be fun to see. I haven't been there for many moons (I did buy a brooch at a FIT garage sale once though, heh*). SL has much scope and variety in its goth threads - the FIT should have a virtual section to its exhibit.
* Me: *looking at a brooch*
Man: That's a fertility god.
Me: *gasps then flings brooch 30 yards* Oh... uh... interesting.
Labels: Department of Bwuhahahaha
l'Iceberg
A quirky film that looks like it was storyboarded for a cartoon then filmed with actors, this Belgian comedy has little dialogue (it doesn't need much).
Labels: Netflix
Bye Bye Brazil
"Carlos Diegues helms this unusual international import, a fantasy-laden follow-up to his 1978 film Xica da Silva that tracks a small band of traveling performers as they make their way through the jungles of Brazil in an open-air caravan. The film's odd cast of characters includes a young accordion player and his pregnant wife (Fábio Júnior and Zaira Zambelli), a slinky dancer (Betty Faria) and a fire-breathing deaf-mute (Príncipe Nabor)."
"Carlos Diegues helms this unusual international import, a fantasy-laden follow-up to his 1978 film Xica da Silva that tracks a small band of traveling performers as they make their way through the jungles of Brazil in an open-air caravan. The film's odd cast of characters includes a young accordion player and his pregnant wife (Fábio Júnior and Zaira Zambelli), a slinky dancer (Betty Faria) and a fire-breathing deaf-mute (Príncipe Nabor)."
This was good. Alonso wanted to review it but I'm on the skids atm so he will have to wait :D
Labels: Netflix
16 September 2008
Con came over at 2.
Con: (grimacing as she shows me her wrapped-up ribs)
Me: ZOMG I forgot you had busticated ribs. Did I hug you?
Con: No, no, you were fine. I have been grabbed by people though.
Me: You should wear a big button reading I HAVE BROKEN RIBS.
Con: I want a stop sign paddle.
Me: Nah, no one would pay attention.
Con: I have a hard time walking Frida - she's so strong she yanks me over. (Frida is about four inches high.)
Me: You need a walker (thinking a mechanised horse-walker).
Con: A hamster wheel.
Me: You could tie those baconish things in front of her... what are they called? And generate electricity to run a radio.
Con: Snausages!
Me: That's it! Why can't there be a governmental system based on humor? The government could make the power company buy the electricity Frida generates and the electricity could be in units called snausages.
Con: This month you used 30 snausages of electricity.
I can dream.
Labels: Electrizities
"If John McCain hadn't said that 'the fundamentals of our economy are strong' on the day of one of our nation's worst financial crises, the claim that he invented the BlackBerry would have been the most preposterous thing said all week," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton."
Holy shit =======:O
http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-9203
Labels: Dept of ZOMG
I Love the Apple TOS
As we all know as I've mentioned it before I love the Apple TOS which when I accidentally run into it never fails to make me laugh. Specifically this part:
" THE APPLE SOFTWARE IS NOT INTENDED FOR USE IN THE OPERATION OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES, AIRCRAFT NAVIGATION OR COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS, LIFE SUPPORT MACHINES OR OTHER EQUIPMENT IN WHICH THE FAILURE OF THE APPLE SOFTWARE COULD LEAD TO DEATH, PERSONAL INJURY, OR SEVERE PHYSICAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE. "
"Hey, I can run the LHC on my iPhone! Sweet!"
"Dude - totally rips yer warranty, man."
"Doh."
I think someone is running the US government on an Apple II, and while that isn't technically against the TOS it has led to a lot of personal injury. Bush's animatronics are run by a carny worker with an iMac, I think.
15 September 2008
RIP Rick Wright
Human Age 3 - Egyptians
Khran Ra-Zeh Tribe
I evolved from the Celtic Age last week and have been busily hunting sharks, carving limestone blocks for my boss (a young Romanian, of course), and guarding Sakhmetis City. Politics and warfare is more complicated, it seems, as I was guarding last night and got shoved into a pillaging raid by the pharoah. I made 82 beetles in loot but while I was away someone stole my harpoon - so the loot went out instantly as a new harpoon is over a hundred scarabs.
Reading the forum it seems the PE schedule got all mixed up and the generals were throwing soldiers off PEs and onto guard duty from whence the pharoah could send the same soldiers out on the correct expedition. I got caught in the crossfire, I think, which was fine except I'd just been put into a guard unit.
In hunting I just stuck to lunar sharks today and had a very good catch. My strength is up to 97 already, and my stamina is rising now, too. In Age 3 one is forced to marry, and may have children. Children seem like an OK deal as they leave at 18 moons then send a remittance home :-D The Age 3 interface is very nice.
Age 2
Ivka got a wee bit bored (quarterton hadn't offered to fight him in a day or two and Marelle is out of town) so evolved to the Celtic Age, taking along Nicolai the wolf. Ostherian had a really rather useless rattlesnake named Massasauga, who didn't make it to Age 3 (thank G'al). Ivka wrote a long and complex roleplay which was eaten by the HA gods *shakes fist*
Age 2 is VERY DIFFERENT from the way it was for Ostherian just last week - so newly evolved Eggheads must get the newest interface (unl;ess it changed in the brief time I was away).
Age 4 is the Greek Age - currently in the French version (HA is French) but it seems as though it won't be too long before it's in an English version.
Zimbabwe
From The Times:
"Between two ornamental bushes, a stocky Zanu (PF) supporter yanked off his T-shirt with Mr Mugabe's face on it and stuffed it into the back of his trousers. For the past eight years, wearing an MDC T-shirt has been an act of bravery. Now the boot is on the other foot."
"Something significant had happened here, even if scepticism remained as to what extent Mr Mugabe will relinquish control. A sudden mass psychological shift had taken place in the past four hours. Suddenly Zanu (PF) were outnumbered, the police weren't beating people for wearing MDC T-shirts and Mr Mugabe made an old fool of himself in the conference centre."
Change - but will it last?
Enj is trying to get back home today.
The Big Picture has Ike photos.
14 September 2008
Sexeh MonkehI saw it in the Sock monkey Museum, but methinks it has probably been around.
Labels: Monkeh
13 September 2008
"Time"
A good flick if somewhat harrowing, this mindtrip is from director Ki-Duk-Kim.
Labels: Netflix
12 September 2008
11 September 2008
We don't need to bring no stinkin' profiles up :-D
Labels: We don't need no stinkin' ____ (fill in the blank).
Supercollider Explained Clearly
MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities
Os to Clara
10 September 2008
Japan Dream Kenjin at sunset.
Calloo callay - Frank is back :-D
ZOMG spent almost all day trying to script something -I finally got it. I'm such a scripting dunce, I don't think I'll ever really get it.
The Templum video seems to be well liked. It looks best jumbo-rrific, as it's so dark any quality loss affects it a lot.
Labels: Scripting Dunce
08 September 2008
Surreal posted the blue ball url
(from YTMND I guess*)
on the SS forum: Blue Balls.
Dnate posted BB2's url.
Even older BBs.
The Pee Wee music loops beddah than
the MPFC music.
*dunno
Sit Still While We Spam You
Viddy this me droogies:
(Obnoxious Avatar) has invited you to join a group.
There is no cost to join this group.
Group:
(name): Best Advertising for High Society VIP's
If you want to have effective and cheap advertising in SL and want to work with an experienced team , then ***(name) Advertising*** is the right group to be in.
Group-Notice costs 250L$
500 l$ for a land sale ad
1000l$ for a rl enterprise
IM (scummy avatars) for an ad!
LIMIT 1 SPAM PER HOUR !
NO BEGGING !!!
NO RESPECT OF RULES= EJECT
No chating alowed in the group chat , take it to IM please !
Labels: We don't need no stinkin' ____ (fill in the blank).
07 September 2008
Not very useful staying up until 7:30 am; today was fawked. I got up at 11 or half past, and spent the day A) at the Combat Cards event, B) watching bon odori videos because I had a hankeriong to hear Tanko-Bushi, C) cooking and recooking and rerecooking the Templum vid ad infinitum (not done yet!), D) watching Joy Division and Canned Heat and so on (old fabulous music by great dead musicians), E) eating (salad, pomegranate ice cream, miso), F) yawning.
Pick one or the other. Which is best?
CC Share Alike License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/
Drat, not gone to bed yet. Well, maybe I'll get sleepy eventually.
06 September 2008
Lucia says:
I'm giving a reading (who knows what genre) on my 50th birthday, along with my dear friend Jane Mead from Napa, a poet whose new book is The Usable Field (Alice James Books). We're doing it on September 30 at Orca Books in Olympia at 7 pm. Please spread the word.
Two bookshop links for Lucia's books -
Amazon
Powell's
05 September 2008
*twiddles her thumbs and waits for the North American release of Spore*
Labels: Dept. of jF, Spore
I, of Newt
Well, salamander, actually. Years ago (five?) my pal SWMNBMIMB was over and, upon opening the door to the cupboard under the sink, was startled when a salamander popped out. She trod on it and I don't remember what else happened.
A couple of weeks ago I was coming through into the kitchen and saw something on the floor. A stealthy salamander about, oh, six inches long zipped down the hall when it saw/heard/felt my vibrations. I didn't want anything to happen to it, but there wasn't much I could do; anyway it disappeared. It turned up, like that white-footed mouse of yesteryear, flashing across my periferal vision every so often as it tried to do... uh, something. Something that involves running about on the carpet in the living room.
Today it was lurking about the kitchen, and since I suspected had accidentally got out from under the sink and was unable to get back to its ancestral home, I sidled in and opened the cupboard door. I made a ramp and went out to buy feckin' groceries (jF I just bought groceries three or four weeks ago - where's my Food Pill???). It was still around when I returned, thundering about on the carpet whilst looking nervous. I should add that while I was making the ramp I was talking* to it in case it understood (I'm sure it doesn't, however it was no effort).
This is another ridiculous construct like my no-kill attempt to sequester my little white-footed friend (so I could set him outside and not have 45677 billion small brown doddles everywhere and so he'd be happier). *shakes fist* Although it didn't work he left and the house was reroofed closing, presumably, the chinks, as he has never returned. This all relates to the appearance recently of a carpenter assessing the deck rot damage (and it's been rotting for quite a while - the Comcast man (one of several, actually) almost fell through in 2004).
The carpenter, one of those whippy woodworkers of Scandinavian descent common around these parts, said this type of building method is not used now - the beams run through this house, stick out, and form the deck supports. When the beams rot they damage the entire house to a greater or lesser degree depending upon how quickly the houseowner gets on the ball. I asked about the injection of epoxy resin into rotted beams, but he said that was a possibility only for nonstructural elements.
Nope, haven't seen the carpenter back, yet. And that concludes the story of my new pet.
* "I'm making you a ramp. If you go up the ramp you can get under the sink again."
La Princesse
From the French group which created the Sultan's Elephant and (I think more or less) the Little Giantess.
Labels: spiders birds
Candide: i haz spore
end of transmission
Me: bastidge >:[
Labels: Spore
04 September 2008
Tease :(
I was not in Second Life, but ran in when I got an offline IM:
[20:00] Enjah Mysterio: (Saved Thu Sep 04 19:56:25 2008) hellooooo from jackson hole ....
[20:00] Enjah Mysterio: (Saved Thu Sep 04 19:59:26 2008) byeeeee
[20:00] Osprey Therian: :D
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[20:00] Osprey Therian: arggggggggggggggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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[20:01] Osprey Therian: 30 secondsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
[20:01] Second Life: User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.
[20:00] Enjah Mysterio: (Saved Thu Sep 04 19:59:26 2008) byeeeee
[20:00] Osprey Therian: :D
[20:00] Second Life: User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.
[20:00] Osprey Therian: arggggggggggggggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[20:00] Second Life: User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.
[20:01] Osprey Therian: 30 secondsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
[20:01] Second Life: User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.
WARNING: BORING if you don't play HA and maybe even then
Human Age - Egghead Celtic Elections
HA never fails to make me chortle. I'm a loyal Egghead, however.
1. "Under my rule, you will have more money than what is enough! More than what is needed to support the defense I shall raise, to defend our clan! Yes! Defense! Never again shall the enemy set foot in our land, while I lead you! Never shall they kill our soldiers, never shall they take our mighty and beautiful city again! Instead, it is we who will march for war! We will take there lands, and enlarge the greatness of our clan! Yes. There will be War. And in War we will destroy our enemies and stand in the end undefeated. Unchallanged. Mighty. A Golden Empire. But for that, there must be War. And there?will?be War! Who stands with me? Who stands wih me to the path to Victory And Glory?" (I can just hear this speech, ha!)
2. "Reallocation of wealth now! The rich are only getting richer and the young poor eggs are dying helpless. Fair reallocation of wealth and property for a better society. NO money should be spent on military expeditions. NO borders between the tribes. For all these reasons i decided to put myself forward for general secretary (chief) of our tribe. Follow me to victory. Hasta la victoria siempre."
3. "VOTE FOR ME"
4. "Display your political agenda here ! i will make the best for my people."
5. "I am very young in moons, but since im a big creds buyer. ( lol ) advanceing very quickly! im about 12 moons old, about to turn 13 realy. Ive finished all the quests, over 30 kilos in weight, got alittle money, Ive allways obayed the code of conduct! Ive allmost got my stats all to full! So please pick me! That was alittle about me realy. Oh and ill try to follow the Tribe Cheif! And well i know you all will vote for Venus! One more thing, you might be thinking, Hes to young to be leader! He cant even go on battles! Well that is true, but its not that far off from being 18 moons old. Also, I will not make interest on the bank as long yall are paying your loans back. My door is allways for help, if you need it, with weapons, furni,ect. I will never turn down a cry for help if you realy need it! Please give my agenda a chance!
and so on...
*votes for Venus*
4. "Display your political agenda here ! i will make the best for my people."
5. "I am very young in moons, but since im a big creds buyer. ( lol ) advanceing very quickly! im about 12 moons old, about to turn 13 realy. Ive finished all the quests, over 30 kilos in weight, got alittle money, Ive allways obayed the code of conduct! Ive allmost got my stats all to full! So please pick me! That was alittle about me realy. Oh and ill try to follow the Tribe Cheif! And well i know you all will vote for Venus! One more thing, you might be thinking, Hes to young to be leader! He cant even go on battles! Well that is true, but its not that far off from being 18 moons old. Also, I will not make interest on the bank as long yall are paying your loans back. My door is allways for help, if you need it, with weapons, furni,ect. I will never turn down a cry for help if you realy need it! Please give my agenda a chance!
and so on...
*votes for Venus*
/me fires up Chrome* and tries to hammer it, unsuccessfully, into the browser in last night's dream.
Uhg, I really hate the icon.
/me runs back to Firefox, which has its periods of freakish bugginess and bizarre crash-a-ramas, but functions well 99% of the time and has mass plugins and skins. *kisses FireFTP*
I used to use Opera because I'm an opera buff, and should go and see what it's up to now. Things get bad when they get too big, too powerful, include too much, get too gooey. It's as well to encourage alternates.
* Ha ha! At least Google backed up a bit from their "everything you do, say, think, create, want, know, inspire, commission now, formerly, in the future, or in dimensions as yet undiscovered belong to us," but you know they siphon all the data off to use elsewhere. *gets barcode tattoo on her nape*
Clear evidence of insanity in the reviews section of overstock.com:
"This is a wonderful vacuum! I was excited to buy this from all the reviews I read on it. They are all true! As soon as I got it in the mail, I opened it. Easy to put together. I was amazed at all the dirt and animal hair it picked up!! I can not wait to have my dog come in with dirty paws just so I can clean it up!!"
Let this serve as a sad warning to all those who have considered mixing drugs with housework.
I should point out that some people criticise Second Life's residents and exhort us to "get a first life." What advice would those people give this reviewer?
I've had a hard time sleeping the past couple of weeks, and yesterday told people I was not making any sense and not to expect me to be able to think. Three hours a night for a couple of weeks tends to make me distracted.
spends ten minutes reading an old chatlog...
Last night I actually slept for a full night, and I dreamt about the Chrome browser - how weird is that? In my dream someone else was using my computer and was using Chrome. I can remember how it looked in the dream - maybe I'll fire it up and see if I can warp it into looking that way.
peters off...
jF this is a sub-par blogpost >:(]=|<
Labels: Disjointed Thoughtlets, Protoblather
03 September 2008
Lost
Farewell, dear friend. In July when I saw you had arrived home I raced to your doorstep, only to find the way blocked and the building, apparently, deserted. I waited patiently as that is all I could do, but looked forward to a time when you would not be caught up in serious pursuits and might wish to spend time being silly.
Today I saw that your house is no longer standing. I'm sad, very sad, although I still hope that one day you will return.
The warfare over "SLArt" has escalated with a lawsuit aimed at Linden Lab and an SL resident by Artworld Market.
Virtually Blind has details.
In January I wrote a little SL Art News* post about the trademarking of the term, and received a thoughtful comment by Nebulosus Severine, who said, "Perhaps it does seem silly to trademark the term, but the fact is that he did pay money to legally own the rights to it, regardless of anyone's personal opinion of whether or not he "should" have done it. Would I have trademarked it if I had been him? Probably not, but I don't think he is an asshole for doing so.
When he started his SLart blog/magazine/group, "slart" was NOT a widely used term because the art scene in SL wasn't nearly as widespread as it is now, contrary to popular belief -- it has really exploded only in the past year. Of course, it does make sense that "slart" would become an obvious term in association with art created within SL, but he trademarked the name before it was widely used. That fact might be annoying to some people, but so what? Why make such a big deal over nothing? I personally prefer "SL Art"; I think the word "slart" sounds rather corny.
I made sense for once in my reply when I said, "I don't disagree with many of your points, especially that the term SL art is prefererable.
For me, though, any made-up word starting with SL is just a common part of the lingo of SL and anyone trying to claim it as a personal possession is out of line.
It's very much like right of ways. "Everyone" uses a particular route (adding SL to words) but suddenly one portion of it is fenced off and someone says he owns it. "Pay me money to cross." If that part of the right of way is lost, it seems as though the rest is in jeopardy."
*Which is a blog I started in 2005 and don't pay enough attention to.
*thinks*
What about these as new SL surnames?
Forcefield
Markup
Chocks
Stagbeetle
Khayyam
Dogwhistle
02 September 2008
Google Chrome
Well, I haven't spent much time fiddling around with it, but I will just to see if I like it. I use FireFTP a lot, though, so unless I find something comparable in Chrome I'll not be terribly interested. Also Google has just TOO MUCH GOO right now, so it's extremely unlikely I'll do anything more that play around with it out of curiosity.
The set-up is superfast and easy, though.
Tomorrow marks five years since my pater died, and five years and 6 months since my mother died. I don't usually think about it too much, but for some reason it's been on my mind. Five years! I've been missing them this past week. I hope that isn't some kind of warning for another go-round.My experience was that when someone dies there is a full year of grieving, but if someone else dies during that time the clock is reset for the first one. There was a time when it was just one after another, which was awful. Family, friends, 80s, 70s, 50s, 40s... blecch.
My method of grieving was to watch Losey's Don Giovanni over and over and over and over for six months. I'm not at all tired of it, but I've seen it about 300 times. I had an answering machine full of really awful messages I hadn't deleted, like my mum calling for help, and a nurse calling to say, "There's been a change in your mother's condition,"* and a nurse saying, "We are trying to get in contact with (my father's wife). There has been a change in her husband's condition,"* and many more of the winding up in the emergency room variety. One day I decided to play them with the idea of keeping a couple (my mother's voice). It was like someone grabbed my hand and hit DELETE DELETE DELETE DELETE on every message. That's the only experience I've ever had of that kind of thing. Uh.... whatever "that" kind of thing is. The DELETE action is exactly what my mother would want me to do, but I wouldn't've done it.
I don't have the knack of believing anything, perhaps as I wasn't brought up to, so I have no clue, but it might be either (or both) that the energy falls back into a vast energy pool like raindrops falling into the sea (I'm a great knitter-upperer of everything and like everything to be connected, which I see as a longing for that state of one-ness) or that life is snuffed out (as SJ said the other day) like a candle (adding, "And that would be all right, too.").
I like talking with people about what they think happens after death, and although I don't see how anyone could have any more information than anyone else, it's fun (to me) to get different views. Sometimes I talk with my jin shin man about it, and he has a different take on life and death than I do. My view is A) we take life too seriously, B) it might be better as a wild roller coaster ride, C) individual personalities don't persist beyond a lifetime. He thinks life can and should be a calm trip as opposed to a roller coaster ride, and that we carry on past death.
I was surprised recently to discover that my rl knitted-up group of intimates had unraveled, but I suppose I shouldn't've been, since I'm not actively whipping people up into a frenzy anymore in meatspace. Everyone is the same to me, they just don't interact with each other. My knitting and whipping is confined to The Show Must Go On! at the moment.
*Code, apparently, for ZOMG get here fast.
Labels: Death
01 September 2008
The Wasp Prince pt2
Originally uploaded by aknacer
Aknacer's Photostream - lots to check out here including an artists' self portrait series.
Another self portrait? Frida so.
Originally uploaded by aknacer