Happy birthday to bettybaker... it's been a while since you had one of those, wasn't it? Something like ten months, give or take a few?

Today's Bridge: We made a few sacrifices that may or may not have worked out in our favor. Hard to tell... we played 4S with a seven-card spade fit and a ten-card diamond fit. Ew. The last hand was interesting, in that it made six but shouldn't even have made the four we bid. I had S K-x-x H K-J-x-x D A-J-x-x C J-x and Dan had S A-x H Q-x-x-x D Q-9-x-x C A-K-x. I opened 1D, he jumped to 3D, I bid 3H, he bid 4H, and I left it there because I was weak and didn't think we had a slam try. Indeed we didn't, but Ken led a spade, let me have two rounds of trump before playing his ace, and led the king of diamonds. He had four of them, but I cashed the jack on the second trick, giving me a Q-9 tenace on the board over his 10-x. Given the bidding, he could count Dan and me for eight diamonds, and he had four himself. A low diamond would be a natural lead, after which he can take the ace of hearts on the first trump trick and lead a second diamond for the ruff. It holds us to four, and I can't stop him from getting the king of diamonds as well, setting the contract.

Today's Gaming: I was weak and went back to Myst 4. I found one more clue, but I'm stumped at the last one. I searched everything I could think of to find what I need to do, but the nearest thing I think I've found to a hint was a dud, as far as I can tell. I'm feeling the temptation to use one of the hint systems... either online, or the in-game hint map. I really don't want to have to resort to that. There may be another option, given that I'm only missing one piece of the puzzle, but it would be pretty lame to take the guessing route.

I promised someone my opinion of Angel Diary, so here's my impression of the first book: I have no idea what's going on. ( Think you can figure out more than I did? Includes a bonus review. )

Waking up with a stiff neck wasn't particularly pleasant, so I'm going to lie down and hope it goes away by morning.

(I assembled the pic out of spare parts, but I first saw the instructions scrawled on a hand dryer in 1988. Some things never change.)

I don't personally know her, but anyone who asks for prayers and help, I must at least pass on the message to add to the aid. If you can... even a single dollar can help if enough people donate...

http://animecat.livejournal.com/206054.html

Please click and help out :( God Bless!!!

Long time readers of this journal know how much I have disdain for all those sightings people have of religious icons or the divine in everyday random shapes and then proclaim such Apophenia as miracles and messages from God.

Honestly if God wanted the attention of people, I am sure a much more convincing and profound method would be used.

Most of the time these are stories of visions of Jesus on a palm tree or in ice cream or the Virgin Mary in a water stain, but Christianity is not the only faith plagued by these "sightings". Iconoclastic Islam has them too, but instead of say images of Muhammad, usually it is visions of the inscription for the Arabic word for God, which is Allah.

In this particular case the inscription was revealed on a piece of rather rancid looking gristle that a patron was about to eat but then suddenly noticed the "word of God" looking back at him in all His artery clogging glory.



"When the writings were discovered there were some Islamic scholars who come and eat here and they all commented that it was a sign to show that Islam is the only true religion for mankind," stated the restaurant owner where God made his mark through fried beefy fat.

The best part is that quote, as they call in theologians to study the piece of fried remains and to make up discern from it exactly what people want to hear and believe, imagine that.

Best stick with Jesus over Allah, as he is not as fattening and plus he's chocolaty, or if you prefer, Chimichanga style!

I believe, here in the NorthEast, though our temp's will probably be more along the line of what would be considered the 'norm' for this area, I think we're going to have several stretches of days where the temp's will be colder than usual. Like 3-4 days to maybe even a week's worth of those brrrr days. However, overall, temp's will hang steady at the normal-range.

Now, for the precip ... that's going to be another story. I believe we've turned the weather balance back around now finally this year which is going to cause us to have a much much wetter winter than normal. I think we're going to see a lot of snow showers occurring with the "possiblity of snow showers (or at least habitual flurries)" lingering almost on a daily basis. There will be stretches of "dry" days, much like the manner of the colder-temp days mentioned above. But I do think it's going to be a wet one.

Will we get a bunch of "major" snowstorms ... even a blizzard or two? Not sure what my opinion is on that yet, though I do believe there's a strong possibility for at least one rather major catagory storm ... I'll let you know as we get further along here in his season as I watch my goat herd, among other things of nature.

.. at least that is what Mummy says!

You see, Mummy looked at the calendar today and realized something..

I am 6 months old today!!!!!!

Mummy was getting all sentimental, and kept saying that time is going by so quickly.

She could not believe that in such a short time, that I went from:

THIS....



(Pic taken early Feb. 2008)

Me and my brothers and sisters!!! I am in there somewhere!! *giggles*

.. To THIS!!!



(Pic taken on July 11, 2008)

Me and My "Bloo Moo"!!!

I guess I *am* growing very quickly!!!

(The only thing I do not understand is that now that I am 6 months old, I have to go to someone called "The Vet"!! I wonder what that is all about???? *curious eyes* Maybe it is a play-date?? That would be fun!! LOL)

And to celebrate my 6 month b-day, Mummy and Daddy are taking me to The Wag & Bone Show on August 2nd!!!

I can not wait ... especially as huskyteer is joining us! And panthras & award might be joining us too!!!!

Me and Mummy just thought you might like to see how much I have grown!!! Thanks for looking at the pics and for being my Pack!!

Anyways... it is time for my nap, so I hope you will be back again soon!!

(I will be making a post very soon about my Love Life -- you see, I have LOTS of suitors.. or at least I hope they would be such!! *cheeky giggles*)

I will make sure to not leave any 'poopie piles' for you to step in. LOL

~love & tailwaggies~

*Tala Puppy sends out LOTS of slobbery slurpies to her Pack - so thankful that she has such great friends to join her on her journey*

Today's Bridge: I think it was a battle of sacrifices, only one of which I actually got to make. I jumped in at 2H with six of them to the A-10-9 and barely 7 HCP, and the opponents just left it there. Off two... really not bad. I also had a 3S moment even weaker, but the opponents went ahead and bid 4D, making 6 easily. Dan had a 2NT opener after that, and I went through the Stayman convention to end up in 3NT, which he made with an overtrick to basically seal the rubber for us. In the fourth hand, it was his turn to leap in with an insane 4C bid (he only had six of them), but the opponents pushed to 4S, and we had enough aces to finish them off. They also hit a 4-0 spade split in a 4S hand that might have made with more careful offense, such as guarding against that split, and a 3NT off four when Raymond got stuck on the board, leading from his K-x-x to my A-Q-10-x, with the jack already gone. Had he led low, he would have held it to off three, because he'd get the king.

Today's Work: I discovered that maybe our system isn't as overburdened as I thought... I put more work into the periodic function than we were supposed to be doing. I've reduced that load, but probably only by about half, to meet the requirements for the system. I'll have to see how that holds up to strain before deciding whether to scale it back even further... and I don't expect it to be my choice to make anyway. It shouldn't be. That's what systems engineers are FOR. And they should be making those decisions instead of screwing up our schedule and hardware. We need those to work. Also, I need to start making things work properly, rather than work ten times as hard as they have to and then stop completely.

Today's Gaming: I finally managed to avoid the lure of Myst 4 and play some Ape Escape 2. I beat a few levels and a boss, played the first minigame, and have no idea why it's taking so long for the Glider to show up. Didn't it show up early on in the first one?

I also saved myself a trip to Wall Market by just plugging the mouse in and syncing it to the receiver. Amazingly, despite there being no visible sign of the laser working (as indicated in the manual), it appears to work just fine. I have to remember not to use DVD cases as mouse pads with it, because they reflect, but it works pretty well right on the carpet.

After discovering someone online who may be able to tell me whether or not there are actually any male characters in Strawberry Panic, I decided to go through my collection in search of any other series that feature only characters of a single gender. Some come close, but none quite hit the mark. The closest I can think of is, interestingly, Strawberry Marshmallow, but I think the manager of the restaurant where Nobue works is a man, and there are a few other men who show up just for gags. (I went and looked just to check... I was thinking of the teacher to whom Miu postulated that the Moon is made of Calpis or something like that.) I'd make it a universal theory about series with "Strawberry" in the title, but the only other one I can think of, Strawberry 100%, has a male main character and several male friends. Oh, and I, My, Me, Strawberry Eggs... the main female character in that one is male. I think there's one called something like The Life of Strawberry-chan that's about a frog... I haven't bothered with that one. If I don't read Peach Fuzz, I'm not reading about a frog.

I wonder... would the anthropomorphic magical girl rodent story be Wedding Peach Fuzz? Then again, there could be a gender-bent vampire magical girl series called Until the Sailor Moon. Okay, one more... magical girls in steam-powered robots fighting enemies made of cards: Card Captor Sakura Taisen.

Maybe I'm just tired after last night's storm kept me up. I'd better get to bed before I start trying to think of an explanation for Please Save Our Magic Knight Rayearth.

Poll #1228022 Life jumping the shark?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Has your life 'jumped the shark'?

Here's one for you - why is it that you find odd mittens, gloves and various other knick-knacks hanging off either fence railings, covering spikes on fences, or just on random benches. It always seems to be just one, never a pair? o.O

I ask this because as I drove home from work, there on a lone bench at the end of our street was a child's coat, just hanging there from the bench. I thought to myself 'now who would leave such a thing, surely you'd notice you needed to pick it up before you left' O.o

*shrugs shoulders* meh, back to arting ^^

Don't laugh but I really want to try making a fursuit. 8P I suck at sewing, but I could learn. I just need to make a shopping list and try to find a store that would have all of what I need. If I was actually good at making the suits, maybe I'd do commissions (getting ahead of myself though). I am not super crazy about the idea of me wearing a suit but it just seems like they would be so fun to make.
I had a cute idea for a fennec character named "Shy Fennec." She would be like the opposite of what most fursuiters are - outgoing, in your face. She'd be.. shy. :3 AND TYOOT.
And of course I at least need to make a dingbat partial. :P

Hey 360 players.. gimme your Xbox Gamer tag! I'm dingybatty. :D

I'm troubleshooting getting my Xbox to recognize my PC on the network. They're definitely sharing the same internet connection, both IP addresses and subnet and gateway addresses match up. But my Xbox does not recognize my PC and Windows Media Player 11 does not show my Xbox when I tell it to Share Media. Also, all of the appropriate ports are open. :( Though I usually keep my firewall turned off. Halp?

I'm sure half my friends have seen this, however, in case you have not, check out this video of the most realistic looking fully animated dinosaur yet created.


Extinct, my ASS! from The Original Joe Fisher on Vimeo.

This was at the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History.

Thanks to stokerbramwell for the link!

I'll be back Friday morning. If you need to call me, please do not call the house with the exception of emergency.

I will be in the office Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday 9 to noon Eastern Standard Time. Also, I WILL NOT BE ON THE COMPUTER and therefore woefully ignorant of any or all drama.

I will fulfill the little writing meme over the weekend. Thanks to all willing to help me exercise my writing muscle.

Wish me grace.

Sorry for the vulgarity of the title, that's not my choice. but this, hands down, would have made Jim Henson wail with envy.


Extinct, my ASS! from The Original Joe Fisher on Vimeo.

(Tip o' the hat to stokerbramwell for the treat.)

So, the first day back at work in what felt like forever. It was mostly getting our changes from last week committed and going over what we need to do over the next three weeks (two, if I can swing it). Then, the branch manager called me in for my performance review. I agreed before I realized that my time for the day was up. Oops. So I was an hour late getting out. I'll probably take an hour off on Friday to compensate. It also meant that I didn't feel much like returning the mouse today, so I came straight home.

Today's Bridge: Some very interesting hands, I'd say. The only one I remember specifically was the final one, where I had S A-Q-9-4-3-2 H 10-x-x-x D 9 C K-J. Ken opened 1D across from me, Raymond passed, I bid 1S, Kelly bid 2C, Ken bid 2D, I bid 2H, Ken bid 2S, and I left it there. He had S K-x H K-x D A-7-x-x-x-x C A-Q-x. I suggested 2NT as a response, but I think we needed to end up in 3NT given his power. He could jump to 3D instead of leaving it at two, although with that distribution, 2D was certainly not wrong. The play in notrump is simple, because Raymond is leading, and Kelly bid clubs. Raymond leads a club, so Ken takes on the board, cashes the top three spades, and Raymond is left with the jack. So he leads a fourth spade, putting Raymond in the lead, and he has a guaranteed stopper in his hand regardless of the lead, with the king of clubs as a board entry if necessary to cash the remaining spades, lead back to the ace of diamonds, and cash the good club. If Raymond switches to a heart, that's another trick with the king. That's five spade tricks, the ace of diamonds, three clubs, and possibly the king of hearts.

Today's Gaming: I really meant to skip Myst 4 today and play something on the consoles, but I wanted to look around the jungle a bit more, and from there, I found more places I could go and more puzzles with mystifying clues. I've found some of the information I need, but it will take some doing to put it all together and find the remaining pieces. So no console gaming again today. I can't keep this up forever.

And I finally started watching Strawberry Panic last night, for no particular reason. It's cute, and it's got me thinking. I don't believe that there are any male characters in the entire series, which is unusual. Even Azumanga Daioh has male characters, including a main character. I haven't been able to think of any other series with an all-female cast, although I'm sure I'm just not thinking hard enough. Someone's going to suggest one. I also can't think of any male-only series, but I know I have to be missing one somewhere. And nothing says that a boy won't show up later in Strawberry Panic... it just doesn't seem like that type of series. It's got plenty of romance and all the usual character archetypes, but no males. I think the first episode of the anime is much funnier than I remember the manga being. I'll need to watch more before forming a meaningful opinion.

http://gizmodo.com/5027378/real-dinosaur-on-the-loose-in-a-museum-makes-learning-fun-extremely-dangerous

EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU.

WATCH THAT.

NOW.