New Book Site

There's a new book site in my Journal liks:

Scription.

It discusses notebooks, pens and other book geek stuff. It looks rather promising for those of my... addiction.

-T

Ancient Curse

See if you can follow this:

It's bad luck to wake someone on their day off. So, to counter-act this bad luck one must remember this:

The one who does the waking must offer the one who was doing the sleeping some caffiene.

The one who was doing the sleeping must drink the caffiene while the one who was doing the waking appologizes.

The one who was doing the sleeping and who is now doing the drinking listens to the man doing the speaking who was doing the waking while nursing the caffiene.

The one who did the waking and is doing the talking plys the man who is doing the drinking with gaming.

Thus, the man who was doing the waking is gaming with the man who was doing the sleeping while doing the drinking offered by the man who was speaking to solve this ancient and most terrible curse with gaming.

Savvy?

Alignment Test. Had to be done.

From Bryian / Judi's blogs:

I figured that I would get lawful neutral as I usually do, but apparently my philosophy has changed in the past year or so. I've added some emphasis in places to show the things that jumped out at me.

Your Score: True Neutral

50% Good, 56% Chaotic

Plane of Existence: The Outlands, "Plane of Concordant Opposition". Description: The plane between all other outer planes.

Examples of True Neutrals (Ethically Neutral, Morally Neutral)

Red XIII, "Nanaki" (FFVII)
Vincent Valentine (FFVII)
Cid Highwind (FFVII)
Mr. Spock
Linus Torvalds
Dr. Strangelove
Scott Evil
Batman
The Punisher
Switzerland
Canada

Not actively for or against anything. Has his or her own reasons for doing everything. Usually difficult to understand.

Will keep their word if in their best interest
May attack an unarmed foe
May use poison
May help those in need
May work with others
Indifferent to higher authority
Indifferent to organizations

True Neutral "Pure Neutral"
"Balancer"

Some neutral [people] commit themselves philosophically to neutrality. They are of the true neutral alignment as described in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

A true neutral [person] sees good, evil, law, and chaos as prejudices and dangerous extremes. He advocates the middle way of neutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run.

Some true neutral [people] actively support balance in the world, and seek to avoid having any one side, law or chaos, good or evil, become too powerful over them or anyone else, and will work against whichever side is the most powerful. They tend to side with the underdog in any situation, and are often opportunistic in their actions.

True neutral is committed to the avoidance of extremes, and is non-judgemental.

Link: The Alignment Test

A Warning to Dr. Who Fans

Don't click on this link.

Do not click on this link if you:
1) Are at work
2) Have liquid anywhere near your mouth
3) Have a headache
4) Have sore abs
5) are trying to keep quiet
6) Have any respect for the Dr. Who-Verse
7) Want to look at Dr. Who the same way again.
8) Want to look at me the same way again.
9) believe that Dr. Who should not be 'experimented' with.
10) Have any doubts that I am an Evil Sith Lord (I can't claim to be an Evil Genius, that's Bryian - it's a different Doctoral Program)

I'm warning you.

Don't do it.

Really

But if you must

Click

Here

Go Get 'em Jimmy

From: CNN

Carter was quoted Saturday in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette as saying "I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history."

The Georgia Democrat said Bush had overseen an "overt reversal of America's basic values" as expressed by previous administrations, including that of his own father, former President George H.W. Bush.

Carter, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, criticized Bush for having "zero peace talks" in Israel. Carter also said the administration "abandoned or directly refuted" every negotiated nuclear arms agreement, as well as environmental efforts by other presidents.

"As a traditional Baptist, I've always believed in separation of church and state and honored that premise when I was president, and so have all other presidents, I might say, except this one."

When former President Carter, who's been awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace after his term as President, describes the current adiministration so poorly - this is sending a clear message to the people. The damage created by G.W. Bush during his two terms will take the next President if not the next two presidents years to mend. I think that there are some areas that the American President will be unable to fix because the damage has been done so completely. There's no room to repair the bridges that have been burnt when you look at the reversal of some of the previous policies.

History, I do not think, will judge G.W. Bush very well. He is the President and the office of the President should be protected even from those who would tarnish its reputation.

-T

Damned Fevers

Last night, while I was crawling into bed, I was fighting the chilled shakes of a fever.

I normally get them rather than a true 'cold' when the temperature takes a nose dive. I think it's basically a reaction to my sinuses once the cold weather kicks in, but in any case - last night sucked.

I was sweating my shorts off and my muscles were stretched and pulled as though I had worked out for too long.

This morning I'm "here" but I can tell the Fever is still hanging around; lurking in the back of my head and waiting for its' chance to strike.

Ugh.

-T

p.s. The only good thing about the fevers is that I normally end up with very weird sketches in my book before it goes away for good.

Evil. E-Vil

Laps around the Cemetery: 4
Basement projects: 2
Times I've surfed Blick's online Catalog: 283
Bowls of Starbuck's Java Chip Ice Cream: 3 (at least it's not cookies)
Bookporn sites visited: 5 (Look at the pages on that one)
Showers: 3 (I love my hot water heater)
Number of series downloaded: 2 (I can quit anytime I want)

So, there I was - just out of the shower for the second time today (after the basement projects) and I remembered that I had a half-eaten quart of Java-Chip ice cream from Starbucks in the freezer. It called to me.

Yes, called.

I don't like chocolate, but this coffee-chocolate combo thing isn't bad.

This weekend got off to a weird start. I slept most of Friday - maybe a blood sugar thing and today I worked on the basement for a while and just could not stay clean for more than 4 hours. First it was just the morning 'wake my butt up' shower. Then it was the 'I'm covered in basement gick' shower, and then finally it was the 'how did I get that sweaty walking all...over...Portsmouth' shower.

oh well, I'm going to get back to my Evil.

E-vil.

-T.

The Jack Sack

I found this site today and had to share. This is almost a follow-up to my original post: "The Bag that saved the world."

I already threw a link up under 'Journals'.

-T

Blood Sugar

Ok, this was a weird day.

Classes went fine and even Sociology (my afternoon class) was animated. However, towards the end of the class, I started to realize that as I moved around the room I was getting more and more dizzy.

I didn't realize what was going on and kept teaching and then it happened.

Just as I was concluding a point, my legs buckled. I pulled it off like I stumbled or something and just got rid of the students but it freaked me out.

A buddy of mine, who was there, saw what happened and realized that I've been working out harder than normal, (about 5 hours a week) and not eating a lot.

Blood sugar.

Who'da thunk it.

-T

Jerry Falwell is Dead

From CNN:

Falwell and the religious conservative leaders who followed are now a bulwark of the modern Republican Party and helped turn the once solidly Democratic South into the base of the GOP.

But he has found himself at the center of several controversies, such as the one sparked by his comments two days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in which he seemed to blame "abortionists," gays, lesbians, the ACLU and People for American Way for causing the attacks, saying they "helped this happen."

A day later, he told CNN that he would "never blame any human being except the terrorists, and if I left that impression with gays or lesbians or anyone else, I apologize."

Someone better find the munchkins; they're on in 5.

(sing)
Ding...Dong...the....
(/sing)
-T

Another Bibliophile

miguelrius - Journal Diary - Back / Flap
Originally uploaded by DigitalAlan.

I found this while searching through Flickr this morning before class. When I saw it I almost thought that someone had found one of my old books and threw a picture of it up on the web. And then I realized...

My people are out there!
Yeap, they're out there frequenting notebook bars and secretly watching notebook websites. Before ya know it they'll have to tell their S.O. that they're carrying a notebook with them.

I wonder if we'll have to put up small stickers of a notebook on the windows of buisnesses to show that 'Notebook People' welcome here.

Maybe a Notebook Pride Parade?

-T.

Crook

Crook
Originally uploaded by Green Pilgrim.

This is a Pilgrim's Crook. I am experimenting with photoshop with different layers and such.

It was just an experiment.

-T

Triangular Shaped Robots

From: My Army

After reading my post about "My Army", a friend of mine asked a simple question:

"Who would be scared of triangular robots?"

My response:

This model of triangular robots was quite effectual though a bit more on the 'lumbering giant' side. The ability to hyperexanguinate THOSE WHO ARE NOT ON THE LISTS is quite breath taking. I think it was the grey powder of their former shells that really helped push this one through R&D.
This earlier model is something that I had suggested. The triangular wing design allows for ease of mobility across the many types of terrain on this planet and can still use the beam weapon effectively. However, it must be said that the 'throng' used by the first model is superior at frightening the enemy targets.

So... I would say that there are some people who would be scared of triangular robots. :)

-T

King Harod's Tomb Discovered

From: Yahoo.com



Herod was the Jewish proxy ruler of the Holy Land under imperial Roman occupation from 37 B.C. His most famous construction project was expanding the Jewish Second Temple in Jerusalem.

Remnants of his extensive building work in Jerusalem are still visible in Jerusalem's Old City, and he undertook major construction projects in Caesaria, Jericho, the hilltop fortress of Masada and elsewhere.

At the excavation site, on the steep, rocky slopes of a cone-shaped hill 2,230 feet high, Netzer's assistant, Yaakov Kalmar, said that an account of Herod's funeral by the first-century historian Josephus Flavius left little doubt that it took place at Herodium. The newly discovered tomb was regal in its opulence.

"We have here all the attributes of a royal funeral," Kalmar said. "We didn't find inscriptions so far... The work is not finished."

The account (of the Massacre of the Innocents), however does not appear in other Gospels, and experts are not convinced of its accuracy, especially the implications of mass infanticide. Some believe the decree applied only to Bethlehem, a small town at the time, where there may have been as few as 15 toddlers.

I once read that: "Archaeology is the enemy of faith." Another writer emphatically stated that "Archaeology is a tool of the devil, used to blur the truths of the bible."

Well, I happen to agree with both - though I doubt the devil has anything to do with Archaeology.

Archaeologists do not look for "Truth"; we look for facts. Truth is a philosophical point of view, not something that can be proven through scientific research. When you begin looking for answers in the archaeological / historical record, you may destroy the faith of some, but I would argue that if their faith is so easily shattered then their problem is not with the researchers but with themselves.

If Archaeology were able to scientifically prove, through ancient records or the lack of a mass grave of infants (or something), that the Massacre of the Innocents did not happen - would this shake Christianity to its foundation? No. Christianity and the Holy Roman Church has existed for near 1600 years and every time science has offered evidence to counter the official doctrine of faith, the religion has learned to adapt its mythology to incorporate the new information.

This is not to say that this adaptation has been smooth. Scientists were tried for herasy for even thinking that the earth was round or that the sun did not revolve around the earth. Anything that challenged the authority of the Church would, at first, be answered with fire and pain. Eventually the message would be supported by others even in the face of the Church's opposition.

Scientists hid their findings in secrets writings (yes, you knew I was going there) in hopes that they could have others confirm their ideas on the natural world without the Church or its agents discovering their attack on religious truth.

I wonder how the Church will fight the idea that the Massacre of the Innocents didn't happen the way the bible might have portrayed it. And if this story is innaccurate - it's just another chink in their mythos that's been punched through.

When I tell people "Always the Quest", I'm sure that there's some force in this world that would rather have people like myself - the Enemies of Faith - be executed for crimes against their religion. Religion and science have been at war since the creation of the Christian faith. Eventually, like with most things, the strength of one will be put against the strength of another and a change will be produced.

We shall wait... and see.

-Tom

My Army

Stormtroopers are Kewl!
Originally uploaded by i_hate_my_screen_name.

Someday, my Armies will finally get here.

And when my empire rises from the ashes of this world...

There will be lists.

Oh... there will be SUCH lists.

-Tom.

p.s. Lists...and big friggen robots.

Pilgrim Gear Design ver 3.1

Pilgrim Gear Design ver 3.1,
originally uploaded by Green Pilgrim.

Latest update on Pilgrim Gear.

The addition of the crescent moon really added something to the feel that I was trying to create.

I asked for Barb, Zak, Dan and Heather to give me some input and so far they all liked it.

Now all I have to do is to work on the project this was designed for.

-Tom

Cinco de Mayo

Cinqo de Mayo

9:00 a.m.
Oddly enough, I'm not the first one awake this morning. I slept in until 8:30. I have no idea why my brain didn't get me up - perhaps a lack of sleep for the past few days had something to do with it.

Morganna is already off and experiencing the ritual of the SAT's and Zak and Barb are upstairs getting ready. I think that Kat may be gifting them with a 'present' this morning; all I hear is Zak repeating "Oh My God" over and over again. Doesn't sound too promising.

Barb and I are going to head out around 10:30 so we can pick up the cakes for the reception from the bakery; which won't have them ready until around then. Since I'm going to be in the wedding, I'm going to see if I can find someone to take pictures of the thing with my camera - I want something for my blog.

I'll have pictures of the before and after, but you get the idea.

Click here to go to the pics I've put up on Flickr

9:25 p.m.

Well, the wedding has been over for a few years. Barb, Dan, Heather and myself are watching one of the Planet Earth dvd's. Very cool. The wedding was cool; Barb and I helped with the reception to get things handled so that Bryian and Judi could sit back and relax. Well, not really sit back - they were up and moving around the room to visit the various tables.

The end of the rehearsal was much as I suspected. Though Judi's joke about the bouquet was about as successful as a wardrobe malfunction during the superbowl, I'm sure it was well-intended. However, the garter was practically put in my hand; I'm the last of the friends to be married.

Not going to happen.

When we got back from the reception, I grabbed a change of clothes and started work on my Psych test on Monday. Morganna, my 16 year-old god-neice, was preparing to go to her Junior Prom. She's wearing a nice dress with great big, buckle-clad, animae boots and black, lacey-fairy wings to complete the Punk Fairy Chic' look.

I still can't fathom that little Morganna, the Frog Hunter, is going to Prom. Sometimes I feel old. Sometimes I feel older.

It is so nice to be up here on a weekend. It's really nice to hang out my friends; it's even nice to watch Barb and Zak play the tickle game with Kat. Not that I would ever want my own kids, but I can appreciate them enjoying the experience of playing with their new daughter.

Drunken Mom's Weekend

1:39 a.m.

Things are quiet in the house. Morgana has to get up in a few hours to take her SAT's and the rest of us are up for Bryian and Judy's wedding. We're all getting ready to head out around 10:30 a.m. and should be at the Reception by 12:30 p.m. The wedding is at 11:45 a.m. at the Stuart's Opera House in Nelsonville.

I'll be sure to grab some pics tomorrow so I can post them. For now, it was an awsome day. I got to have dinner with the wedding party at a good Chinese restaurant. Dan and I walked down to what used to be O' Hooleys pub to meet Bryian and Torquil for Bryian's pseudo-bachelor party.

Dan and I left around 10:30 p.m. since Heather hadn't slept in several days and was waiting for Dan at Barb & Zak's for us to wind things up. Bryian was being entertained by the next shift; TIMMY (ok, so his name is just Tim, but I have nevre heard anyone use just his first name. It's always said like the South Park character.) and John - a guy from Donkey Coffee that Bryian knows.

I can't imagine that Bryian would have been out too late, simply because he's got to be up early in the morning and he's way beyond the young and stupid stage in life.

So,

I'm curled up in the guest futon at B&Z's and going to grab about 6 or 7 hours of sleep

Night.

Candle-Light Vigil

On Tuesday evening, a memorial service was held on the Shawnee State campus for William Travis Ralston. The ceremony was an opportunity for family, friends and fraternity brothers to gather and honor Travis' memory.


The TKE Fraternity lost a brother on early Monday morning. The vigil was arranged by the University to give the students a forum to grieve. The use of the 'vigil' got me thinking. How is a vigil seperate from the standard funerary services held by the deceased family

"A vigil (from the Latin vigilia, 'wakefulness') is a
period of sleeplessness, an occasion for devotional watching or observance"

With recent events such as the shootings at Virginia Tech, Candle-Light Vigils seem to be the University's way of ritualizing the process of loss for a student who dies violently. It seems, then, that the Vigil is a more public means of expressing whatever feelings one might have.


If a funeral is presumably a private, family affair, then the Vigil is a public gathering. Did everyone present know Travis? Probably not. I would say that they were connected to him; through friends and classes and the like.


When this happened, I saw some students leaving bouquets of red carnations at the foot of a flag pole; a poor substitute for an altar in my opinion. The University needs a center-point for such things. A place for pictures, for candles and for flowers. Humanity has always had its village shrines and why should the University, essentially a small village, be any different?

-Tom

New Icon?

A little sketch, some photoshop and a Pilgrim's Crook.


Sorta has a bit of the Riddler in the design, but not too bad if I do say so. I added the crescent moon in the top version to suggest that Quests do not end when the sun sets.

The second image is more of a logo - if I were to put out journals or bags or something for those people who are bibliophiles or wanting to go on trips, pilgrimages, quests and the like.



This third version is an elaboration of the 'Logo' concept. Pilgrim Gear... sort of the nomadic treker wandering around the world or their own city.

Notebooks, satchels, even walking sticks (crooks?) , pocket knives, flash lights, anything that the modern pilgrim might need for their travels. This is all highly improbable, but it would be cool if I could turn the idea into an actual project.

Hrm. I wonder if I could get some notebooks with the logo printed on them.
-Tom

Blast from the Past

So there I was, working on the next group of chapters for Sociology when a blast from the past walked into my office.

John, a guy I had met up in Athens as a member of the SCA and as a member of the Robins Crossing Historical Village, was helping a friend buy up books across campus.

So he sat down and we caught up. It's been at least two years since I had seen him. He's helping out the friend this spring and hopefully this summer, he'll be teaching English in France with his new girlfriend. The last I had heard from him, John was getting divorced. I didn't hear the details but I can imagine it wasn't pretty.

He finished his Masters in Ecological studies at OU and afterwards went on a hike. A very cool hike. He and a buddy walked the Appalachian Trail. I don't know how much of the trail he hiked (forgot to ask) but he did say that he and a buddy had their parents ship them packages to various 'drop points' along the way so they always had pre-dried food for them to eat.

Someone tells me that that they took a few months to hike the Appalachian Trail and I ask how he handled the logistics and did he carry a journal (or photo journal). I know. I have a problem.

John was just a good guy all around. We had a lot of very interesting conversations while up at the Forge. He's one of the people that I have been curious about in the years since I stopped heading up to Athens as frequently. I always knew that he would get into some interesting things; he just seemed the type.

I hope things turn out very well from him.

-Tom

A Time(-table) for War

From Cnn:

"It makes no sense to tell the enemy when you plan to start withdrawing. All the
terrorists would have to do is mark their calendars. ... Setting a deadline for
withdrawal is setting a date for failure, and that would be irresponsible," Bush
said in a televised address after the veto.

This has been Bush's logic for a while. Don't tell the enemy that you're going to leave on 'X' date because they'll just wait until we're gone and then do whatever they have planned. Here's my problem with that statement:

By virtue of this logic, we would never be able to leave Iraq for fear that the 'enemy' would finally enact their plans as soon as we were gone. This suggests that Bush wants to keep Troops in Iraq indefinately - which seems to be against the wishes of a rising majority of Americans. Even my grandfather - the WWII Navy Vet - told me that they should "bring the boys home", and he's as patriotic as I've ever heard from anyone.

The entire Iraq situation is just spiraling into a black void of ignorance. No one seems to know why (exactly) we went. No one seems to know how we're going to pull ourselves out. I'm sure that the generals who got us into Iraq had a plan for getting us out - but I wonder how their plans have been changed or simply ignored by the President or those business interests who support his actions in Iraq.

I would make the argument that as soon as US troops are no longer a factor in Iraq, the problems between the Shia and the Suni will boil over again. They have always had conflict. One of the main reasons that Iraq's leader, Sadam, was such a problem for his people was that he was, essentially, a tribal leader waging political war against another tribe within his country. Most of the violence that we're seeing now in Iraq doesn't seem (though I could be mistaken) to be focused at US troops, but rather at other Iraqi's. Granted, there are a number of incidents where US troops are targeted, but most of the news that I've been able to pull together from CNN, MSNBC, FOX and BBC seem to point that the car bombs and suicide bombers are attacking open markets and public gatherings; not military outposts.

So, when the President says that he will veto any bill with a timetable for withdrawl - it makes me wonder exactly how long he plans to keep troops there. Well, he's only got 628 days left in office so I assume it will be less than that.

Anyone pushing for the next election will win a huge sway of votes if they promise to pull those troops back - and that's the most confusing thing. Bush says that he'll veto any bill with a time table, but there already -IS- one; his presidency.

Now don't get me wrong; I am in full support of the troops over there. I have lost one very good friend to an IED in Iraq, I have another friend who's going to be graduating and probably going over there next summer, and a new friend who's already been there once. I've sent baby wipes and socks to guys I don't even know because they're doing a job that I don't want to do.

I think that Bush is just deluding himself that he has any degree of control over the situation in Iraq either abroad or at home. He uses the veto power as a finger-in-the-dike stop-gap. He's only buying himself time.

When, in the fullness of time, President Bush is remembered as a leader in this country - I do not think that he will be remembered fondly.

-T

The Journals of Thomas Book

A writing experiment over on 101 Tales.

"The Journals of Thomas Book"

This is my attempt to pull together characters like Dean Corso (9th Gate), John Constantine (Constantine) and Harry Dresden (The Dresden Files) as well as bit of Dr. Henry Jones Jr. (Indiana Jones 1-3)

It's starting slow since it's a journal, but it's something I can just work on when I get a chance.

-Tom

May Day

Ahh, the first of May...

This time last year there were huge walk-outs and boycots by hispanics throughout the US to protest the resolution that was before the house to begin addressing the illegal immigrant population problem.

From CNN:

"Last year's May 1 boycott brought out more than a million protesters
across the nation. But later rallies failed to produce large turnouts, as
legislation stalled in Congress and bipartisan proposals for illegal immigrants
to gain citizenship have become more conservative."

The idea that an entire ethnicity has turned out to protest legal action taken against those who have broken the law is obviously a sign of the power behind the concept of Democracy. I am not fully versed in the details of their boycott or the nature of the legislation that will address (if at all possible) all of the illegal immigrants who now live within this country, but I can say that I am concerned at the nature of their protests.

In essence, the protesters have said to the US government, "We (or those whom we support) have broken your laws, but you will just have to accept it because there are too many of us."

I have no problem with immigrants living in this country. I'm an anthropologist - I enjoy diversity. However, I also believe that if there is a process by which one can live in the country legally - it should be followed by everyone.

More later. I have class.

-Tom

Suicide Update

From: Portsmouth Daily Times

"A Shawnee State University student was found dead Monday morning after committing suicide in his fraternity house off campus.

William Travis Ralston died early Monday morning in the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity house on Second Street, from apparent self-inflicted injuries, said Jeff Perez, SSU executive director of Communications and Executive Affairs."