Winter Returns

Not with a bang, but our more normal weather returned with a passing front last night. How easy we became used to the warmer temps. Today at quitting time it was sunny and lower 50s, but we left the top up because it was “cold.” In another couple of weeks we will be putting the top down in those conditions…

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 13

The Tide Subsides?

Since Tuesday morning’s peak of 102 pieces of spam the total has been slowly ebbing. Wednesday’s total was 99, Thursday was 83 and this morning only 72. I’ll let you how the weekend goes on Monday, but for now here are a couple of my favorites:

Samurai st0ck InfO from that noted Japanese warrior, ngdgqasapwibfj@singmail.com

bequeath She sleeps around from Shakespeare using the nom de plume, Aelgcz@soha.com

The hit man I hired, bjfdesliwqbq@francimel.com discretely emails me, hey bro-its done

This week’s most anticipated email is [no subject] from [no sender]. Finally. I have been waiting on pins and needles to hear from [him] on [that].

Getting There

Last night I imported all the entries from the other three retired blogs. Don’t know whether or not I want to just leave the old ones up in archive form or just kill them and leave behind a custom 404 page…

I finally got around to doing the search template today, so when searching it looks like you are at a site that cares about cohesive style. I’m still tweaking the look of everything to get it just so, most might not notice because everything is basically functional. The archive navigation needs work, both date and category-wise.

No Lipitor…for now

Last September I had some blood work done as part of a company Health Fair. My lipid profile was on the high side. My doctor recommended that I try something called Red Rice Yeast, a herbal supplement that can lower cholesterol. I might do the trick and would be a lot cheaper than a name brand medicine. My mother-in-law picked up something at the health food place she frequents that is a combination of the Red Rice Yeast and Gulupid. The recommended dose is 1 or 2 tablets a day and I have been taking one in the morning for the last three months. Monday I had blood drawn in preparation for today’s doctor’s visit. The numbers went down (or up where applicable) but not really enough. So I am going to start taking two a day and go back in four months for another blood test and doctor’s visit.

  Chol HDL LDL Trig
Goal <200 >40 <100 30-150
09/21/04 209 24 131 271
01/10/05 176 33 110 167

Change One Letter

These came to me via email today with the follwing lead-in:

> The Washington Post’s Style Invitational once again
> asked readers to take
> any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding,
> subtracting, or changing
> one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this
> year’s winners:

I thought some were kind of neat and wanted to pass them on. I also wanted to include the link to the Washington Post’s site for your enjoyment as well. A Google search quickly discovers that I am not alone in wanting to blog about these “new” words. After clicking on a couple of the links it is starting to seem like these may have been from 2003. They may not even have been more than one. Most interestingly I found reference to these words from 1998! This is entirely possible as it is a weekly item and they are up to number 592 (meaning they started about 11-1/2 years ago.) Here is a link that will let you peruse the previous 100. With out further ado I present the rest of the email, 1-18 came today, the last 20 some odd I culled from the 1998 reerence:

  1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
  2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
  3. Bozone: The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
  4. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
  5. Cashtration: The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
  6. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
  7. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.
  8. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
  9. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
  10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease.
  11. Karmageddon: It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer.
  12. Decafalon: The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
  13. Glibido: All talk and no action.
  14. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
  15. Arachnoleptic fit: The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.
  16. Beelzebug: Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
  17. Caterpallor: The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you’re eating.
  18. Ignoranus: A person who’s both stupid and an asshole.
  19. Fortissimoe: the musical moment produced when someone serially slaps the faces of the first-violin section.
  20. Tatyr: a lecherous Mr. Potato Head.
  21. Doltergeist: a spirit that decides to haunt someplace stupid, such as your septic tank.
  22. Conratemps: the resentment permanent workers feel toward the fill-in workers.
  23. Whitetater: a political hot potato.
  24. Impotience: eager anticipation by men awaiting their Viagra prescription.
  25. Auto-da-feh: the extermination of heretics via drowning in a vat of pus.
  26. Stupfather: Woody Allen.
  27. DIOS: the one true operating system.
  28. Writer’s tramp: a woman who practices poetic licentiousness.
  29. Taterfamilias: the head of the Potato Head family.
  30. Guillozine: a magazine for executioners.
  31. Adulatery: cheating on your wife with a much younger woman who holds you in awe.
  32. Suckotash: a dish consisting of corn, lima beans and tofu.
  33. Emasculathe: a tool for castration.
  34. Burglesque: a poorly planned break-in.
  35. Genitaliar: an image-enhancing object that can be carried in a man’s front pocket.
  36. Antifun gal: a prude.
  37. Vaseball: a game of catch played by children in the living room.
  38. Eunouch: the pain of castration.
  39. Hindkerchief: really expensive toilet paper; toilet paper at Buckingham palace.
  40. Deifenestration: to throw all talk of God out the window.
  41. Hozone: the area around 14th street.
  42. Acme: a generic skin disease.
  43. Hindprint: indentation made by a couch potato.
  44. Coiterie: a very VERY close-knit group.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 10

Casablanca (2005)

Ever since I saw Casablanca on TMC last Sunday I have been thinking about how I would cast a remake. As breaktime fodder, a co-worker and I have been working the names of who we would see in the roles, here are our picks:

Role Actor 1942 Actor
Rick Blaine Hugh Jackman Humphrey Bogart
Ilsa Lund Laszlo Catherine Zeta-Jones Ingrid Bergman
Victor Laszlo James Caviezel Paul Henreid
Capt. Louis Renault Jude Law Claude Rains
Maj. Heinrich Strasser Neal McDonough Conrad Veidt
Signor Ferrari John Goodman Sydney Greenstreet
Guillermo Ugarte Colin Farrell Peter Lorre
Sam Laurance Fishborne Dooley Wilson
Carl David Keith S.Z. Sakall

We are thinking of forming a casting company, now we just need a snazzy name…