Valerae’s Neighborhood

• 02:55 @sarahlane - Awwww. I wonder if either of mine can do that? #
• 02:57 So tempted right now. Tickets are available to Nebraska's final home game vs KState, but I already have my ticket to see Hatebreed. Argh! #
• 05:36 It can be quite a challenge now to balance your desire for act... More for Sagittarius bit.ly/79sZN #
• 14:36 RT @valeroalamobowl: Tim says OU to Alamo RT @ESPN_Big12: Big 12 bowl picture clearing up with two weeks to go tinyurl.com/yhsdsun #
• 14:43 RT @theiphoneblog: App Review: iX penseit Expense Tracker for iPhone bit.ly/B94pm #
• 15:37 @nhorn : from the Dethklok concert. tinyurl.com/ycjajqt #
• 16:01 Going to start looking at flights/hotel packages to San Diego.... #
• 17:38 RT Kansas State-Nebraska set for ESPN: The Big 12 Conference has announced Nebraska's game against Kansas State in bit.ly/kWHB5 #
• 17:39 Nebraska & K-State will play on ESPN; The coaches ranked the Huskers 25th today; More on the NU football weekend at omaha.com/bigred #
• 19:38 @Amethyst7123 - joys of married life? Kidding. #
• 22:44 @nepatriotsdraft - agreed #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

When "speck" is defined as a noun, it is 'a very small mark, or amount', it is 'a bit'.

But when "Speck" is the name of a cat, it is defined as "Get out of my room":

As a future tense, it is defined as, "I don't have to tell you what will happen if you don't":

I have all my photos uploaded but I haven't put captions to them yet. As soon as I do, I'll post the link to them.

You're saying, "Yeah, cuz you've done such a good job captioning all your other pics. Way to go, Ames."

Whatever. My day got away from me and I accomplished nothing I set out to and will probably look back and see I wasted hours on nothing of consequence.

But that's a story for another time. Maybe. It might not be a story at all.

All that incomprehensible nonsense aside, here are a few sample shots.

Oh - and we saw some Argentinian stripper lady hiking out of the Canyon when we were at least an hour down. She was wearing flip flops, cheetah print stretch capris, a black tank and carrying no water. o_O

Then at Phantom Ranch, one of the ladies on the mule train was wearing a two-piece flannel set, red with cats all over it and a fur coat. Wow. She was, um, odd.

Okay - here are some shots from the South Kaibab trail down on Thursday.

At Phantom Ranch:

Hiking around the vicinty of Phantom Ranch on our free day: Hiking out Bright Angel. The last mile up almost killed me. Gah. I still hurt.

today's movie is brought to you by teh SO, who said "how about The last seduction?"

it has elements of film noir, a thriller, a psychological thriller, and some damn hot sex: neo-noir, as it is sometimes called. 
to movie buffs, The last seduction is also known as that movie where Linda Fiorentino was robbed,  as she indeed was.  because of an Academy rule, ms. Fiorentino couldn't be nominated for an Oscar for her performance in The last seduction because the film had been released on TV (HBO) before a film release and was thus automatically ineligible for any Oscar nomination.  a shame, since Fiorentino's went for broke in The last seduction playing the driven, amoral, sexually voracious Bridget to the hilt.  an amazing performance.

trailer:

some of the story: Bridget is living in New York and married to a doctor.  a doctor who she talks into selling drugs to some unsavory characters. she then absconds with the money, leaving dr. husband in a not very good position. he hires detectives to find her; she has moved upstate to some 'cowtown in cowcountry', where she goes through the local male population like to a shark through a school of guppies.

an exchange with Mike, who she meets in the town's bar

Bridget : Could you leave? Please?
Mike : I haven't finished charming you yet.
Bridget : You haven't started.
Mike : Gimme a chance.
Bridget : Look, go find yourself a nice little cowgirl and make nice little cowbabies and leave me alone.
Mike : I'm hung like a horse. Think about it.
[ pause]
Bridget : Let's see.
Mike : Excuse me?
Bridget : Mr. Ed, let's see.
Mike : Look, I tried to be nice. I can see that's something you're not...
Bridget : No, I'm trying. I can be very nice when I try. Sit down.
Mike : OK, maybe we just got off to a bad start. I know plenty of people -
[ Bridget unzips his fly]
Mike: What are you doing?
Bridget : I believe what we're looking for is a certain horse-like quality?

so maybe you want to see what happens after that exchange.  the following montage begins there, and moves to other sex encounters including MAJOR SPOILERS.  it is also NSFW and graphic. 

Sloths, in case you hadn't guessed.

Three-toed sloth and Two-toed sloth
The sloth is the world's slowest mammal, so sedentary that algae grows on its furry coat. The plant gives it a greenish tint that is useful camouflage in the trees of its Central and South American rain forest home.

Sloths are identified by the number of long, prominent claws that they have on each front foot. There are both two-toed and three-toed sloths.

All sloths are built for life in the treetops. They spend nearly all of their time aloft, hanging from branches with a powerful grip aided by their long claws. (Dead sloths have been known to retain their grip and remain suspended from a branch.) Sloths even sleep in trees, and they sleep a lot—some 15 to 20 hours every day. Even when awake they often remain motionless. At night they eat leaves, shoots, and fruit from the trees and get almost all of their water from juicy plants.

Sloths mate and give birth while hanging in the trees. Sloth babies are often seen clinging to their mothers—they travel by hanging on to them for the first nine months of their lives.

On land, sloths' weak hind legs provide no power and their long claws are a hindrance. They must dig into the earth with their front claws and use their strong front legs to pull themselves along, dragging their bellies across the ground. If caught on land, these animals have no chance to evade predators, such as big cats, and must try to defend themselves by clawing and biting.

Though they couldn't be clumsier on land, sloths are surprisingly good swimmers. They sometimes fall directly from rain forest trees into rivers and stroke efficiently with their long arms.

The three-toed sloth emits a long, high-pitched call that echoes through the forests as "ahh-eeee." Because of this cry these sloths are sometimes called ais (pronounced "eyes").

Three-toed sloths also have an advantage that few other mammals possess: They have extra neck vertebrae that allows them to turn their heads some 270 degrees.

Two-toed sloths are slightly larger than their three-toed relatives. They are able to survive in captivity, while three-toed sloths are not.

And finally, a quick link to the extinct Giant Ground Sloth.

 

Today we have an HP87XM and the first casualty of NaBloPoMo.  Yep my right knee buckled and I dropped it as I was taking it out of the shed.  Luckily,  the damage seems to be just one crystal.  So it should be an easy fix as soon as I find a replacement.

Anyway,  the HP87XM was the highest development of the HP Series 80s.  It had a built in screen,  HP-IB bus and 128 kilobytes of RAM.  As you can see from the pictures,  it does not have alot of circuitry.  It is indeed an overgrown calculator.  Just one board for the computer and the rest for the monitor and keyboard.

I obtained this sample like many others at a University of Kentucky Surplus Auction.

Notice the unusual CRT

While TuxBrat was at the vet's for 3 days and nights, Miss HRTortie enjoyed having the house and the people to herself. Lots of talking, purring, and playing.

I had been kicking myself for not trying to extend my stay in the Emerald City through the weekend, but I guess things have a way of working out for the best whether we realize it or not.  M-----l headed west the day after I came home, and he and Homebody spent the morning watching my team play his team.  I could have been there watching with them.  It's best that I wasn't.  There are worse fan bases in sports, but no fans are worse than Bengal fans when it comes to keeping a little bit of success in proper perspective.  I still remember vividly the bitching and moaning on the part of Bengal fans when the Steelers shredded them (and Carson Palmer's knee) on the way to Super Bowl XL.  You'd have thought the league promised them a championship or something, the way they cried about "being robbed."  And I have no doubt that everyone in southwest Ohio believes after today that they are owed a Super Bowl victory.  After two flukey losses, I kind of hope we face the Bungles a third time in the playoffs.  I look forward to seeing them (and, hopefully, Carson Palmer's knee) shredded by the Steelers once again on their - the Steelers' - way to a seventh Lombardi Trophy.

Who dey?  Dey ain't nuthin', that's who dey.

I've been looking at purchasing yet another guitar, a couple months ago, I gave my Ibanez to my friend Michelle's son.  He's interested in learning guitar and I never play on that Ibanez, I'm all about my SG.  Anyway, I'm looking at two different Gibson guitars. 

First there's the Gibson Explorer:

Then there's the Gibson SG Diablo:
Tane says the SG Diablo because it is pretty, it does have a unique look about it.  Hell, I love the SG.  I'd be crazy to say otherwise.  But something about the Explorer, to me it just says "metal".  The SG is slighly more expensive, but you see where the money went just by looking at it. 

I'd been wondering why they were only vaccinating girls, when boys are a transmission vector.
And if you were trying to wipe out a virus, wouldn't you want to eliminate the source and all.

Logically, if you want to protect your girls, you need to vaccinate the boys too, no?
Is not a single-gender virus.

I just came across this:

"HPV vaccine will eventually be available for boys and men ages 9 to 26 because the Food and Drug Administration approved it for prevention of genital warts in October."

Well, that's nice.
Wouldn't want them getting warts on their little heehaws in the course of transmitting potentially lethel germies....