An artists sketch

A couple of tribe friends had visited flashface.ctapt.de/ and created their own attempts at drawing themselves in their blogs.
Very good. And it was fun!

So would you recognize me, from my attempt at doing an artist's impression of me?

Superpower choice

So I see this in various blogs and it's quite interesting.

You can choose one superpower:
• Super Strength
• Telepathy
• Invisibility
• Flight
• Shapeshifting

After reading various comments of others:

• I would not have super strength, there is only a few rare times when it'd be useful, and most needs for strength there's probably a machine that can help.

• Invisibility seems too much like stalking!

• Flight, while initially sounding good, it is still human powered, so you'd get tired and it'd take weeks to get across the country, so planes would still be necessary. I'm also scared of heights, but maybe this would break that fear!

• Shapeshifting! I must be happy with my shape as I don't go to the gym! Also this would be a little like hiding your true identity, why, I already like who I am.

• So I come to telepathy. This would be great, I'd finally get to understand what the heck people are trying to say but their spoken words are full of ambiguity. Also those lying real estate agents would lose their advantage over me! Problem might be not being able to focus on just one mind and being flooded by everyone around you, but assuming others are controllable, I assume telepathy is controllable too.

So I want telepathy!

New ashtray

Arrived in the mail.
Looks like a lung, it coughs too!
Excellent hint for any guest who visits and smokes.

Where did I get it?
      www.perpetualkid.com/index.asp

Getting a gold star

With the temperatures yesterday hitting 93°F my place was a little hot when I got home!
The landlady had an air conditioner unit waiting to be installed by her handiman, but a couple of weeks ago he called about having appendicitis.
I decided to install it myself - and... ta da!
Works like a charm.

Star Wars Day

As Obi-Wan Kenobi said:
      MAY THE FOURTH be with you

Spam spam spam spam spam ...

I saw the theatre stage show: Spamalot
Excellent! Lots of puns, lots of humor, lots of satire!

I think you might need to have seen "Holy Grail" and "Life of Brian" movies first, and have some background in other Monty Python highlights - like the Finnish fish slapping sketch: www.youtube.com/watch

For details of Spamalot see: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spamalot

Do you know: Chukka Sachs or Crypto

Copied from a friend's blog on tribe: people.tribe.net/c91f5509-...acf5488e85

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Some of you might know Chukka Sachs or Crypto from here on Tribe.
She and her late husband Scott were members of the Burning Man community.
Scott was an emergency tech for a number of years.
Crypto was devastated by his death some bit over a year ago …
She started the Grieving Man Tribe and has been active on many other tribes, as well.
She’s shockingly bright and thoughtful and always brings a lot of value to her interactions here.
I got this note from Eliza, Crypto's sister, a few minutes ago.
She was in an accident while touring Europe and is in ultra-grave condition.
After losing her beloved husband, she’s now lost her legs.
Please keep her close in your thoughts, very close.
And please cross-post if you are friends or share friends with her.

people.tribe.net/thecryptofishist


Hi, Doll Parts

I am Crypto's sister Eliza. I have the following message for you to post. We do not have contact information for many of her friends. When you put up the post, I'll give a comment and let people know they can send stuff to me.

Crypto was very severely injured Friday, April 27 while trying to board a train in Innsbruck, Austria. Both legs have been amputated about 5" above the knee. She is in an induced coma. An additional operation is scheduled for Wednesday (tomorrow). The hospital she is in has a specialized trauma center and has very good equipment.

Her mother, Sally, will be flying out on Thursday and arriving on Friday. Her sister Magda will be out this weekend. We do not know if she will be conscious by then.

we have set up a blog at: chukkasupport.blogspot.com/

Not much there yet. We will try to keep it up to date as we learn about her condition.
We do not know when she will be coming home but when she does, she will need as much love and support as possible. Please send her your thoughts and messages.

4 moons till Burningman

Tonight is close enough a full moon.

This year has full moons on May 31 (technically a "Blue Moon" being the second in a calendar month), June 30, July 29, and on August 28.
August 28 is a lunar eclipse too, see: www.dongrays.com/eclipse/20070828T.gif on the first night of Burningman.

I intend to take a few good photos of that, like I took this photo tonight.

OK... my turn

1. My real name?
Bryan

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME (first 4 letters of real name plus izzle)
Bryaizzle

3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME (fav color and fav animal)
Blue dolphin

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name, and childhood street):
Thomas Ravenswood

5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 3 letters of mom's maiden name):
Donbrbry

6. YOUR SUPERHERO NAME (The, 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)
The Black Dakari

7. YOUR IRAQI NAME (2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, any letter of your middle name, 2nd letter of your moms maiden name, 3rd letter of you dads middle name, 1st letter of a siblings first name, last letter of your moms middle
name)
Rnorrde

8. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME (grandmother and grandfather's first name)
Henry Alice

9. YOUR GOTH NAME (black, and the name of one your pets):
Black Bubba

10. YOUR PORN STAR NAME (One of your pets names, and a street you've lived on):
Bubba Ravenswood

Say cheese

So I thought I could start pursuing one of my hobbies again - photography.
My old SLR is film (still a nice camera and lens), and my other camera is a snapshot digital.
What I wanted was a SLR (or close to it) digital, so I spent a couple of weekends looking, and settled on this camera (see above photo).

I saw this model (a Panasonic DMC-FZ50) at the store, played with it a bit, it was better than a few others, so ordered it online.
It arrived today - thanks UPS man!

It's got:
• 10Mpixel (3648 x 2736)
• 12x optical zoom
• macro setting
• auto or manual focus
• can be auto, semi-auto, or totally manual (PASM)
• doesn't do "bulb exposure", but can take night shots (up to 60 second shutter - eg for stars)
• has anti hand shaking "magic"
• can take fast sequential photos (about 2 per second - by my timings, they claim 0.3s)
• can do audio/video
It also can show a weird histogram, I'm not sure the value of this, but I'm still reading the user guide (which at least it isn't French - like the one in the store)!

I'm getting a 4Gb memory card - since my 1Gb doesn't hold enough photos now (eg for Burningman), and a spare battery.

The CD has some image tools - including some panorama making software. I already have one by Canon, but sometimes that doesn't do a good job, maybe this one will be better - I'm hoping - as it is newer.

I don't have much subject matter around the house, so here's one of my first photos with it: people.tribe.net/btd/photo...95da1dfaa8