The Dino-Aspie Ex-Café (for Those 40+... or feeling creaky)

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I don't know about the current release (personally think he has the acting range of absolute zero, Keanu Reeves, sorry if I stepped on toes), but it's an old science fiction (1951), as in black and white, movie. Can't even tell you what book or novella it's based on. Probably not hard to find out on Wickedpedia. Excellent movie for it's "Cold War" times. The movie itself is an intervention, saying stop screwing around with the bomb, the human race is dangerous and if you don't knock it off, we'll (the "visitor and his robot, which iirc represented a larger universal group) end you. It's like we're a dangerous virus, primitive, but lethal. It pleads for peace in the world. My take on it anyway.

SNARK!! *poof*

Woke up to the tune Human, a tribute to writer Hunter S. Thompson, who committed suicide. Thought I'd share:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L_ygkK__Ak


"The hippies, who had never really believed they were the wave of the future anyway, saw the election results as brutal confirmation of the futility of fighting the establishment on its own terms. There had to be a whole new scene, they said, and the only way to do it was to make the big move — either figuratively or literally — from Berkeley to the Haight-Ashbury, from pragmatism to mysticism, from politics to dope... The thrust is no longer for "change" or "progress" or "revolution," but merely to escape, to live on the far perimeter of a world that might have been."

"If you're going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you're going to be locked up."

But speaking of rules, you've been arrested dozens of times in your life. Specific incidents aside, what's common to these run-ins? Where do you stand vis-à-vis the law?
"-G-d-it. Yeah, I have. First, there's a huge difference between being arrested and being guilty. Second, see, the law changes and I don't. How I stand vis-à-vis the law at any given moment depends on the law. The law can change from state to state, from nation to nation, from city to city. I guess I have to go by a higher law. How's that? Yeah, I consider myself a road man for the lords of karma."

* "Morality is temporary, wisdom is permanent."


* "I understand that fear is my friend, but not always. Never turn your back on fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed."

* "The only ones left with any confidence at all are the New Dumb. It is the beginning of the end of our world as we knew it. Doom is the operative ethic."

* "A word to the wise is infuriating."


* "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."

* "I have spent half my life trying to get away from journalism, but I am still mired in it — a low trade and a habit worse than heroin, a strange seedy world full of misfits and drunkards and failures."

* "If I'd written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people — including me — would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism."


* "Objective journalism is one of the main reasons American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long. You can't be objective about Nixon."


* "Myths and legends die hard in America. We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of man's reality. Weird heroes and mold-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it - that the tyranny of the rat race is not yet final."

* "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

* "Some may never live, but the crazy never die."

* "Pray to God, but row away from the rocks."

* "The last train out of any station will not be full of nice guys."

* "Walk tall, kick ass, learn to speak Arabic, love music and never forget you come from a long line of truth seekers, lovers and warriors."


* "I heard the music, and I wrote to it.
Some people beat drums. Some people strum guitars.
It’s all in the music you hear."

* "The music industry is a cruel and shallow money-trench. A long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There is also a negative side."

* "It’s a stupid, dangerous, HELLISH world . . . But don’t let it FRIGHTEN you!!"

-Hunter S. Thompson

I hope that all of you have been well!
I've been buried in work, silver drawings, painting, and writing. Will resurface shortly (forewarned is forearmed. )
I need more hours in a day!! ! ...Lau? Richie? Postie? Gromit? Inventor? ...any of you perfected slowing earth's rotation yet?!
I figure if we create two long poles and extend them at opposite ends of the equator they'll slow the rotation (like the extended arms of a spinning ice skater). But my math may be off.

It wouldn't just be for me. Nan might appreciate a little more time in her day right about now.

(PS: the arms need to be retractable. I need the rotation to speed up when I'm at work, and slooooooow down when I'm off. Can that be arranged? Am I asking too much?)

working as much as Chuck and lurking and stimmng. . .


Merle

survived. but am wasted. going to not try to be coherent today. spike is not speaking to me and the cat won't shut up.

we left the hotel at 8:00 london time yesterday, got in a 22:00 our time (which would be 06:00 london time). screaming baby immediately behind us on the transatlantic wing. we got to detroit, which is a large and very noisy airport. had to walk a long way, had to get our bags and then go through customs and then put them back to be loaded on the next plane. got us through customs, where the kid almost lost it when the customs guy joked with her that the big box of sweets she'd bought was prohibited into the country (he was kidding, she thought he was serious). she did melt down and start crying while we were waiting to board the san diego flight. just toooo much for one day and she hadn't eaten - got her something to eat, gave her the "you do have to eat every four hours or your blood sugar tanks and look at the result" mom speech. she said she felt better after the food. when we got settled on the plane, and they announced san diego was fogged in and they were trying for los angeles instead. we'd get there and sit on the runway for an hour to see if the fog lifted. if so, they'd then fly us down here. otherwise, they were going to put us on a big bus and drive us (3 hour trip). which would have put us in at 3:00am-ish.

kid lost it again at that and started crying. had to get her calmed down to call our contact here to let her know not to go to the airport, and only had about two minutes to do it while we were taxi-ing on the runway before they would call "no cellphones". when we were about 30 minutes out from here, they announced we were landing in san diego, not los angeles, so thankfully we were able to call our picker-upper person who was still in the vicinity. kid really didn't get how lucky we were. i've been on flights where they just cancelled the flight and you sit in the airport until the fog lifts and they can get you on another flight. i thought northwest was pretty classy for trying to get us there even if we had to use a bus.

so, after i finish pouring more saline solution up my nose (dry air is an understatement) i'm going back to bed. never did make connections with lau - kid forgot to charge her cell phone (mine doesn't work overseas) and her camera and both died after the first (second?) day there. couldn't find an adaptor to charge them for less than the cost of the camera after walking all over tottingham court road on sunday, so we were phone-less and bought disposable cameras. another hotel guest loaned us a charger somewhere near the last day were were there. anyway, lau'd leave a message at the desk for us, but we'd have already gone for the day and we'd either get it late that night or maybe the next day if the desk clerk noticed it in our box when we turned in or picked up our room key. then when i got to a phone while out i'd invariably have left the number in the room (all four storeys up). by the time i could leave HIM a message he'd be out. we really did keep busy - except for the first day, when we were in serious jet lag - and were up and gone by 7:30am almost every day, and not back until after 7 or 8 at night. sorry lau! next time we'll know there are no phones in the rooms and make more certain plans! we are definitely going to go back - sometime when hopefully we won't catch the most intensive cold-snap in decades. june sounds nice.

castleton hotel [ http://www.castletonhotel.com ] was lovely. room had been remodeled recently, very cheery color. they put a little toilet/shower room in that looks like it'd been lifted from the space shuttle and about as large, but functional (all prefab, but nice to not have to share a toilet in the hall). we were about two blocks from paddington station [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Paddington_station ] am now in great shape from climbing the four flights (8 really, as they turned back on themselves) of stairs to get to our room under the eaves! nice thick feather comforters on the beds and tea-making stuff in the room. food was great, not appreciably more expensive than here. they gave us a HUGE breakfast every morning, and we ate a lot of pasties, as they were inexpensive, really good (it's like stew inside a turnover pastry), and available at any time over at paddington station. had tea one afternoon in the basement of the victoria and albert museum [ http://www.vam.ac.uk/ ] in a lounge that was built and decorated in the 1860s. inexpensive and filling, and the surroundings were amazing.

never did get our fish and chips though, as we took the evening tour over on tuesday (?) to the tower and were planning on getting a fish-and-chip supper there but when the kid got off the bus at the tower she just could not take the cold (she was shivering uncontrollably) and so we hopped the next bus coming by and we went back to the hotel. (neat thing, if you sit on the top floor of those buses (they really all are two-tier) you can get a great tour of london and they run 24 hours.) it was bitterly cold down by the thames, but the castle was impressive - what i saw of it from the bus stop.

so, no, i really didn't get to see my castles, BUT, the last full day there we went to stonehenge, glastonbury tor and abbey and the chalice well (yes, the water tastes odd), and avesbury. that makes up for it. the ruins at glastonbury are particularly awesome. (the town itself has gone over to shops aimed at new-age tourists, selling crystals, tarot cards, etc. - kid loved that part, i preferred the abbey). it was bitterly cold that day, though , and we were almost the first people into stonehenge that morning, and got to avesbury last and just after dark. pretty amazing places, all of them made better by the cold in that there was almost nobody at any of them. except nan, with a scarf wrapped around her head like a mummy to keep from getting frostbite, and the kid, who just looked kind of dazed (she was just a little kid when she experienced winter - has never felt that kind of cold), an australian couple and a middle-aged couple from florida - plus one overly cheery tourguide who was obviously suffering from the cold but doing his best. great tour company, inexpensive, small mini-bus instead of one of those big coaches, great guide. anderson tours [ http://www.andersontours.co.uk/tourdeta ... 4&sid=2586] . countryside looked like a christmas card, the frost was so heavy that it looked like it had snowed.

neat thing, there were people out at all hours by paddington and the streets seemed pretty safe no matter when we were out. lotta cops out. especially when the riots started over by the israeli embassy.

we had a great view out of our window, down a long street of buildings just like ours to an ancient church. was also surprisingly quiet there at night, for being in a big city. people were just much quieter - on the buses, in restaurants, in public places. it was lovely! and we almost never overheard anyone having a cell phone conversation, and only very rarely heard a cell phone ring!

going back to bed now. cats are reminding me that it's there and is a good place to curl up.

we GOTTA do this again!

Yes, you'll have to go again, Nan, and visit all the places you missed the first time. I've only ever been in the UK once, and that was around March-April. So I don't know what the weather is usually like in June. Probably not screaming-hot, though.

Just a little heartwarming something:

Just got my 4 pounds of wool for anyone who doesn't know,(like me)...that turns out to me a lot of wool . He is now living in my bathroom storage closet but I'm not sure what to feed him . 3 pounds are natural wool ad one pound is pre dyed some lovely colors...already begin needle felting a new scarf....so fun .

Also broke out the femo yesterday to play with and had an allergic reaction to it...itchy palms which abated as soon as I washed it off....but reaffirms my belief that my allergy system has gone haywire after the initial reaction to that quit smoking med 2 years ago(Zyban?) .

Found a new web site I thought some might find interesting. Lots of different social awareness blog and one about autism from the original blogger of autismvox . Already 600 members and growing faster then many other "causes" . Check it out...

http://autism.change.org/

Inventor sent me some of his posters made of Lemons "art fabric" designs and they are awesome. He wants to incorporate them in his book as end sheets, the ones he sent are to thick to use for that but I think they will make some great book covers for journals . (Patience Lemon, he will make you famous yet.) I will post pictures as soon as I get a chance to bind some . Might be something to consider for other autism books if we ever do hardcover ?

Off to make dinner then play with all my new supplies before work .

Working an extra night tonight....(I love getting paid overtime) .

It is an interesting fact that the Caber, a piece of wood used to weigh down the sporran, so that it may more securely hold down the kilt even in strong winds, has a weight exactly one quarter, one eighth or one sixteenth of that of a calibrated standard haggis, depending on whether the caber is large, medium or wee. Not many people know that.

Here is a picture of a Scot attaching a caber to his sporran. He is expecting high winds, so the caber is of the large size. Getting the balance right can be a bit tricky.

...just a quick hello to all... ...and welcome back from your trip Nan!... ...and Laurie: not sure if "congratulations" is the proper thing to say to someone who has just been diagnosed with Asperger's, but I think that something like that is what I mean. I hope that the confirmation allows you to see that you at least have a true compass and can trust your own thinking. By which I mean - congratulations on being correct in your self-diagnosis. (Boy, that was wordy!! ! ) ...and have fun Krex!

love weird visuals in music videos. Kerli fits the bill:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6xi7VY8iDM