inspired by an unstable character with destructive tendencies

when i was younger, i was obsessed with scaring people. i loved to make people jump out of their skin. i think that this was mostly because i was such a coward myself. (in fact, i am still scared of dark basements, since i am convinced that all manner of scary things lurk there). there were a couple of times i REALLY managed to freak my poor brother out. (sam, if you are reading, i am mostly sorry). the first time, he and i were watching a horror movie that had literally MILLIONS a creepy crawly insects all over the place. sam, (the poor bastard), happened to be laying on the floor watching this movie, and was resting his head on a cushion. i quietly crawled up behind him and gently tickled his ear in the manner an insect might do it. i have never seen anyone leap that high off of the ground before, as he tried to wipe off all of the imaginary bugs that his terrified mind assumed were crawling all over him. oh man, how i laughed!!! the second time, was far worse. we both had these creepy looking clown masks, that i believe we wore one year for halloween. i thought it would be funny to try and scare my brother in some way, so that he wouldn't like the mask any longer. my plan worked a little too well. i put the mask on, and then went to find the biggest kitchen knife we had in the house. i then came creeping up the stairs, brought the knife out in front of me, and peeked my eyes around the top of the stairs. when i was fairly sure that my brother was confused by what exactly was going on, i moved the knife into a threatening posture, moved my clown-mask-head fully in to view, and made this awful noise, which in my memory, sounded like a demented goat. sam's face contorted, and he started to cry instantly. he tried to climb backwards, in order to escape this demon that had come to claim his soul. i instantly felt bad, and quickly took the mask off in order to remove the fear he was experiencing. so i guess i am not ENTIRELY evil. what is the worst fright YOU have ever given to someone? ps - i realise that i probably didn't write the above story very well, but i am at work, and my attention keeps getting distracted by stupid work stuff......

bizarro world

so i finally got a couple of days off, after two BRUTAL weeks of work. and i have done absolutely nothing. except get drunk. which is probably a bad thing, but in my defence, it wasn't exactly like it was a mission of mine. i didn't say to myself "i am going to be drunk lots this weekend". it just kind of happened by accident. especially yesterday. now i feel gross. and unrested. and now i have to go work for another week. damn. i truly believed that i was going to have a really productive weekend. the only thing that i managed to produce was waste. i am a terrible human being.

it ain't easy, being green

so i was messing around with the camera in my phone the other day, and managed to capture a really neat photo of myself. i projected some light on to my face, and switched the camera to "negative" mode, (which is how i take MOST of the photos with my phone), and the result was, to me, pretty impressive. then, while working on a client project, i was messing around with a specific style of dissolve for their logo, and came up with an interesting dissolve technique, and i decided to use the same approach with the photo i captured of myself a couple of days previous. as always, no manipulation of the photo was done after it was stored on my phone. here is what i ended up with........

search string

as many of you know, i am absolutely fascinated with the english language, and especially the origin of the words we use. i am constantly trying to find their etymologies and derivations. i have many books and dictionaries at home that help me find this information. i also have several dictionaries on my computer that i refer on a regular basis - greek, latin, and so forth. when i am at work, one of the ways i kill time during a boring meeting, is play a type of word association game in my head, where i try and see if i can guess the synonyms of a word that one of presenters just used. quite often, presenters use the wrong words for what they are intending to say, and i am not sure if it is because they lack the vocabulary that is necessary to convey what they intended to, or if they are just distracted by what they are trying to say, that they often just get their words mixed up. one of the presenters today said something like "the libraries are RIPE with information", and although the image that comes to mind when you hear this seems to suggest that it is the correct word, i had a feeling that the presenter meant to use the word RIFE. so i looked it up. in the definition, it suggested to see the "note" at the word PREVALENT. it is normal for a dictionary to suggest synonyms for any particular word, but it was unusual to see a reference to a note of a different word. in addition to that peculiarity, there was a substantial note attempting to clarify the subtle differences between synonyms. very odd. it seems as though the lexicographers had a particular pet peeve for the usage of this word. here is the note that the dictionary referred me to........... Wildflowers might be prevalent in the mountains during the spring months, but a particular type of wildflower might be the prevailing one. Prevalent, in other words, implies widespread occurrence or acceptance in a particular place or time (: a prevalent belief during the nineteenth century), while prevailing suggests that something exists in such quantity that it surpasses or leads all others in acceptance, usage, or belief (the prevailing theory about the evolution of man). Wildflowers might also be abundant in the valleys—a word that, unlike prevalent and prevailing, is largely restricted to observations about a place and may suggest oversupply (: an abundant harvest; indications of decay were abundant). Plentiful, on the other hand, refers to a large or full supply without the connotations of oversupply (: a country where jobs were plentiful). If wildflowers are rife, it means that they are not only prevalent but spreading rapidly (: speculation was rife among the soldiers). If they're copious, it means they are being produced in such quantity that they constitute a rich or flowing abundance (: weep copious tears). What often happens, with wildflowers as well as with other beautiful things, is that they become so abundant they are regarded as common, a word meaning usual or ordinary (: the common cold). Like prevalent, common can apply to a time as well as a place (: an expression common during the Depression). But neither abundant nor common connotes dominance as clearly as prevalent does. here are some other words that came up today and caught my ear : - boolean - abstention

just because

. i haven't posted in over a week. why? well the last video i posted, i made while i had a fever. and the fever got worse, so i spent the next few days lying in bed, trying to get better. and then work happened. (as well as a bit of laziness in between, where i wasn't feeling very inspired). so where does that leave you and i? well that leaves you with nothing very exciting to read, and me trying desperately to find something to post here, that people will actually want to read. and now i am suffering from writers' block. it sucks. and this post is all that there is to show you. how sad.