Allie the Gator's Sylum Swamp

my bumpeer sticker

2009-09-02T11:46:21Z

Come to the dark side, we have cookies

You may not believe in bumper stickers, but bumper stickers believe in you.

What Bumper Sticker Should Be On Your Car?

exciment, I can do without it

2009-08-31T19:34:14Z

Shadow-kitty had a bad reaction this AM to her flea collar. A little siezure, throwing up. Zenaru got the collar off her, by the time I got home she was better, then we gave her a rinse off bath-she was SO GOOD! Almost back to normal now. I was so worried, 2 weeks to the day Fly died, very bad timing. Zenaru was beside himself!
I wasoff on my montly driving job for the Amish ladies. I now have to go back out to the store for stuff. May just go to the dollar store, all call it even. I can make him some corn chips, I have stick margarine. The problem is, Aldi's is 15miles away, Save a Lot is 7miles from work. (one way).

decisions

2009-08-17T14:12:26Z

I have a decision to make. he doggie in my icon? That's Fly the Moose. He's about 15yrs old (we are not completely sure). He's been in pain, manageable, but has bad hip dysplasia. Friday, he stopped eating much, and got diharreha. saturday, he never pooped at all. I gave him hairball meds, he pooped this AM, but is still panting bad and miserable.
I talked to the lady at our old vets, they will see him today. I am waiting to see if he will eat here before I make a decicion. I have $93 to get me through the next weeks. if I blow off cable and internet bills, praying they won't come due until after the 28th, that is.
To get examined, is $38. To put him down is $48. They will then send him to a place that does cremation, and I pay them on pick up of his remains. Whenever that will be. So, i can pay that out.
My delemna, is to get him examined, and take the chance he will get better, or just get him put down? They will let us be with him - they did Zingo and took care of Red Dwarf when he died at home. So I know it's not this horrible shot that makes them scream, he literally goes to sleep. Peacefully, unlike his last 3 nights of rest. And, he's old. Especially for a big dog (he's down to about 100lbs, 29" tall, 36" long). I think he's had a good life, especially the last 4 years of being "ours" (when Bill and Ann gave him to us when they moved). He wwent from puppy-mill and abandined 3 times, to a home with the hupe's and 6 other dogs, to being a mostly-only dog all that time. Except for Bear for awhile and Sam and the kitten (who adores him).
And, selfishly, I work the next 6 days straight. If I am putting him down, I want it to be on my day off.
Please, tell me I am doing the right thing, not just taking the easy way out.

tentacle sea monsters in Wales

2009-08-04T23:54:50Z

I can NOT make this shit up!

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/showbiz-and-lifestyle/showbiz/2009/08/04/tentacled-sea-monster-or-doctor-who-alien-91466-24307825/

Tentacled sea monster or Doctor Who alien?

Aug 4 2009 by Robin Turner, Western Mail </p>

LOOKING like something out of Doctor Who, they emerged from the sea at the weekend, a mass of writhing tentacles tipped with shells, each containing feeding fronds.

The extraordinary sight on the Gower beaches of Nicholaston and Oxwich at the weekend drew large, astonished crowds.

In fact the “alien-looking” tentacled creatures were spectacularly large examples of goose barnacles – known as Lepas anatifera to marine aficionados.

The barnacles, whose long slender necks topped by large shells make them resemble geese, had attached themselves to two large logs which washed up on the beaches, possibly disturbed from their usual ocean resting places by bad weather.

The shells on the tips of the barnacle “necks” open to reveal finger like feeding fronds which curl and uncurl rapidly.

One onlooker described the goose barnacles as looking like “a sea monster”.

Swansea University zoology expert Professor Paul Brain, who travelled to Gower to photograph the specimens, said: “I have never seen such big collections in one place. The logs or whatever they were beneath were absolutely covered with goose barnacles. As one viewing child said: ‘It looks like something out of Dr Who!’.

“They were probably the biggest specimens of free-floating goose barnacles I’ve seen.

“They tend to live in the oceans and can attach themselves to the bottom of ships. This odd-looking crustacean is normally found in quite deep water but occasionally they can be found on debris that has become dislodged from the sea bed and has washed up on the shore.

“I would think the bad weather caused by the jet stream in the past month has probably dislodged these barnacle infested logs from their resting places, giving people a rare look at them for free on the beach.

“They are quite a startling sight and, because they are fairly rare, they really cause a stir because people just can’t think what they are.”

The goose barnacle is white or grey and is roughly heart shaped.

Its shell plates are large and edged in brown, black or yellow and are anchored by a thick flexible stalk.

They are found in most oceans worldwide except very cold, Arctic regions. Goose barnacles feed on plankton and small crustaceans such as copepods, isopods and amphipods.

When feeding, the barnacle extends its fan-like array of limbs in order to catch plankton, and are attached to surfaces by their stalk and are unable to move from the point they are fixed to.

They will attach themselves to a variety of surfaces including wood, rock and even other species of barnacle.

Goose barnacles are hermaphrodites.

Larvae more closely resemble other crustaceans except for their long feathery legs. They are free swimming but soon metamorphose into a form which attaches itself to a suitable surface and becomes a barnacle.

Rebecca Porter, one of many holidaymakers who saw the barnacle collections as they emerged from the sea on Saturday, said they were like “a large living sea monster”.

She said: “The stalk on which the puffin-shaped head sat on was soft and rubbery and moved like a snake.

“They appeared to be attached to a piece of driftwood but it could hardly be seen as it was densely covered with these huge tentacles that opened and closed, thrusting out fronds like uncurling ferns.”

Tim Hall, marine campaigns and advocacy officer for Wildlife Trusts Wales, said of the creatures: “They tend to stick to driftwood, hulls of wrecked ships and this is when most people see them after they are washed ashore.

“The fronds described are used for feeding and I imagine that hundreds of those moving in and out must be quite a sight, hence looking like a large sea monster.

“But they are just another example of the wonderful wildlife that thrives in our seas and certainly something different for the holidaymakers in Oxwich Bay to see.”

Because of their startling appearance the goose barnacles have become mired in folklore and the Welsh chronicler-monk Giraldus Cambrensis claimed to have seen goose barnacles in the process of turning into barnacle geese – a bird with a head resembling the shells of the crustacean – in the 12th century.

This helped give rise to one of the strangest of animal beliefs.

The heart-shaped shell, or “capitulum”, is a chalky-white in colour and has black lines, which were thought to resemble the head of the barnacle goose Branta leucopsis.

Because barnacle geese rarely nest in Britain no-one had ever seen their eggs or nests.

It was supposed, therefore, that the geese “grew up on the planks of ships” and the birds finally emerged clothed in feathers and flew away.

This curious early theory also provided a convenient way round the catholic church’s ban on eating meat or flesh on Fridays.

As the barnacle goose was obviously “not born of the flesh” but from a barnacle, they could be eaten not just on Fridays but throughout Lent.

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David Tennant and Patrick Stweart in Hamlet ON TV!!!!!

2009-08-04T20:49:30Z

Tennant to bring his `Hamlet' from stage to TV

(AP) – 1 day ago

PASADENA, Calif. — "Doctor Who" star David Tennant is bringing his portrayal of Hamlet from the stage to the small screen.

Tennant won critical acclaim for his performance in the Royal Shakespeare Company's 2008 production of "Hamlet." PBS said Sunday the TV adaptation will air in 2010 as part of its "Great Performances" series and will include Patrick Stewart in the cast.

Tennant is taking on another role for the Public Broadcasting Service: This fall, he'll debut as host of "Masterpiece Contemporary." The series returns Oct. 25 with "Endgame," a drama about the final days of apartheid in South Africa, starring William Hurt and Jonny Lee Miller.

PBS announced that the film will open in select U.S. theaters starting Oct. 30.

On the Net:

http://www.pbs.org/

Obituary: Harry Patch WW1 veteran

2009-07-25T16:19:59Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6954937.stm

Conscripted in 1917, Harry Patch fought at Passchendaele

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He was a plumber from Somerset, in many ways an unremarkable man, but Harry Patch became the last British survivor of the carnage of the Western Front.

He was the final physical link to a conflict that saw two armies bogged down in the mud of Flanders and northern France for more than four years.

Henry John Patch was born at Combe Down, a small village near Bath, on 17 June, 1898 in the twilight of the Victorian age.

He left school at 15 and became an apprentice plumber but within a year came the outbreak of the Great War.

His brother had been wounded at Mons so Harry had an idea what to expect when he was finally conscripted into the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry at the age of 18.

He trained as a machine gunner before embarking from Folkestone in May 1917 en route to Reims. On his 19th birthday he found himself in the trenches.

Passchendaele

He arrived on the eve of what was to become the last, and one of the bloodiest, British offensives of the war, the Third Battle of Ypres, better known as Passchendaele.

The brainchild of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, it was designed to push the army north east and liberate German occupied ports on the Belgian coast.

Many soldiers spent the whole war in a network of trenches

The offensive soon became bogged down in a quagmire caused by torrential rain and the effects of the massive British artillery barrage which had preceded the move forward.

The battle lasted three months, gaining just five miles of ruined ground at the cost of more than 300,000 British lives.

Harry Patch's war came to an end on 22 September, 1917 when a German shell burst over the heads of his five man Lewis gun team. Three of them were blown to pieces while Patch was wounded in the groin by a piece of shrapnel.

He was in hospital for 12 months and was convalescing on the Isle of Wight when the Armistice was signed.

In 1919 he married Ada Billington, a girl he met while recovering from his wound and returned to work as a plumber. They had two sons, Dennis and Roy, but he outlived both of them.

Silence

Too old to fight in World War II he became a firefighter in Bath, tackling the aftermath of German air raids.

In 1980 he remarried, but his wife Jean passed away in 1984. From 2003 he had a third partner, Doris, who lived in the same retirement home and died two years ago.

For more than 80 years he would not talk about his war time experiences, refusing to attend regimental reunions and avoiding any war films which appeared on the television.

In 1998, he agreed to be interviewed for the BBC One documentary Veterans and the realisation that he was part of a fast dwindling group of veterans of "the war to end all wars" persuaded him to step into the limelight.

He accepted an honorary degree from Bristol University in 2004 in recognition of his war service and for his work on the construction of the centrepiece of the campus, the Wills Memorial building, which opened in 1925.

Harry Patch did not discuss his war time experiences until he turned 100

He returned to Passchendaele in 2007 for the 90th anniversary of the battle, laying a wreath, not only on a memorial for the British dead, but also at a cemetery for the German victims of the offensive.

On his 101st birthday he travelled to France where he was awarded the Legion d'Honneur, and subsequently made an officer of the Legion d'Honneur.

In 2008, he was also honoured by the Belgian king, Albert II, who appointed him Knight of the Order of Leopold.

One of his favourite awards however was that of the Freedom of the City of Wells, where he had lived for many years.

In 2007 he became the UK's oldest author when he collaborated with Richard van Emden to write The Last Fighting Tommy, a detailed account of his life. He also became a celebrity agony uncle for men's magazine FHM and would often speak at festivals.

But Patch had no time for the Act of Remembrance on 11 November, an event he described as "just show business".

He always maintained that his Remembrance Day was 22 September, the day he lost his three best mates and his war ended.

Harry Patch was essentially an ordinary man who led an ordinary life. Even his experiences on the Western Front were no worse than those shared by many other soldiers.

What was extraordinary was that he lived so long, bringing first hand memories into the 21st century of a battle that has passed into history.

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Quake moves NZ towards Australia

2009-07-24T13:08:06Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8162628.stm

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A massive earthquake last week has brought New Zealand closer to Australia, scientists say.

The 7.8 magnitude quake in the Tasman Sea has expanded New Zealand's South Island westwards by about 30cm (12in).

Seismologist Ken Gledhill, of GNS Science, said the shift demonstrated the huge force of the tremor.

But correspondents say that with more than 2,250km (1,400 miles) separating the countries, the narrowing will not exactly be visible.

Nor, as the New Zealand media have observed, is it likely to bring cheaper air fares.

Tsunami alert

The earthquake causes some landslip in the Fiordland region

The quake was powerful enough to generate a small tsunami with a wave of one metre (3ft) recorded on the west coast of New Zealand.

People in coastal areas were for a time advised to move to higher ground.

While the south-west of the South Island moved about 30cm towards Australia, the east coast moved only one centimetre westwards, Dr Gledhill said."Basically, New Zealand just got a little bit bigger is another way to think about it," he told AFP news agency.

Although it was New Zealand's biggest earthquake in 78 years, it caused only slight damage to buildings and property when it struck in the remote Fiordland region west of Invercargill last Thursday.

FROM BBC WORLD SERVICE

animal pic KITTENS!

2009-07-23T22:48:29Z

Kitten and more. I think I might have sent this out before, but can't remember. Anyway, this is the hubby's journal. Even if he keeps forgetting about it. So, I use it.

http://zenaru.insanejournal.com/325.html

Kittens are only a couple months old here.

I iz (sorta) smart!

2009-07-22T19:35:44Z

There Are 3 Gaps in Your Knowledge

Where you have gaps in your knowledge:

Philosophy

Science

Art

Where you don't have gaps in your knowledge:

Religion

Economics

Literature

History

Do You Have Gaps in Your Knowledge?

Thanks everybody!

2009-07-20T23:52:37Z

Sorry I failed at birthday. The night of, I was so tired, I came home, cooked pizza (yes, really, but I bought it from an Amish fundraiser - they sell pizzas house to house, and I spotted them on the way to work . stopped and bought one) ate and pretty much just vegged for about 2hrs and slept. Next day we started into work early and were there later, so just did not feel like doing to much.

Thanks to everybodies for the birthday wishes. They made me feel all warm and squishy. Snuffles-AllieGator especially wants to say a BIG thanks you to kensieg for the 1yr subscription. My last one ended on the 16th, and I was dismayed to find myself face to screen with BOOBIES. Now, I got nothing against boobies *bad pun... against...boobies* *tee teee like a 12yr old* but, in my LJ when trying to read, it was a bit distracting! ;-) And, my style to read other pages had gone byebye, and I didn't really think I would miss that so much, but I sure did! So HUGES HuggleySnuggles for that. And all of all the little gifts. and the ecards from everyone!

Baby panters!

2009-07-16T13:11:41Z

Dare anyone to look at this article and NOT go *AAAWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1191863/Time-close-The-astonishing-blue-eyed-gaze-twin-newborn-panther-cubs.html

*puddle of goo here*

Torchwood S3 rec

2009-07-15T13:31:14Z

HUGE SPOILERstory behind the cut. GO NO FARTHER if you've not seen S3 or if you don't want to be spoiled.

Loved and adored this story, but it's one of my favorite genre's of TW fics. Link behind the cut.

http://phaetonschariot.livejournal.com/25096.html

Title: The First of the Timelords
Author: Kei
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG
Spoilers: CoE 4/5
Summary: Even when faced with destruction, life finds a way.

unwanted friends

2009-07-13T16:23:29Z

I think the answer here is NO, but is there anyway to block a user who has friended you? I don't want to do friends Only, but some of these recent adders have me queasy.

MUSIC!

2009-07-13T14:15:01Z

Not something you see a topic on from me very often, I know. With my hearing, I don't really listen to much. I had on LinkTV for DW news (not on Monday's, I discovered) and a show called World Music came on. I've caught it before, with little interest to me, but today had Jazz Around the world. It's fantastic! Chez, Peru, etc. Different flavors and sounds, for sure. The URL link they give on the TV is http://www.linktv.org/worldmusic but I don't see much there about this episode. I may save it and put it on line for all to enjoy.

"obtaining" TW COE

2009-07-09T15:17:49Z

Dearest, sweetest, most wonderfulllest Flist - *iz working on being nicer* - anyone in the US obtaining HD or high res copies of COE, and willing to make a copy for me? I will get them off BBCa when it airs, but would love the uncut versions. You know what I mean *waggles eye brows*

If you'd rather not reply here, drop a note to snirt at snirt dot us

Cybermen convention?

2009-07-07T16:56:11Z

Supposed to be Ultramen, but they look frighteningly like Doctor Who Cybermen to me.

http://pictureisunrelated.com/2009/07/07/robot-appreciation-night-is-never-any-fun/

non-warnings, warnings community

2009-07-03T14:05:44Z

http://alyburns.livejournal.com posted this on my Sentinel list, SENAD. I know some on my flist might like this.

Ever thought of a community where you could discover warnings about a story that has no warnings? If you have, well, one now exists and can be found here:
http://community.livejournal.com/fanfic_spoilme/profile

Feel free to pass this on!

Stonewall Riots link

2009-06-29T14:23:21Z

I fail on posting things on the right day. (Have totally given up on birthday wishes...)

Stonewall Riots 40th Anniversary: A Look Back at the Uprising that Launched the Modern Gay Rights Movement

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/26/stonewall_riots_40th_anniversary_a_look

sigh another death

2009-06-26T14:09:33Z

Just saw this go past on the XFiles list I am on.

Lorena Gale, who appeared in several episodes of The XFiles and was
one of those Vancouver actors who was in everything (BSG, Smallville, Supernatural) died earlier this week.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0301874/

Thanks to maybe amanda.

stoned wallabies make crop circles

2009-06-25T17:47:16Z

article is so-so, the comments to the article are HILARIOUS!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8118257.stm

RIP Farrah Fawcett

2009-06-25T17:01:56Z

Farrah Fawcett,CNN article Farrah passed away.

insane journal move!

2009-06-25T15:34:31Z

From the Great and Mighty Squeaky

10:06 am - Site Move Coming

Over the next couple of days we are going to be moving InsaneJournal into our new home. This new home should provide us with more speed and less downtime. As well as provide us with lower costs. In the next 3-6 months we are going to do an analysis of costs vs. income and restructure our pricing model here.

Please let everyone you know to follow InsaneJournal on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/insanejournal) as this is where we will be posting live status updates as we take parts or the whole site down to move it.

Thank you for your patience in this.

further more, Top Gear

2009-06-24T15:20:24Z

As some of us firmly believe, Captain Slow is an ex-Time Agent, and The Stig is an alien. The Stig portion confirmed in the linked article in my last post. I quoteth: ""You have to bear in mind that Top Gear is an entertainment programme. We never reveal who or what The Stig is," she said"

HA!

dear Top Gear and BBC

2009-06-24T15:16:06Z

You really and truley expect me to believe who The Stig is, please to be giving us a REAL driver news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8111588.stm
Thanks
No Love for this publicity stunt,
Me

family site sort of

2009-06-23T23:02:12Z

My brother updated our family site main page. Think I need to hire him :-))

http://vermande.us