Random Access

Friday
Another mixed day at work. I spent the first half getting my latest CF form to work… and it does. Not too bad for only having worked with CF for three weeks. The second half of the day was spent on another field trip to ‘s soon-to-be-former place of employment. We had to pick up some equipment for the office.

After work, came home and headed for the shower. After loading the trailer and taking the things back to work, I was hot, sweaty and I’m pretty sure that I must have been emitting an odor that would not be considered “socially acceptable.” After cleaning up and getting a bite to eat, Jess and I headed to Borders – browsing and reading for her, drawing for me. I didn’t really find much that struck my fancy, but I got a couple of things in the sketchbook. met us there and the three of us went to Applebee’s for a late dinner.

Tomorrow, I think that I am going to attempt to tackle the lack-of-hub issue again. I think that I have a couple of possible options… hopefully, one of them will work.

Song of the Day
More Human Than Human by White Zombie

Stray Toasters

• Sandman Sims, famed tap dancer and legendary Apollo Theater performer, died last week.
• Salmonella Fitzgerald. The name of a “malady” on a cartoon short that came on during Codename: Kids Next Door
• This link, forwarded to me by my friend Matt, presents an article about
  

  …a two-hour television movie to be broadcast this September… as close as you can get to an official White House account of its activities at the outset of the war on terrorism.

  Written and produced by a White House insider with the close co-operation of Mr. Bush and his top officials, the movie The Big Dance represents an unusually close merger of Washington’s ambitions with the Hollywood entertainment machinery.

  Heaven help us all.

• Robert sent me this URL. Very cool. Very cool, indeed.
• I had (another) complaint about Utah drivers, but I’m not sure that it would be restricted to drivers from Utah: On the way back to the office (after picking up the equipment), we stopped at a 7-11 to get something to drink.
  Dehydration BAAAD! ::: gesture :::
  We got back into the car and waited not only for traffic to die down a bit, but for someone with the common courtesy to let us get out of the parking lot and into the flow of traffic. It took a good three minutes (and two cycles of the traffic light) before someone was gracious enough to let us turn. *sigh*

• Naked molerats.
• Tonight must have been “The Night of 1000 Odd Conversations,” because we got earfuls of information that no one outside of said conversations should have had to hear. Unfortunately, the speakers apparently did not grasp the concept of “Inside Voice vs. Outside Voice.”
• I forgot to add this last night: I heard on the radio that Avril Lavigne’s song Sk8er Boi has been optioned to be made into a feature-length film.
  WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT?!?!?
  The song is only 3 minutes and change. Do we really need another 87 minutes of “character development?” Really. And, I know that this isn’t the first time that a song has been made into a movie. A couple of shining examples that came to mind when I first heard this were Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler and Coward of the County. *sigh* Please tell me that we haven’t sunk so low that all originality has been squeezed/drained/evaporated out of Hollywood…

• …and as if that wasn’t enough: Look at this. The MUSICAL. *shiver*

That’s all for now…

Namaste.

Thursday
Joe, Ty and Courtney left today. We met them for breakfast before work/their departure. Before they left, we made tentative plans to visit them in Tampa sometime in the next few months. I’m thinking that sometime around my birthday would be nice – Florida sun and warmth just as the snow is preparing to fall in the Land behind the Zion Curtain. Yeah, that would be good timing.

The rest of the day wasn’t too bad. I had a few things to deal with this morning… which kept me from finishing off the ColdFusion form that I am working on. Oh, well. These things had to be taken care of. Of course, this also included what turned into a two hour (yes, TWO HOUR) conversation with FedEx – I dealt with ’em for about 00:30 and Adrian took the rest of it. And… AND… the “solution” that they gave us was one that could have been dealt with in about 00:10. *sigh* I also got to go on a field trip and visited . After getting back to the office, I spent some time looking over the CF code that I had written yesterday and Adrian had tweaked for me.

Headed home and didn’t do much other than watch TV, eat dinner and take about a 00:30 nap. Seemed to do the trick. Around 12:00, I felt the need to get out, so I went for what turned into a nearly three-hour drive (a three-hour tour drive….) It wasn’t an “angry” drive, it was just a “change-of-pace” kind of thing. It felt good.

Song of the Day

• For Your Eyes Only
• Strut
• U Got the Look (with Prince)

…all by Sheena Easton. Yes, the same Sheena Easton who, until her character’s untimely death, had a recurring role as the wife of Officer Sonny Crockett on the 80s series Miami Vice.

Stray Toasters

• Bob Hope turned 100 years old today. I don’t have a joke here, I just think that it’s a rather remarkable milestone. Happy Birthday, Old Ski Nose.
• sent me a link to this article. Holy Thought Police, Batman! What in the Nine Hells is this all about!?!? “Political Correctness” is one thing; this is just asinine.
• Raja Jaja… an Indian (dot not feather)¹ Mojo Jojo “clone” from the PPG episode “Knock It Off”
• Looking for good summer read… with a sci-fi/geek edge to it? Take a look at some of these suggestions from readers on Slashdot.
• I watched an episode of Lupin the Third on Adult Swim tonight. That’s something that I haven’t done before. Something in the animation reminded me of Speed Racer… without the Mach 5. In one scene, Lupin, Jigen and Goemon and running away from “smart bombs” that look like remote control cars with shark faces painted on them. They climb a tree to attempt to elude the bombs… it doesn’t help. The dialogue, at this point, made me laugh:
  

  Jigen: Lupin, knock knock…
  Lupin: Who’s there?
  Jigen: Land Shark!

  You’ve got to love the Land Shark jokes.

• A new feature is coming soon to a credit card near you. Joe forwarded this link to me this morning. I found this one later in the day on Slashdot.
• Who says that you can’t get anything for free? Not this article.
• Browser Wars: Episode V – The MSEmpire Pays Back
• Spike Siegel. Bounty hunter.
• Department of Defense Gadget Show
• This made me laugh profusely. I found it particularly amusing because I have had many people ask me “Where can I find information on…” It seems to happen most often on IRC (or as has dubbed it: “Intellect Recall Center”)

That’s it. Time for bed.

Namaste.

¹ – as denoted by

Wednesday
The day started off well. Work wasn’t bad, even though the current phase of the form that I’m working on is giving me a problems. The day passed fairly quickly.

Then, it was off to Jitterbug Coffee Hop to hook up with the coffee group. We had a decent turn out… including a couple of people who don’t often make it to these get-togethers. Melissa threw a wadded-up napkin at me; I said “Ow.” Just because. And that lead to Matt and Melissa determining that napkins are my Kryptonite. THAT led to the discussion of how would other paper products would affect me and the effects higher- and lower-quality items.

I finally remembered to ask the coffee shop’s proprietor his name. I prefer to learn the names of people whose establishments I frequent, even the wait-staff of restaurants.

(sidebar)
I have something of a dislike for having to flag someone down by saying “Hey… you,” if I can avoid it. I think that it stems from the time that I spent working in retail when I was in college. I noticed that people, all too often, don’t pay attention to sales clerks/waiters/waitresses and often just “dismiss” them rather than be “bothered.” Actually, I found that amusing. I would walk up to people and say specific things… just to see how they would respond. You’d be amazed to find out how many people would say “No, thank you. I’m just looking” in response to “Hello” or “How are you doing today?” *sigh*
(/sidebar)

We closed the place down. Actually, we were there well after it was supposed to have closed; Bruce, the owner, said that he didn’t mind staying open. (Warning: Unsolicited plug) If you get a chance to stop in, do so. Try the “Milky Way,” it’s damn tasty. Tell him “Robert from the coffee group” said that you should stop by. It won’t get you a discount (at least, not that I am aware of), but you can get a good cup of coffee from a local merchant. And that’s not a bad thing. Not bad at all.

Post-coffee, I came home to find that there had been a power outtage. I was okay with that. What I was not okay with was the fact that said outtage seems to have burnt out my hub… and possibly one of my broadband routers. I spent the better part of an hour trying to test out different configurations for a work-around solution. I found one. It’s a stopgap measure, but it will suffice until I can dedicate more time to testing and troubleshooting all of the hardware configurations.

Song of the Day
Black Coffee by Bobby Darin

Stray Toasters

• “It’s amazing that some people would rather be “right” than be happy.
• Pilot cars. You have seen them, even if you didn’t know what they were called. They are the cars (and sometimes pickup trucks) that accompany trucks with large/oversized loads. You know… the cars with banners that say “Wide Load” or “Oversized Load.” As if you couldn’t figure it out on your own.
  

  Well, now, would you look’it that, Martha?
  What, Ed?
  That truck up there…. somethin’ ’bout it just ain’t right. I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s somethin’…
  Lands sake, Ed! You’re right! I wish I knew what it was. Maybe you should try’n go around it.

  I wonder whose brainstorm it was to have a car or truck “chase” the larger one down the highway… just so that the less-than-mentally acute among us would know that there was a “big truck” ahead.

• “Rectal craniotomy”
• Joan Osborne (and Jim Carrey) asked: “What if God was one of us?” Well, if that were the case would he really look like Morgan Freeman? Personally, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. More to the point: Would people put his number in their PDAs and cell phones? Some people who have seen Bruce Almighty seem to think so. One of MANY stories about it can be found here.
• Condoms in the orange juice. (part of tonight’s coffee conversation)
• Souped-up PS2 units are in the offing…
• My dislike for Windows XP has been chronicled here on more than one occasion. I found this article interesting… and mildly amusing.

I should really get to bed. But, I want a snack. I think that I’ll settle for a glass of milk. That sounds pretty good: A nice, cold glass of milk. (Milk, it does a body good. Pass it on!) Then, I’ll help myself to a heaping serving of get-my-ass-in-bed.

Namaste.

Tuesday
Just another day at the office… More work with ColdFusion – I’m working on a new form. Aside from some minor formatting and layout issues, it is coming along nicely. It should be finished around lunchtime tomorrow… assuming that there are no monkey wrenches thrown into the cogs.

Song of the Day

• War by the late Edwin Starr
• War by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony (feat. Henry Rollins)

Stray Toasters

• This article, from Slashdot, references an article in Adrenaline Vault that ponders whether or not there are any original ideas left in gaming.
• ::: this space for rent :::
• From the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle comes this story about PETA (the animal rights group, not the bread “pita”) and a fiberglass elephant.
• The last World War II holdout
• Nicholas D. Wolfwood and his portable confessional.

And, now… good night.

Namaste.

Monday
Memorial Day.
There is a cemetery about three miles north of here. The graves were covered with fresh flowers; it looked like an old-fashioned patchwork quilt. There were many people visiting the graves of friends and family. It was rather touching to see.

Slept in today. And it was good. I woke up when the phone rang; it was my sister calling (via Dad) to ask me to get order something online. I did. And, that was good, too.

The rest of the day was fairly low-key: We met Joe & company at my office, which allowed us to kill a few birds with one stone: Getting together at a relatively central location, letting them see the store and getting a chance for Joe and Adrian to talk. We went out to lunch and then to Nickelcade (arcade where all of the games -including air hockey- cost 5¢ to play). Courtney seemed to have a good time there. I have also determined that she meets no strangers – she met a couple of girls there and sat there talking with them like she’d known them for most of her rather young life. It was quite cute when she tried to drag them – both of them were at least 50% bigger than her – over to one of the rides.

Home for a bit and then out for a late night snack… and then home again.

Tomorrow starts the work week. After a three-day weekend, this will be akin to going back to school after summer vacation. On the bright side: It’s a short work week.

Stray Toasters

• While at Nickelcade, I put my self-respect and dignity on the shelf and tried my hand… um, feet… at Dance Dance Revolution 2000. “Tried” being the operative word. It was disastrous. Not “disastrous” in a Titanic or Hindenburg way. “Disastrous” in a… hmm… what’s the best way to describe it?
  ::: thinks :::
  If you are old enough to remember ABC’s Wide World of Sports, you might remember the opening “…from the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat…” and the video of the ski jumper completely biffing a downhill jump. For years, that video showed every Saturday. People started referring to the skier as “Mister Agony of Defeat.” Today, I was that guy. I can laugh about it (now), but it was bad. Very. Very. Bad. And, just like him… it was caught on video.

• Need another indicator that civilization is circling the drain in an ever shrinking downward spiral? Here it is.
• I found this rather amusing.
• I would never have suspected that Bruce Almighty would knock The Matrix: Reloaded out of the top spot so handily. In the words of Neo: “Whoa.”

Quote of the Day

Joe: The ceiling is littered with the corpses of those who didn’t remember…

And with that, I will call it a night.

Namaste.

Sunday
We spent the afternoon in Park City. It was the first time that we’d gone there since October, I believe. In all, there were… 17 of us. ::: recounts ::: Yes, 17. We did the usual brunch and Main Street walkabout. Considering Courtney (2½) and Fiona (5) were part of the group, it went pretty smoothly – especially with the amount of walking that we did.

(sidebar)
On the way up I-80, we saw someone on a motorcycle who looked like someone with whom I worked at the REC. It took another few seconds to get close enough for confirmation: The tattoo on the back of her head. Once we had determined that it was her, we pulled alongside her. She and I had a short conversation – the dynamics of which were interesting considering that we were moving at highway speeds. It was nice to see her.
(/sidebar)

One of the places that we visited was a museum about Park City’s history as a mining town and its old jail. Joe took a series of pictures in there; I’ll post some of them when I get them edited and resized. We also stopped in a few galleries. Some of the pictures inspired Joe and I to consider taking a photography vacation in the next year or two.

The end of the Park City trip was capped off by a trip to Cows. We had ice cream and drinks as we sat and talked. And, Courtney and Kayla (part of a late-arriving crew) played on the whatever-it-was-made-of cow in the store.

We came back to SLC and went to see Bruce Almighty; by this time, we had dwindled to nine (9) in the group. My original thoughts about this movie were: “Ehhh, it’s really not something that I have to see…” I found the movie to be rather amusing. Some of the situations were a little predictable, but there were parts where I got a good laugh out of it. Morgan Freeman as God… I can buy that. Pretty easily. He is definitely in the Top Three People Who Have Portrayed God List:

1. Morgan Freeman
2. George Burns
3. Alanis Morrisette

If that’s not enough, let’s look at the progression of his roles: He went from being a prisoner (The Shawshank Redemption) to being the President of the United States of America (Deep Impact) to being God. Not too shabby.

After the movie, we went to V.I. for late night snacks. And then, “Home again, home again. Jiggety-jig.” Now, it is time to return to the kingdom of Morpheus, once more to walk the lands of The Dreaming.

Namaste.

We interrupt your normal LiveJournal reading for this late-breaking news update…

We’re off to Park City!

We now return you to your normally scheduled LiveJournal reading…

Saturday
The day started off slowly; once it got a little momentum behind it, it proceeded rather well.

We met Joe, Ty and Little Miss Courtney for shopping and lunch at Fashion Place Mall. My vote for the most cute part of this excursion: We got into the mall and went to get a stroller for the then-sleeping Courtney. As soon as Joe lowered her into the stroller, she awakened. Moments later, the still-tired whining/crying began. It stopped, about 00:00:05 later, as soon as Courtney realized that she was moving. In fact, I believe that there was an almost giddy “Oooh!” to be heard just as the whining/crying stopped.

After that, we headed north to Antelope Island. I think that it should be renamed “I-didn’t-see-any Antelope Island,” but that’s another story. What we did see were mosquitoes. LOTS of them. Mostly, on the causeway between the mainland and the island. And they were not small. When we got to the island, we wandered around for a while. It was fairly calm when we got there, but the weather changed while we were there and it got quite windy. Joe and I took pictures of some of the scenery (pictures will be made available when I get a chance to transfer and edit them). We looked for the antelope and the buffalo that are supposed to be on the island. Hundreds of them, according to the stories that I have heard. We saw four (4) buffalo. That’s it. Oh, well.

Returning to SLC, we went to Redrock Brewing Company for dinner. Mmmm. Honey Wheat beer.

We came home for a bit before heading bowling. Bowling wasn’t bad; the alley was only half-full, if that full. Of note here: Courtney got a couple of strikes. Why is this noteworthy? Well, aside from the “because I said so” factor, how about: “Because she’s 2½ years old.” She was using one of the kids’ racks (looks like an elongated “S” and uses gravity to give the ball enough momentum to travel the length of the lane). She was rather ecstatic when she saw that she had knocked down all of the pins.

Traditional post-bowling breakfast was next. Nothing of major importance to note here.

That’s it. I’m going to bed. Tomorrow is the Park City trip and I should probably get some rest before it.

Namaste.

FRIDAY!!!
This has been an excellent day. Work went smoothly. More ColdFusion work and reading. Towards the end of the day, I started looking at the code that I had written for the interface for a database to catalog my comic book collection. About 2/3 of it was working, but the final step was being… difficult. I asked Adrian to take a look at it and see if he could spot the problem. There wasn’t a “problem” as much as there was a couple of minor syntax errors. About 00:30 later… I HAD FIXED IT!

IT WORKS!!! Sure, there’s some minor tweaking that I can do to make it more aesthetically pleasing, but IT WORKS!!!

After work, Jess and I headed to meet Joe, Ty and Courtney (Joe & Ty’s 2½ year old bundle of energy). I last saw Ty and Courtney in September, I think; they had a layover here; Joe I haven’t seen in… about a year-and-a-half. It was great to see them. We had dinner and hung out all night. And, with the exception of the wee one, it was just like old times. As the Rush song Anagram (for Mongo) says: “Lonely things like nights, I find, end finer with a friend.” It was a great ending to the day.

Song of the Day
Y.M.C.A. by The Village People. It’s kind of the unofficial theme song of our group.

Stray Toasters

• I found this story on USAToday’s site this morning. Firing squad. Here in Utah. Who would have expected that? It’s definitely out-of-the-ordinary. I would have expected lethal injection or electrocution or…. the Spanish Inquisition. Noooo one expects the Spanish Inquisition!
• Captain Kangas-roo.
• sent me this link. It concerns the Brother of The Shrub and a looming case in Florida: Whether a severely mentally retarded woman – a rape victim – should be allowed (“ALLOWED?!?”) to have an abortion.
  ::: braincramp :::
  The woman in question is at serious risk of not surviving the delivery. Most people agree that on those grounds alone, termination of the pregnancy should be a top option. According to the article:

  Despite the fact that the woman is severely disabled, has been raped, and might die if allowed to give birth, Bush felt that the appointment of a guardian for her was not appropriate. Instead, he moved to stop the appointment of the woman’s guardian until a second guardian could first be appointed — specifically, a guardian for the fetus.

  And a Florida judge has refused to rule on the case “on technical legal grounds.” If ever I saw something as an indicator that humanity is getting sucked into the whirlpool, this is it.

• On a significantly lighter note, Robert sent me this link – “Four things that could have improved The Matrix: Reloaded.” It’s pretty funny.
• The Boondocks. HAH!
• I caught glimpses of a commercial for what I think is a new Jewel CD. I say “I think” because the song that they played was very un-Jewel. In fact, Jess even asked,”So who is she now… ‘Jewel Aguilera?’ ”
• Super Mario Wally World trips two nights in a row.
• Hindsight is often 20-20. “Should have. Could have. Would have.” It seems that the chairman of the review panel studying the space shuttle Columbia accident has said: “If NASA had known immediately that the Columbia was damaged on liftoff, it might have sent the shuttle Atlantis on a rescue mission.” That would have been good. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I find that statement to be superfluous, unless it came as part of the development for a contingency plan for future shuttle (or its successors) missions.
• My friend Heather emailed these to me. I found them to be rather amusing.

Quote of the Day
This was related to me by Jess from a conversation that she had with Dee earlier today:

Dee: So, Joe’s coming into town.
Jess: Yes.
Dee: I like Joe; Joe’s cool. Joe reminds me of me…
::: thoughtful pause :::
Rob likes annoying white men.

And with that, good night and good morrow.

Namaste.

Thursday
On the whole, it was a pretty good day. After work, we went to Super Wally World (like Super Mario World, but different) and did some seriously-needed grocery shopping. Apparently, a good portion of West Jordan decided to shop tonight, as well. Yay.

Song of the Day

• Loving the Alien, from “Tonight”
• Underground, from the soundtrack to Labyrinth
• Seven, from “Hours”

…all by David Bowie.

Stray Toasters

• Tonight marks the debut of a new user icon. Now taking comments and/or criticisms…
• Came home to a message from Rana; apparently, she left it just before I got home from shopping. Thus, I got to talk to her for a bit.
• I just saw a promo for Apprentice, a new “reality TV” program, soon to appear on NBC. In it, participants get to compete to be Donald Trump’s apprentice/assistant. Civilization. Drain. Circle.
• Fortunately, the next ad, a Carl’s Jr. commercial, restored my faith in marketing: It opened with a chicken walking across the screen… with a blackout bar across its chest. This continued for about 10 seconds, then the voiceover started:
  

  “Most states prohibit showing large breasts on television… unless they are on a sandwich.”

  Copious amounts of laughter followed.

• , posted a link to this site. The actual link that he posted was this one, but there’s lots on the site to see.
• Robert forwarded me this URL. As he put it: “The saga continues…”
• “Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.” – Ozymandias
• Captain Kangaroo. Did you know that Bob Keeshan, the original Captain (and the only one, in my book), was a Marine? Yep. It’s true.
• I got a call from Kris (the youngest sister) last night. She had run into a friend of mine and called to let me speak with him. He informed me that he’s getting married next month; that was a pleasant surprise.

And thus, another entry comes to an end.

Namaste.

Wednesday
I can tell that it’s getting closer to summer. Work is starting to feel like being in school again… and summer vacation is right around the corner. After lunch, it seems to get more and more difficult to focus.

Before lunch, however, I maintained enough of clarity and focus to continue work on the CF form that I’ve been preparing on. It’s just about done. Then, it will be time to find something new to take on.

Friday will be here soon…

Song of the Day
Losing My Connection by Tony Fabris… a parody of Losing My Religion

Stray Toasters

• I talked (actual vox communication) with the Mom-unit today. Things seem to be well there.
• The Adventures of Superman on TV Land. Cheesy, but I still get a kick out of it.
• More Utah driver shenanigans today. *sigh*
• Oreo shakes. Mighty tasty.
• William Gibson, one of my favorite authors, spoke at the Director’s Guild of America recently. In his speech, he talked about his opinions of the entertainment and media industries; here is what he said.
• American Idol is over and I don’t know who won. And I am good with that. Better than good. In fact, I feel better than James Brown.

Quote of the Day
Taken from a conversation that I was having with a friend about his upcoming trip to the Land Behind the Zion Curtain:

[01:16] My boss heard about the plans for the long weekend and all and said, “You’re going on vacation AGAIN!?!?!?”
[01:17] My reply.. “Those that can, do. Those that can’t are too busy managing those that can…”

And with that, I shall call it a night.

Namaste.

Tuesday
Two days of ColdFusion programming without something going horribly awry. Add to that the fact that it was a gorgeous day out and the fact that I received a phone call from a friend saying that he and his family unit were coming out this weekend… shake gently… and the end result is a very good day.

Song of the DayThanks to , today’s songs are:

• Mr. Anderson (a parody of Mrs. Robinson… about The Matrix)
• Starfighters in the Sky (a send-up of Ghost Riders in the Sky) about Star Wars: Episodes IV – VI)

Stray Toasters

• From the top, let’s go ahead and get this out in the open: I have a dilemma.
  • My dislike for “reality TV” is well-known.
  • My affinity for Tyra Banks is fairly well-known… at least to most of my close friends and family.

  The dilemma comes in dealing with the fact that Tyra is hosting a new show on UPN called “America’s Next Top Model.” According to Stuff Magazine (hey, it was a free subscription… AND Tyra was on the cover of the first issue – this month’s – that I received), the show is along the lines of “American Idol meets The Real World.” I have to find a way to reconcile that one of the banes of my existence is being hosted by one of my favorite people. I must have had a very negative karma balance from my previous life.

• “Super Dell” of Totally Awesome Computers should not be allowed in front of television cameras. If you live in Utah, you know why.
• and another friend have told me that today was the release of “Poodle Hat,” the latest offering from ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic. I hope that they enjoy their new purchases.
• I think that this weekend will include a Park City excursion.
• In a very atypical move, I watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer tonight. I think that I did so because it was the series finale. It wasn’t bad…
• …but, I was mainly just killing time before the Smallville season finale. Interesting. A definite departure from the “traditional” Superman mythos. And, as an added bonus feature: Terence Stamp lent his talents as the voice of Jor-El. (Fans of Superman: the Movie and Superman II will remember him as General Zod.) Press releases had kept the actor behind the voice under wraps until tonight’s broadcast… but had dropped the hint that it was someone connected to Superman lore. Next season should prove most interesting…
• Utah drivers!!! Not all of them, but some… *shakes fist*
• Toblerone White Chocolate Bars.
• It seems as though Cartoon Network has once again shuffled their lineup.

That’s enough for tonight. Sleep comes.

Namaste.

Monday
For a day that started off slowly, it ended with a pretty decent bang.

Being a Monday, one of the first thoughts that crossed my mind was: “I don’t want to go to work…” However, once I dragged myself out of bed and got moving, it wasn’t too hard to maintain the momentum.

Work was… work. I spent the day working on a new template in ColdFusion. It was similar to the one that I created on Thursday, but with a little more functionality. The procedure, for most of the day was:

1. Write the code.
2. Test it.
3. Have it fail.
4. Debug.
5. Repeat Step #2.

By the time that 5:00 rolled around, I was getting a wee bit frustrated. I had the logic for the template figured out (after some trial-and-error), but I couldn’t get a handle on the structure and syntax. I talked with Adrian about it; he showed me a few examples and gave me a few tips – not “gimmes,” but just enough to point me in the right direction. So, back to the drawing board I went. A couple of hours later, I had… something. About 2/3 of the template worked correctly, but I was getting an incorrect final output. *ARGH*

Once again, Adrian came to the rescue. He went through the code with me and pointed out a few syntax errors that I had made. I re-ran the program… and it still didn’t work. But, I caught that problem a few minutes later. A couple of minor patches and I tried it again…

…AND IT WORKED!
It took a few minutes for it to finally settle in, but it did: In just over a week – and with no previous experience – I had written a fairly lean version of a ColdFusion processing form that we will be using at work!

And that was pretty damned cool… even if I didn’t leave work until after 8:00. It was worth it. The next step will be to add a few more functions to the page. And, building upon what I have now, that should go fairly quickly.

Song of the Day
Once again, whomever has the tuner for the radio in my head was getting their merriment at my expense. So, today’s SotD is the song that popped into my head about 00:02 after I woke up this morning: Doctor My Eyes by Jackson Browne.

Stray Toasters

• It seems as though “The Star Wars Kid” has become famous, possibly even infamous, for his exploits with his broomstick lightsaber. This morning, I came across this article. There are a few things that I thought about while reading the article and for a long time after it. I will elaborate on those things later this week, when I have more time to devote to them.
• Tonight was World of Darkness night after work. In the words of a dying Captain James T. Kirk: “It was… fun.”
• Utah drivers. I would love to take a random handful of them, drop them into rush hour around the D.C. Capitol Beltway… and watch as they all had aneurysms, heart attacks or just cowered in the floorboards of the car.
• : That sounds like a possible plan. Let’s talk about it more sometime this week.
• Condoms. Pastries. Corn-on-the-cob. Mute vampires. Orange Spree®.

That’s it… I’m tapped. Time to wander the lands of The Dreaming.

Namaste.

Sunday
Today was a very good day. I slept in a bit. I was able to sit around and be lazy for a few hour this afternoon. Then, it was off to the park to hear some friends play a couple of sets of music. Some of the members of Middle Fold came up and they even played a mini acoustic set. And, that’s apparently a very rare (as in: ” it never happens”) thing. Although, according to Monty, it might happen a few more times over the next couple of months. *shrug* Very cool, if that comes to pass.

After that, we headed to JitterBug Coffee Hop for assorted beverages and snacks before…

We saw The Matrix Reloaded. I liked it. Quite a bit. Some have complained that “…it wasn’t the first movie.” You’re kidding?!? What gave it away?! *sigh* I refer these people to the comments that I made about those who said similar things about Daredevil not being the same as X-Men or Spider-Man: It wasn’t meant to be the same! Yes, there were differences. Maybe some things could have been better or different. But, they weren’t. So, shut up and suck it up.

::: exhales :::

Okay, I feel better now. Where were we…? Oh, yeah. I had a minor epiphany during the first fight scene: This was like watching “Black Belt Theater” or “Kung Fu Theater” (or whatever analogue may have existed in your area) on Saturday afternoon TV in the 80s – the shows where they would play late 70s and early 80s kung fu movies. Only now, it had techno/electronica back music. But it was still fun. I enjoyed it. I will most likely see it again.

Stray Toasters

• Sarafina! was on HBO today; I’ve seen it before, both the movie and a production of the play. This is one of the movies that I categorize as an “angry movie.” By that, I mean that its content stirs an angry passion inside. The dramatization of the injustices is very moving. I think that everyone should see it. I put Do the Right Thing and Cry, the Beloved Country in this category, as well.
• : Was the experience exasperating? From the message that you left, I would take it to be so.
• I caught episodes of Valley of the Dinosaurs and Touchè Turtle on Boomerang this afternoon. I haven’t seen a Touchè Turtle cartoon in at least 15 years. Oh, nostalgia…
• Name the cartoon that goes along with the following… without looking it up:
  

  “Up from the depths,
  30 stories high…
  breathing fire
  and scanning the sky…..”

• Tribal Goth-Fu. That’s how I categorize the dancing/writhing/undulating scene in Zion in The Matrix Reloaded. agreed.
• : To answer your question, Anthony Zerbe was the actor who played Councilor Hamann. Apparently, he’s been in a few things that you may have seen… but none of them relate to Star Wars.

Quote of the Day
Not so oddly, it comes from… you guessed it: The Matrix Reloaded

Commander Lock: Not everyone believes what you do, Morpheus.
Morpheus: My beliefs do not require them to.

I think that quote is fitting for many things in life. If only people could grasp that concept.

I should end here so that I can get a decent amount of sleep before work tomorrow. And so, I shall.

Namaste.

It’s pretty common knowledge that I like Lego® and (almost) all things Lego-like.
It is common knowledge that I like computers.

In a bit of “you got your chocolate in my peanut-butter” news, I found a link to this on Slashdot this morning.

While I don’t have any Lego® (aside from my watch), I do have my Rokenbok monorail. I could set up one of my old Macs in the middle of it like a giant “billboard” or “movie screen.” And, I can always buy some Lego®…