Union Pacific's Great Excursion Adventure

“All of us get lost in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer by the stars. All of us do time in the gutters, dreamers turn to look at the cars.”

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Thursday
The workday wasn’t too bad. In fact, it wasn’t bad at all.

Came home, made sure that the cats hadn’t set anything on fire (they hadn’t) and then Jess suggested that we go to Cheers for dinner. We ran into and one of his brothers. And showed up for a spot of coffee and some pie.

And now… I think that I’m just going to relax and unwind.

And kick the Hell out of the new computer for telling me that I’m giving it an “Illegal instruction” on the OS install.

*shrug*

NPR Stories
All Things Considered: ‘The Day After:’ 20 Years Later
All Things Considered: Medicare Plan Would Ban Canadian Drugs
All Things Considered: Americans Seek Cheaper, Reimported Drugs

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

“Turn it up or turn that wild card down.”

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Wednesday
Another day in the Land Behind the Zion Curtain. And it wasn’t bad. There were a couple of slow spots, but on the whole, was fairly painless. (…and brings on many changes. And I can take or leave it, as I please.)

It was a quiet night on the homefront. I watched The West Wing and Law & Order; both shows were good. And there was pizza for dinner.

NPR Stories
All Things Considered: Nurse Takes Plunge in Ebola Test
All Things Considered: Soccer Prodigy Stays Home (He’s 14 years old… and will be playing for the MLS’ D.C. United!)
The Connection: Dick Gordon – Back from Baghdad

Stray Toasters

  • Why, yes, I did get this at IKEA… Thanks to for passing this along.
  • Driver’s License…. Porn. Driver’s License…. Porn. Hmm. Another wave of the cane and tip of the hat to for this one, too.
  • Do you need a swift kick in the motivation department? (And let’s face it: Who doesn’t need one at some point or another?) See what others have done by the time they were your age. Check it out here.
  • Thanks to for the link to “A Modest Destiny.” In the course of a few hours, I have read the entire run of the strip… and I’m waiting for the updates.

    Hecter: Being evil is not all glamour. Sometimes it means guarding the alley that smells like pee.
    Gilbert: They didn’t put that part in the brochures.
    Hecter: They never do…

  • New British Science Center Opens… for Adults Only
  • Will The Scarecrow make an appearance in the new Batman movie? Possibly so.
  • Samuel L. Jackson may gearing up to portray S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury in an upcoming movie. No, not the old Marvel Universe Nick Fury (as campily played by David Hasselhoff), the Marvel Ultimate Universe Nick Fury. The one that they made look almost just like Mr. Jackson. Younger and more modern, but just as much of a hard-ass as the classic Fury.

There’s a tall, cold glass of milk calling my name. And, I’m powerless to resist the call.

Namaste.

Synchronicity, indeed…

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What are the odds that with a playlist of over 1500 songs that this song would start playing just before our Internet connection decided to take a brief siesta?

I would say that it’s rather slim.
Even if the connection has been having these hiccups for a few days.

But that’s what just happened.

“Sometimes it’s a bitch, sometimes it’s a breeze…”

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Tuesday
One day closer to the weekend.

Work was… work. All things considered, it wasn’t as bad a day as yesterday. There were things that were annoying and irritating, but such is life.

On a whim, I decided to watch some of The Late Show with David Letterman. Dave was interviewing Dakota Fanning, who is in the new feature film, The Cat in the Hat. She talked about wanting a couple of stuffed dogs (dolls, not taxidermy) for Christmas and how she was looking forward to turning 12 (when she will be allowed to have real dogs). Dave gave her a stuffed squirrel. She said that she was going to name it “Chloe.” She was delightful. Almost infectiously happy. It did good things for my mood. Ah, youth…

NPR Stories
Talk of the Nation: Massachusetts Gay Marriage
All Things Considered: Massachusetts High Court Strikes Down Gay Marriage Ban
All Things Considered: Gay Marriage Ruling Prompts Constitution Debate

Stray Toasters

  • Members of the cast from Wicked was on The Late Show. Interesting concept.
  • More from Maddox. Tonight’s diatribe: Oops! You’re racist. In the past two hours, this page has had over 13,000 hits. Unglaublich!
  • Mainframe Entertainment, the company behind Reboot, Weird-Ohs!, and Scary Godmother (among others) is working on the animated version of Alien Legion. This looks promising.

That’s about it for now.

Namaste.

“Your meters may overload… You can rest at the side of the road… You can miss a stride, but nobody gets a free ride…”

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Monday
Suffice if to say that the chorus of emmet swimming‘s Turnstile seemed to sum up the day fairly well:

As he passes his reflection
He considers his direction
If everything’s fine
Why do I feel stuck in the turnstile
Very nice afternoon we’re having
So what if I try
The world’s just full of tryers
Very nice afternoon and then it’s
The job, the wife, the house, the pension check

I’ll attribute the uneasiness of the day to the fact that it was Monday and let it go at that.

&lt Fast Forward&gt

I came home with more than a “slight” headache. Rest, food and watching the first half of the Steelers-49ers game seemed to quell the pounding.

Jess and I visited and for a few hours this evening; it was a good end to a not-so-good day. The line “Lonely things, like nights, I find end finer with a friend” from Anagram (for Mongo) by Rush aptly suited the evening. The time there was made even more amusing as we watched Nyx play Zoo Tycoon: She added two Tyrannosaurus Rexes to the zoo… and named them “Jess” and “Rob.” Jess2 was cranky. A lot. And she didn’t like rubble in her exhibit/pen. (We won’t mention the fact that she created said rubble.) Rob2 seemed to find great pleasure in trying to bite/run into the electrified fence. More mayhem ensued when Nyx removed panels from the fences and let the animals and dinosaurs run free. Who said that you shouldn’t play with your food before you eat it?

Stray Toasters

  • I didn’t know that Dwight Schultz (from The A-Team, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager) was originally from Baltimore. Go figure.
  • On the way home, we passed a man in a rather small car who reminded me of an older version of the actor who portrays Draco Malfoy in the Tim Hunter and the Books of Magic Harry Potter movies.
  • From Slashdot: “The New York Times reports that Salt Lake City and other Utah cities are going to install an ultrahigh-speed optical network as a public utility project starting next year.” Details here.
  • From the Washington Post: NASA Debates How and When to End the Hubble Telescope Program. While the HST has been plagued with problems, if find this a little weird to think that it might come to an end. My astronomy professor at Johns Hopkins worked with that program and one of my aunts did… something… with the inner mechanics or programs of the telescope for Allied-Bendix.
  • – Four words: “Legion Flight Ring Replicas.” Apparently some guy in Mexico saw the ones that DC Direct made a few years ago and decided to make his own.

And with that, good night and good morrow.

Namaste.

“Meanwhile, in yet another movie…”

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Gotta love the random MST3K references.

Jess and I went to Borders for a while. We talked with Amber, Heather and Charlie for a bit. I drew. We had beverages. It was good. met us there and the three of us sallied forth to meet the rest of our group for tonight’s movie fare: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. I enjoyed it. And, for a yet-as-undetermined reason, I kept drawing comparisons between it and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The really odd thing is that the parallels were rather uncanny.

After that, we went to Cheers for post-movie snackage.

Now, I’m working on the new computer again. I figured that I should format the HD and put something that resembles an OS on it. has been trying to convince me to install FreeBSD on it, but I don’t have a copy of it and I’m not quite comfortable enough to attempt to download and compile it. So… I’m sticking Gentoo on it, at least for now. If I change my mind later, I can always make the switch later.

And tomorrow is Monday. No gaming tomorrow night, but we may go and hang out with and on general principle.

Namaste.

Ten yard fight

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So far, it’s been a lazy day. The most productive things that I have done are: showering and putting the power supply into the new computer. And making a pot of coffee.

Football Wrap-Up
I’m 2 out of 3 today. It was something of a mixed-feeling day: Baltimore lost to the Dolphins. As a fan of both teams (Ravens fan first, but I’ve liked the Dolphins since the early 90s), it was more or less a “no loss” game for me. But, I would have preferred a Ravens win. Add to this the fact that the Bengals beat the KC Chiefs, we are now tied with them for the Division lead. But we’re still ahead of the Steelers and the Browns.

Baltimore at Miami
Final Score 6 – 9 (Overtime)
Miami has won 4 of the last 5 regular season games that they have played. There’s always the post-season. As if the score wasn’t proof enough, this was a defensive game. Both teams played well, although both teams made mistakes… and many of the Ravens’ mistakes turned into costly penalties.
Washington at Carolina
Final Score 17 – 20

And now, it’s off to do some pre-movie drawing.

Namaste.

“Waiting for the heart of Saturday…”

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Today was a good day off. Nothing pressing. No emergencies. And, I spent time with friends. Not a bad way to spend the day.

I was up around 10:00 A.M. I watched some cartoons and slowly prepared for this afternoon’s HALO LAN. I met and around 2:30 and we were off to see the Wizard to shoot, pistol-whip and commit other random acts of mayhem. After the gaming, they followed me home; we, and Jess (who came in from work shortly thereafter), went to T.G.I.Fridays for dinner. Our waitress was… perky. At first, I thought that she was a little too happy, but I came to see that it was just the way that she was wired. And, she was a good server.

I was in rare form at bowling. I bowled seven (7) games: 203, 162, 122, 158, 189, 130 and 149. I haven’t bowled a 200+ game in a long time. I told Jess and Mary that since my first game was that high, I could coast for the rest of the evening. I also officially met a young lady whom we saw at the bowling alley last week; she was on the lane next to us then. Tonight, she was two lanes away; we had a minor competition.

At the V.I., I actually had people ask me to make them shakes. Thus, I learned to make two new shakes:

  1. A coffee shake for
  2. A caramel shake for Mary

, who arrived later, asked me to make a Cookies and Cream shake (my usual concoction). And, as an added bonus: “The Singles” showed up. “Dungeon Master, Jr.” kept staring at us through the window. I’m not sure why. At one point, he stared directly at me. So, I stared back. I’m not sure if he saw my V.I. name tag – which I was wearing – and wondered why I wasn’t working. I didn’t really care. *shrug* Breakfast, the conversation and the company were good.

And now… sleep. For tomorning, there is football. Selah.

Namaste.

Excuse me while I go over there and do my best impression of being unconscious.

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Friday
Work.

Borders. One of the larger gatherings that we’ve had in a while. Coffee. Chat. Good time.
Applebee’s. New waitress. Interesting Patrons.

Home. Tired.

More tomorrow.

Namaste.

Morning already? *stretch* Where’s the coffee?

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Friday
A few more hours at the place of employment and then a couple of days to decompress.

I was up far too late putting together yet another computer. I fought with the system for longer than necessary before deciding to try the components on a different motherboard. I’m not sure what’s wrong with the first board I tried, but it seems to have issues; the second board works just fine. *shrug* Technology. Go figure. I’ll work on the OS and other miscellaneous configuration things either tonight or tomorrow before the HALO LAN.

But for now, I am off to be one of the working masses.

Namaste.

Forwarded to me by my mother…

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I have not been a soda drinker since May of 2002 (with a rare exception of a mixed drink once every blue moon), but I found this rather interesting.

Water or Coke? This is really an eye opener. We all know that water is important but I’ve never seen it written down like this before:

WATER:

  1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.
  2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.
  3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one’s metabolism as much as 3%.
  4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of Washington study.
  5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.
  6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.
  7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.
  8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

And now for the properties of COKE:

  1. In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.
  2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.
  3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the “real thing” sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous China.
  4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.
  5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.
  6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.
  7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for sumptuous brown gravy.
  8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean! road haze from your windshield.

For Your Info:

  • The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis
  • To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly corrosive materials.
  • The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!

Now the question is, would you like a glass of water or coke?

At the end of the day…

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Covenant extermination is always a good thing. and came over and the revels began.

Knowing that I’m a bit of a Magic: the Gathering fan, thanks to for forwarding the link to Mormonism: the Gathering. It made me laugh. Quite a bit, in fact. She even threw in a link to TDM, at no extra charge.

Also, a tip of the hat and a wave of the cane to for the link to The Star Wars Liquor Store.

What’s your favorite M&M’s commercial? (Vote here)

Namaste.

Midday Midweek

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The LAN is up and running. Good
The WAN is up and running. Good
There seems to be an intermittent port issue that slows down or stalls on some Internet access… which is most likely a proxy issue. Not so good, but it can be dealt with.

And, there is Covenant extermination tonight.
Where did I leave my sniper rifle and plasma rifle…?

“A working class hero is something to be…”

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Tuesday
Happy Veteran’s Day to those for whom it applies.

After a night of broken and fitful sleep, the alarm going off at 8:35 was not very welcome. To say that I was “sluggish” this morning would be a gross understatement. Coffee helped, but just enough to keep me moving. Hopefully, tonight’s attempt at sleep will be more successful. I wonder if I can spend one Willpower for an automatic success? *shrug*

Work.
(This space intentionally left blank)

Home.
Tonight’s episode of 24 was good, as was Bravo’s episode of The West Wing. I then watched a bit of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy; there was three-minute period where they were going through the straight guy’s house when I could not stop laughing. I don’t know how much of the show is scripted and how much is ad libbed, but that part was perfect.

Song of the Day
Dinosaur by Al Jarreau, from the CD “Tenderness”

NPR/PRI Stories
Talk of the Nation: Veterans History Project

All Things Considered: Art Carney Dies at 85
Fresh Air: Interview with Cartoon Network’s Mike Lazzo

Stray Toasters

Tomorrow evening, and I will lead a small – but stalwart – cadre of recruits in Covenant extermination exercises. That’s something to to which I can look forward.

Namaste.

¹: As mentioned in the “Chocolate Cake for Breakfast” part of Bill Cosby: Himself

Woo.

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Monday
Today was a “dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s” day at work. We spent most of the day getting the offices to look like… offices. I also set up four of the computers on the network. I kept having the overwhelming urge to bitchslap pimpslap the network administrator of the office’s former tenants: What is the point of numbering the Ethernet jacks in the offices if they don’t match the numbers listed in the server room?!?! I spent a lot of the set up time doing trial and error “Is this the right port? No. Is this one…? No.” *sigh*

Tonight was RPG night. No one died nor was there an overwhelming amount of doom. It seems that the party may have found some semblance of “balance” and cohesion. One can only hope…

Stray Toasters
Rule One: No Toasters!
Rule Two: No member of the faculty is to maltreat the Abbos in any way at all —
if there’s anybody watching
Rule Three: No Toasters!
Rule Four: Now this term, I don’t want to catch anybody not drinking.
Rule Five: No Toasters!
Rule Six: There is NO … Rule Six!
Rule Seven: No Toasters!

Right. That concludes the readin’ of the rules.

This here’s the wattle, the emblem of our land. You can stick it in a bottle, you can hold it in your hand.

Amen!

Namaste.