Random Access

Monday
I’m feeling human again today. Lots of sleep (especially after a good bit of alcohol) will do that for you. I think. *shrug*

Today was errand day. Got a few things taken care of before poker. Mary brought her grill over yesterday, so we grilled out before the gaming started. Nothing like flame-kissed bratwurst and burgers. Poker turnout was good, too.

I left out a few things from the weekend, so here’s the Cliff’s Notes recap:

• Watched The Batman, the new animated series. It’s basically, “Batman: Year Three.” The artistic style is different, but not in a bad way. I would call it something of a cross between the styles of JLU and Teen Titans. The casting of the voice actors was good, too. This show has good potential.
• Jess and I saw Resident Evil: Apocalypse. I went in knowing what to expect (a live-action videogame) and I wasn’t disappointed. Jess, not being familiar with the game, made a lot of comparisons to 28 Days Later. Simple, mindless (or brainless, as the case may be) fun.
• Bowling. I not only bowled ironman, I did it on three lanes. At the same time. O_o Sanity apparently took a backseat to masochism. Scores: 136 – 220 – 155 – 130 – 145 – 109/130 – 187/147/121 – 110
• Pat and Staci, fresh from their honeymoon, dropped in at breakfast Saturday night. Sounds like they had a good time. Staci even came back with a Lego watch, a CLIKITS Heart Watch… but a Lego® watch, nonetheless. 🙂

NPR and Other News
Morning Edition: Losing Julie: Teen’s Suicide Blamed on Zoloft
Morning Edition: Can You Marry Me Now?
Morning Edition: Benny Golson: Elder Statesman of the Jazz Sax
Day to Day: White Supremacist’s Legacy in Northern Idaho
Day to Day: ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’

Climber Aron Ralston was pinned beneath a rock for six days while climbing in Utah last year. NPR’s Alex Chadwick talks with Ralston about how he cut off his own arm to survive. Ralston documented the ordeal and his recovery in his book Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

All Things Considered: Modern-Day Milkman Thrives on Housecalls
All Things Considered: Musician Resurrects Sandburg’s ‘American Songbag’
Fresh Air: Interview with Singer Donovan Leitch (Sunshine Superman, et al.)

BBC News: Palace Balcony Protester Removed (dressed as Batman)

Stray Toasters

• As most people around me know, this (Lego® Creator Watch) is my favorite watch:
  I’ve had it for… about a year and a half. And, yes, it did come with the little monkey. Why? I don’t know, but I don’t question. It’s also a great conversation starter. I’ll be sitting somewhere (often at a bookstore or a restaurant) and the following usually happens:

  Person: *stare*
  Me: *going about my business*
  Person: Hey! Your watch looks like Lego or something…
  Me: *removes watch to show the Lego® logo on the face*
  Person: Well, look at that! It is Lego! Hey, (calls a person over), come look at this…

  It’s rather amusing. Not too long ago, I went to the Lego® site to see if I could order another one. They showed the Bionicle Watch (which I also have), the Bionicle Toa Nuva Watch and the CLIKITS Heart Watch. But there was no sign of the Creator Watch. So, being the diligent Interweb geek that I am, I searched the site for it. Lo and behold, I found it. There was also a note on the page: Sorry, item is not available in this country. I don’t know when they stopped selling it in the States, but I’m not complaining. I have a relatively rare item in the U.S. And that’s not a bad thing.

• Over the past few days, I’ve gotten a couple of comments on a post that I made back in January, about Maddox. I neither know nor care what kinds of sticks these people have up their asses, but I have to admit that I find their comments amusing.
• G4TechTV’s Icons aired an episode called “Gaming in the Military” on this afternoon. It showed how the military has adapted a number of consumer, off-the-shelf products for use as supplemental training tools and how some software companies have modified some of their products for use as supplemental training tools. Very interesting.
• By way of : News of the Weird
• By way of Slashdot: The Beatles vs. Apple Could it be that the band’s company, Apple Corps., is about to take a big byte (sorry) out of the computer giant?
• “Are we talking big toes or little toes?”
  

• Words Without Borders – The Online Magazine for International Literature
• Also from Backwash: The Seven Vices of Highly Creative People
• Toilegami
• Stone Trek – To boldly go where no caveman has gone before.
• I don’t really know what to make of this. The link on Backwash called it “Microsoft Windows Anime.” The best way to describe it would be to anthropomorphize the Windows OSes into Sailor Moon-like characters. Yeah. I know. *brainlock* Throw in a J-Pop theme, too. I’m sure that the experience might be a little “better,” relatively speaking, if I read Hirigana. (NOTE: You’ll want to have broadband. Otherwise, it’s a painfully slow load.)

No wombats were harmed in the making of this post.

Namaste.

Sunday
I’m still in shock.

Baltimore at Cleveland
3 – 20
Ouch.

Actually, I am still to hung over to be in shock. Shock will set in tomorrow. The Ravens lost to the Browns. The Browns! In Cleveland. Opening day. I’m not sure what to make of this.

The world has to be off-axis or something. Wait… that’s just me. FAR too much vodka. If you’re going to agree to do “penalty shots” with someone based on the outcome of a game, make sure that you hire someone to do horrid things to the opposing team to ensure your team’s victory. Also, make sure that you don’t take said shots on an empty stomach. Just a little FYI from your friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man Reminder-Man.

Congratulations to for the Browns’ complete and utter domination of the Ravens in today’s game. (Ya lousy bastich!) *sigh* He and the missus came up this afternoon to watch the game and trash-talk and hang out. Aside from watching the Ravens do their best Keystone Kops impression, it was a lot of fun. Hopefully, when the Ravens and Browns meet next month, it will be a more balanced game. Or a more Ravens-dominated one.

On an unrelated – but happier note: I bowled a 220 last night.

Okay… time to head upstairs and see if I can find my way to The Dreaming. This should be rather interesting, especially since I spent all afternoon/evening sleeping off the vodka.

Namaste.

Today marks the third anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon. A handful of people caused the deaths of thousands. Millions of lives were affected.

I still do not think that the name “Patriot Day” is appropriate to commemorate the day and the lives lost. I still contend that the victims of the attacks did nothing patriotic. They merely happened to be in the wrong places at the wrong time. In fact, if anything, the hijackers/attackers would be considered patriotic to their cause. Unless I’m missing something, I don’t think that we really want to laud their efforts. I think that another name should be found for the day.

I hope that the families and survivors of the September 11th victims have been able to find some measure of peace or solace.

Previous related posts

• 11 Sept 01
• 11 Sept 02 (1, 2)
• 11 Sept 03

Namaste.

Friday
I had coffee with Nyx and Perry this afternoon. Greenhouse Effect. Good. Free mocha latte. Better. I ran into an old acquaintance there, as well. It was funny because I thought that I recognized her as she was walking out of the shop. Fortunately, I was right.

Nyx and I tooled around for a bit and wound up at Borders. I looked up a few things and worked (on the laptop) on the cover letter that I had started this morning. We left a couple of hours later to get Jess… and headed back. Perry and Max, , and were there, by this point. and showed up a bit later. We headed to Cheers: North for a bite to eat; we were joined there by .

Stray Toasters

• showed me Applegeeks this morning. I like it. I showed one of the comics to ; she liked it too.
• sent me a link to Sunday Bloody Sunday… done by none other than W. Like I told her: “I’m not sure whether to laugh, cry or both.”
• Nyx also sent me a link to the trailer for I [heart] Huckabees. It looks like a quirky film… and one that I would like to see.
• By way of Irregular Webcomic: Historic Tale Construction Kit
• Played in another tourney tonight. Came in 2685. Someone made a comment about my the way I had been playing that distracted me from my game. The main thing that made me feel better about my ranking was that I came in about 400 places above my heckler. Karma can be a real bitch.
• Nothing says “love” like getting two issues of Lego Magazine in your mailbox. Granted, it was two copies of the same issue, but that’s not the point.
• I haven’t checked out PolyKarbon in a long time.
• Cooking for Engineers

</consciousness>

Namaste.

Thursday
Today’s highlight was watching Sissy and the twins play in the backyard. It was the first time that we have let the twins out; I’ve let Sissy out a couple of times. The kittens were very hesitant about “that place on the other side of the sliding glass door.” It’s one thing to look at it through the glass or the screen… being out in it? That’s an entirely different subject. But they ran around and explored. And played. Lightning chased a couple of bugs; Presto discovered a gap in the fence that leads to the front yard. (She just walked around the house and came in on the other side of the yard.)

While outside, I finally saw why one of the patches of grass has been turning brown: It wasn’t getting an adequate amount of water from the sprinkler. This was even more baffling since the sprinkler head is right next to that spot. *boggle* The sprinkler was spraying over that section of grass and the water that it was getting from an adjacent head was negligible. I may wind up replacing both heads.

Mary came by for a visit. She showed up as we were preparing dinner, so she stayed for a bite to eat and some after-dinner chat. And, I finally gave her the satellite dish that I’ve been meaning to give her for three weeks.

NPR and Other News
Morning Edition: Reducing Indoor Allergens Helps Kids with Asthma
Morning Edition: U.S. Traffic Dramatically Worse Since ’82 (Fuckin’ UDoT!)
Morning Edition: A Pint for a Pint (Leave it to Cleveland…)
Morning Edition: Cornerstone Festival: The Art of Landscape Design
Talk of the Nation: Islam in America
Day to Day: Math Puzzle Solution Could Impact Encryption Codes
Day to Day: The Gathering: Preserving the Sacred Healing Arts
All Things Considered: Civilization Is a Warm, Furry Pet

CNN.com: “Instant Karma’s gonna get you…” (thanks, )

WFIE: Baby Diaper… with two kinds of crack!

Stray Toasters

• forwarded a link to: Vod-CA.
• The Future Dictionary of America
• Lightning had what Mary referred to as a “poo emergency.” It could have been FAR worse than it was. And, to be honest, after it was over… it was pretty amusing.
• From the “Truth, Stranger than Fiction” file: Big John Toilet Seat
• Seanbaby’s Super Friends Page
  

  The Super Friends somehow stayed alive for 10 years by hiring people who could talk to fish, match a cape to their underwear, and turn into a bucket of water. They fought everyone from supervillains to dolls from space to insane altruists who decided that making giant unstoppable mutant fish and running the Earth into a comet was the best way to solve our “food shortage.”

• Another poker tournament. I came in 539 out of 5572 total entrants.
• Sissy is sprawled out – and asleep – under my desk.
• I got a message on IRC from an online friend with whom I’ve not chatted in a long time. We’ve maintained intermittent contact over the past few years, but nothing like we used to do when we first chatted with each other. It was a pleasant surprise.
• If I come up with a power supply, I’m going to build another PC. Nothing major, just a rig to run a *nix OS and use as a firewall/gateway.
• Margot Kidder is set to become the third alumn from the Superman movie franchise of the 70s/80s to join the cast of Smallville, along with Christopher Reeve and Annette O’Toole. She’ll be playing the assistant to Reeve’s Dr. Swann.
• A tip of the hat to Heartless Wonder for pointing me to Kingdom of Loathing. (Like I needed yet another online distraction…)

Quote of the Day
[01:20] : some people go off the deep end, [name]‘s just hit the bottom of the marianas trench.

And that’s all.

Namaste.

Wednesday
In a bold move to clear out some cobwebs (and since it meant doing something different), I accompanied and to the Hogle Zoo this afternoon. It was the first time that I’ve been there since May of 2003.

Came home for a bit (where I apparently donated a half-hour to Morpheus) and then it was of to Nyx and Nox’ to help Nyx celebrate her birthday. There, I saw a few folks whom I haven’t seen in too-long a time. And, there were game and comics-related conversations. What a bargain! What a bargain for me!¹

NPR and Other News
Morning Edition: Not the Best Gun Safety Tutor
Morning Edition: Famous First Words
Day to Day: ‘Monster Road’: Claymation Legend Bruce Bickford
All Things Considered: Hidden Treasures: Warhol’s Ongoing Work of Art
All Things Considered: Pollution’s Long-Term Effects on Pre-Teens’ Lungs

MSNBC: NASA’s Genesis space capsule crash lands in Utah

Stray Toasters

• Beware the ninja hippos!
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: sent me a link to this. What in the name of Chthulu is going on here?!?
• MediasharX
  (Bonus Points: They have a decent JLU section.)

• : Click here.
• I must acquire more music by Moloko.
• I’m not saying that this is gospel, but has anyone ever noticed that you never see Doctor Doom and Darth Vader in the same place at the same time? And, let’s face it: They are both rather… “imposing”… figures. And the similarities between them are a little too close to be coincidental. Let’s do a little comparison:
  

  Doctor Doom	Darth Vader
  Born to a magic-using mother	Magically born to a mother through "immaculate conception"
  Wears cloaks	Wears cloaks
  Wears full-body armor	Wears full-body armor
  Horribly disfigured face	Horribly disfigured face
  Has anger management issues, but can maintain an ice cold demeanor	Has anger management issues, but can maintain an ice cold demeanor
  Seeks global domination	Seeks galactic domination
  Has an obsessive compulsion to discredit/defeat college rival	Has an obsessive compulsion to defeat former master
  Vast knowledge of arcane lore/sorcery	Vast knowledge of "The Force"
  Flair for the melodramatic	Flair for the melodramatic

Namaste.

¹ – Taken from Eddie Murphy’s “Delirious”

Tuesday
Another fine day in the neighborhood. Mr. Rogers would be proud.

Jess and I stopped off to see Jenny… but she was at the Prince concert. From there, I had to stop at Borders to look up a couple of things and then home. On the way, Dad called. We had a semi-three-way call between Jess, him and me. I told him my “theory” as to why people have children: To do the yard work. It made him laugh. I then explained to him how I spent part of yesterday afternoon tearing out branches of the lilac shrubbery. (Sidebar: , if you have the chainsaw and/or trimmer (and possibly a ladder), I’m all for spending part of the day removing the rest of the problem shrubbery.) He said that’s why, when one gets older, you move to a place where someone else does the groundskeeping for you. Sage advice. Of course, it’s coming from a man who has a very well-kept yard. By his own hand.

stopped by after work. It seemed as though her car had developed a possible radiator leak. It hadn’t, but a coolant hose had a hole in it. Nor was it an easy one to reach. But I wrapped some duct tape around it and she’s taking it in tomorning to get replaced.

NPR and Other News
Reuters: Average Motorist Spends Two Days in Traffic Jams

The Salt Lake Tribune: Salt Lake County Mayor Nancy Workman. Woo. She’s in for a rough patch.

Stray Toasters

• My friend Steve showed me .
  Just what I needed… another form of electronic crack. I spent the evening reading the strips from the beginning; I’m nearly halfway through it. *taps vein* (There are annotations to some of the comics, there is an option of having them appear with their respective comic, using cookies.) The author is an LJer, as well.

• forwarded links to Cigarro & Cerveja (including this and this).
• , knowing my affinity for almost all things kite-related sent me this.
• By way of Slashdot: Atari to Release Old Games and New Console System
• Someone else agrees that Gwen Steffani as Dazzler (new pic) might not be so bad.
• : Click here and here and here and here.
• Mocha Almond Fudge ice cream with Honeycomb cereal. ‘Nuff said.
• “Hiya!”
  

I’m waaaay past bedtime here. Time to offer myself to the Lord of The Dreaming.

Namaste.

Monday
Labor Day is typically thought of as a restful day.
For the most part, it was. There was sleeping in and sitting about, but I did a few other things, too.

I not only thought about a bike ride, I went on one. The weather was good. It was still relatively early. All the signs pointed to “Go.” I inflated the tires on Jess’ bike (Mary has my back tire) and headed out. I started off in one direction, but soon realized that the path I had expected to be able to take didn’t exist. So, I modified my plan. It was a good ride… until I was near the end. That’s when the back wheel realigned itself. It didn’t come off the frame, but shifted enough to rub the frame badly – enough so that it wasn’t easily ridable. I had to call Jess to pick me up.

Returning home, I decided to mow the lawn. It hadn’t been cut in about 10 days; it was due. A… problem/issue with mowing the lawn is mowing around the lilac bushes. Some of the branches extend into either where the lawnmower goes or where I go when using the mower. I removed some of the offending branches. By hand. (This is why I’ve been clamoring about needing a chainsaw.) My hands and arms got a few scrapes and scratches in the process – and I could still use a chainsaw/hedge trimmer to tighten up the job – but I got it done. It even reminded me of one of Morgan Freeman’s lines from Bruce Almighty about how good it feels to do work by hand.

A few hours and a shower later, it was time for poker. Tonight’s turnout was small, but we played. And it was good.

Stray Toasters

• I almost typed “Stray Taoists” for the heading.
• By way of Disinformation: The Fate of the Album
• By way of Slashdot: Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2003-2004
• Ethical Marketplace is a new TV series about the revolution that is happening in the business and investment in the world – the new “triple bottom line”- respecting people and the environment while earning a profit.
• Long Bets: Accountable Predictions
• In the age of online blogs, journals and diaries, it was only a matter of time before an online confessional came about: want2admit
• For : Kite Re-Release: Uncut
• For : Legion of Substitute Heroes
• “One day, the spoons will revolt…”
  

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Sunday
I slept in again this morning… and it felt great. I woke up to Lightning sprawled out behind me. I haven’t done much else since waking up, but it’s the weekend – I don’t feel any remorse about being lazy.

Stray Toasters

• – I watched the Boilers lay a complete and utter beatdown on the Syracuse Orangemen. 51- 0. Or, as ESPN so eloquently put it: “Number 25 Boilermakers beat Orange to pulp.”
• – I’m learning to enjoy Miguzi, Cartoon Network’s afternoon lineup. On Sundays, they have the “Wheel of Gooz,” in which they show two hours of a given toon. Today’s choice was Teen Titans. I got to see a couple of Season Two episodes that I had missed.

• – I caught “Fearful Symmetry,” the rebroadcast of yesterday’s Justice League Unlimited episode. It would appear as though there’s a dark side to the animated DCU. I liked it. This episode also introduced The Question to the aDCU and JLU, teamed with Green Arrow and Supergirl. It was a good episode.
• Wasatch Pizza – even day-old and reheated – is good. Very good.
• …me and Del were singin’ Little Runaway, I was flyin’.
• I’m reconfiguring a few things in the Halo Command Center. It’s quite a mess now, but should be much better when I’m done.
• I’m getting the urge to draw. I believe that I’ll act upon said urge after the barbecue.
• I’ve discovered that while I like lemonade, I’m not so fond of the tart/bitter aftertaste it leaves. But, when going to fast food restaurants, the non-carbonated options tend to be limited. My solution: If they have fruit punch, I ask the order-taker for a half-lemonade/half-fruit punch drink. Best of both worlds.

Time to raise up and ease on down the road.

Namaste.

Saturday
Today had all of the earmarks of the beginning of a good holiday weekend:

• I slept in.
• Kate, Max and Perry came over and spent the afternoon. (I also got Perry hooked on a few fan films: Art of the Saber, Batman: Dead End, Batman: Dark Justice and Grayson.)
• Dinner, dessert and chat at Land and Catherine’s.
• Bowling. 11 games worth!
  (123 – 142 – 111 – 175 – 144/131 – 161/151 – 175/113 – 143)

• Breakfast.

I don’t think that I could have asked for much else to make the day any better.

Stray Toasters

• Over breakfast, Bryce recounted the tale of “The Order of the Flaming Blue Idiots.” I had forgotten about it since Michelle told me of it last year. I think that I laughed just as much tonight as when I first heard it.
• Comic Book Resources reprinted a copy of “What If the Spider Had Been Bitten by a Radioactive Human?” (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
• By way of Slashdot: Mozilla Usage Doubles in 9 Months: “Thanks to the success of Firefox, Mozilla now appears to have 14.9% of the browser share, double that of 9 months ago. Let this be a lesson in complacency.”
• Best comic ad that could be a cheesy porn title: Spider-Man Spoils a Snatch
• By way of Backwash: 100 Most Mispronounced Words and Phrases in English I think that my favorite has to be:
  

  K
  Don’t Say	Do Say	Comment
  Klu Klux Klan	Ku Klux Klan	Well, there is an ‘L’ in the other two, why not the first? Well, that is just the way it is; don’t expect rationality from this organization.

  “…don’t expect rationality from this organization.” Amen.

And, for my next amazing feat: Bed!

Namaste.

Friday
I don’t know who turned Utah’s thermostat down, but they need to stop playing with it. The rain wasn’t so bad, but when it’s the third day of September – and still very much in the midst of “summer” – and I had to break out a turtleneck this morning, there’s something amiss.

I didn’t do much during the early part of the day. I spent a good portion of it awaiting two phone calls; I received neither of them.

The evening brought coffee and conversation – something to which I look forward at the end of each week. Tonight’s gathering was a good one. I saw a friend whom I haven’t seen in… four or five months, at least.

And, it looks as though Perry and Max and I have a “play date” tomorrow.

NPR and Other News
Morning Edition: Bali Bomber’s Coffee Break
Morning Edition: E.T., Write Home
Talk of the Nation – Science Friday: Rethinking Full-body CT Scans
Day to Day: Gay Bishop Ordination Still Rocking Episcopal Church
All Things Considered: A New Take on Stephen Foster’s Music
(I wasn’t aware of the overtly racist themes in some of his songs; but according to this report, he “later wrote songs sympathetic to African-Americans in slavery.”)

BBC News: Body and Brain of Gamers Probed

NewScientist.com: U.S. Plans Portable Nuclear Power Plants

USA Today: 10 Great Places to Stop for Subway Art
USA Today: Study: Atkins’ Side Effects Could Hurt in the Future
USA Today: Reality TV, ‘toons mark fall cable
Some of the… um… “highlights” of the coming season include:

• In Search of the Partridge Family (VH1, Sunday, 9 p.m. ET/PT, Sept. 5) Can there ever really be another Danny Bonaduce? Should there be?
• Caught (Court TV, Tuesday, 10:30 p.m. ET/PT, Sept. 28) Asks the question, “At what point do people decide to break the rules?”
• He’s a Lady (TBS, Tuesday, 10 p.m. ET/PT, Oct. 12) A dozen macho men get the ultimate makeover.
• I Hate My Job (Spike, Tuesday, 9 p.m. ET/PT, Oct. 12) Al Sharpton gives career counseling to eight men who quit their jobs to pursue their dreams.
• The Real Gilligan’s Island (TBS, Tuesday, time TBD, Nov. 30) A real skipper, first mate, millionaire couple, movie star, Kansas farm girl and professor try to escape from a deserted island.

First up, we have American Idol meets The Monkees. And I like The Monkees, both the show and the band. I’m not really sure what to make of Caught yet. And, aside from Tootsie, Mrs. Doubtfire and The Birdcage, no movie that I can recall about crossdressing men has done well. A TV show..? As a “reality TV” show, I already hold out little hope for it; with it’s premise, I think that it’s more than one foot in the grave. Next: Al Sharpton?! Career counsellor? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?! And, do I really need to say anything about “Real World: Gilligan’s Island?” I think not.

Stray Toasters

• sent me this, which made me laugh:
  

• The twins are apparently feeling MUCH better. Before heading to coffee, I went to fill their food and water dish. I had barely started pouring the food when Presto, followed shortly by Lightning, came racing down the steps.
• I think that I’ve sussed out 95% or more of the bassline to Maroon 5’s This Love.
• The releases of the Batman: TAS and Superman: TAS DVDs have been pushed back until January 2005. *BAH*
• From the Comics2Film DCG: Elish Cuthbert (from 24) as Emma Frost

Quote of the Day
From the Stargate SG-1 episode “Politics,” in which an influential senator holds an inquiry into whether or not the Stargate program should be maintained:

Gen. Hammond: After reading you mission reports and being fully briefed by Colonel Samuels, the senator decided that the SGC will receive no further funding from the Treasury.
Col. O’Neill: That effectively shuts us down, sir.
Gen. Hammond: Very effectively. *looks around* Costs nearly a billion dollars just to turn the lights on around here.
Col. O’Neill: How about a bake sale? Yard sale? Garage…?
Gen. Hammond: This is what I look like when I’m not laughing, Colonel.
Col. O’Neill: Car wash…?
Gen. Hammond: *laugh*
Col. O’Neill: I’m sorry, sir.

I may… “MAY”… have to give the movie another chance.
And with that, goodnight.

Namaste.

Thursday
Today was a pretty lax day. I had coffee this morning with at Jitterbug Coffee Hop. We sat and talked for an hour or so. I headed over to see for a bit. Jess and I went to Pat and Staci’s wedding reception this evening. In Provo. (No, I didn’t catch fire when I entered the city limits. Dammit.) It was quite nice. We ran into a few people that we know from our Saturday evening outings, as well.

PRE-SEASON FOOTBALL

Baltimore at New York (Giants)
27 – 17
With the goings-on of the day, I forgot about this game. But, it was a win, so I’m happy.

Carolina at Pittsburgh
16 – 13
Not only did the Panthers win… they beat Pittsburgh. And, it was a two-for-one win at that! Granted it’s only preseason (and not a conference game), but a Carolina win coupled with a Pitt loss still makes me happy.

MInnesota at Seattle
21 – 23
The Seahawks introduced the Vikings to a loss. Congrats, ashamanmat.

NPR and Other News
Day to Day: Marcos McPeek Villatoro: A Screenwriter’s Muse
All Things Considered: Bird Flu Can Transfer to Cats
Fresh Air: Interview with Dave Chappelle

USA Today: Dyslexia not the same in every culture
USA Today: Clerk fooled by $200 bill with President Bush’s picture
USA Today: Prison guards find basketball full of pot

Stray Toasters

• I was driving on I-15 this morning and saw a semi from Batesville Casket Company with the following message on the trailer: “Please drive safely. Heaven can wait.” I could be wrong about this, but while they are promoting driving safety, isn’t that a message a bit “counterproductive” to their financial bottom line?
• Woo! There are new Anita Baker and Stephanie Mills CDs on the horizon.
• My mother sent me an email entitled “Case Study on Stress” this morning:
  

  I’m not sure exactly how it works, but this is amazingly accurate.
  Read the full description before looking at the picture.

  The attached photo has 2 identical dolphins in it. It was used
  in a case study on stress level at St. Mary’s Hospital. Look at both
  dolphins jumping out of the water. The dolphins are identical. A
  closely monitored, scientific study of a group revealed that in spite of
  the fact that the dolphins are identical, a person under stress would
  find differences in the two dolphins. If there are many differences
  found between both dolphins, it means that the person is experiencing a
  great amount of stress.

  Look at the photograph, and if you find more than one
  or two differences, you may want to take a vacation.
  

• “Learn it faster?! >.< Why don’t you go learn Japanese?”
• What’s wrong with this picture?
• Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down… but I don’t think that it would help in this case.
• There’s a new show this season on UPN called “Veronica Mars.” One of the stars has the same name as one of my kid sisters. I did a double-take when I saw it in the listing.
• By way of Slashdot: Broadband Envy – Fixing American Broadband
• From gapingvoid: How to be creative
• New Highlander movies? Could be…
• I’m… stunned. I just had someone tell me that they thought that the Washington Redskins were based in Washington STATE. *boggle*
• Speaking of football…
  

  From Sports Illustrated

  From The Sporting News

  
  Let’s look at the AFC North. More particularly, the projected first-place team… although ‘s Bengals look strong. And… The Browns v2.0? *sigh* Sorry, .

Time to eat and enjoy tonight’s Farscape.

Namaste.

Wednesday
Last night, I had another bout of “stare at your inner eyelids” while trying to fall asleep. I think that it took me at least an hour to fall asleep. That didn’t make waking up any easier.

Today was a decent day: I had an interview that seemed to go fairly well; I’ll should find out for certain on Friday. I saw and for a bit this afternoon. And I cooked dinner. I’ve had a relaxing evening, too. This will change when I log on to play poker in a bit… but I think that I can deal with that.

I’m having coffee with tomorrow at Jitterbug. That promises to be fun.

Happy Birthday wishes to:

• and

NPR and Other News
Morning Edition: A Month of ‘Months’
Day to Day: Speed Debaters Rap Their Points Home
All Things Considered: Putting Spin on a Yankees Loss (for )

Stray Toasters

• <pet peeve>
  One of my pet peeves is peoples’ use – or lack thereof – of turn signals. If you’re making a turn or lane change, it doesn’t take too much extra effort to engage your signal. And it might just keep someone (me, included) from running into your slack ass when you make said turn/change.

  And, another thing: Putting on your turn signal after you’ve made your turn or two-thirds of the way through your lane change is just a little late.
  </pet peeve>

• Okay… what’s up with Serena Williams’ outfits at the U.S. Open? Is she trying to use them as a form of intimidation? Or is she just looking for a date?
• Akma’s Random Thoughts: “So Weirdly Wrong”
• Fametracker’s Ten Least Essential Fall Films, 2004
• This should make (among others) rather happy: Radio 4 Revives Hitchhiker’s Game. And it’s not just a straight port of the old Infocom game, either.
• From the minds of Disney: Practically Perfect Pyrotechnics
• Things drawn by Rob Liefeld make laugh.
• The Stained Apron – “The Story of the Month” is great not just for the content, but also because of the signature.
• “Pathetic people need love too!”
  

• I just registered for tonight’s Texas Hold ‘Em tourney.
  From Magic: the Gathering to Poker: the Addiction…

• George Romero.. and Land of the Dead? Could be…
• Pretzel twists.

I should get something to drink before the tournament starts.

<post-tournament edit>
I finished 1044 out of 5643
</post-tournament edit>

Namaste.

Tuesday
I watched a little of the RNC this evening. Yeah, it shocked me, too. Someone on IRC had mentioned that Arnold Schwarzenegger was speaking and my curiosity was piqued. I have to admit: He gave a good speech. Years of being in the spotlight have served him well – He had the crowd pretty much wrapped around his finger. There was even a part of his speech that echoed JFK’s “Ich bin (ein) Berliner” comment. I’m not sure if that was planned or not, but it seemed to be very effective.

Then there were the Bush twins: Barbara and Jenna. Their introduction of their father wasn’t stilted, but it was stiff. Granted, this may have been one of the few, if not the first, time(s) that they have spoken before a crowd like this, but you would have thought that someone would have given them a little coaching.

But, I digress…

The DNC and the RNC are what I think would call: “A lot of political dick-waving.” Yes, the conventions are good ways to hear the messages of the parties. You get to hear voices of not only the candidates, but of their supporters. As the cameras panned around Madison Square Garden, I caught myself thinking (more than once): “Whoa… black people!” I even mentioned it to :

[20:16] : Whoa! Black people!
[20:16] : at the RNC?
[20:16] : they must be lost
[20:16] : lol asking for directions downtown
[20:17] : “this doesn’t look like the urban league…”

Anyway… the thought made me laugh because one of my supervisors at the USPS in North Carolina was Republican. And she was African-American, too. (And a mother and a grandmother and I’m sure there were a number of other labels that one could apply to her…) I remember her mentioning that someone had asked her “how and why” she could possibly be a Republican. Her response was simple, adroit and amazingly clear: The party spoke to many of the issues in which she believed.

Isn’t that what it’s all about: Voting for the candidates and/or parties who believe in the same issues as you? I think so. I also think that it would be a swift kick in the pants of the American voting system if third-party candidates had more of a voice. It would be interesting to see how the GOP and the Dems would deal with a credible threat from left field. Especially if the platform offered a viable balance of the best of both of the other parties’ issues/promises.

*gets down from soapbox*

NPR and Other News
Morning Edition: Florida Court Weighs Terri Schiavo Case
Morning Edition: A Criminal Genius He’s Not
Day to Day: Proposed Amendment to Allow Foreign-Born President
All Things Considered: Teaching a Dumb Dog New Tricks

Stray Toasters

• Congratulations and hats off to . It seems that his team, the Cleveland Indians have gone into Yankee Stadium and scalped the Yankees. 22-0. No, this is NOT a football score; it’s baseball. They went to the Big Apple and left the Yanks with a beating that they’re not going to forget anytime soon, I’m sure.
• Gonna need a lot of cream cheese and lox for this…
• It’s Prime Time in Charm City. Seven-time Pro Bowler Deion Sanders signed with the Ravens today as a defensive back. No word on what number he’ll wear as Chris McAlister already wears #21. Speaking of which: , as I have Sunday Ticket AND the season opener is against some team from Cleveland, should I expect to see you around game time?
• (Season) One to Beam Up. The first season of Star Trek: TOS is now available.
• I want my MTV Anime Network.
• Review of WE3 #1 from Broken Frontier.
• If Maxim were a magazine for men and superheroes, it would probably look like this.
• The Giants of Anime Are Coming, by way of Wired.
• Mmm. Wine.
• Someone, apparently with far too much free time, did an essay on The Monetary Economics of Thurston Howell III
• I think that it was who pointed out Sandy Skoglund‘s work to me. I came across this homage to her work on SturkWurk.com.

Time to find some trouble to get into. Or a snack.

Namaste.