Random Access

Friday
I’m still not overly fond of getting up at 6:00… but I have to admit: Getting off work by 4:00 is very nice. The work day was good and it was Mallday (for lunch).

I came home and mowed the jungle that is was the backyard. The northeast corner of the yard had blades of grass around 15″ tall in some spots. The lawnmower wasn’t particularly happy about that. It stalled a few times in the more dense areas. But, the lawn has been mowed. And it looks pretty good. Again. Finally.

After that, it was time for a shower and then off to meet up with the rest of the Clitorati. Tonight, for the first time in far too long, came down. Conversations were as random as ever, but the company was good. We left the bookstore a little early and headed to Cheers: North for dinner.

After dinner, and I headed to the Tower Theatre for their midnight movie: Superman.

We got there a few minutes before the show started – plenty of time to find seats (there were only 15-20 people there, in all) and get situated before the lights went down. And for the next two-and-a-half hours, I was a seven-year-old kid again. A kid who believed that a man could fly. (Sidebar: I called my father this afternoon and when he asked what our plans for the weekend were, I told him about going to see Superman tonight. He laughed; he knows that I really enjoy the movie. Of course, he was the one who took me to see it two or three times when it was in its original release.) Yes, there were some things in the movie that would go right over a child’s mind; seeing it again, with 27 years worth of distance, makes that all too clear.

But that never stops me from being able to watch it with a similar – if not the same – sense of awe and wonder (and just plain joy) that I had sitting in a theatre, next to my father, watching it for the first time, all those years ago.

Stray Toasters

• I’m going to Mecca The Bookshelf tomorning.
• By way of : PowerPuff Girls Doujinshi
• By way of : Planned Parenthood’s information on Ohio House Bill 228
• For : Moving to the East End: Pfeifer talks Catwoman, from Comic Book Resources.
• The Official Dryer Lint Page
• Sam Brown on Stick Figures and Amazing Rain
• Rob Liefeld (yeah… that Liefeld) will do a two-month guest penciller stint in DC Comics’ Teen Titans this August. Hrm.
• Does anyone else remember Tailgunner Jo?
• If only this had been out two weeks ago…
• Summertime Blues, Crossroads and The Seeker, all from Rush’ “Feedback” EP have been getting a lot of play on my work mp3 list.

I have been up for nearly 24 hours. I should really hit the rack.

< /consciousness >

Namaste.

I got into the office a little before 7:00 this morning. I still find it funny that I haven’t gotten up this early on a regular basis since I was in grade school. And even then, I wasn’t getting up until 6:45. Of course, the flip side to this is that my work day is done by 4:00. It’s nice to have that much time at the “end” of the day.

I had planned to mow the yard when I got home. Mother Nature had other plans. It rained and hailed across the valley this afternoon. That put the kibosh on any yard care plans. It did not put the kibosh on dinner, CSI and Without a Trace with . And just after dinner, messaged me and asked if we were up for meeting Nyx and him for dessert. We were. And we did.

Random Access
They say there is strangeness, too dangerous
In our theatres and bookstore shelves,
That those who know what’s best for us
Must rise and save us from ourselves.
     “Witch Hunt” by Rush (from “Moving Pictures”)

posted a link to this article this morning. I read it… and my jaw nearly hit my desk. For those of you who aren’t in the SLC Metro area, Bikini Cuts is ” A full service salon with HIGHLY qualified and VERY customer service friendly stylists!¹ They happen to do this while wearing bikinis.

Whoop-de-fuckin’-doo.

I will concede one point: The author of the letter did assert “why” she thought that this was a bad thing. In a very adroit manner, she identified her problem and elaborated on “why” she has an issue with it.

Here’s a radical idea: If the idea of seeing women cut men’s hair in bikinis bothers you, don’t go to the shop. It’s that simple. Or is it that you’re worried about your husband/boyfriend/son getting a haircut from a possibly scantily-clad woman?! *gasp* What will go through his mind while she’s cutting his hair!?! MUST… PROTECT… FROM… HAIR-CUTTING FLOOZIES!!! (Y’know, you just don’t see the word “floozy” used too much anymore.) Do you really think that the stylist is going to climb in the chair and give your (insert relation here) a “happy ending?” You’re thinking of a massage parlor.

Repeat after me: “It’s a hair salon.”
Repeat after me: “A hair salon is not a den of iniquity or house of ill repute.”

Could Bikini Cuts be considered exploitive? Possibly. But this is still a place where people are free to choose where to work (or get their hair cut). If a prospective stylist decides that the dress code isn’t something with which she’s comfortable, I’m sure that there are plenty of other establishments in need of stylists.

I noticed that Ms. Warburton failed to mention something: Bikini Cuts was founded by a woman, one Ms. Bethany Prince. A woman who apparently is rather business savvy: She identified a market (a hair salon for men), found a niche (bikini-clad hair stylists) and created a venue that brought both of those together in one package. As far as I’m concerned, that’s just a good business idea. Period. Companies go out of business every day because their owners didn’t come up with a solid idea and/or business plan. I applaud Ms. Prince on making hers fly.

Maybe Ms. Warburton is just jealous that she didn’t think of it first.

Stray Toasters

• I. Am. Tired.
  No, scratch that.
  I am VERY tired.

• Experimental Gameplay Project, found (indirectly) by way of
• I just checked out the fourth trailer for Batman Begins. Pretty slick.
• “Is that a…costume?”
  “Yup! I’m cosplaying as the new OS!”
  

• For : World’s first Hindu theme park
• “Say ‘Hello’ to my little friends…” –
• : A review of Batman #639 and Year One: Batman/Scarecrow
• From boingboing.net: How to build a bike frame from bamboo

Quote of the Day
I was talking with “EveryDave” earlier and we were talking about our new schedules. I told him that since I’m carpooling with , I’m going in around 7 or 7:30 A.M. And, as a self-avowed “not a morning person,” that getting up at 6:00 wasn’t on my “Favorite Things” list. As Dave’s been working at his job a little longer than I’ve been on mine, he mentioned that getting up in the morning isn’t as much of a problem as going to bed at a “decent” hour, allowing for enough sleep. Then the conversation took this turn:

(17:14:58) Dave: you get used to it..the hard part for you will be getting to bed at a time that’ll give you enough sleep
(17:20:10) : As long as I’m in bed by 1:00, I should be okay.
(17:20:18) : Last night: 2:20-something.
(17:20:24) Dave: and up at 6?
(17:20:25) : This morning: *BLEH*
(17:20:27) : Yep.
(17:20:30) Dave: gaaa
(17:20:33) : Behold the power of the coffee bean!
(17:20:34) Dave: you suck goats…
(17:20:43) Dave: can you do 5 hours ?
(17:20:47) : Yep.
(17:20:58) : It’s about my average
(17:24:19) Dave: I mean this will the upmost respect: fuck you, you lucky bastard.

It made me smile.

Namaste.

¹ – Taken from the home page of the Bikini Cuts website.

Wednesday
I made it through the middle of the week. It’s all downhill from here.

Nothing too much happened today.
The workday was filled with paperwork. Whoop-de-fuck!
Tonight was Game Night. The session went well – we actually accomplished a few things.
And then, I came home.

Stray Toasters

• and our friend, Chris, asked what it would take to get me to run a Shadowrun game. My answer: “Bishop.” It became something of a running joke for the past few weeks.

  Tonight, when I arrived for tonight’s game, handed me some plastic crack goodness: Bishop of XSE (unique). He also said that it wasn’t really to be considered a bribe – he knew that I wanted one and decided to get one for me. (Which, I must add, was very cool of him to do.)

  I might actually have to give some consideration to running the game…

• I am on the “Your Daily Escape” email list from Away.com. Today’s email was entitled: “Norway: Fjords.” Having just seen Hitchhiker’s Guide last night, it made me laugh.
• Yoda is a mean drunk
• It was a zombie jamboree… (Apologies to Rockapella.)
• I could be wrong but she doesn’t look too happy.
• Another for –
• Want a tan? Sure… we just need your thumbprint.
• Here’s another shining example of why a hitchhiker should never forget his towel:
• Understanding how so much identity theft information got leaked
• Will the rumors of Pierce Brosnan’s return as Cmdr. James Bond prove true…?

I should have been in bed at least thirty minutes ago. Oh, well. I’ll just have to increase the caffeine intake tomorning.

Namaste.

Tuesday
The alarm went off this morning… and I stayed in bed for another seven minutes. It wasn’t much, but it was enough. Then I got out of bed and went on to face the rest of the day.

I work with some intelligent people. Very intelligent. We’re talking “OMGXBOXHUGE” intelligence. Some of these guys have forgotten more about technology than I have ever learned. But, they are very down-to-earth people. I’m a good deal younger than a lot of them, but they’ve never made me feel unwelcome or like a little kid at the big kids’ table. Today, I found out that they’re old-school geeks, too. We were talking about movies and books and The Lord of the Rings trilogy came up. And, boy, you should’a heard those guys go. It was funny.

Tonight, and I went on a double date with Dave and Alyce. We saw the sneak preview of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and had dinner at Biaggi’s. The movie was fun. It was a good adaptation of the book. Yes, “adaptation.” There are some things at which continuity purists (and you know who you are) will wrinkle their noses. My advice to you:

Get over it.
It’s a movie.
It’s supposed to be fun.

Remember that.

Thank you. Move along.

and Alyce hadn’t read Hitchhiker’s, but both enjoyed the movie. Dave and I laughed a lot. As did many others in the theatre. We had a good time. I give the movie a “big thumbs-up with an okay.” And, should you go to see the movie, stay through the credits. Just a friendly suggestion.

Dinner at Biaggi’s was something of a mixed bag. The food and the atmosphere were great. Our waiter, Jai, left more than “a little something” to be desired. He took our drink and dinner orders promptly… and then he apparently slipped into a parallel universe. With the exception of coming to refill our water, he was nowhere to be seen for over half an hour. Nearly forty minutes later, he reappeared, our entrees in tow. When he took our orders, I also ordered a glass of wine to be brought out with my entree. I never saw it. When questioned about it, he tried to place the blame on the bartender. “Bad form, Peter. Bad form.” Maybe he was having an “off” night, but I doubt that – he seemed to have no problem engaging in witty reparteè with the table next to us. For a good five minutes. *shrug* When another customer in his area asked for parking validation, we asked if he would bring one for us as well. He headed into the back and we never saw him again.

This does not mean that I will not return to the restaurant – I think that it was a fine establishment and I recommend it to those of you in the SLC Metro area – but I will think twice about where I am seated if I find that I have Jai as my server.

Stray Toasters

• My one complaint about Gaim is that the Buddy List button doesn’t minimize to the System Tray.
• *knock knock*
• Back atcha, Nyx:
  :: how jedi are you? ::
• I think that I am in love.
  Maybe it’s lust.
  Right now, it’s kind of hard to tell.
  Either way, the object of my affection can be found here.
  Thanks to for introducing us.

• : I know that you’re a bit of a Joss Whedon fan; if you haven’t seen it already, here is the trailer for Serenity.
• By way of Wired: Life After Darth
• In the words of Will Smith (from Independence Day): “I have got to get me one of these!” –
• Rockapella will be in Logan, UT in November; I haven’t been to one of their shows in a few years. I might have to make a “Happy Birthday to me” present of that.
• 
• Marvel supports the troops with special comic
• For fans of The Crow, NECA is producing The Crow: Rooftop Battle figures.

Namaste.

Monday
It was a Monday. Not a necessarily “bad” Monday, but a Monday nonetheless. Spaghetti, 24, poker and an episode of Galaxy Rangers helped the evening to pass nicely, though.

My friend, Chris, bought one of the Rangers DVDs before I got my copies. He mentioned that they weren’t quite as good as he remembered. (After all, nostalgia adds a fond glimmer to the things that we loved and enjoyed in years gone by.) I noted something along those lines tonight. The animation is 20 years old, after all. Some of the dialogue is… stilted. Or just plain… over the top. But it was still fun.

Stray Toasters

• My head wasn’t in the poker game tonight. But I still had fun.
• Broken Frontier had a couple of really good articles today:
  • The REAL Infinite Identity Crisis – a look at continuity and characters
  • Confessions of a Fanboy’s Girl – A comic fan’s girlfriend talks about living with a fanboy.
• “Less talky, more drivey of the drivey-machine!”
  

• By way of RealTechNews: All about the Scooter
• I saw this and was reminded of game sessions run by . And chuckled.
• : You need to pick up Countdown to Infinite Crisis. Especially issue #2.
• From Buzzscope: On the Fly by Sandy Collora. This week: His take on the newly-released pictures of the new Superman costume. And he’s not pulling his punches.
• How Firewalking Works
• Capt. Sisko… from Trials and Tribble-ations. I covet. Oh, how I covet…

Closed captioning (and new target windows) brought to you by .

Namaste.

Sunday
Today was a good day… despite the chill in the air and the rain.

It was also the first Park City excursion of the year. Yes, I’ve already been to Park City once this year, but that was for Sundance. And, thus, it doesn’t count. We met up with friends (Special Note: Kudos to for getting to Park City on VERY short notice.) and ate brunch at Cisero’s – they put on one of the best brunches around and the price is reasonable. We were there for about two hours.

After brunch, half of the group headed back home while the rest of us went on to the traditional shop and gallery stroll portion of the trip. Lots of good (and expensive) stuff to see. And, I wasn’t aware of it before, but the guy working in the David Whitten Gallery was David Whitten. I had seen him in there before, but hadn’t made the connection. He was rather personable. We continued to browse through other galleries and stores but, as it was raining, we cut that short and wound up at the No Name Saloon. By this time, our party had dwindled to four. But that was fine. We had beer and mixed drinks to keep us company. And that was a-okay.

<< rewind <<
As I mentioned (briefly) last night, yesterday included a trip to Happy Valley Utah County. We went to see Art of the Ancient Mediterranean World: Ancient Egypt, Greece and Romeat the Brigham Young University Museum of Art. As I said last night: It was awesome. Easily worth the cost of admission. There were two other exhibits on display: Thoroughly Modern: The New Woman Art Students of Robert Henri and Disenchanted Forest: Contemporary Art by Johnston Foster. These were good, as well.

On the way home from the museum, I stopped at Dr. Volt’s to get my four-color fix. I also picked up a couple of things for Perry. , I forgot to get your copy of Mnemovore, but I’ll pick it up with this week’s haul. I also picked up one (exactly one) piece of plastic crack: Sinestro (rookie). I figured that since I got a Hal Jordan Green Lantern a couple of weeks ago, I might as well pick up his arch-enemy. (And, in light of the recent events in Green Lantern: Rebirth, I couldn’t resist.)

Last night, a group of us got together and went to see Kung-Fu Hustle. I won’t attempt to describe the movie. I don’t think that I would do it justice. I will say that I had a great time watching it. I think that the twenty (or something close to that) of us who were there had a blast.

> Play >
On the way up to Park City, I decided to read Identity Crisis #1. It came out last year and was the first prelude to a continuity-wide shake up at DC Comics. I’d heard bits and pieces about it, but I hadn’t started collecting again when it came out. But, when I read Countdown to Infinite Crisis last week, I decided to read Identity Crisis.

Wow.

Stories come into being every day.
You see them in newspapers.
Magazines.
Book reports.
Adventures that kids make up.

They are all around us.

Once in a while, a great story comes into being. It isn’t just “written.” It’s “crafted.” It is nurtured along from the most faint of ideas to a blindingly bright beacon (How’s that for alliteration?!) that draws us towards it. Like moths to flames.

Identity Crisis is one of those stories. It took a look at a side of superheroics that is usually taken for granted: Family. What if someone knew who was behind the cape and mask? And what if that person decided to attack the secret identity’s family?

Where do the heroic deeds stop… and where does revenge begin?

In Identity Crisis, we are shown that line. And what it means to cross it.

DC wanted to shake up their universe.
They have done an exemplary job of getting the ball rolling.

Stray Toasters

• My stomach is upset. I’m not sure “why.”
• Bug Medicine
• How’s your cell phone etiquette?
  

  My results:
  Move over, Miss Manners
  Cell phone users as considerate as you are few and far between in this country of 171.2 million cell phone subscribers. The public appreciates not hearing the intimate details of your date the night before, and the fact that you don’t answer your phone in the company of others does not go unnoticed. You use the environmental settings on your phone so as not to disrupt, you excuse yourself when you need to make or receive an important call, and you talk at a low, unobtrusive level. While not one to draw attention to yourself, be proud. Then politely call or text your family, friends, and coworkers and pass on your cell phone manners knowledge.

• Woman Breastfeeds Tiger Cubs Umm… yeah.
• For fans of Capcom’s Street Fighter series: UDON’s Lithographs
  

• Ten Myths of Reading Instruction
• Artistic Magic: The Art of Leonard Morgan
• Favorite quote about the guy who got his ass kicked by Wonder Woman:
  

  “There’s nothing more dangerous in the DCU than Batman’s arrogance.”

• Thisgives a new twist to the adage “Art imitates life.”
• 
  Receive a free slice of ice cream cake at ColdStone Creamery on Monday, 4/25 from 5-8PM. Customers are encouraged to make donations to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation. (Store locator) Make-A-Wish® Cake: Chocolate Ice Cream with Cookie Dough and Chocolate Shavings layered with Yellow Cake and covered in Ganache.

• What’s your digital photography IQ?
• Will Ferrell will be in a feature film version of the 70s Saturday morning show Land of the Lost. I’m not sure if he will play Rick Marshall, one of the characters from the original show, but his character in Silent Bob and Jay Strike Back was named “Marshall Willenholly,” after Rick Marshall and his TV kids, Will and Holly.
• Today’s random Wikipedia “word”: Integer-valued polynomial

And with that…

Namaste.

Saturday
Quick hit for the day:

Traffic this morning – due to the Salt Lake City Marathon – was ass.

The Mediterranean art exhibit was awesome.

Kung Fu Hustle was a lot of fun.

And now, it’s bedtime.

Tomorrow: Park City.

Namaste.

Friday
…and I’m glad that it’s the end of the week.

Woke up.
Went to work.
Blah blah blah.
Went to coffee and dinner with the Clitorati.
Blah blah blah.
Came home.

Tomorrow, it’s off to Happy Valley Utah County to see the Mediterranean art exhibit at BYU’s museum in the morning and Kung Fu Hustle tomorrow night. I think that the traditional 2-D Physics sessions may go on indefinite hiatus. We shall see.

Stray Toasters

• Wow. I didn’t even come close to typing “Stray Taoists” that time.
• I played more X-Men: Legends this afternoon.
  It kicked my ass again.
  And I loved every minute of it.

• : Sideshow Collectibles has announced that they will be taking pre-orders for their General Grievous figure, starting 29 Apr 05. The figure is scheduled to ship in the First Quarter of 2006.
• Return of The Screen Savers *BLEEP*
• “Finally, my long-awaited dreams of world domination have come to pass.”
  

• By way of : Happy Passover
• Scientists solve the riddle of unpopped popcorn
• By way of Backwash: Grand Theft Auto: Vatican City
• Unbreakable.
• Do you like The Simpsons?
  What about the music from the show?
  If you answered “Yes” to either of the above, you might want to check this out.

Namaste.

Thursday
The day started off grey and drab, but the sun managed to fight its way through the clouds by the end of the day.

I think that I instituted a new policy at work: No one is allowed to bring me any bad news on Thursdays. As I was informing my team of this new policy, No Bad News, from the original cast recording of The Wiz was playing in the back of my head. That amused me.

Something else (somewhat) from the work day: Procol Harum’s A Whiter Shade of Pale made it into the shuffled mp3 mix today. And it reminded me of something that I hadn’t thought about in a long time: When my friends Don and were getting married, they had to go through the usual pre-wedding rigamarole, including deciding on the music for the ceremony. On one such visit to the church, Don was talking to the organist and asked about the kinds of music that he (the organist) liked. At that point, the organist broke into a few measures of A Whiter Shade of Pale. Right there in the choir loft. He stopped, saying that the priest tended to get upset if he played too much of the song.

News
Morning Edition: Health Experts Offer Tips for Grocery Shopping
Morning Edition: Changing Attitudes toward Gay Athletes
Talk of the Nation: A Radical History of the Underground Railroad
All Things Considered: History of the Filibuster

Stray Toasters

• I played X-Men: Legends last night.
  And by “played” I really mean “got my ass kicked by.”
  But it was fun, nevertheless.

• It’s almost the weekend.
  Which means that it’s almost time for another Park City excursion.

• S&M Furniture: Pillory Table
• : It seems as though a certain Ms. Pryde will have a larger role in the forthcoming X3. More here.
• “It’s a good thing I’m stupid… Otherwise, I’d be really bitter by now…”
  

• Alex Lifeson won’t be going to jail.
• Bravo Celebrates Super Heroes
• Relation to the groom: “Can I put ‘Ebony Love Slave’?”
• Have Post-It® Notes, will travel –
• “If you’re blue and you don’t know,
  Where to go to, why don’t you go,
  Where fashion sits?”

• : I think that Mnemovore might be up your alley.
• By way of Campbell’s Condensed Newspaper: First Look: Superman Returns
  <edit>
     And here is a larger picture, from Superhero Hype.
  </edit>

• : Marvel Legends (Series 9): Nightcrawler
• Last night’s experiment – with the picture from The Weather Channel – was a success. The picture does update to reflect the (relatively) current status of the weather.

Namaste.

…but I sure as Hell had enough of them to put out today.

Wednesday
The week seems to be flying along. Not that I’m complaining.

Going back to my opening statement: I didn’t have tons of problems to deal with today. But I did have a few things stack up one behind the other. And, with one exception – which I will pick up again first thing tomorning – I got them all taken care of. I even had one of the more senior guys on my team commend me on the way that I’ve been handling things.

This morning, I called home (well, one of them) to tell my father that it snowed again… at least in/on the mountains. He laughed.

The rest of the day went well and ended with pizza and Law & Order.

News
Morning Edition: Celebrating Stoner’s Day
Talk of the Nation: Magazine Picks Top 50 Restaurants in the World
Talk of the Nation: Charles Barkley, Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man?
Day to Day: Poetry Month: Totally Like Whatever
All Things Considered: Teachers, Schools Challenge No Child Left Behind Law
Fresh Air: Actor David Duchovny Directs House of D

MarketWatch: Skittish Adobe buys Macromedia

Stray Toasters

• I was checking out a couple of sites that collect random LJ pictures and came across an LJ “Hot or Not” community. No, really. After all: This is LiveJournal we’re talking about. .

  Repeat after me: “This is a trainwreck in progress.”

  Not wanting to suffer alone, I shared the community’s URL with some people on IRC. , who happened to be in the channel at the time, retorted with a link to another community: . She wins.

• Congratulations to on moving into his new place.
• The art of Natalie Dee
• While looking for something to watch earlier, I stumbled across The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians on Boomerang. The episode was “The Fear”, featuring Batman, Robin and Wonder Woman squaring off against The Scarecrow. Sure, the animation is nearly 20 years old, but the overall episode wasn’t poorly done.
• To my great relief, Constantine didn’t contain the line, “Whoa… I know magic.” But, when I saw this picture, I had to laugh.
• These icons amused me.
            

• More Natalie Dee: Sun Desktop
• Best DRAM Prices Just Around the Corner
• Kung Fu Hustle opens this weekend.
• Would this make him “Emperor Popetine?”
  And have you noticed how you never see them both in the same place at the same time…?

• Sign the online petition to have Animaniacs released in a boxed set.
• Tonight’s random Wikipedia page: Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act
• I’m testing a theory with the picture below: I’m going to check it periodically and see if it updates to reflect the current/recent local weather.

Namaste.

Tuesday
Today was much better than yesterday. I thought that I felt the slight twinge of a headache around 5:00… but then I remembered that I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. So, I dipped into my not-so-secret stash of M&M’s. That helped.

Every once in a while, you have a moment of clarity that helps to find the right path through what had once seemed like a twisting labyrinth – the likes of which King Minos himself would have been proud. I had one of those moments today. I was working on a project and thought that I had figured out how to do it. But, when I moved from “theory” to “practical application,” I found that something had been lost in translation. So, I tried it again, to no avail. I even tried it a third time… and fared no better than the first two attempts.

And then, it hit: A slight paradigm shift.

But it was enough to get me to see an option that I hadn’t considered. I tried the new idea. And it worked. The first time. Beautifully.

I spent the evening at and ‘ place. I had originally gone to watch part of the Necromunda game that Nox was hosting. I wound up chatting the night away with Nyx.

News
NPR News: German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger Elected New Pope
Morning Edition: Oklahoma City: A Decade of Adjustment, Rebuilding
Morning Edition: Government Unveils Revised Food Pyramid
Morning Edition: No Child Left Behind Under Fire in Utah
Morning Edition: The Cheapest Airfare Ever (Sorry, .)

Stray Toasters

• I think that I need new speakers for my computer. While this isn’t a critical need, the satellites are sounding rougher than they should; the bass unit sounds like it’s going, too. But, again, it’s not a critical need. Replacing the mainboard, processor and video card come first.
• For : From Chugworth Academy – #182: Random Spotlight #1: Jason the Red Ranger
• As a corollary to this picture…
• Thanks to for the Andrew Loomis links!
• “I dare a great many things…”
• I just read this comic on Real Life. And it put a horrible Star Trek:TNG image in my head. It was so bad that I was compelled to torture share it with Greg Dean, the strip’s creator.
• Hey, , there’s Kitty Pryde (and Lockheed!) picture behind this link.
• The WB has announced that it will show an exclusive eight-minute special footage preview of Batman Begins during the 90-minute season finale of Smallville on Wednesday, May 18.
• While I normally like tech/geeky things, all that I can say to this is “Um, yeah….”.
• Mattel Announces Signature Partnership with Save the Children
• Star Wars Biker Scout and Speeder Bike Statue

And with that…

Namaste.

Monday
Last night was another night of joyous, broken sleep. I think that I woke up at least four times during the night. And the morning wasn’t much better: I woke up with a headache that lasted all day. If “Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down;” ones that include a headache make me cranky. Very cranky. Not I’m-going-to-turn-green-and-seven-feet-tall cranky. But, not overly pleasant. There were a couple of times when I thought that the headache had receded. That made me feel a little less surly. Then, it would return. And I’d be irritable, once more. That’s not a good way to go through the day.

After work, we made a couple of stops. I want to find a lamp for my desk at work. I decided that I want a lamp for my desk at work. We stopped at K-Mart and Office Max to see what they had to offer. Not much at either place. Office Max had an extension arm lamp – like I wanted – that claimed to have a 26″ reach. Operative word: “Claimed.” Or, to put it another way: This “claim” would be akin to a guy saying: “No, that really is 13 inches!” *shrug* I got a yardstick and held it up to the lamp. 22″ max. The only way it would make 26″ would be if you set it on a 4″ tall block.

I wandered next door to Media Play. Maybe I could find something there to make my Monday a little brighter. And I did. I picked up the first two DVDs of Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers. A little bit of animated happiness from my teen years. It put a smile on my face.

The Headache That Would Not Die lingered throughout the evening, so I canceled poker for the night. Dinner, wine and 24 rounded out the rest of the evening. The wine helped dull the fading pain in my head, but not enough to make it go away.

News
Morning Edition: For Pianist, Music Unleashes Rainbows of Color
Talk of the Nation: Re-writing History
All Things Considered: Early Childhood Education’s Economic Benefits Argued
All Things Considered: Testing the Limits of What I Know and Feel
All Things Considered: Monday Night Football Headed to ESPN
All Things Considered: Jazz Musicians, After the Spotlight Fades
Fresh Air: Messing with the Bull: Riding Champ Gerry Leffew and Lipstick and Dynamite: The World of Lady Wrestling

Stray Toasters

• I’m torn. I don’t know if I should watch a couple of Rangers episodes or play X-Men: Legends.
• NWA, explicit lyrics only
• By way of Buzzscope: Take That, Ratzis! #1 – Dear Joe…
  Having just finished Countdown to Infinite Crisis, I thought that this was a great piece of writing.

• “I’d like to make you an offer…” –
• The Worst Jobs in History
• And I have to make a clean break
  And I have to do it quick
  ‘Cause the pain you give me, babe
  Would make Cal Ripken call in sick

• This is either sheer courage and fearlessness… or utter stupidity.
  My money is on “courage.”

• “Well, I hear there’s a big hiring push for the next release of Windows.”
  

• Invader Zim Mini-figures – “Now, to unleash screaming temporal doom!”
• And in today’s “Meet George Jetson” news: Flying Cars Ready to Take Off

…and don’t forget that Tuesday is Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s!

Namaste.

Sunday
<< Rewind <<
I helped my friend Dave with moving yesterday. Just a few loads of boxes. It went pretty quickly. After that, he treated me to lunch. After the moving was done, I headed to Dr. Volt’s to see what goodies the Comic Book Fairy left in my subscription box. The only thing in it was the new issue of Ultimate X-Men. I checked the racks to see if there was anything else that I wanted. Guess what: There was. (Go figure.) So, I picked up the following:

• X4 (Issue #5): The X-Men and the Fantastic Four team up against the Brood (pics: Queen, Warrior). The series had good potential, but this seemed a bit forced. And a little contrived.
• Lex Luthor: Man of Steel (Issues #1 and 2): A look at the man, not the criminal mastermind. I really like the way that this is being handled. Brian Azzarello takes you behind the scenes and shows you the thoughts of Metropolis’ Number One Son… until a certain “strange visitor from another planet” arrives on the scene. And it explains why it is that Lex hates Superman so much. I’m looking forward to the rest of this series. I’m especially interested in seeing whether or not they show any interactions between Lex and Clark Kent, since they have retconned the Superman mythos to again include the fact that Lex and Clark were friends in their youth. I imagine that it would be very difficult, indeed, to watch one of your best friends as he descended into the depths of evil.
• The New Avengers (Issue #4): A new team. A different direction. Brian Michael Bendis has a good handle on team dynamics (he writes Ultimate X-Men, among other titles) and dialogue, and that talent isn’t wasted here.
  

  Having identified the villain (Electro) who staged a massive jailbreak, the Avengers are tracking his current whereabouts…
  Iron Man: If he made any electronic money transfers or — Boston.
  Spider-Man: “Boston,” what?
  Iron Man: He’s in Boston.
  Spider-Woman: Can you pull his rap sheet?
  Iron Man: Yeah. Here. An hour ago he transferred a lot of money from a Swiss bank account to an account in Boston, and then took it out of a national bank.
  Spider-Man: What’s a lot of money?
  Iron Man: To me or to you?

  …and…

  After they find Electro, the team heads back to the prison to find out whom he was hired to break-out:
  Spider-Woman :Good evening, gentlemen… and lady.

  Most of you are drugged into a peaceful haze and you have your power-draining doggie collars on while we rebuild your cells for you — but I know you can hear me.

  Does anybody want to tell me who Electro broke out of The Raft last night? All I need is a name.

  *silence*

  Yeah, figured. Honor among $%^#ers.

  Anyway, tonight, for dinner, you will be having a meatloaf-esque main course and a pureed potato substance, much like you will be having every day for the rest of your lives.

  This is a fresh box of apple crumb cake Entenmann’s Donuts. They are awesome. I bought them for myself, but not that I am back in the tights — this is a big no-no. So, the first person that tells me who Electro took—

  *clamor of voices giving up the name*

  
  Bendis has also done a good job of piquing my interest as to how the characters are going to work together and how this team of Avengers will be different from its previous incarnations.

• Green Lantern: Rebirth (Issue #5): Hal Jordan’s not only back… he’s back in uniform. And this issue shows why he wore the ring for so long. And so well. The core of the issue was a classic Hal Jordan-Sinestro fight. One of the best scenes shows Hal careening across the face of a moon, after a Sinestro-dealt smackdown. Hal gets up, wipes blood from his nose, and turns to face the reader – the approaching Sinestro – with a smirk. And you know that it’s on.
• Countdown to Infinite Crisis (Issue #1): I was skeptical about this when I first heard about it last year. I mean… another Crisis? Undoing one of the best publisher-wide house-cleaning efforts ever written? Great. *sigh* I couldn’t have been more wrong. I don’t know if DC is planning on reinstating its multiverse, but I do know that what I read was one of the best setups for a continuity-wide conspiracy/intrigue story. And the ending…? Wow. That’s really all that I can say.

I went to see Sky Blue yesterday, too. I liked it, but I found that the ending felt rushed. It was like someone said: “Shite… we have five minutes to wrap this up! *PANIC* Um… here! Do this! And put a bow on it!” And that was it.

Last night after bowling (145 – 105 – 182/145 – 159) and breakfast, I was tired. Really tired. Almost ready-to-fall-asleep-at-the-table tired. Shortly after 2:00, I was ready to pack it in. Granted, that’s better than last week’s 1:30, but still…

> Play >

Today was just another quiet, sunny day here in the land behind the Zion Curtain. It started off quietly. That’s always a good way to go. and I went to Mimi’s Cafe for lunch. I tried the Grilled Chicken Tuscan Style; it was very tasty. I now have another dish from Mimi’s that I can recommend to friends. From there, we decided to go for a drive up Parley’s Canyon and back down through Emigration Canyon. It was a nice jaunt out of the city for a little bit.

We stopped at a few stores, too. Pier 1 Imports. Best Buy. Barnes & Noble. And I came out of each store empty-handed. That just ain’t right. Then we went to Super Target. And there… there… I saw the Holy Grail: The Justice League Unlimited: Episode 457 – “The Return” set of action figures. The Flash. Red Tornado. And the BALD JOHN STEWART. b00yah! Life is good. Oh, yeah… we got some groceries while we were there, too.

Stray Toasters

• Garrison Keillor talks about his “hometown” of Lake Wobegon in his various books and on A Prairie Home Companion. That’s one of the benefits of having a nationally broadcast radio show. I, however, do not have such a program. But I do have Internet access. Which means I have both access to resources and to an audience. And armed with those, I present to you: Baltimore, Maryland. Now to see if anyone else will post links about their hometowns…
• Whomever said that reading comic books is a complete waste of time was ill-informed. It was from comics that I first learned of the term “poison pill,” with respect to business.
• Vos Solutions, Ltd. These folks are my new heroes.
• From Reuters’ “Oddly Enough News”:
  • Zoo Wants Chimpanzee to Stop Smoking
  • “Honey, I’m running over to the mall for some…”
• “You can talk!”
  “Of course I can. I’m a demon, you moron.”
  

• I am really enjoying the new Kojak. While preparing to interrogate a suspect, Kojak hands him a baseball bat.
  

  “Since you like playing games with peoples’ lives, we’re going to play a little game. I’m going to ask you a few questions. Anytime you don’t feel like answering a question, you can hit me with this bat. Oh… I forgot to tell you: If you don’t knock me out, I’m going to whoop your ass.”

• 35th Anniversary of Apollo 13 Splashdown
• “And if I die today…” –
• And did I mention that the O’s are on a “Whoop the shit out of the Yankees” roll? They are. They wrapped up this series by winning all three games. Which means that they are 5 – 1 against the Yanks this season. And the season is only three weeks old. There’s another stand against the Yankees in June. I’m looking forward to that.
• : Mattel’s Scarecrow and Bane
• “OH YEAH!”
  

Namaste.

Saturday
I am exhausted.
I’ll do a recap – or a reasonable facsimile – after the sun’s up.

Namaste.

Friday
I slept rather well last night… but was still tired when I woke up. Maybe I should try going to bed a little earlier. That might help. *shrug* I’ll test that theory next week.

It’s been a good day. I carpooled home with this afternoon. It turns out that we work about a 5-minute walk from each other and live a couple of miles from each other, but it’s the first time that we’ve seen each other in about three years. Go figure. But it was good to see her.

Tonight was the weekly gathering of the Unholy Order of the Clitorati. We had a moderate turn-out. The gathering was made even better when Max and Perry got there: They brought me a “Congrats on your new job” gift. Two actually.

• A set of Lego® Dacta
  …and…

• Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy Heroclix (both “Experienced” rank)

This made a very happy – and very thankful – me. With these two ‘clix, my set of Legionnaires is complete. I’ve been a Legion fan since 1981. If I remember correctly, this is the first issue that I bought. I’ve followed the title through four reboots/retcons… and have kept coming back for more. And I’ll continue to do so for some time to come.

Stray Toasters

• I caught up with this afternoon and we chatted for a few minutes. Since I know that he is one of the 10 types of people who would get it, I showed him this and this. We cut our conversation short so that he could watch the Yankees-Orioles game.

  >> fast forward >>

  I caught the highlights of the game on SportsCenter while we were at Applebee’s tonight. It seems as though the O’s beat the boys from the Big Apple. Again. This time, they did it in Camden Yards. Final score: 1 – 8

  

• From the “Best Unintentional Fetish Porn-Sounding News Item” file: Woman “beats off burglar with gnome”
• : Check out Azimuth Design: The Art of Mike James
• By way of : Delocator
  

  Why Delocate?
  Cafés are vital social outposts that have historically provided subjective, social, local, and at times, irrational interaction, inspiration, and nourishment to artists, hipsters, musicians, activists, intellectuals, radicals, and others alike. Currently, independently owned cafés around the world are under aggressive attack; and their numbers have been sharply decreasing for many years. delocator.net is a means to preserve these local businesses.

• Bukkake Cookies
• For : Drizzt Do’Urden
• Plastic That Changes Shape in Light
• Is there a website that you’d like to destroy? Net Disaster can help.
• , I know that you have your DVDs, but just in case you need something new for your Babylon 5 fix: Babylon 5 Returns to Comics
• For the Neil Gaimanites out there: The Mirrormask Reading List
• By way of ADeadHeart (from Backwash): Romance Novels That Should Be Written

Namaste.