Union Pacific's Great Excursion Adventure

Friday Morning Jams

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<dance break>
     *groove*
<dance break>

Music:

  • Brick House – The Commodores
  • Switch – Will Smith
  • Criminal – Fiona Apple
  • Ray of Light (Ferry Corsten remix) – Madonna
  • Let Me Blow Your Mind – Eve (feat. Gwen Stefani)
  • This Is How We Do It/Good Times – Montell Jordan vs. Chic

And for those in the know: “She’s your friend…… owww!”

“Shockalocka-BOOM! What was that? Aftershock.”

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Thursday : 29 September 05
Another good day in the valley.

Work was good. I mentioned something to my team lead today about a project that I am working on; he hadn’t considered the option that I presented. He did a little checking… and found out that I was correct.

After work, I picked up and we, along with started Round Two of “The Great Living Room Painting Project.” We taped off the sections of the walls that were to be painted. We got the paint, rollers and brushes. And we got down to brass tacks. The wainscot is now done – I think that we were finished, some minor touch-ups aside, in under two hours. We still need to get baseboard and either a chair rail or a paper border… but the painting is done. Selah.

Stray Toasters

  • I just finished drinking a chocolate shake. It was tasty. Now, I think that I want a snack. And, wouldn’t you know, an apple is sounding pretty good.
  • For : Star Boy (v5)
  • Every cover of Mad Magazine scanned and posted online for FREE
  • has been sending me amusing notes and pictures from Seattle. Their randomness made me smile many times today.
  • It sounds like one of the most unusual – and far-fetched – musical pairings EVER: The Beach Boys and The Fat Boys. But it happened in 1987; they recorded a version of Wipeout together. It was on a CD of random mp3s in the car. I was grooving to it while driving tonight. (I even remembered parts from the song’s video.)
  • From Newsarama: Ben Towle: Teaching Comics
  • Atari is “re-releasing” the 2600 console, with 40 games preloaded into the system.
  • : I’m not sure if you’ve caught wind of this yet, but Namco Hometek has announced Warhammer®: Mark of Chaos for release late next year.
  • Combining LEGO® bricks and video games: Pacman and GTA: Lego City

Quote of the Day
(14:02:00) : Aloha!
(14:02:01) : http://craphound.com/images/wowdanddad.jpg
(14:02:40) : haven’t these people heard of lan parties?!
(14:03:04) : Oooooh. Touchè.
(14:03:14) : 🙂

Namaste.

(with a hearty “Thanks” to Comcast for the servers going down JUST before I wanted to post this…)

What the…!? TWO… in one day?!?

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<afternoon groove interlude>

  • DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince – Boom! Shake the Room
  • Digital Underground (feat. Tupac) – Same Song
  • Harry Belafonte – Jump in Line (Shake Shake Senora)
  • 10,000 Maniacs – Candy Everybody Wants
  • Janet Jackson – The Pleasure Principle

</afternoon groove interlude>

Mm-hmm. That’s right! That’s a lot of chair-dancin’!

“In the mountains, in the valleys… In the back streets, in the alleys…”

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<morning dance break>

</morning dance break>

What’s playing during your dance break today?

“Pause, rewind, replay… Warm memory chip… “

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Wednesday : 28 September 05
I have spent the past… far too many hours tinkering with my video card. For the most part, it’s fine. However, the TV tuner aspect is leaving a little something to be desired. Okay… it’s leaving a LOT to be desired. I’m not “mad,” per se, but I am a bit irritated. ATI did a good job with the predecessors of this card, I don’t know why they screwed the pooch here. At least, the lack of tuner functionality doesn’t affect my ability to play City of Heroes. In fact, there’s actually been a benefit: I am no longer seeing a message saying that the video card’s drivers are “too old.”

Other than dealing with this card, the rest of the day has been good. Work was nominally productive. I got a call from inviting me out for lunch. Today’s fare: Noodles and Company. While I usually have a satisfying meal, today there was something about the steak in my entree that was… off. Not the taste, the texture. *shrug*

I rented a kid for the evening. Max stayed here while Kate and Perry were at a class. And, once again, Max proved himself to be a rather low maintenance kid. He’s one of a select number of kids for whom I actually enjoy babysitting.

Stray Toasters

  • I had an apple earlier, but I was really looking forward to having a cinnamon roll this evening. Messing around with the video card, I completely spaced off going to get one.
  • Reason #459
  • “Right let’s try this costume thing again.”

  • Neil Gaiman and Joss Whedon discuss their audiences in a Time Magazine interview.
  • It seems as though SciFi will air a Dungeons & Dragons licensed movie on 08 October: Dungeons & Dragons II: Wrath of the Dragon God. I’m not sure if the “II” is because SciFi has done a previous D&D movie or if they are “continuing” the numbering that started with “that movie.” Regardless, I think that it was a good idea for Wizards of the Coast to present the movie via SciFi. It just seems like a natural fit.
  • …and while I’m on the fantasy kick: I picked up a Soulshredder (from Mage Knight) while on Saturday’s pilgrimage to Mecca. I think that it’s a pretty damned cool-looking figure.
  • Bunny and…. The Force?   –   
  • Lunchbox art show
  • I find this amusing: Palm CEO Shows Live Audience Bill Gates’ Cell Phone Number
  • I caught an episode of Quantum Leap on… hm… I don’t remember what channel now. During it’s heyday, it was a good show.

We’ll call that good for tonight. Tomorrow: CSI and painting the wainscoting in the living room! And maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to patrol Paradigm City and return with a new Indigo Bolt story. That would be fun.

Namaste.

“What time is it?!”

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<morning dance break>
     Today’s Musical Oleo:

  • The Time – Jerk Out
  • Prince and the New Power Generation – Push
  • Alexander O’Neal – Criticize


</morning dance break>

“They say there is strangeness, too dangerous… In our theatres and bookstore shelves.”

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Tuesday : 27 September 05
Once again, Utah couldn’t decide what kind of weather it wanted. Cloudy. Sunny. Rainy. Oh, Hell… let’s go for the “Random Assortment.” Just like a bag of Brach’s candies. Aside from that, it was a good day. Work wasn’t bad. Worked out with Eric and Cecilie – I started working out with Eric, then went to put Cec through the paces with some arm work. The rest of the workday proceeded apace.

After work, I had a little pre-game downtime. Quiet and relaxing. As my uncle would say,”It was most excellent.” Then, it was off to ‘s for game time. He’s running a D&D campaign. I took a few figures over, in case we got into a combat situation – I took a small assortment, so that I could have something to at least vaguely represent my character class. I considered taking one more figure, but decided not to at the last minute. Turns out that it was exactly the one that I would have needed. *D’oh!* All of our characters came close – dangerously close – to dying. came close to at least seriously injuring himself – he nearly fell down the basement stairs. Fortunately, years of video game playing have jacked up his reflexes to superhuman levels.

Stray Toasters

  • I dug out my soundtrack to the movie Brassed Off this morning. I hadn’t listened to it in quite some time. And that’s a shame. In fact, I should track down the movie, too. It would make an excellent addition to the DVD collection.
  • After 14 years, Mark Hamill is returning to the DCU… as The Trickster. He originally played the character on the short-lived CBS series, The Flash. He will reprise the role on an upcoming episode of Justice League Unlimited.
  • From the “Yes, I’m going to Hell; please prepare my handbasket” file: sent me a link to this story today. It’s a great story of someone who overcame what many would view as an insurmountable adversity. However, when I read the second line, I started laughing.

    Colonel White High School senior Bobby Martin, who was born without legs, was sidelined Sept. 16 during a game against Mount Healthy for not being fully equipped.

    That seems pretty straightforward. But, because of the way I’m wired, my head immediately took the following two things and put me one step further on the express to Hell.

    Colonel White High School senior Bobby Martin, who was born without legs, was sidelined Sept. 16 during a game against Mount Healthy for not being fully equipped.

  • and : Something about this picture looks… “wrong.” I like the pose, but the hips and legs look a little “off,” to me? Of course, it might just be the perspective. But still… *shrug*
  • Banned Books Week 2005

    Suggested Activities for Banned Books Week

  • You know what? If they had done something like this back in the day, I would have bought it hook, line and sinker. After all, Mr. Fox pulled off a pretty believeable teenager in the Back to the Future series.
  • The latest addition to the office Magnetic Poetry:

    mama says that I am not the fairest one of all
    anymore
    but
    they will never know
    I’m not a human being.
    & we’re not in Kansas
    so I got that going for me

  • Pictures from Wonderfest, a convention for science fiction, fantasy and horror model-makers.
  • This is just… freaky: Reality Manga, from Worth 1000.

Namaste.

“My dear, I’m more than that…”

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<late-morning jazz break>
     *groove’*
</late-morning jazz break>

“Dreams flow across the heartland, feeding other fires…”

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Monday : 26 September 05
More Mondays should be like this:

  • It was Mocha Monday ($1.00 of a large drink and up to 4 shots added at no extra charge!) at Beans & Brews.
  • The first half of the work day was good.
  • Lunch was good. Mmm… Cafè Trang.
  • The second half of the work day was good.
  • The post-work day was great.
  • I even remembered to call a couple of friends to wish them a “Happy Anniversary.”

I can’t think of a single complaint about the day.

After work, came over to help and me (FINALLY) prep the living room for painting. We sanded, touched-up, resanded, retouched, washed and primed the walls. The paint for the wainscote should be will be up by this weekend. We watched the Denver – Kansas City game on Monday Night Football, while we worked. Denver went into Arrowhead Stadium and took the Chiefs to the house. Eight ways from Sunday. It wasn’t pretty. No… “It wasn’t pretty by the end of the First Quarter.” Yeah, they beat them down that badly.

Stray Toasters

  • For the second night in a row, I have foregone eating my beloved Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies; instead, I am eating an apple. Again.
  • By way of : Hoverboy
  • ESA selects targets for asteroid-deflection mission Don Quijote
  • LMD + UDZ
  • Plastic Jesus (and Plastic Cthulhu and Plastic Vishnu)
  • By way of TechNudge: Why I Might Switch Back… (or “33 Reasons to Leave the Mac for Windows”)
  • sent me this. It amuses me greatly.  –  
  • Jazz is good. There’s something about a smooth saxophone for a little background music. I need more Dave Koz and David Sanborn in my collection. Speaking of which, I was tooling around the KUER site today and came across a link that they posted called Building a Jazz Library. I like the looks of this.
  • This just screams: “The beatdown is about to begin…”
  • Warner Brothers is releasing The Adventures of Superman: The Complete First Season (or “Old Man in Tights,” as someone calls it) on DVD on 18 Oct. I grew up watching reruns of this show on Channel 20, back in Baltimore. I will still fondly watch episodes of it on Nick at Nite or TV Land, if I happen to spot them.
  • also sent me this. I have a new <dance break> image.  –  
  • It’s funny how things just pop into your head at the most random of times.

    Do you know where you’re going to?
    Do you like the things that life is showing you
    Where are you going to?
    Do you know…?

         -Diana Ross: Theme from Mahogany (“Do YOu Know Where You’re Going To?”)

    I’ve liked this song since…. longer than I can remember. Yeah. That long. I think that it is – or at least, “was” – one of my mother’s favorites. I don’t recall whether she had it on LP or not… but I think that she did and that’s where I must have originally heard it. I do remember that I even used it in a short story that I wrote in…. 10th Grade, if I remember correctly. It’s a pretty song. I hadn’t thought about it in a very long time and then it just popped into my head while I was typing. I had almost forgotten that I even had the song. But, I’m glad that I did.

  • This time something FOR : I think you’ll like it.
  • Wow.

And thus, it is time to call it a night. With a nod, a smile and a tip of the hat, I bid you…. adieu.

Namaste.

Monday pre-lunch funk

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<groove break>
     *chair dancin’ and head-noddin’*
</groove break>

“Nothing but static… Nothing but static…. Nothing but static on Channel Z.”

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Sunday : 25 September 05
Today started with sleeping in. And it was good. I headed to the Halo Command Center, which I may soon rename “New Oa,” and turned on the football games. (More on football in Quote of the Day.)

After a lazy early afternoon, , and I headed out for dinner and a movie, Flightplan. It was a very interesting movie. Despite a couple of large plot holes, but the movie was good. It’s not “scary,” per se, but it does a good job of building suspense and tension.

Back home for a quiet evening in. Except for a quick trip to the grocery store. I needed milk – gotta have the moo juice for my cereal. *nod* It was a successful excursion AND it had an added bonus. Two of them, actually: A fem-mullet and a manly mullet. They were… something. Two birds, one stone.

Stray Toasters

  • I want a snack… but I have no idea “what.”
  • For : Klondike bar!
  • Court Case May Determine How Evolution Is Taught in US
  • In a dog’s brain
    A constant buzz of low-level static
    One sniff at the hydrant
    And the answer is automatic

    It seems to me
    As well make our own few circles ’round the block
    We’ve lost our senses
    For the higher-level static of talk

  • From an IRC conversation with

    [21:22] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462499/
    [21:22]
    [21:23] God below….
    [21:25] what’s worse is I’m actually kind of stoked on it.
    [21:25] * cracks up.
    [21:25]
    [21:25] What have you done with the real []…?
    [21:25] *checks for alien implants*
    [21:26] if handled right, it could be to the rambo movies what unforgiven was to the man with no name movies!
    [21:26] The Legend of Zorro.
    [21:26] Just saw a commercial for it.
    [21:26] I think that I want to see that.
    [21:26] who’s zorro? is it banderas again?
    [21:27] Yeah
    [21:28] * Gibraltar wonders if they’re still gonna make a new mad max or a new indy jones. hmm.
    [21:29] There’s talk of an Indy IV
    [21:30] http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0367882/
    [21:30] geriatric movie heroes
    [21:30] * Gibraltar clicks.
    [21:31] Todd indiana jones and the prostrate from hell?
    [21:31] Something like that.
    [21:31] * Gibraltar cracks up.
    [21:31] http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0345292/
    [21:32] Status: Unknown
    [21:32] hmmm. they gotta get on that.
    [21:36] Todd won’t happen. mel gibson is too busy nailing himself to things.
    [21:36] * Gibraltar cracks up.
    [21:36] he could play max as a born-again.
    [21:38] Todd its more likely any remake would star ice-t and suck way bad.
    [21:41] I doubt it’d be mel, at any rate. I remember reading that he hated those movies. sucks for him that those are the movies he’ll be remembered for long after he’s dead.

  • Boomerang has been airing episodes of Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series. Tonight’s Batman episode was “Growing Pains.” As soon as I saw the title, I remembered most of the episode. I remember it being a very good Robin (Tim Drake) episode… and not a “kid’s” episode, either.
  • EternityTravel.com: Book your afterlife now.
  • From Real Tech News: Thinking of Getting an iPod Nano? Think Twice.
  • The original “Man in Black” has an action figure. Check it out.
  • Flash! AHHH! Savior of the univers!

    Quote of the Day
    I slept in this morning. The Ravens weren’t playing, so I didn’t feel the need to be up for kickoff of the remaining games. A little while later, I had the following conversation:

    [12:54] : Morning
    [12:55] : Hola.
    [12:55] : How are you?
    [12:55] : Okay. Trying to find a football game that REALLY holds my interest.
    [12:56] : You might want to mark that on a calendar
    [12:56] : wow.

    I wound up flipping from game to game. A few minutes here… a couple of minutes on this one…. ten or fifteen here… But none of them were “must watch” games. I didn’t even turn on the Sunday night game (San Diego Chargers vs. the New York Giants) until the Fourth Quarter. The Bolts went in and did some work. And I mean WORK. They went in and wrecked shop. I was stunned amazed and how badly they worked over the Giants.

    And that’s a wrap.

    Namaste.

“And everything takes time, when the sand falls the other way…”

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Saturday : 24 September 05
I woke up this morning around 6:40, thinking that I was running horribly late for work. Fortunately, my brain engaged a few moments later. It reminded me: “It’s Saturday. Get your ass back in the bed and sleep some more.” I was happy to comply.

, John, Max, Perry and I made a pilgrimage to The Bookshelf and the Clearfield location of The Endzone. I bought a couple of sourcebooks for my Shadowrun game… and some ‘Clix (HeroClix and Mage Knight). Among the haul were:

came over and hung out for a while. She, and I went out for a bite to eat and then came back and watched a tape of the Law & Order: SVU season premiere. Wow. It was intense; and I discussed the seeming descent into… “something” that Det. Stabler seems to be exhibiting. After that, it was Real Time with Bill Maher

…and then: breakfast. There was a fair turn-out. I neglected to take The Joker for . Oh, well… I’ll find a way to get it to her.

Stray Toasters

“…and miles to go before I sleep.”

Namaste.

“At the end of the day…”

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Friday : 23 September 05
It was a good day.

Work wasn’t bad. I figured out a phrase for my cabinet, using the Magnetic Poetry: Movie Lines set:

“A boy’s best friends are: A little dog, a gopher, a damn dirty ape… and napalm.”

I’m waiting for someone to see this and comment on it. I skipped Mallday (even though I don’t think that anyone went to the mall for lunch) in lieu of having lunch with . We decided to try Loco Lizard Cantina, it was close and neither of us had been there before. The food and the service were good. It was a nice change of pace.

After work, I picked up this week’s collection of four-color goodness, along with exactly one Heroclix figure: Wonder Woman (rookie). I’ve been wanting a WW figure for a long time; I was rather happy to see this one sitting in the singles case. I thought about picking up a few other ‘Clix, too, but I decided against it.

Tonight’s Clitorati gathering was small. VERY small. Six people small. Nevertheless, it was good.

…and tomorrow, I go to the Northlands. Mecca awaits.

Namaste.

Friday Morning Funk Break

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<mid-morning dance break>
     *groove*
<mid-morning dance break>

Music:

  • Jungle Boogie – Kool and the Gang
  • Car Wash – Rose Royce
  • Boogie Wonderland – Earth Wind and Fire

“It’s oh… so…. quiet.”

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Thursday : 22 September 05
There’s not too much to say about day since my earlier post. I think that the highlight, so far, has been watching the season premiere of CSI, which was a good episode.

Stray Toasters

That’s a wrap. Think I’ll head over to Paragon City and beat on things. I mean “thugs.” Or something like that.

Namaste.