Random Access

Friday : 29 September 2006
It was a busy day that ends the week, but the week is over.

Clitorati was small tonight; nevertheless, it was good.

Tomorrow, I’m flying to Oklahoma.  I’ll see Adam and Chelsea for a little bit… then, I’m turning around and driving back.  Just like Smokey and the Bandit.  But without Burt Reynolds.  Or Jerry Reed.  Or Sally Field.  Or Jackie Gleason.  And, alas, without the semi full of beer.

I should be in bed.  O’dark-thirty comes early.  I’m both “tired” and “not tired,” I don’t think that’s a terribly good combination.  But, damn the clowns, I need to sleep.

Namaste.

< groove>

• Yaz – Situation (Hip Hop Remix)
• 112 – Dance With Me
• Moloko – Fun For Me

< /groove>

That’s right… Pope Groovalicious the Chocolate is bringin’ you the Friday afternoon dance break.

Thursday : 28 September 2006
Another NBN Thursday in the books.

The first half of the workday went pretty quickly. After lunch/gymtime, things got a little more interesting, but not too bad. A couple of systems weren’t playing nicely with their primary users. We got one back on track and I’m Ivory Soap sure that the second one’s problem was at least partly due to a software issue.

Post-work, I came home for a bit and then headed over to ‘s to visit and to watch the new episode CSI and a rebroadcast of Law & Order: SVU.

The Adventures of Indigo Bolt
I neglected to mention this before: Security Level 44.

Stray Toasters

• I need to do laundry.
• I also need to unbox and shelve some things from the eleventy-seven boxes around here…
• Keith Olbermann’s special commentary about Clinton vs. Fox Wow. The man had a lot to say (ten-and-a-half minutes’ worth) and didn’t hold back in saying it, either.
• This sounds pretty cool: The Salt Lake Film Society presents Sundance 25th Anniversary Gala Celebration, with guests Stanley Tucci and John Waters
• The new Villains Trailer for the upcoming Marvel Ultimate Alliance looks pretty nice.
• Um… Robert Downey, Jr…. as Tony Stark, the invincible Iron Man? Curiouser and curiouser…
• Widgetbox – an online directory of web widgets for blogs and other web pages.
• *voop*

Namaste.

Wednesday : 27 September 2006
Three down, two in the chamber. On top of that, it’s been a decent day. And that’s not a bad thing.

The apartment is coming along nicely. Kind of slowly… mainly because I don’t feel like doing lots of unpacking when I get in from work (go figure) but, things are finding their appropriate places. That’s a plus. And, after some minor beating of my head on my desk, I got my router to work with the modem. Alright, alright… I can’t really take credit for it: I used the built-in setup wizard – it did all the work. Which looks exactly like the same settings that I tried to enter the other night. *braincramp* But, It’s done.  Selah.  Which means that I can use the Vonage line again.  And get Intrepid back online.  Now, I just need to suss out why I can’t get Defiant to make a wireless connection to the router.

Stray Toasters

• I need to get a sheet of the DC Comics superhero stamps at some point.
• Ashes to ashes, funk to funky
  We know Major Tom’s a junkie
  Strung out in heaven’s high
  Hitting an all-time low
• Mixtionary – check out some of the bonus pages.
• I’ve been looking forward to the release of Renaissance for a while.  It opened this past weekend… in limited release; I’m not sure when it goes into wide release.  Check out the trailer and the “Exclusive Clip.”
• Tokyo Rose (aka Orphan Ann) Dies at 90
• Every so often, I receive email from Build-A-Bear Workshop.  Apparently, they are having a Winnie the Pooh themed event this weekend.  I went to their website to find a link about the event to forward to someone.  Couldn’t find one, but I did see that they offer games… and printable items… and desktop wallpaper.  Because, you apparently can’t have “too much” Build-A-Bear stuff.
• …and in a tangentially related note:
  
• The Acrid Smell of Gunsmoke – Broken Frontier looks at Jonah Hex: Face Full of Violence
• Marvel Comics announced the development of Marvel Universe Online, their entry into the MMO game arena.  It’s being developed exclusively for the XBox 360 and Windows Steaming Pile of Crap Vista by Marvel, Microsoft and… Cryptic Studios.  The same Cryptic Studios that developed my addiction of choice, City of Heroes.  The same Cryptic Studios, along with NCSoft, that Marvel attempted to sue the bejeezus out of for potential copyright infringement.  It will be interesting to see how this – and the pending DC Comics/Sony Online Entertainment DC Universe game (for which I can find no information on the SOE site) – turns out.
• : There’s something here that might interest you.
• By way of Slashdot: The Man Who Literally Saved the World… not to be confused with The Man Who Sold the World (the Bowie version, not the Nirvana one, of course)
• NPR is hiring a blogger.  Details here.
• The Art of James Jean.  Wow.
• What do you get when you cross Looney Toons and 8 Mile?  Something like this.

Namaste.

Monday : 25 September 2006
Oy.

Shortly after I stopped in the SLC office, random lyrics from Olivia Newton-John’s A Little More Love running through my head. I will happily blame for this as his payback for what the Ravens did to the Browns yesterday. After all, I can’t complain about the Ravens’ first 3-0 start in franchise history!

I got to spend most of the afternoon (“…someone will be there between 1 and 5…”) and evening waiting for the satellite installer and the cable installer, television and Interweb, respectively. The satellite installer showed up around… 3:00. That was good. Because my apartment is behind a fairly large tree, he said that I’d require a custom installation – changing the mount point of my dish. That wasn’t so good. So, I’m mulling over the option. The cable installer was supposed to be here between 4:30 and 5:00; I called him earlier to let him know that if he had an opening, I would be available earlier in the day. He arrived somewhere around 6:30; he’d been on a service call with what sounded like a rather cantankerous customer for about two hours before he got here. Then, there was a problem with my order – it was supposed to be a simple transfer, from the house to the apartment. Somewhere along the line… it got SNAFU’ed. Great. After a couple of calls – and a longer waiting period than either of us had anticipated – the tech was able to restore my account information. I was good to go. Then came the problems with getting my router to behave… it still isn’t playing nicely with the modem… so it’s currently out of the loop…. which means that my Vonage line isn’t connected. *sigh*

Around 9:00, I realized that I was getting hungry. Go figure. I didn’t wind up leaving until a little past 9:30. Hi-ho, Super Target! What I didn’t consider was that they close at 10:00. So, it was an abbreviated shopping trip. I came back, nukerated some food and watched a little bit of David Letterman. It turns out that I can get most of the major area channels with the antenna. That’s better’n nothing.

One thing that I neglected to do – mainly because it never crossed my mind to do so before tonight – was to check the setting on the water heater. I decided that I wanted to take a long, hot soak. That was not to be. The water heater was turned to “warm,” which is to say that it was far too cool/cold to be relaxing. Unless you’re a polar bear. Which I’m not. I turned up the setting and waited a bit. Finally, I opted for a shower. It wasn’t bad – the heater had done it’s job; I’ll just save the bath for another night.
Stray Toasters

• Why am I still awake?
• Check out The Fifth Annual Blogger Boobie-Thon for Breast Cancer
• : Gambit had another fall.  His hand – yep, the same one – could use your ministrations, if you have the time.
• 
• : Click here.
• Do we really need another Die Hard movie?
• < /consciousness>

Namaste.

Saturday : 23 September 2006
Moving day.  I signed papers.  I got keys.  Got the move process under way.  It’s been a busy, but good, day.  Move time coincided with cartoon time, so I missed the premiere of The Legion of Super-Heroes… but I’m sure that I’ll be able to find it “somewhere” in the near future.
Many thanks to , , , and Tommy for their time and effort today.

And now, back to the grind…

Namaste.

Wednesday : 20 September 2006
It was another cold/cool day behind the Zion Curtain. Today was overcast and rainy; it was a perfect “I’m going to lie in bed and sleep, wake me when the hot chocolate is ready” kind of day. Unfortunately, that option didn’t present itself… thanks to the timely intervention of work! Hurrah! Work wasn’t bad, though. It would have been better, had I slept decently last night. I woke up at 4:00… and again around 4:30…. thoroughly convinced that I was about to oversleep. It was great. Dandy. Peachy. *bleh* That lack of sleep made sitting at my desk very conducive to wanting to do inner eyelid studies. Coffee didn’t even help.

I came home and napped. For about two hours. It made life considerably better. I woke up around 8:30, when Adam called. Had he not called… I don’t know when/if I would have awakened before morning.

Stray Toasters

• I am looking forward to Jet Li’s Fearless
• Hack Everything
• Just when you thought that there was nothing new to say, see or do with chess: Beyond Chess
• Top Ten Dumbest Secret Identities
• The new Slim Jim “snapalope” commercials are… weird.  And a little dumb.
• “Parallel lives meet at infinity.”
• 10 Scientific Frauds that Rocked the World
• Because every guy (secretly) wants to be James Bond: The Office Espionage Kit
• Batman and Robin… and Batman’s son.  Powder keg, meet spark.
• 
• Broken Trinity
• Does anyone else remember the game “Towers of Hanoi?”

Namaste.

Tuesday : 19 September 2006
All-in-all, today was a good day.  It was followed by an equally good evening.

Tonight was Shadowrun night.  , and Chris came over and hammered out new characters.  Less powerful than locomotives.  Unable to change the course of mighty rivers.  And definitely not leaping over tall buildings in single bounds.  Two, maybe.  Three, if it’s particularly tall.  But, not one.  Nox even found a nifty Excel-based character builder; we found that it isn’t perfect, but it was good enough to get the job done.
Stray Toasters

• Sissy the Wonder Cat is in my lap; she’s kneading my leg.  It’s not a full-on massage, but beggars should not choosers be.
• The other guy who’s the best he is at what he does…
• Ben Folds.  William Shatner.  Together again: William Shatner Has Been
• Sara (not ): It looks like Prince has a song on the soundtrack for the upcoming movie Happy Feet.

Lastly, if any of you in the SLC area is free on Saturday (23 Sept 06), I’d be very appreciative of/for any help that you could offer in a cross-valley move.  Send me a comment, email, IM… or even semaphore or smoke signals – NO Morse Code, please… for additional information.   Thanks.

And with that… namaste.

Monday : 18 September 2006
Compared to the shock of how cold it was this morning, the rest of the day was rather mundane.  The evening brought ‘ D&D game.  No one died.  We talked our way into an adventure.  One of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” kind of adventures.  Post-game, we also talked about a change for the Shadowrun game – following the jump to Fourth Edition rules, the team is a little… top-heavy.  So, we’re going to reboot the game.  New characters.  New situations.  And a dragon.

Okay… okay… No dragon.
Yet.

But I reserve the right to put one on layaway.

Stray Toasters

• Thank you to for making sure that I saw today’s “Featured Article” on Wikipedia: Rush
• By way of Boingboing.net: Tale of the First Penis Transplant
• : Do you know anyone who might be interested in DC Direct’s Batman/Scarecrow “Fear” Gift Set?
• : Start savin’ your pennies.  The Women of the DC Universe: Batgirl Bust will be hitting shelves in May.
• 

That’s close enough for jazz…

Namaste.

It’s 8:45 AM.

With my trusty cup of frozen mocha goodness in hand, I was checking out the news of the morning to see what’s going on.

• There was a story about a man who drove his SUV through the barrier at the US Capitol.
• An article on “Chi Running,” from NPR
• A CNet article about Intel’s upcoming ad campaign for Viiv

…and then I decided to check out weather.com and see what the current conditions are. I shouldn’t have done that. As of 20 minutes ago, it was an almost tropical 37° F outside. It’s still September. It’s way too early for it to be that cold. Even here behind the Zion Curtain. *sigh*

Sunday : 17 September 2006
Another weekend draws to an end. It’s been a good one. I saw a couple of movies, The Black Dahlia and Everyone’s Hero, over the past couple of days. While I mostly enjoyed Dahlia, it was a little… confusing at points. There were times when it was a little difficult to tell who was talking about whom (or what). There were things that seemed to be thrown in for no other reason than to have something to say or do. I am curious about how much of the novel they used and how much “creative license” they took with the material. On an aesthetic level, I must admit that the movie looked really good. Everyone’s Hero was a fairly light-hearted kids’ movie. It played a little fast-and-loose with baseball history, but I really wonder how many kids – or even their parents – will actually look up the facts about the 1932 World Series. The film featured the voices of many well-known actors and actresses. The moral was the time-old “give it all you’ve got” story. The animation was not quite what I expected. It wasn’t bad, but it was… different. One thing that I did like was the way that Chicago looked. I’m not sure whether or not the animators were trying to portray it both in the style of the movie and in the way that the ten-year-old protagonist saw it, but whatever it was… it worked for me. Something else to note about the movie: It was directed by the late Christopher Reeve and featured the voice of his late wife, Dana, as Yankee Irving’s mother, Emily.

Ravens Update

Oakland at Baltimore
6 – 28
The Raiders came to Charm City looking to avenge their loss to San Diego and claim a 1-1 record.Oops. Apparently, no one told them that Baltimore has an offense now. An effective offense. One that doesn’t rely on the defense or special teams to score all of the points. An offense who came ready to play. And win. This isn’t to say that they were perfect. The Ravens were assessed a lot of unnecessary – and stupid – penalties. But they didn’t let it stop their momentum. Both the offense and the defense worked as cohesive units and worked the field on both sides of the ball. Steve McNair was poised in the pocket. He took his time and didn’t rush plays; on one down, he saw that none of his passing lanes were open and ran for good yardage. Last week, Haloti Ngata had his famous 60-yard interception return. This week, Kelly Gregg and Ray Lewis got in on the action. On the Raiders side, I have to commend QB Andrew Walter. After starting QB Aaron Brooks was pulled from the game (two fumbled snaps and a shoulder injury), Walter came in the Raiders’ offense. He’s only in his second year in the NFL, but he had the poise and control that Ravens fans had hoped that Kyle Boller would have shown. He’s definitely going to be someone to watch.

The Adventures of Indigo Bolt
I managed to work my way from 230K points of XP debt down to 15K. And I only have 800K to go before Security Level 44. (I don’t think that I would have ever imagined myself saying “only 800K” with respect to earning experience.) No idea what power I’ll pick up next. And, given how long it took me to figure out what to do about my fourth costume, I might want to start giving some thought to what the fifth costume will be.

Stray Toasters

• I got an email from this morning; he and Sib1 made it safely to Nepal.
• I also talked with Sib3 for a bit this evening; all seems to be well in Mid-America.
• Cryptodox – The Online Encyclopedia for Cryptograhpy and Information Security
• Congrats to for Cincy’s win in today’s Ohio match-up.
• Commiserations to for the same.
• One Fan’s Opinion: Erik Larsen talks about how to introduce a non-comic book reader to comics.
• Don’t forget: Tuesday, 19 September 2006 is Talk Like a Pirate Day
• Is Anne McCaffrey running out of dragon-related things to write about? I saw a copy of what I took to be a relatively new book of hers: Dolphins of Pern. Dolphins?!

Goodnight, Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea.

Namaste.

Friday : 15 September 2006
And so, another work week comes to an end.  It wasn’t a bad one.  And, I got to kick off the weekend a little early, too.  Bonus points for that.

Tonight, many of us skipped Clitorati and instead went to help and celebrate their birthdays.  They hosted a nice gathering at their house; it was themed as a 1920s speakeasy… with gothic/Cthulhu-esque twists.  Quite fun.  Some of us gathered in the living room for a game of Arkham Horror.  We won the game… and without setting the entire county on fire, either!  Of course, my character did wind up losing his cool – and sanity – when I confronted a monster that was roaming the city… but we won’t talk about that.

I am coming down with a cold… or some kind of bug.  I’ve had a scratchy throat for a couple of days.  And I’m seriously congested.  And I’m a little achy.  I was thinking about this earlier and the first thing that came to mind was a line from The Spin Doctors’ Shinbone Alley/Hard to Exist, from their Pocketful of Kryptonite CD: “My body hurts like Hell, and all I can do is wonder why…”  I’m not in that much pain, but the lyric popped into my head and made me chuckle.
I wonder how much I can attribute my current malady to the changes the weather has undergone in the past… 24 – 48 hours.  The temperature has dropped by roughly 20°F in this timeframe.  I haven’t seen the peaks, but they were projected to get snow this weekend.  Snow or no snow… it’s too damned cold… and far too soon.

Stray Toasters

• I need citrus.  Not sure if I want oranges or grapefruit, though.
• Sissy is being quite the little attention-monger.
• By way of PC World: The 25 Worst Web Sites
• Monty Python meets HALO:  HM Government Public Service Films: No. 42 – How Not To Be Seen
• …and more Pythonic goodness: French Castle (from Monty Python and the Holy Grail)
• …and even more from Python: Penis Song
• I want a doughnut.  From Dunkin Donuts… which doesn’t exist behind the Zion Curtain.  *shakes fist*
• Plaid Stallions: Rambling and Reflections on 70s pop culture
• , I’m almost afraid to show you this… because it combines both knitting and Converse sneakers: How to knit a pair of Converse All-Stars
• Newsarama has a good interview with Ethan Van Sciver (one of DC Comics’ wunderkind artists).  The article isn’t intersting only because he talks about his work on recent Green Lantern series, but the interviewer actually asks some non-biased questions about the fact that Ethan is a member of the LDS Church.  (It’s about 2/3 of the way down the page.)

And that, as they say, is a wrap.

Namaste.

Thursday : 14 September 2006
Today has been good.  Work was good.  The lunchtime workout went well.  And the post-work evening was relaxing.  There was even a bit of rain.  That cooled things off quite a bit; the forecast is for the cool weather to continue for the next few days.  The mountains could even see… snow.

Stray Toasters

• I brought an apple down here to snack on… and completely forgot about it.
• Welcome Aboard – In-flight announcements are not entirely truthful.  What would an honest one sound like?
• : You might be interested in this interview with Reginald Hudlin – he talks about Marvel’s “Wedding of the Century,” between Storm and The Black Panther
• Are you a history buff?  Royal Society opens free online archive
• Unmasking the hero.
• PopCultureShock has an interview with Jamar Nicholas ( and the creator of Detective Boogaloo) for the September What’s a Nubian? column.
• Following up the “How to draw LEGO Han Solo and Stormtrooper:” Drawing LEGO Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader
• From the “Six Million Dollar Man” file: Bionic Arm Provides Hope for Amputees
• Eddie Izzard…?  Joining the cast of 24…?  Interesting.
• While it’s not quite Harry Potter in Trouble at the Airport, J.K. Rowling had an issue with airport security in New York.

Namaste.

Wednesday : 13 September 2006
I decided to skip my pilgrimage to Beans and Brews this morning.  In lieu of coffee, I stopped and picked up some cinnamon rolls (and some milk) for breakfast.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.  I was wrong – I spent the better part of the morning and early afternoon trying to avoid staring at my inner eyelids.  Aside from that, it was a good day.

Stray Toasters

• I’m not necessarily a Beethoven guy (I leave that to my uncle); I lean more towards Bach and Rachmaninoff.  That said, I thought that this jazz version of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata was pretty cool.
• Hats off to for pointing out LEGO zombies  (1, 2)
• Coworker Matt sent me a link to a video about George Washington.  It was… something.  I countered with Ultimate Showdown.
• Banned Books Week is coming up.  Here are a few classics… that just happen to be banned.
• Most people are familiar with my thoughts about cats, 18-wheeled trucks, rail guns and Teflon.  pointed me in the direction of a blog post about a cat and bacon.  From there, I checked out a couple of other posts, including one called “Don’t Piss of Krissy.”  While the post was interesting, it was some of the comments that floored me.
• LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
• She blinded ME… with Science!
• Trusted Reviews Top 5 Games of All Time
• I have no explanation for “why,” but the thought “…and this little gamer cried ‘Wii, Wii, Wii, Wii’ all the way home.”  I’m more than a little worried about that.
• “The Snickers call to me through time.”
  
• Parker Brothers has released Monopoly: Here & Now Edition, featuring new “here and now” tokens.

Nama…

Dammit.  There’s a Bruce Lee movie on SPIKE.  Bed or Bruce Lee… Bed or Bruce Lee…  *sigh*  As much as I’d like to watch Bruce break off a little Jeet Kun Do smackdown on some deserving thugs, I’m going to call it a night.

Namaste.

Tuesday : 12 September 2006
It’s been a pretty good day… but, following a nearly three-hour fight with the backyard, I am tapped.

The Adventures of Indigo Bolt
I joined a team for an arch-villain mission. We won. I died a couple of times, but was out of debt shortly thereafter. I should have cut my losses there. Instead, I joined a mission in Recluse’s Victory – one of the PVP (player vs. player) zones. And it wasn’t just PVP, it was PVE (player vs. environment) as well. And the environment wanted me dead. Very dead. Decidedly dead. It did a very good job of convincing me that it was serious about this. To the tune of 162k of debt. Whoop-de-damn-doo.

But, I am looking forward to the new content in the upcoming “Issue 8” game update.
Stray Toasters

• I have finally seen the trailers for Casino Royale. Back to basics. This will be good.
• “45 lbs.” (for 😉
• : 70 Years in the Making – a look at Batman and the Monster Men
• If World War II had been an MMORPG
• Eric and I introduced a couple of coworkers to the parody PC/Mac ads on TrueNuff.com
• One Million Ways to Die
• Something was supposed to go here, but I can’t remember what it was.

Namaste.