Random Access

Tuesday : 14 November 2006
Today passed rather quickly. I was busy, not horribly so, but enough to stay active. That was good. Tomorrow should be about the same, possibly a little busier.

Post-work, helped me retrieve my table from the house for tonight’s Shadowrun game. The game, however, wound up being cancelled for the night. Oh, well. Life happens. invited me over to watch tonight’s episode of Law & Order: SVU; I headed over there and hung out for a while.

Stray Toasters

• It snowed today. In keeping with tradition, I called my father to let him know. He told me that I was welcome to keep the snow out here and not to feel obliged to send any of it his way.
• shared a link to Talismans, a TIME Photo Essay.
• 
• Domo-kun hoodie
• My fridge needs an interior makeover… soon.
• Lucy Lawless (Xena, Warrior Princess and SciFi’s Battlestar Galactica) will provide the voice of Goldmoon in the upcoming Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight animated movie. Kiefer Sutherland will provide the voice of Raistlin Majere.
• 

And that’s that.

Namaste.

to :  She passed her skills tests and is eligible to bechosen for a team in the Treasure Valley Rollergirls League.

…and, by way of :  Pioneer Valley Roller Derby: LEGO Roller Derby

< boogie>

• Will Smith – Wild Wild West
• Geri Halliwell – Look at Me
• Prince – Pope
• All Saints – Lady Marmalade
• Johnny Gill – Rub You the Right Way

< /boogie>

What’s making your Tuesday morning move?

Monday : 13 November 2006 (day’s end)
It was a busy and pretty productive day at work.  That’s good; it helped the day pass quickly.  Can’t really complain about that.  After work, I came home and cooked dinner (and lunch for tomorrow… and a little something for later in the week). Then…

…it was off to ‘ for D&D.  We got our old school RPG geek on.  Mm-hmm, that’s right.  We didn’t get to do much gaming, per se.  We did do a bit of character clean-up and resolving some of the dangling threads from our last campaign’s plot.  Our characters wound up a bit more wealthy, looked upon with a (moderately) favorable eye by the people of the city… and stand to make a fair bit of residual income from a tavern that we set up.  On-tip-in-oors.  That’s us.

Stray Toasters

• Despite the fact that it was drab, grey and wet (not too much snow, fortunately), today’s drive-time music selection gave me a nice groove break to start the day.
• What in the Nine Hells is this?!  People… monkeys…. people… monkeys… Electric chair.
• sent me a link to this.  One word: OW!  (And I don’t mean that in a Word Up kind of way, either.)
• By way of Nox comes the Bob Saget Rap.  Yeah, I know what you’re thinking.  I thought it, too.  Then I watched the video.
• And, by way of comes Bill Nye and Samuel L. Jackson.
• Got more punch than a bowl of juice…
• I’m trying something new in the morning… um, “later today,” that is: I’m going to see how well my iPod functions as an alarm clock, now that I have a speaker system for it.
• : I think that this is something you’ll like.
• : You’ll want to take a look at the second and fourth pictures on this page.
• : Picture three on this page is yours.
• 
• Mo’ money, mo’ money, mo’ money gotta get made
  To get paid in this trade
  And I believe that I can acheive
  To make ends meet like a hair weave
  Survivin’ in this economy people in the world have gotta be
  Stayin’ in the upper class so you’re the path
  The rich gets the most and the poor gets so little
  And only Monie Love can make it in the middle
• Boar.
  Boer.
  Bohr.
  Boor.
  Bore.
  Homophones.  Just because.

Namaste.

Monday : 13 November 2006
Hm. I’m liking this whole “Get up a little earlier in the morning” thing. That’s odd as I am not what one would call “a morning person.” Go figure. Actually, I am pretty certain that the reason I like it is that it gets me to work earlier… and thereby has the potential of getting me out of work earlier.

This was a good – and relatively quiet – weekend. I think that the most productive things that I did were getting an oil change and getting my laundry done. Oh, and I reclaimed some floor space in my office. That’s productive, too, I guess. On the not-so-productive front, I put myself in harm’s way to protect the citizens of Paragon City and I also put on my flak jacket and camos to fight Pan-Asian Coalition forces in 2142.

Football Update

• The Ravens went into Nashville and came away (okay, okay… they squeaked away) with a win.  Steve McNair led the Ravens back from a 19-point deficit to win 27 – 26.
• The Bengals gave up a 28 – 7 lead to lose to the Chargers, 49 – 41.  Sorry, .
• Proving once again that the sun really does shine on a dog’s ass, the Browns pulled off a win over the Hawks, 17 – 13.  Grats, .
• The Vikings took one on the chin from the Green Bay Slackers, 23 – 17.  Maybe next week, …. maybe next week.
• Seattle beat the St. Louis 24 – 22.  A tip of the hat and a nod to .
• And… the Raiders dropped one to the Broncos, 17 – 13.  Sorry, .

Stray Toasters

• I’m not sure if I should be worried by this, but I caught myself thinking “Jumping Jehosephat” after nearly scalding myself in the shower this morning.
• and : Unless you both know someone whose username is “1sweetstar,” you might want to check your MS accounts.  I think that they may have been hacked.
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: The debate is growing: Is being short a disability?
• Casino Royale opens Friday.  I have to find a way to convince the powers that be that we need to see this as a “team-building exercise.”  Preferrably, Friday morning.
• *grblsnrx*
• According to The Weather Channel’s site, there’s light snow falling.  Great.

In the words of Dorothy, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow from The Wiz, it’s time to Ease on Down the Road.

Namaste.

Friday : 10 November 2006
Today was good.   Tonight’s activities were good, too.  But now… I’m tapped.

Quotes of the Day
Today’s quotes come from comments made at Clitorati:

• :  Resistance is creamy.

• Land: What quote of mine did you put in there? (meaning, the notebook I take to coffee)
• Me: “Penis!”
• Land: No, it was bigger than that….
• : *rimshot*
• Land: As soon as it came out of my mouth….
• : *rimshot*

And with that… bed.

Namaste.

Thursday : 09 November 2006
Not a bad day at work. I only had the urge to hum (.wma file) a couple of times… and those came in the morning. That’s not too bad. The rest of the work day was pretty low-key, including the lunchtime workout. Post-work, I had coffee with . He listened to me rant, rave and bitch about life, the universe and not quite everything.

I hung out with last night.  We watched I Love the 70s on VH1, 1976 and 1977.  I remembered way too many things that they showed.  I even quoted an entire Calgon laundry detergent commercial.  “Ancient Chinese secret.”  Yeah.  That one.  I had to try and explain who Charo was… and the best thing that I could come up with was that she was on The Love Boat.  A lot.  For some, as yet, unknown reason.  *shrug*

Stray Toasters

• I just noticed that they have replaced the monkey with a/another dog in LEGO Set 9247: Community Workers.  I can understand this as a police dog or even a fire dog.  But, it made me wonder why they had a monkey in the set, to begin with; I don’t recall them having an organ grinder figure in the set.
• Someone posted a link to an entry in about celebrity tattoos.  Oy.  Included in this set, at the bottom of the entry, is the infamous “Puff, the Magic Dragon” tattoo, of which larger versions of the complete tattoo can be seen here.  (NSFW)
• Pac-Man Feeeeevuh! by Detective Boogaloo‘s himself, Jamar Nicholas.
• Two-and-a-half minutes of Spider-Man 3 trailer goodness.
• : LEGO Catwoman keychain.
• 
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!” file: Bra-maker to turn Japanese women into bag ladies
• It was a zombie jamboree…
• Top Ten Most Racist Commercials
• By way of a conversation with :
  [12:20] : http://www.whatjeffkilled.com/about.html
  [13:37] : Hiya.
  [13:37] : *clicks*
  [13:39] : That is… something.
  [13:40] : that’s how my black cat was
  [13:40] : Aha.
  [13:40] : crazy bastard – only he didn’t have claw
  [13:40] : s
  [13:42] : O.o
  [13:42] : Wow.
  [13:42] : That’s a cat’s cat!
  [13:42] : badass

Namaste.

Wednesday : 08 November 2006
According to the U.S. POPClock Projection, as of 07:11 GMT, the population of the United States is 300,168,152.
According to the World POPClock Projection, as of 07:11 GMT, the population of the world is 6,555,773,020.
The United States has an area of 3,718,965 square miles (9,631,420 sq. km).
The Earth has an area of 196,937,429 square miles (510,065,600 sq. km).
Its orbital circumference is 574,380,430 miles (924.375.700 km), with an average orbital speed of 66.622 miles/hour (107,218 km/h).

Impressive numbers.

If we are only bound by the limits that we put upon ourselves, why is it that none of us can fly?
How high would we fly, if we freed ourselves of our self-imposed limitations?
How fast?
How far?

What is it that we fear?

What is it that I am afraid of?
I’m learning what these things are.
And, one day, I’ll fly.

Tuesday : 07 November 2006
Two days down, three to go. Work was pretty good. I put Ye Olde Tetris skills to work in trying to organize three workspaces. I’m satisfied with what got accomplished, but there’s still some work to be done. All in due time, I guess.

Election Day. I listened as some of my coworkers talked about the new Diebold touchscreen voting systems that were being used here. Some places had technology issues. Some places had poll officials who were not the most tech-savvy of people. But, on the whole, they seemed more or less satisfied with the new systems. I went to vote after work. I pretty much got right in and right out. And, it was pretty painless, too. I’ll be curious to see how other states’ elections went, if they used the electronic systems.

Tonight saw the official start of Chris’ Robotech game. So far, so good. Our characters are all together. It sounds like we’ll be hitting the ground running next time.

Stray Toasters

• I’m tired, but I am not sleepy. So, I guess I’ll find something to do for the next little bit to help me wind down.
• Green butterflies.
• 10 Reasons to Buy a DSLR Camera
• I (re)discovered a few CDs that I made many rains ago. They found their way into the CD player in the car this morning.
• Giant list of palindromes
• The new Spider-Man 3 trailer will be out on 09 November 2006.

Namaste.

Monday : 06 November 2006
I’m tapped, so this will be short.

Today was good.

See? Short. Just like I said.

Stray Toasters

• I… don’t remember what I was going to put here. Oh, well.
• Seahorses and the moon.
• Matt H. : The third book was Phoenix: Warsong.
• In the words of Douglas Adams: !panic
• I finished Star Wars: Heir to the Empire this past weekend. I liked it and look forward to starting the next book.
• : From the DCG – Phantom Girl
• I heard Melissa Etheridge’s Come to My Window for the first time in a long while on the way home from work this evening. I was reminded of the video, featuring Juliette Lewis.

And, for my next amazing feat: Bed.

Namaste.

< groove>

• Digital Underground – Underwater Rhymes
• Lita Ford – Kiss Me Deadly
• James Brown – Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag
• Poe – Trigger Happy Jack (Drive by a Go-Go)
• Fatboy Slim (ft. Bootsy Collins) – The Joker

< /groove>

Sunday : 05 November 2006
Today has been a good – and rather relaxed – day. It started with me sleeping in; I consider that a good start to any weekend day. called me to see if I was watching the Bengals-Ravens game, I wasn’t… as I (still) haven’t had the satellite dish installed, I kind of lose track of what times their games are. And I hadn’t gotten around to tracking the game stats on NFL.com. Turns out that the Ravens had started opening their cans of Whoop Ass early on. And, let’s face it: A win (and a 6 – 2 start on the season) isn’t a bad way to start the day.

I followed this up with meeting Perry for coffee. We bandied about a few game-related ideas and, thanks to this conversation, I think that I have a way to implement a concept that I’ve been toying with into the Shadowrun game.

From there, I decided to head to Best Buy. Apparently, the only Best Buy in the valley that carried Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles – the Complete Campaigns. Bad movie (which I still enjoyed), but the series wasn’t quite as bad and I’ve been wanting this for a while, so I broke down and got it. And, I picked up a copy of Battlefied 2142. I headed to ‘ for a while and hung out with him and a few others before heading home.

Rather than stop at Restaurant du Jour, I cooked dinner. Spaghetti. I haven’t fixed it in a while. I realized, after I had started, that I don’t have any oregano here, so my sauce was a little lacking (but otherwise good). After dinner, I took some time to patrol Paragon City. I wound up on a team that took on a couple of arch-villains and some other annoyances.

Stray Toasters

• I spoke with both parental units. While talking with Mom, I got her recipes for preparing pork chops and for salmon cakes.
• Quoth the Ravens: “See the score…”
• If you could know your future – or even one or two things about your future – would you want to? How far into the future would you want to look?
• , I’ll need to get your player name info for 2142.
• Willpower vs. Fear
• “Your threat would carry significantly more weight if I actually intended to sleep.” –
• : I spent some time this evening going through The DC Comics Encyclopedia. It’s pretty comprehensive… and it makes a nice companion piece to Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross.  Thanks, again.
• In the words of The Who: Why should I care…?
  In the words of the guy I see in the mirror every morning: “Because I’m not completely insensitive.”
• by way of Slashdot: Mahir to Borat, I Sue You!
• I need to find an emulated version of Epyx’ Impossible Mission
• I like this store’s logo.  And the fact that the URL for their website is http://www.games2d4.com is equally amusing.
  
• : You may be interested in this: COMIC URBAN LEGEND: Storm was the result of combining two characters, one of whom could transform into a cat.

Namaste.

Saturday : 04 November 2006
Today was not the busiest of days.  I was up a bit earlier than usual; I didn’t do much with the early part of the day.  Following a brief (and very inexpensive) run to Dr. Volt’s, I had coffee with Perry.  I had dinner and went to see The Departed with ; I can understand why this movie has received such good reviews.  I enjoyed it far more than Mr. Scorsese’s Gangs of New York.  After that, breakfast at Cheers.

The Adventures of Indigo Bolt
I did a little work in Paragon City.  I joined a team for a portal mission; I wound up dying a time or two on the mission, but by the end, I was out of XP debt.  And that’s a good thing.
Stray Toasters
Maybe I’ll have some tomorrow night.
Namaste.

Friday : 03 November 2006
Today wrapped up the week nicely.
No fires.
No screaming monkeys.
Just a pretty easy-to-deal with Friday.

I’m currently “occupying” three cubicles at work. Kind of. There’s my cube, Omni-Cube (into which I have started moving a few things) and another cube in which I’m working on some systems. I’ve received some good-natured ribbing about taking up three areas. Eric was nearby and overheard one of the comments and replied: “Rob is a liquid: He moves to occupy the space available to him.” That made me laugh.

After work, I came home hoping to find that a birthday package from my uncle was waiting for me at the leasing office. It wasn’t. It was at the FedEx distribution center… on the other side of town. So, I hopped in the car and headed there. I got there a few minutes before it closed. I got the box and took it out to the car, where I opened it. Inside, I found:

• A Bose SoundDock for an iPod (I expected this one.)
• A Contour Showcase Sport Hardshell Case for an iPod (I didn’t expect this, but I’m not about to complain.)
• A 30GB Video iPod (Okay… I really didn’t expect this one… as I already have a 30B Video iPod, which I thought he knew.)

So, I have to call my uncle tomorrow and find out how he wants me to handle the duplicate iPod. I really appreciate the thought, though. It was far above and beyond what I expected.

Clitorati was good tonight. The usual suspects were joined by and . I was also surprised with a couple more birthday goodies, too: A gift certificate to Dr. Volt’s from and The DC Comics Encyclopedia from . Have I mentioned (recently) that I have very cool friends? I do.

Stray Toasters

• I’ve discovered something new and cool about my apartment complex: I can pay rent online. I like this concept.
• Eric sent me a link to this, with the comment: “You really can break your computer’s cup holder.”
• Derek (another coworker) sent me a link to this video of John Landreneau and his transforming Transformers costume.
• Paul (yet another coworker) and I spent a good while talking about old computers and computer games today. Apples and Commodores took up a good portion of the conversation. Ah, nostalgia.
• , I think that you’ll appreciate this…
  
• Heat Miser and Snow Miser figures? I’m not sure, but I think that I want a set of them.
• While the site did need an overhaul, I’m not sure that I’m gung-ho about the Cinescape.com‘s new look.
• This is an interesting take on a “realistic” Wonder Woman costume.
• I wish that whomever-is-in-charge would have a rectal craniotomy and get Renaissance to a theatre here.
• Virus fossil ressurected from human genome. Okay, didn’t these people read or see Jurassic Park?!
• Hmm… If I didn’t know better, I’d say that Mr. Morgan-Mar had sat in on one of our gaming sessions, based on this comic.

Namaste.

Thursday : 02 November 2006
Another NBN Thursday comes to a close.  It was a good day, although I was reminded at a couple of points of how much I dislike “passive-agressive” behavior.  Suffice if to say “a lot.”  Someone at work was exhibiting such behavior; fortunately, I was able to maneuver those situations without having to respond in kind.  On a more positive note, I will be moving into the Omni-Cube; I’ve started to migrate some of my things already.
Stray Toasters

• I use the phrase “…since God was a boy” fairly often.  It basically means “for a long time.”  But, when you’re talking Baby Cthulhu (1, 2), that kicks the timeframe up (or is it “out”) to a whole different level.
• “The screams of the anguished are better than candy.”
  
• The sun is a mass of incandescent gas…
• First, we hear rumblings about a possible Die Hard 4, now there’s talk of a Mad Max 4.  Again, do we really need this?

I’m well beyond “tired,” so that’s a wrap.

Namaste.