Random Access

Saturday (coda)
I just spent 30 minutes driving home from breakfast. It normally takes about ten… IF I’m lollygagging.

One word: Snow.

Apparently “fucking UDoT”â„¢ (yes, that’s a trademarked epithet) has forgotten the following:

1. What a “snowplow” is;
2. that they have a fleet of them in the greater Salt Lake City metropolitan area and
3. how to use them to effectively remove snow and other wintry precipitation from the roads.

Thirty.  Minutes.

And it’s not like all of the weather reporting sources haven’t been saying “Snow is on the way!” for the past few days.

Unglaublich!

Namaste.

Saturday – 16 December 2006
So far, it’s been a lazy day.  Morning.  Post-wake up phase.  Whatever you want to call it, I haven’t done much.  And I’m okay with that.  Although I am starting to feel a bit peckish; I should probably do something about that.

Yesterday ended well.  And that’s despite an extra-long homebound commute.  I’ve discovered that I don’t really get irritated by traffic jams.  I figure that there’s not really a lot that I can do about it – aside from not becoming a part of the problem – so I usually just find something good to listen to and bob my head to the beats.  And sing along.  With the windows up.  For the safety of those in the other cars.

Clitorati was good.  Post-Clitorati dinner was good.  The fact that it snowed last night… *ehn*

Stray Toasters

• Happy Hatching Day, .
• KVM switches are wonderful things.
• Last night’s Clitorati conversation touched on the Rat Pack at one point.  That led us to wonder which of its members were still alive: Joey Bishop.  Shirley MacLaine, Angie Dickinson and Lauren Bacall – who were associated with the group – are also still alive.
• I’m now listening to the theme from S.W.A.T.  The original theme.  From the 70s.  Be jealous.
• Peter Coffee’s 25 Killer Apps of All Time
• : Squidi (creator of A Modest Destiny) has an interesting look at boardgames and tabletop games on his site.  And the current comic storyline features zombies.  So it’s like you’re getting a “2 for 1” deal.
• 
  

And now, it’s time to figure out what kinds of trouble I can get into today…

Namaste.

I located an old CD of music that I made back in the days of my indentured servitude the the USPS.  This morning, it provided the soundtrack for my fight against the southbound road monkeys:

• Theme from Men in Black: the Series
• LL Cool J – The Boomin’ System
• MC Hammer – Addams Groove
• No Doubt – New
• The Cardigans – My Favourite Game
• Bobby Brown – Humpin’ Around
• Tony Toni Tone – If I Had No Loot
• Montel Jordan – This Is How We Do It
• The Counting Crows – Hanginaround

The songs that I didn’t get to this morning:

• Live – Pain Lies on the Riverside
• Mansun ft. 808 State – Skin Up Pin Up
• Better Than Ezra – King of New Orleans
• Ben Folds Five – Underground

…but I’ll most likely hit them on the way home.

I had forgotten how much I liked this CD; it was good for making sure that I stayed awake on those boring days pushing buttons at the REC.

And, it’s pretty damned good as a drivetime CD, too.

Friday – 15 December 2006
Four down, one in the chamber…

Yesterday was good.  There was no monkey doom… except for the road monkeys.   There were no fires.

After work, I picked up my four-color crack and then met for dinner.  Tres Hombres.  After that, I came home and did a lot of “nothing” for a while.  I seem to be good at that.  Maybe I should add “Nothing” to my list of interests or maybe put it in the “Skills” category…  Later, I signed into Battlefield 2142.  I shot people.  I got shot.  I helped capture control points.

As I mentioned the other night, I created an alternate character (does that make it my alter alter ego?) in City of Heroes: Corvus Nox.  I don’t have a background story for him.  Yet.  But, I will… oh, yes, I will.

Stray Toasters

• While Bjork’s Big Time Sensuality was playing on iTunes this after noon, I noticed that it sounded similar to Aretha Franklin’s A Deeper Love.  A mix of the two would be… interesting, nicht wahr?
• Eric showed me a couple of “Vancome Lady” videos (1, 2) from MadTV.  They made me laugh.
• According to Slashdot, there’s a new Stargate series in the works… along with the possibility of a new animated Star Trek series

That’ll do for now.  Coffee, then road monkeys.

Namaste.

Gitchi Gitchi Ya Ya Da Da
Gitchi Gitchi Ya Ya Here
Mocca chocalata Ya Ya
Creole Lady Marmalade
Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?
Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?

I was listening to an old mix CD on the way to work this morning. I have the All Saints version of Lady Marmalade on it. Granted, this may be the weakest of the three versions of the song of which I am aware:

1. The original, by Labelle
2. The version with Christina Aguilera, Pink, Mya and Li’l Kim (as heard on the Moulin Rouge soundtrack)
3. The All Saints version

…but it’s what I had.And it’s what I nodded my head to as I journeyed with the road monkeys.

Thursday – 14 December 2006
Another NBN Thursday begins…

Yesterday was good. Two frozen mocha good – I bought one on the way to work; brought me one a few hours later. They were good because they also offset a low-sleep night. *sigh* I was fine for the better part of the day, but the tiredness set in once I got home.

I didn’t let that stop me from going to Outback for dinner, though. 12oz. Prime Minister’s… Aussie Cheese Fries… Can you say “Goodbye, hunger. Hello, food coma,” boys and girls? I thought so! After dinner, invited me over to hang out and I did.

Tiredness – along with post-feeding lethargy – kicked in and I was out somewhere around 11:00 or 11:30… and I slept in this morning.

Stray Toasters

• I have discovered a new distraction: My Confined Space. It is not to be confused with MySpace. Some of the amusing things that I found include:
• Calls for Cthulhu
• A Family Circus meets Frank Miller Batman parody
• A recruitment poster for the Empire
• “One does not simply walk into Mordor…”
• And a motivational poster… of sorts.
• I am test driving Ubuntu on Intrepid. I may dive back into Linux.
• and other classical fans, too: Complete Mozart Works Now Free
• 
• I found a couple of videos on YouTube yesterday that made me smile:
• Billy Preston and Eric Clapton (live): Will It Go Round in Circles
• Nothing From Nothing Leaves Nothing – done with Full Metal Alchemist video clips
• “…oh so dramatic emoting…”
• From Newsarama: Talking to Michael Alan Nelson – The Fall of Cthulhu
• Broken Frontier has a sneak peek of a new upcoming series, La Muse
• 
• From boingboing.net: Web Zen – Monkey Day

Namaste.

Tuesday – 12 December 2006
Another day done.

Work was good.  I had one monkey-related issue shortly after I got in: A developer screwed up the login for a database that I set up on Monday.  *sigh*  That was resolved a short while later.  Other than that, it was a pretty easy day.  The lunchtime workout was good, too… but I need to work on increasing the weight that I use for different exercises.

Post-work, called me about grabbing some dinner before tonight’s game.  We did.  Z’s Mandarin Buffet.  Then, back here for game.  The team did well, they gathered information.  They were attacked by some wanna-be ‘runners… whom they didn’t kill.  Sure Chris’ character broke one of the gangers’ arms, but that was incidental collateral damage.  *shrug*  It happens.

Stray Toasters

• I received Christmas card #2 today.  Thanks, .
• – The Best, Worst and Weirdest in Holiday CDs
• Martin Nodell, creator of the Green Lantern, has died at the age of 91.
  
  
• It’s common knowledge that The Juggernaut, Bitch makes me laugh.
  So, it should be easily understandable why this image makes me laugh just as much:
  
• Not just the word “pod,” Apple now owns silhouette ads?
• Peanuts meets Marvel, by way of
• From Premiere: The 20 Most Overrated Movies of All Time
• : Brainiac 5 (animated)
• “Dad is great!  Give us the chocolate cake!”  (video)

Namaste.

Monday – 11 December 2006
Today was a good start to the week. I started the day off by sleeping in. Only an hour, but it was good. I fought the road monkeys on the way to work. I still think that Romulan disruptors should be a dealer-installed option on most cars. Work was good; the morning wasn’t harried and there were just enough things to do in the afternoon to keep me busy.

Tonight was D&D night. We could have – and probably should have – accomplished more, but we did make steps in the right directions. We’re adding a game session next Monday to keep things moving without having to worry about holiday disruptions.

Stray Toasters

• I received my first Christmas card today – it was from Dad and Kitty. It made me smile.
• : It seems as though the airplane-treadmill problem is getting more looks.
• Dragonlance
• Classic Christmas specials dubbed and youtubed
• By way of Slashdot: Sex Offenders to Register Emails in Virginia
• Open Office
• From Fanboy Radio: Interview with Joss Whedon
• 
• Matt Damon: I’d Play Kirk in Trek XI

Namaste.

Sunday – 10 December 2006
Today’s been another lazy one… even moreso than yesterday. The highlights, so far, have been:

• …watching the last half of Over the Hedge,
• …semi-watching the Ravens beat the Chiefs (more on this below),
• … and playing many hours of Battlefield 2142 with and Chris. I’m still not great at the game, but I’m getting better. I even advanced through a few ranks. (Adam, if you’re reading this, I think that you’d like this game. A lot. Call it… “a hunch.”)

This evening, I watched the tail end of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Without a Trace with . Star Trek: TNG‘s Marina Sirtis was a guest star in this episode. She looks… more mature. Her features were fuller… of course, it has been four years since we’ve seen her in anything. And, there was another Star Trek alumn on the episode: Connor Trinneer, Trip Tucker from ST: Enterprise. Later, I helped my friend Georgia with (what I hope are) the final touches on an English paper. Now, I think I’ll make an appearance in Paragon City. Maybe I’ll take down some criminals; maybe I’ll just build my new character. Or, maybe… just maybe… I’ll do both.

Football Update

Baltimore at Kansas City
20 – 10
The Ravens flew into Kansas City to take on the Chiefs – the “undefeated at home in December since 1996 Chiefs,” that is – at Arrowhead Stadium. The Ravens came into the game with a 9 – 3 record; the Chiefs were 7 – 5.The Ravens handed the Chiefs a big loss. Ed Reed, in the first half, had two big interceptions. Steve McNair engineered solid offense drives, both in the air and on the ground. And the defense got in on the act, too – they sacked Chiefs QB Trent Green five times.10 – 3 has a nice ring to it. Granted, it’s not the same as “clinched the division,” but we’re on the way. Next week: Cleveland at Baltimore.
New York Giants at Carolina
27 – 13
The Panthers dropped this one to the Giants. trellie, was this a “win-win” situation for you?
Minnesota at Detroit
30 – 20
Congrats, chromezephyr
Oakland at Cincinnati
10 – 27
Congratulations, janietrain. Sorry, 1silver_seraph.
Philadelphia at Washington
21 – 19
Congratulations, diyeana.
Cleveland at Pittsburgh
7 – 27
Sorry, zeeke.    (And you do know that next week won’t be any better, don’t you?)

Stray Toasters

• I’ve been listening to some music from Parliament over the past few days. I wasn’t aware of just how many loops and lyric samples of theirs people have used.
• , you might be interested in these Kitty Pryde and Batgirl busts. (click on the images for larger pictures)
• , from Friday night: Sometimes as high as 85-90%. But there are times when 51% is “good enough.”
• Guess the Logo
• From today’s Battlefield 2142 action:
  
• Pan’s Labyrinth comes out in a couple of weeks. I want to see this movie.
• By way of Toyfare Magazine: Graphics Novel – Marvel and DC square off to see who has the greatest comic video game ever!
• Dear Lord… it actually looks like there will be more than just talk in Justice League of America #4. Finally.
• 
• How to knit a binary scarf. Make one long enough and it could be like blending The Matrix with Doctor Who.

It’s snowing. Again.

Namaste.

Saturday – 09 December 2006
Today has been relaxed.

I took care of a few errands.  Dropped in to see for a while; he, Chris and I are going to play Battlefield 2142 as a fire team tomorrow.  Hoo-AH!

I also managed to squeeze in a little time in Paragon City.  In the matter of a couple of hours, I worked through three bubbles of XP on the way to Level 48.  That ain’t bad at all.

And now: Breakfast.

Namaste.

Matt, one of my coworkers, showed me The Computer Man earlier this afternoon.

I wasn’t sure if the appropriate response was to laugh, cry, curl up in the fetal position, tear out my hair, go on a bender and try to drink away the memory…

…so, I decided to post the link here and torture you with it as well share it with you.

If it helps clear the palate, so to speak, here are Code Monkey and The System Administrator Song.

Friday – 08 December 2006
Another week approaches the end.

Yesterday was a good day: Work kept me busy.  My team went to Tucanos, a Brazilian grill, for lunch.  Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned… and my sin was gluttony.  *genuflect*  It was very good.  Similar to – and perhaps a little better than – Rodizio Grill.  After lunch, the desire to slump over at my desk and take a nap was a difficult one to resist.
Stray Toasters

• I had the most random thought a few minutes ago.  I was thinking about dry cleaners and laundries.  But wait… there’s more!  I was thinking of two of the dry cleaners I used to frequent back home when I thought how nice it would be to just ‘port home, drop off my clothes at the laundry, have dinner with the family, pick up the clothes and then pop back to SLC.

  That, in turn, got me thinking about something from the bio of Captain Benjamin Sisko: He used transporters to have dinner with his family in New Orleans while he was attending Starfleet Academy in San Francisco.

  That made me wonder: Were there public-use transporters in the Star Trek universe?  Could you just walk down to the local… station/terminal/whatever… and get beamed hither and yon?  Or, were they something that only Starfleet personnel got to use?

  Geeky, I know…

• : If you haven’t already, pick up Justice Society of America #1.  You’ll understand why when you read it.
• Hong Kong Phooey
• : The Bike Tour sounds interesting.
• While driving to work yesterday, I passed a semi.  I thought “Zooom!” as I passed it.  The immediate next thought in my mind was of Colon Blow Zoom cereal.  It made me chuckle and shiver at the same time.
• : 1-0-0-1-0-0-1… S.O.S.
• I’m not sure, but I think that my 2nd LCD might be possessed.  I keep hearing faint traces of… sounds that seem like voices, as if the Vonage adapter was bleeding over into the monitor’s speakers.
• Yahoo! has the new theatrical trailer for 300.
• : Catwoman.

Time to make the doughnuts.

Namaste.

Wednesday (Coda)
Work was somewhat slow this morning.  Pretty laid back, in fact.  Around lunchtime, however, it decided to ramp up the pace.  This wasn’t a bad thing, though.  It was nice to have something to keep me moving.  Although… it did keep me from another project that I had intended to work on today.  So, that gets pushed back until tomorning.

called me and invited me to dinner.  Z Mandarin Buffet.  I can see why she and like it.  Otherwise, the evening has been fairly quiet.  I spent a portion of it helping to edit a friend’s (long overdue) paper.

Stray Toasters

• My thumbnail – smashed in a car door back in August – has almost completely regrown.  Thank God.  There’s still a pretty major depression/dent in the middle of the nail, but it seems to be moving towards the nail edge; I think that I will “outgrow” it, so to speak.  At the rate it’s going, the last bits of the old/dead nail should be gone within a week.
• sent me a link to this shirt on T-Shirt Hell.  It made me laugh aloud.
• Sib1 and .
  
• I just had part of the theme from For Your Eyes Only run through my head.  I can live with that.  I had Time of the Season running through there this afternoon; I caught myself whistling it at least three times.
• Parents’ Choice Toy-Buying Mistakes
• I first heard of Benny Hinn (1, 2) many years ago, by way of an aunt or one of my grandmothers… I think.  I haven’t found too many people out here who know who is.  But, those who do know thought that this video was hysterical.  Thanks to for posting a link to it.
• I showed the above video to a few coworkers.  That led to a comparative religion discussion… of sorts.  I discovered that one of the guys is not LDS, as I had thought; he’s Catholic.  So, I posed the question: “Why is it that you never see Pope Benedict and Emperor Palpatine in the same place at the same time?”  He didn’t have a good answer.  I explained my belief that they are the same person: Emperor Popetine.  He didn’t refute this.

  A few minutes later, John – another coworker – came over and told us a story about the late Howard W. Hunter, former President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  The Mormons.   (If you grew up in the 70s, I’m willing to bet you just heard “The Mormons” in the same voice that was used in the commercials back in the day…)  It seems as though Mr. Hunter, in the midst of giving a speech, leaned back… continued to lean… and proceeded to fall straight back.  Flat.  Boom.  He was helped back to his feet where, after composing himself, he continued his talk as if nothing had happened.  (Did I mention that he was in his 70s – possibly 80s – when this happened?  No?  Well, he was.)   I – and the other guys – was impressed by this feat of fortitude.  I declared him “The Iron Prophet.”

  Then it dawned on me that there had been a missed opportunity.

  The world would never get to see one of the most awesome religious battle since David and Goliath… Samson against the Philistines…  Moses and the Red Sea versus Pharoah’s army.

  The Sith Pope versus The Iron Prophet.

  Cage match in Vegas.  (C’mon… two of the world’s top religious figures in Sin City.  It would have just been… fitting.)  Best two out of three falls.  No holds barred.  It would have been amazing.

• : Given your affinity for fine watches, I think that you’ll appreciate this.
• Lucy Lawless may be providing the voice for Wonder Woman in an upcoming Justice League DVD.
• Diamond Select Toys and AFX present: Phoenix and Marvel Girl Mini-Busts
• 
  This is great… except that it runs counter to both the Freeman-Nimoy and the General Zod ’08 campaigns.

Namaste.

A little while ago, asked for my help to figure out how his domain host handles URL redirection. Being a dutiful brother-in-law, I started poking around to see what I could find. Along the way, I hit a 403 error, which means that the user has reached a forbidden portion of the site. That led to this:

[10:42] : Dear God….
[10:42] : I admit to being a fan of the Big Blue Boy Scout.
[10:42] : What can I say…?
[10:42] : I’m a comics kid.
[10:42] : I accept that.
[10:42] : I’m good with it, even.
[10:42] : But…
[10:43] : When it starts crossing over into other forms of geekery…?
[10:43] : *shrug*
[10:43] : ?
[10:43] : Remember the scene at the end of Superman: the Movie where he’s about to go back in time and Jor-El’s voice speaks to him and tells him that he can’t?
[10:44] : “It is forbidden to interfere in the course of human history….”
[10:44] : Well…
[10:44] : ya
[10:44] : Um…
[10:44] : While looking at things on your site, I hit a 403 error.
[10:44] : k…?
[10:45] : And that IMMEDIATELY translated in my head as:
[10:45] : “It is 403 to interfere in the course of human history….”
[10:45] : ok you need to get out more
[10:45] : Sad, I know.
[10:45] : *sigh*

Wednesday – 06 December 2006
Middle of the week and (so far) all’s well.  Of course, the day’s just beginning, so it could go either way.  But, for the sake of argument, let’s stay on the lighter side of things.

Last night was Robotech night with , Chris and .  We beat on bad guys and saved the townsfolk… at least for the time being.

Stray Toasters

• I found this amusing: Disappearing Civil Liberties Mug
• Blue skies and gentle landings to .
• : Could the UCBD use something like these barrier posts?  If nothing else, the traffic camera videos would be amusing.
• Nyx sent me a link to the Alien Loves Predator comic below.  Apparently, someone has been watching – or at least listening – to us on D&D nights…
  
• From Marvel Comics comes Astonishing X-Men Primer, highlighting Joss Whedon’s run on some of the most well-written X-title stories since Grant Morrison’s run on New X-Men.
• If In Doubt, Give It Boobs
• Random cameraphone picture time…
• I saw this ornament in a Restoration Hardware store and my first thought was: “Your name is Kal-El. You are the only survivor of the planet Krypton. Even though you’ve been raised as a human, you are not one of them.”
  
• Tommy, a coworker, has this bus-shaped Hershey’s tin in which he keeps some of his Magic: the Gathering cards.  Yes, it’s a Magic Bus.
  
• I found this sticker inside a locker at the gym.  The logo, which isn’t very clear in this picture, is for Fruit of the Loom.  Write your own punchline.
  
• Zoom.  Maybe it’s just me, but to call any cereal “Zoom” that says it is “Naturally High in Fiber” is overkill… not to mention redundant.  “Colon Blow” would have probably been the only other equally inane name they could have given it.  But, at least you know what you’re in for.
  

And with that, I’m up out.

Namaste.