Random Access

Friday – 29 August 2008
I made a good call in deciding to take the day off. Sleeping in this morning, though peppered with a few odd dreams, was a good thing. Today, I have a few errands to run, but after that, in the words of the DJs from Power 97: “It’s the weekeeeeeend, baby!”

It turned out that I could have gone to sushi yesterday – my 2:00 meeting got pushed back. Oh, well.

After work, I met SaraRules at her parents’ place. She accompanied me to Dr. Volt’s, where I fed my four-color crack addiction; I picked up one box each of Avengers and Mutations & Monsters, ‘Clix as well. We headed back for dinner and to hang out with her family. We watched the Jags take on the Redskins as we ate dinner.

After the game, we flipped over to coverage of the DNC. More on this later. After the fanfare and fireworks were over, SaraRules and I headed back to my place. We were going to make a batch of brownies, but the couch and television – along with general laziness – won out. The cable box decided to cooperate last night, so SaraRules was (finally) able to catch an episode of Project: Runway. Last night’s episode, Fashion That Drives You, contained an interesting challenge: The designers had to come up with outfits constructed out of materials used in the making of Saturns – seat covers, seatbelts, dashboard accessories, floor mats, et al. There were a lot of inspired designs… and a few duds.

Next up: Burn Notice. I had seen part of this episode, False Flag, before… but not from the beginning. There was a twist that occurred just before I started watching it (the first time) that had me a bit confused. Seeing the whole thing play out cleared up the confusion, though.

When Ms. SaraRules went home, I toyed with the idea of playing City of Heroes or hopping on PokerStars.
I just called it a night, instead.

Food for Thought: Chew on This
As I mentioned above: We watched coverage of the Democratic National Convention last night.

Once again, I have to say: “Wow.”
Not at the staging, though impressive.
Not at the turnout, which at 80,000+ people was amazing.

I say “wow” to the fact that, once again, Senator Obama delivered an amazing speech.

I liked the fact that the speech played to peoples’ hopes and dreams and not their fears. I also appreciated that Senator Obama didn’t just make it a “sunshine and rainbows everywhere” kind of speech, but that he acknowledged that it was going to take work – and time – to get the country back on track. I agree with ‘s assessment that Senator McCain may pick up a few new speechwriters after last night’s oratory.

I’m also sure that it was no small coincidence that the speech occurred on the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech. Senator Obama referenced that speech and, it seemed to me, fell into the cadence of a preacher for a few minutes while delivering that portion of his speech.

Over the next eight weeks, it will be interesting to watch as the Obama/Biden campaign takes to the trail to deliver their message and to see how the masses – Democrat, Republican and Independent – respond to them.

It is also of interest to note that Senator McCain has chosen a running mate: Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. She is in her first term and is little-known outside of Alaska. If people were concerned about Senator Obama’s lack of age and experience, I would like to know what their reaction to the even-younger and seemingly less-experienced Governer Palin is/will be. Could her selection be “See, we’re kind’a progressive, too!” spin? I would hope not and I’ll reserve judgment on this until I hear more from and about her.

Stray Toasters

• Comcast to make monthly Internet use cap official
• Mythbusters + 1,100-barrel paint gun = Mona Lisa? Yep. Check it out here.
• Jesus Tries to Save Your Soul, but Windows Stops Him
• 
• By way of The BBC: Jackson turns 50: Highs and Lows
• 10 WordPress Hacks to Make Your Life Easy
• For an as-yet-unknown reason, I had the theme from the 60’s Spider-Man cartoon running through my head a few minutes ago.
• Air Canada shaves fuel costs by eliminating life-jackets

…right on to the friction of the day.

Namaste.

Thursday – 28 August 2008
Three down, one in the chamber… and I’m taking tomorrow off.

Last night, I headed up to SaraRules’ parents’ house for dinner. Ms. SaraRules cooked a pasta in carrot sauce dish that was very tasty.

After dinner, she and I headed back to my place to hang out. We started off watching coverage of the Democratic National Convention… but we watched it on BBC America. I may start watching all such events on BBCA, at this rate. The coverage was good and they have some of the fastest display typists I have ever seen: There were a couple of occasions when Joe Biden was speaking and – seconds later – a quote from what he said would appear on the screen.

We were going to watch Project: Runway, but either Bravo and/or my cable box was/were being a steaming pile of something left in Grace’s diaper. Instead, we wound up chatting the night away.

After SaraRules left, I toyed with the notion of playing City of Heroes, but seemed to be more in the mood to play City of Sleepy People… so I went to bed.

Tonight, I’m not sure what’s on the agenda. But, as it’s my “Friday,” I’m pretty sure that there will be some manner of gaming involved.

Stray Toasters

• From MTV.com: Should Superman Go Dark?
• Henchman T-Shirts



• Make-believe police in UK have power to issue on-the-spot fines
• Meetings. Blah. Because of meetings, I’m going to miss out on sushi today.
• Love and Rockets: New Stories, Vol. 1
• ::: jawdrop :::

More later.

Namaste.

I get the “Marvel Pulse” email from Marvel Comics every week. In it, they give rundowns of what’s coming to comic shops, what’s in the pipe for merchandise, et cetera. This week’s Pulse included a “Secret Invasion” section. Big surprise there… In it, there’s a “Wallpapers” subsection. I saw this picture:

…and thought: “Huh, what if the Green Goblin had been a Skrull all along…?” Granted, that would require an even bigger (and more stupid – if that’s possible) retcon of Mr. Osborne’s origin than the whole One More Day/Brand New Day debacle. But, I wouldn’t put it past Marvel to pull that kind of cockamamie stunt at this point.

Huh… neither WordPress nor Firefox thought that “cockamamie” was worthy of spellchecking. Interesting.

By way of comes the following commercial. We were both a little flummoxed by it:

Racist or not? Discuss among yourselves.

I just got back from lunch with SaraRules; we went to Dask’s.

Just before leaving for lunch, I noticed that my last four or five Random Access posts did not get crossposted to LJ. Curious. I’m fairly certain that it was due to some changes in the Live+Press plugin; at least, that’s what I’m attributing it to.

The errant posts have been crossposted.
All seems right with the world again.

Selah.

Wednesday – 27 August 2008
Last night, after work, I picked up Chris and we headed to Far West Comics for this week’s HeroClix tournament. Restricted 300-point teams. After “a bit” of deliberation, I decided to go with:

• Nick Fury
• Susan Richards and
• Red Arrow (with the Loner feat card)

First up, I played Mike, a new player. As such, he was very cautious and… deliberate… in making moves. He fielded three of the Fantastic Four figures from the new starter set:

• Invisible Woman
• Mister Fantastic and
• The Thing

We basically danced around the field, neither of us taking out the other’s figures. Time was called, so it came down to a simple roll of the dice, which went Mike’s way. Loss.

Next up: Ma’afu. He played a mixed team:

• Hawkman
• Ronin and
• Yellowjacket (Skrull)

With the the Vendetta feat on Ronin (targeting Susan Richards) and Hawkman playing taxi, Ronin became my primary target. He was the first to fall. Next I started working on Hawkman. He took more punishment than I would have originally given him credit for, but I wound up taking him down. That left Skrull-jacket. Fortunately, he didn’t get sixes on his Skrull team ability nor on his Shape Change rolls, so I was able to attack him. It took my dice a while to warm up to the idea of actually doing something in my favor… but I got ‘im. Win.

Both Mike and Ma’afu had to leave, so we called the tournament at two rounds. This means that I didn’t have to face Chris. *genuflect* We both wound up at 1-1 for the night.

Keith (the judge) and Nano wanted to get a game in, so the two of them took on Chris and me. I decided to try a theme team: Illuminati. I fielded

• Iron Man (with Outsmart)
• Mister Fantastic (with Brilliant Tactician)
• Namor
• Professor X

Chris played:

• Batman
• Black Adam
• Doctor Strange
• Gamora and
• Knightfall Batman

Keith, much to my painful chagrin, fielded the Legion:

• Cosmic Boy
• Dream Girl
• Lightning Lad
• Saturn Girl
• Supergirl
• Timber Wolf
• Young Superman

while Nano went with a mixed team

• Batman (Justice Legion A)
• Bronze Tiger
• The Flash (Justice Legion A)
• Ms. Marvel (Skrull)
• Warskrull
• Wolverine

And it was game on. To make a long story short, the game ran for about an hour-and-a-half. Chris and I lost a couple of our heavy-hitters early (not taken out of the game at that point, but they took damage that clicked them past their “good” abilities). Then it was a battle of the dice. Both sides had hot and cold dice. Chris and I finally wound up conceding the game around 10:30 PM.

I headed home and wound down, which included a tour of Paragon City. I got onto a team with a couple of people I teamed with a few days ago. I put on at least a level and a half in the hour I played.

And then… sleep.

I’m not sure what I did to deserve it, but I woke up with a headache this morning. Yay.

Today is another research day. We’ve also been talking with a few of the front office guys who have had various questions dealing with a couple of remodeling issues around the office. On the plus side, Julie (Property Manager/Admin/Jill of All Trades) brought in cinnamon rolls for the IT staff. And, I have a frozen mocha. So things ain’t all bad.

Stray Toasters

• FAA computer glitch caused flight delays
• 
• The Ravens are 1-2 in preseason play.
  As are the Bengals.
  But, we’re both ahead of the 0-3 Browns. Just sayin’.
• Senator from Alaska Wins Primary
• From the “Too Much Free Time” file: Guy Builds Full LEGO Boba Fett Costume…

Namaste.

Tuesday – 26 August 2008
One down, four to go.

After work last night, I headed up to SaraRules’ parents’ for dinner (and mojitos!) and general hanging out… which included football: The Chargers vs. the Seahawks. Yes, it was (only) pre-season action, but it’s still rock and roll NFL to me. We tuned in a little late and watched the first half of the game.

At halftime, SaraRules and I headed back to my place for movie date night. We watched The Kingdom. Neither of us had seen it before, so we weren’t entirely sure what to expect. I wouldn’t recommened this movie as a “happy, fun-time” fare, but it was a good film. I give it a couple of solid thumbs-up with a nod and a smile.

After that, it was time for The Middleman. The episode was… entertaining, but lacked a little of its usual punch. Not the episode I would have picked for the first one that we got to watch together, but what’re ya gonna do?

SaraRules headed home and I sat on the couch, trying to decide if I wanted to play CoH… or log into PokerStars… or something. I watched DS9 while I pondered my conundrum. That turned into DS9 watching me. At that point, I decided that it was time to call it a night. And I did.

Today, I’m going to be elbow-up in enterprise KVM research.
Tonight, I’m going to be elbow-up in a ‘Clix tourney… one for which I’m still not completely sure which figures I’m using.

Stray Toasters

• I got home last night to find a package waiting for me… from . Inside, I found a couple of comic-related magnets (Supergirl and Hawkgirl) and a Test for Echo tour baseball cap. Unexpected win-win!
• Happy 30th Birthday to the LEGO minifig
• Our HR/Accounting guy and I were just talking when he noticed some of the ‘Clix I keep on my desk. He saw the Batman figure and noted that his daughter would like it, as she is a Bat-fan. I asked if she had read Batman: The Killing Joke; he said that he wasn’t sure, but would mention it to her. I’m hoping that this doesn’t become a “career-limiting move.”
• Online Beauty Pageant… for Nuns
• This Gizmodo-modified picture of the AT&T Death Star amuses me…



• Han Solo in carbonite cake
• I’m curious about Samuel L. Jackson’s upcoming movie, Lakeview Terrace
• Treadmills used to play WoW
• 

Up, up and away! (Either reference will work here.)

Happy Hatching Day to !

And, I’m even going to name Ms. today’s Human of the Day, too.
Because I’m The Pope.
And I can.

Just like that.

Pow!

Monday – 25 August 2008
Every Monday should != start like this:

• Walk in the door
• Put bag down
• Unpack/connect laptop
• Log into The Matrix company network
• As systems come online, have Coworker #1 come to you and say,”I have a problem…”
• Go to look at said problem only to determine that “something” in his computer is borked.
• Take computer back to my desk to lobotomize it.
• Have Coworker #2 come to you and say,”I have a problem…”
• Determine the Coworker #2’s issue is potentially BIG and that it supersedes Coworker #1’s issue.
• Tell Coworker #1 that he just got put on hold, until further notice.
• Start in on C2’s problem.
• Determine that it requires another IT guy’s skill set.
• Get IT Guy #2 to take a look at the problem.
• Have Coworker #3 come to you and say,”I have a problem…”
• Determine that C3’s problem, while not as OMGWTF! as C2’s problem needs immediate attention.
• Try to track down the hardware to solve C3’s problem.
• Find two viable solutions and go with “Option A,” which is functional and fairly painless.
• Resolve C3’s problem.
• Check back with C2 and ITG2 to determine the status of that problem: Resolved.
• Back to C1’s issue… and determine that it could be ANY of a number of problems.
  • Look for replacement hardware.
  • Replace Item #1
  • Not the problem.
  • Replace Item #2
  • Still not the problem.
  • Begin ancient Martian meditiation technique known as “Screaming”

    

  • Replace Item #3
  • Still “No go, Flight…”
  • Replace Item #4
  • BINGO!
• Return C1’s computer to him.
• Sit down and breathe. Finally.

That was the quick, Cliff’s Notes version of my first three hours today. Fortunately, Julie (the admin who sits near my desk) reminded me that we’re off next Monday, for Labor Day. At this rate, I’m thinking that I’m taking this Friday off, too.

Stray Toasters

• By way of : Death and Taxes 2009
• From Not Always Right: Holy F***, Indeed
• 

Back to the fun…

23 August 2008
And the whirlwind is over, it seems.

is in Las Vegas.
SaraRules is back in SLC.
He and she are in the house
But there’s only me at home.

After I wrapped up the workday on Thursday, and I hit the road for Cedar City. SaraRules preceded us by a few hours, as she had to do her Capstone defense (which, I heard from the other MFAs, was amazing). Once we got in and took our things to the hotel, and I headed to Applebee’s to get a bite to eat; SaraRules was supposed to bring Lish with her… but he punked on us. The three of us sat and talked and hung out for a while.

Friday morning, SaraRules got up and did her “exit interviews” with the Dean and other faculty members. I slept in. Apparently, wasn’t able to sleep in. After I woke up and got ready, he and I headed to Cafe Orleans for lunch: I had the Shrimp Etouffe, he had a Shrimp PoBoy.

After polishing off lunch, I took up to Cedar Breaks. It’s comforting to know that I’m not the only one for whom the phrase “sphincter pucker factor” comes into play when driving/riding on high-altitude roads without guardrails. We made the journey up to Cedar Breaks and took a few pictures at a couple of the overlooks. (To be posted later) I also took him along the Alpine Pond Trail that SaraRules and I hiked last year. He seemed to enjoy it. Once we got back into town, we met SaraRules at the local Dairy Queen. We needed our ice cream fixes. We also took in a bit of people-watching. Chalk it up as an afternoon full of “Win.”

After a little down time, SaraRules and I headed over to SUU to meet the other MFAs for dinner and a show. Dinner was at Costa Vida; the show was Fiddler on the Roof, which I had never seen… although I know three or four songs from the production. Go figure. I enjoyed it and thought it was a fun production. The pre-play plan was that Lish and Steve would come back to the hotel with us and have drinks. The reality was that everyone decided that they were pretty tired – and the MFAs were going on a hike this morning – so drinks fell by the wayside. Again. Oh, well.

This morning, the alarm went off far too early. 6:00 AM. I managed to hang in bed until almost 6:30, though. SaraRules and I got up, ready and were on our way. I headed over to the grad house, to say goodbye to Lish and the others before I headed north. I was pleased – and a bit shocked – to note that gas was cheaper in Cedar City than in Salt Lake City. I made decent time back to SLC. I came home to find that there had been a power outage in my absence. This was a “good thing,” as I realized Thursday evening that I had neglected to turn off my alarm clock. Whoops.

I shaved (including adding a new cut that required a Marcellus Wallace-like bandage) and headed out to meet and her teammate, JillDozer, for breakfast. I managed to catch , , and OnlyAly and invite them along, as well. We met a couple other skaters, only one of whose names (Movin Violation, from Salt City Derby Girls) remains with me.

When we broke from breakfast, I headed to Far West Comics. Today was their first anniversary and they had Lou Ferrigno there as a special guest. I told Matt and Nano that I’d be available to help out, if they needed an extra body around; I wound up manning the cash register. There were a LOT of people there; I’d say somewhere between 200 and 300 showed up, including ‘ sister and her family. Mr. Ferrigno seemed to be a nice enough guy. He took pictures with the patrons and signed autographs. Three hours later, he packed up and was on his way… to wherever it is that Lou Ferrigno goes. But, before he left, we (the guys working the event) were able to get a few pictures with him, too. (Also to be posted later)

Home.
Shower.
Back out again – I had to put a couple of eBay items in the mail.

Back home.
And, in a few minutes, I’m heading out again: SaraRules and I are meeting and some of the skaters for dinner.

*whew*

Namaste.

Thursday – 21 August 2008
The end of the work week is nigh. Selah.

arrived last night around 5:30 PM. He came in and gave us (SaraRules and me) a quick recap of his trip, thus far. Then, it was time for food! The three of us and went to Poplar Street Pub for dinner.

Post-dinner, SaraRules, and I headed home. He and I watched some of the Olympics, while SaraRules worked on her Capstone presentation. I watched Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh win their second consecutive gold medal in Women’s Beach Volleyball against Tian Jia and Wang Jie. In the rain. In two sets. It was an amazing match to watch. Next, we watched South Park. I haven’t watched the show in… at least five years. It was amusing, but I’m not sure that I feel compelled to tune in next week.

This morning, the alarm went off at its appointed time… but I wasn’t ready to let go of the pillow. So, I didn’t. I waited until about 7:20 before either SaraRules and I were ready to greet the day. We got ready, while slept in. She got on her way to Cedar City; I headed to work. As today is my “Friday,” and I are heading to southern Utah to hang out with SaraRules and the other MFAs for a couple of days.

And on to more server surveys!

News from The BBC: The head of a Nigerian government agency has been charged with stealing money to hire a witchdoctor or “juju” sorcerer to bring him success.

Wednesday – 20 August 2008
After work, I picked up Chris and we headed to Far West for this week’s HeroClix tourney. We played a new (for us) format: “300-Point, Floor: 50% Restricted.” This means that we had to build 300-point teams, with at least half of our force built from the latest release: Secret Invasion. Aside from Chris, we had a couple of other people show up, too: Ma’afu and Chris2, both of whom are fairly new to the game, but were pretty eager to dive in with both feet. I wasn’t sure if we would have to draft (buy a booster pack) our first 150 points; we didn’t. We were able to pick from our existing figures. This was good for me, as I had been wanting to test out a couple of figures, especially the Susan Richards figure… so I did. My team consisted of:

• Batman
• Nick Fury
• Susan Richards

I played Chris2 in the first round. He brought a four-figure team:

• Nick Fury
• Ringmaster
• She-Thing
• Spider-Girl

Matt and Nano helped coach him, since it was his first real game, I think. Spider-Girl and She-Thing got up front and personal, fairly quickly. I learned that Susan Richards’ Barrier power is a great thing… especially when you want to make someone go through Hell and half of Georgia to get at you, rather than make a bee-line for your and whomp on you. And, having three characters with Outwit didn’t hurt, either. I took out Spider Girl, She-Thing and… either Nick Fury or Ringmaster (I forget which), before time ran out. Win.

Next up: Chris. *sigh* At least it wasn’t a first-round game. His team consisted of:

• Batman
• Doctor Strange and
• Gamora

And he went to work. Having played a game with Chris where he used Gamora, I assessed her as the first/biggest threat. I wasn’t necessarily wrong in considering her a threat, but Doctor Strange is no slouch, either: He can see through Stealth(!) and, thanks to his team ability, is able to copy others’ team abilities. In last night’s case, he took on the Batman team ability. Gamora stepped up and wailed on Nick Fury… but, being the master spy that he is, I used his LMD ability, reducing his damage and got him out of Dodge. That still left Batman and Sue as targets, but I managed to take Gamora out before Chris’ Batman and the good Doctor took me completely out of the game. Loss.

Next up: Ma’afu. He actually said that he had been waiting to play me. I was a little surprised by the compliment – I don’t think that I’ve had someone who wanted to take me on (Take on me! I’ll… be… gone…. If you don’t taaaaaaaake….) like that. Comments like that are usually reserved for people waiting to test their mettle against Chris and his team du jour. His team consisted of:

• Gee
• Human Torch and
• Ms. Marvel (Human)

Ma’afu also got a little sideline assistance from Matt. My first assessment: Take out Ms. Marvel. I neglected to Outwit her Hypersonic Speed in the first round, but I didn’t make that mistake again. After she punched Nick Fury (and I LMD’ed him to a far corner) I made sure that Batman and Sue didn’t let her pull a stunt like that again. Nick took out his frustrations on Gee. I should have probably felt guilty about having a WWII vet gun down a little kid, but this was war (sort of), so he was fair game. Nick’s next target: the Human Torch. It took a few rounds, but I managed to snuff him out. And that just left Ms. Marvel. I beat on her a bit, but didn’t manage to take her out before time ran out. Win.

All-in-all, coming in second to Chris wasn’t bad. And above all, it was fun.

After the game, I dropped Chris off and headed home. I had no time to tarry: SaraRules got back into town about 8:00. And, aside from needing to go to Cedar City tomorrow to do her Capstone defense, she’s back for good. (That pretty much comes under “Win,” too.) I got home a few minutes before she got there. We hung out and talked about her last few weeks in Aspen, the overall experience and bidding farewell to her former coworkers. Then she had to get a few things ready for meetings she had today.

I was completely tapped from the lack of sleep Monday night, so when the alarm went off, I turned if off and rolled over. The second alarm, was not ignored, though. We got up, observed the necessary hygiene rituals, made coffee(!) and got ready for the day.

I had planned on doing Round 3 of server inventories today. I still plan on doing that. However, the first part of my morning was spent moving Julie from her old desk to one behind mine. No rest for the wicked.

Stray Toasters

• should be in around dinnertime. Now, to figure out where to take him for dinner…
• Did The Banana Splits inspire Bob Marley?
  (Regular readers may remember that I’ve asked this before.)
• Wild monkey loose in Japanese subway eludes police
• Apple tries to debug iPhone

…right on to the friction of the day

Tuesday – 19 August 2008
I was up far too late last night.
FAR too late.

Coworker Eric came to SLC last night to pick up my old desk: I wanted something different, he wanted a desk. Win-Win. I discovered that it is much easier to make a mess when clearing out furniture than it is to return the same space to a nominal sense of order and coherence. Hence the reason that I was up late last night/this morning. Let’s just say that caffeine and I are on a first-name basis this morning.

I watched some of the Olympic Summer Games last night. I watched Men’s and Women’s 400M hurdles. For those who didn’t see the USA Men’s team take gold, silver AND bronze, it was a pretty amazing race.

The women’s races were equally stunning – especially the event in which Jamaica’s Melaine Walker ran. I also watched some of the gymnastics events… and, after seeing He Kexin, I can now understand why some people question whether or not some of the Chinese gymnasts are of official competing age.

Stray Toasters

• should be here tomorrow evening… assuming that he doesn’t get distracted by bright, shiny objects between Kansas City and here.
• 10 Great Webcomics You Should Not Share With Your Kids
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Cake Wrecks
• The art of Andrea Gianchiglia
• From the “I have an opinion and I’m not going to keep it to myself” file: Robert Downey, Jr: ‘Fuck DC Comics.’
• Shocka-locka-BOOM!
  What was that?
  Aftershock.
• By way of : Top Secret Drum Corps from Basel, Switzerland:

  
  Top Secret Drum Corps Basel Tattoo – A funny movie is a click away

• There’s a new Lara Croft in town.
  • Photo shoot pictures
  • Interview
• MarknTyme introduced me to BabySmash last night; he said that his youngest son loves it.
• I know that some people really their cars, but this takes it to a new level:

• Virtualization eSeminar. *nod*

Namaste.

Monday – 18 August 2008
On the way to the office, Chiron Beta Prime started playing over iTunes. I’m not sure if Nomad was just mocking me through our technopathic link; I’m Ivory Soap sure that it knows I refer to work as “CBP.” As a follow-up, it played Inside Out’s Jackie Chan… and follwed that with Monty Python’s I Like Chinese*.

We finished Round Two of the server upgrades yesterday. We also noted a… discrepancy: There were nineteen servers for which we did not account. So, there will be a reckoning Round Three. Which is fine with me. It’s all part of the job. We had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. I had the calamari appetizer and the Cajun Jambalaya Pasta entree. Holy cow… it was GOOD. And, a piece of cheesecake followed me home.

I got home last night and considered rearranging the office. The fact that it was 10 PM didn’t phase me… at first. Eventually, I came to the realization that I had just put in nine hours of work and that I didn’t really feel like making that much more work for myself. Instead, I played City of Heroes.

This morning, I was back in the office at 7:40. Aw, yeah!

Stray Toasters

• WARNING (for Firefox users): Clipboards hijacked in web attack
• How to Be Good
• Is there a way to justify shuriken as an “office supply?”
• Pakistan’s Musharraf Steps Down
• Michael Phelps: 8 Gold Medals, 7 world records.
  He’s only 23. I think he’s got at least one more Olympic Summer Games in him
• How to Hypermile
• 
• Reasoning is partly insane
  Image just an eyeless game
  The night is turning thin
  The saint is turning to sin
• What was your videogame system of choice, back in the day?
  I was an IntelliVision and Sega Genesis kid.

…right on to the friction of the day.

Namaste.

Sunday – 17 August 2008
Happy Birthday to :

Last night, I was pretty wiped after getting in from breakfast, so I called it a (relatively) early night. I was awakened by a phone call at 9:00… no, “9:13,” I was corrected. I wasn’t very thrilled by it and made it rather plainly known. I slipped back into The Dreaming until a little after 10:00. Then, it was up, shower and prep for work and on my way.

I’ve stopped in at Bad Ass Coffee Company for the morning’s caffeine intake. For the past half-hour or so, there have been waves of motorcycle riders heading north on State Street. There is apparently a bike rally being held at/near the Capitol today.

I, on the other hand, will be elbow-up in servers again today: loonybin88 and I are doing what will hopefully be the last wave of test server upgrades this afternoon. I can’t complain too much, though – it means that my weekend starts Thursday.

Stray Toasters

• will be in town later this week, on his way to Vancouver. Bot and Bit will not be with him, though.
• By way of : Galactic Empire Begins Invasion of San Francisco

  (, do you have any on-the-ground news/information about this?)

• Why does living in Utah amuse me so much, sometimes? Things like this, would be one example:

  

  In case the amusing item is eluding you, take a look near the middle of the picture. That’s right: “White City.” I’ve seen buses heading there, but have never had my camera handy/ready to snap a picture before they had moved. “White City.” *snicker* Yet another thing to take with a grain of salt and laugh… kind of like they still refer to the southern portion of the state as “Dixie.” Go figure.

• Comic Book Legends Revealed #168
  • Writer/Artist John Byrne has been involved in an inordinate amount of eerie coincidences.
    (There are some odd disasters that have followed John Byrne’s art/scripts)
  • Billy Dee Williams was paid to NOT be Two-Face in Batman Forever.
    (He may have wound up better for not being in it!)
  • Grant Morrison intended for the Beast to be gay during his New X-Men run.

  Check out the article to find out the real stories behind these items.

• 10 Things We Didn’t Know Last Week

And with that, I’m off to work.

Hi-ho, hi-ho.