Random Access

Monday – 12 July 2010
Holy cow… where’d the weekend go?!

Saturday, SaraRules and I did the Lavender Harvest 5K in Mona with our friend, Melissa. The race was held at the Young Living Lavender Farm, where SaraRules’ bridal pictures were taken.

The race started a little late, but there was a good turn out — according to Doug, Young Living’s CEO, the race has grown from about 300 people to over 1,000 in four years. As this was my first-ever 5K (and as I am not a runner), there was a little jogging (briefly) and a lot of walking in this event. SaraRules figures that we finished in about 45 minutes or so.  It was a good first experience with a 5K.

On the way back to SLC, Melissa started feeling decidedly “not well.” We stopped a couple of times… and finally wound up heading to the InstaCare in Springville. Shortly after arriving – and before the doctor really did anything – she started feeling better.

Back home, I took a shower, grabbed gear and headed up to Dr. Volt’s for the weekend’s ‘Clix tourney. Almost as soon as I got in the care, I realized that needed caffeination. Badly.  (Which sounds really funny, if you hear the voice from Gauntlet saying “Green Elf needs food badly!”) I swung into the parking lot at Pin-up Girl… but there were five cars in line and I was already running late. Not an option. So, I headed on to Dr. Volt’s. Fortunately, Dave has “Mexican Coke” (the one that has real sugar, not artificial sweeteners) at the store, so I had a bottle of that to get me through. The tournament went well; I wound up playing bye rounds — my team was the Justice League of Arkham.

After the tourney, I went back home to take care of a few last-minute items before our open house. We had a good afternoon with family and friends who were able to make it.

By 11:00, “awake” was becoming less and less of an option. I don’t think that I made it to (or much past) 11:15.

Sunday, I was up at 8:30. That was fine; I was quite happy with a good seven hours’ sleep. I was a little restless, but couldn’t figure out what to do. I solved that by plopping down on the sitting room sofa and wasting time with my Evo. Then I headed downstairs and wasted time online. After she got up, SaraRules made omelettes! We watched the Spain – Netherlands game. (The regulation time seemed… dull and a little lifeless.)

After the match, we headed up to the in-laws’ for a few before going to see Predators. Both SaraRules and I agreed that it didn’t suffer from “sequel suck” and that it was definitely a good choice for an afternoon popcorn flick.

Workout

• Saturday’s step count: 13,228 (Thank you, 5k!)
• Sunday’s step count: 2,308 (It was a lazy day.)

Stray Toasters

• Deer Valley Music Festival: Power to the People
• Hyperbole and a Half
• Gospel Singer Walter Hawkins Dies at 61
• Iran woman escapes stoning death for adultery
• ‘Avatar’ Finally Reaches Feature-Film Length
  (Because, you know James Cameron just *needs* more money…)
• Columbia, Gaithersburg make Best Places to Live List
• 
• Do other countries have their own Uncle Sams?
• Enter the LEGO Design Challenge
• From the “Gully Dwarves” file:



• Roman Polanski freed after Swiss reject U.S. extradition request
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Zombies in Car Crash Confuse Onlookers
• ‘Voice Blind’ Man Befuddled by Mysterious Callers

Namaste.

Saturday – 10 July 2010
I’m up at O’dark-thirty so that SaraRules and I can go participate in a 5K in Mona? Why there? Because that’s where she took her bridal pictures and she wanted to do it. Being the supportive husband – and since I wanted to take on a 5K – I’m doing it to.

Today will be a long day… but well worth it.

Workout
Thursday’s step count: 6,483
Friday’s count: 2,558 (didn’t put the #(@& pedometer on until after 3:00 PM)

Namaste.

Thursday – 08 July 2010
Good NBN Comics Thursday!

Last night, SaraRules and I met her parents and aunt and uncle for an evening at Abravanel Hall. Utah Symphony was putting on a ZAP (Zoo, Arts and Parks) concert, benefitting The Road Home. The Symphony performed an encore presentation of their Patriotic Celebration concert. It was quite good. After the concert, we – along with – headed over to Capo Gelateria for gelato. Nice way to cap off the evening.

Today has been relatively uneventful, not to say that it hasn’t been busy-ish. And meetings. Yay!

Workout
Yesterday’s step count: 6,458

Stray Toasters

• I’ve been looking at Wikipedia for storylines from DC and Marvel to (hopefully) give me more team ideas for this weekend’s tournament. I discovered that I can actually pull off a few variant teams that could be fun to play… assuming that I actually wind up playing bye rounds.
• made a comment about being “Espresso powered” this morning.
  I think that makes him “Coffeepunk.”
• Printing in 3D
• Someone in the neighborhood near the office has a blimp. Not Goodyear-sized; this one is more like something you’d see at a basketball or football game — maybe about 10 to 12-feet-long.  Still, it was odd seeing it in the air this morning.
• Is THE LAST AIRBENDER Shyamalan’s Last Chance?

  

• SETEC ASTRONOMY
• The Sartorialist
• Thanks to for posting a link to M.C. Escher in LEGO
• eBacon != virtual Kevin Bacon
• 101 Fast Recipes for Grilling

Namaste.

Wednesday – 07 July 2010
Midweek.
Comics and Sushi Wednesday.

Last night, Chris came over and we finished HALO 3: ODST. It was a good game. It was a nice addition to the HALO universe, with similar yet “just different enough” gameplay to keep it interesting and exciting. We were quite happy with having completed the game… until we looked at the achievements that we had – and hadn’t – unlocked.

That’s when we noticed it: We had finished the game…

…but we had apparently done it on the “Easy” setting.

::: grblsnrkx :::

We satisfied ourselves with the knowledge that we could go back and replay the game at a harder skill setting. Oh, well.

Workout
Yesterday’s step count: 6,184

Stray Toasters

• When measuring where to hang a large mirror, make sure to take into account the additional space you want between the top of the mantle and the bottom of the mirror before setting the toggle bolts.
• For a New Generation, an Elusive American Dream
• Yakko’s World
• The original Predator, retold as a rap
• While I realize that it wasn’t a good movie (yet, I somehow managed to enjoy it…), I found this article on Gizmodo quite astute in its observations and assessments: What The Last Airbender TV series has that the movie doesn’t
• Apple Blocks App Developer
• w00t! sends Associated Press bill for quoting its blog
• 
• Jersey Swaps, a Ritual With a Story
• This Is How Lockheed-Martin Paints F35 Fighter Jets
• As Rome Modernizes, Its Past Quietly Crumbles
• 
• CIA offers its history lessons in film

Namaste

Tuesday – 06 July 2010
The new (and short!) work week begins. I hope that everyone had a safe and enjoyable long holiday weekend.

I was informed, this morning, that I completely missed two coworkers’ birthdays… despite wishing a third coworker a “Happy Birthday” on the same day. So, with that in mind:

Friday was very quiet around the office… although, there were more people in the office than I had expected. One of the day’s highlights was getting to watch the Uruguay vs. Ghana World Cup soccer match. I had hoped that Ghana would be able to pull off a win, but it wasn’t meant to be. After work, I hung out with Jim at Pin-up Girl Espresso, while waiting for SaraRules to get home from work. Then, it was off to Clitorati.

Saturday, Chris and I got together for breakfast (Millcreek Cafe and Eggworks) before heading to Dr. Volt’s for the weekend’s tournament, “Patriotic Fight for Freedom:”

We had nine players, so it was a good turn out for a holiday weekend. As there were an odd number of players, I got to play – I put together a team comprised of:

• Uncle Sam
• Wonder Woman
• Captain America
• Winter Soldier
• Harvey Dent LE and
• The Question

After the tourney, SaraRules and I visited her folks… and her aunt and uncle, who are in town for the week.

Sunday was a nice sleep-in day. Then we headed to The Garden of Sweden, for brunch and to pick up a few things… unfortunately, they had changed their hours (again), so we wound up visiting the Ashley Furniture,  across the street, while we waited. Into and out of the IKEA. On to more errand-running and then back to the in-laws’ for dinner and birthday cake for SaraRules’ mom.

Monday was a “work around the house” day. We walked up to Pin-up Girl for caffeinated goodness and then came home, where SaraRules fixed breakfast. After that, we got to the business of housekeeping. This also included hanging pictures and making the space look generally “lived in.” Later in the evening, SaraRules suggested that we go for a walk. We went up Big Cottonwood Canyon and walked around Silver Lake. While out, we saw two deer (just hanging out along the road), a moose (!) and SaraRules saw/I heard a beaver jump into the lake, just ahead of us.

Workout
Walking step counts for (most of) the past few days:

• Friday: 7,403
• Saturday: 5,794
• Sunday: —
• Monday: 6,480

Stray Toasters

• There’s a free Utah Symphony concert at Abravanel Hall tomorrow, just call the ticket office and reserve your tickets: 801-533-NOTE (6683). For more information, click here.
• Caramel Mocha Frappe from Pin-up Girl == Win.
• 
• Puttin the Punk Back in Steampunk
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Alligator takes late-night stroll through town
• loonybin88 just put in an appearance in the office. He was here to follow up on a project on which we’ve been working; apparently, I haven’t bolloxed things up. Win!
• I was feeling a bit nostalgic, so I checked out some old posts:
  • http://blog.echopulse.net/?p=401
  • http://blog.echopulse.net/?p=402
  • http://blog.echopulse.net/?p=403
  • http://blog.echopulse.net/?p=404

  They made me smile.

• lj user=”chromeangel” posted this, it made me laugh:
  



• Underwater Baskey Weaving: The Real Story
• I still haven’t picked up a copy of Batman: Under the Red Hood.
• Zombies in Wonderland tee shirt
• These changes in temperatures 15F+ are not helping me to shake this congestion.
• This is possibly one of the best business cards I’ve ever seen.

Namaste.

Friday – 02 June 2010
It’s my 9/80 “on” Friday, but it should be even more of a ghost town around here than usual, being a holiday weekend and all.

Timecards: Approved.
Issue Tracker: Checked.

There are a few other things I need to do today, too… but motivation to do them is hard to find.

Last night, SaraRules and I went to see The Last Airbender.

There’s been a lot of hullaballoo as to whether M. Night Shamalamadingdong Shyamalan could:

1. …pull his head/ego out of his ass and direct a solid film (The Sixth Sense was 10+ years ago, buddy.)
2. …pull his career out of a downward spiral or
3. …do both

I’m not entirely sure that this is the movie in which he does that… but he seemed to be trying. Somewhat. The acting was rough in too many places. SaraRules noted that Sokka didn’t get as many humorous/sarcastic quips in the movie as he did in the series. And, for a man who’s directed young actors — and for more mature actors who have been in a number of productions — there didn’t seem to be a consistent hand guiding the action at times. They had to rush through a lot of things, of course trying to compress twenty-two 30-minute episodes into an hour and forty minutes kind of dictates that.

That said, I actually enjoyed the movie. The effects were quite good. I think that they conveyed the weight of Aang’s burden a little more realistically in this movie than in “Book One” of the series. (Take that last sentence with a grain of salt: I’m the same guy who thinks that Ang Lee did a good job of explaining what Bruce Banner is eight kinds of jacked up – before he became big, green and destructive – in 2003’s Hulk.)

Was this a perfect movie? No.
Was it a good movie?  Yes.
Why? Because it was entertaining.

To be honest, I think that bringing the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender to life would have been a daunting task for any director to undertake. There are certain expectations that people have with favorite characters and stories. I also think that this movie suffered from the “double whammy” of:

1. Since this is based on a cartoon, people expected it to have the same light tone of the cartoon. It didn’t. And, I don’t think that was necessarily a “bad” thing.
2. M. Night Shyamalan as the writer/director. Audiences haven’t been happy with his films since… Signs, perhaps. (That’s unfortunate because The Lady in the Water really wasn’t a bad movie. I think that people just expected the then-usual “M. Night Shyamalan twist” near the end of the film and there wasn’t one.) I think that there’s been something of an expectation of failure – or at least some very serious trepidation – with this movie because his name is attached to it.

No director is going to get everything “just right” for everyone. No one. Joel Schumacher didn’t do it with his Batman movies. Bryan Singer didn’t do it with his X-Men or Superman movies. The various directors of the Harry Potter films left things out that annoyed some viewers. Sam Raimi didn’t with his Spider-Man movies, although he was doing alright until Spider-Man 3. Shyamalan didn’t do it with this one…

…but he got enough right for me.

Workout
Yesterday’s step count: 4420

Stray Toasters

• I broke out the Ray Rice Pro Bowl jersey today. It’s red and white with a blue collar and has stars, for that pre-holiday patriotic touch.
• shirt.woot.com is not, in fact, selling the shirt I thought that they had brought back to the marketplace. Bah.
• Lady Gaga vs Ace of Base
• I have a couple of additions to The Covet List:
  • This and
  • This
• 30th Anniversary of Airplane and Don’t Call Me Shirley (An Airplane Quiz)
• By way of NPR Music: A Mix for America
• Mel Gibson’s new racist rant and Mel Gibson Reportedly Hurled Racial Slurs
• Base jumper survives parachute error

Namaste.

Thursday – 01 July 2010
It’s kind of nice – and refreshing – to have the start of a brand-new month be an NBN Thursday. It puts a nice spin on things, I think.

It is also Canada Day.

What…?!
Alpha Flight is a team Canadian super-heroes.
(There’s even a maple leaf on Guardian’s costume!)
To me, that’s a “Win-Win.”

Last night, SaraRules fired up the grill and cooked up some mighty tasty burgers. (Have I mentioned: “Coolest Wife Ever,” lately?) After dinner, we headed up to her parents’ place for a bit — We spent some time with the grand’rents and I helped her dad troubleshoot a new wireless router he’d picked up.

Back at home, we wound down the evening with Top Gear and comic books (me) and ice cream (again, me). I tried to make it through the first two segments of The Late Late Show… and failed miserably. So, off to bed.

Workout
Yesterday’s step count: 3,937

Stray Toasters

• Someone brought doughnuts to the office this morning.  NOM!
• Again in the “Coolest Wife Ever” category (or at least the “Human of the Day” category): SaraRules just messaged me, asking if I wanted her to pick up tickets for The Last Airbender for tonight.
• LEGO + Futurama = Something Like This
• Toyota says 270,000 vehicles have faulty engines
• Scotty Doesn’t Know (featuring Matt Damon)
• For : A whole blog about the most science fictional garment of all time: The Unitard
• It seems as though the redesign of Wonder Woman’s outfit stirred up a lot of controversy yesterday. I found it all rather amusing.
• By way of SaraRules: Street-Legal Electric TRON Lightcycles for sale on eBay
• A Mild-Mannered Reporter: For the greater good
• From the Council for Better Driving: You Only Think Your Commute Sucks

Namaste.