Random Access

Saturday – 08 October 2011
Today is Yom Kippur (it actually started last night at sundown). I’d like to wish my friends who celebrate it a safe and good day… as well as an easy fast.

Today is also our resident Kid Flash’s one-month-day.

Last night, SaraRules!’ friend from the Justice League Junior League, Jana, came by to visit and meet the girls. It was nice getting to chat with her for a bit. After the visit – and feeding the girls – SaraRules! and I managed to squeeze in a little time to catch the new episode of Fringe. Thank Heaven for DVRs…

Today, SaraRules! slipped out for a bit to go to her quilt club, while I stayed home with the girls. They actually let me sleep until nearly 10:00, which was great, as I was up (and intermittently napping) with Diana for a good portion of the wee hours of the morning. I’m heading to Dr. Volt’s for their 21st Anniversary Sale and Signing. If you’re in the Millcreek area, you should stop in and check things out.

And, this evening: Canadian Thanksgiving dinner.

Stray Toasters

• Raiders owner Al Davis dead at 82
• Well, she sneaks around the world from Kiev to Carolina
  She’s a sticky-fingered filcher from Berlin down to Belize
  She’ll take you for a ride on a slow boat to China
  Tell me, where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?
• 
• Yeah, I’m really wanting to tear down and rebuild my train layout.  If only I had a replacement layout in mind…
• For SaraRules!: I think I’ve found an idea for family pictures: Post-Apocalypse Zombie-Slaying Family Portrait
• This is absolutely cute: Elderly couple of 62 years plays piano

  I can only hope that SaraRules! and I are that spry and having that much fun when we get to be their age.

• Frank Langella on Acting, Aging and Being Very Bad

Up. Out.

Namaste.

Friday – 07 October 2011
It’s a chilly 9/80 “on” Friday. It’s also Ms. ‘s birthday.

It is also our Little Miss Wonder Girl’s one-month-day.

Last night, Diana, Vanessa and I undertook a new nighttime ritual last night — Bath time! The girls received baby bathtubs as shower gifts and since the last remnants of their umbilicals have fallen off, they are now able to use them. They were a little fussy – which was quite understandable – but on the whole did just fine.

After their baths, SaraRules! read them Goodnight, Moon before feeding them and putting them to bed.

Stray Toasters

• I credit/blame SaraRules! for this morning’s subject line. She had an idea for Hallowe’en costumes for herself and the girls that amused me… and put that lyric in mind: Getting a leopard print bodysuit and onesies, respectively, and dressing up as Josie and the Pussycats.

• For Meliko: Dinosaurs and Robots: Art Opening in Anchorage, AK
• Nightmares Fear Factory’s photostream — you know, since it’s October.
• Race-Based Names Dot the Landscape
• Love and Capes: If you’re not reading it, I want to know why.
• Remember the Toys You Played With As a Kid With This Video
• 
• Feds to outline plans today for shutting down California pot shops
• U.S. Panel Says No to Prostate Screening for Healthy Men
• Under 4% now: 30-year mortgage rate hits record low

Namaste.

Thursday – 06 October 2011
Not only is today another NBN Thursday – and rainy (or snowy, up in the canyons) – but it’s also my father’s birthday. Today would have also been ‘s birthday. Football seasons aren’t quite the same without him around.

Unless you’ve sequestered yourself from news sources for the past 24 hours, you’re most likely aware that Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs has died:

• Steve Jobs, 1955 – 2011
• Steve Jobs, Apple founder, dies
• Apple’s Visionary Redefined Digital Age
• Steven P. Jobs: His Life, His Companies, His Products
• Steve Jobs and the idea of letting go
• Steve Jobs: The Link Between Machines and Humans

As Mr. Jobs, himself stated in his commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005:

“…you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect somewhere down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path. And that will make all the difference.

” Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don’t settle.

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to Heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary….”

As I posted in a tweet earlier:

Steve Jobs looked to the future and constantly pushed forward to achieve his vision. We should all strive to do the same. #foodforthought

And we should.

Stray Toasters

• On this morning’s commute, The Black Crowes’ She Talks to Angels came on the radio. That song reminds me of my grandmother, because of this…

  

  …which I drew for my father. It made me smile.

• America’s best neighborhoods: Does yours make the grade?
• Sheen and Estevez Do Movies the Father-Son ‘Way’
• Spotify. Mmm…
• 
• Learning Klingon helps man confront his dyslexia
• Running of Bulls Is Risky, But Liability Is Low
• Thanks to one of SaraRules!’ coworkers, I think I’m inheriting new trains…
• ‘Bippolo Seed’ Uncovers Lost Stories of Dr. Seuss

Right on to the friction of the day…

Namaste.

Wednesday – 05 October 2011
Midweek… which means that not only is the week half-over, but it’s new comics day, too. Win. Win.

Yesterday was a pretty busy day around the office. That was followed by a busy evening with the girls:

Eat. Sleep. Change diapers.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Both girls are doing well. They’re still a bit congested – we’re thinking inflamed sinuses, as there’s been no nasal drip – but otherwise fine. And, they’re still damned adorable.

Stray Toasters

• Flu shot. I got one this morning.
• 40 Mysteries of Fall Style, Solved in Seconds
• The Alpha Male
• The Sartorialist
• Los Angeles Orchestra to Lead Youth Effort
• Would it be too early to get this for the girls?

  

• The Essentials: Great Things and How to Wear Them
• The ‘L.A. Rebellion’ returns
  

• Everybody (everybody), loosen up
  Shake it like U just don’t care (Shake it like U just don’t care)
  Never mind your friends
  Girl, it ain’t no sin
  2 strip right down 2 your underwear

  I say everybody (everybody), mm, screw the masses
  We only want 2 have some fun (I only wanna have some fun)
  I say do whatever we want
  Wear lingerie 2 a restaurant
  Policeman got no gun, U don’t have 2 run

• 
• Do Civil Rights Apply to Parochial Schools?
• Civil rights leader Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth dead at 89
• A friend’s grandmother passed away recently. As we were chatting, I looked up – and shared – this, which I wrote when my grandmother died. I also reread the piece… and it made me smile to remember her.
• ESPN drops Hank Williams, Jr. from ‘Monday Night Football’

And that’s that… for now.

Namaste.

Monday – 03 October 2011
Happy 2nd Anniversary to SaraRules!

It’s been an amazing couple of years and I look forward to many more with you!

Today has definitely been “a Monday.” The first half of my day was chock full of things that needed to get done with the quickness. And the hits just kept coming. Fortunately, things slowed down enough around 1:30 that I was able to have lunch.

Stray Toasters

• The Ravens beat the Jets (again) last night.
  Ravens Drive the Jets into the Turf
  It wasn’t the world’s most beautiful win, but it still goes in the “Win” column AND it puts the Ravens in lone possession of first place in the AFC North.
• ‘Christian’ as the magic word of politics
• 10 Small Towns with Fantastic Fall Colors
• I want to change my model railroad layout. Again.
• Caffeinated Women May Be Fighting Depression with Every Cup
• A State Grooms Its Best Students to Be Good Teachers

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.