Random Access

Mittwoch (Wednesday).

• Went to get coffee this morning. There was a man in line ahead of me, who discovered that his credit/debit card wasn’t getting authorization. He went to his car to get his checkbook…. it wasn’t there. So, I offered to – and did – pay for his coffee. He was astonished. Are altruistic acts so alien to us today? To me, it was just being kind, but I think that you could have knocked him over with the proverbial feather when I told Jamie (clerk at the local Beans & Brews) to just ring his items up with mine. Oh, well.
• Went to work. Wasn’t too bad.
• Started to go to the gym, but opted out and went to see John Q with Jess. Interesting movie; I liked it.
• Came home.

What’s this?!? John Madden may be on Monday Night Football next season?! And they may let Dennis Miller go? Either way, it should be interesting.

This made me laugh.

This also made me laugh: I heard a radio spot for performances of The Vagina Monologues. It went something like this:

Customer: I’d like to buy tickets for that play about…. (blah blah blah)…
Ticket Attendant: What’s the name of the play?
Customer: Well…. it sounds like “China”
Ticket Attendant: Oh…. you mean: The Vagina Monologues.
Customer: (You can almost hear her blanche on air.) Yes….
(blah blah blah…)
Ticket Attendant: So…. what was the name of the play again?
Customer: ….
Ticket Attendant: Come on… say it…
Customer: The Vagina Monolgues.
(blah blah blah…)

I found it funny because that sounded so much like how I would expect many of the locals, here behind the Zion Curtain, to react. Can you say ‘sexually repressed culture,’ boys and girls? I dunno. I just found it funny… especially since I could picture a number of peoples’ faces in the part of the customer. Click here for more information about the play.

And, to paraphrase Garrison Keillor: That’s all the news from Lake Saline… where all the children are happy, all the men are rugged, and the women are afraid to say the word “vagina.” Goodnight, everybody. Thanks for tuning in.

Peace.

Run of the mill Tuesday:

• Woke up.
• Wrote this morning’s entry.
• Hurried to get ready for…
• Work.
• Came home.

Yesterday, I installed a few programs on the laptop yesterday that seem to have given it the electronic equivalent of selective amnesia. Fortunately, I haven’t put anything on irreplaceable the new HD, so after giving it the System Restore CD equivalent of the Vulcan Mind Meld, it’s bad to normal. For now.

Peace.

Note: This would have been posted as a comment to the appropriate LJ entry, but both the entry and the offending reply have been deleted, so here it is…

Subject: Re: Black Guy about White Girl about White boy calling bullshit… (that’s a mouthful)

First: Work it, Grrrl!

Second: It never fails to amaze me that people fail to remember that the purpose of a journal is for posting opinions and thoughts about life and the world around us. It irritates me when people get on their moral high horses and look down their noses at someone because they happened to ‘say’ what’s on their mind… and they were either hurt or offended by it. It happened to me and I had to explain to the offended parties that I meant what I said and, based on my First Amendment rights, was not going to retract what I had said (although I did apologize for any hurt feelings).

The simple truth is: If you don’t like what (fill-in-name-here) has to say in their journal, DON’T READ IT. It’s just that simple. If that concept is too difficult, to grasp, don’t come onto LiveJournal…. no, better yet: Don’t even bother to log on to the Internet – if you think that the things here are opinionated, what exists outside of LJ would mortify you.

::: gets down from soapbox :::

Sorry about that, but that kind of comment bothers me. I’m sorry that it was deleted, it would have been nice to be able to show that shining example of closed-mindedness to everyone.

I hope that the rest of your day is better.

Rob (shadorunr)

Peace.

Not a bad day for a Monday.

I got trained on our ‘new’ flats (oversized envelopes, magazines, newspapers, etc.) system. And then, spent the last four hours of my shift processing live flats. This was cool because there wasn’t too much mail and I was able to get a LOT of drawing practice in.

Worked out for the first time in…. two weeks. And it felt like it. But, it was good to get back in there.

And to top things off: They are bringing back The Wayne Brady Show, starting next Monday. Life is good.

Peace.

It is over.
The 2002 Olympic Winter Games are now part of history.

I, along with nearly everyone else who has watched the games, have been duly impressed with the overall presentation. Even after all of the scandal and speculation, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) put on an amazing event. No, that might not be enough to encompass the Games. Possibly, “spectacle” would be better suited to describe it.

I missed the Opening Ceremonies, mostly by choice. I watched most of the Closing Ceremonies, on TV, as they were occurring. Very well done. And the closing fireworks display: Amazing. It was one of the, if not THE, most impressive display(s) that I have ever seen. We watched them, live, from Adrian’s; he lives about a mile, as the crow flies, from Rice-Eccles Olympic Stadium.¹ We felt the ground shake from that distance. Again, “amazing” is the only word that I can think of.

In the end, it can be said that the world came to Utah, and moreover to Salt Lake City, and everyone survived the experience. It has definitely been an interesting experience. I’ve gone from being rather apathetic about the games being here to being mildly interested to excited about them. Not too bad for a two week span, especially considering that I wasn’t even here for one of those weeks.

My father called me at the end of the live broadcast of the Closing Ceremonies to say that he had enjoyed the coverage of the games and ceremonies. Baltimore and Washington, D.C. are working in a joint venture to be candidate cities to host the 2012 Olympic Summer Games. Based on what I have seen and experienced during the past two weeks, if they are awarded the Games, I would definitely like to be there.

But for now, as the games have ended and the hour grows late, goodnight from Salt Lake City.

Peace.

¹ I wonder if The University of Utah will retain the name “Rice-Eccles Olympic Stadium” now that the Games are over. In my opinion, it would be a wise move. I think that it would add what I can only think of as “international prestige” to the stadium, and by association – the school. Of my friends that I asked, no one can really identify neither of the people for whom the stadium was named. What do you think that those names mean to people living outside of Utah (or Salt Lake City)? I don’t know if any other American cities which have hosted Olympic games have kept “Olympic” in the names of the arenas, but I would be interested to find out if they have.

Saturday. A nice, quiet day.

• Slept in, which is a nice thing.
• Didn’t do much during the early part of the day.
• Jess and I went to Red Lobster for dinner… and then she went to work, I came home.
• Worked on getting the laptop back into working order: I installed the new HD and now it has much more headroom…. not to mention: IT LIVES AGAIN!!!
  ::: cue maniacal laughter :::

• Bowled with Larry; I won 3 of 5. Barely. We both seemed to be off of our normal games.
• Came home.

Everyone seems to be posting personality tests; far be it from me to not conform publicly.

Which Chess Piece Are You?

“Your mind is a scary place to be.”
To quote Scar, from The Lion King,”You have NO idea…”

I also find this amusing because being “Black King” is something of a demotion. I’ve always thought of myself more along the lines of “Black Lord High Emperor” or, even more simply: “Da Heat.” Oh well. The king is the highest ranking piece on the board, so I guess I can’t (or shouldn’t) complain too much.

Quote of the Day: In something that, in my mind, brings a fitting close to Black History Month, Dee told me about Vonetta Flowers on this past Wednesday. She has achieved a couple of history-making firsts:

• She, and teammate Jill Bakken, were awarded the first medals ever awarded in the Olympic Women’s Bobsleigh event; and
• Vonetta is the first black athlete to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympic Games.

I have something of a running joke with my friends about the lack of black athletes in water sports of any state: liquid, solid (ice or snow), or gaseous (water vapor, i.e.: skydiving). Let’s face it: there aren’t many. After Dee told me about Flowers and Bakken won the Women’s Bobsleigh, I told him that black athletes were branching out. His response: “*sigh* Well, we still have clog dancing.” I told him that I think that is safe. For now.

Peace.

Now that I’ve got this up and running again, time to recap Friday.

• Work. Half day.
• Went to lunch at Rasputin (Russian cuisine) with Jess, Julia and Rick.
• Off to LS Micro to get a new HD for the laptop. The one in it crashed (AGAIN) while I was on vacation. When I called to find out about getting it repaired (AGAIN), they said that it would be $150, just for the diagnostic, plus then the cost of parts and labor to replace it. Doing it myself for less than the diagnostic cost seems the better option… and I get instant gratification on two fronts:
  • I’ll know that I did it myself.
  • I don’t have to wait for it to ship there, get repaired and get sent back.
• Went to the comic shop.
• Home.
• Jess went to work and I went downtown with Katherine, Land and Bob. We soaked up a little more of the Olympic atmosphere. And, I had the best part of my Olympic experience there. More on that below.
• Came home.

I decided to join K,L, and B downtown on a lark. I was originally planning on just having a quiet evening of drawing at Borders and coming home. That would have been a mistake. After finding a place to park, made easier by parking at Adrian’s and asking him to drop me off downtown, we met up and went to Bud World. First stop: Starbucks’®. It wasn’t blood-chillingly cold, but it is Salt Lake City in mid-winter. And there’s nothing wrong with having a nice Cafè Mocha to keep the chill at bay. That’s also where we had our Olympic experience…

We met Dr. Tenley Albright. She was the first American woman to win the Figure Skating gold medal (1956 Winter Games). We met her because Land was asking her about an Olympic program that she had; she showed it to him and introduced herself. She was a very gracious woman. She was also kind enough to take pictures with us and talk with us for a while. I even managed to get her autograph; unfortunately, the only thing that I had available to sign was my Palm Pilot… but she signed it. Thank Heaven for drawing programs!

For more information on Dr. Albright, see the following:

• Olympic Museum Lausanne
• Hall of Sports
• Academy of Achievement
• Hickock Sports

I’ve gotten to meet/see some of the Olympians from the 2002 Games, while doing Olympic postmark cancelations, but this was much more memorable and impressive: How often do you get to meet the first American Gold Medalist in a given event? Impressive, indeed.

Pictures of the evening can be seen here.

Peace.

My puter decided to be a bit difficult, so I lost my post.
I’ll redo it after I get some sleep.

Peace.

Let’s see… the past two days, encapsulated:

• Wednesday:
  • Work.
  • Trip to CompUSAir for a new scanner.
  • Trip to the hospital with Land because he was having chest pains. Turned out to be nothing serious, but better safe than sorry.
  • Home.
• Thursday:
  • Worked at Crossroads Mall again, doing Olympic cancelations. Fun, again. I enjoy working there because the time passes VERY quickly and you get to meet and TALK WITH people. And, for the most part, they are very pleasant and easy to get along with.
  • Came home.

Like I said,”encapsulated.” All that lies ahead is to figure out how long I am going to work tomorrow/today…

Peace.

Tired.
Long day.
Bed.
Post later.

Peace.

First day back at w0rk.

• It was a slow day, volume-wise. We keyed, we went idle, we moved… key, idle, move… repeat…
• Julia and I played “What Can You Make From This Squiggle” during the idle time.
• Put in a full eight, and then…
• Came home.

Haven’t really done much since getting here… and I am juuust fine with that. I talked to Mom on AIM for a bit. She was just getting in from her chorus’ concert; she said that it went well. She also was in a bit of a hurry: Her grades for the quarter are due in the morning.

One day down, three to go… and one of those is back at Crossroads doing cancelations (translation: Easy Day). I think that I can handle that.

Peace.

“Back in the USSR“….umm, “Utah.”

• Woke up, rather abruptly, when Mom burst into my room to confirm when we had to head to the airport. She did this sometime shortly after 07:00. *GAH* Pop came in sometime shortly thereafter to basically ask the same thing. “There’s no need to argue: Parents just don’t understand…”
• Fell back asleep and woke up a little before 10:00.
• Finished packing and waited for Mom to get back home.
• Drove to Charlotte… Hopped out at the airport… Said ‘bye’ to Mom… Got boarding passes and screened and was ready to go. Well, I was ready after stopping in the Starbucks for a Cafè Mocha.
• Flew to St. Louis. Called my aunt who lives there; I haven’t talked to her in a month of Sundays, so she was a little surprised.
• Flew to SLC. Went to dinner with Jess and then home.

I don’t think that you’re supposed to be tired AFTER a vacation, but I am. Maybe that’s just the sign of a good vacation. Back to the grind tomorning. Yay. But, I get to do cancelations again on Thursday, so there will be a little variety to the week.

Time to do an in-depth inner eyelid study.

Peace.

Sunday, in a nutshell:

• Woke up to a call from Peter, Pre-Salt Lake coworker/roommate.
• Church.
• Lunch with Mom, Kris and a friend of hers, and friends of Mom’s from church.
• Shopping with Mom and Kris… who are apparently going through the “growing pains” part of their relationship. I remember going through that and I think that I was about Kris’ age. Fun.
• Visited my friend Dave’s parents.
• It snowed. I leave SLC to get away from the snow and the hoopla and it snows here. Unglaublich!
• Visited Dave and his friend Cindy.
• Dinner with Christine, Don, Thomas and Sheila (Christine’s sister).
• Back to C-D-T’s house for a bit.
• Home… repacked, showered and almost set to go tomorning.

I think that I want to say more about the day, but it can wait until after I get back to SLC.

You’d think that a week would be enough time to do just about everything that I wanted. No such luck, but there is no way that I am going to complain – I had a great time while I was here. I guess that Ms. Dorothy Gale was correct when she said “There’s no place like home…” But, since I don’t want to even ponder what I’d look like in ruby slippers, I’ll just call it a night.

Peace.

I think that I will rename “Saturday” to “What-A-Day.”

• Slept until 11:30 EST. This was good because I needed the sleep. This was bad because I had planned on being ready to hit the road around 12:00. Oh well, “the best made plans of mice and men…”
• Tried to track down my God-sister, Tammy; we had made semi-plans to see each other before I headed back. She would have KILLED me if I’d come to Baltimore and didn’t see her. Went to her mom’s house, she wasn’t there, but her new (to me) baby, Kirsten, was there. Adorable. Sleeping, but adorable. From there, I went to where they thought she was… she wasn’t there. So, I went back to Dad’s to finish packing. And my phone rings. *sigh* So… we met for all of :05 in the parking lot of one of the Metro stations. She’s worth it. And, Kirsten was awake by this time. VERRA CUTE.
• Back home, threw the last things in the car, got pics of the family-unit, said my goodbyes and hit the road!
• Ran into a traffic snafu in Ellicott City. Yay. I took a detour, which everyone else and his/her respective mother, dog and cat also decided to take.
• Stopped at Friendly’s for a bit of frozen dairy goodness. Apparently, I wasn’t explicit in my request, because my ice cream came in a cup… which makes it a wee bit difficult to drive and eat simultaneously. But, the nice young lady at the counter gave me a cone, too, so I sat in the car and ate some of the ice cream and then packed a reasonable amount into the cone.
• Finally managed to get in touch with Bret. He was on the other side of D.C. from where I was headed, so seeing him this trip wasn’t an option. BAH! We had a good talk, though.
• Stopped at the Washington Temple (LDS) and took some pics; I may not be LDS, but I appreciate good architecture. I remember riding/driving past it at night, when it’s lit up… it looks like a castle out of a fairy tale. Quite impressive.
• Drove. And drove. And drove. (Note to : No problems finding diesel this time.)
• Stopped at the DQ in Lynchburg for a dipped cone and a Mr. Misty.
• Drove. And drove. And drove.
• Got to Mom’s. Sprawled on the bed for a few before heading out to meet Theo. We went for a late bite to eat, then back to his place so I could install a new modem for him.
• Came home.

And I am now officially tired. Which should make sleep both an easy to find and a welcome surrender.

More tomorrow.

Peace.

So much that I wanted to do, so little time…

• Woke up around 13:something and slowly became socially presentable.
• Adam, my brother, and I went to visit our old babysitter; it would be closer to say that she’s more an extended family member.
• Stopped at B&N for some caffeinated mocha goodness.
• Went by what used to be Geppi’s Comic Shoppe. No clue where they relocated and no time to check.
• Got a call from Barbara, one of my stepsisters. She is hip-deep in work and said that she wouldn’t get a chance to meet me this go-round. *BAH* When she started to tell me what she is working on, it made sense. LOTS of it. So, we talked about her taking a long weekend in the next couple of months and coming to the Land Behind the Zion Curtain. She seemed to like that idea.
• Came home, picked up Grandma and went to… *deep breath*… IKEA.
  ::: genuflect :::Grandma needed a desk for her computer, and Adam and I provided the “yea”/”nay” opinions and the muscle to get it into the car.

• Came home and then headed to the Inner Harbor. Adam and I were going to go to the Hard Rock Cafe, but there was a live band playing and I wasn’t sure if he’d be able to get in… so we went to ESPNZone, instead; it was his first time there. Dinner was pretty good.
• Walked around Harborplace and took a few pics.
• Drove up to Federal Hill and did the same.
• Came home.

Tomorrow, I have to catch up with a couple of people and say a fast “hi/bye” before trekking back to the Tarheel State. This leg of the trip is putting a whole new spin on the phrase “No rest for the wicked.” But, it’s been good, so I can’t complain too much.

Peace.