Random Access

Saturday
So far, I’ve managed to get away with not doing too much. However, that’s something of a two-edged sword since I really need to do some cleaning this afternoon. But, there is something to be said for taking some lazy time for oneself.

NPR/PRI
Talk of the Nation – Science Friday had a discussion about the latest debate over teaching evolution vs. creationism (or “Intelligent Design”). The Ohio State Board of Education has proposed new guidelines for teaching science and this was one of the issues that they address. The second hour looked at smallpox, the risks of vaccination against it and its uses as a weapon.

Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer among others, was one of the guests interviewed on Fresh Air. I don’t think that I had previously heard nor read any interviews with him. He presented some interesting ideas about his writing style and the things that he seeks to achieve in creating characters and storylines.

Quote of the Day

Paul: I used to think that I was of pretty average intelligence. But, when I got to know more about people in society, I realized: I must be a fucking genius.

Stray Toasters

• I’m going to see 8 Mile in about an hour.
• I am going to go ahead with plans to set-up a discussion group for next weekend.
• I still need to get this cleaning done.
• I still don’t have the motivation to get started on it.
• Must… remember… to… record… Justice League: The Savage Time.
• I [heart] my X-Box.
• Purdue seems to be having a hard time putting points on the scoreboard against Ohio State. Maryland is getting schooled by N.C. State.
• I just found out that a friend recently got hired by M$. I’m assuming that since he is a game designer that he will be working for them in that (or at least a very similar) capacity.
• has one of the best IRC quit messages that I’ve seen in a while: Quit: ride my karmic wheel of kick ass!

Okay… I guess that I should go and get ready for the movie. And then come back and clean the Hell (the Abyss, Purgatory and the other dark planes) out of the apartment.

Namaste.

Friday
Four down and one to go. As far as work weeks go, this one has been pretty painless. Of course, the song said that Suicide Is Painless¹, too, but I don’t think that is an option that I would like to exercise. Although, it could be said that eight hours of work is a daily form of attempted suicide. Hmm. That may be a thought to be taken up at a later time.

NPR/PRI News
The Shrub gave a press conference yesterday; it pre-empted the first hour of Talk of the Nation. No big deal. I have to admit something: Even though I am not the man’s most ardent supporter, I think that he did a decent job. He was fairly open and downright jocular with the reporters. Was there any spin in his speech? Uhh… Does James Brown sing Sex Machine? You bet your ass there was spin! But, it was a post-election press conference. Go figure. And, the overall tone of the conference/interview was good. And, he said “nucular” eight times, that I counted. Hoo-AH!

Talk of the Nation discussed the Catholic Church’s new policy on dealing with the sexual abuse scandal and the reasons why members of the clergy and the laiety like and/or dislike it, in its current form.

On Fresh Air, Terry Gross interviewed Bill Maher, the former host of Politically Incorrect. As ever, Mr. Maher is a man of strong opinions and he is not afraid to assert and defend them. I thought that it was a very well-done interview and it even evoked some rather strong opinions among some people at work.

Song of the Day: In light of the George Clinton interview on The Screen Savers yesterday, today’s SotD will be the Friday Morning Funk-for-All with a spotlight on the Funkmaster himself and the Parliament Funkadelic. That’s right. The Mothership has landed and it’s here with P-Funk for your ears: Flash Light, Up on the Down Stroke, Aqua Boogie, Dr. Funkenstein, Motherhip Connection (Star Child), Testify, and… of course: Tear the Roof Off the Sucker (Give Up the Funk).

Stray Toasters

• I actually managed to play Halo last night! After four days of trying to get to it, I did last night.
• From this morning’s conversation with :
  

  [09:29] : “At four o’clock, an evil man made his bed and lay in it, a pot called a kettle black, a stone-thrower broke the windows of his glass house. You look for this one under ‘F’ for fanatic and ‘J’ for justice – in the Twilight Zone.”
  [09:30] ShadoRunr: I just read that.
  [09:30] : isn’t that funny imagery?
  [09:30] ShadoRunr: I have never made any statements disavowing my evil nature.
  [09:30] : a pot calling a kettle black?
  [09:30] ShadoRunr: You have heard of that saying before, have you not?
  [09:30] : yeah
  [09:30] : I know what it means
  [09:30] : but really.
  [09:31] : who’s ever heard of a talking pot?
  [09:31] : it’s like Homer Simpson’s movie idea with the Talking Pie
  [09:31] ShadoRunr: Ever see Disney’s Beauty and the Beast?
  [09:31] : oh.
  [09:31] : well.
  [09:31] ShadoRunr: That had a talking pot
  [09:31] : a talking TEA pot
  [09:31] : and the teapot wasn’t black.
  [09:32] ShadoRunr: No, but it was a pot and it did talk.

• And, from a conversation with my friend, m3lody, ‘s (whom we often refer to as “Balt,” for short) girlfriend:
  

  [09:38] ShadoRunr: After an overwhelming and almost unanimous vote by Gibraltarians to reject plans by London and Madrid to share sovereignty over the Rock, BBC Monitoring looks at what is being said in the media in both Gibraltar and Spain.

  [09:38] ShadoRunr: Since when did Balt get into managing wrestlers?
  [09:38] m3lodywise: bwahahahaha!
  [09:38] m3lodywise: so… since we’re friends of balt…. are we gibraltarians too?
  [09:39] ShadoRunr: Hmmm. I guess so.
  [09:39] m3lodywise: cool!

• In talking to m3lody and some others, I mentioned The Association. They had a song called: Pandora’s Golden Heebie Jeebies. You can check out the lyrics here.

Quotes of the Day:

• Dee: I like the environment. It doesn’t annoy me.
• Dee: One minute, I’m just Dee… minding my own business; the next, I’m Ike Turner all over the lunch room.
• Rick: Throwing up is just tears from my stomach.

Namaste.

¹ – Suicide Is Painless was the title of the theme from M*A*S*H, both the movie and the television show. The lyrics can be heard at the opening of the movie, but (for some reason) they used an instrumental version for the TV show. Go figure.

Thursday
Morning. I think that’s what they call this. I am slowly getting used to remembering what it is. And, I am getting used to going to the gym in the morning again. I think. “Jack Bristow” and “Scotty” both spoke to me this morning.

NPR/PRI Stories
Lots (and I mean “plethoric buttloads”) of post-election coverage.

Fresh Air had a rather interesting interview with John Burns, Foreign Affairs correspondent for the New York Times. They discussed the most recent three weeks that he spent in Iraq (post-election and the presidential amnesty that was granted to almost all inmates in Iraqi prisons).

Song of the Day: Today, our musical notice turns to His Purple Badness, the artist formerly (and once again) known as Prince. The songs Pope, The Sacrifice of Victor, and Electric Chair will be your Thursday Triple Play.

Stray Toasters

• I have been looking for the connector cable that goes from my camera to my laptop/PC. For two weeks. No luck. So, I bought a SmartMedia/CompactFlash dual-format card reader Sunday night. Yesterday, while sitting at work, I had my laptop case sitting on my desk (where I almost never put it). I had the back of it facing me… and I saw something. Something that looked notoriously like… a wire. Or a cable. I opened that pocket, which (again) I almost never use… and there was the cable. *sigh*
• Does anyone, besides me, remember what the “M” in “MTV” stands for? Apparently, the folks at Viacom have only a vague recollection of it. And in a related note: Ja Rule and Bobby Brown are doing a song/video? Who would have thought it possible?
• The servers on Dalnet (IRC) are being complete bastard-asses.
• I may be in a minority here (well, aside from being non-LDS in Utah), but I’m rather interested in seeing 8 Mile.
• I want to see the new Harry Potter movie, too.
• This may forever condemn me as a geek (or geek-in-training), but I can live with that: I like The Screen Savers on TechTV. It’s become part of (…actually most of…) my pre-work morning television fare. Not only is it a tech-savvy show, but the hosts are entertaining. And it’s fun. Besides, you gotta give ’em props for having an interview with the Funkmaster himself: George Clinton.
• Last night, I got the tickets for my brother to fly out here. He’ll be one of the masses who travels during the Thanksgiving weekend.

Well, off to save the world… or, at least it’s mail.

Namaste.

Wednesday
I can tell that getting back into the swing of things is going to take a while. We’ve been back since Saturday evening, but I’m still trying to get my body to acclimate to the concept of “a schedule.” As such, the snooze button on the clock became my good friend this morning. So much so that I will be going to the gym tonight.

Song of the Day: The Monkey Song from “The Animaniacs Faboo! Collection.” Why? Because it’s fun. And funny. And… and…. “just because.”

Stray Toasters:

• Last night, Jess, Angie and I went to see Spirited Away. The movie was very good. And cute. It was a good companion piece to Princess Mononoke.

  and her bf were there… but since I hadn’t actually met her before, I didn’t know that. And I was not about to stand up in the (nearly-empty) theatre and yell out someone’s name…. especially when the only name that I knew, at the time, was her LJ user name. *sigh* It turns out that they were sitting two rows in front of us. Go figure.

• I’m trying to find airfare for my brother to come here over his Thanksgiving break. It has become something of a quest than a regular “search.”
• Have I mentioned that I have a severe dislike of the commercial for Yoplait Custard Style Yogurt. I find it… highly annoying. Especially the part where one of the women compares it to being “‘…favorite song on the radio’ good.” *cringe* I hadn’t seen the commercial in some time. I was perfectly happy with that. Then, while watching a tape of last week’s Bird’s of Prey, there it was. And I was out of the room doing something… and got an earful of it. Yay.
• In getting ready to shave this morning, I had a dallop of shaving gel in my hand and was putting away the can of shaving gel. What I didn’t think about was the fact that the gel and the can were in the same hand. The result: Shaving gel all over my foot. I had to laugh.

And that’s all for now. Time to watch X-Men: Evolution, have a cup of coffee and something to eat and head to the joyous place of employment.

Namaste.

Tuesday
It wasn’t easily waking up this morning. Getting out of bed? That was a Herculean effort. Going to the gym, once I dragged myself out of bed? No problem.

Song of the Day: Holy Two-fer-Tuesday, Batman! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist… but that does segue nicely into the two songs for today: The End Is the Beginning Is the End and The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning, both by the Smashing Pumpkins and both from the Batman & Robin soundtrack (movie link). Once again, this is a case of crappy movie/good soundtrack. It holds a long-standing and low-ranking place on the “Cool World – Long Kiss Goodnight Scale.” The songs, for those of you who aren’t familiar with them, are basically the same song played at radically different tempos and with different lyrics; End is the uptempo song while Beginning is slow and almost dirge-like. But, both are good songs.

Stray Toasters

• Kris was online this morning; she was checking her email between classes. This means that I got to talk to her for a few minutes.
• Rana messaged me around 0500 MST. She wanted me to relay a message to the ‘rents, so…
• I talked to Dad for a few this morning.
• We (Jess, Angie, Dee and I… and whomever else wants to join) are going to see Spirited Away tonight @ 21:20 @ Jordan Commons (hereafter referred to as ‘Larryland: South’). If anyone would be interested in tagging along, email me or leave me a message on AIM/ICQ.

And now it is time for some coffee, maybe a bowl of cereal… and if I have time… a little bit of Halo.

Namaste.

Monday (part III)
Wouldn’t you know it… I forgot two things from the Stray Toasters in the last post:

• G.I. Joe was on Cartoon Network’s “Midnight Run.” I remember watching that after school in the mid-80s. Buying (or, more likely: “Having my parents buy…”) the action figures and a couple of the vehicles and playing with them with friends. Ah, nostalgia…

  One thing that I never really paid attention to when I was younger, but that I became aware of years later: No one ever died in the G.I. Joe toons. No Joes. No members of COBRA. Hell, not even innocent bystanders (of which there always seemed to be far too few). It was sort of like The A-Team for kids. No one ever died on that show, either. Not even the A-Team, as they faked their deaths and basically became Robert Vaughn’s private freedom fighters in the last season of the show.

• I haven’t gotten any feedback on an idea that I pitched in my 25 Oct 2002 post. So… consider this a swift kick in the “let me refresh your memory” department: Read ‘Toaster #2 from that and give me some input! Please.

Okay, that’s really it.

No, I mean it this time.

Nothing more.

I’m going to bed. Or, as Eric Cartman would say… “Screw you guys, I’m going home.”

Namaste.

Monday (part II)
It wasn’t as bad a day (at work) as I had anticipated. Mercifully. In fact, while talking to Land, I got an idea for another discussion group. The only problem is that it would have to be in two weeks… otherwise, that starts to cut into peoples’ holiday time (and the beginning of our busy season at work). We shall see…

Land, Harmon, Jenny and I got into a conversation that ranged from handgun control (a “hot button” topic for Land) to… let’s call it “cultural sensitivity” (a hot topic for me). It’s nice to be able to discuss topics in an adult manner. Especially when: a) The topic is outside a person’s normal paradigm and/or b) The topic(s) can be discussed without anyone feeling threatened or made to feel “stupid” by others’ opinions. I had to draw upon a couple of conversations that I had with some people that I met in college to make my points, but I think that I stated my views effectively.

NPR/PRI Stories
Umm… I don’t know. I didn’t listen to the radio today. I spent the first half of my shift talking with people and catching up on what happened while Jess and I were gone.

Stray Toasters…

• It seems as though one of my new favorite shows is under the gun, so to speak: Birds of Prey has (still) not been picked up for a full season; the heads at WB haven’t decided what they are going to do. *sigh* There is a campaign to save the show. If you’re interested, you can sign the online petition. Maybe this is a combination of “first-year jitters” and “maybe this isn’t the best timeslot,” but I don’t think that the show is that bad. In fact, I think that it is a complementary program to Smallville. Hmm… Maybe they should consider airing them back-to-back.
• While looking at the Digital Concept Gallery (DCG) on the Comics2Film site, someone had posted a “Micro Hero” picture of Hawkeye, from Marvel Comics’ “The Avengers.” Curiosity, being the nearly insatiable beast that it is, I looked up “micro hero” on Google and came up with a more links than I had expected. I decided to check out this one… which led me to this one… which, in turn, led me to this one. A Legion site. And, a fairly comprehensive one, at that. ::: bliss :::
• The Late Show with David Letterman had their famous (or would it be ‘infamous,’ in this case) “Stupid Human Tricks” segment tonight. I only saw two of the tricks. One was truly… well… “stupid.” The other one was “creative,” to say the least. I have NO idea where they came up with the idea, but it was definitely different. What was it? A guy and a girl who (and I am not making this up) “exchanged underwear without taking off their pants.” Ô_õ What in the Nine Hells?!?! Of course, I had to watch this. And I made Jess watch it, too. In the words of Dr. Rosenblatt, “It’s so bizarre!”

  If you want to see it, click here to go to the Late Show website. After it loads, click on “Big Show Highlight” in the “DaveTV” section. (There should be a picture of two people who look like they are halfway through a jumping-jack.) Watch the RealPlayer video. It’s bi-fucking-zarre. And, I will apologize here to those of you who are on a dial-up connection… but I will also say that it’s worth the load time to see this… this… spectacle.

Quote of the Day: Today’s quote comes from Land. Yes, Land. Owner of the boy-truck (which was effectively castrated during an off-road adventure this summer). Orator of speeches (1, 2)that make congregations squirm in their seats.

“Penis.”

By itself, it may not seem amusing. But when you hear it in context [Land, sitting next to me, looked at me, said “I think that I’m about to have a moment….” and then stood up, looked across our row of terminals at Dee and Harmon, on the opposite row and just…. blurted that out] it was priceless. I wish that I had taken my camcorder to get that moment. All four of us spent the better part of the next 90 seconds laughing.

And now… sleepy-bye time.

Namaste.

Monday
I know why the caged bird sings people have such an aversion to returning from vacations. The alarm went off this morning… and I stayed in bed. I was tired, go figure. I think that the only thing that would have been worse would have been to have come back to SLC yesterday, rather than Saturday. Of course, sleeping in means that I skipped Monday morning gymtime. This means that I will go this evening after work.

Last night, I was all set to watch last week’s episodes of Smallville, Birds of Prey and X-Men: Evolution, but the fates railed at me. Apparently, the following things happened:

• No Smallville because it seems that the local WB affiliate decided to take a powder during that time.
• No Birds of Prey… because I set the timer for the wrong time. But, I did get Dawson’s Creek. Whoop-de-fuck.
• XME? “No go, Fly.” (What movie is that from?) Apparently, KidsWB decided not to air it at the same time that they have been airing it. What did I get here? Mucha Lucha, one of this season’s new wrestling-themed toons. Joy.

I was able to catch Smallville last night, during the WB’s “Easy View” programming. So, it wasn’t a total loss.

Song of the Day: Presto, from the CD of the same name by Rush.

And now… off to have a cup of coffee and a doughnut or two before heading off to “that place.”

Namaste.

Sunday
After nearly a week… I’m back. And, since it has been almost a week since I’ve posted, this will be a L-O-N-G entry. It was a good trip. A lot of work. Colder than brass monkey balls. But, all in all, it was a good trip. Sandi, Jim, Julie and the boys moved to a VERRA nice house that is right on the Deschutes River. Literally. They step out of their back door (or down from the deck) and they are… 20 yards from the river. In fact, it is in the Deschutes National Forest. And the night sky there… Amazing. I can only think of one other place that I have been where I have seen such a star-laden sky. It was nothing short of incredible. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Tuesday

• Got up finished getting packed.
• Made the final leave-the-house preparations.
• It started to snow. SNOW!?!? Here in the valley?!? What in the Nine Hells!?! That did not augur well. Fortunately, it was just a squall and was over shortly after it started.
• Sandi and Jim picked us up and we headed to their place for the last bit of packing, and then….
• We were off! We stopped at a McDonald’s (before getting onto the freeway) to get a bite to eat. I had noticed that my hip and thigh were cold, but I had attributed it to the fact that I was still cold from moving things into the truck. Wrong. Jess had a Pepsi that she had gotten earlier… and set on the seat of the truck under/behind some other things. It had spilled, slowly (I guess that would be more of a “leak,” then”) all over my left thigh. Wonderful. So, I had the pleasure of changing pants. In the McD’s bathroom. A few minutes (and a clean pair of jeans) later, we were off to Boise.
• Fog had settled around some of the mountains in Ogden; it looked like something out of Lord of the Rings.
• In northern Utah, we saw signs for deer crossings… and a few that said “Game Crossing.” I had to ask Jess if she had seen the same thing, just to make sure that my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. She confirmed it: “Game Crossing.” I half expected to see board games crossing the road.
• Somewhere between Snowville, UT and the Idaho state line, we ran into blizzards. Not singular. BLIZZARDS!!! Two of them!
• We finally got to Boise, but didn’t have a chance to do any exploring. We stayed in a hotel that was across the interstate from the Boise, ID Temple. I went to a few gas stations to look for Idaho postcards. Went to three gas stations – NO LUCK!
• On the way back to the hotel, I stopped at the BK Lounge for late-night dinner.

Wednesday

• Julie came in way too early (0645) to get the boys (who were sleeping in our room).
• We got up, got ready and then went to get something to eat. I opened the door… and it was WAY TOO COLD! Wa-a-a-a-a-ay too cold. Following a light fare, we loaded up and got back on the road.
• Drive… and drive… and drive. With LOTS of nothing to look at until we got to Bend. We stopped at what, by definition only, was a “rest stop,” about an hour outside of Burns, OR. It looked like a two-stall outhouse. Scary. Everyone else braved the cold and the facilities. I decided to wait. Then, we were off again. We passed “through” a small towns. Lots of them. We drove though Brothers, OR… which was almost non-existent. Finally, we got to….
• Burns. It was a small town. It reminded me of Reidsville (the city in NC where my mother lives). We ate at a small (and I do mean “small”) casino.
• On the road between Burns and Bend there was plenty of nothing to look at… again. However, there were more interesting signs. This time they were “culvert” signs. Denoting where storm culverts crossed under the road. I wasn’t 100% sure that I had read the first one correctly, but I was Ivory Soap sure (99.44%) that it did say “culvert.” I had to laugh.
• We rolled into Bend – FINALLY!!! We got to the house and started to unload the trucks. And it was still very cold. VERY cold. Too damned cold.
• We went out for dinner and then did a little shopping (groceries and miscellaneous things). Something of which I had not been previously aware: Drivers are not allowed to pump their own gas in Oregon. Interesting. ALL of the gas stations are full-service. I felt sorry for the pump attendants for having to be out in the cold all night (or for a good portion of it).

Thursday

• More unpacking.
• It was STILL cold.
• Jim and I went into Sunriver for a bit so that he could take care of some paperwork (and so that I could get out of the house).
• MORE unpacking.
• Sandi and Julie took Bryeson and Brayden trick-or-treating while the rest of us stayed at home. I took this opportunity to avail myself of the SHOWER!!! May I just say that, in my opinion, a pair of mankind’s greatest inventions are: Indoor plumbing and the hot water heater.
• The rest of the evening was fairly uneventful: Dinner and watching TV.

Friday

• Breakfast.
• Dropped off the moving trucks.
• Unpacked/moved more furniture and boxes.
• Jim went to work, the rest of us decided to head into Bend. It’s a small city (population 55,080) but it’s a nice place. I told Sandi that she and Jim could stay there since they had not only a Bank of America (which simply do not exist here behind the Zion Curtain), some used book stores and a comic book store. It was still quite cold, but it was nice to get a (brief) look at the city.
• When we got back to the house, I finished setting up the tech equipment. It was at this point that I realized that doing tech support for them will now be roughly as difficult as it is to do for my parents (due to the distance).

Saturday

• We woke up, observed the necessary hygiene rituals, finished packing and then headed to Portland to catch our flight back. The drive was uneventful, but it was also very scenic in some areas – especially when we were going through Mt. Hood National Forest. Wow. I had almost forgotten how much I missed trees and “green.” We had a little bit of a problem finding a restaurant at which to eat, so we finally stopped at the Embassy Suites near the airport. It turns out that the same firm that designed the Portland hotel was the same firm that designed the one in Greensboro, NC. There were a number of immediately-evident design similarities.
• Sandi dropped us off at Portland International Airport about an hour before our flight. Nice airport. Thanks to the benefits of membership in the Southwest Airlines “Rapid Rewards” program, Jess and I were able to take the “Express” line to the security gates. Of course, that didn’t do anything to diminish the time that it took Patrick (one of the agents at the security area) to go through my laptop case. He was a pleasant enough gentleman, though. The flight was relatively fast, about an hour-and-a-half.
• Adrian picked us up and brought us home. The three of us then went to dinner and bowling. Here’s the part where I should say that my game sucked, but that would be far too much of an understatement. Therefore, I will make no reference to how poorly I played and thus shall the extent of my shame be known only to me and to those who were there. I can deal with them one-by-one… Then it was off to V.I. for late-night eats and then home.
  I know that most people think of a “vacation” as a time to do as little “work” as possible and get as much R&R as possible. Well…. this wasn’t one of those vacations. But, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Why not? Well, let’s see…
  • I got to visit a place to which I had never been. Technically, a couple of places: My Idaho experience, prior to this trip, had been limited to a small town in the southeastern corner of the state.
  • I got to help the inlaws move.
  • I got to see a bald eagle in the wild… or at least the back of it. Close enough.
  • And, most importantly, I was on vacation. Not at work. Not in the valley. On vacation. And it felt damn good. Well, it did once the soreness of the riding/moving wore off.

  ::: Football Update :::
  The Ravens played the Falcons today. They lost. 20 – 17. They had a poor first half, but they seemed to more or less pull it together in the second half… but it was too late. And the mistakes that would be all too easy to call “stupid mistakes” were prevalent, but they happen. And they were costly. Hopefully, they won’t continue to plague the team over the rest of the season.
  ::: End Update :::

  And that’s pretty much all of the news from Lake Wobegon Saline.

  Namaste.