Random Access

Sunday
I managed to sleep in this morning. All the way until a little after 10:00. Opening my eyes, I realized that there was someone with a hammer (I don’t think that it was Thor as there was no lightning or thunder associated with it) located somewhere behind my eyes. How he got there, I have no idea…. I started working on a few things and more-or-less “forgot” about the headache. I wound up “remembering” it when the hammer-wielder decided to pick up where he or she had left off.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon was rather uneventful. I did get to chat with Rana for a bit. She’s doing well and is about to embark on a brief trip and get more stamps on her passport.

Tonight’s movie was Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku no tobira, also known as Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door or just Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. Nothing like seeing ‘Bebop on the big screen. Well, it was a semi-big screen; we saw it at Tower Theater, one of the older (and independent!) theatres in the city. My only “complaint” was that they didn’t use Tank! or The Real Folk Blues (the series’ opening and closing themes) in the movie. It isn’t really a complaint because the music in the movie was good and it fit just as well. I received a phone call shortly before the movie ended. (No, I didn’t answer it nor did the phone “ring;” I keep it on vibrate and let calls go to voicemail during movies.) It was my father, but when I tried calling back after the movie, he didn’t answer. *shrug* After the movie, we went out for food. Aside from the large group of high schoolers a couple of tables over, it was good. Then, I received another call from Dad. Shortly after the call, we left the restaurant and…

I came home to play travel agent for the family again. I had been tangentially drawn into it earlier this morning, while talking to Rana: A friend of hers and my stepmother are going to Italy for a couple of weeks to visit her. Knowing that there tend to be “issues” in dealing with the Internet-related items, I told her to send me a copy of the planned itinerary. This was a wise move. The reservation that had been made expired one hour before they got back to me, post-movie.

::: braincramp :::
This was one of the (if not “THE”) longest times that I spent on the phone trying to process the necessary info and find the best fare/itinerary. That was mostly due to the fact that I was dealing with the non-Internet savvy side of the family. *sigh* But, I got things taken care of. Everyone seems happy with the arrangements. After I hung up, I had a Stoli Citrona. I had earned it.

And tomorrow is Monday.

Stray Toaster
I posted this in this afternoon. If you have any suggestions to add, please feel free to add them to that post’s comments.

Quote of the Day
At post-movie dinner, said, to no one in particular, “Get me a fire extinguisher” so that she could use it on the aforementioned high schoolers. , seeing one a few feet from the table, stood up to retrieve it. Suzie grabbed [‘Bear] by the arm and said:

Sit down! Unless I specifically say the words: “[Suzie] tells [‘Bear] to…” don’t do it!

We all got a good laugh from it.

And with that, it’s nearly time to call it a night.

Namaste.

Saturday
After too late a bedtime and too little sleep, I roused myself to face the day around 9:30 this morning.

I met for lunch and then we went to a friend’s house to play Halo on linked XBoxes. This lasted nearly five hours. However, as is often the case with things that you enjoy, it seemed like only a couple of hours. After that, and I came back here and played yet more Halo. (NOTE: Today was his first time playing the game.)

Dinner was prepared and eaten and then it was off to the bowling alley. joined us. We then had traditional post-bowling V.I. breakfast.

And now, it is nearly bedtime.

Stray Toaster
Yesterday, showed me a link to the Utah Baby Namer page. In the words of some of the Utahns that I know: “Oh my heck!” Brace yourselves… there are a lot of them. And, reading the list of names into makes for an interesting read.

But I am now rapidly approaching the “Sleep Needed NOW” phase, so I shall call it a night.

Namaste.

Friday
End of the work week. And it was a good day, to boot. Things at work went rather smoothly – that’s always a good way to cap off the week. More CF work. I ended the day with a meeting with and a soon-to-be-introduced new co-worker. It lasted longer than expected, but it went well.

After work, it was off to Borders for a bit. I met the LJer occasionally known as and Jess. We chatted for a bit. I had mocha. I drew a little. All was good and right with the world. Following this came dinner at Sampan. I was a little disappointed: It wasn’t up to the usual standards.

John L. and John S. from our traditional Village Inn stopped by after their shifts ended. The reason: To bring me a pie. Not a slice or two… a whole Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup pie. (Note to : My super-power at work again.)

Song of the Day
Battle of Who Could Care Less by Ben Folds Five, from “Whatever and Ever, Amen”

Stray Toasters
I was speaking with a friend today and found out some rather interesting information about my former place of employment. Concerning me. Keep in mind that I have now been an “ex-employee” for exactly six months, as of today. And, there was also some good news about a couple of friends of mine.

That information that I learned was:

1. The identity of the person who “ran to tell Mommy and Daddy about the mean things I said about work/people at work” nearly two (2) years ago, in my journal.
2. Members of management made statements that they hid (HID) my Official Personnel Folder (OPF) from Jess while she was in charge of OPF filing and administration.

Definite signs of adult behavior, not to mention professionalism. I never really cared who it was that told management about the journal… but, I had a couple of people whom I suspected. It wasn’t them. However, the person was related to one of my prime suspects. (There’s a little “dynasty” that runs through that facility. Another word for it is “nepotism.” I won’t even mention the favoritism that runs rampant in there…)

Here’s a little primer: 1, 2, 3, 4.
The first one is from my last day as an employee of the USPS and the others are about the some of the things that led to my “fall from grace” as a supervisor there and/or my response to the fall.

I don’t think that I ever elaborated on why I stopped supervising: Someone at work told the senior managers that I had been saying some… unfavorable… things about the manner in which things were being handled there. It’s true. I did. I still think that a great number of things were done in an ass-backwards manner. But, that’s another story. Long story, short version: They looked at the journal. They held a meeting with all of the supervisors, as a group and individually. After my individual meetings (plural), they decided that I didn’t fit the dynamic of the team. *shrug* That was fine, because I had been very close to telling them that I wanted to get out of the program.

Another item – “good news” – was that some of my friends have quit the 204-B (Acting Supervisor) program. They finally tired of the rigamarole and the office politics. “Bravo” and best wishes to both of them.

I find the whole thing – the WHOLE thing – oddly amusing. The information is very worthwhile. And useful.

Sweet desert rose
This memory of Eden haunts us all
This desert flower, this rare perfume
Is the sweet intoxication of the fall.

Namaste.

Thursday
Another good day at work.

After work, it was a quiet evening at home. With the exception of me bitching at my Linux rig. Okay, that wasn’t loud externally. Inside my head, I was back to calling it “Bastard Ass,” among other things… and rather loudly, at that. Thanks to for pointing out something that I had overlooked in the configuration.

Song of the Day

• Only You
• In My Room
• Midnight

…all by Yaz from “Upstairs at Eric’s”

Stray Toasters

• “An Army of One?” According to this article, that may be true very soon. Reading this reminded me (somewhat) of the powered armor from Starship Troopers, the book and the TV series (Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles). Without the power… but getting there.
• As I noted in a post from a few months back, “Blah” is the perfect lyric. It is apparently the perfect word, too. I less than a week, I’ve heard it used twice… almost exactly as I described it in that post: Sunday in Finding Nemo and tonight in a MasterCard ad.
• Martha Stewart. Charged with nine (9) counts of fraud.
• I watched CSI: Crime Scene Investigation tonight. There were a few interesting and somewhat unexpected twists in the plot.
• freshmeat: “…the world’s largest index of Unix and cross-platform software, themes and related “eye-candy”, and Palm OS software.”
• “Singapore plans rating system for toilets” No, you did not misread that.
• Are you a writer? Take a look at this. They have a rather cool classifieds section, too.
• As anti-American Idol as I am, this made me laugh.
• Spike Lee. Love him or hate him, he is a rather outspoken man and, in my opinion, (usually) a great filmmaker. This morning, I read that he is suing Viacom because they are changing the name of TNN (“The National Network” formerly known as “The Nashville Network”) to “Spike TV.” Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!?
• 90-year old lottery winner
• Are you a fan of The Simpsons? Here is a link to “a compilation of all the lyrics to every single song ever heard on [the show].”

Quote of the Day
Tonight’s QotD comes from tonight’s episode of 7Days. After it’s discovered that NNL Chief of Security Ramsey’s brother was responsible for a series of Unibomber-like attacks, the FBI attempts to arrest Ramsey outside the gates of NNL. After a brief scuffle, NNL Director Talmadge arrives to assess the situation.

Talmadge: You’d better believe that Director Shane and I will be having a little talk before I let you take my Chief of Security anywhere.
FBI Agent: Sir… You’re making a big mistake.
Talmadge: I’m a big man. ::: walks off :::

And with that… Good night.

Namaste.

Excerpted from last night’s IRC static…

[03:15] i hate moths!
[03:15] HATE!
[03:15] [MosDef] buy mothballs
[03:15] do they kill moths?
[03:16] [Brandon-] what do you think
[03:16] [MosDef] yes
[03:16] [Brandon-] there called mothballs for a reason
[03:16] [MosDef] and people too if you take in lots
[03:16] do cowballs kill cows, brandon?
[03:16] tool.
[03:17] [Brandon-] that was intelligent
[03:17] [WyvernLrd] So I can use a Baseball to destroy the enemy base?

Wednesday
Another day at work. A little more work with my form. Since I’ve been rambling about this one for about a week, I guess that I should ‘splain what it is: It’s a dynamic invoice/receipt form. We’ve been having to do manual receipts for the past… since we started, basically. This also meant that we had to write up two copies as, until recently, our copier has been less-than-great. When I’m finished with it, this form will generate invoices/receipts (as the customer is shopping), track the type of sale, who sold it, all of the pertinent date information and other minor bells and whistles. Aside from dealing with trying to remember the proper CF syntax, this has been a fun learning experience.

After work, I met and helped her choose a webcam. The adventure took a little longer than planned because of a minor misunderstanding of where we were supposed to meet. We got beyond that and on to the shopping. When I talked with her later, she said that she likes the camera. Mission: Accomplished.

Went to visit after that. She was in an accident this afternoon – she’s fine, but her car has moved beyond this mortal coil. She needed some company so Jess, Dan, Scott and I hung out with her. As posted in her journal this evening:

…if anybody sees any Z’s for sale, tell me. please. i’m looking for like maybe a 280Z, 75-78 or a 280ZX (nonturbo) 80-83, i guess.

Song of the Day
Blue Rondo a la Turk by Dave Brubek (…or the Al Jarreau version)

Stray Toasters

• Do you enjoy geocaching? You’d better get your fix while and where you can. According to this post, it seems as though some cities and counties are (considering) banning it.
• From came a link to “Socipranos”. Interesting.
• Sammy Sosa. Corked bat. There’s going to be some serious image-handling in the offing.
• I spent a little time investigating free magazine subscriptions today. If you look in the right places, you can get 1- and 2-year subscriptions without paying anything, not even the “processing fee” or handling fees. Just go to Google (or your favorite search engine) and look for free subscription, or free magazine or complimentary subscription… or permutations thereof.
• Palm is buying Handspring. I admit that I didn’t see this one coming, but it does seem to make an odd sort of sense.
• Death: The High Cost of Living. The Movie. It looks like it might (finally) be getting off the ground. (For those of you who don’t understand this, don’t worry. You will. When the time is right.)

Now, however, is the time to roam the lands far from The Waking World.

Namaste.

Tuesday
Not a bad day. More ColdFusion tinkering at work. I’ll probably be starting a new form tomorrow or Thursday.

I had a headache somewhere around 11:00 tonight. It may have had something to do with an issue that my computer was having. *shrug* I don’t know. I went out for a drive and by the time that I got home, the headache had faded away. Thankfully.

Song of the Day

• The Old Apartment by Barenaked Ladies
• My Home by Rockapella

Stray Toasters

• Chocolate Jell-O® pudding. (You may now feel jealous.)
• In this month’s issue of Maxim, someone asked: “What were the first two Reichs?” I’d never really considered this before; Hitler’s Third Reich gets all of the publicity. According to the answer: The First Reich was actually the Holy Roman Empire, founded in 800 A.D. by Charlemagne. The Second Reich began in 1871 when Germany was united under Otto von Bismarck and lasted until 1918… at the end of World War I.
• The Curse of the State Quarters
• An article about Trepia, a new IM client… with a peculiar twist.
• Got vinyl? LPs, that is. Ever tried to rip tracks off of them? This article may help you add your album tracks to your mp3 collection.
• If The Sims had a God, he would be Will Wright. Why? Probably because he created The Sims and their precursors (no pun intended). It seems that Mr. Wright has signed a development deal with Fox Broadcasting Company. You can read more about it here
• Big Brother Is Watching You. And, he’s apparently watching the games that you play, too…
• Raiders of the Lost Ark. I don’t know many people who have seen the movie who did not like it. And then there is this: A fan-made, shot-for-shot remake of the movie. Made by some Tenneessee teenagaers. Kids, today… I tell you.

I’ve nodded off a few times too many while writing this, which means that it’s time to call it a night.

Namaste.

Monday
Very good day at work. I started by working on getting my ColdFusion form. About 00:30 after I got there, we started moving furniture and fixtures… and changing the offices around. We took about four hours moving, reorienting and all-around shuffling things around. On the plus side of this: I am no longer relegated to the common inter-office/reception-ish area nor the warehouse. I now have an office. I can actually work in a space that is “mine,” so to speak.

It was Game Night after work. Our little “World of Darkness” campaign has taken an interesting turn…

And now, I’m tired.

Song of the Day
I’ll dedicate today’s song to the person with the remote control to the radio in my head. Again. And, I hope that she/he had fun with the selection that I had stuck in my head for a couple of hours this morning: Have a Holly Jolly Christmas, by the late Burl Ives.

Stray Toasters

• A sorcerer, a mage and a werewolf walk into a bar…
• forwarded this link to me. I’m not even sure where to begin…

  No, wait: The third paragraph (“I also support a ban on…“). That’s a good one. And the one on tattooing? , that one should be right up your alley. The so-called “Fag Facts” section? No comment. *sigh*

  But, for all of the things on this site with which I disagree, I once again stand by my statement from a few weeks ago where I supported peoples’ right to put whatever they want on their website.

• I want crab cakes from Philip’s Restaurant at Harborplace.

I’m fairly certain that there was more that I had to say, but at the moment, it eludes me. Rather than sit here and stare at the monitor until my eyelids get heavy, I shall go to bed.

Namaste.

Sunday
Today started off quietly. Shortly before 11:00, however, the reverie was broken: Maintenance was working on the roof again… Joy. I took this as an opportunity to get out of bed and get started with the day. I showered, dressed and sat around for a couple of hours while I decided what I wanted to do.

I headed to Borders to have a lovely caffeine-laden beverage, do some drawing and chat with Jonas, one of the Borders staff. Angela called me and asked if I was at -or planning to go to- Borders; I told her that I was, in fact on the way there. She met me there and we had a nice conversation.

After a few hours, I came home and did a lot of nothing. It was a “day off,” that’s what it’s for. Sending the email and LJ post about tonight’s movie was the highlight of my activity for this part of the day.

We saw Finding Nemo. “Cute” is about the only way to describe it. Imagine that: A cute Disney movie… Pixar’s animation keeps getting better – the way that this movie moved was amazing. I enjoyed the movie. What can I say: I’m still something of a Disney Kid. Ellen Degeneres provided a voice for the movie; I had known this fact, but had forgotten it over the past few months. I found that somewhat interesting given the way that ABC (owned by Disney) “handled” her show after she came out. *shrug*

After the movie, six of us went to a different V.I. than we usually go to. This was a mistake. Tara, our “waitress,” and I use that term loosely, was rather inattentive. And that’s being kind. When she (finally) came to take our drink order, she only got two of our drinks. TWO. Out of six. *sigh* She then attempted to take our orders; the conversation went something like this:

Tara: Can I take your orders?
Jess: We haven’t even ordered our drinks yet.
Tara: *blink blink*
::: brief pause :::
Tara: I thought that you just wanted water.
(Note: had said that she wanted water, but in NO WAY does her voice carry enough nor vary enough to be considered the same as four people talking.)
Jess: No, we didn’t get a chance to order.
Tara: *blink blink*
::: brief pause :::

…and then she took the rest of the group’s drink orders. *sigh* Aside from the company and the conversation, the rest of dinner was rather lackluster. See ‘s account of dinner for details.

Home again, home again. Jiggety-jig.

Song of the Day
Yes, it’s Sunday and there usually are not SotDs on Sundays, but I’m making an exception. (You can make exceptions to your journal, too… but this is mine, so deal with it.)

• The Girl from Ipanema
• Beyond the Sea, performed by Robbie Williams

…both found in the movie Finding Nemo, although Ipanema didn’t seem to make the soundtrack.

Stray Toasters

• I talked to the Maryland contingent of the family-unit today. All is well there… and in The Ukraine, according to their reports.
• After a lot of searching, I finally found a copy of War (the Edwin Starr song) as performed by Bone Thugs&Harmony (featuring Henry Rollins, Flesh-N-Bone and Flea). I’d found a BTNH version of the song last week, but it wasn’t this one. This was from the Small Soldiers soundtrack; a movie that I have not seen, but whose soundtrack produced this and a rather interesting remix of Rush’ Tom Sawyer. (And, no, that was not a typo: One need not add an “s” to an appositive if the word ends in “-sh.”)
• sent me a link to this picture. Not 100% sure “why” she did, but I did find the tagline amusing.
• Hang on, I feel a minor rant/diatribe coming on…

  (tirade)
  sent me this link today. The Catholic Church (hereafter referred to as “The Church”) refused to marry them. I was stunned. Let’s get a bit of background here:

  And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth. – Holy Bible, Genesis 1:22 (NKJV)

  So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over everything that moves on the earth. – Holy Bible, Genesis 1:27-28 (NKJV)

  Where to begin…? First should probably the disclaimer: I do not intend to disparage the Catholic Church with the following comments, but there are things here that seem quite odd to me as a non-member. And with that out of the way…

  It seems to me that there is something of a double standard here. There is a willingness/understanding (or whatever you choose to call it) to allow those who are unable to have children to marry within The Church. That I understand. The couple in the article were afraid of passing on a disorder (granted, it is non-genetic, but still…) to their offspring. Let’s take a look at it from a slightly different angle, though: What about couples who didn’t want to have biological offspring, but had considered adopting children? If the canon is based strictly on “Be fruitful and multiply…” then it seems that there would be no allowances for these people to get married, either.

  I don’t know where there is a “right” or a “wrong” to this. I just know that I find it a bit confusing. A man and a woman want to be married in the eyes of The Lord… but The Church says “no.” Should they “live in sin,” in the eyes of their congregation? Renounce their belief in The Church and seek one “more open” to their desire not to have children? I don’t have an answer… just more questions.
  (/tirade)

• For : Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Quote of the Day
Sheldan (a seahorse): I’m H₂O-intolerant. *sneeze*

And with that, good night.

Namaste.

Saturday
Today started off slowly. Since it was a day off, I didn’t mind that. I woke up a few times this morning, but managed to drift back through the veil into the lands of The Dreaming. I finally made my return to The Waking World somewhere around noon… although I do remember hearing footsteps on the roof a few times before waking up. Apparently, the maintenance staff was doing something up there. *shrug*

I proceeded to do very little with the bulk of the afternoon. Most of my time was spent watching TV, chatting on IRC and AIM, eating Honeycomb® cereal and playing with Sissy the Wonder Kitty. Somewhere around 4, I figured that it would be beneficial to start preparing for Ultimate. I left around 4:40 and headed to the park. No one was there. Apparently, Dave2 had left about :10 minutes before I got there… because no one else showed. Oh well, maybe next week. I called and met her at The Coffee Tree. It was a quaint little place; I had driven past it many times, but never tried it. I’ll definitely go back.

I returned home and made an attempt at fixing the (non-working) network issues. *sigh* It didn’t work… so, I decided to postpone any further attempts until after…

Bowling. and Young Miss Fiona joined us; it was Fiona’s first time bowling and she did rather well. She seemed rather proud of the job that she did and rightfully so! The people on the lane next to us were… hmm… no, let me tackle this from another direction: Some of the people on the lane next to us had no concept of “personal space,” let alone “lane courtesy.” dubbed one of them “Bootylicious,” because when that song came on, the young lady decided to demonstrate to everyone around just how fine and sexy (not to mention: “How good a dancer…”) she was. Oy. When I was later asked to explain what it was about that group that irritated me, the best example that I could think of was: “You know how alcohol makes some people ‘invulnerable,’ while it makes others do things that just make them look stupid? These people were not invulnerable.”

Post-bowling breakfast was also good. Kate (one of our favorite servers) was back at work after a couple of weeks off. , and a friend, and Brad met us at the restaurant. One of the tables in our section noted that we were getting shown a bit of favoritism by the front-end staff… Kate and Shelley (the manager) just said “Yes” and continued about their business. Have I mentioned that it’s really nice to be on good terms with the people there?

When we returned home, I decided to take another look at the network situation. *sigh* Option A: No go. Option B: Nope, that didn’t work either. Options C – H… let’s just say that they were similarly ineffective. A short while later, I had finally stumbled upon a solution that seems to be working rather well. I think that I will leave it alone (for now) and let it run like this until I have more time to look into more permanent solutions.

But, after the following, I’m going to bed.

Quote of the Day
: “My boob thinks it’s Godzilla!”

Namaste.