Random Access

Sunday
I slept in until late this morning early this afternoon. And it felt good. Except for my back. It hurt a bit when I woke up. But, the twins were nice enough to let me sleep, too.

Didn’t do much today. I did watch “Kids’ Stuff,” the episode of JLU that I missed yesterday. It was worth the wait. Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern and Superman were regressed to pre-teens. I don’t know how many of the writers have young kids, but the dialogue and interplay was great. (And DCU fans will note an homage of sorts to GL Kyle Rayner…) This episode could easily become one of my favorites.

We had dinner with and at The Mayan. It was as amusing, as usual. Our waitress, Stephanie, was a joy. More service personnel should be so pleasant. 🙂

Stray Toasters

• I got calls from Bret and my uncle this afternoon. I couldn’t let them get off the line without throwing a couple of digs in about the Rusty Iron Curtain getting whooped by Detroit.
• What do you get when you combine SoulBlade/SoulCalibur and Nelly? I didn’t know either… until Nyx showed me this.
• …and then she sent this.
• A couple of Batman Begins Q&A panels from Wizard World Chicago (1, 2).
• The last panel of this is dedicated to .
• Zombie Panda!
• Banners!

Rant: Team USA Basketball at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games
I watched some of today’s coverage. I saw Puerto Rico snap off a little somethin’ on Team USA. And while I want the U.S. teams to do well, I was glad that they lost.

This was the first U.S. team to lose a basketball game in sixteen years, when professional athletes were allowed to play for the U.S. The prevailing attitude seems to have been “We can’t be beaten.” Well… today, they were.

It was nice to see karma and reality team up to slap a bit of the cockiness out of the team. Even the coach, Larry Brown, has said that he hasn’t felt confident about the way the team has played. And there was the drubbing that they took at the hands of Italy in the pre-Olympic games…

Hopefully, this means that they’ll buckle down and start playing like a cohesive unit. And maybe, just maybe, they’ll bring their “A” game the next time they lace up their sneakers for a game.
</rant>

And with that…

Namaste.

Saturday
After staying up until nearly 5:00 and getting up around 9:30, it’s easy to understand why I was ever-so-slightly tired this morning. I napped intermittently from 11-something until 1:30. In between, I caught snippets of the Scooby’s Laff-A-Lympics marathon on Boomerang. I flipped over to Cartoon Network and was drawn into the world of Duck Dodgers in the 24½ Century.

I half-heartedly pondered what to do with the rest of the day. Thankfully, Bill called. He was having the same quandary. We decided to head to The Gateway, get something to eat and wander around. Hark! We had a plan!

When he got here, we watched some of the coverage of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games. We saw Michael Phelps not only win a gold medal in the Men’s 400 Meter Individual Medley (swimming) with a time of 4:08.26, we saw him set a new Olympic record and a new world record (breaking his own record, if I understood the commentary correctly). And, he’s from Baltimore, to boot.

The Gateway was suitably crowded for a Saturday. We decided to try Samba Grill for lunch. It was a good, albeit expensive, choice. About 1/3 of the expense came from the Caipirinha drinks that we had; I had one, Bill had two. Very tasty. Very spendy. Especially for how small the glasses were. I also ran into a former manager and engineer from the REC while there. I was surprised to find out that they had gotten married since I had last seen them. I was also pleasantly surprised when Mike (the former manager) recalled some of the work that I had done under his watch and how favorably he looked upon it. What a nice change from the problems that I had with the last REC management team under whom I worked… I believe that I will be paying him a visit at work in the next few days – a reference/recommendation from him might be handy.

While wandering around The Gateway, we stopped in Z Gallerie. I’ve heard people mention how cool it is, so I decided to give it a shot. I wasn’t really wowwed by anything there. It kind of reminded me of an even more “upscale” Pier One Imports… but not. *shrug* I did see a couple of things that caught my eye, but they were mostly small novelty items.

We also stopped in a gallery (whose name eludes me) on the ground level. There were some nice pieces in there. The story behind the gallery’s inception can be found here. The proceeds from the sales were donated to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (or Multiple Sclerosis Foundation or possibly both, I forget which). When Pino heard about this he donated more pieces. Other artists followed. The gallery still donates proceeds from sales to the NMSS or MSF.

We picked up Jess and headed home. We watched a bit more Olympic coverage before bowling. The USA men’s gymnastic team had a rough go of it. Blaine Wilson had a nasty fall from the high bar during his routine. But, he got back on it and finished. He then went on to compete in the floor exercise. He sat out of the pommel horse exercise, but did the sill rings. NBC ran a brief story about his background as he prepared for the rings… Wow. This guy has overcome a lot of hardships – including tonight’s fall – and has bounced back to meet and defeat them.

Bowling was good. There was a good turnout, including a visit from . Larry, Mary and I bowled ironman. I did all right (145, 115/130, 148/148, 164/138). Breakfast was good, as well. There were many conversations to keep track of and many laughs. It was a good way to end the day.

Stray Toasters

• Confession: I missed JLU and Teen Titans tonight. I forgot to turn off the VCR so the timer would kick in. And I was looking forward to seeing tonight’s JLU. Fortunately, the episodes will be rebroadcast at 3:00 PM on Sunday.
• I really don’t want to second-guess the motives behind Hal Jordan’s return as Green Lantern, but… *sigh* I really hope that it was something that was at least nominally planned ten years ago (when he went insane and then regained his sanity and then sacrificed himself) and not just pandering to the “We hate Kyle, we want Hal back” brigade.
• Get yer banners that Nyx and I made for the 2004 write-in candidates!
• I need a chainsaw. And a ladder.
• Potential t-shirt designs (1, 2) from
• Two 2x4s. Running. A police officer. Restaurant with confused/startled patrons.
• I get my thing in action!
  Verb! That’s what’s happening!

• The psychotic ex-girlfriends of friends. *sigh*
  (Although, I must admit that I’m glad that it’s not one of my psychotic exes causing drama).

• Mom just logged on. I almost messaged her… then I thought about what her response would be: “Why are you not asleep?!” It’s amusing/comforting to think that I’m 33 – and two-thirds of the way across the country – but she still thinks of me as a little boy sometimes. I’ll call her after the sun’s up… and I’ve had some sleep.

Quote of the Day
Garnered from yet another chat…

[01:50] *Iso8* vollyball and beach vollyball are olympic sports? wtf?
[01:51] news to me.
[01:51] *Iso8* wtf is next? olympic frogger?
[01:51] so’s table tennis.
[01:52] *Iso8* 30 seconds watching was enough.
[01:53] *Iso8* they should only have the original sports in the olympics.
[01:53] *Iso8* chariot racing and shit like that. put these fuckers on wheels, give them spiked clubs and let them tulchuck the shit outta each other. then I’d watch.
[01:55] *Iso8* even better if they were made to wear clown suits.
[01:56] or school girls uniforms.
[02:00] *Iso8* in the original olympics, the competitors all competed naked.
[02:00] *Iso8* at least according to this doushbag on the history channel.
[02:00] so i’ve heard.
[02:03] *Iso8* they had a show where they dug up the body of one of the origianl olympians, and then spouted bunch of bullshit about how he would compare to modern athletes based on his bones.
[02:03] so what’d they come up with?
[02:03] *Iso8* they concluded that he could jump further because he was closer to a monkey.
[02:04] BWAHAHAH!! what?
[02:11] *Iso8* monkey = wrong

Namaste.

Friday
Not much to report about the early part of the day.

The evening was spent with friends over coffee and fruit smoothies. And crossword puzzles.

…and then…

One of my all-time favorites. I was a bit indecisive about whether or not I should go when everyone else bailed on me. I got in touch with and asked if she wanted to go. She agreed. We rolled out. We got to the theatre and – to my surprise – it wasn’t full. It wasn’t even half-full. This made finding seats easy. I saw m2ke and Steve S., so we sat with them.

It was a great way to end the night and the week.

News
Morning Edition: Faith Battles at the Bar
Morning Edition: Director’s Cut of Cult Hit ‘Donnie Darko’ Released
All Things Considered: New Dead Zone Forms Along Oregon’s Coast
All Things Considered: Newport Jazz Festival Celebrates 50 Years

Stray Toasters

• Unlike Sissy, it seems as though the twins like “people food.” Presto saw me eating Hostess Cupcakes earlier (with a tasty glass of cold cow squeezins) and demanded that I share. I did. A little. She pretty much devoured the bits that I gave her.
• S.H.A.F.T.: Super Heroes for Anarchy and Free Thought
  Part comic. Part satire. All funny… (if your delicate political sensibilities can handle it).

  Marvel Girl: I’ll just incapacitate the guards by psychically implanting every N*Sync song ever recorded directly into their cerebral cortex, then I’ll be inside.
  Beast: You carry that stuff around in your head? Wow. And here I thought Wolverine was the ultimate warrior.
  Marvel Girl: Sometimes you just gotta whip out the big guns.

• KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!
• If you haven’t done so already, check out the ticket that Nyx and I are proposing as write-in candidates for the 2004 election.
• Grace.
• By way of Slashdot: Life After Doom
• Wrath of Khan Trivia: All of Khan’s men were Chippendale dancers at the time.

  It has been widely debated that Ricardo Montalban’s chest was actually a prosthetic piece that he wore during the film. In the director’s commentary in the special edition DVD, Nicholas Meyer is quoted as saying that it was, in fact, Montalban’s actual chest and that he was a very muscular man who worked out. But he still had a bad wig.

• I just had the “Wrecka Stow” scene from Under a Cherry Coke… umm… Under a Cherry Moon go through my head. I think that I should be concerned about that.
• ATVs and boats. In the middle of Liberty Park.

Artist of the Day
Chuck Castro and Terrene Creations.

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

Namaste.

and I have been examining the presidential candidates for the 2004 election. None of the current choices really seem to fit our desire for President and Vice-President, so we’re going with write-in candidates:

She felt that Mr. Nimoy was the “logical” choice for President.

I thought that the man who taught a generation to read (as The Electric Company‘s “Easy Reader”) was the perfect choice to lead that same generation to new heights of glory and greatness. And, he’s played everyone from a street pimp to God, including President of the United States. That’s the kind of versatility that I’d want in my Vice President.

Feel free to use these banners in your journals and/or spread them to your friends.

Thursday
After I dropped off Jess this morning, I stopped in to see her sister, Jenny. She cracks me up. She was telling me, half-jokingly, that she wants to be on Extreme Makeover. A few of her coworkers came into her office while I was there; she introduced me as her brother-in-law. That’s fair – I’ve been referring to their parents as “the in-laws” for about four years.

PRE-SEASON FOOTBALL!
I had completely forgotten about this game until earlier today. But the HALO Command Center now reverberates with the echoes of ESPN’s coverage of the game from M&T Bank Stadium. Selah.

Atlanta at Baltimore
0 – 24
The last time that these two teams met in pre-season (almost a year ago), Michael Vick was taken out of the game… for fourteen weeks. While I’m hoping for a Baltimore win, I know that it’s not a big deal. Yet. Because it’s “only” preseason. The Ravens had a a great first defense set and forced a punt from the 5-yd line. After a penalty on the kick, Baltimore opted to go for a re-kick. Shouldn’t have done that… because Lamont Brightful fumbled on the return. *sigh* In the end, the boys from B’more not only won, they dominated. And all was good.

NPR and Other News
Morning Edition: Skip ar Your Own Risk
Morning Edition: Paralyzed Teen Makes Bid for Gun Company
Morning Edition: Bovine Boob Job
Talk of the Nation: The Business Behind Summer Concerts

Various sources: N.J. Governor Resigns
Jess called me about this. I surfed for a bit and then turned on the television. I missed the announcement, but caught the reaction pieces on CNN. The best response that I’ve heard so far came from Crossfire‘s James Carville: “We don’t know now what we’re going to know 48 hours from now.” And with that, he refused to make any other speculations about Governor McGreevey’s reasons for what he did. Tact. I like it.

Stray Toasters

• Did I mention that there was a pre-season game tonight? And that the Ravens played in it? And that that they won?
  I did? Oh.
  Well, just for the record: There was. They were. They did.

• As an added bonus, the O’s whooped up on the Angels. 6 – 0. In Anaheim.
• I’m going to see Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan morrownight. In a theatre. The only thing that would top it would be seeing Superman: the Movie or Superman II on the big screen again.
• Piro’s most recent rant/blog on Megatokyo mentioned that he is working on a poster for the American Library Association. I went to the site and found a Neil Gaiman poster in their “Author Series.”
  
  : They had a Batgirl poster and matching bookmark, too.

• Joss Whedon says that he has not been offered the director spot for X3.
• By way of Slashdot: Turn Real Life into a Cartoon
• Jet Li is still considering the role of Kato in the proposed Green Hornet movie.
• “The Near-Death Star” (Gotta love Futurama.)
• Snack.
  Snackage.
  Snacajawea.

• Monkeysphere
• It appears that both The Beatles’ and Aerosmith’s versions of Come Together are “just” too slow to synch up with NIN’s Closer. Oh, well. I know that the two songs can be intermingled, but I just can’t do it, at the moment.
• …speaking of which: Lightning was sitting on my desk when I was watching the Flash animation of Come Together. He actually sat there and watched it. I think that the colors and movement piqued his interest.
• I caught the rebroadcast of the Celebrity Poker Showdown tournament. Jeff Gordon was one of the participants. They showed a clip of the match that he played against Penn Jilette where Penn was shouting: “Jeff Gordon goes all in!” It made me laugh.
• Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?

Artist of the Day
Don Niblack is another artisan whose work was on display at PCAF this weekend. Check out the spiders.

Namaste.

Wednesday
Average midweek day.

Stopped in to see this morning. We chatted for a bit. On the way home, I popped in to say “Hullo” to ; she had said that there were a couple of things at the store that she wanted to show me. So, I went. And I came home with a couple of magnetic strips. Hopefully, this means that I’ll have a way to keep the beer fridge closed.

, and Christopher came over for dinner. They brought a bottle of wine with them – a white wine with raspberry juice whose name eludes me. It was good – very sweet, but good. After dinner, we sat around and talked. And somewhere along the way, a poker game broke out. We introduced Christopher to Texas Hold ‘Em; he liked it. He might be joining us for poker on Mondays.

NPR and Other News
Morning Edition: Devil’s Club: A Medicine Cabinet for Alaska Tribe
Morning Edition: Tips to Avoid Internet Identity Theft, E-Mail Scams
Morning Edition: Ideology Shifts Among Calif. Vietnamese Immigrants
All Things Considered: Medical Schools Lag in Obesity Training
All Things Considered: Adapting to an Obesity Diagnosis
All Things Considered: State Makes Schools’ Start Date a Matter of Law

Stray Toasters

• sent me links to this and this. Oh… my.
• By way of : Charleston Daily Mail – Jury says girl responsible for injuries from fall
• And, by way of :
  

  You Know You’re From Maryland When…

  You know more than 10 people who own boats and they all park them at the same marina in Annapolis You can pronounce and spell “Pocomoke,” “Mattaponi,” “Accokeek,” and “Havre de Grace” You pronounce “Bowie” BOO-ie not BOW-ie or BAUW-ie 1 hour is an easy commute to work You have more than three recipes for crabcakes French fries just don’t taste right without Old Bay There are more than two crab places in your town Even your high school cafeteria made good crabcakes You got your first lacrosse stick before you were six years old You call all turtles “terrapins” You refer to your state as “Merlind” Your mother shops at Hecht’s You still call Six Flags America “Adventure World”, or even “Wild World” You still remember the Wild World commercial (Wild World’s the cure for the summertime blues!) You can tell the difference between the smells of septic and marsh. You not only know how to eat hard crabs but you also know how to catch them, cook them and tell the males from the females. You don’t think that Assawoman Bay is a strange name for a body of water. You know perfectly well why Rehoboth is called “Little San Francisco” M R Ducks makes perfect sense. So does C M Wangs. You think Salisbury is a big city. You think of dumplings as wet slippery squares of boiled dough. You and your boss take off of work when the fish are running or the ducks are flying in. You’ve eaten muskrat at a church dinner but think it’s better the way you fix it. You think of “Dairy Queen” as a pageant title and not a place to get an ice cream. “Formal wear” is a ball cap, a flannel shirt and Timberlands. You still root for the Orioles even when they suck You’ll never understand why tourists come to DC. When in Florida, you can only laugh when you see signs saying “Real Maryland Blue Crab Cakes!” You color with “Crowns”, take a “Share” with “Wooter” and think the president lives in “Warshenton.” You know the difference between Glen Burnie ghetto and Catonsville ghetto. Your whole family lives within a 200 mile radius of your town. Dale Earnhardt’s accident was a close personal loss to your father At least one man in your family is a waterman You plan for “The Festival” a year in advance. During the summer, you spend more time in Ocean City than at home. Margret Heater, Hedspace, Jepetto, Outside Joke and Mary Prankster are people you think are “Famous” Your radio dial is stuck on 99.1 You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Maryland.

  Get Your Own “You Know You’re From” Meme Here

  More cool things for your blog at
  Blogthings

• With these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
  Nothing remains quite the same
  With all of my running and all of my cunning,
  If I couldn’t laugh I just would go insane…
  If we couldn’t laugh we just would go insane…
  If we weren’t all crazy we would go insane

• Found through C2F Cinema: Soybean
  (Check out Milton Pool’s website, too.)

• Reason #475630 of “Why is going to be a welcome addition to the family” : Plotting ways to make members of our families squirm during the wedding. We have come up with some truly insidious methods of torture. If this were a D&D setting, we would have not only crossed the line into “Chaotic Evil” alignment, we would have dived in after a sprinting towards the line.
• Alright, , you remember Mulligan Stew but do you remember seeing Disney’s Johnny Tremain films in school?

Artist of the Day
Audrey Heller was one of the artists whose work was on display at the Park City Arts Festival. Take a look at her gallery.

Namaste.

Tuesday
Today was pretty productive. And that’s always something to feel good about.

I bumped my head the other day getting out of the car in Park City. It could happen to anyone. However, at the time, my sunglasses were perched atop my head. And, as I shave my head on a daily basis, rather than just “bumping” my head, I managed to carve an inch-and-a-half long trench into it. If I only had super-miniature X-Wing and TIE Fighters… Actually, it’s not that bad. It’s nowhere near as bad as had me thinking that it was when he saw it (shortly after it happened). Not even close. From his description, I was thinking “Grand Canyon.” When I was able to get a look at it, it was more like “little scratch.” It just itches from time to time. And it’s a wee bit sensitive when I’m shaving. Go figure.

NPR and Other News
Morning Edition: ‘Ugly Dress’ Site Features Bad Bridesmaid’s Gowns
     Site: Ugly Dress.com
Talk of the Nation: The New Role of Neighborhood Watch
All Things Considered: CD Review: Polyphonic Spree’s We’re Heavy

Stray Toasters

• I’m thirsty. There’s beer in the fridge… but I don’t want it. There’s something wrong with that.
• Sam Adams. Brewer. Patriot. Homeboy.
  (If you’re a certain band director in North Carolina, you know why this is funny.)

• I just realized how much ‘s icon reminds me of Lightning. Or vice versa.
  

• DC Multiverse.
  Crisis.
  DC Universe.
  Zero Hour.
  Hypertime.
  DC Multiverse?
  (Kingdom Come)

  Plus ce change, plus ce meme chose…

• I’m still thirsty. But I think that Kool-Aid shall quench my thirst. Oh, Yeah!
• Lightning is sitting on my desk, to my left, with one paw on the keyboard. And both eyes on the cursor. And purring.
• By way of Slashdot: Big Brother in Your Front Seat
• From Backwash: Create your own caption for this picture. (Not work safe.)
• Does anyone else remember the Mulligan Stew filmstrips from grade school?
• Shakespeare’s Den – A gift store for the creative.
• Is anyone planning on participating in NaNoWriMo this year?
• I am now drinking Black Cherry Kool-Aid® from my vintage 1980 Empire Strikes Back Lando Calrissian glass.
  Lando Calrissian. Administrator. Rebel. Homeboy.

• I should charge the gel cell for the laptop.
• Here come old flattop he come grooving up slowly
  He got joo-joo eyeball he one holy roller

I think that a little poker is called for before turning in.

Namaste.

Monday
It’s great when you go out to work on something, thinking that you have everything that you need… only to find out that you left 50-60% of what you need at home.

Poker night didn’t happen. Only showed up. He played with Sissy and the twins… and they sopped it up. From the way that they were hanging out around him, you’d think that I haven’t paid them any attention. Which I have. Lots of it, in fact. But I digress… We sat around and talked (from Star Trek to “Who would make a good president?”) and watched part of an episode of The West Wing. I made note of an episode from last when President Bartlet invoked the 25th Amendment to step down as President. We weren’t sure whether or not that was actually in the Constitution. So, we looked it up. And there it was: Amendment 25, Sections 3 and 4. Have I mentioned recently how much I like the writing (and researching) on this show?

Jess is back from the Left Coast. All is well with the family-unit. She told me about what they saw and did. We’re going to have to get out there soon-ish; I’ve never been. From the way that she described it, I think that I’d enjoy it. And hanging out with the family-unit is always fun.

NPR and Other News
Morning Edition: Clue Found to Cognitive Problems in Preemie Boys
Talk of the Nation: 150 Years of Walden
All Things Considered: Plan for Europe’s Iron Curtain to Go Green
All Things Considered: ‘King Kong’ Actress Fay Wray Dies at 96

Stray Toasters

• I neglected to mention that I had a 209 game at bowling Saturday.
• Think You Know Everything?
• I was talking with someone about actors who have done voiceover work. I mentioned Jay North (from Dennis the Menace) who provided the voice of the teenaged Bamm-Bamm Rubble in the 70s and Tim Mathieson (Animal House, The West Wing, and many other movies/series) who was the original voice of Jonny Quest, as well as Jace on the original Space Ghost cartoon.
• By way of comes: The Adventures of Choice Chick
• : Click here.
• Sweet potato pie.
• The Periodic Table of Comic Books
• Does anyone else remember the Marathon Bar®?
• Doors? Passè. Don’t believe me? Ask them.
• : Click here. (Three words: “Joss Whedon. Enjoy.”)

Quote of the Day
Two more from The West Wing:

President Josiah Bartlet: Charlie, when they close the book on me and you, it will say that at this moment you were not there for me. And for that, obviously, there will be some kind of punishment.
Charlie Young: Well, you could sing Puccini for me again, Mr. President, and we’ll call it even.

(… and for …)

Toby Ziegler: He calls you and me the Batman and Robin of speechwriting.
Sam Seaborn: Well, I don’t think he does.
Toby Ziegler: He doesn’t but he should ’cause that’s what we are.
Sam Seaborn: Okay.
Toby Ziegler: We are Batman and Robin.
Sam Seaborn: Which one’s which?
Toby Ziegler: Look at me, Sam. Am I Robin?
Sam Seaborn: I’m not Robin.
Toby Ziegler: Yes you are.
Sam Seaborn: Okay, well, let’s move off this.
Toby Ziegler: You bet, little friend.
Sam Seaborn: Listen, we’re really not Batman and Robin.
Toby Ziegler: No, we’ll keep those identities secret. I’m Bruce Wayne and you’re my ward… Dick Something.

And with that…

Namaste.

Sunday
, , and I headed out of the valley and into Park City for the Park City Arts Festival. It was nice to get out of SLC. And spending the afternoon in the company of friends and in the midst of artists made it even better. I picked up cards and info about a lot of artists.

Par for the course, I ran into a couple of people that I knew. This year’s faces in the crowd: Brian (Jess’ stepbrother ) and John (from Cheers).

NOT par for the course, I think (a little better than 50:50 odds) that I saw the ex who was the reason that I moved to Utah. Adding to the confusion was the boy with her who would be about the age of her son. *shrug* If so, it was the first time that I have seen her since… six months after I got here. It was odd, almost surreal. (And, , unlike Charles Barkley, I do know what that means. )

The weather was perfect.
The crowd wasn’t bad.
And I had ice cream before we left.

It was a good way to spend the day.

Stray Toasters

• : Click here.
• Red Adair, internationally known oil field firefighter, died today.
• Presto is sleeping in my lap. If I move, she stirs and meows at me angrily… and goes back to sleep.
• The new Battlestar Galactica series will premiere on SciFi in January.
• I just resized my monitor resolution from 1024×768 to 1280×1024. I’m trying to decide if I like it. And with that…
  

• The new voice of Hambuger Helper’s “Hand” is… just… bad.

Quote of the Day
“I am not afraid. I am going to blow them off the face of the earth with the fury of God’s own thunder.” – President Josiah Bartlet, The West Wing

I find it odd that given the situation presented on tonight’s episode, I fully understood and accepted this statement… yet, I’m still uneasy with President Bush’s use of similar statements, sentiments and tactics.

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Saturday
I woke up sometime around 11 with the twins on the bed behind me. Not wrestling. The were just curled up and sleeping. I nodded back off and woke up again a little before noon. That was a bit of a shock. Waking up with a sore throat was an added bonus.

Jess called. She and the family-unit went to a few wineries and had a tour and samples. Tonight, they’re heading to her uncle’s for a barbecue. Sounds like she’s having a good time.

came over and walked me through changing the sprinkler head that I eradicated the other night. It was pretty easy, even given the fact that I had never dealt with an in-ground sprinkler system before. Yet another thing that I miss about living in places that get regular rainfall… We finished up and enjoyed a couple of Coronas and a little television before he had to return to the ZeekeCave. (Actually, he had promised to help a neighbor with a project today.) Either way, thanks for your help this afternoon.

It’s been a rather lazy afternoon, otherwise. And I’m all right with that. Sissy and the twins haven’t been bad. I managed to do a couple of laundry. Which comes under the heading of “definite plus.” I was planning on cutting the front lawn, but it doesn’t really seem to be in need of a trim. *shrug* Maybe tomorrow evening.

Tonight: Bowling.
Tomorrow: Park City.

Stray Toasters

• Tonight’s Teen Titans episode was… odd. It wasn’t up to the usual standard that I feel the other episodes have. JLU didn’t let me down, though. Another well-crafted 22 minutes of animated goodness.
• Online poker is fun.
  And a bit addicting.
  Just a bit.
  A big bit.

• I spent a little time retagging/renaming some mp3s in aftermath of “The Great iTunes Debacle of 2004.”
• Farscape. Back on SciFi in October.
• I talked with Adam for a bit this afternoon. All seems to be well.
• Pool-playing robot
• I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a different ringer for my phone. No idea what I want. I do know that I don’t want a “flash in the pan,” Top-40 ringer. Maybe I’ll change the background, too. Decisions, decisions…
• Form feet and legs…
  Form arms and body… (or “…arms and torso,” depending on the series)
  And, I’ll form the head!

• The folks at Fox are touchy. It seems as though they terminated their contract with Bryan Singer because he signed on to Warner Bros.’ Superman project. More info here.
• Aaron McGruder’s Boondocks will be animated and on Cartoon Network!
• I’m craving cotton candy again. Maybe I should stop at Hollywood Video and pick some up.

And with that, I’m out of here. Have a good rest of the weekend.

Namaste.

Friday
Took Jess to the airport this morning; she’s in California for the next few days. That means that it’s just Sissy, the twins and me until Monday.

Patryck met me at Borders and hung out for a bit. We went to and ‘s house and then on to Midvale Park. and met us there and we watched Shrek on an inflatable screen. After the movie, we headed to Cheers North for dinner and a visit with Vivi.

NPR and Other News
Morning Edition: Jester Tryouts
Morning Edition: Tracking Nixon’s Impact on Popular Culture
Talk of the Nation – Science Friday: The Technology of Ben Franklin
All Things Considered: Adaptive Cruise Control: Let the Car Do the Driving

Stray Toasters

• Thanks to , I now have Marvel Super Heroes’ Guide to New York City.
• Book-a-Minute SF/F – Ultra-Condensed Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books
• Lightning is asleep, with his head resting on the top of my keyboard.
• Relive your childhood through advertising.
• Can you be a ‘Mrs’ and a feminist at the same time? – by way of the f word.com: contemporary UK feminism.
• Lightning woke up and moved to a spot underneath my monitor… where he has curled up and gone back to sleep.
• Paul Simon sang about 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover. This article condenses that down to fifteen ways.
• Ford rolls out the Escape hybrid SUV
• “Man… I just had the best dream.”
• I enjoy Jack Black’s antics from time to time. Still, I was greatly relieved to see an article on Newsarama that confirms that he is NOT going to be Green Lantern.
• Free magazine subscriptions: Computer Gaming World, Computer Shopper, Electronic Gaming Monthly, PC Magazine and Xbox Nation.

Oy. It’s later than I thought. Time to hit the rack.

Namaste.

Thursday
The morning started with a visit from the plumber. We’ve been having issues with a few things that are covered in our warranty.

In theory.

The insurance company said that a couple of them are not covered under “normal wear and tear.” Bastard asses. We have a commode that needs to be replaced (which I can do) and a shower that’s functional but has issues that render it unusable for the time being. On the “plus” side of things, he said that the proto-bathroom next to the HCC was set up nicely and should be fairly easy to put fixtures and walls in. It’s just a matter of money and time. And a jackhammer.

And, I get to mow the front lawn tonight.
(Or not. It rained this afternoon.)

NPR, News and Other To-Dos
Morning Edition: Southwest States Offer Amnesty to Artifact Thieves
Talk of the Nation: The Social History of the Afterlife
All Things Considered: Creative Spaces: Jazz Lab
All Things Considered: Remembering Henri Cartier-Bresson

Stray Toasters

• Lightning’s latest/favorite trick: Climbing up your leg and back when you aren’t looking. And the little bugger’s quick, too! One minute, he’s nowhere to be seen… the next, claw-climb! (A variation of this trick is for him to climb the screen on the sliding glass door. And he’s shared this trick with Presto.)
• linked me to A Softer World. I’m hooked.
  
  

• I make a tasty pot of coffee.
• Slashdot Poll: How long will Ken Jennings go?
  Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past month-and-a-half, you should know who Ken Jennings is. If, for some reason, you don’t know who he is…. He’s the longest-running, highest winning champion on Jeopardy!

• sent me this. Doom.
• I came across katiet.com when I read an article on Slashdot (The Saga of Katie.com). It’s an interesting site and has some good information about Internet identity safety.
• For reasons that we have yet to determine, we’ve been (sporadically) getting The Salt Lake Tribune. Neither of us subscribed to it; we’ve considered it, but we haven’t made any effort to actually do so. Gleaned from yestermorn’s edition (on the front page, no less):
  

  HBO says ‘I do’ to drama about Utah polygamist
  HBO and actor-producer Tom Hanks thing Utah polygamists are ready for prime time.

  Hanks… is producing “Big Love,” a new drama series about a Utah polygamist and his three wives that will premiere in the summer of 2005, according to HBO, which approved the project Monday. The pilot has already been filmed and the network has ordered 10 more episodes.

  “Big Love” is a modern-day portrayal of a fictional polygamist family living in an “upscale development” in Utah, according to the script of the pilot episode.

  The show is a day-to-day look at one family that strives to be an even-handed depiction of the polygamist culture, according to a source within the network.

  It wasn’t known if any polygamist families were consulted for the series. But Mary Batchelor, director of the advocacy group Principle Voices of Polygamy, said filmmakers associated with the production requested to sit in on a Bluffdale meeting of the Apostolic United Brethren – the Owen Allred group – to learn more about how polygamists dress.

  “I look forward and am hopeful it will be an honest portrayal. I’m reticent. I’m wondering what their sources are,” said Batchelor, a former plural wife who still believes in the principles of polygamy.

  Vicki Prunty, director of Tapestry Against Polygamy, a support group for those leaving polygamous families, is reserved in her opinion of the show. “It just really depends on how it’s put together,” said Prunty, a former sister wife to Batchelor. “We would hate to see a production that misleads people into polygamy if they glamorized it, if they showed that the grass was greener on the other side. We’ll just have to watch and see.”

• What do you get when you cross Bazooka Bubble Gum with Survivor? Something that looks like this.
• Pearls Before Swine
  

• iTunes (Part IV) – Mary, sweet mother of Jesus…
  I discovered just how bad the mp3 problem is. Not only did iTunes reorganize the mp3s, it completely renamed the files. So, now I not only get to tag or retag the mp3s, I have to rename almost all of the files. “Braincramp” doesn’t even begin to cover this one. This… this goes directly to “clusterfuck.” Do not pass ‘Go.’ Do not collect $200.

  Fortunately, MusicMatch can do batch renaming after I get the tags done. Whenever the Hell that is.

• ALOE TALON BRONZER
• : Take a look at this.

Namaste.

Wednesday
Not too much to report about the early part of the day.

I spent part of the evening mowing the back forty. It’s amazing how much the grass back there grew – in a week! I’m probably going to raise the blade height next time I mow it. I think that I took out a sprinkler head, too. *ARGH* But, the lawn is mowed. Tomorrow, I’ll tackle the front yard and parking strip.

Dinner tonight came courtesy of Sampan. Beef Lo Mein.

Stray Toasters

• The 2005 IKEA catalog is available online. Now. The print edition will be available next month.
• By way of : Everybody was Kung-Fu fighting…
• showed me this ‘review’ of Kitty Litter Catwoman.
  I countered with this review.

• We Didn’t Start the Fire Historical Context
  Someone had a lot of free time…

• Cyril Connelly?
  No… “semi-carnally.”

• iTunes (Part I) – I finally sussed out how to import the files from Enterprise into my iTunes library on Pegasus. After about 4 misstarts, I got it done. And the evil revels can now begin: I can see how many Tropicana Twister-like “remixes” I can make by playing songs on iTunes and Winamp. I believe that the first item(s) will be finally seeing just how easy it is to combine Closer (NIN) and Come Together (The Beatles or Aerosmith). On a cursory listen, it sounds like they should mesh fairly well… give or take a few beats per minute.
• showed me this earlier while we were playing a game of “One Up.” I showed it to . I haven’t heard from her since. I’m hoping that she didn’t explode.
• iTunes (Part II) – Hmm. I just noticed how iTunes “reconfigured” the mp3s on Enterprise. Almost every song that I had not organized by artist now has its own folder. Curiouser and curiouser…
• Also from : JusticeLeague.org – Friends of hers and the marathons in which they have run. In costume. Very funny.
• By way of Slashdot: NTSB Recommends Black Boxes for All Cars
• iTunes (Part III) – It was worse than I thought: iTunes decided that it should determine how some mp3s should be filed… and then scattered the rest into “Unknown Artist/Unknown Album” folders. This most likely has something to do with the mp3 tags… or lack thereof. This is going to take some work to undo or modify. *sigh* Did I mention that it also renamed the files whose tags it didn’t grok? It did. It stripped them down to “Artist – CD – Track Number”. *braincramp*
• I’m all for GUIs – and I think that voice recognition is an interesting input method – but I don’t see anything wrong with typing. (flashback to Scotty trying to talk to the Macintosh in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home…) The Christian Science Monitor “has an article on how some schools have stopped teaching touch-typing as a necessary office skill.”
• If you have watched/read/listened to the news over the last couple of weeks, I’m fairly sure that you have heard of the Lori Hacking case, here in SLC. I just found out that someone I know is related to her family.
• The Ethical Precepts and Philosphical Tenets of Zen Buddhism
• The new OfficeMax “Rubberband Man” Back-to-School commercial is funny.
• Also from : How to Be a Villain (co-written by one of her LJ.org friends) and VillainSupply.com

Quote of the Day
From the latest Obey your Thirst commercials for Sprite:

Congratulations on your no-prize, didn’t win nothin’ victory.

Namaste.

Tuesday
Three days have already passed and I should really get to this before I forget anyone else: Happy Birthday to the August kids:

• (belated)

Today’s been pretty good. I worked on my resume a bit more, this time with a couple of reference books and a cup of hot mocha goodness.

It stormed (a few times) this afternoon. It almost reminded me of the storms back home. Almost.

The evening ended with dinner at Cheers with and . And that’s pretty much a guaranteed good way to top off the day.

Stray Toasters

• Dad made it back to B’more without incident. He said that the plane even got there a little early… “but people didn’t seem to know how to get off the plane.”
• I mentioned Ray Lewis on the cover of Madden NFL 2005 last night. Well, in today’s email from the Ravens’ mailing list, was this. If anyone feels moved to buy and send either or both of those to me, go with that feeling.
• : Click here.
• and : Click here, here, here and here
• : A little bit about the last days of the LSH under Gail Simone’s pen can be found here.
• It seems as though Flare, a comic that hasn’t been published in about 10 years, is returning to print.
• Controlling Anger — Before It Controls You
• I just had a thought of the intersection of Routes 29 and 108, In Columbia. I remember sitting at the light there, on the way to school. But that was many mornings ago. They’ve reconstructed it into an overpass with a cloverleaf. It’s funny what kind of things just come to you out of the blue.
• M.C. Escher: The Official Website
• I don’t recall who posted comments about The 4400 on USA, but the station will rebroadcast all six episodes, including the finale, on Sunday. Check local listings.
• When I first saw something for Team America: World Police, I thought that someone had dug out their old 80s Marvel comics and were planning on doing a movie based on Team America, a sextet of motorcycle-riding… heroes. (*shrug* It was the best word that sort of fits.) I was happily mistaken. It’s… oh, what the Hell: Take a look for yourself. I dare you not to laugh.

Namaste.

Monday
Blah blah blah.

Tonight was poker night. , and joined us. The cards were shuffled and dealt. The vodka flowed. And a good time was had.

We followed up the gaming with Much Ado About Nothing. I haven’t seen it in at least five years. It was good to see it again; I’d even consider it as a future purchase.

Stray Toasters

• After staying up much (oh so much) later than I had planned, Pegasus is now running OS X.
• Despite the protestations of adolescents around the world, sometimes a midday nap is a wonderful thing.
• Who’s that on the cover of EA Sports’ Madden NFL 2005?
  Why, it’s none other than the Baltimore Ravens’ Ray Lewis, NFL Defensive Player of the Year. (Like I needed another reason to get this game…)

• Dave4 showed me this. Pretty slick and it’s a little more effective than paint cards… as long as an Interweb connection is available.
• Do you want your house to stand out in your neighborhood? Check out CastleMagic Castle Builders
  (Please check with your Homeowners’ Association before breaking ground.)

• Life with a gamer… brought to you by:
• For : Jim Lee’s next project will be the first six issues of the much rumored “Batman & Robin” book. (from Comic Book Resources)
• From USA Today: Best and least-read cities
• Also from USA Today: Poll: Which of these songs is the most inappropriate for kids’ sing-along CDs?
  This is something that I have wondered about since I first heard about some of these CDs on Cartoon Network.

Namaste.