Random Access

Thursday : 14 July 05
I woke up on time (i.e.: “when the alarm went off”), but getting out of bed was the troublesome part. I finally managed to do so, but pre-work prep was slow-going. Rather slow, indeed.

Work wasn’t bad. No fires to put out and my team adhered to the “No Bad News Thursday” rule. At lunch, Eric and I hit the gym. The last to times we’ve gone, he’s done two of my workouts; today I did his routine. I’m used to doing back and triceps or chest and biceps, his workout is a combination of the two. It was a good workout, but definitely something I would have to get used to.

After work, I came home… and faded into an hour-and-a-half long nap. In the middle of CSI reruns on SpikeTV. BAH. I missed the last fifteen minutes of the first episode and pretty much all of the second one. Oh, well.

I spent the better part of the evening – and some of the wee hours of the morning – visiting my friend, Allie, at U of U hospital. She is in for some tests and treatments, but seems to be doing well. Shortly after I arrived, and dropped in for a while. After they left, Allie and I watched Little Shop of Horrors and The Man with Two Brains, neither of which I’ve seen in a very long time.

Now, I’m home. And, thanks to the aforementioned nap, I’m just starting to get tired. This means that Beans & Brews, once again, holds the key to my staying awake at work tomorrow. I’m alright with that concept. Quite alright, indeed.

Stray Toaster
So far, it seems as though Breakdancing Jesus has a commanding lead on MC Hammer in yesterday’s Summer Dance-Off Poll. I’ll keep voting open through the weekend, so that absentee ballots can be tallied, too.

Namaste.

Wednesday : 13 July 05
And so, midweek comes to a close.

The day was a good one. Nothing much to report on the day. In fact, it’s been so non-eventful, I think that “taking a nap” and “washing the car” were the two highlights of the day.

Stray Toasters

• I must find the video for Gorillaz’ 19-2000. (The one with the Jeep and the moose, not the Cowboy Bebop one… I already have that one. And, while it’s rather amusing, it’s not the one that I was looking for.)
• : This had your name all over it.
• Phil, another of my coworkers, introduced me to Terry Tate: Office Linebacker today. I watched the films. I laughed. A LOT.
• Clouds Yes, I said “Clouds.” Now, click the link.
• and Rana are back in the States for a while. He messaged me this evening with a story about something Rana said… and Dad’s response to it. I almost fell out of my chair laughing.
• Christopher Lee was The Man with the Golden Gun
  Jackie Chan had The Tuxedo.
  Hell, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones were well-dressed Men in Black.
  But this suit beats ’em all.

• : This one’s for you…
• I have music videos interspersed with mp3s on my at-work playlist. Today, MC Hammer’s U Can’t Touch This came on. I was curiously mesmerized for a few moments. Then I remembered the Breakdancing Jesus t-shirt that I linked to a few days ago. And that’s when the wheels started turning. That’s when I came up with…

• Forts! See, my desire to build a ‘Mech isn’t so terribly out there! (Thanks, Greg!)
• I like the points that this article makes: Comics in an Age of Terror
• It took me a second to get the last joke, but it made me laugh.
  

• Am I the only one to find an amusing irony between the saying “Keep that up and you’ll go blind” and the fact that excessive Viagra® use can lead to blindness? (Results are still out on a link between Viagra® use and hairy palms.)
• : This preview is for you.

Namaste.

Tuesday : 12 July 05
I overslept this morning.
I remember the alarm going off at 6:15.
I remember turning it off.
I don’t remember falling back through the void to The Dreaming.
But there I was.
“Curiouser and curiouser…”

After that less-than auspicious start, the rest of the day was fine. Work was… a challenge. And it’s one that I still won’t consider “lost” until after I try something tomorrow. Went to the gym at lunch; did a back and triceps workout. It was good. Very good, indeed.

After work, I came home to get ready for tonight’s game. Or what would substitute for it – and Dean had commitments… but was coming by to see if she might be interested in joining the merry band of….of….hm… fallen angels… scoundrels… “mercenaries.” She chatted with , , Chris and me and seemed interested in the concept. It looks like she will be part of the game, starting in two weeks.

Stray Toasters

• I bought an Oreo Blizzard® from Dairy Queen today.
• Thanks to for the tire repair kit!
• tagged me to list my six favorite songs. Since I did this a few weeks ago, and the answers are the same, I’ll use the same answer here.
  1. 1. Chopin – Opus 66: Fantasie Impromptu
  2. About 98% of the music by Rush
  3. Ludacris – Either Act a Fool (from 2 Fast 2 Furious) or Stand Up
  4. Will Smith – Switch (…and to quote [info]nyx_hemsut: Damn you, !)
  5. Madonna vs. Atomic Kitten – Don’t Tell Me/The Tide Is High (remix)
  6. Bob Dorough – Schoolhouse Rock! – Conjunction Junction

  The Chopin, Rush and Schoolhouse Rock! options are pretty static, but given the… “eclectic nature” of my musical tastes, the others are apt to change at any time.

• For : In Support of Palpatine
• Pope Gives Potter the Finger (Thumbs Down)
• Also for Nox: This.

Namaste..

Monday: 11 July 05
When Elastica said “Waking up and getting up has never been easy,” they weren’t kidding. The alarm went off this morning… and I just stared at the clock. I finally managed to roll out of bed and start the morning, but it was a slow process. When I made it to B&B for a cup of frozen wake-me-up, I wasn’t thinking about the fact that “Mocha Monday” not only means free espresso shots, but also that the Grande sized drinks are reduced price as well. I walked out with 32oz. of two-shot frozen goodness.

Work was good. There was a last minute’s notification of a staff meeting. That’s always fun. Fortunately, it was good news… followed by more good news. That made it even better. But, the best part of the meeting: It was short. Fifteen minutes, tops. Nothing wrong with that.

After work, I watched a couple of CSI reruns with and Connor (her nephew, who is in town for a couple of weeks). I hadn’t seen either of them. I think that they were first season shows – the cast, with the exception of Jorja Fox, looks significantly younger. I am almost convinced, however, that Ms. Fox is secretly Dorian Gray. She doesn’t look like she’s aged at all. After dinner, I decided to take a ride. It was a short-lived hope: Apparently, I punctured my tire on the ride. Fortunately, it stayed full of air on the ride back home. *sigh* I have to get a new tube before the weekend.

So, I decided to go to the gym instead. I went around midnight. Sure, most people sleep… I go to the gym. *shrug* I did 18:00 on the recumbent bike; I need to start taking headphones so that I can listen to something while passing the time. I did another chest and biceps routine. It went well… considering that before last week, I haven’t been in a gym in FAR too long. I even did crunches with resistance weight. Before I left, I weighed myself. Haven’t done that in a while. And apparently, it was a LONG while. I’m up to 168 pounds; I’ll subtract five to seven of that for gym clothes, but this is a new high weight for me. I knew that I had gained “some” weight, but this is easily 10 pounds over my previously known high. I’m kind of jazzed about this. Now, all I need to do is make sure that it all gets in – and stays in – the shape that I want.

Stray Toasters

• If a person can “jump the shark”, I think that I may have done so today. As I’ve mentioned before, Eric (one of my coworkers) has been introducing me to the world of Homestar Runner and Strong Bad. And today, I learned of the Homestar Runner Wiki. But, I digress… My jump the shark moment: I sent an email to Strong Bad. I’m curious to see if it gets read and/or turned into a toon. That would be neat.
• Yo, Joe!
• My friend, Don, is the band director at a high school in North Scare-o-lina. (In an “It’s a Small World” kind of coincidence: This is the same school where my stepfather was an assistant principal, before moving to a principal position at another school.) He’s also a former member of a few corps in Drum Corps International. He keeps me abreast of happenings within DCI and some of it’s affiliated organizations. One such organization was Star of Indiana, who left DCI and was reborn as Blast! It turns out that Blast! is touring North America (and Japan); they have three shows in Utah – one in Logan, two in Salt Lake. I will be making arrangements to see one of the SLC shows. , you might want to make sure that Jeff knows about this, too.
• Also, for my favorite Bat-fan: These.
• In our next item of “Has Elton John Lost His Mind” news: Sir Elton and his musical collaborator are bringing forth Vampire Lestat: The Musical! (I’m not making this up.) It’s due to arrive later this year.
• I was looking at a Brickfilms.com and came across a video for tt Lester’s song Mr. Miyagi. Yep… based on that Mr. Miyagi. My cheesy 80s movie sense kicked in and I was compelled to watch it. It made me smile.
• Michael Chiklis: It’s Clobberin’ Time!
• In a related note: I think that it’s great that Fantastic Four has opened at Number 1… despite the overall critical drubbing it has taken.
  

  FANTASTIC OPENING ENDS BOX OFFICE SLUMP
  BoxOfficeMojo reports Fantastic Four to be the number one movie of the weekend, with an estimated 56 million dollars. Despite scathing reviews from major critics, the film has scored surprisingly well with families and comic book fans. (Well, Buzzscope gave it an A*) The film is also the third 20th Century Fox film this year to have an opening weekend gross of more than 50 million dollars, joining Revenge of the Sith and Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The film also exceeded most box office predictions by as much as 20 million. Obviously, the lighthearted tone of the film, coupled with strategic marketing made it the perfect family film, not to mention an alternative to most dark, brooding comic book films. Hopefully, word of mouth stays positive as the film will have to go up against Tim Burton’s Charlie & the Chocolate Factory remake and the Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson comedy, Wedding Crashers. Should be an interesting competition.

• Hey, …. It’s Rob Liefeld!
• Doomed: How id Lost Its Crown

Namaste.

Sunday: 10 July 05
I woke up this morning to a phone call which brought good news: Mr. and Mrs. have welcomed a new member to their family. Hearing good news is always a nice way to start the day.

After observing the necessary hygiene rituals, I went to B&B to get some frozen mocha goodness. A little later, I headed to Borders to do some drawing. I like the way that the current piece is turning out… even though it’s slow going. Oh, well. Rome wasn’t built in a day, either. (Unless you’re playing Civilization or Empire Earth.)

After Borders, and I met and at Cafe Med for lunch. As always, the food was very good. The service, however, left a little to be desired; but, it wasn’t enough to detract from the overall mood. We left there and headed to Nox’; was there. A short while later, Chris showed up and we (minus ) played Arkham Horror, a board game based on Call of Cthulhu. I hadn’t played Arkham before, but I played the RPG when I was in college. Arkham is a fun game.

And, after the game…. home.

Stray Toasters

• I have had the hiccups, intermittently, for a little over 24 hours. I’m pretty sick of ’em at this point.
  (They are, apparently, in remission at the moment.)

• Utah Festival Opera
• From NPR’s On the Media: The Ransom Method
• Bad Design Kills
• I like the video for U2’s All I Want Is You. No, I didn’t just see it for the first time; but I watched it recently and was drawn by the fact that it really tied in well with the song. It also seemed to have a quality missing from many modern videos: It wasn’t out to dazzle viewers with the latest special effects or distract them with bright, shiny objects. It simply told a story… set to music. And that’s all. And it was good.
• Dragonlance
• I saw an article about 4mula while out and about this afternoon. A blurb (and a picture) about theirErgobar soap line is what caught my eye.
• James Hart Design (The fourth page in “Character Design” kills me… and page eleven is pretty funny, too.)
• I need to get Perry, Chris and Nox together for a game of plastic crack….
• …and I think that I have yet another item to add to the Covet List: X-Men vs. Sentinel Diorama
• I want to find out who did the cover of Close to You from the upcoming Mirrormask soundtrack.
• I was wrong about the hiccups being gone.
  In the words of Paul Simon: “I don’t find this stuff amusing anymore…”
  (Not that I found them amusing in the first place.)

Namaste.

Saturday
The day started with a bike ride up the Jordan River Parkway…

…and ended with EveryDave’s bachelor party.

It was one helluva good day.

Namaste.

Friday
Man… what a day.

It really wasn’t a bad day, but it started off on the wrong foot. I woke up this morning (good thing)… fifteen minutes before we were supposed to be walking out of the door (NOT a good thing). I had neither showered, shaved, brushed my teeth nor figured out what to wear… and the clock was ticking. We made it out the door a little after 7:00. Oy.

The work day was a vast improvement over the way that the day had started. Nothing to get upset over. Things fell into place. All around, it was good. I gave and Jocelyn a ring, to see if they wanted to get lunch together; they did… and we did. Then, it was back to the office for the last few hours of work for the week.

Tonight’s Clitorati gathering was good. If I remember correctly, counted fourteen of us, at the peak. We had a couple new people show up, too. As usual, we had eleventy-seven conversations going on at the same time. Shortly after we arrived, a woman walked into the cafè area… with a guitar slung over her shoulder. This caused us a bit of apprehension: The bookstore doesn’t usually have music on Fridays. We braced for the worst. We were pleasantly surprised. The woman, Georgia Barretto, played Brazilian jazz (think The Girl from Ipanema). It was a very nice change of pace from the Tori Amos-wannabes who usually perform there. If you’re in the greater SLC Metro area, and you have the opportunity to hear her perform, do so.

• 09 July – Salt Lake City (Borders at Crossroads Mall)
• 20 Aug – Park City (Miner’s Park Stage)
• 01 Sep – Huntsville (Huntsville Library)
• 09 Sep – Salt Lake City (Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center – Black Box Theatre)

If I’m thinking of the right theatre, this is where I saw Jonni perform a CD release show before he ran off to join the circus joined Air Supply. (Yes… that Air Supply.)

Stray Toasters

• As a “parent” of three cats, I’ve noticed something: When you tell them that it’s time to come inside (and then move towards them to take them in), they run away – hoping to stay outside just a little while longer. Just like some human kids.
• sent me a link to Atom Films’ La Dentista. I’m not sure what to make of if, but I thought I’d share it anyway.
• Ry Cooder vs. “My Cooter” (See ‘s post for more on this.)
• I’ve been made aware of “more than a few” negative reviews of Fantastic Four. That’s a pity. Something that I think is even more of a shame: People are just calling it a knock-off of The Incredibles… which is seriously backwards. Brad Bird, the man behind the Parr family, was between eight and ten-years-old when the FF made their first appearance. Looking at the characters in both stories, there are lots of “coincidental” similarities. But, that’s neither here nor there; this kind of thing happens all the time. It’s just unfortunate that the FF movie is getting the short shrift because: “It’s just like The Incredibles…” or people didn’t think that there was enough action…. or *gasp* it wasn’t like X-Men or Spider-Man. I liked it; I’d see it again. But that’s just my 2¢ worth.
• By way of Slashdot: There have been a couple of possible breakthroughs in cancer research and AIDS research.
• By way of : Lambert’s Cafe
• “the jolly robert” (…which amused me quite a bit)    –    
• : Gabrych talks War Crimes
• One of my co-workers sent me an email of pictures of the Blue Angels. One of the pictures showed the group flying over/near an old ship… I couldn’t determine which one it was, but it looked like either the U.S.S. Constitution or the U.S.S. Constellation. Given the limited time that the Constellation has been out of Baltimore’s harbor, I am inclined to believe that it was the Constitution.
• “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.”

I should hit the rack. A few of us are hitting the bike trail again in the morning. Hm… “In a few hours.” Yeah, sleep would be a good thing now.

Namaste.

Thursday
I had a good “No Bad News Day” at work. There weren’t any curveballs and I didn’t have to put out any fires; that’s a “good day” in anyone’s book. And, to add to the good mood of the day, and her coworker, Jocelyn, invited me out for lunch; we went to Dask’s. They seemed to enjoy the food.

After work, I went to see Fantastic 4 with and a couple friends of his; the friends had an extra ticket and DM knows of my affinity for comic book-related properties. The movie combined elements of the classic FF with the Ultimate Universe FF and it did a good job of telling the origin story. (For those who are interested, Broken Frontier has a brief column on the history of the FF). I liked it; and his friends aren’t comic aficionados and they said that they liked it, as well. It was a fun movie – not as light as Spider-Man while not as dark/toned-down as X-Men. I give it a thumbs-up with an okay.

Random Access
All this time we’re shuffling and laying out all our cards
While a billion other dealers are slipping past our guards
All this time we’re hoping and praying we all might learn
While a billion other teachers are teaching them how to burn

Dream of a Peaceable Kingdom
Dream of a time without war
The ones we wish would hear us
Have heard it all before
     – “Peaceable Kingdom,” Rush (from “Vapor Trails”)

The day’s news has been filled with stories about the bombings in London. There’s not much that I can really add to what has already been said. I was reminded of how I felt when I heard about the World Trade Tower attacks. I suppose that people who have been to the sites of today’s bombings felt similarly.

Stray Toasters

• I was talking with and, through a number of odd twists, turns and tangents, we wound up talking about Morgan Freeman. This spun into me mentioning that if I get to pick the avatar for God, he’d be Morgan Freeman. The conversation reminded me of a post a made a couple of years ago about who would be in my version of Heaven.
• Those who know about my obsession will understand   –   
• I forgot to mention something on Sunday: As we were leaving the restaurant (following dinner with ), I saw something that I never would have expected to see: A semi-tractor…. blinged out with spinning rims. All that I could do was to stare in disbelief. (I failed my saving throw.)
• From the Baltimore City Paper: The Culler of Money
• From the Salt Lake City Weekly: Mean Streets
• static on your frequency
  electrical storm in your veins
  raging at unreachable glory
  straining at invisible chains

• “Hey, Dorble! How do I get the water to work?” –
• Saturday. Bike. Jordan River Parkway – northbound (again).

Namaste.

Wednesday
I managed to wake up this morning and not think that it was Thursday. That’s a good thing. (Although, thinking about last week’s miscalculation does make me chuckle.)

The work day was good. Nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing to write home about.

After work, I came home and mowed the jungle. Thirty minutes later, it actually looked like a lawn again. I also sprayed underneath the deck and the flower bed outside the HCC window… with a water and bleach combination. I want the weeds there dead. Very dead.

A shower and change of clothes later and I was off to and ‘ place for tonight’s WoD game. So far, we’ve got our characters lined up and all together. Next week, we should be getting into the storyline.

Stray Toasters

• I still need to rename this section. I may wind up going with “Random Access” here and just find another heading for the rant section. We’ll see. I’ll miss mistyping “Stray Toasters” as “Stray Taoists,” though.
• The Mighty Marvel Comics Strength and Fitness Book
• I like boingboing.net; they have some interesting and/or neat things. Sometimes, they just have weird (but still interesting/amusing) things… like Vintage XXX Movie Posters, including one for The Erotic Adventures of Zorro.

  And if I have to tell you that this is a NSFW link, then you should just skip right on to the next bullet.
  No, seriously.
  Move along.
  Really!
  Go! Now!

• : I think that I have found the perfect t-shirt for you.
• Great monkey-squeezin’ breakdancing Jesus!
• By way of Real Tech News: Greatest Airline Complaint Letter Ever Written: Don’t Sit in Seat 29E
• “That new diet kibble Mom put you on is miraculous!”
  

• From Campbell’s Condensed Newspaper: “Tech titans wish we wouldn’t quote them on this baloney”
• Kingdom of Loathing merchandise
• I don’t need more reasons to like Morgan Freeman, but he keeps on giving me more and more of them.
• Little Britain: “What does the world look like to a child?”

Namaste.

Tuesday
Long weekends are great.

…until they’re over. Then it’s the work-a-day grind, once more. Today wasn’t a bad day, though. Things went fairly smoothly. Also on the day’s “plus” column: I had lunch with my friend, Cecilie, who was up from Cedar City.

After work, I went to…. wait for it… the gym. I did another chest and biceps routine, hoping to stretch out some of the stiffness from last week’s workout. I think that I got most of the kinks worked out. However, I really must have jacked up my pecs because the sets of free weight flys that I did were not pretty. And I was even using fairly light weights. I’ll have to work on it some more.

After a shower and dinner, I hung out with Cecilie, Kitty, , Rhett and Mike. I haven’t seen Rhett and Mike since God was a boy. The guys, along with Wally (who showed up later) have moved into a house downtown. I got the nickel tour; it’s a nice little bachelor pad they have.

Stray Toasters

• I had mp3s and music videos playing while I worked today. The video for Blind Melon’s No Rain came on. The song may be cheesy, but I like it. And, I like the video, too.
• By way of comes: How the Joneses’ 23rd Goldfish Narrowly Escaped Death
• Philosophomon – Great philosophers’ heads… on the bodies of Pokèmon.
• “Booya! How does the bitter taste of defeat feel, huh?”
  

• : The Crimes After the Games
• I don’t have a joke for this, so you’re on your own.
• Teen Girl Squad!
• Okay… let me get this straight: Astrologer sues NASA over comet probe. This is almost as amusing a thought as the “NASA blew up Jesus’ pet rock” conversation that we had on IRC the other night.
• “I don’t seem to recall you ordering an Oreo milkshake.” –
• Stories like this (found by way of and ) make wonder when either God or the aliens are coming back with the anal probe for the Earth.

Namaste.

Monday
04 July 05

In 1776… (Fireworks!)
There were fireworks too. (Red, white and blue!)
The original colonists,
You know their tempers blew. (They really blew!)
Like Thomas Paine once wrote,
It’s only common sense (Only common sense!)
That if a government won’t give you
Your basic rights,
You’d better get another government.
      – “Fireworks,” performed by Grady Tate (From Schoolhouse Rock!)

For those of you in the United States and it’s territories, I hope that you had a pleasant and safe Fourth of July.

While looking through my webcomic bookmarks last night, I found this (“The Fourth of July…” image at the top and the “Burn, Baby, Burn” blog at the bottom) on Squidi.net. I used it as the opening salvo in a discussion group post. And, it didn’t seem to open the can of worms that I was concerned about. While I don’t support everything that Mr. Howard had to say, I do admire him taking a stand and defending his position.

That’s what freedom and liberty (“…and justice for all”) is all about.

Tonight, we watched three fireworks displays (Rice-Eccles Stadium, Murray Park and what we think was Sugar House Park) from our back window, while some of our neighbors set of pyrotechnics of their own. The cats didn’t seem too fond of the nearby noise and hullabaloo. I’m sure that they will be equally thrilled when the 24th rolls around and many of our neighbors light fireworks in honor of Utah’s own holiday: Pioneer Day. The Colony kid in me still looks a bit askance at the fanfare that Pioneer Day generates (mainly because it would make more sense to me if it celebrated the day that Utah became a state… which was in January), but I understand the significance the day holds for the local population.

Stray Toasters

• For reasons that I have yet to fully comprehend, ‘Nine‘s OS partition flipped me off this afternoon… and then wouldn’t reboot. This was more than “a little” aggravating. But, after thinking it over for a bit, I decided to simply wipe the partition and start over. And tomorrow: I image the drive. This whole “take hours out of your day to rebuild a partition” crap is for the birds.

  However… this did afford my inner Star Trek geek to do something that I’ve been considering for a while: I set my “Start Windows” sound from that st00pid “Microsoft Sound” to a .wav of one Captain Benjamin Sisko welcoming someone to Deep Space Nine. And that makes my inner (and outer) geek smile.

• By way of Backwash: Apropos of Something
• Once again, I held both my video card-to-be and City of Heroes in my hands.
  Once again, I put them both back on their respective shelves.
  Until the end of next week.

• I finally read the three issues of Battlehymn (as I previously mentioned here) that I picked up on Friday. I’m impressed. It’s a very well-crafted story. And, it seems that while the government is trying to put a good public face on the Watchguard team, the beauty is only skin deep. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
• How big is your ecological footprint?
  I didn’t know how large my footprint was; I was surprised by the result:

• As if I needed yet another thing to add to the “Covet List,” Rykodisc has put out a DVD set that I must own: Spenser: The Movie Collection. I like what A&E has done with the new movies in the series, but for me… Robert Urich will always be the face of Spenser. Not to mention the fact that Avery Brooks’ Hawk was one bad mother… (Shut yo’ mouth!) …and is also featured in the movies, too.
• A man has been convicted… for modding an Xbox.
• Over the past three years, I have gone on and on about how highly I regard Cartoon Network’s Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. So, I won’t do it again. This time. Instead, I’ll let someone else do it. By way of Cinescape, I give you this week’s “TV Wasteland” column, by David Michael Wharton: Who Watches the Justice League?
• I’ve been generally happy with the Internet service that Comcast provides. However, I had a major bone to pick with them yesterday: I wasn’t aware that they cap their subscribers’ newsgroup downloads to 2 GiB… PER MONTH. *braincramp* This notion doesn’t exactly thrill me.
• By way of (and SciFi.com): Warp 11
• These people spent 10 hours building a LEGO® Star Destroyer. You can watch a 4-minute .avi of the construction.

Namaste.

Sunday
Yep, sleeping in is a good thing. After waking up, I spent some time being lazy. It felt good. Very good. Great, even.

and I met Perry for a cup of coffee. We drank our caffeinated beverages and talked for a bit before taking off in the direction of one of the local Best Buys. I left the store with three Hayao Miyazaki movies: Castle in the Sky, Kiki’s Delivery Service and Spirited Away. They have been reduced to $14.99 each, from their regular $25 – 30 each; it was a deal that I couldn’t resist.

From there, it was off to meet and her boys for dinner. We had a nice visit with them; the boys were – as usual – well-behaved. Our waiter reminded me of Martin Short.

Then it was back home for a quiet Sunday evening. Part of that was spent watching “Flashpoint,” a new episode of Justice League Unlimited. Holy… cow. I was amazed. A couple of seasons ago, the episode “A Better World” did an Elseworlds-like story whose premise was “What if the Justice League established themselves as the de facto leaders of the not-so-free world?” It was a darker episode than most, but a compelling story. There have been allusions to that episode over the past two seasons… including the animated introduction of the DCU’s secret government facility, The Cadmus Project (1, 2). The animated series has made Cadmus far more shadowy and sinister than it’s four-color print counterpart. And that has only added to the intensity of the ongoing subplot. Until the last minute-and-a-half of the show, I had thought that there had been some major fireworks. I was wrong. It looks as though big things will be happening over the next few episodes. Very big. And I can’t wait to see how it unfolds.

Stray Toasters

• I’ve been mulling over the purchase of City of Heroes. Of course, this means that I would have to get a new video card, too. That’s not really a bad thing, as my AIW 7500 is three or four years old. And… if I get the new card, I can give this one and then pull the vid and tuner cards out of her system.

  I went to the CoH website to get some more information about it… and I came across the CoH Costume Contest. After last year’s Green Lantern costume for Hallowe’en, I should be the last person to rag on someone dressing up. Operative words: “Should be.” (And since my PR people tell me that I need to work on my image, I won’t.) I have to admit, though, that a lot of those costumes were very well-done.

• Massive Snickers and Mars Bar Candy Recall No Laughing Matter
• Do you remember Statler and Waldorf, the two curmudgeonly Muppets who sat in the balcony on The Muppet Show? They’re back. And they are reviewing movies.
• : I’m pretty sure that you might have already seen these, but if not, I think that some of them might be up your alley: Industrial Design Excellence Awards
• Moviefone has a trailer for Neil Gaiman’s Mirrormask. I saw this earlier this year at Sundance. I’m looking forward to seeing it again.
• Seeing the before and after pictures of ‘s bathroom project has inspired me to start/finish painting the living room. Now if I could just find the verdammt motivation to do so…
• I first noticed Sandy Collora after seeing his short film Batman: Dead End. Lately, I’ve been enjoying the “On the Fly” column that he’s writing on Buzzscope. This week’s topic: Where the Hell are all the original ideas??? He has a valid point. (But, I’m still looking forward to Fantastic Four… and Superman Returns… and King Kong.)
• Speaking of Marvel’s “First Family,” Boomerang had a marathon of the 60s animated series. Fanboy that I am, I watched a few episodes. It reminded me of being a kid in Columbia and watching the cartoon on Channel 20, after school.
• A… new… Highlander movie? *sigh*
• By way of boingboing.net: Japanese Star Trek art
• I just sent an email to a discussion group of which I’m a member. I guess I’ll know soon enough if I sparked a (minor) shitstorm.
• Will Microsoft’s Acrylic be a “Photoshop killer?”

Namaste.

Saturday
When I woke up this morning, I was still sore from Thursday’s workout. But, I dragged myself out of bed and got ready for another ride on the Jordan River Parkway. I wanted to check out the south end of the trail.

EveryDave showed up at 10. We loaded the K2 onto his bike rack and we were off. met us at the trail head. We unloaded and we were on our way. We ran into a couple of gents who needed some assistance; reached into her utility belt tool kit and had just the tool that was needed. Onward! We had a good ride… until we approached 90th South. Then the trail… ended. Just like that. Ô.õ We rode through/around River Oaks Golf Course, hoping to pick up the trail.

“No go, Flight.”

We wound up riding 5th West down to 106th South, where we picked up the trail again. Which we did. No problem. We followed the trail until it ended at 115th South. We thought that it went a little farther, but… *shrug* We double back a few blocks to a little community park. We dismounted and rested before heading back.

The trail did continue north past 106th South. All the way to 100th. Then it just… died. Again. *GRRR* The really pitiful thing: You could see the south end of the golf course, just a short way to the north. With no direct way to get to it. *sigh* So, back to a road ride. We made it back to the trail and had a pretty easy ride back to the 64th South trail head.

Home. Downtime. Shower. Impromptu nap.

When I got myself together, we headed out for lunch and a little shopping. I walked into and out of Best Buy and CompUSAirways empty-handed, except for one brochure. We stopped at another shopping center so that I could buy a new pair of cross trainers; I wound up buying a new pair for , too.

On to Cafe Med for their anniversary shindig. We met , , and Chris, Everydave and Alyce there. Food. Bellydancers. Fireworks. In one package. It was a nice affair.

Stray Toasters

• I’m tired. Thankfully, I can sleep in as much (or as little) as I choose on Sunday.
• A friend sent me a link about how to make an origami Yoda
• Sith Psychology 101

Namaste.

Friday
Thank God it’s…

Today was good. Work was… um… “not as productive as it could have been.” I hit a wall when trying to recall how to handle a process. That was a bit frustrating. But, there’s always Monday.

emailed me with some good news: It looks like I’ll be seeing Fantastic 4 on Thursday evening, God willing and the creek don’t rise. And, on the subject of four-color press, I swung by the shop of comics and picked up this week’s haul.

Tonight’s Clitorati gathering was good. Most of the usual suspects were there; , and joined us, too. I don’t think that we ran anyone off this week. But I couldn’t swear to that. Oh, well. What’s done is done. From there, it was on to dinner. Out of those who went to the restaurant, only… three… had entrees. Tonight wasn’t about the food – it was about the company.

Stray Toasters
>>> Under Construction<<<

I’m nodding off at the keyboard. I’ll take that as a sign that it’s time to go.

Namaste.

Thursday
Today was the last day of June.
The year is now half-done.
On the whole, it has shaped up to be a good year, thus far.

Today was, on the whole, substantially better than yesterday. The work day was good; I even went to the gym at lunch, as planned. I may make that a regular Tuesday/Thursday habit. It was good. Painful, but good. I didn’t do much of anything this evening. Just hit “Autopilot” and disengaged.

Happy Birthday to the July LJers:

Stray Toasters

• I took a stab at correcting the file names of some of the mp3s that iTunes (Damn you, iTunes!) bastardized last year.
• and , you might be (somewhat) interested in this: Talking Anime Business Blues
• This gives an entirely new meaning to “crappy restaurant.”
• “Boy, it’s crunchy-bacon hot out there!”
  

• Check out Renderosity’s Artists of the Month for June and July: jgmart and Svenart, respectively.
• : Jeckie (v5)
• Darth Vader fetish chick…. in Korea (What is it with Korea this week?)
• For : Mouse got back!
• The art of Junko Mizuno
• 
• Kill some time: Bookworm

Namaste.