Random Access

I decided to come in to work for a bit this morning, so I figured that I should have something decent to listen to…

<boogie>
     The Ohio Players – Fire
     DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince – Summertime (Wishful mid-winter thinking….)
     Big Daddy Kane – A Job Ain’t Nuthin’ But Work
     Queen – One Vision
     Duane Eddy and The Art of Noise – Peter Gunn
</boogie>

Loverboy sang Everybody’s Working for the Weekend.
I know what they meant.
And, I’m almost there.

Have a good one.

Thursday : 02 February 2006
Four days down… and I’m deciding whether or not to go in tomorrow. As of the time that I left today, I had 36.5 hours in; believe it or not, I’m actually torn about whether to go in or just take the remaining 3.5 hours as personal leave time. Decisions, decisions… Today’s workout was good. I put Coworker W through my shoulders and triceps workout routine. He held his own. I was proud of him. I was proud of myself, too: I did two reps of 225 pounds. Nearly 1½ times my weight. They weren’t necessarily pretty reps, but I got them done. When I got back to the office, I checked a couple of sites to get a rough idea of my BMI and body fat percentage. My BMI is 25.8, which is considered overweight. (Sorry, but if I weighed what that thing said I “should” weigh, I’d be nearly two-dimensional.) My body fat, depending on the source, is between 13 – 15%.

Post-work, I hung out with , her boys and her brother (in town for the weekend). We watched Ice Age – which I’d never seen all of the way through before – and a rather interesting episode of CSI. ( Your “Ice Age” post now makes much more sense.)

The High-Flying Adventures of Indigo Bolt and “Sparky,” the Ball Lightning Wonder
I decided to take in a quick patrol around parts of Paragon City. Talos Island seemed fairly quiet, so I headed to Independence Port. Shortly after I arrived, I was asked to join a group in Brickstown. I did. Just outside the train station, a trio of Sky Raiders decided that I would make a suitable target dummy. Some peoples’ children, I tell you… I boarded the train and met up with the team. We took on a group of Freakshow and Nemesis. All of whom were two, three or four levels above us. We all died once. But, we went back and mopped up the floor with those rejects from a science fiction B-movie.

Stray Toasters

• I need to get my eyes examined this weekend. While wearing my glasses has been a nice respite for my eyes, I’m getting tired of them.
• Thanks to for solving the TurboTax conundrum: They charge the “Refund Processing Fee” if you have them draft the e-file fee directly from your refund. If you charge the e-filing fees, you pay $24.95 to file your federal and state taxes. I still think that I’m going to mail mine in.
• 
• : Coming soon to a HeroClix collection near you… Colossal Boy (…or ‘Micro Lad,’ if you will).
• Dark Horse Announces Star Wars: Legacy
• By way of Slashdot: RIAA Sues Woman Who Has Never Used a Computer
• : Since you’re not going to be here for Clitorati, do I still have to do my crossword puzzle upside-down? While you’re thinking about that, Podcast of Amazing Randi’s science-skeptics conference with Penn Jillette.
• From the “Life Imitates Art” file… (kind of): Captain Jack Sparrow to Join the Audio-Animatronics Crew of Disney’s Pirates of the Carribbean Attraction
• Five Things Steve Jobs Has Misled Us About in the Last 30 Years

This is a good stopping point for the night.

Namaste.

Wednesday : 01 February 2006
Welcome to the first day of Black History Month.

Today was a grey, occasionally snowy day in the Salt Lake and Utah Valleys. Yay. It was another good and productive day at work.

Post-work was quiet. I had to skip tonight’s Cthulhu game. (Although, that should mean that my character managed to stay out of trouble… and not go potential right ’round the bend. Operative word: “Should.”) called and asked if I wanted to go out and get something to eat; I said “yes.” We went out to dinner and then watched Purple Rain. Gotta love Morris Day.

Stray Toasters

• I continued my downward spiral into gaming geekiness: I downloaded the manual for MechWarrior: Age of Destruction, so that I can compare the stats against those of HeroClix… and possibly set up a Battle Royale (with cheese) between a lance of Mechs and some of Marvel and DC’s finest. Of course, I could just put the Mechs up against Phoenix and Darkseid and let God sort out the rest.
• When you’ve hacked just about everything else, why not h4x0rs Scrabble?
• As a follow-up to Tuesday’s post: It seems as though I can do one-handed push-ups. Not many, but I can always work on that.
• : “Corn topper?” Do I even want to ask…?
• Hm. Speaking of Phoenix and Darkseid, I just realized that I might have all of the ‘Clix to represent everyone from the Teen Titans/X-Men crossover from the mid-80s. I’d have to look at the lineups from the books to be sure.
• Jungle love… Yes!
  O-E-O-E-O!

• The new Honda Accord ADAS can drive itself.
• From ABC News: Civil Rights Movement Losing Icons, Focus
• 
• : I don’t know if you got yours when we first talked about this, but it seems as though LEGO is bringing back the Classic Creator Watch.
• “…uh-oh.”
  

• Oldest remains of the African slaves brought to the New World found in Mexico
• I don’t recall the source, but I thought that this was very interesting:
  

  Composing legend John Williams seemed a little staggered by the fact that he is now second only to Walt Disney in total Oscar nominations. Disney received 59 in his lifetime, while Williams’ two nominations this year bring his tally to 45. “That’s amazing,” Williams said, “and he had a whole studio behind him. … It’s a hard reality to really comprehend.” With his scores for Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” and Rob Marshall’s “Memoirs of a Geisha” going head-to-head, Williams chooses to espouse no favorite. “You have all of your children — aspects about each one you admire and things you wish you could improve,” he said. “I’m proud of both of them.”

• : The full-color cover to Storm #1
• Everybody Wang Chung tonight…
• I went back and checked TurboTax to see if I had mistakenly clicked on something that would expedite my refund and, thus, incur the additional “Refund Processing Fee.” I didn’t. The bastards want $54 and change for you to e-file, if you buy the boxed version of the software.

Namaste.

I just found a sour apple Blow Pop in my desk drawer.

That just happens to be my favorite flavor of Blow Pop.

It made me smile… just before I unwrapped it and put it in my mouth.

Now, I’m smiling on the inside.

Tuesday : 31 January 2006
Overall, today was a rather good – and productive – day. We like those. We like them a lot, in fact. This afternoon’s workou was good, too. Near the beginning of my workout, an older woman (in her 50s or 60s) asked me if I could do one-armed push-ups. She had been watching me do dips and leg raises on the Roman chair and said that I looked strong enough to do them. I smiled, thanked her and told her that I should probably try doing them at home first, so that I didn’t fall on my face and embarrass myself in front of everyone at the gym. She laughed at that. But, her comment was a definite ego boost.

After work, I came home and had a difficult time deciding what I wanted for dinner. After due deliberation, I came to a decision: I wanted to cook out. And I did. If any of my neighbors were looking out their windows, I’m sure that they wondered what in the Nine Hells had possessed me to take out the grill in 30-something degree weather. Oh, well. I did… and I liked it! And the steaks were good; I overcooked them a bit, but they were still damned tasty.

I helped with a travel-related problem. Yay for the Interweb and damn IVRs (Interactive Voice Recordings). I showed her how to get around the IVR on Delta Airlines’ telephone system.

Wednesday marks the beginning of Black History Month. I’ll refer you to the “Random Access” section of this post for my thoughts on what you can do to learn more about it.

• Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., died today. She was 78.
• Evolution of Controllers – from the Atari 2600 to the Nintendo Revulotion
• I sent a link to this video to . He trumped me with this one (NSFW…)
• Putting Star Wars to the MythBusters Test
• From MAKE: Blog – Make Spaceships from Aspirin Bottles and Toilet Items
• Horrorwood
• Black sf writers and white sf
• : By way of Cinescape, Directors Who Matter – George A. Romero
• And in the “Could We Have Waited Any Longer” file: Henson Reignites Dark Crystal

Quote of the Day
From a conversation with :

[12:42] : Hoi, chummer.
[12:43] : i never understood why “chum” meant friend
[12:43] : but hi
[12:43] : “chum” = “bait
[12:43] : yes which is why i don’t understand
[12:43] : “chum” = “bait” = “If we get fucked over, you do know that I can outrun you, don’t you?”
[12:44] : lol are you pulling this out your backside?
[12:44] : *nod*
[12:44] : ah ok. hope it’s not too painful
[12:45] : High-fiber diet and a good laxative. That’s all I’m sayin’.

Namaste.