Happy Birthday to !

Have a fantastic day!

All the best to you.

Friday – 21 September 2007
It’s Friday. Which means that the end (of the week, that is) is in sight. That’s a beautiful thing.

I had a couple of weird dreams this morning. One of them had a few friends and me examining/exploring a house, for reasons that I’m sure only make sense in dreams. The house had an odd architectural feature on the second floor: There was a huge, open-to-the-first floor gap in the floor between the landing at the top of the stairs and the master bedroom. I tried to leap the gap and check out the master bedroom… and underestimated the distance.  I landed on a ledge, but still about 10-12 feet above the first floor.  It took me a few seconds to realize, “This is only a dream” and wake myself up.

Stray Toasters

• Rolling Rock may have the mysterious “33” on their bottles, but I’ll take the enigmatic “36” right now.
• I may have to stop for a cup of frozen mocha goodness this morning.  And maybe even… a bagel.

Zoom.

Thursday: Coda
After work, I met Mary, Chris, and for tonight’s entertainment: Resident Evil: Extinction. Yep. Zombies-a-go-go. And Milla Jojovich beating ’em down. It wasn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, Oscar-fare, but it was a nice way to spend an evening with friends. And, it was fun.

After the movie, Nox, Lavynder and I headed to one of the local Sampan restaurants for a late dinner. The food and company were good, as was the conversation.

Stray Toasters

• Another glass of chocolate milk might be in order this evening.
• posted about her mother’s passing last year. It reminded me that my grandmother died four years ago, this past Monday. Last week, while moving things from LJ to WordPress, I took another look at the post I did on that day. It occurred to me that I hadn’t shown it my father; so I printed it out and sent it to him. He messaged me over the weekend to let me know that he received it… and liked it. That made me smile, although I felt a little bad about having not shared it with him before now.
• posted a link to the following video:
  
• …I cringe and pretend like it won’t peel paint.
• Acolyte Derek pointed me in the direction of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. I am amused.
  
  

Anything else can wait until after the sun has put in an appearance.

Namaste.

Stray Toasters

• I checked my mail this morning, on a whim. (Mostly because I couldn’t remember whether I checked it yesterday…) I’m glad that I did – there was a letter waiting in there that made for a great start to the morning.
• Sara posed an interesting – and somewhat unusual – question last night: “What is your favorite texture?”
  My counter was “Tactile or other, such as ‘food texture,’ for example?”
  “Tactile.”
  So, I started thinking about it. The one that I’ve come up with so far is: Skin. It is common and similar… yet it can also be so varied: rough, smooth, calloused, pitted, wrinkled.
• Last night, I continued my reading of the graphic novel V for Vendetta, on which the movie was based. I had the iPod playing in the living room. I was reading the scene where Evey is being tortured in “prison” and Madonna’s Die Another Day started playing. It reminded me of the opening scenes of Die Another Day (the movie), where Bond is being tortured in time with the song.
• Along those same lines, I had forgotten that the fight between the pirates and Prince Septimus’ guard in Stardust had been choreographed against Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld (“Can-Can”), until seeing the movie again this past weekend.
• By way of CNet: Blocking memorable scenes with LEGOs
• The drive-time commute included Van Halen’s Dreams. I like the video for the song, it features the Navy’s Blue Angels. The song started playing just as I was coming to the summit of I-15 on Traverse Mountain. When I looked to my left, there were paragliders floating around the ridge. Sure, they aren’t F/A-18 Hornets, but the overall effect was good enough for me.
• , Comics2Film has a few stills from the upcoming season of Legion of Super Heroes.
• If you haven’t heard about Warner Brothers upcoming adaptation of New Frontier (1, 2), a graphic novel by Darwyn Cooke, check out this teaser/preview.
• Tonight, God willing and the creek don’t rise, I’m going to a preview of Resident Evil: Extinction. Zombies!!!

Quote of the Day
I responded to a department email with lyrics from Working in a Coal Mine, by Lee Dorsey:

Working in the coal mine
Going down down down
Working in the coal mine
Whoop about to slip down

This was the IM response I received from :

(10:38:03 AM) : Oh LORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD.
(10:38:12 AM) : I am SO TIRED.
(10:38:20 AM) : 🙂
(10:38:21 AM) : How long can this GO ON?
(10:38:41 AM) : Good morning, Mr. B.
(10:38:53 AM) : (ps- damn you for getting that song stuck in my head this early.)
(10:39:07 AM) : Could have been worse.
(10:39:13 AM) : I could have gone with Sixteen Tons.
(10:39:15 AM) : …or…
(10:39:20 AM) : The Pina Colada Song.
(10:39:21 AM) : 😀
(10:39:24 AM) : eh, sixteen tons wouldn’t have been…. FUCK YOU

Back to it.

Thursday: 20 September 2007
After work and after picking up the car, I decided to treat myself to a trip to Best Buy to acquire a copy of Superman: Doomsday. Not only was I successful in getting that, but I also picked up Scent of a Woman and S.W.A.T.

Last night, I slept pretty well. That, to some degree, makes up for Tuesday night’s poor sleep.

Four-Color Coverage: Animated Edition
I watched Superman: Doomsday knowing that it was adapted from the “Death of Superman” storyline from the early 90s. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from it, but I knew that they couldn’t do the whole story as it was presented in comic format. I remember being impressed with how well Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was executed; likewise, I was stunned with the job that Marvel and Lionsgate did with Doctor Strange… but, I still have a bad aftertaste from the abomination that was Superman: Brainiac Attacks. So, I was curious to see what they could/would do.

I wasn’t disappointed.

In fact, I was rather surprised at how well they told the story. In fact, this version exceeded my expectations quite a bit. While this movie isn’t canon, it draws on things from both the comics as well as something that I took as a nod to the “Legacy” (1, 2) of Superman: The Animated Series. And it blends them together nicely. They didn’t pull any punches (no pun intended) in telling stories revolving around:

• Superman and Lois’ relationships, personal and professional
• Lex Luthor’s genius…
• …and his desire to be the man at the top of the food chain – at any cost
• … and his ruthlessness
• Superman’s devotion to protect the people of Metropolis

The movie isn’t “dumbed down” to make it more palatable for younger audiences; it is rated PG-13. In my opinion, it earned that rating. It seems as though the writers, directors and producers came together to tell a story and, rather than churn out 70 minutes of pablum, went the opposite direction and brought their A-game to the table.

My one gripe – and it’s not a big one – is that the characters’ faces seem a little “too” angular, at least when compared to S:TAS and Justice League/Unlimited. The voice actors did a good job of bringing the characters to animated life. Adam Baldwin did a good job as Clark Kent/Superman, Anne Heche did well as Lois Lane and James Marsters turned in a nice performance as Lex Luthor.

I’m sure that I’ll be watching this again, looking for the little details that I may have missed in the first viewing. I recommend it to fans of the comic, the animated series and the Superman mythos in general.

Stray Toasters

• I had a cold glass of chocolate milk before bed.
• “I’d say, “Bunnies,” Raist…”
• Hmm… Doomsday vs. The Juggernaut.
• Preview of Justice League of America #13 – , you might want to check it out.
• “Thanks” to Acolyte Derek for pointing out this Playstation 2… made of LEGO
• posted a quiz. I took it. This was my result:
  

  Your home is a Philanthropic Gamer’s Mansion Your kitchen is stocked with chips, dips, and assorted caffeinated beverages. There’s a pantry with emergency backup caffeinated beverages. You also have some breakfast cereals in there, but you haven’t had breakfast since last Spring. Your master bedroom has blankets printed with images of Mario and Link. Your study includes unread copies of various gamer magazines, each purchased for the free demo CDs. One of your garages holds your collection of ferraris, and is measured in acreage.Your home also includes a guest wing and private quarters for your servants. Your guests enjoy your collection of every console and associated game ever made. Except the Intellivision — those controllers drive them NUTS. Outside is your hedge maze and gardens, meticulously tended by a team of world-class botanists. Below is a snippet of the blueprints:

  Find YOUR Dream Home!

This is probably the point where I should finish getting ready for work…

Namaste.

Wednesday – 19 September 2007
Ugh.

I had to take the car in to have some service work done. That, in and of itself, isn’t so bad. My appointment was for 7:00 AM. Again, not so bad.

The problem, however, came in not sleeping very well last night. I don’t know if it was a subconscious fear of oversleeping or what. Whatever the problem, my journey through The Dreaming was troubled. I am hoping that by thinning out the blood in my caffeinestream, I can find a modicum of sanity… or at least enough mental stability to make it through the day without painting the walls red. It is Talk Like a Pirate Day, after all; why stop at just talking like a pirate? lj user=”asdf_cat” and I have been upholding the pirate talk… at least through IM.

::: meeting break :::

And, we’re back. On a plus note, Wes was in the office today. This is the first time I’ve seen him since he went out for his surgery a couple of months ago. He looks good. And he says that he feels much better and that he’s improving daily. That’s good to hear.

Stray Toasters

• I need many of these for the office. Both offices.
• Cats Harbor Sercet Plan to Turn Us Into Litter-Scooping Robots

  

  

• I don’t know how I missed this story over the past few days.
• 
• Report: Insiders cause more computer security problems than viruses
• By way of lj user=”ferriludant”: So by now, you know all know about the meteorite in Peru…
• 
• The Hypertext d20 SRD
• From boingboing.net: Home Inspection Nightmares from This Old House

Namaste.

I received the following from Spydr and, as I was going to post something about it later today, I figured that I’d kill two birds with one stone:

AHOY MATIES!

It’s time again for Talk Like a Pirate Day!

When? Wednesday September 19th

Did you know Sept. 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day? I know many of you have already planned your piratical celebrations, and some of you may already have own personal traditions in place. But just in case your busy schedule has intruded to catch you unawares on the eve of this important holiday, here’s some suggestions you can easily incorporate into your daily routine. You may find that employing the canny skills of the pirate boost your own agenda, as well!

1. Red and black is in. Not your colors? That’s okay! Pirate complexions invariably tended toward more sallow hues due the high incidence of scurvy. This is also your opportunity to incorporate any acne outbreaks or hairy moles into your overall ensemble. Use this day to display them with pride. Don’t be afraid to put your comb away for the day, either. Plundering the high seas leaves little time for involved daily hygiene routines.

2. Accessorize. Pirates favored shiny metallic accents, preferably the timeless look of gold. The bolder the better… feel free to improvise! Pirates rarely consulted popular fashion, preferring instead to pioneer their own trends. If you’re male, this is a prime opportunity to try jewelry while maintaining your masculinity. Just think of it as wearing your trophies. A natural look works as well – you can’t go wrong with a good skull and crossbones. Hats are also important, but can be tailored to your individual taste. Scarves combine fashion and function; flattering headgear for many, they also serve to wipe off any unfortunate stains. It’s also recommended you invest in a sturdy, preferably thigh-length, boot.

3. Consider carefully your pirate name. Tired of being Jane? Here’s your chance for a colorful change. Try putting an adjective or descriptive phrase in front of your name, first or last. For example, Rufus is now Bloody Red Rufus, or Mad Dog Rufus. The more visually evocative the title, the better. Alliteration slips off the tongue easier and makes your name, and therefore you, more memorable. (Try this at job interviews and you’ll get results).

4. Talk with flair. Have fun with this! Change your “you” to “ye” and your “my” to “me.” Pepper your sentences with “scurvy,” “bloody,” and “smarmy”. End at least every other sentence with “argghh” and begin the other sentences with “aye.” Show affection by assigning nicknames to others, such as “bilge rat.” This is a great trick at work or cocktail parties if you can’t recall someone’s name. Remember, everyone finds an accent attractive.

5. Don’t be afraid to advertise yourself! Let others know you’re coming, and that it’ll be on your terms. Create a personalized flag that relates to you (in red or black, of course), and attach it to your vehicle’s radio antenna. Make sure the flag is easily detachable for those times you’d prefer to drive incognito.

6. Keep your mind active – challenge yourself! Create a treasure map for your office on pay week while you search for your check. Use your co-workers’ desks as landmarks. Invite your colleagues to join in the challenge by telling them to “find their own treasure, or walk the plank!”

7. Delegate – it’s important you take care of yourself at home and in the workplace. Refer all inquiries and requests to your pet parrot. This works whether the parrot is live or stuffed. Either way, optimal parrot placement is on the left shoulder. (Be sure it is securely anchored – no one trusts an unsteady parrot). Insist others treat your parrot with respect and as your representative, or risk your wrath. It may be necessary for you to engage in hand-to-hand combat or swordplay at least once before your wishes are respected. Be firm, and your co-workers/family members will follow your lead. (You may wish to substitute a monkey or ferret).

8. Value your assets. Don’t hesitate to bring your hooked hand to Human Resources to request your 50 pieces of silver for losing your appendage while fixing the copier.

9. Offer to pioneer a new training series for your company based on piratical theory. Ideas for topics: “Walking the Plank: The How-To in Merging Companies and their Personnel,” “Pillage and Plunder: Strategizing Sales Techniques,” “Davy Jones’s Locker: You and your 401(k)”, and “Pirates are People Too: Mediation and Interpersonal Relationships.”

10. Mutinies happen. When you’re escorted from your workplace, take it in stride. Pirates never worked well when accepted in the general population, anyway.

The You Tube introduction of the 5 As, done by the Pirate Guys!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cKCkbWDGwE

Pirate Day Phone Etiquette!

The Pirate Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM1NUGlo2ww&NR=1

Pirate vs.. Ninjas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxC4pz9pO7c&NR=1

Just a few quick hits:

• I was checking out boingboing and found this item for the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file… (potentially NSFW)
• Then, there was an article for this music video, by a group called Familjen, out of Sweden… made from vintage religious event footage.
• After showing it to a couple of coworkers, I then turned around and showed them Hurra Torpedo’s version of Total Eclipse of the Heart. After all, why pass up a perfectly good opportunity to break coworkers?!
• Nebraska Senator Sues God to Stop Terror Threats
• Thanks to for pointing out the Simuring feature on Vonage.
• Thanks to Tyranist for pointing me in the direction of the Marvel Database Project. I’ll need to check out how it compares to Marvel’s site/database.
• Brain surgery changes boy’s accent

And now… gym time.

Monday: Coda / Tuesday – 18 September 2007
Tonight, I got to play “Favorite Uncle” to the kids while Kate and Perry took care of a couple of things. The kids were finishing dinner when I got there, so they were ready for a little play time before bed. Aside from using my lap as an occasional playspace, they pretty much entertained themselves.

About an hour before bed, I sat them down for some quiet time while they watched cartoons. Then, the boys decided they wanted to watch Doctor Strange before bed… so I let them watch it, with the understanding that when it was time for bed, they’d have to turn it off and go to bed. So, popcorn was popped and they sat down and watched the movie. If someone had been watching through a window, it would have looked as though the two youngest had tried to attach themselves to my hip: The baby was on my left, feeding herself and handing me kernels of popcorn when I was taking too long to get them myself; the middle child was on my right, half-watching the movie, half-trying to feed me popcorn, too. And now that I think about it, the oldest was hovering pretty close, too.

When it was time for bed, they went to their respective rooms and got into bed. No fuss. Even the baby – She ran into her room, made a bee-line for the crib, asked for one of her dolls and laid down. Just like that. I tucked them in, closed their doors and didn’t hear a peep from them for the rest of the evening.

When Kate and Perry got home, Kate asked if I “…survived the kids alright?” I told her that as far as babysitting gigs went, this was cake. The kids took care of themselves (with the exception of one pre-bed diaper change, for the baby) and were great all night long.

The Best: Killing Me Softly (prompted by post from )
Roberta Flack vs. The Fugees

While I like the up-tempo groove of The Fugees’ cover, for my money, this song is best as done by Roberta Flack. No contest.

The Best: I Can’t Make You Love Me
Bonnie Raitt vs. Prince vs. George Michael

This one was pretty close. Sara and I were listening to Prince’s Emancipation this weekend and his cover of the song started playing. I asked if she had heard the George Michael version of it; she hadn’t. Fortunately, I had Nomad with me (A road trip without my trusty iPod?! Unheard of!) and played it.

Both covers are good… but for me, this round goes to Bonnie Raitt. There’s something that sounds more emotionally charged in her version, although I’d say that the Prince version runs a not-too-distant second.

Stray Toasters

• I posted the pictures from this weekend’s Cedar Breaks hike. (Apologies to those on dial-up connections…)
• , what’s this about Maoists quitting the Nepalese government?
• For some reason, I just had the thought of a wheelbarrow race pop into my head.
• Jamie McKelvie talks Suburban Glamor
• By way of : LOLthulu
• This sounds like an interesting idea, but “Lemon-squeezin’ Jesus” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. I think I’ll stick with monkey-squeezin’ Jesus, thank ya kindly.
• Hmm… Monkey-squeezin’ Jesus vs. Micro-Jesus. That could be interesting.
• Rare Timothy Leary document on eBay
• …speaking of which: I was in a chat/conference/speech with Timothy Leary waaaay back in the days of Quantum Link – the service that eventually became the AOHell behemoth.

I should try that “sleep” thing.

Namaste.

Monday – 17 September 2007
And so, another week begins.

Friday, I spent the early part of the day elbow-up in servers, wires and DDR RAM. Yay. The first few racks I checked weren’t too bad; but the last one…? Not nearly as fun as it could have been. When I finished, I called it a day… and a week.

I ran a couple of errands and hit the road.

Destination: Cedar City
Objective: Visit Sara.

As with any good road trip, there were plenty of road monkeys with which I had to deal. Natch. Fortunately, by the time I got out of Payson, they had pretty much disappeared. The trip was rather uneventful, with the notable exception of a 15-mile stretch heading into Scipio… where the road is narrowed to one lane, in each direction. And did I mention the 55 (at best) MPH speed limit through there? Yeah. Icing on the cake. Monkeys and construction aside, I made decent time.

Friday night, Sara threw a potluck dinner party/get-together. Aside from a lack of the usual Friday-night people-watching, it could have easily been a Clitorati-esque gathering. Oh… and substitute wine for the usual caffeinated beverages, too. And there was Guitar Hero II, at which I proved once again that I either need never play it again or play it a lot and master it.

Saturday was a relaxed day that included:

• …a trip to Cedar Breaks National Monument. We hiked the Alpine Lake trail, which divides into an “upper trail” and a “lower trail,” which meet at the aforementioned lake.
• …kite-flying. Well, “some” kite-flying – the kite kept wanting to nose-dive into the ground. It looks like a couple of the lines on the parafoil are twisted, so I’ll need to see what I can do about correcting that.
• …dinner at Casa de Don Miguel’s, a small Mexican restaurant in town. I had an enchilada and burrito combination plate that was pretty good.
• …a trip to the local Dairy Queen, where I sated my craving for a chocolate-dipped ice cream cone. A craving that I keep neglecting to appease in Salt Lake.
• …EuroTrip. (Damn you, Tyranist.)

Sunday was an equally-if-not-moreso relaxed day. Sara and I hung out, headed to Chili’s for lunch and then to see Stardust. Having seen it before, I wasn’t as shocked by Robert DeNiro’s performance, although I was just as entertained by it as the first time I saw it. I paid a little more attention to Michelle Pfeiffer’s performance this time; I feel like I slighted it in my first review. She did an excellent turn as Lamia, a witch in search of Claire Dane’s Yvaine. I remember thinking at one point,”Lamia… Catwoman… Lamia… Catwoman…” I had forgotten how well she portrays villains/antagonists. After the movie was homework (for Sara) and geekery (for me) followed by dinner. And an episode of Coupling. (Damn you, Tyranist. Again!)

This morning’s commute wasn’t bad. Fortunately, the monkeys weren’t out en masse. And the fifteen-mile crawl wasn’t unbearable. And I made it to the office in good time. Of course, I realized, a tad too late that I didn’t caffeinate myself before leaving, so I will have to tread lightly when dealing with the monkeys, as the blood content in my caffeinestream is higher than usual. I should check the break room to see if there is anything brewable in there.

Football Update
I missed the game, but I did see that the Ravens shot down the Jets. Two down, thirteen to go…

Additionally, Congratulations (and “Thank you”) to for the beatdown his beloved Browns gave to ‘s Bengals.

Stray Toasters

• I need to definitely get to the Garden of Sweden this week.
• , did you and onlyaly get your Recommended Daily Allowance of speed, loops and corkscrews during your excursion to Coaster-opolis?
• 
• Superman: Doomsday comes out tomorrow.
  
• HALO 3 comes out in eleven days.
  …of course, that also means that I’ll need to get a 360 on which to play it.
• 
• Two down, two in a holding pattern.
• Discovery paves way for gamma-ray annihilation lasers
  Gamma Rays?! Are they mad!? Didn’t they learn anything from Bruce Banner’s accident?!
• Another man dies after marathon gaming session
• *voop*

Namaste.

Friday – 14 September 2007
Last night, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do about dinner, so I decided not to make a choice… so to speak.

Instead, I rang up to see what her plans were. She had none. She asked if I had a taste for anything in particular and I answered with my generic response: “Food.” She said that didn’t help. *shrug* She threw out a couple of suggestions. The one that stuck was Olive Garden. And so, we went. I tried one of their new dishes: Chicken and Gnocchi Veronese, a chicken and dumplings dish in a garlic cream sauce. It was rather tasty, but there seemed to be a disproportionate number of dumplings to chicken bits. Oh, well.

The rest of the night was spent being rather aimless and taking care of a few things around the apartment.

This morning, I woke up, got ready for work and hit the road. Short commute today. I can tell that I am ready for it to be the end of the day because I didn’t notice that I was missing my ID badge until I was in the elevator, on the way up to the office. I toyed with the notion of running home to get it, but decided against it, as it would be “too much” effort. A guest badge would do. Today, I am #10. For some reason, I started thinking, “What if this wasn’t written in Base 10? What if it’s Base 2? Or hex…?” From there, it only got worse: I started thinking of how to write “007” in different bases.

Yeah… it’s Friday.

Stray Toasters

• I’m handling Day 2 of a server upgrade survey. I talked with the person responsible for these servers yesterday, in an effort to coordinate shutting them down without affecting too many people adversely. Overnight, he apparently forgot part of what we had discussed. *sigh*
• Happy ‘coastering (not to be confused with ‘Toastering) to and onlyaly.
• I caught this meme by way of :
  1. Go to http://www.careercruising.com/.
  2. Put in Username: nycareers, Password: landmark.
  3. Take their “Career Matchmaker” questions.
  4. Post the top ten results.

  My results:

  1. Multimedia Developer
  2. Electronics Engineering Tech
  3. Electrical Engineering Tech
  4. Website Designer
  5. Optical / Ophthalmic Lab Technician
  6. Industrial Designer
  7. Architect
  8. Computer Support Person
  9. Interior Designer
  10. Tailor / Dressmaker
• World’s Worst Poluted Places 2007
• Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Ko Bop
  Shimmy Shimmy Bop
• 
• Video for MC Frontalot’s nerdcore song about Zork

Back to the grind. Need to get this stuff sorted out and done so I can get on to my weekend.

Namaste.

Thursday – 13 September 2007
A new NBN Thursday begins.

Last night was a lazy, do-a-lot-of-nothing kind of night. And you’ll hear no complaints from me about that. I got home, figured out what to do about dinner and just… hung out. And, I talked (actual vox) with . Twas fun. The conversation ranged from silly to serious, with quite a few stops everywhere in between.

This morning, I actually did something that I haven’t done in a very long time: I wrote a letter. A real-life, honest-to-God, pen-and-paper letter. Not an email. Not a few lines on a greeting card. A letter. Granted, it was a bit short, but that’s not the point here. The point is: I wrote a letter. Not only that, I folded it, put it into an envelope, sealed, stamped and addressed it and put it in the mailbox.

City of Heroes/Villains: The Hand of Nefer-Tem
Since it had been a few days, I decided to do some crime-fighting in Paragon City. I logged in right as a Rikti invasion fleet was attacking the zone where I usually park my characters. So, I joined the fray. I was invited to join an invasion team and we started beating on things. After that portion of the invasion was repulsed, we went to another part of town to fight. After the invasions broke off, the team broke up.

A short while later, a member of my supergroup messaged me and asked if I wanted to join a team and run a few missions… some of my missions, at that. Hm… let me think about that… I joined. I had a few Devouring Earth missions to run. The first one kicked our collective asses eight ways from Sunday. After numerous deaths and some team restructuring, we muddled our way through it. We ran another D.E. mission, after that; it wasn’t nearly as disastrous.

Stray Toasters

• Aside from a little congestion – and a little frog in my throat – I am pretty much done with this whole cold thing.
• How to Survive a Horror Movie
• Have I mentioned how much I like this whole “Save and Continue Editing” feature? Lots.
• And, in continuing coverage from our “Tony Stark Is a Dick” file comes this gem, by way of Wizard:
  

  TONY’S TOY COLLECTION
  Unimpressed by G.W. Bridge’s houseboat, Stark feels the need to run down the inventory of his garage, which includes a boat, some planes, a spaceship and a flying submarine. Arrogant as always, he does, to his credit, segue very awkwardly from his brag session into his real business with Bridge. It’s hard to understand where Bridge’s reluctance comes from with a proposal that begins like this.

  

• By way of contrast: From the “Before Tony Stark was a complete dick” file: the Iron Man movie trailer.
• And, from the trailer: Would the Iron Man (Mark I) suit qualify as “steampunk?”
• By way of : IKEA room planners
• For the Bruce Campbell fans out there, Comics 2 Film is having a The Man with the Screaming Brain giveaway.
• For : Morris Day and The Time – 777-9311 and Color of Success
• From NPR: John Ridley’s Visible Man – Life After the NF-Hell
• 
• Apple, AT&T: Bosom buddies or odd couple?
• Jake, a coworker and workout partner, came over to ask a question about work and noticed that I have a Green Lantern figure on my desk. He asked if that was my inspiration/goal for working out. I looked at it and told him, “No, but I would have filled out my Hallowe’en costume a lot better if it had been!”

And, that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 12 September 2007
Two down, three to go… with one in the chamber.

Yesterday’s workout was good. I opted out of going for 300 pounds again. I just wasn’t feeling it. I did get in three sets of 215 pounds, though. The last few of the third set were not pretty. The rest of the workout was good – I even managed to pull off two sets of unassisted pull-ups before moving to the assisted dip/pull-up machine.

Last night’s “Game Night” was more “Night” than anything. We talked about possibly wrapping up the All Flesh/40K game and moving on to something else. Then, we watched Doctor Strange. I picked up on a couple of things that I had missed when I first watched it. And it was just as enjoyable this time as it was the first time.

This morning, I woke up “remembering” that I had an odd stay in The Dreaming… but the details were dodgy.

Stray Toasters

• Just for the record: I don’t think that barley was ever intended for use as a nasal projectile.
• Angular momentum.
• “Triangle…” whoWHA?!
• The next contestant on The Price Is Right large-sized HeroClix figure is… this.
• 
• Collector’s Edition Slinky
• …which, of course, reminded me of this:

  

• AMD or Intel? What’s your weapon of choice? I’ve had Intel chips before, but I prefer AMD.
• 
• By way of : Superhero Supply Store.

I’m doing something that, for whatever reason(s), I haven’t done before: I came home for lunch. It makes sense to do it, I just… haven’t. I might just make a trend of this.

Namaste.

Tyranist and I were talking about books…

…and that led to library software…

…and that led to software that will catalog any/all media…

…which, somehow, led to talking about Heaven.
(I was there and I’m not even sure how we took that turn.)

That reminded me of my post about who would be in my Heaven, which I then showed him. When he hit the part of who would be my Judas Iscariot, Tyranist tried to recall what movie it was that portrayed – or alluded to – Judas as the first vampire. A couple of clicks on IMDb brought us to John Carpenter’s Vampires; he thinks that’s the correct film.

It would have been fine… had we stopped there. But, talk of Judas and his betrayal of Christ reminded me of this: Party Up – Jesus Christ Superstar.

He made it through about a minute or so of the video before he pulled of the headphones.

Handbasket? Check.
Road paved with good intentions? Check.
All I need is to find my gasoline drawers and I’m set.

From a conversation with about a problem that a coworker was having getting connected to one of our chat servers:

(11:23:23 AM) : I’m having a problem getting [coworker] set up on it.
(11:23:42 AM) : I don’t know if it’s just his client or what yet.
(11:23:54 AM) : But, wanted to make sure that the server’s up and running within norms.
(11:25:24 AM) : yeah. i see people connected internally.
(11:25:28 AM) : what problem is it having?
(11:25:51 AM) : I’m willing to chalk it up to PEBCAK
(11:27:53 AM) : …or the client he’s using.
(11:28:15 AM) : PSI Is the way to go. 🙂
(11:36:47 AM) : Seems like it was something about that client.
(11:37:01 AM) : I threw Gaim 2 – Electric Boogaloo on it and BAM!
(11:37:03 AM) : Magic.
(11:37:14 AM) : gaim makes baby jesus cry.
(11:37:26 AM) : But, Micro-Jesus loves it.
(11:37:37 AM) : I’m not so sure about NanoJesus, though.
(11:38:09 AM) : both of those jesi were killed by particle jesus.
(11:38:16 AM) : Oh, no….
(11:38:49 AM) : doing the things a particle can.