Random Access

Monday: Coda
After work, it was a quick stop at home to change clothes and then back out the door and on the way to Fiddler’s Elbow for tonight’s game: Baltimore at Pittsburgh.

I shouldn’t have been in such a rush.

The Ravens performed horribly. Or, should I say: They didn’t perform. At all.

I saw people in jerseys who were supposed to be the Ravens, but I think that they just grabbed some random strangers in the parking lot. I haven’t seen a game that painful in a long while. It was so bad that my uncle, a Steelers fan, called me before halftime to apologize. Yeah, it was that bad. I’m surprised – and rather grateful – that the score was “only” 7 – 38. It could have been worse: This could have been a Browns-Ravens game. (That’s coming up in two weeks.)

On the plus side, I had the good company of , , and SaraRules’ father to watch the game – and drink beer – with.

Stray Toasters

• I still have a plethora of candy left over from Hallowe’en. Good thing I got candy that I like.
• NY Jedi School Trains Lightsaber Enthusiasts (To Be Bigger Geeks)
• For the Mac users out there: What are some of your favorite applications?
• [message redacted]
• Giant Donkey Kong Game

Namaste.

Monday – 05 November 2007
And…. back in Happy Valley, again. Wahoo, or some madness like that.

Belated Happy Hatching Day to :

SaraRules and I played backgammon again last night. I won four games to three. I like winning. We also watched the Dallas-Philly game. What I want to know is: Who were the yahoos in the Eagles’ jerseys?! What happened to the real team? I saw Andy Reid on the sidelines. I saw Donovan McNabb on the field. I even caught a glimpse of Brian Westbrook. Hell, David Akers even put in an appearance or two. But the others?! No idea. Dallas just walked all over ’em.

The morning commute wasn’t bad… until I got just into Utah County. Then the monkey-rifficness started. And I can’t blame a Utah driver this time – it was a Canuck. He, his pick-em-up truck and a long trailer tried to squeeze an Acura off the road… right in front of me. *grblsnrkx* There were also the usual assortment of people who decided that the “left general purpose lane” was the ideal place to go the speed limit. Or less.

Stray Toasters

• I had a cheese steak sandwich for lunch; it was the last son of Krypton sandwich left over from the batch that SaraRules made for dinner last night.
• I shall probably have a Butterscotch Krimpet or two for dessert.
• Tabula Rasa Reinvents the MMO to Court Casual Gamers
• 
• Grace.
• 22… 23… 24… 25… Oh, Hell. I give up.
• Bumper Stickers Only an Infantile Boob Could Love
• From the “Unintentional Candy Porn” file: Chocolate Santa holding a tree or a sex toy?
• The Best: Obsolete Technologies, from the Sundial to the Laser Disc
• Wait. You mean that everyone doesn’t do this…?

  

Quote of the Day
Today’s gem was SMS’ed in by Land; he overheard it from an out-of-state man working for the pro-voucher campaign here in Utah:

I met a black man today. I win the scavenger hunt!

And with that… lunch is done.

And tonight, the Ravens take on the Steelers. Fiddler’s Elbow. Guinness. That’s all I’m sayin’.

Namaste.

Today’s Letter of the Day is: F

F can be found in a number of places today, such as:

• Fall (the season, not the gravity-induced acceleration towards the ground),
• French press (as in coffee),
• Full-body hug,
• Football, and
• Frank Sinatra (as in the current musical selection and/or the song by Cake)

Sunday – 04 November 2007
Sleeping in is even better with Daylight Saving Time. That whole “Fall back…” thing. It kicks grass. I woke up this morning thinking that I had fifteen minutes until the first round of NFL games. Wrong. I had an hour-and-fifteen minutes. So, that time was spent reading the two most recent issues of GQ, with a cup of coffee, while SaraRules read the latest Vogue. After checking NFL.com, I realized that there weren’t any games in the early set that I was really jazzed about watchng, so I was able to enjoy my reading time.

Last night, we went to see American Gangster. The movie tells the story of 1960s/1970s Harlem drug dealer Frank Lucas and New Jersey police office Richie Roberts, the man who brought him down. Wow. It was a very well-done piece of cinema. As usual, Denzel Washington did an excellent job, as did Russell Crowe. In fact, this movie did many great things to wash the lingering memories of Virtuosity out of my mind – the last picture in which I can recall both Washington and Crowe starring. I give this movie an enthusiastic thumbs-up with an okay.

Stray Toasters

• I played Backgammon for the first time in probably… ten years… last night. I lost fabulously.
• By way of : Shatner woo remix
• : Glad to see that you enjoyed Across the Universe. (Told ya so!)
• 
• Wal-Mart’s Terrible Nintendo Wii Knock-Offs
• By way of Slashdot: Elephants on acid – the 10 wackiest experiments of all time

*voop*

Namaste.

Saturday – 03 November 2007
So far, it’s been, to quote Mr. Rogers, “…a beautiful day in the neighborhood.”

As with any good Saturday, it started with sleeping in. This was followed by breakfast and coffee (and college football) and then cartoons (Legion and The Batman, natch). After observing the necessary hygiene rituals, SaraRules and I headed out to check out the shops on Main Street. Highlights included a couple of bookstores (picked up a new-to-me Spenser book!), the kite shop and the sporting goods store. The latter store amused me because I noticed that the guy working the desk was playing poker on PokerStars; he seemed a little surprised when I mentioned it. Back home for lunch (and more college football) and some other random TV watchin’.

Tonight, we – along with a couple of the roommates and their S.O.s – are going to see American Gangster. We had considered making it a double-bill with Across the Universe, but the roomies’ schedules wouldn’t work with it. Oh, well.

Stray Toasters

• I think that I have found the perfect item for use in this year’s Christmas card. Perfect, I say!
• Duane “Dog” Chapman has had his show placed on indefinite hiatus, after a conversation in which he used racial epithets in trying to convince his son to dump his girlfriend was brought to light. But, he apologized. I would like to think that he apologized because he was sorry for what he said… rather than simply because he got caught.
• Whose Kingdome Come? Geoff Johns Talks JSA
• “What’s a Nubian…?”
• BBtv: American Furry – Life, Liberty and the Fursuit of Happiness
• 
• 8-bit retro game sound synthesizer
• I have been wanting to play some good, old school fashioned Lode Runner, lately.
• Impossible Mission, too.
• Steampunk Pac-Man
• From Baltimore’s City Paper: Hallowe’en Masks VIII… especially notable/amusing – the “Play Caller of Cthulhu” mask.
• Here there be zombies!
• For those of you who watch NFL on Fox, you’re familiar with “the Touchdown Robot.”  Well… guess who’s getting his (its ?) own action figure?
• Hot chocolate.  Boo-yah!

Namaste.

Friday – 02 November 2007
And so the weekend starts. Actually, it started last night: I cleared things with and got on the road for Cedar City. Late start, but that also meant that there was almost no traffic. Which means… say it with me…. “No monkeys!”

This morning, I slept in. Oh, glorious sleeping in… how we love you. While waiting to SaraRules to get done at school and work, I ran to the bank and the gas station and the car wash (Oh-oh-oh-oh, at the car wash, yeah!). After we met back at Sara’s, we decided that we were hungry. Next stop: Costa Vida. With food out of the way, we headed back to campus for a few, so I could say “Hi” to a few people.

I wanted to do some shopping – slim pickin’s in Cedar – so we went to St. George. Outlets. Dairy Queen. And Best Buy. Amen.

Back to Cedar. Tonight, it’s Papa Murphy’s and Dog Soldiers.

Tomorrow… we’ll see.

Namaste.

Thursday – 01 November 2007
Good All Saints Day to everyone.

When I got in from work, I started reading some of the four-color shwag I had picked up before lunch. Among the things I started was the latest issue of Action Comics… featuring the Legion. I was so stoked about reading it that I was a little late getting to last night’s gaming session. I had to make a concerted effort to stop reading it after only a few pages. (Yep… that was pretty much the last nail in the coffin, confirming beyond any/all doubt that the Legion – in all of its incarnations – is my “warm, happy place” in comicdom.)

Last night, we wound up not playing Call of Cthulhu. Sort of. We played Arkham Horror, which is more or less a boardgame version of the RPG. More specifically, we played with The King in Yellow supplement – as weird as the original game is, this addition adds another couple levels to the weird-shit-o-meter.

Today has been relatively uneventful. I had to stop in the north office before coming down to the South Forty. Things here have been quiet. I’ve been able to answer a few questions from the field and get some reading done. Today’s workout was basically a repeat of Tuesdays, with a couple of changes:

• Bench press: 185 lbs, 3 sets / 10 reps (third set was 8 @ 185, 3 @ 155)
• We added shoulder presses (20 lbs, 3 sets / 15 reps) before back raises.
• Unlike Tuesday, I managed to do all three sets of back raises.

And stuff.

Stray Toasters

• I have Twix.
• Twenty-six and change.
• Wired‘s various looks at Rock Band
• By way of Broken Frontier: Whoreoween Isn’t Just for Girls Anymore
• Pragmatism. Go figure.

Wow. Nice to completely space off the fact that this was open for a while… considering that I had planned to post this right after lunch. Huh. I should probably do that now.

Namaste.