Random Access

Monday – 08 June 2009
Happy Birthday to …

…and to my ex-“sister-in-law,” Julie.

After the parade, I spent more time cleaning up the office. (You might not really be able to tell that by looking in there this morning, to be honest…) Some things were moved. Others were shredded. It’s slow-going, but progress is being made.

For dinner, SaraRules and I met Mary, , and at Macaroni Grill for Chris’ birthday dinner. I had the Calamari Fritti and Chicken Marsala, both of which were quite good. After dinner, we headed over to Chris and Mary’s for birthday cake. And, before we left, we set a date for the next Bad Movie Night.

Home again, home again. Logan came over and hung out for a while. While he watched Burn Notice, I continued sorting my ‘Clix into bite-sized morsels theme-relevant teams/boxes. After Burn Notice, the three of us played Trivial Pursuit. We all jockeyed around the board, trading off who had the most wedges, finally Logan and I filled our holders and headed for the middle… where we kept overshooting the center and had to trying to come up with the right dice rolls to get us back in AND get a question that we could answer. He almost took the game, but missed his last question; I made it to the middle and (finally) got one to which I knew the answer. It was fun, but we noticed that some of the questions – especially some of the Geography ones – were outdated.

At 0445 this morning, SaraRules and I were awakened by a loud noise and what sounded like a voice. We didn’t hear anything after it, but couldn’t just dismiss what we heard. After looking around and finding nothing out of order, we figured that it must have been the smoke alarm. Back to bed. Same thing happened at 0604. Thanks to the shock of the abrupt awakening at 0445, I reverted to an old sleeping pattern: Lightly sleeping and awakening at the slightest noise. And, this time, I heard what was going on: A warning chirp (“One ping only.”) and a synthesized voice saying,”Warning: Low battery.” But, why couldn’t it have waited until after my alarm had gone off?! *sigh*

Stray Toasters

• Coffee good.
• By way of comes Ecocomics: Who is the richest comic book character?
• HOW TO: Maintain a Difference Engine
• I caught part of this story during my commute this morning: Sex Without Intimacy: No Dating, No Relationships
• Readers Like the New Batman & Robin
• Which of the following would be the nominally “better” situation, in terms of survivability: Alien invasion or zombie apocalypse? Why?
• Unix Turns 40
• I can’t remember where I put the one drill bit I want/need for a project. *grblsnrkx*

He gets right on to
The friction of the day

Namaste.

Sunday – 07 June 2009
Today is my mother’s birthday.

I woke up early enough – and just long enough – to wish her a happy birthday before she headed out for the day.

Then, I promptly turned over and went back to sleep.

When the alarm went off this morning, I wasn’t exactly ready for it. (Something about staying up far too late last night/this morning…) But, I got out of bed, ate, did the morning hygiene rituals and got ready for the day. SaraRules and I went downtown to the parade for the Utah Pride Festival. The forecast called for rain, which we got in intermittent spurts that ranged from drizzle to moderate. Oh, well. That’s why we took an umbrella!  met us there and Mr. and Mrs. strolled past a few minutes after that and joined us. The parade was good and the wet weather didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s festive mood. Near the end of the parade, my superpower kicked in, too: I ran into Paul, a former coworker from the USPS.

<< Rewind <<
Yesterday, SaraRules wanted to go to a park and walk, so that we could get in a little exercise. I upped the ante a bit and suggested getting a Frisbee^® and tossing it around. She agreed. The next step was to get one. A trip to Wal-Mart proved (semi-)fruitless: They had them, but wanted $9.00 for it. O,o ?!? It’s just a piece of molded plastic…  (And, to be honest, I really wanted an Aerobie^®.) So, while taking care of another errand, we stopped at Sports Authority where – lo and behold – they had Aerobies. I got an Aerobie Pro for the same price as the Frisbee^®. Win-Win. On to the park! As we were only a few blocks from his house, I called Land to see if he wanted to join us; he did. We spent the next hour or so tossing the disc and chatting. And, it was a pretty good workout, to boot.

Back home for badly-needed showers and downtime. We also started to tackle another project: Cleaning up the office. I finally unpacked the shredder we got a few months ago. It works like gangbusters. I also decided to resort some of my HeroClix that currently have no real rhyme or reason to the way they were tossed into some boxes. While I was doing that, SaraRules decided to see what was on TV. She found Independence Day on A&E. She wasn’t aware that we own the movie, so I asked if she wanted to watch the DVD and not have to deal with commercials. She did… and I stopped sorting ‘Clix to watch The Fresh Prince and The Fly save the world. Again.

> Play >
Not a lot happening now, but we’re heading out to have birthday dinner with Chris (of Chris and Mary) a little later. Beyond that… who knows?

Four-Color Coverage
I picked up Incognegro as part of last week’s comics haul.

I’ve wanted to read it, since hearing about it roughly a year-and-a-half ago, but hadn’t gotten around to it. The story tells the tale of Zane Pinchback, a reporter in 1930s New York whose articles give first-hand accounts of lynchings in the South.

The twist: Mr. Pinchback is a Negro.

He gets away with covering the stories and writing his articles for two reasons:

1. He is passing – his complexion is fair enough to let him appear white.
2. He writes his stories under the nom de plume “Incognegro.”

The story takes an odd turn when Zane is given an assignment go to Tupelo, Mississippi. It appears that Zane’s twin – and darkly-complected – brother is about to be lynched for the death of a white woman.

Incognegro, written by Mat Johnson (1, 2, 3) – a light-skinned Black man, himself – is adeptly written.  Its characters aren’t just stereotypical caricatures; they have depth. The settings aren’t just backdrops, they add to the flavor of the scenes. The story also contains a few interesting plot twists, as well.

All-in-all, this was a solid read, and it’s one that I recommend.

Stray Toasters

• I have come to the conclusion that I want to get (back into) model railroading. Not immediately, but possibly in the next year or so. I think that I want to do O Scale, probably a mixture of Lionel and MTH. (What can I say?  It’s roughly ‘Clix-scale. Win-Win.) I started looking at some of the pieces I want and their prices. This could be a pricey hobby.
• A Giant Awakes in Nantes
• Flashmobs + gold pants = ?!?

  Thanks to for forwarding this to me.

• 8 Things Modern Vampires Could Learn from ‘The Lost Boys’
• On a sadder note: Parents rammed cars into burning day care
• Naturally 7: Where Voices Become Instruments of Soul
• , this might be of help to you: How to Choose Headphones
• The Mother of All Potato Cannons

Namaste.

Saturday – 06 June 2009
Last night, I slept poorly. Phenomenally so. (do0-DOO-do0-d00-d00!) After nodding off on the couch, I decided to call it a night. But, once I got into bed, I couldn’t fall asleep. I tossed and turned for… an interminable amount of time — I tend not to watch the clock when I have a problem falling asleep, as it just tends to irritate and annoy me further. When I finally did fall asleep, I kept having dreams with a common theme: Zombies. The dreams weren’t really “connected” aside from the fact that I think they all had zombies in them. After waking from the last one, I decided to get up and start the day.

This afternoon, SaraRules and I are heading to a park for a walk… and maybe a little frisbee-tossing. Other than that, the day’s fairly wide open.

Stray Toasters

• Apparently, Firestorm is set to appear on Batman: The Brave and the Bold. I wonder which Firestorm (1, 2) it will be…
• 
• Apple to Face Challenge at WWDC
• Ever thought about owning your own railroad car? This site has some valuable information about it.
• US intelligence nominee withdraws
• Tom and Lorenzo, the guys behind Project Rungay, have an interview with comics writer/artist Phil Jiminez: Getting Our Nerd On
• Japan: Man Beaten into False Confession of Child Murder Set Free After 17 Years in Prison

Time to find some trouble to get into.

Namaste.

Friday – 05 June 2009
Another quiet skeleton crew Friday in the office. After starting the day with 2112, I spent about 30 minutes talking with our CTO about some of his experiences with international travel. That was followed up by a conversation with our CFO about our meeting yesterday and the direction that we (IT dept) need to go to make sure that things we discussed yesterday continue to move along.

Last night, SaraRules and I watched Ball of Fire, starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck – a screwball comedy. In it, Cooper plays Bertram Potts, a professor who is part of an 8-man team working on a new encyclopedia. Professor Potts is working on a section on “slang,” but realizes that despite his masterful knowledge of the English language, he knows next to nothing about modern slang; he sets out to find people who know and use it. One of those people is Katherine “Sugarpuss” O’Shea, a nightclub performer… and gangster’s moll. And from there, hijinks ensue. It was a fun movie and, though despite showing its age in a few places , a good way to spend an evening.

Stray Toasters

• Bruce Campbell was interviewed on Talk of the Nation yesterday.
• Apple Above, the Pack Below
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Bacon gumballs
• Festival for New York, That Muslim City
• The Shrinking Majority – Rise & Fall: Mormon Majority Is Slipping Away, by way of
• Database of all the toxins in your cosmetics and personal care products
• 
• The Green Fairy
• The Civic Value of a Bold Statement
• By way of :

  

• D&D-style map of C++
• Ending a 60-Year Gig at the NY Philharmonic

Namaste.

Thursday – 04 June 2009
Last night, I had a couple of new ideas about HeroClix masterboards. While I’ve liked the foam insulation-backed boards, they are thick and, especially in the case of the first one, difficult to transport. (I didn’t cut the first board so that it could fold.) After looking at the multi-level (and multi-layer) board on ToyChop, I started rethinking my ideas about baseboards.  A quick jaunt over to Office Depot gave me what I think is a good idea: Using a project board as the base. The first – and, in my opinion, most advantageous – benefit that it offers is that it is thin. Next, it is light. Third, After I cut off one of the sides, it will fold down to 12″x36″x½”. Win-Win-Win. (Granted, that will still leave 1½” of overhang for the corners, but that’s pretty easy to deal with.)

This morning, I had a meeting that was scheduled to be 3½ hours long. Fortunately, we were done in under two hours. Hallelujah.

Wes and I made it to the gym this afternoon:

• Sit-ups (decline): 3 sets/20 reps
• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 205 lbs
• Flys: 3 sets/10 reps, 110 lbs
• Lower Back Extensions: 3 sets/20 reps, 140 lbs
• Reverse Flys: 3 sets/10 reps, 80 lbs
• Tricep Extensions (dumbbell, overhead): 3 sets/12 reps, 40 lbs
• Curls (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs

Post-workout weight: 188.1 lbs.

Stray Toasters

• Armstrong’s ‘poetic’ slip on the moon
• OAS revokes 47-year-old suspension of Cuba
• Obama in Egypt reaches out to Muslim world
• SaraRules, and tipped me to some sad news: Actor David Carradine found dead and Police rule out foul play for now. I remember watching Mr. Carradine in reruns of Kung Fu when I was growing up.
• Another tip of the hat to Nyx for pointing out: Comics Grammar and Tradition
• The opening to last night’s Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson featured They Might Be Giants’ Istanbul

• How to Sustain Motivation When You’re Struggling
• It’s apparently “Wear Some of My Old Ties” and “Wear a Themed Tie” week for me. Yesterday, I wore a World Wildlife Fund dolphin tie and today I’m wearing a Save the Children puppet show tie.
• Tetris Turns 25, and It’s Still an Addictive Pleasure
• The new season of Burn Notice kicks off tonight.

Allez-oop!

Namaste.

Wednesday – 03 June 2009
Today is Sushi and Comics Wednesday, as there were no holidays to disrupt the comics shipping schedule. It’s apparently also National Tailors Day.

I’m still feeling pretty well this morning. I’m not sure what yesterday’s mystery malady was, but I’m glad that it’s gone. (Or some reasonable facsimile thereof.)

Stray Toasters

• I had a few odd dreams last night. It happens. But, in one of them, my subconscious apparently came up with a very cool two-part, a capella version of If You Believe, from The Wiz.
• T-shirts that amuse me:
  • Care and Feeding of Your Zombie
  • There is no Pac-Man. There is only Zuul.
• Crucial Air France crash data may be lost at sea
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” and “Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow” files: iBoobs
  (Seriously, who comes up with things like this?!)
• 
• How To… Tip Around the World, courtesy of
• Also from Nyx: What happened to me and the new girl (or “The Girl Who Cried Webmaster”)
• Why Apple can afford to phone it in on the next iPhone

Right on to the friction of the day…

Namaste.

Tuesday: Coda
I didn’t feel 100% when I got to work this morning, but I decided to see how I felt as the day went on. It didn’t really get any better. My next thought was that I’d go to the gym this afternoon and try to sweat my way through it… unfortunately, Wes had a meeting. So, I gathered my things and headed home around 1300. Next stop: Sofa. I slept for about the next four hours. After dinner (soup) and a little time watching TV, I decided to go to the exercise room and get in a nominal workout. Tonight: Bike – something to get my heart rate up and to (finally) break a sweat. I was successful in both:

• Bike (recumbent): Twenty minutes (95-102 RPM), “Random” setting

Post-workout weight: 183.0 lbs.

I followed up the workout with a hot soak. I read Fables (Vol. 4): March of the Wooden Soldiers while in the tub. For some reason, I read the first story in the book a few months ago – I believe while on the California trip – and never got back to it. That’s a shame. On the other hand, it means that I still have five more TPBs in the bookcase to look forward to.

It’s a little past midnight, and I’m feeling closer to baseline. That’s not a bad thing.

Stray Toasters

• By way of Meliko and Cake Wrecks: Sunday Sweets – LEGO cakes
• …and because of that, I found Bakerella, as well.
• For the first time in a long while, I actually had a conversation with
• I came across ToyChop, a blog about HeroClix, this afternoon. The article “Property Damage” came up in a forum of which I am a member. It discusses the author’s 3D terrain, including some ideas that I would like to incorporate into my maps.
• I’ve been quoted on the Utah Symphony/Utah Opera blog on their “Reactions to Bernstein’s MASS” page.
• Microsoft’s Project Natal

Namaste.

Tuesday – 02 June 2009
I was a little bit slow out of the gate this morning, but not ridiculously so. It was more a case of “Yes, I’m awake… but I’m not really in a rush to get ready.” And, despite the fact that I got ready in a fairly leisurely fashion, I was still in by 8:00.

Last night, we had dinner at SaraRules’ parents’ place. After dinner, she, Logan, Steve and I played bocce (not to be confused with “speaking Bocce“) in the backyard. I’d never played before, but it was rather fun. After the game (Logan won), we watched Taken. It was as good the second time as when we first saw it. Then, we headed home.

Stray Toasters

• Yet another reason I love SaraRules – she sent me a link to this.
• Badda-Bing Indeed
• Last night, a KC-135 and four F-16 escorts were doing circles around the valley. After the third or fourth loop, we decided to look up what was going on. It was to kick of Air Force Week.
• Booker T: A Soul Man Tackles OutKast – this is an interesting instrumental cover of Hey Ya by a legendary soul music artist… and features Neil Young on guitar, as well.
• Jet Cyclist Hits 73MPH and Lives to Tell the Tale
• Playing with the queen of hearts
  Knowing it ain’t really smart
  The joker ain’t the only fool
  Who’ll do anything for you
• Guantanamo files ‘must be public’
• Spirograph business cards… which, in turn, led me to Business cards made from meat
• According to a post on WikiHow, today is National Leave the Office Earlier Day
• Send headshot to get portrait painted

Right on to the friction of the day…

Namaste.

For the last hour or so, things have been fairly quiet around here. Sensing that I was hitting that late-afternoon, post-lunch slump… and heading towards just wanting to take a nap, iTunes responded by kicking up the tempo on the songs in my playlist:

• MC Hammer – U Can’t Touch This
• Heavy D and the Boyz – Now That We Found Love
• Jonni Lightfoot – The Foot

Just the things to get the blood pumping and get over that late-afternoon hump.

Groove on, brothers and sisters.

Groove on.

Monday – 01 June 2009
Not only a new work week, but a new month kicks off, as well.

Yesterday was relaxing and fun. SaraRules and I kicked off the morning with breakfast… and Planet of the Apes (the one with Charlton Heston, not Marky Mark and the Monkey Bunch). I hadn’t seen it in a very long time. When the movie was done, we got about the business of the day.

We started off with a trip to Toys ‘R’ Us. I’m in search of 1:43 and/or 1:48 scale cars and trucks – they are much easier to buy than to try and cut out of papercraft models. Perry had mentioned that TRU had some, so I went to check them out. He was right. Exerting Green Lantern-like levels of willpower, I refrained from buying any. (Personal Win!) From there, we headed down to visit Perry, Kate and the kids. They’re doing well.

We headed homeward, with a stop at the store for dinner – we were having SaraRules’ mother and brother over for Sunday dinner. Logan came over a little early and introduced me to Gears of War 2. The overall learning curve for the game isn’t very steep, but getting the finesse points will take me a bit. Bonne showed up a little later and shortly after that, it was time to eat. Last night’s fare: Jambalaya with salad and cornbread. (Dinner Win!) And, for dessert: Chocolate chip cookies. After dinner, SaraRules, Logan and I watched Hostage; neither Logan nor I had seen it before. It wasn’t bad. Bruce Willis starred as a former L.A. police negotiator who transitions to a small town police chief after a negotiation goes… bad. Unfortunately, things in his sleepy burgh didn’t stay quiet for long. All-in-all, not a bad flick.

After the movie, I went to work on a small HeroClix board for Perry’s oldest son.

Small beginner's/teaching board for 'Clix

Perry wants to teach him the game – and wants me to help teach/coach him – so I figured that a small board would be a good way to teach him the basics and then let him move up from there. I’m thinking that I’ll start him off with a “no powers,” just by the numbers game. I figure a basic “police vs. thugs/henchmen” would be a good way to go. To help me test out the theory (and to try out the new board), I stepped SaraRules through the basics of the rules and then we tried a couple of rounds. It seemed to go well and she said that the way I explained the rules was both simple and straightforward. So, it looks like we have a “Go” for this setup.

Stray Toasters

• I looked up the information on Hostage after watching the movie. One of the young actors in the movie was Ben Foster. The name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it… so, I looked him up on IMDb. He was in X-Men: The Last Stand, 30 Days of Night, and 3:10 to Yuma, among others. He’s a versatile young man.
• Ten Applications That Changed Computing
• How to Play Pinball Like a Pro
• Morbid Anatomy: A blog dedicated to Victorian anatomical curiosities
• Guess what’s (kind of, sort of) back…



• In Pictures: General Motors and GM enters bankruptcy protection
• While I like the shirt that I’m wearing today, I had apparently forgotten something important about it: No matter how much starch I use when ironing it, it wrinkles if you look at it crosswise.  *sigh*
• The Real British X-Files

Attack the day
Like birds of prey…

Namaste.