Random Access

Friday – 19 June 2009
Good Juneteenth to all.

…and a belated Happy Birthday to sister-in-law-to-be Meliko:

I ate something – I have a pretty good idea of what it was at this point – on Wednesday that seriously did not agree with me. I’m Ivory Soap sure that I’ve spent more time looking at the walls (and shower curtain and pictures and towels and… and… and…) in the bathroom in the past two days than I have in the past two weeks. This has definitely come under the heading of “not fun.” On the flip side, when I weighed myself this morning, I was down to 180.5 lbs; so apparently there was a nominally “positive” side effect.

Yesterday, our company held a little shindig for our most-recent software release. There was a cook-out in a park down in Utah County and a “team-building” exercise – the new Star Trek movie. It was as much time the third time as it was the first two times I saw it. And I managed to catch two Easter eggs that I had previously missed: Scotty’s tribble and the reference to “Cadet Vader.” I did not, however, see the R2-D2 in the debris field over Vulcan. Oh, well, just something to look forward to when the DVD comes out.

Stray Toasters

• It rained again in the valley yesterday, just a trace amount here (Utah County apparently got the lion’s share of the rain), bringing us to thirteen (13) days of rain. Two more days and I would have started building an ark. We’re supposed to get a reprieve today, but possibly more rain this weekend.
• is at Wizard World Philly. (I’m only slightly jealous…) She’s been messaging me with not-quite-play-by-play of some of the goings-on while waiting to go inside.
• Proposed tire label could improve gas savings
• A couple of items for :
  • IGN Video: Metroid: Other M
  • Well-Suited, Well, Lit: Phazon Suit Samus
• Bozeman City job requirement raises privacy concerns
• Florida town orders employees to wear underwear and cover wounds
• All US one-time expenditures vs the bailout

  

• Adopt a Classroom
• On NPR this morning, there was an item about Iran’s Supreme Leader, The Ayatollah. That triggered something in my head that made me think of Cobra‘s Supreme Commander, Serpentor. Every time they said “Supreme Leader,” The picture of Iran’s top religious leader parading around in a tacky snake suit popped into my head. That made me laugh… every time.
• Washington is morphing into a pretty cool district
• What happens when a pilot dies?
• A few Top 10 lists from Wired’s GeekDad:
  • Top 10 (More) Ways to Provoke a Geek Argument
  • Top 10 Ways You Know You’re Married to a GeekDad
  • 10 Internet Memes You Can Share with Your Kids – And a Bunch You Can’t
    
• Lift off for NASA’s lunar probes
• The name game: Tracing the etymology of game character names

Namaste.