Random Access

Sunday – 08 May 2011
It’s Mother’s Day.

Happy Mother’s Day to my mother, stepmother, sister, mother-in-law, grandmothers and a certain mother-to-be, as well as to all of the mothers whom I count among my family and friends…

…as well as to the fathers who have picked up and carried the torch when a mother wasn’t around.

Okay, okay… let’s be serious here…

Alright… don’t literally drop the kids. But, you get the idea.

Today is also my stepmother and younger brother’s shared birthday:

I met Chris and Alex yesterday afternoon for lunch. We were going to David’s Kitchen… but they were closed. We wound up going to La Puente, instead. I hadn’t been there in a while, so it was a nice change of pace. After lunch, we headed up to Dr. Volt’s. I picked up some FCBD books – and the FCBD Green Lantern HeroClix figure – and hung out for a bit before kicking off last night’s tournament: a 1,000-point brawl. We had a good turnout (16 players) and a few new faces.

After the game, I came home and pondered what to do. I resolved the dilemma by fixing myself a bowl of ice cream and watching some DVR fare.

I’m not sure what I have on the agenda for today. If the weather holds, I might try to mow the lawn before it starts to rain.

Stray Toasters

• Word To Your Mother: The 1o Gushiest Mother’s Day Rap Songs
  • Hey, Mom, What’s Your Favorite Song?
• I should give some thought to the whole “breakfast/brunch” thing.
• Easily Distracted People May Have Too Much Brain
• 
• New Board Game Coming Soon — Star Trek Expeditions
• Thanks (I think…) to for pointing me towards: What Not to Crochet
• Johnny Depp Can’t Watch 3D Movies
• The Joy of Seersucker
  • Spring 2011: Trends That Matter
• 
• The art of Dan Hipp
• A Tour of an Abandoned Amusement Park in America’s Heartland

Namaste.

Friday – 29 April 2011
It’s my 9/80 Friday off.

It’s also 7:30 (well, it was when I started this…) in the morning. So, why am I up so early on my day off, especially if “early morning feedings” don’t start for another four or so months? (Sleep Can Wait. The Birds Are Angry) No… the real reason is: I took Logan and Swiz to the airport this morning; they’re winging their way to the California coast. I figured that I’m used to being up this early and I could easily deal with getting up and getting them to the airport. Ain’t nothin’ but a thang. Besides, I don’t have a whole lot on tap today, so if I need to catch a mid-afternoon nap… I can.

Last night, SaraRules! went to visit a friend whom she hadn’t seen in close to ten years. I got to stay home and be a bachelor for a few hours. This translated to: “Rob sitting on the couch, eating pizza and drinking Guinness, while watching the 2011 NFL Draft.” And it was good. Selah.

• Carolina Panthers select Cam Newton with No. 1 pick in NFL draft
• Ravens pick Jimmy Smith No. 27
• Welcome to Miami, Mike Pouncey

Good picks all the way around. And a good way to spend the evening.

Stray Toasters

• Congratulations to Prince William and Princess Catherine.
  And that pretty much concludes my royal wedding chat…

  …except to say that I caught a couple of minutes of George Michael on Piers Morgan Tonight while flipping channels last night. That was rather unexpected. 

  • I should see if Netflix has Royal Wedding — I’ve long admired the scene in which Fred Astaire dances on the walls and ceiling of his room, but never seen the movie. That scene was also… “somewhat replicated”… in the video for Lionel Richie’s Dancing on the Ceiling.
• South Assesses the Toll After a Deadly Barrage of Tornadoes
  • Tornadoes kill over 200
  • The complicated science of tornadoes and climate
• Endeavour’s Launch on Target for 3:47 PM EDT
• For SaraRules! (and other fishers): States start to ban felt-soled waders
• 
• Whenever I read a comic from this story arc (start at this comic and keep going through April) in Real Life Comics, I always think, “This sounds almost exactly like something that Justin would do…” and it makes me laugh.
• A Family’s Legacy, Afro-Cuban Jazz
• It’s sad, really. I watched the new trailer for Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon… and I liked it. It looks like a movie that has my three of my top requirements for a Transformers movie:
  1. Giant Robots. Check.
  2. Shit blowing up. Check.
  3. Megan Fox. Check.
  4. Optimus Prime being the heroic leader – and kicking ass – even in the face of oppressive/overwhelming odds. Check.

  In fact, it looks like a movie that I might even want to see.  But… and this is a big “but” (and I cannot lie): I still feel burned by the last movie with the name “Transformers” and that had Michael Bay’s name attached to it. Feh.

• George Michael – Flawless

  What… did you seriously think that I’d make a reference to George Michael in this post and not throw in a video?  Really?! Have you met me!? Besides, what were you expecting?  Something like this?

• U.S. Economic Growth Slows to 1.8% Rate in Quarter
• 
• Most hackable Android phones
• Star Wars Funnies by Kevin Bolk
• What in the Nine Hells is this…?!

Wednesday – 27 April 2011
Midweek.
New comics day.
D&D game night. Father-in-law’s birthday dinner.

And, it’s a bright, sunshiny day.

I’d call that an all-around good day.

Now that (most of) the shock of the whole “You’re having twins” surprise has worn off, we’re looking at the things we’re going to need two of. (I’m also trying NOT to think of things like “two cars… two college funds… two of everything…”) This is going to be something of an adventure.  And, of course, this twins-related story showed up on Big Shiny Robot yesterday.  (Although, it does make me wonder whether the twins will have superpowers and what powers they might wind up with…)

Last night, I had to go to the local Home Depot and Lowe’s. (Yeah, I know… rough life…) A couple of sections of our back fence blew over on Monday night, so they need to get replaced. I don’t know if this fence was the handiwork of the house’s previous owners or the ones before them, but the back fence has always looked kind of sad and we had talked about replacing it. This just advances the time table a bit. It turns out that the replacement fencing we’re looking at doesn’t all that expensive. (Fortunately.)

Other than that, it was a rather uneventful night, as I called it an early evening on account of being completely tuckered out.

Stray Toasters

• I have a monkey!  made it for me!
  
• The First Zombie-Proof House
• Senator: Lack of details on Playstation Network outage ‘troubling’
  • Sony Says Playstation Hacker Got Personal Data
• …and, in a related note: Borders investigates whether customers’ personal information was revealed on website
• WWII airplane factory camouflaged as a residential neighborhood
• 
• Atheists Seek Chaplain Role in the Military
• ‘Disturbing’ revelations in probe of possible gas price manipulation
• Alex Lifeson Interview: His Complete Gear Setup for “Time Machine Tour 2011” (video)
  • Just in case you’re interested in purchasing one of Alex’ guitars, click here.
• Fans of Mad Men and Portal/Portal 2 should appreciate this:

• A State Manager Takes Over and Cuts What a City Can’t
• Viktor Hertz: Pictogram Movie Posters
• ThinkGeek just referred to Mother’s Day as “…your most favorite spawn point.”  It made me laugh.
• 
• Thanks to for pointing this out to me. I may just need it…
• Traditional incandescent bulbs on their way out starting Jan. 1

Namaste.

Sunday – 24 April 2011
Today is Easter. I hope that everyone has a safe and joyous day.

Today is also my sister-in-law-to-be, Sanaz’, birthday:

This morning, SaraRules! and I got up and went to Mass; the priest gave a good homily about living a life that embraced “life” and not one that embraced death and destruction (both physical and spiritual). There were a number of children (from infants to 6 or 7-years old) wh0 also made the Mass interesting and amusing.

Next, we stopped off at SaraRules!’ parents’ house to say “Hi” and “Happy Easter.” And from there, it was on to Millcreek Cafe and Eggworks for breakfast. (They had their coffee cake on the day’s menu!) As always, the food was very good.

Last night, SaraRules! and I attended Utah Symphony and Utah Symphony Chorus‘ performance of A Child of Our Time (1, 2)  an oratorio by Sir Michael Tippett. The symphony and chorus were conducted by Keith Lockhart, in his last appearance as Music Director Emeritus. The featured artists included one of my favorite baritones, Derrick Parker. (And by “one of my favorites,” I mean “my favorite,” although SaraRules! simply refers to him as my man-crush.) The piece…

“…was inspired by events in 1938: Herschel Grynszpan, a Jewish refugee teenager in Paris, murdered the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath. This was a catalyst for the Nazis’ attacks against Jews in Germany on Kristallnacht.“

Tippett used African-American spirituals in the work to tie together the themes of oppression, hope and deliverance between World War II-era Jews and blacks of the Civil War era.  The juxtaposition of the two races’ struggles worked amazing well and engaged the audience with a powerful and passionate theme.

After the performance, we had the pleasure of meeting Glenn, one of the chorus members. He told us of his experience in learning and getting to know the piece. It was interesting to hear a performer’s first-hand account and to see how touching and moving it was to him.

After the performance, we came home and dyed a few eggs before calling it a night. I also spent a little time last night – and this morning – putting together an Easter basket for SaraRules! complete with lighted Easter eggs. That’s right: Eggs that light up. Win!

Stray Toasters

• For SaraRules!: Massive 20-module Great Ball Contraption goes on forever
• Morgan Spurlock: Why I sold out
• The Sad, Beautiful Fact That We’re All Going to Miss Almost Everything
• Android phones keep location cache, too, but it’s harder to access
• For lj user=”suzie_lightning”: Bringing the worlds of Monty Python and LEGO together…
• A Room-Sized Spirograph Machine

Namaste.

Wednesday – 20 April 2011
It’s the middle of the week, once more. That means new comics and Game Night 2.

Last night, SaraRules! and I had dinner – at one of the local Mimi’s Cafes – with my friends Peggy and Adrian. I haven’t seen Peggy in nearly ten years, I don’t think; Adrian and I last got together about a year or so ago. It was good to see and catch up with them. And, both the food and the company were good.

After dinner, I headed over to ‘ place for a bit of Tuesday night gaming. Our group had to figure out a couple of goings-on in the city… while not getting killed by a bunch of cultists… AND figure out to whom we could talk about said cultists without getting ourselves killed. Precarious. We seemed to find an interested – and quite possibly helpful – group. We’ll see if it comes back to bite us in our collective recta.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
Tina Fey’s Prayer for a Daughter, excerpted from her book, Bossypants

Stray Toasters

• Is it possible to rickroll yourself?  If so, I think I did while shaving this morning.
  • What Defines a Meme?
• Dangerous Arts
• Grete Waitz, Marathon Champion, Dies at 57
• Interview: Melissa Bianco, City of Heroes Lead Designer
• The Ravens have released their schedule for next season, assuming that there’s a 2011-2012 season…
• 
• iPhone keeps records of everywhere you go
• Sound Matrix
• From the “Um…No, you idiotstick.” file: Man tried to rob store with game remote
• Cuba Lays Foundation for a New Leader
• A Rabbi Armed With a Blowtorch Keeps Things Kosher
• In the digital era, free is easy, so how do you persuade people to pay?
• U.S. Orders Airlines to State Fees More Clearly

Namaste.

Monday – 11 April 2011
I just realized that it’s 11/4/11. Palindromic. Other than that, it’s just the start of another glorious week in Paradise.

The weekend seemed short, but I’m sure that’s because I spent part of Saturday in the office and got a lovely 5AM wake-up call from the office yesterday morning. Aside from that, it was a nice weekend. Yesterday, SaraRules! and I had brunch at Ruth’s Diner. As we were eating, we noticed people staring at the ridge across the road from the diner. Then we noticed them taking pictures. It didn’t make sense until we got ready to leave:

The elk was just standing there, taking in all that surrounded him. He was there for at least a good ten to fifteen minutes.

From Ruth’s, we ran a couple of errands before heading home for a bit. Then, it was over to the in-laws’ for Logan’s birthday dinner. Dinner consisted of barbecued chicken, roasted root vegetables, and salad. For dessert, we had a homemade gingerbread cake – some/most people had homemade applesauce for “frosting,” I opted for ice cream.

Last night, I slept moderately well. I woke up a few times, half-expecting to get another call from work and having to go in at O’dark-thirty. As it was, I roused myself about a half-hour early and just decided to make a day of it. Thanks to a bit of prep work last night, I was in the office about an hour earlier than usual, which means I’ll be leaving early, too.

Stray Toasters

• Civil War anniversary events go forward despite lack of funds
• Detroit Symphony Returns to a Giddy Reception
• As much as it pains me to see disheartening things about The Garden of Sweden: IKEA’s U.S. factory churns out unhappy workers
• Say goodbye to 1-year Verizon contracts
• 
• Couric’s Rocky Path to a Likely Parting with CBS
• A Flapper’s Dictionary
• That Noisy Woodpecker Had an Animated Secret
• Sinister Chevrolet Corvette ‘Centennial’ is car noir
  • Texas considers highest speed limit in nation
• 
• Being Bilingual May Boost Your Brain Power
• A New Push to Let H.I.V. Patients Accept Organs That Are Infected
• Woods becomes that Tiger again; not long enough
• 
• Could You Pass Harvard’s Entrance Exam from 1869?

Namaste.

Sunday – 10 April 2011
Today is my brother-in-law’s birthday, well… one of my brothers-in-law, that is:

…and a classmate’s:

…and my friend, A.J.’s (one of the opera residents):

This morning started early. With a 0450 phone call from corporate… telling me about a continuation of yesterday’s problem. Nothing like the surge of adrenaline one gets from being jarred out of sleep by your phone ringing and then racing into another room to pick it up only to find out that it’s work calling. After answering a few questions and making a couple of command decisions, I put the phone down and got back into bed. It took me a few minutes to wind down enough to fall asleep again.

The sun has been trying to put in an appearance this morning. This song was the first thing that went that went through my head:

This was the second:

I’m not sure which amused me more.

Yesterday, I spent four hours at work, dealing with the aforementioned problem. At first, I was pretty annoyed about the whole deal. After a little while, I gained a different perspective: I was being paid to wait for service technicians to come in and work on the problem… AND… it means that I’m already eight hours into the upcoming week’s schedule. In other words, by the time I leave work tomorrow, I’ll have 17 hours on the clock already. And, this is my “off” Friday, to boot. Coming to those realizations made having to work a little better.

SaraRules! was kind enough to bring me lunch yesterday. The original plan was for me to run to work, assess what was wrong, fix it if possible, run an errand and then meet SaraRules! and her parents for lunch. That whole “four hours” thing blew that to Hell and back. So, the Best Wife Ever brought lunch to me.  And she even hung out while we – my coworker, Cade, came in also – sorted out the problem.

After I got back home, I decided to run down to The Train Shoppe. It was a trip with a two-fold purpose: 1) I wanted to see if they’d gotten anything new, and 2) I needed them to take a look at the couplers on one of my locomotives. I managed to walk out empty-handed. Barely. My next stop was Borders. It’s become a scavenger pit. If my math is correct, I believe that they will be closed as of this coming Saturday.

After my excursion, SaraRules! and I took in a movie. We saw Hanna. It was… interesting. We both kind of enjoyed it, but we agreed that it could have used a bit more plot and background development. The story revolved around a girl, her father and the intelligence agency operative who apparently wanted them both dead. Oh, yeah… the girl had been raised to be an assassin. A very effective assassin, at that. It was also something of a coming of age movie, as well: Hanna had been raised alone in the woods by her father, with no contact with the outside world. And her adventure took her across Africa and Europe, where she was introduced to many new things… like electricity, music, and computers. As an action movie, I’d give this pretty high marks, but on the whole, its shortcomings/oversights drag it down a few pegs.

Stray Toasters

• Globe Poster: An Illustrated History of American Music
• The O’s beat the Rangers 5-0 yesterday, giving them a 6-2 record…. which puts them on top of the Yankees and Red Sox

  

• Film director Sidney Lumet dead at age 86
  • 6 Things to Know About Director Sidney Lumet
• If you’re not reading Fables, why aren’t you?
• When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?
  • Gender stereotypes woven into language of toy ads
• I want to know just WHAT was this guy thinking…?!
• Murdoch paper admits phone hacking as victim rejects payout
• Pinup Girls Before and After: The Original Photoshop
• Sesame Street heads to Pakistan

And now, off to brunch with the lovely SaraRules!

Namaste.

Saturday – 09 April 2011
It’s snowing again this morning. I guess I could have just said “It’s still snowing.” It snowed, intermittently, all day yesterday; although, it tapered off and stopped last night. I guess that Mother Nature hasn’t finished saying all that was on her mind.

Last night, SaraRules! and I met up with , , Angy, and for our usual Friday night gathering. I have to say that the people-watching was pretty prime. (…and so was the running commentary.)

Stray Toasters

• I need to hit the local post office sometime this morning. An item that I was selling on eBay sold… to someone out of the country.  I have to find out what kind(s) of forms I need to include in the packaging, as well as how much it’s going to cost to ship — I was getting two different prices from the USPS and I’d like to be certain of the price I quote the buyer.
• For SaraRules!: Here’s a little Rob Base and D.J. EZ Rock:

• U.S. to issue terror alerts on Facebook, Twitter
  I actually don’t think that this is a necessarily “bad” idea…
• Astronomers may have witnessed a star torn apart by a black hole
• Wozniak: I Would Consider Returning to Apple
• By way of Project: Rooftop comes Kris Anka’s Wonder Woman and Michelle Sciuto’s Victorian Birds of Prey
• What If Your Favorite Album Was a Book?
• 
• Getting Animated: Fave Cartoon Themes from Bugs to Batman
• Jon Favreau Shoots for Western Realism in Cowboys &a Aliens
• 12 Cool Products Inspired by LEGO, by way of lj user=”duckspeaker”
• All Star Trek coming to Netflix, make it so
• Too Much Alcohol May Cause Cancer
• Friday most popular day for bank robberies

And with that, it’s time to think about finding some trouble to get into…

Namaste.

Wednesday – 06 April 2011
It’s mid-week again, which also means that it’s new comics day and D&D 4.0 night. I’m good with all of those.

Yesterday’s Utah County excursion wasn’t too bad. The monkeys were fairly quiet; I did, however, get a little tired of people asking me when someone else was going to be in that office. After the third time, it got harder and harder to retort with a smart-assed answer. *sigh* On the plus side, I managed to squeeze in a trip to The Hobby Stop during lunch. Hey… it’s train stuff. Go figure.  🙂

I got home a little later than I had planned, had dinner and was back on the road again. Last night was D&D 3.5 night with and company. We accomplished a few things which were good/necessary and have nominal plans for the next part of our adventure.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Personal Hygiene
When a person is getting ready for work in the morning – or even the night before – isn’t that the “ideal” time for them to take care of things like clipping their nails?

As opposed to, say, waiting until they get into the office…?!

There are a few possible exceptions to this:

• Salon workers
• Spa workers
• Veterinarians

I’m not someone who gets squidgy at the sound of someone clipping their nails, but it just seems that it is something best done at home. With that in mind, there are times when I think a quick trim/cut are acceptable, the prime example being when someone chips, cracks or tears a nail and needs to trim it down. But that’s (usually) just one nail. Not all ten.

I suppose that I should just happy that I have neither seen nor heard (that I know 0f) anyone clipping their toe nails on the clock.

Stray Toasters

• I’ve been really enjoying the Tony Toni Tone’ CD that I picked up earlier in the week.
• 57 Spectacular LEGO Scenes
• Bored with World of Warcraft? Make Your Own Fun
• 
• More Pupils Are Learning Online, Fueling Debate on Quality
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file:
  • Giants fan beaten at Dodgers’ Stadium appears to have brain damage
  • Girl Trains Cow as a Show Horse
  • Michigan couple to walk some 2,500 miles for wedding
  • 
• Firefox 4 is taking a little getting used to…
• CWA: Why should you care about species extinction?
• Queen Guitarist Shares Love for Astronomy Through Stereoscope
• 
• An Artist Takes Role of China’s Conscience
• Grand Jury Investigates Whether Apps Like Pandora Are Stealing Your Info
• Lawmakers tell Google to do more on antipiracy

Namaste.

Tuesday – 05 April 2011
Day two of the work week… and I’m in the south office today. Some of us are doing rotations down here once a month. And, today is my day. Well, one of them — I think I’ll be back down at the end of the month, too. Oh, well.  It’s a nice change of pace.

Last night, after dinner, SaraRules! and I ran a few errands and then went to Frogurt for dessert. It was good and it wasn’t as tart as the yogurt at Red Mango. (On the other hand, they didn’t have a Green Tea Yogurt, so it’s kind of a draw.) We wrapped up the evening with an episode of Castle and an episode of Top Gear.

I stopped at Pin-up Girl Espresso this morning, to get a caramel mocha for the road. I was pleasantly surprised to see (former) Pin-up Girl Erin in the window. I didn’t get a chance to ask if she was going to be a semi-permanent regular in the store, though.

And tonight is D&D 3.5 night.

Stray Toasters

• Commodore is back!  (Not to be confused with the music group, The Commodores.)
• Roberts’ three-run home lifts Orioles to first 4-0 start since 1997
• Salt Lake Art Center takes an outsiders look at SLC
• 
  
• Advocate for the Arts
• Obama Invites Republicans to Meet on Budget
• Chemical found which ‘makes bone marrrow repair skin’
• FAA to Order Airlines to Inspect 737s for Cracks
• 
• Guess who went to The Hobby Stop and looked at train stuff while at lunch.
• NFLPA’s Mike Vrabel arrested for alleged theft, calls it ‘misunderstanding’

Namaste.

Thursday – 31 March 2011
It’s a blue sky NBN “Technical Friday.” And I’m good with that.

Last night was supposed to be D&D 4.0 night. So, after dinner, I ran a couple of errands and headed over to Hastur Hobbies to partake in hack-and-slash goodness. I arrived to find no one from my group there.

*headscratch*

I went back through my messages to see if I had missed something. I had. had called the game earlier in the afternoon… but, that message was basically attached to another thread of messages, so I didn’t catch it when I skimmed over them.

*D’oh!*

That just meant that my evening freed up for me to go and hang out with the missus. Which I did. For the most part…

…until I decided that the best thing for me and my newfound head cold was a nice relaxing soak while reading the day’s new comics haul. And I was right – it was good.

A little later, SaraRules! and I finished off the last DVD of Mad Men that we got from Netflix. I now understand what and meant by “the lawnmower episode,” and why they both agreed that I’d “get” it as soon as I saw it.

This morning, I woke up with this song running through my head…

…and I was okay with that.

Stray Toasters

• Shannon Tavarez, Nala in “Lion King,” Dies at 11
  I can’t recall if she was the performer I saw when The Lion King was here last year.
• Phishing scam poses as Adobe upgrade
• Possible Safety Risks Put Met Opera Tour to Japan “in Jeopardy”
• Today is opening day for most of the MLB.
  The O’s open tomorrow night against the Devil Rays, in Tampa.

  

• Stanley Chow Does ‘Dr. Who,’ He-Man, Super Jon Hamm and More
• Fat Stigma Spreads Around Globe
• Lawmakers try to stall law on cutting debit card fees
• Spring Trends for Men, According to Women
• 
• BP “leaks” data of 13,000 Gulf oil spill victims
• Antitrust Cry from Microsoft

Namaste.

Saturday – 26 March 2011
After the atrocity that was “Friday at work,” today looks to be a much better day. In fact, one of the first things that I thought of, after opening the blinds in the living room was this:

Except, I was hearing the Broadway version in my head… although, this version does feature Diana Ross as Dorothy and Michael Jackson as The Scarecrow. Something that I didn’t know was that the song was written by the late Luther Vandross. (Listen to the Vandross version here.)

Last night, I spent the evening in the company of (along with little Mister Thunder),  and over coffee. It made the end of the day rather pleasant.

I didn’t do the 5k that I was considering this morning. Depending on my schedule, I will either do one next month or in May. That will give me a chance to work some cardio back into routine.

Stray Toasters

• Doctor to Teen Athletes: Skip Spanx
• Bryan Singer Owns His Mistakes on ‘Superman Returns’
  • Friday Night Fights: Happy Birthday, Superman!
    • Artist Mike Kelley Recreates the Bottle City of Kandor Without Terrorizing the Galaxy
• 
• Erica Simone lays bare everyday activities in nude works of art, by way of
• FAA Orders New Air Traffic Controller Procedures
• Washington’s New Brat Pack Masters Media

Time to go out and enjoy the day!

Namaste.

Friday – 25 March 2011
It’s Friday.  The end of the week. And for this, I am grateful. It’s my 9/80 “on” Friday, which is typically a quiet and low-key kind of day.

So, why is my blood pressure – and my annoyance level – through the roof?

Maybe it could be due – in some small, almost insignificant part – to the fact that I spent part of my morning elbow up in trash looking for a piece of equipment. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

The day started nicely enough. Got up, got ready for work, stopped at Pin-up Girl for a cup of morning go-juice. So far, so good. Got to work, ready to tackle the items on my day’s agenda. And shortly after that is when I discovered that all was not well in Mudville:

We had scheduled technicians to come in and deal with a problem with one of our cooling units. This service has been on the docket for three weeks now, as the part needed had to be special ordered and fabricated. Okay, fine. That’s the cost of doing business. Because of the nature of the work, we had to schedule a time for a tech from our fire control system vendor to turn off our fire suppression system. So, three weeks… all leading up to this morning. Call it “confluence.” Call it “convergence.” Call it what you will.

The fire control tech showed up and did his thing. No problem. The HVAC guys showed up to do their thing… and that’s when we noticed that something was wrong: The part that we had ordered – and that had been sitting on a table, awaiting installation – was nowhere to be found.

* braincramp *

So, the hunt began. In the server room. In the storage rooms. In the labs. Nothing. That’s when I started making calls. No one knew where it was.

* severe braincramp *

I put a call in to our cleaning crew, to see if they possibly tossed out the box last night, not seeing the part inside. They didn’t think so, but the boxes they did throw away went into a recycling dumpster. *sigh* Great. Next stop: The dumpster. Brian, one of the HVAC techs jumped in. No luck finding the box or the part.

*grblsnrkx*

Just after I got back to my desk, the cleaning company called back: One of the cleaners remembered throwing away a few boxes… in the trash dumpster.

So… back downstairs we went. Brian and I hopped into the front of the dumpster, but didn’t go too far in for a couple of reasons, the BIGGEST one being: It was a trash compactor. I’ve seen Star Wars: A New Hope. More than once. I know what happens to people in trash compactors. I also don’t happen to own either a protocol droid or an Astromech droid, so there was NO way I was wading in. (Besides, I didn’t know if there was a monster lurking below the surface, just waiting to drag me under.)

NOTE: At this point, I almost defy anyone to claim to have had a worse morning than I had, based solely on the fact that I was in a dumpster, looking for a part that obviously didn’t want to be found.

We didn’t find the part. Which means that we have to order another one. And schedule a time for the fire control and HVAC guys to come back in. Which means that we’re looking at – bare minimum – two to three weeks from now before this problem is fixed.

The odds against this confluence of nearly impossible events coming together, in just this way, to bring us to this improbable outcome is mind-boggling.

And, it’s snowing.

How’s your Friday?

Stray Toasters

• Today, I would definitely be more of a Red Lantern than a Green Lantern: I’m ready to punch monkeys in the throat right now. Repeatedly. And hard.

  

• Will Work for Food: Curatorial Position and Cake Preferred
• Many U.S. Blacks Moving to South, Reversing Trend
• Tilting at Windmills: Lessons Learned from Comic Relief and Borders
• 
• Census Data Presents Rise in Multiracial Population of Youths
• Buck Showalter rips Derek Jeter, Theo Epstein in magazine
• Brickwork: ‘M.A.S.K.’ Returns as a Fan-Made LEGO Set
• The art of Jordan Witt

  

• Missionary Men with Confidence in Sunshine
• Ford to dealers: No more black, red paint due to Japan crisis
• World’s Best Ruins

Namaste.

Tuesday – 22 March 2011
March winds
And April showers
Bring forth May flowers.

That’s the way I was taught.

I’m good with the “March winds.”
“April showers” are good too.
And, “May flowers?” Yep, I’m fine with them, as well.
It’s the whole “March intermittent rain and snow showers” thing that I’m taking issue with today.

On the other hand, today is William Shatner‘s 80th birthday, so it can’t be all bad.

Last night was quiet and uneventful. I think that the highlights were sorting ‘Clix, making hamantaschen and watching Top Gear with SaraRules! and having a bowl of ice cream for an evening snack… not necessarily in that order.

Tonight, Chris is supposed to come over to play dolls. We’re doing an updated match of the X-Men vs. the Teen Titans. I should probably start considering who I’m going to use…

Stray Toasters

• BAMF!
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Competitive Chess Boxing: Brain Meets Pain in Iceland
• Stop the presses: Teenagers actually like, gasp, symphony concerts
• Pakistani actress Veena Malik schools a mullah about Islam
• How about a little Raphael Saddiq: Tiny Desk Concert to get your Tuesday moving?
  • Bonus track: Get Involved
• 
• As lockout lingers, NFL and players continue to trade barbs
• If you haven’t taken a look at the artwork of Colleen Coover, you should.
• Adjusted U.S. figures paint a rosier jobs picture
• Zach Snyder won’t look back: ‘There’s been no other Superman movies’
  • Zach Snyder looks to ‘Batman Begins’ for his inspiration
• Ever have one of these days?

  

• How to make a hamantaschen Sierpinksi triangle
• Goldman Sachs programmer sentenced for code theft

Namaste.

Friday – 11 March 2011
It’s Friday! Hallelujah!

Last night, SaraRules! and I went out for a dinner and movie date night. We ate at Pawit’s Royale Thai. We started with the Por Pia Sod appetizer and I had the Pad Khing; I can’t remember what SaraRules! had… but she said that it was very good. From there, we went to catch a showing of Unknown. It wasn’t a bad flick. (C’mon… a movie with Liam Neeson kicking ass and taking names?  Win.) We both enjoyed it.

Stray Toasters

• Huge Quake and Tsunami Hit Japan
  • Prepare for Massive Wave of Earthquake Scams
• It’s Friday.  Here’s a little Morris Day and The Time to get it moving:

  …and…

  
  Morris Day & The Time – The Bird by coolfunk

• Allred Takes on Wonder Woman for M*A*C
• Involuntary Collaborations
• While gallivanting last night, SaraRules! and I stopped at a local grocery store to pick up a few things. On the door was a notice that the store’s pharmacy was scheduled to close, permanently, in the near future. We thought it odd, but shrugged and moved on. SaraRules! sent me this article a little while ago; apparently, it’s not just the pharmacy that’s closing.
• 
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Microsoft idea: Dating service for people with a ‘source of shame’… like comic books
• Interview with author of The 100 Thing Challenge
• Why They Endure: Booster Gold – a favorite character of mine from the 80s/90s, who still holds a fond spot in my comic readers’ heart. This article does a good job of explaining some of the “why.”
• The LockCracker

And with that… it’s lunch time!

Namaste