Random Access

Sunday: Coda
Today has been a good birthday.
More than that, it’s just been an all-around good day.

SaraRules and I took the Metro downtown to see the Raiders vs. the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium.

at

We had great seats: lower level, 15th row, in one of the corners. It was on the visitor’s side, but there were PLENTY of purple (and black and white… and even a few red) jerseys in the stadium our area. On my right, was a couple (a man and his wife) of Raiders fans, so SaraRules wasn’t all alone in a sea of Ravens fans. The game was good. And it was a lot of fun. It was also SaraRules’ first live football game. Ever.

• High school?  Nope.
• College? Nuh-uh.
• NFL?  Not until today.

The Ravens came out of the gate with their game faces on. And they went to work… although, they did manage to have a little fun, as evidenced by this play. Both teams played well, but the Oakland offense didn’t really come alive until the second half of the game.

Final score: Oakland 10 – Baltimore 29

I took pictures at the game. (Big surprise there…)

After the game, we stepped into Geppi’s Entertainment Museum for a quick walkthrough. It was neat – there were manners of pop-culture memorabilia, past and present. In retrospect, I could/should have taken more pictures… but the ones I took can be seen here.

Next, we went to Harborplace. We ate dinner at Phillip’s Restaurant. (I know… who could have guessed?!) I had broiled crab cakes and calamari; SaraRules had a seafood combination dinner that included shrimp, a crab cake, mahi mahi and a couple of other items. Before leaving Harborplace, we picked up a chocolate mousse cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory.

Back home. Tammy (my Godsister) and her youngest daughter, Kayla, came by to visit for a bit. That was nice, as I haven’t seen Tammy in… I’d say a year to a year-and-a-half. I tried catching up with Bret, but our schedules just didn’t synch up. Oh, well… maybe next time. After Tammy left, SaraRules and I hung out with my ‘rents. We showed them some of our travel pictures while we all had cheesecake.

Thanks to all of the good tidings and well-wishes for my birthday. I am very fortunate and blessed in my collection of friends.

Tomorrow: The Return to the Land Behind the Zion Curtain.

Namaste.

Thursday – 16 Oct 2008
SaraRules came by after work yesterday. We hit the grocery store – it was my night to cook dinner – and headed home to get ready for an evening of debates and design. I cooked chicken breasts with sides of rice and green beans; we would have had wine with dinner… but I was out of white wine. Oh, well.

The debate was… a debate. I don’t know who (finally) lit a fire under Senator Palpatine McCain, but he was aggressive and assertive in ways that I haven’t really seen in the previous debates. Senator Obama, while rising to meet most of the challenges, maintained the same relative level of calm that we have come to expect from him. And, they mentioned ‘Joe the Plumber’ so much that I half expected him to walk out for a cameo. I would have to agree with most pundits: Senator McCain came out of the gate strong, but lost a bit of steam about halfway through; Senator Obama maintained a steady pace, once he got up to speed and seemed to do better than his opponent in the last two-thirds of the debate.

Project Runway brought another kind of surprise: They named this season’s winner. I didn’t agree with the choice – I felt that her designs were kind of “one trick pony.” The other two designers brought lines that were varied and well-executed. *shrug* I guess that’s just another reason why I’m not one of the judges.

I’m a little worried about the following… even though it does kind of fit under “the way I’m wired” category: A few minutes ago, on IRC, someone was trying to get ‘s attention. Then, with a “Hm,” apparently opened up Virtual Keyboard and tried that combination (D-G-A) as a chord. (I tried it too, but found D-G-B to be more appealing.) Then I saw the “Drum Beat 1” button. And I pressed it.

The first thing – FIRST THING – that came to mind was The Way It Is, by Bruce Hornsby and the Range.

The second thing that came to mind was to try and play it. I have a good ear for hearing pieces of music and figuring out how to play them. Without opening iTunes for cues and not having tried to play the song before… I started playing part of it. I was a little creeped out. *sigh*

Stray Toasters

• It seems that there’s been a problem with commenting on my site. It has been fixed. Selah.
  Sidenote: Someone asked “who” maintains the password info for registered users on Random Access: I do… well, it’s on my server. So, your info (however much or little you put into your profile) isn’t just out there floating in the æther.
• Apparently, today is Dictionary Day. Thanks to for pointing this out.
• Leanne!? *jawdrop* Unglaublich.
• SaraRules pointed me in the direction of Dear Sarah, I Can Relate, an open letter from Project Runway 3rd season designer Laura Bennett to Vice Presidential candidate Sara Palin.
• Victoria sent me this picture last night; it made me laugh:



• pointed out this article from Craigslist.
  I countered, saying that people who signed up for it needed to get this.

  

• Coworker Tim just came over and mentioned that he saw the following bumper sticker on the way to work:



• Rachelle Gougen, keeper of Living Between Wednesdays, takes an amazingly fun – and funny – look at Supergirl over the years.

  

  It started as “Supergirl Week,” but has grown into more and will apparently become “Supergirl Month,” when it resumes. She also, in the course of discussing Supergirl, takes a look at Superman that’s worthy of addition to the Superdickery site. As Tyranist put it: “Ah, Superman finally revealed to be what I’d always thought.” Lex Luthor couldn’t have put it better.

• What do Christian Bale and Kermit the Frog have in common? More than you might think.
• Do you think that the gamer in your life is… a little obsessive? Well, unless he’s running a rig like this, I don’t think you really need to worry that much.

And with that…

Namaste.

Wednesday – 15 Oct 2008
I finished reading Watchmen last night. I enjoyed it. It’s a great alternative take on the Cold War. It will be interesting to see how well – and how much – they were able to adapt for the film version.

SaraRules came over for a bit last night. We started watching The DaVinci Code; we got about halfway through it. I have seen it before; she hadn’t. She started getting tired, so we decided to stop the movie for the night. After she left, I watched a little bit of The Late Show and The Late Late Show before calling it a relatively early night.

Stray Toasters

• Every once in a while, you wind up stumbling across something that makes you go,”Wow… I dodged a bullet there…” I had one of those this morning. It was “I Feel Better Than James Brown” great.
• SaraRules pointed out a couple of interesting items:
  • Photo project gives voice to ‘backbone of America’
  • Cheadle replaces Howard in Iron Man sequel
• From Fafblog – Barack Obama: Black?
• 
• Comic Book Characters Grouped by Religious Affiliation
  Some of the affiliations are rather… loose. For example: Neil Gaiman’s Death? (Yes, that one…) She’s Mormon. Who knew?!
• Christina Applegate: Why I got a double mastectomy
• I’m still stunned by the Don Cheadle news. As much as I like Terence Howard, I think that Don Cheadle will add a little harder edge to the character of James Rhodes. And if they go the War Machine route… even better.
• Blog of funny newspaper clippings
• By way of NPR Music:
  • West Coast Cool: The Jazz Sound of ’50s California
  • Songs for a Drab and Unfulfilling Existence
  • 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die
• I like this illustration, by Harris O’Malley

  

  In case you can’t make it out, the book is Demon Summoning for Dummies

• Ezekiel 25:17… as translated by Quentin Tarantino
• Snake-proof baby crib from the 1900s

Quote of the Day
has been sharing the wisdom of Lao Tzu on Wednesdays. Today’s entry:

Namaste.

Monday – 06 Oct 2008
Today is my father’s birthday.

His cards have been mailed and I have already called to wish him well today.

Last night, SaraRules and I went over to Chris and Mary’s for (Bad) Horror Movie Night. In SaraRules’ words: The goal isn’t to watch good horror movies, it’s to watch all horror movies. We watched Flight of the Living Dead (Think Day/Dawn/Night/Any-part-of-the-day of the Living Dead meets Snakes on a Plane and you get the idea) and The Shadow Walkers, a “We tried to create genetically engineered warriors and something got out of control… oops” movie. Flight wasn’t horrid; Shadow Walkers was – it was almost like watching Deep Blue Sea, where you started rooting for the shark about halfway through the movie.

Stray Toasters

• This weekend was grey and rainy (until yesterday afternoon, at least).
• This weekend was also LDS General Conference weekend.
• This weekend was also, on a more personally important note, marked my 10th year behind the Zion Curtain.
• By way of SaraRules: Back to black: Phoenix Dance resurrects the race issue
• From NPR: For Pioneering Black Theater, a Season-long Salute
• Sinfest: Damn It Feels Good to Be a Banksta
• By way of NPR Music: Songs for Ill-Advised Office Romances
• Chick Lit that Features Heroines, Not High Heels
  
• Barney Miller
• eBay to Drop 10% of Its Workforce
• Facebook vs. MySpace: Discuss.

Attack the day…

Namaste.

Friday – 03 October 2008
SaraRules came over last night and we watched Governor Sarah “Caribou Barbie” Palin take on Senator Joe “Night Train” Biden in the Vice-Presidential Debate (transcript). Let me say that I was expecting it to be much more… entertaining… than it was – Biden is known for running off on long-winded (and not always on the point) diatribes and Gov. Palin… well, we’ve all seen the interviews on the news and YouTube. Both candidates reined in their idiosyncracies and managed to present themselves as rather well-spoken and intelligent. According to a CNN poll:

• 89% thought that Governor Palin did better than expected.
• 64% thought that Senator Biden did better than expected.

That said…

I think that some of my favorite moments came when Gov. Palin was faced with a question that she could not – or did not want to – answer. She seemed to fall back on “John McCain is a maverick… and so am I” far too often. She came off sounding like a cheerleader to me; SaraRules commented that, thanks to Gov. Palin, she was sick of hearing the word “maverick.” I asked if that included times when it was referring to Mel Gibson or James Garner; she said that it didn’t.

I appreciated that there was a question about gay marriage and the rights of same-sex couples. Senator Biden, explained that while he didn’t want to redefine “marriage” but did want same-sex couples to enjoy the same benefits as their heterosexual counterparts. Governor Palin, saying that she was “tolerant” of same-sex couples, came off as condescending to me.

Another curious moment came when Gwen Ifill, PBS news commentator and moderator of the debate, asked the candidates “What do you think your Achilles’ Heel is?” Governor Palin, in an NFL-worthy juke, didn’t come close to answering the question, choosing to talk up her strengths and accomplishments. Senator Biden, on the other hand, drew a little laughter with his response of: “You’re very kind suggesting my only Achilles Heel is my lack of discipline.”

And the closing question of “Can you think of a single issue — and this is to cast light for people who are just trying to get to know you in your final debate, your only debate of this year — can you think of a single issue, policy issue, in which you were forced to change a long-held view in order to accommodate changed circumstances?” Senator Biden drew on an experience fairly early in his career that made him reassess how he voted, his fellow Congressmen and how he formed opinions about their votes. Governor Palin just came off sounding as if she was saying,”I’ve never had to change my opinion.”

On the whole, I’d have to give the debate to Senator Biden, on points, but there was not a clear KO or even a TKO. And, I will once again admit that Governor Palin came off much better than I expected. (Congratulations to her coaches at debate camp this week!)

After the debate – and a stroll to Red Mango for yogurt – we watched Iron Man. It was (at least) my third time seeing it. It’s just… fun. After the movie and after SaraRules went home, I hopped on the nerd and surfed the Interwebs for a bit, while watching The Late Late Show. Lauren Graham, formerly of The Golden Gilmore Girls, was on. She was quite entertaining.

Stray Toasters

• While at the grocery store a few days ago, SaraRules found this card (1, 2). We must have laughed for a minute straight. We knew that it was referring to baptism – and the white garments worn, rather than the skin color – but still… only in Utah.
• Earlier this week, we heard that Citi was moving to buy Wachovia.
  Today, I hear that Wells Fargo is offering to buy them; stockholders seem to prefer the $15 billion (USD) Wells Fargo buyout, as there is no government money/help involved.
• Library celebrates Banned Books Week with window-display featuring volunteers reading banned books



• I enjoyed this photo post from ‘ journal.
• The world is not enough
  But it is such a perfect place to start, my love…
• Hand over controller, girl gamers say
  
• 
• Purdue takes on Penn State tomorrow. I may have to tune in to see how it goes.

Namaste.

Today is loonybin88’s birthday:

We’re having fun with our dysfunctional phone system here at work. Yay.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
This I Believe: Caring Makes Us Human

Stray Toasters

• Don’t forget that Breast Cancer Awareness Month starts on Wednesday, 01 Oct 2008.
• From CNN: Bailout plan rejected
• pointed me in the direction of a couple of items about “new” Hershey’s chocolate:
  • What Made Hershey’s Want to Change Chocolate?
  • Hershey’s Changes Chocolate Formula, Millions of People Wonder “WTF?!”
• And, on the Sarah Palin front:
  • Somehow, I missed out on her “Caribou Barbie” nickname until someone pointed it out this weekend.
  • Palin heads to ‘debate camp’ in Arizona
  • McCain retracts Palin’s Pakistan comments
• Bill Murray comments on Ghostbusters 3
• By way of Coworker Dave: A Politician Who “Gets It”
• From NPR: Diahann Carroll Talks of Love, Life and Those Legs

I should probably think about what I want for lunch…

Derek posted this in his blog a couple of days ago, reprinted with permission:

Story time! Before the midnight Sabbath day barrier, we went to Albertsons, because Number 5 needed food. I stayed in the car with some others. Jill, unaware that I have Tourette’s, began telling a story about some kid in church with Tourette’s, yelling in Sacrament Meeting. Now let me officially state this: I love funny stories about people with Tourette’s, being crazy. They are funny and make me laugh. There I said it. But no one else can laugh at it, because they don’t have the disease. Now all you white people, you can no longer laugh at that OR say the N word.

Anywho, she began telling the story and everyone else in the car, who knew that I had it, got really embarrassed and felt awkward. It was awesome!

Ah, Derek.

Stray Toasters

• was talking about the top headline on Google News: Bernanke Tells Congress That US Economy Is Faltering earlier. His response:
  

  NO. SHIT. Thanks for the newsflash.
  I guess that’s why I’ve been getting such dirty looks walking around whistling We’re in the Money.
  It explains so much.

  With that, I clicked over to Google News to check out some other headlines. Most of them were rather mundane, but there were two that I saw that immediately went on the “Why should I care about this?” list:

  • Clay Aiken Comes Out
  • Are Lindsay and Sam Dating? Dad Doesn’t Think So

  Couldn’t. Care. Less.

  Ms. Lohan’s “fifteen minutes of fame” has been at 13:55 for a long time, as far as I’ve been concerned. Yes, I think that Mean Girls is a fun film and her SNL Harry Potter skit is still amusing, but other than that… *shrug* And Clay Aiken? I’ve never been a big American Idol fan, so… yeah.

  And the bottom line: They’re living their lives. Let them. Is it really anyone else’s business? Um… no. Thank you, move along.

• How Children Fail: angry lessons from failure to teach
• Shipping containers could be ‘dream’ homes for thousands
  Such a simple, yet effective, solution. Why didn’t someone think of this before?!
• 

.eof

Thursday – 18 Sep 2008
Three down.
One in the chamber.
One to go.

Yesterday, after work, I went home and enjoyed a tasty dinner prepared by Ms. SaraRules – baked chicken with rice and a salad. Yes, I said “salad.” As in “food that food eats.” Move along. After dinner I stretched out on the couch… which lead to intermittent bouts of non-consciousness. I did the only appropriate thing to do in that situation: I took a nap. An apparently much-needed nap.

After the recharge, I played a City of Heroes, for the first time in a couple of weeks. I was invited to a group shortly after logging in – we had a nice balance of damage-dealers and a good healer, not to mention a non-tank Warshade who did a good job of tanking. I was a couple of bubbles from 29 when I started; by the time I finished, I was almost halfway to 30. Not bad for less than two hours’ worth of play time.

The alarm went off early again this morning. I opted to stay in bed for a little while longer, but I still managed to get here a few minutes after 7:00.

Stray Toasters

• I got to chat with for a while this morning. It was a fun way to kick off the morning.
• Giant Rocketeer Mosaic by Dave Ware (done in LEGO bricks, natch!)
  Check this site to get a better sense of the scale.
• The Omega Concern
• Pickens says Wal-Mart to study switch from diesel
• By way of come the following…
  • Goon City
  • Paging Leonidas to the Front Desk
    
• 
• : I don’t know if you’ve checked out HeroClix, but you might want to take a gander at this.
• How SEC rule exemptions led to Wall Street Collapse
• 
• Hitchhikers’ Guide series to ride again
• The mysterious Racer D…

He gets right on to the friction of the day.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 16 Sep 2008
I just had the old NBC tagline: “Tuesday is Blues day” run through my head. For those of you not old enough to remember, that was how NBC used to promote its series Hill Street Blues.

Last night, SaraRules, Logan and I watched the Philly-Dallas shootout. The first half of that game was just a romp. I’m not a big Dallas or Philadelphia fan, so I didn’t really care who won, but some of the plays – or lack thereof – were just… sad. The second half looked more like an NFL game.

Stray Toasters

• Reginald Hudlin leaves BET Networks
• “I’ll be all the props!”

• posted a link to The Terrible Crossover Fanfiction Idea Generator. I had to give it a whirl. Here’s what it came up with:
  Your challenge is to write crossover fanfiction combining Slaughterhouse 5 and Invader Zim. The story should use getting sucked into the “real world” as a plot device!

  Generated by the Terrible Crossover Fanfiction Idea Generator

• Just Past the Horizon: Wonders Never Cease
  • What’s What with… Lynda Carter
• By way of Wired: New Aluminum MacBook Shipping Already?
• A Girl’s Guide to Dating a Geek
• By way of :
  • 
  • 

Quote of the Day
From World of Warcraft to Prince… gotta love IRC:

(08:46:40) Ahpuc_: You know the worst part about having so many damned alts? Having to read the class-specific patch notes for EVERY CLASS.
(08:47:21) : heh
(08:47:28) : Gotta play ’em all!
(08:47:31) : Gotta play ’em all!
(08:49:04) Ahpuc_: Well…basically, yeah. 🙂
(08:49:08) Xeen entered the room.
(08:49:31) : PokeWoW
(08:50:05) Ahpuc_: I may be fooling myself, but I think I play my rogue better because I also have tanks and healers, and I understand what they are focused on better as a result.
(08:50:12) : “Level 58 Troll Shadowknight, I choose you!” *throws ball*
(08:50:36) Ahpuc_: Deathknight, you mean? Not til the next expansion is out. 🙁
(08:50:42) : Death.
(08:50:45) : Shadow.
(08:50:47) : *shrug*
(08:50:48) : 🙂
(08:51:12) Ahpuc_: If you don’t know the difference between death and shadows, I don’t want to be near you on a sunny day. 🙂
(08:51:30) Ahpuc_: Like the old joke about the difference between a man and a shower. 🙂
(08:51:42) : There are shadows in the rain, according to Sting, too…
(08:51:55) Ahpuc_: And death in the rain.
(08:52:14) : Death of a Salesman… in the Rain.
(08:52:18) : Wait.
(08:52:20) Ahpuc_: Hmmm…But doesn’t Death cast no shadow?
(08:52:55) : Death of a Salesman in the Purple Rain, a new heart-touching movie… coming soon from Oxygen
(08:52:59) Ahpuc_: And shadows never die, they just move, or expand to envelop the entire hemisphere at night.
(08:53:15) Ahpuc_: Don’t touch my heart!
(08:53:19) Ahpuc_: BAD TOUCH! DO NOT WANT!
(08:53:31) ***Ahpuc_ goes into cardiac arrest.

Attack the day…

Namaste.

Wednesday – 10 September 2008
Two down.
One in the chamber.
Two to go.

So far, it’s been a quiet morning. I’m not complaining about that. I have a few tasks on my “to do” list that should keep me occupied – if not “busy” – for the better part of the morning.

Last night, I headed to Far West for a HeroClix tourney… but the judge didn’t show. So.. um.. yeah. Chris, Ma’afu, Nano and I just decided on a two-on-two game. 1000 points per team. We played on the Castle Doom map that came with the Fantastic Four Starter Set. I am not a fan of that map. In fact, I’d say that it’s in my top three least-favorites. Ma’afu and Nano brought some bruisers to the dance; Chris and I brought Perplex and Outwit users. Chris lost a couple of figures in the fight, but we wound up winning.

After the game, I headed up to visit SaraRules for a bit before heading home. And, in the course of talking about quilting, I think that I’ve been drafted to help her with at least one upcoming project. That should prove interesting.

Stray Toasters

• Diversity Milk. That still cracks me up.
• Thanks to , I have a new icon:



• How to Dress Like a Rich Man in a Recession
• From NPR Music:
  • Make Peace, Make Jazz
  • Radiohead: Live in Concert (downloadable podcast)
• Mommy, Why Is There a Server in the House?
• 
  …and…
  
• From BBC News: The white priestess of ‘black magic’
• To Odin, Thanks For Everything! – Loki

Namaste.

Thursday – 04 September 2008
Wow. The day is better than half over and I’m just getting to this. It’s been a busy day, but that’s good because it has also been productive.

Last night, SaraRules and I had a date night. There are, indeed, definite perks to living in the same city. We had dinner (spaghetti, homemade sauce, garlic bread and a bottle of Pinot Noir) and decided to watch TV rather than a movie. We watched… three (I think) episodes of Project Runway, with an episode of The West Wing and an episode of Cold Case thrown in for me. It was a nice way to spend the evening.

Today, aside from being busy, was also sushi and comics (and a couple boxes of ‘Clix) day. Tonight, there will be packing for tomorrow’s camping trip… and maybe, just maybe, a little CoH before bed.

Stray Toasters

• For the third day in a row, I’ve been able to see SaraRules as she drives past the office on her way to work. This morning was a bit of a fluke, though: I got to the office and happened to be looking out the window and she drove by; I was fairly certain that I would have missed her by a few minutes and wasn’t expecting to catch her today. When I talked with her a little later, she asked me if this was becoming a new tradition; I told her that I didn’t know… but that if it did, it was one that I was beginning to like. What can I say? It makes for a fun – if odd – start to the day.
• Tonight is the beginning of the 2008 NFL season!
• As I’ve mentioned before, I have an… unusual… desktop wallpaper image. One that gets noticed. This week, it got attention from our COO, in fact. The image is a Photoshop-manipulated version of the cover from Incognegro, which is discussed in this article from BoingBoing.
• By way of ThinkGeek: The Encyclopedia Shatnerica
• Abandoned Space Technology
• had an interesting item in a recent post: Apples to Apples – a look at the current presidential/vice presidential tickets compared to tickets of the past 30 or so years.
  
• Star Wars + LEGO + Olympics = Imperial Sportstroopers Invade Beijing Olympics
• Elderly Superheroes Never Looked So Good!
• 
• Linux Motivational Posters
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” files:
  • Elephant cured of drug addiction
  • Girls warned playing didgeridoo could cause infertility
• Dad builds dream tree house
• Evolution of the AT-AT

Bonus Points to anyone who knows – without looking it up – the relevance of today’s title AND what it’s from.

Namaste.

Saturday – 16 August 2008
On the way home from work yesterday, I thought about coming home and taking a nap. It sounded like a really good idea. Instead, I wound up taking more pictures for auctions I plan on putting up today or tomorrow. So, while I didn’t get any shut-eye, I was nominally productive.

Last night’s Clitorati was kind of small, but nevertheless fun. While at the bookstore, I decided that I’d get the newly-taken pictures ready for their respective auctions – resize them, make any brightness/contrast adjustments, and so on. That’s when I discovered that some of the pictures came out a bit blurry. *BAH* So, I’ll be retaking those.

On the drive home, I considered playing a little CoH when I got in – nothing like beating down some criminals to wrap up the day. After I got in and started winding down, I realized that it was not to be. Instead, I hit the rack. I think I was out within seconds of my head hitting the pillow.

This morning, I was greeted with a lovely headache. I have no idea why. Two Aleve, a few sips of water and a short trip back to The Dreaming later, it was gone.

I have pretty much no idea what I’m doing today, aside from meeting Perry for coffee in a little while. That’s something. I’ve considered heading to the Capitol to check out the Declaration of Independence display… but I’m not 100% committed to it. I’m sure that something will come along…

Stray Toasters

• While chatting with Dwim, we were talking about Galactus. That reminded me of a Lil Formers toon that I had seen involving Galactus and Unicron. That somehow degenerated into something about Star Wars, which reminded me of this toon, also with Galactus and Unicron, but also incorporating The Darth Vader-Death Star Star Wars toy that Hasbro came out with a year or two ago.
• Having not looked at the series for a while, I went looking through some of the other Lil Formers toons. This one made me laugh:



• I came across an interesting book last night: 500 Essential Graphic Novels: The Ultimate Guide. I thumbed through a bit of it – there were a lot of good selections in there, although I didn’t agree that all of them were “essential.”
• Maybe I’ll (finally) head to the driving range before going to work tomorrow…

Quote of the Day
At dinner last night, we somehow got on the topic of Jimmy Carter and how, as a representative of The Carter Center, he’s visited a number of countries… often, against the wishes of the current administration. came up with his take on Carter’s response to a government official trying to tell him that he couldn’t go to a given country:

“Fuck you. Have some peanuts!”

To be honest, I would love to hear President Carter tell someone that.

Wednesday – 06 August 2008
Sometimes, it’s amusing to realize what it is that breaks us out of our morning doldrums and gets us ready to face the day. For me, this morning, it was remembering that I was planning on trying a fruit smoothie recipe this morning before heading to work. And I did. And It’s pretty good.

Last night’s Scion game was good. I almost got half the party killed… all because an NPC didn’t like the answer I gave to a riddle. So, a few rounds later: Sphinx: 0, Us: 1… kind of. In the process of some rather fancy bow (archery) work, it seems that ‘s character has taken over the role that the Sphinx held. We need to find a way to liberate her from that so that she can come party adventure with us.

Stray Toasters

• Kris called me yesterday as I was leaving AF. The first thing she said was “You’re going to be an uncle!” After a couple seconds’ bewilderment/pondering/pause, I came back with,”Oooookay.”She’s getting a puppy.But, she said that the look on Mom’s face when she said it was priceless.
• Laurence Fishburne is prime CSI: suspect
• Port forwarding only works when you remember to set it up.
• The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away — story about geek monasteries for smart people who don’t fit in
• Paris Hilton responds to John McCain’s ad:

• Pulp City
• Guy gets locked out of all Google apps
• I’m sore from yesterday’s workout.
• I stumbled across this article on BoingBoing yesterday: How to give yourself elf ears. It’s a body modification how-to. The article was linked from an item on Instructables; I wasn’t aware, until yesterday, that there was a “Kinky” group on there – probably because I didn’t really care or even think about it. Learn something new everyday, I guess.
• *shake fist* at for getting Sir Mix-A-Lot stuck in my head

Namaste.

Thursday: Coda
After work, I headed home to grab a few things, filled up the car, picked up SaraRules’ mom…

…and hit the road.

A shade under seven hours later, we were in Snowmass Village. We listened to The Areas of My Expertise from Price all the way to the condo. It was entertaining; SaraRules’ mom seemed to enjoy it, as well.

Tomorrow:

• Work from the Aspen office in the morning.
• Beethoven and Brahms concert at the Aspen Music Festival in the evening.

Namaste.

Stray Toasters

• House to apologize for slavery, Jim Crow
  • My first inclination was to think: “Thanks… 150 years after the fact.” I’m not a reparationist. To be honest, I don’t really care about them, let alone want them. It’s great that there’s being recognition of the problem… but I think it’s a bit “too little too late.”
  • My second inclination was to change it to mean Dr. House, from the Fox TV show. That made the whole thing play out differently in my head… in a far more amusing manner.
• I’m not entirely sure if it’s jumping the shark or not, but apparently Clark Kent will meet three teens from the 31st Century on Smallville this season. I may have to tune in for that.
• Baltimore Business Journal
• I apparently have a version of Do Ya Think I’m Sexy… by The Revolting Cocks. That amuses me greatly.
• 
• The Obama Veepstakes
• Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew
• Tonight’s ‘Clix tourney is a 300 point sealed box draft. This means that each entrant has to purchase two boxes and construct a team from the figures he just purchased. I’m both intrigued and concerned about this: I’m used to being able to select the figures I want. This will prove very interesting. In order to get a rough feel for what it’s going to be like, I did a mock draft. I asked SaraRules to come up with ten numbers, from 1 to 60. Based on the numbers she gave me, I used the figure numbers to come up with a couple of options for teams.
• Carlin gets last laugh on death
• Just when you thought the three seashells was bad enough comes this.
• Tor.com
• Active Directory