Random Access

Wednesday (coda)
Crossposting seems to be back on track, so let’s give this a go, shall we…?

The day was good. Work wasn’t bad and I had plenty to keep me occupied. That’s never a bad thing, “idle hands” and whatnot. At lunch, I fed not only myself, but also my four-color crack addiction… with a single serving of plastic crack as dessert. Total win-win situation.

Came home and read a bit of Deathly Hallows. I’m seven chapters in. Stuff has happened. Spells have been cast. And monkeys! Flying monkeys! Wait… that was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Nevermind.

Stray Toasters

• I am appalled by this story: Man dies of heart attack after VA hospital turned him away. I would like to hear both sides of the story, as there is possibly more to it than…
  

  The unidentified person who answered the phone inside the hospital said the ambulance should take the patient to a hospital located about three miles — or 10 minutes — away.

  …but that a medical center would turn away a patient? Granted, from the “transcript” of what the paramedic said, there is no indication that she or he said that the victim was suffering a heart attack. Hopefully, the truth will come out in the next few days.

• Samuel Adams: Brewer. Patriot. Homeboy.
• 
• Queen guitarist wraps studies for doctorate
  “So what are you, some kind of rocket scientist…?”
  “Well, as a matter of fact, yes… yes, I am.”
• From the “Truth, stranger than fiction” file: Nude blonde, gold stilettos and a Ferrari
• , I’m not sure if you’ve heard this: Weekly World News dies after 28 years of awesum, Bat Boy bummed
• With The Simpson Movie just around the corner and this being the 30th Anniversary of the release of a little film by George Lucas, this seemed appropos: I Bent My Wookiee! Celebrating the Star Wars/Simpsons Connection
• I’m rockin’ the suburbs…
• And a little somethin’ for the math majors out there:

That’s good for now. Maybe I’ll go check out the invasion.

Pax vobiscum.

Tuesday – 24 July 2007
Merry Mormon Christmas!

It’s Pioneer Day here in the Land Behind the Zion Curtain. The commemoration of the day when Brigham Young, leading “a rag-tag fugitive fleet on a lonely quest: A shining planet territory, known as Earth Deseret,” came into what is now known as the Salt Lake Valley and said, “That’s it. I’m done. Set up camp. Call me when supper’s ready.” What this mainly means is that many local businesses are closed (not us, though…). And there will be parades. And fireworks. And stuff. And whatnot.

Last night, after work, I hung out with and the kids for a bit. I also borrowed her copy of Deathly Hallows. I think I made it to page 16 before I was powerless to resist the siren call of the bed.

And that’s another thing…

I know that dreaming basically sticks the subconscious mind on a couple of Vivarin and two liters of Mountain Dew. But, last night…? Damn. Who added crack to the mix?!

Most people who know me (especially at Clitorati) know that I think in terms of pop culture media/trivia and “hyperlinked” thoughts – and there’s not necessarily much conscious thought given to some of the connections I make… but the connections are logical and valid, when I trace them back.

Last night’s dreams were bi-fucking-zarre. Not only was the pop culture trivia there, but a lot of disparate parts of my life… all jumbled together.

I woke up, staring at the ceiling… and I think my first waking words were literally,”What the fuck was that?!”

The Scales of Justice
Before reading, though, I took a trip to Paragon City. No sooner than I had logged on, I was invited to join a team of my supergroup members. We took on The Council and The Freakshow. There were no Shadow Freaks, though… I was a little disappointed. But, it wasn’t my mission, so not part of my storyline. Oh, na. We also took on a safeguard mission: Prevent a bank robbery. We did. With the quickness. (And… there were a few deaths, but that’s not what we’re focusing on here.)

The Best
Madonna’s cover of Don McLean’s American Pie just hit the iTunes rotation. It’s good. I like it. (Of course, I also like Weird Al’s parody, The Saga Begins (video) But, I think that Mr. McLean’s version wins out over the former Material Girl’s version.

Stray Toasters

• Welcome to Post #500, according to WordPress.  (It’s not exactly 500, but I don’t want to burst its bubble.)
• I need to remember to download Northern Strike.
• Zaz!
• Much to Tyranist’s chagrin – and my satisfaction: Samuel L. Jackson has been confirmed as General Nick Fury in the upcoming Iron Man movie.  This makes sense, as the Ultimate version of Nick Fury was based on Mr. Jackson’s features.  Hilary Swank has also been confirmed to appear in the movie, in an as-yet undisclosed role – I’m personally banking on her playing Natasha Romanova, the Black Widow.
• Mandelbrot Set you’re a Rorschach Test on fire
  You’re a day-glo pterodactyl
  You’re a heart-shaped box of springs and wire
  You’re one badass fucking fractal
  And you’re just in time to save the day
  Sweeping all our fears away
  You can change the world in a tiny way
• By way of : Female Orgasm is Deadly for Men
• I like Basia’s Time and Tide; I have for many years.
• – Iraq War amputee’s bionic hand moves all five fingers
• 
• I still contend that the themes from Thunderball and Duck Dodgers, both done by Tom Jones, sound eerily similar.
• – Wii speeds up the rehab process
• Secret list of buildings you can’t photograph
• Jane, divided
  But I can’t decided which side I’m on

Namaste.

Friday – 20 July 2007
I crashed a little early last night… which was a bit disappointing as I had wanted to finish Vision of the Future. Oh, well… that will give me something to read tonight. No, I didn’t pre-order Deathly Hallows. *shrug* I’ll read it when I read it.

This morning is moving along nicely. The abbreviated commute didn’t hurt, either.

Stray Toasters

• I was cruising boingboing.net when I saw an article titled “Thriller” as performed by inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center. Of course, that caught my attention. But, I then noticed a link to LEGO Thriller. LEGO…. and Thriller… all rolled into one? How could I resist. Not only was it the music video, it was the long-form video, redone shot-for-shot. Thirteen minutes of LEGO stop-motion animation. Someone had way to much free time.
• Chuck Berry
• UUCP
• That Spells DNA
• Constitutional. As in “walk,” not as in “allowed by law.”
• I Feel Fantastic

Pow.

Namaste.

Stray Toasters

• I didn’t know that Carmen was a Harry Potter fan. According to , she’s pretty avid/rabid about the book-to-movie adaptations. I’ll be interested to hear how she receives Order of the Phoenix.
• My inner six-year-old thinks that this is neat… and covets it.
• – Vermont town voted Simpsons home
• Chicken-fish! (for )
• SATA. Motherboard. PATA. (You know who you are…)
• “Ensign So-and-So, why don’t you go over there and investigate those strange readings…”

*voop*

Wednesday – 11 July 2007
Last night was Harry Potter night. Many thanks, major kudos and a danke schen to for getting us tickets to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I thought that it was a good adaptation of (what I remember from) the book. Perfect? I don’t know that I’d call it “perfect,” but it was fun… exactly as a summer movie should be. I even referred to it as “…a great Star Wars movie.” No, there were no lightsabers or AT-ATs or Aluminum Falcons Millennium Falcons… but there was a very good wizards’ battle at the movie’s climax, which I thought had the same feel as the ‘saber battle in Empire Strikes Back – this is what I wanted to see. Go check it out.

Post-movie, I had dinner with , Mr. and Mrs. , Vikki and Chris. I found out that the went kayaking this weekend.

This morning, I woke up with a headache the size of… um… well, it hurt a lot. So I ignored the alarm (and the iPod) and rolled over to try and see if a little more sleep would help abate it. It did, to a degree. But, not enough of one.

Stray Toasters

• On the way to the theatre, Queen’s “A Kind of Magic” made its way into the iPod music rotation. It made me laugh.
• : You should touch base with ; he seems to have discovered an affinity for kayaking.
• 
• Transformers may be “More than meets the eye,” but what happens when they meet the Blendtec?
• By way of : Eyes Wide Shut – blindfolded artists draw their famous characters.
• 
• Pixel Mario cake made from cupcake squares
• Steampunk motorcycles

Attack the day like birds of prey…

Namaste.

Saturday – 07 July 2007
So far today, I…

• ..overslept and missed this morning’s episode of Legion of Super Heroes. (I’d seen it before.)
• Cleaned the apartment.
• Read a good bit of Vision of the Future

just got here. She wants to go to the Garden of Sweden. Who am I to say no to a trip there?!

ZOOM!

Wednesday: coda
And so, another mid-week ends…

I came home this evening and took a somewhat unexpected nap. Then it was time to feed. But, I didn’t feel like cooking and, as I do not have the powers of Ronson (yet), making pizza and beer appear from thin air wasn’t an option, either. So, I did the next best thing: I went to Charlie Chow’s Dragon Grill. And, as an added bonus, went with me. Spring rolls. Beef with broccoli. Oolong tea. And a fortune cookie! After dinner, we headed over to Salt Lake Coffee Break for a bit. Nyx shared with me some of her ideas for upcoming art pieces; my thoughts hovered somewhere around “Wow.” I am looking forward to seeing them when she’s done with them.

Stray Toasters

• Don called shortly after I got home; I don’t think that we’ve had a chance to talk since I got back from the Right Coast, so it was a rather pleasant surprise. He had a couple of questions about Silk Road Online and how some of its stats/info compared with other RPGs/MMOs. I wasn’t familiar with the game… but that’s what the Interweb is for.We also talked comics, books, movies, and other games. (Go figure!) So, it was a pretty standard conversation for us. Among the things we talked about, he mentioned a series of books – the Cassandra Kresnov trilogy, by Joel Shepherd – that sounds like an interesting read.
• Vindication 2.0
• Missing Heroes?
• I’ve been a fan of Irregular Webcomic for… a couple of years, I think. Maybe more. Maybe less. I found the editorial/thoughts in this post to be particularly interesting – it’s a somewhat lengthy read, but it’s good food for thought.
• UnRealID.com
• Giant Otter Pop of Doom.
• Designer Interview: City of Heroes & Villains – Issue 10: Invasion
• From Comic Book Resources: Dwayne McDuffie on the Balance of Justice and Injustice
• When ‘Digital Natives’ Go to the Library
• Yes, it’s an iPhone news round-up
• I just had a horrible audio-visual pun go through my head when I glanced at a Magic: the Gathering card: Que Serra Serra…
• Oldman to quit acting?

Quote of the Day

[19:40] : So.
[19:40] : Aye?
[19:40] : When buying a new SATA drive for your PC it is best to make sure your PC has SATA support first.
[19:40] : sigh. 🙂
[19:40] : SATA add in card here i come.
[19:40] : I take it that you didn’t confirm this beforehand.
[19:41] : You’re aware that this will be posted, aren’t you?
[19:46] : yeah. i didn’t. i just assumed. *sob*
[19:46] : mistakes were made.
[19:46] : some deaths were involved.
[19:46] : or maybe i just wanted a new motherboard, CPU and RAM too. hmm. 😀
[19:47] : Maybe so.

Namaste.

Sunday – 10 June 2007
I’ve been emailing and texting Kris this morning – today’s her birthday. I would call… but she’s in a review class, for the Bar exam, which she will take in a few weeks. Yeah, in class. On a Sunday. It’s not exactly my idea of fun; it doesn’t seem to be her idea of fun, either. But, she’s doing well. That’s what matters to me.

I’ve also been chatting with . He’s currently in Germany. He said, “this is one emotionally cold country.” At first, I thought that it was simply an emotional detachment that could be attributed to guilt in their ancestors’ role in WWII. Then, I remembered something else:

[10:40] shadorunr: I just figured it out.
[10:40] shadorunr: Emotionally cold.
[10:41] shadorunr: Great engineers.
[10:41] shadorunr: They are going to colonize Vulcan.
[10:41] shadorunr: You’re in the midst of proto-Spocks!
[10:41] trellos: god i hope not
[10:41] trellos: i can’t see the vulcans wanting to create a master race
[10:41] trellos: i mean c’mon
[10:41] shadorunr: Those are the Romulans.
[10:41] shadorunr: Wait.
[10:41] trellos: spock is an intergalactic zebra after all
[10:41] shadorunr: [Being Romulans] would account for the warlike tendencies.
[10:42] trellos: i can see that

And, with that, we have solved one of the great mysteries of the Star Trek universe. Or what would be a great mystery, if anyone really gave a damn about it.

Stray Toasters

• I need caffeine. It hasn’t reached a critical stage yet, but I should get some soon.
• Canadian Filmmakers Festival
• MysteryNet
• Sissy is sitting on the floor starting at my hands while I type. It’s a little odd, but nowhere nearly as disturbing as this (Paragraph 2) was.
• Steam Trek – a steampunk take on Star Trek
• “Adults, a necessary evil.”
• “Parallel lines meet at infinity.”
  There are a couple of lines approaching an odd vanishing point.
• I believe that I will have to own this book: Rejuvenile: Kickball, Cartoons, Cupcakes and the Reinvention of the American Grown-up
• : Does this qualify as “cross-promotion” or is it just “jumping on the bandwagon?”
• Man in wheelchair takes ride on semi’s grille
• Tyranist and : From the CS Moore Studio – The Walking Dead Statue (preorder)
• Tetris fridge magnets
• Anthem of the heart and anthem of the mind
  A funeral dirge for eyes gone blind
  We marvel after those who sought
  New wonders in the world, wonders in the world,
  Wonders in the world they wrought.
• Yep, this pretty much sums it up!
• , I think this is up your alley: Bigfoot bust for sale

Namaste.

Thursday – 07 June 2007
Day Two of the “Great Salt Lake Temperature Drop.” This just ain’t right.

I finished Specter of the Past last night. It ended on an interesting note; I’m looking forward to seeing how the story advances in the next book.

The kids are doing well. Sissy is still trying to be the alpha… but only at certain times. When I had the laser pointer out, she actually played with the twins, without too much fuss. Speaking of which, I took what I think is, to date, the best picture of all three cats:

(click picture for larger view)

…and it shows their affinity for IKEA, to boot! I have seen both Sissy and Presto sit/lie/stretch out in the chair many times over the past few days. (One thing that doesn’t show in the picture: How much fur Sissy has shed over the cushion. Oh, well, that’s what lint rollers and vacuum cleaners are for.)

The Scales of Justice
I took Hand of Nefer-Tem out on patrol last night… but couldn’t get into soloing. Nor could I find a team. So, I decided to let Paragon City’s other defenders of justice handle the crimefighting for the night.

Stray Toasters

• I called Mom this morning (something about it being her birthday or some such thing). All’s well; she has her first post-op checkup later today. (I forgot to call her “Lady Deathstrike” while she was on the phone.) Assuming that her doctor clears her, she and my uncle are heading “down to the hills,” as Dad would say, to get some things out of the old house.
• Scott: Uh-oh…
  Jamie: What?!
  Scott: Big tunnel.
• – 25 Trends that changed the way we live
  USA Today is running lists of “25 things that…” in celebration of their upcoming 25th anniversary. Some of the lists – and the selections therein – are rather interesting.
• To quote and : “People suck.”
• Last week, I saw that someone had created a MySpace page for their City of Heroes character. I thought that it was a bit odd. Granted, I have CoH and CoV links on my site, but I haven’t gone so far as to create MySpace pages for any of my characters. When I logged into City last night, there was a notice on the front page for this.
• “Did I win?!”
  
• Smoke Camels, be a better sniper
• and everyone will say “I told you so”
  yeah they’ll all just nod and sigh
  but I’ll make a run at something real
  and they’ll never even try
  and everyone will say “I told you so”
  yeah they’ll all just nod and sigh
  as I go down in a ball of flames
  they’ll just watch, i wonder why
• Internal workings of a mechanical watch video
• : 27 June 2007 (1, 2, 3)
• Steampunk Monitor from the Steampunk Workshop
• By way of ZDNet: Why DRM won’t ever work
• “More Parachute! RAAWR!!!” –

Namaste.

Monday – 04 June 2007
One down, four to go.

Today was good. Quiet. No fires. And, I got to start the day in the Salt Lake office. And, I get to do it again tomorning. This evening has been a relaxing night at home with the kids. I ran a recovery mission in Talos Island with Nefer-Tem. And, I did some reading – I now have about sixty pages left in Specter of the Past. Thanks to Eric, I can move right on to the next book, Vision of the Future, when I finish. And, at some point, I need to get back into Pattern Recognition.
Stray Toasters

• Force fields, Underoos^® and datajacks.
• World of Warcraft Language Translations
  
• Dr. Steel
• Tyranist and I were discussing “the Uncanny Valley” today, because of these articles: 1, 2.
• Same Actor, Different Role 2 – A Worth 1000 contest (image heavy)
• Scotty Doesn’t Know (Damn you, Tyranist!)
  
  Okay, okay…. fine. Here’s the actual video for the song. (Can you spot Matt Damon in the video?)
• The 2012 Olympics + London + goatse = something that probably looks like this.
• Anti-DRM t-shirt design contest
• 
• Do the Right Thing recreated with Sesame Street toys

Namaste.

Saturday Rocks

The book discussion (Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word) went well! Better than well! It was great! There were eight of us and we had a fairly eclectic demography:

• 4 women and 4 men
• 1 Asian, 1 African-American, 6 White (mixed-European descent)
• 4 straight women, 2 straight men, 2 gay men
• 1 Buddhist, 1 Baptist, 2 Mormon, 4 non-religious

This gave us quite the mix of viewpoints; that was a good thing. Including lunch, we spent almost three hours at the restaurant. And the best parts about it: It was a discussion and not a “let’s shout our viewpoints till everyone else agrees” session and EVERYONE contributed to the dialogue. It was nice to be able to sit and talk about things that:

• …aren’t necessarily ‘easy’ or ‘comfortable’ to talk about;
• …everyone had opinions or comments or questions about;
• …people were receptive to hearing/learning about.

I think that we should do something like this again.

Otherwise, it was a fairly average day. Jess, Larry, new-friend Zaq, and I bowled tonight. Providence and Fortune smiled down upon me again. After bowling we decided to return to our old post-pinkilling haunt, Denny’s. There were some interesting-looking people there tonight.

I think that I shall call it a night.

Peace.