Random Access

Sunday – 28 June 2009
Last night, I came home from poker night at OnlyAly and ‘s to find that I was far more tired than I had realized – I was starting to nod off a little after midnight. I called it a relatively early night.

I woke up a little after 0900. So far, I haven’t done much other than surf and watch Boneyard on The History Channel. This episode is entitled “Railroads,” so it’s pretty much held my attention for the past forty-five minutes.

Today, we don’t have much on tap. We’re considering heading back to the Utah Arts Festival later this afternoon. Before that, I may try to assemble a new building that I designed for my ‘Clix city… and/or play some HALO3. I realized something last night – I never finished HALO2, so I have that to look forward to when I’m done with H3.

Namaste.

We just got back from seeing Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

This is going to be a two-part review:

1. The first part will be more of a synopsis and spoiler-free.
2. The second part will be more in-depth and chock full of spoilers.

Consider yourselves duly warned.

Part One: Synopsis
We took a HUGE hit for the team on this one. The movie was bad. Really bad. Not as bad as… The Spirit, but it’s still on the lower end of the Cool-World/Long Kiss Goodnight Scale.

Save a little piece of your childhood.
Save your money.
Save your time.

If you find that you absolutely must see this movie, wait for it to come out on Netflix or Redbox.

Seriously.

Part Two: In-Depth Observations
I wasn’t kidding when I said I was going to give up the scoop on this movie. I’m not really going to hold anything back, so if you’re still inclined to see this movie – despite my previous and continued warnings against doing so – you will want to stop reading now.

Really.
Find another blog or webcomic to read.
Right now.

Okay, if you’re still here, I’m going to take that to mean one of a few things:

1. You really want to see why I think the movie fell apart.
2. You have seen the movie and want to see which parts we agree/disagree on.
3. You haven’t seen the movie, but are curious as to “just how bad” it could be.
4. Monkeys. (Not really a “reason,” per se, but monkeys can be blamed for a lot. They fling poo, after all.)

As I’ve been saying for the past few weeks, I’ve been looking forward to this movie because I wanted to see “Giant robots blowing shit up.” I don’t think that’s too much to ask for, honestly. Why not? Let’s see… oh, wait… how about: That’s what they did – and did rather well – in the first movie. In fact, let’s see what Michael Bay and company got right in this movie before we get to the longer list of what went wrong. Oh, so horribly wrong.

1. Giant Robots. Check.
2. Shit blowing up. Check.
3. Megan Fox. Check.
4. Optimus Prime being the heroic leader, even in the face of oppressive/overwhelming odds. Check.
5. SaraRules adds: “Some of the military guys were kind of cute.” Check

What did they do wrong…?

1. Balls.  (If you’ve seen the movie, you know what I mean. If not, consider yourself lucky.)
2. Leg-humping robots. (see above)
3. Mudlfap and Skids – the Transformers equivalents of a Jar-Jar Binks character.
4. Pot-laced-brownie-eating Judy Witwicky.
5. Alice, the Fem-cepticon. Sorry, I mean “Pretender.”  (Really?  REALLY?!?)
6. Why is it that the All-Spark can only create evil robots?
7. Why does a robot (Jetfire) need a crutch?
8. Why was Megatron revived?
9. Why do we need to see Agent Simmons in a jock strap?
10. Sam’s college roommate, Leo.
11. Did the Air Force Chief of Staff have to be such a pinhead?
12. Why does The Fallen look like a giant metal baboon?
13. Why, all of a sudden, do we need to say that Transformers had been on Earth for over 15,000 years… and that they have influenced almost every culture in the world?
14. Why did Sam go to the Autobot afterlife… of all possible places?!

We find out, eventually, that the Decpticons are following Starscream – at the behest of an even older Transformer – known only as “The Fallen,” who is after the location of a weapon that will turn Sol into Energon. And, as an added benefit/side effect, kill all life on Earth. The location of this weapon has been lost. Fortunately, the information has been coded into the All-Spark… a fragment of which Sam still has. After touching the fragment, Sam starts seeing ancient Cybertronian runes. Sam, not sure what to do with it, gives the fragment to Mikaela and goes off to college.

Optimus Prime, who has been keeping secret of the Matrix and the weapon from Sam, comes to him asking for his aid in finding the weapon.  Of course, Sam just wants to be a “normal kid” and go to college. And parties. And date Megan Fox.

Megatron gets revived. Prime and Megatron fight. Prime dies/deactivates. Sam finds a sense of loyalty. And the race is on to find someone or something that can translate the runes, find the Matrix and the weapon and save the day.

At two hours and forty-three minutes, they could have easily lopped off HALF of this movie and had a much more cohesive and entertaining film. I think that Dave summed it up best:

It’s like [Michael Bay] had a bunch of writers who all went in different directions with the hope of “If I can come up with a script that makes Michael Bay orgasm, then he’s sure to pick my script!” So, that’s what they all did. After submitting the scripts and having Bay orgasm 29 times, Bay just decided: “Shoot everything!” And that’s what they did. Then he threw all of the footage into the editing room with a bunch of monkeys and this is what came out.

Having seen the movie, I really can’t argue with that theory.

I need to come up with some kind of equivalent to the LEGO bricks for the Cool World/Long Kiss Goodnight Scale, because I refuse to sully the bricks by using them for this movie. Suffice it to say: It was bad.

Bottom line: Save yourself $6.00 or more and go see something else. Almost anything would be better than this.

Saturday – 27 June 2009
This morning, SaraRules and I got up and headed to the Downtown Farmer’s Market. We’ve wanted to go for the past couple of weeks, but hadn’t managed to do so. Today, we made it. It was interesting to juxtapose the number of exhibitors there today with the number there when we went in October – far more now than then.

On the way home, we stopped in to say “Hi” to SaraRules’ parents. Back at home, I took a little time to play HALO3… and to remember to “Save and Quit.”  Although, when I went to verify that it saved at the proper point, I found that it was putting me back at the beginning of this mission, rather than three segments into it. *sigh* Fine. Whatever. I remember a few things that should serve me well in getting through these sections – again – and on to where I need to be.

Next on the docket: Heading out to watch Transformers Giant Robots Blowing Shit Up with some of the usual suspects.

Namaste.

Friday – 26 June 2009
Hello, weekend.

I slept in this morning… more or less. I woke up at some very early point of the morning because of a rather odd and disturbing dream. Pre-dawn early. I wound up getting back to bed a short time later… only to have another bizarre dream awaken me. Not quite as disturbing, as I recall. I finally woke up around 0915. So far, this morning has consisted of breakfast and coffee, The West Wing… and a little bit of Avatar: The Last Airbender. All-in-all, it’s been a nice, relaxing day.

Stray Toasters

• Can Aquaman Ever Be Cool?
• Tori Amos will be performing at Abravanel Hall on 20 July 2009.
• How Nicotine Works
• Junk Steampunk Sculptures
• I cut so much
  You thought I was a D.J.
• What the non-English-speaking world is doing with science fiction

Time to run some errands and hit the Utah Arts Festival.

Namaste.

Thursday: Coda
After work, I came home. That’s usually the way that things go. It’s not a bad tradition, all things being equal.

I had a bite to eat – SaraRules made an awesome homemade Macaroni and Cheese dish – and then fired up the 360. Before getting into Covenant beatdown mode, I took a look at some things on the 360’s dashboard. Among them was Netflix Instant Queue, which allows me to watch movies on the 360… on demand. Pretty nice option, if I do say so. I added a few movies to my queue.

Then, it fired up HALO3. Last night, I saved the game (I remembered this time!!!) on the way to Voi. There were a couple of Wraiths and Choppers at the bridge as a “Welcome Wagon.” Yay, lucky me. After getting my – and the Marines with me – butt blown off and handed to me, repeatedly, I beat the defenders and got ready to Ease on Down the Road. I didn’t get far at all before I found the flying monkeys Brutes with jet packs had set up a roadblock. No problem. I backed down the road a bit and hopped into one of the Wraiths. A few well-place plasma bursts later, the Brutes (and the roadblock) were no more. I, and the lone Marine who stuck by me, headed down the hill… only to find more Marines – and more jump pack-wearing Brutes – in a firefight. Yay. That’s where I stopped. For now.

SaraRules and I headed to the gym for a workout:

• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 205 lbs
• Incline Press (Icarian): 3 sets/10 reps, 140 lbs
• Flys: 3 sets/10 reps, 110 lbs
• Lower Back Extensions: 3 sets/15 reps, 160 lbs
• Curls (barbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 50 lbs
• Side Bends: 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
• Push-ups: 3 sets/10 reps

Post-workout weight: 184.7 lbs

Stray Toasters

• From NPR’s Talk of the Nation: Why Is It OK to Say “That’s So Gay”
• 20 More Ways You Know You’re Married to a GeekDad
• Michael Jackson has died, apparently from cardiac failure. There are many things that could be said of the man, but I’ll just say that he was an amazing entertainer. May he find the peace in the next world that eluded him in this one.
• Lovecraft Meets Atlas Obscura
• Microsoft Discloses Windows 7 Pricing
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Stoned wallabies make crop circles

And now, it’s time for Burn Notice.

Namaste.

Stray Toasters:

• SaraRules and I actually encountered a mythical “good Samaritan” doing a random act of kindness yesterday. It was a refreshing change from all of the “People are no damn good…” stories you hear. He’s today’s “Human of the Day.”
• Tickets for Transformers Giant Robots Blowing Shit Up have been acquired.
• Brownies! (Unfortunately, I have no ice cream here at work with which to eat them.)
• I just had a conversation with some folks at work… that included Star Trek, Superman and the Legion. During that conversation, I had an epiphany:
  

  Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was really just an update of Smokey and the Bandit. Seriously. You have to make the following substitutions, but they all track… more or less:

  • Substitute going back in time for going to Texarkana,
  • Substitute picking up a couple of whales for picking up a truckload of beer,
  • Substitute the Klingon Bird of Prey for either the Trans-Am or the semi (or both!) and
  • Substitute William Shatner for Burt Reynolds.

  challenged me on a few of the more esoteric points:

  • What about Paul Williams?
    Answer: The Space Probe.
    Why? Because Paul Williams (along with Pat McCormick) was the reason Bandit and Snowman went to get the beer… just as the probes were the reason Kirk and crew went to get the whales.
  • What about the sidekick?
    Answer: Jerry Reed was Bandit’s partner-in-crime, Cletus (The Snowman).  In ST:IV, Spock provided that role… and comic relief.
  • What about Sally Field?
    Answer: Dr. Gillian Taylor, the whale biologist that Kirk “picked up” and took back to the 23rd Century… just like Bandit picked up Carrie (Field) on the side of the road.
  • What about Jackie Gleason?
    Answer: Gleason, along with every other cop in the movie would be embodied by the Federation.
    Why? Because The Federation represents “The Man,” especially when they bust Kirk – the man who just saved the planet – back down to Captain from Admiral. DAMN THE MAN!!!

  Quod Erat Demonstratum.

• This is my 9/80 week.  And I get next Friday off for 04 July.  AND… the following Friday is a 9/80 day, too.  Three Fridays off in a row. SCORE!
• We had a shipment arrive a little while ago. The driver, who recently won a truck driving competition, and a coworker of his are going to Pittsburgh to compete in the national competition. How often does one get to say “I met someone who won a truck driving competition?”  I think that this is the first time I’ve ever been able to do that.

Thursday – 25 June 2009
This morning started at 0630… and restarted at 0800. How/why? Because, after showering and having a bite to eat, I decided that I wasn’t quite ready to kick off the day. Instead, I crawled back into bed and caught a little more shut-eye. And it was nice.

Last night, SaraRules and I went to Liberty Park and walked the inner loop. It was nice… except for the clouds of gnats hovering around the south end of the park. Clouds of them. Literally. Bah! After we got back home, I fired up the 360 and played more HALO3. I also discovered something annoying: Apparently, I neglected to use the “Save and Quit” option on Tuesday and wound up having to repeat the last mission that I completed Tuesday night. *grblsnrkx* On the “plus” side, I remembered where I needed to go to exit that mission, rather than wandering aimlessly through the complex, so my retreat “strategic advance to the rear” was expedicious. I also added another weapon to my “favorites” list: the Plasma Cannon, the Covenant’s answer to the Machine Gun Turret.

Stray Toasters

• posted a link to an excellent article: What to do if your child has superpowers. This will tie in nicely with “The Kal-El Clause” that SaraRules and I have devised.
• What’s your gamertag?  (This makes sense if you’re a Xbox Live subscriber…)
• Strip-search of U.S. girl illegal
• How to Have a Persuasive Handshake
• The website for the upcoming The Last Airbender movie is now live.
• Stephen King has a novella, Morality, that was printed in the July 2009 issue of Esquire. The synopsis of the story:
  

  Chad, an aspiring writer who is teaching school until he lands a publishing contract, and his wife, Nora, who is working as a home nurse for a retired minister are, like most people these days, struggling financially.  Nora is approached by her employer with a proposition that could make their dream of a home in Vermont a reality.  But will it be worth the moral consequences?

  It was a good story, but far from a happy story. It’s not often that one feels “dirty” – and possibly even “damaged” – after reading something, but this story puts you in that position.

• Oscars expand Best Film category
• ‘Charlie’s Angel’ Farrah Fawcett dies at 62
• Mania.com has an interview with former JLA writer Dwayne McDuffie
• Bettye LaVette was on The Late Late Show last night. She performed one of my favorite Sam Cooke songs, A Change Is Gonna Come; I will have to look for some of her CDs.
• Burton’s WONDERLAND Revealed
• 20 Best (and 20 Worst) Pets in Science Fiction
• Watchmen Director’s Cut Gets Theatrical Release

Namaste.

Tuesday – 23 June 2009
This morning’s title comes from The Omega Man, the second movie of our Bad Movie Night double-feature, which I’ll get back to momentarily.

Chris and Mary came over for dinner and Bad Movie Night. We watched Balls of Fury, which neither SaraRules nor I had seen and the aforementioned The Omega Man. Balls of Fury is a movie follows former ping pong child prodigy, Randy Daytona, as he seeks entry into an exclusive tournament being held by Feng, the man who had Randy’s father killed years before. After the movie, Chris told us something about the film that was revealed in the special features: The movie was made as a kung-fu movie… without any kung-fu. After thinking about it for a few moments, we realized that was exactly what we’d seen.

The Omega Man is the 1971 adaptation of I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson. I have now seen all three adaptaions: The Last Man on Earth, starring Vincent Price; The Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston; and I Am Legend, starring Will Smith. This was a good version and a decent adaptation of the original story. The basic premise was the same: An epidemic sweeps the world, killing off most of the population and transforming the remainder into a new offshoot species, leaving Colonel Robert Neville alone and outside. I realized something about this and the other I Am Legend-based movies: Each movie, while telling a variation of the same story, was a reflection of its time. In this case, there were many comments and themes that related to “The Man” draggin down civilization through war (being in the midst of the Vietnam War and Cold War eras) and technology. All-in-all, though dated, it was an enjoyable film.

Stray Toasters

• A collision between two Washington, D.C. Metro trains killed seven people yesterday (1, 2, 3)
• Ed McMahon dies at 86
• Mexican Cartels Lure American Teens as Killers
• How to Start Living in a Tiny House
• 
• While FAIL stickers are amusing, I am still more partial to I Park Like an Idiot stickers.
• Lancaster, PA keeps a close eye on itself
• The crap they built where the beautiful train stations were
• Production stills from Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: TV preacher proves that only the Christian God is real
  It’s WTF not because of what he believes, rather because of the “logic” he uses to support his arguments.
• Audio slideshow: Splendour of Saturn

Right on to the friction of the day…

Namaste.

Monday – 22 June 2009
As it’s the beginning of a new work week, Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders might say:

Oh, back on the chain gang…

But, as Mr. Rogers would say:

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood

So, it’s something of a wash.

I’m not sure what is on tap for this morning – or this week – yet, but hopefully there’s nothing too maddening coming down the pike. Tonight, however, is Bad Movie Night with Chris and Mary. We haven’t done one of those in a while, so it should be fun.

Stray Toasters

• Friday, in a move that comes under the heading of “It’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission,” I reallocated a work asset – a 42″ television – as a temporary monitor. There is actually a method to the madness, as I’m using it to prove a couple of points:
  1. We’ve been having some questions about our response time to some requests. I’m using the new large screen to keep a list of such requests visible all day,
  2. The television has been sitting – unused – for the past few months. We’ve been asked to see how/where we can use resources in different ways to maximize our overall effectiveness… so, really, I’m just following orders.

  Now, I’m waiting for the-powers-that-be to get into the office and comment on my “creative solution.”

• Same-sex weddings, heartland style
• Art Canvases That Include Shag Carpet
• Mayo Clinic Announces Dramatic Outcomes in Prostate Cancer Treatment
• Check out Back to the Cave, The-Blackcat’s take on Batman… as father to three Robins and a Bat-Baby.
• Education Chief to Warn Advocates That Inferior Charter Schools Harm the Effort
• Vocabulary 101:
  • lightning
    1. the flashing of light produced by a discharge of atmospheric electricity ; also : the discharge itself
    2. a sudden stroke of fortune
  • lightening
    1. to make light or clear : illuminate
    2. archaic : enlighten
    3. to make (as a color) lighter

  lightning != lightening

• California’s Solution to $24 Billion Budget Gap Is Going to Bring Some Pain
  
• 
• Pilot buries helicopter crash survivor in sand
• Iranian Guards Issue Warning as Vote Errors Are Admitted
• SSN Required to Buy Palm Pre

Paul came over and saw my new upgrade. After asking if I was trying to cause problems, I informed him that all of this was actually HIS fault: When I asked him about doing this back in April, he just laughed… but he never said “No.” And then, he actually asked to look at one of the items being displayed on the task list. I think that means that I’ve justified one point and proven another. We’ll see how long this lasts.

Namaste.

Sunday – 21 June 2009
Happy Father’s Day… and Summer Solstice/First Day of Summer!

Yesterday, SaraRules and I went to the Utah Foster Care Chalk Art Festival. We saw , Jack and Turtle… and their art piece. We also saw ‘s parents, as well as and while we were there. There were a lot of good pieces, but it was also raining, so many of them were under plastic and/or tents?

We headed up to SaraRules’ parents’, met Logan and formulated our gameplan for the afternoon. Between the three of us, we came up with going to a movie. We decided on The Taking of Pelham 123. It was a good movie and had definitely been updated to take advantage of the changes in technology in the past 35 years. Some of the specifics of the movie also changed, but not in ways that detracted from the overall story. One noticeable difference: Where the original movie was more of a “heist” movie, with a lot of chess-like, cat-and-mouse moves and feints, this movie was more… direct with its interaction between the characters of Denzel Washington and John Travolta.

After the movie, we headed back home for a while before we decided to make a pilgrimage to The Garden of Sweden. They are having their Summer Sale and one of the items listed was an office chair. After getting to the store, however, we opted on a different chair than we had originally gone to pick up. Since we were already in the south part of the valley, we met up with , and (new)Chris for dinner at V.I.

Today, Chris came over and played HeroClix. We did a “Soldiers vs. Soldiers” match. Chris took an early lead, then I evened things up. From there, we traded punches and shots until he wound up wearing down my team.

Next, I headed over to SaraRules’ parents’ for dinner and a movie. Tonight’s fare: The Devil’s Backbone.

Tomorrow, a new work week begins. Yay.

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.

SaraRules and I headed to the gym this evening, after dinner (and episodes of NCIS and Wolverine and the X-Men). We did a routine that she put together:

• Leg Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 140 lbs
• Kick-backs: 3 sets/10 reps, 60 lbs
• Calf Raises: 3 sets/10 reps – 1 set @ 100 lbs, 2 sets @ 120 lbs
• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 190 lbs
• Lower Back Extensions: 3 sets/15 reps, 140 lbs
• Flys: 3 sets/10 reps, 110 lbs
• Decline Sit-ups: 3 sets/10 reps
• Reverse Flys (Dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 10 lbs
• “Arnold” Press (Dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 25 lbs
• Upright Row (Barbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 50 lbs
• Side Bends: 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs

Post-workout weight: 189.1 lbs

Stray Toasters

• Art show fracas in Russia
• Moving Day
• How Our Game Platforms Will Change in 2009
• , get ready – Team Ninja Gets Back in Game with Metroid: Other M for Wii
• Small LEGO Zombie Canvases
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Icelandic Phallological Museum
• By way of – 10 Awesome Tools to Get More Out of Wikipedia
• I watched Jonny Quest earlier. There’s been talk of a live-action Jonny Quest movie… and I’m not sure that I’m looking forward to it. I’m leery of it because I fear that they’ll dumb it down to make it “safe” and “palatable” for the masses.
• Master the Art of Web Commuting
• Senators wonder aloud if only AT&T should be able to sell the iPhone
• Giant Burning Holes of the World

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 16 June 2009
Last night, SaraRules and I watched Kinky Boots, a movie inspired by a true story. The movie tells the story of two people – Charlie and Lola – whose lives intertwine in an unusual way. Charlie is the son of a shoe maker… who doesn’t want to follow in the family business. Lola is… well… Lola. (Oh, and Lola’s a drag queen, too.) The pair meet after Charlie intervenes when Lola is about to get mugged. From there, the two embark on a journey to help each of them discover what they both want and need out of life.

I remember thinking that this movie sounded interesting when I saw a trailer for it a few years ago. SaraRules and I flipped past it a few month ago, but didn’t back to checking it out until last night. It was a fun movie. The characters (well, most of them) have personalities and motivations that make them human… rather than just cardboard cutouts or caricatures; I was also very pleasantly surprised at Chiwetel Ejiofor‘s performance as Lola.

Stray Toasters

• On the way home last night, it drizzled. I had to check more than one window to make sure that I hadn’t either imagined it or just gotten caught in someone’s windshield washer overspray. Nope… it was precipitate from the sky. Therefore, yesterday marked the tenth consecutive day that the Salt Lake Valley (or at least this corner of it) got something that qualifies as “rain.”
• Atlas Obscura
• June 16, 1959: George Reeves, Superman, Felled by Speeding Bullet
• LEGOland Gets 10-Foot ‘Brickday’ Cake

• When Performers Write the Program
• The art of Cliff Chiang
• For – Weird Al does Craigslist, Doors style
• Shop of Ideas: Power Girl and Fangirls
• Muslims Face Risks in Giving to Charity
• Indexed: Teachers can save the economy

  

• Social Networks Spread Iranian Defiance Online
• Fashion industry steps out for its Oscars, the CDFA Awards
• Comedian Lange crosses the line on ‘Joe Buck Live’

Namaste.

Monday – 15 June 2009
Another work week begins. While I wouldn’t call the day “manic,” it is still a Monday. And, I came into the office to find out that some scheduled maintenance on our email server seems to have been “mostly successful,” it seems that one of the services isn’t playing nicely with the others… and just quit. One of the server guys is working on it now.

Yesterday, I went to Murray Park and threw the Aerobie around with Chris and Mary. We played for about 40 minuutes before the thunderheads rolled in. We thought it in our best interests to stop playing – we didn’t find the prospect of becoming human lightning rods all that enticing. After heading home for a shower, I went to visit Perry and the kids; they were doing well.

I headed to SaraRules’ parents’ for dinner. As it was still raining when we finished, there was no Sunday Night Bocce. Instead, we watched Dead Again. Despite owning the movie, I haven’t seen it in a few years. It was good and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Back at home, I took another stab at organizing my legions of HeroClix into storage boxes. For the most part, it looks as though I was successful. I still need to go through a few boxes and verify that the figures in them are extra and/or available for modification.

Stray Toasters

• By way of SaraRules:
  • ‘Imelda’ Strikes Again: Thieving Fox Amasses 120 Shoes
  • Top 10 Worst Wedding Songs
• Kids — They’ll Age You (or “Just how old is Bruce Wayne, anyway?!”)
• and A 400-lb Gorilla are written up in: Midvale couple chalks it up for art and foster care
  Don’t forget to check them out this weekend at the Utah Chalk Art Festival – this Friday and Saturday at The Gateway
• Combating malaria by sterilizing male mosquitos
• Full-sized Gundam Now Complete in Tokyo
• 
• By way of comes: Manvotional: George Washington’s Rules on Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation
• Comic Confrontations: Judge Judy vs. Breeders
• ‘Prodigal’ returns?: The new Batman’s the same as the old new Batman — or is he?
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: For Sale: New York property with quietest of tenants
• Cracked and peeling Photoshopping contest

Namaste.

Sunday – 14 June 2009
This weekend, I have (re)discovered something wonderful about saying (or at least “thinking loudly”) “I don’t feel like getting up yet…” on my days off. I’ve managed not to get out of bed as soon as I wake up. This is a good thing as Friday, Saturday and this morning, I was awake between 0630 and 0705. Without an alarm. This comes under the heading of a “good thing.”

I finally got the pictures from Ogden Union Station posted. I’m not entirely sure why iWeb wouldn’t let me post pages with similar – yet different – names, but it didn’t. So, I had to get a little creative. This workaround seems to work. Something that I didn’t consider – mainly because it was almost 0200 when I was trying to get the pictures posted – was to simply publish the pages to folders and upload the folders. (It’s amazing what a good night’s sleep and distance from the problem will do for mental acuity.) If I run into this situation again, I’ll have to keep that in mind.

Stray Toasters

• Seven Civil War Stories your teacher never told you
• It has rained, to some degree, every day for the past eight (8) days. This fact is made even more peculiar/amusing in that we are on a high desert plain. The operative word being: “Desert.” If it keeps up much longer, I’m going to start drafting plans for an ark. My mission: Save two of each kind of toy.
• The Rise and Fall of Motion Control for Games
• Speaking of games: I’ve finally given my XBox 360 a permanent connection to the Interwebs; my gamer tag is: shadorunr. If you’re a XBox Live player, feel free to add me.
• Director Guillermo Del Toro Is a Novelist, Too
• While I’m not a big fan of Twitter, I found this blending of old and new technology amusing: A Twitter Client for the Commodore 64
• Actor Phil Morris Always Seems to Get the Cool Parts
• Vincent Moore raises the question: “Where are the Black Supervillains?” (1, 2)
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Bulletproof “tactical” corset

Methinks it’s time to find something to do in the sunshine. Throwing the Aerobie around  sounds like a good idea.

Namaste.