If I had seen this before I hit the polls, I might have changed my vote:
Thanks to
Last night, I continued a project that I started Saturday evening: Collecting my extra Arkham Asylum ‘Clix into eBay-able groups/lots. Hopefully, they’ll do well.
Stray Toasters
For those who can’t identify it, it’s a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.
Attack the day…
Namaste.
Thursday – 30 Oct 2008
Not a bad day, so far.
Stray Toasters
That’s good for now.
Namaste.
Wednesday – 29 Oct 2008
I vaguely remember turning off the alarm this morning. I was a lovely combination of “tired” and “lazy.” There was a part of me that was having an “I don’t care” moment when I turned off the alarm… so, I turned over and decided to grab some more shut-eye.
So far, the morning has been good and even a little productive… despite the fact that I keep thinking that it’s Thursday.
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That’s a good start. There may be more later.
Namaste.
It was a busy day. Not “run around frantically” busy, but enough to keep me well-occupied throughout the day.
SaraRules cooked a chicken and vegetable over pasta dish. Quite tasty.
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And that’s that.
I may wind up going to the gym tonight… but I’m not 100% committed to that course of action yet.
Namaste.
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.
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.
Stray Toasters
Tonight: Dinner at Outback. (Can you say “Aussie Cheese Fries,” boys and girls..?)
This time tomorrow: We’ll be on our way to the Right Coast.
Selah.
Namaste.
Wednesday – 22 October 2008
Midweek is upon us.
This means that I can (finally) sate my desire for plastic crack… and four-color crack, as well.
(WizKids, as of when I posted this, still hasn’t released the full list of figures. KHAAAAAAAAAAAN!)
Hopefully, the workday will be a little more smooth than yesterday.
Stray Toasters
Namaste.
I was shocked – and pleasantly surprised – at the Ravens’ win, especially when you consider how well the Dolphins have looked over the past couple of weeks. But, like I said: It was a win-win situation… I’m just a little more glad that the Ravens won.
Next weekend, SaraRules and I are heading to Baltimore for my birthday. This year’s present to myself is the Raiders vs. Ravens game. We’re both looking forward to the game and we’re looking forward to some (relatively) good-natured ribbing over it. While we were out-and-about today, SaraRules told me that I should hope that the Raiders win. I raised an eyebrow over this. She went on to explain:
“If the Raiders win, you’ll have to hear about it for about a day… maybe two. If the Ravens win, I’m going to have to hear about it for the next 50 years: ‘Do you remember that time we went to Baltimore for that football game…?’ “
I can’t say that she isn’t right about that, either.
We had dinner and watched the late games at her parents’ place. Dinner was enchiladas (chicken and seafood, respectively) with sides of rice, beans, guacamole and mojitos. For dessert, we took a couple of pies: Chocolate Satin and apple. As to the late game, I don’t know what got into the Bucs, but they played a great game; on the flip side, I don’t know who that was in the Seahawks’ uniforms, but it wasn’t their “A” squad.
Stray Toasters
Namaste.
There well be blood football. Today, I have what I refer to as a “push” game: The Ravens are playing the Dolphins, so no matter which team wins, I’ll be happy. (Of course, I’d prefer the Ravens to win, but that’s just me.) I haven’t looked at who the Panthers are playing yet.
Stray Toasters
On to the rest of the day…
Namaste.
*blink blink*
I told her to hang tight while I made a couple of calls.
I touched bases with
On the way home, SaraRules and I realized that we were getting hungry and neither of us felt like cooking. We chose Macaroni Grill for dinner. (Actually, she chose it; I just did the driving.) It was a good call, too. I had the Chicken Marsala with a calamari appetizer. Both were quite good.
We got back home, found the couch, stretched out… and, in fairly short order, both of us were knocked out. That meant that we missed most of The Late Show interview; we woke up in time to catch the very last part of it. SaraRules went home and I finished reading Top 10: Book 2 and DC: The New Frontier.
Workout
Wes managed to get me to go to the gym yesterday. I would like to make it a more-regular occurrence. Before we got started with the main workout, I wanted to try a max press… just for the Hell of it. I was pretty sure that I couldn’t get a rep at 300 lbs, even though I had 275 on the bar and had found a couple of 10-pound weights and two 2.5-pound weights to get to 300. (There was a guy, a few machines away, watching as I added and subtracted weights from the bar. The expression on his face seemed to say,”Is he really going to try to press that much…?”) I backed it down to 250 lbs… and got two reps out of it. Not bad for not having really done bench press in nearly four months. The rest of the workout was good and tiring:
My post-workout weight was 179.9 lbs. That’s… a little higher than I like. Time to lay off the extra helpings of brownies and ice cream after dinner.
Four-Color Coverage – DC: The New Frontier and Top 10
I was introduced to DC:The New Frontier by way of the video that was released earlier this year. It adapted the story into a (roughly) seventy-minute animated feature. The ‘toon was good and adapted the story well, but it missed a lot of the details and richness that two trade paperbacks afforded.
The story is set in 1950s America. Thanks to the air of fear created through McCartyism, costumed adventurers have been outlawed… unless they take an oath of loyalty to the U.S. administration. A couple of heroes do, most decide to just fade into the sunset.
The movie focused more on the story of Hal Jordan, using him as the readers’ main connection to the story (similar to the way that Wolverine and Rogue were used in the first X-Men movie) and that worked well for the animated feature. The books, with the wider pallete of characters, included Jordan but also gave much more insight into the other heroes featured in the story. For example, “John Henry,” a character who received a brief nod in the movie, had a plotline that ran throughout the books and – along with the Martian Manhunter’s story – served to show a couple of sides of the racial struggles in America in the 50s.
The story was a fun read. Darwyn Cooke did an excellent job of taking characters whose adventures have become so familiar and placing them in a different time, but making them – and their stories – relevant and interesting. And, in another interesting tie-in to history, the book ended with excerpts (mostly from the last half) of John F. Kennedy’s 1960 Democratic National Convention Nomination Acceptance Address.
Top 10 is the story of Neopolis, a city where all of the residents have superpowers. The book was written by Alan Moore, also known for such books as V for Vendetta, Watchmen and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
The book follows the police force, based out of Precinct 10 – more commonly known as “Top 10” – in their daily routines. The feel of the book is a cross of Astro City (1, 2) and Gotham Central… and it works. In the stories, we see not only the officers’ working their beats, but also glimpses of their personal lives, as well.
An unexpected treat that Top 10 also provides is the artwork. Not just the characters and the architecture… but the background characters. If you look carefully you’ll see that some of the extras are… “oddly reminiscent”… of other, well-known figures in comics and literature.
Alan Moore has created a rich setting with characters whose motivations and idiosyncracies are as diverse as the city in which they live and protect. The books were good reads and I look forward to checking out the two spin-off series and the sequel.
Stray Toasters
Quote of the Day
Excerpted from John F. Kennedy’s 1960 acceptance speech:
Can a nation organized and governed such as ours endure?
That is the real question.
Have we the nerve and the will? Can we carry through in an age where we will witness not only new breakthroughs in weapons of destruction, but also a race for mastery of the sky and the rain, the ocean and the tides, the far side of space, and the inside of men’s minds?
That is the question of the New Frontier.
That is the choice our nation must make — a choice that lies not merely between two men or two parties, but between the public interest and private comfort, between national greatness and national decline, between the fresh air of progress and the stale, dank atmosphere of “normalcy,” between dedication of mediocrity.
All mankind waits upon our decision. A whole world looks to see what we shall do. And we cannot fail that trust. And we cannot fail to try.
Namaste.
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
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 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.
And with that…
Namaste.
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
In case you can’t make it out, the book is Demon Summoning for Dummies
Quote of the Day
Namaste.
The Giants, on the other hand…? They, or at least people in their uniforms, were just… there. They did not look like the 4-0, Super Bowl-winning team that we’ve seen over the past few weeks. Maybe they sent in the JV squad. By the end of the third quarter, it looked as though their hearts just weren’t in the game anymore.
All kidding aside: Congrats to
After I got home, I opted for a hot bath and reading more of Watchmen. It was a good way to wrap up the evening.
This morning, I decided to wear a tie to work. Just because. And a vest, too. I even opted out of wearing my contact lenses, in favor of my glasses.
Stray Toasters
Attack the day…
Namaste.
Monday – 13 Oct 2008
It was a good – and busy – weekend. After Canadian Thanksgiving, SaraRules, Logan and I went to see Quarantine. There was apparently “an incident” in the showing before ours; we never found out “what” it was. The movie was good. And, to some degree, it finally did something that I have rarely seen in a horror/zombie movie: Contained the situation. Of course, there was still the “No one in a horror movie has ever seen a horror movie” factor, though. On the whole though, I’d give it a definite thumbs-up with an okay.
Sunday, I woke up and looked out the window and saw snow on the ground. Not a lot – it melted by noon or thereabouts – but it was snow, nevertheless. Then, it was time for football and breakfast. Breakfast was good; football, not so good:
After the first round of games were over, we headed over to SaraRules’ parents’ place. We hooked up with Logan and we went a’shopping. Back to the house for dinner and the late games. After the late game, SaraRules and I went back to my place to watch No Country for Old Men. Neither of us had seen it before… Wow. It was a good movie… but it was definitely not a “feel good” movie. I see why it received the acclaim that it did; I heartily recommend it.
Today, I have been in the American Fork office. The original intent was to help rack some server equipment and clear out my AF desk, since I’m never down here. We tagged the equipment, but couldn’t rack it… because the rack is the wrong height. I’ve only been able to gather some of my stuff in sporadic intervals, because of small fires. Actually, there’s been only one fire… but it’s spawned a couple of smaller ones.
Stray Toasters
Namaste.