Random Access

Tuesday – 23 Sep 2008
Guess who’s having Eggo LEGO waffles for breakfast.
Mm-hmm, that’s right.
I am.

Last night’s tourney was a wash: Only Chris and I showed. So, Keith basically rolled the dice: I “won,” Chris got Fellowship. The prizes were a Johnny Storm LE ‘Clix. With the “formalities” over, Chris, Keith, Nano and I played a four-way free-for-all. Since it was a just a fun game to kill some time, I tried a random team:

• Batman
• Captain America (Ultimates)
• Deathstroke and
• Psycho-Pirate

Chris rolled with his usual Batman team, with a special guest star:

• Batman
• The Flash
• Green Arrow and
• Johnny Storm LE

Nano played with:

• Batman and Robin (dual figure)
• Big Barda and Mister Miracle (Green Lantern)
• Green Arrow

Keith brought the Fantastic Four (starter set), including the Sue Storm and Johnny Storm LE figures. I have two things to say about this team:

1. Watching someone play the FF as a team – and play them well – is a thing of beauty.
2. Getting beat down by that same someone/team is a bittersweet pill… though still fun.

I think that my dice thought that we were playing a game of “Suicide ‘Clix,” because I couldn’t hit my target numbers half the time. I wore down a couple members of the FF, but Keith wound up taking me out. Chris and Nano duked it out on the far side of the board, with Chris winning that fight. Then it came down to Chris and Keith. They danced around the playing field a bit, but Keith finally wound up taking Chris out.

After the game, I headed over to SaraRules’ to hang out with her and her family and watch Monday Night Football. (Four shots at a two-point conversion – FOUR – and you THROW it?! ALL FOUR TIMES?!?) Her parents just returned from a ten-day Oregon excursion and it sounded like they had a lot of fun. And, as an unexpected bonus, they brought back some smoked Brie.

Back home. Chilled on the couch… started nodding off on the couch… called it a night. However, before I hit the rack, I watched a little of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. One of his guests was Marianne Jean-Baptiste, from Without a Trace. I don’t think that I’d ever heard her speak out of character, so I was “a little” surprised to hear a British accent.

This morning, I saw SaraRules drive by as she headed to work.
In a rare occurrence, she apparently saw me – and Jeff, a coworker with whom I was talkin – as well.

Stray Toasters

• Bit is speaking!
  Her first word: “Dada”
  Bot is not so amused.
  From last night’s conversation with :

  11:00 hahaha bot is ragingly annoyed
  11:00 and thusly i am ragingly amused
  11:00 bit’s first word today
  11:00 or in the words of rana
  11:00 I SPEND ALL DAY WITH THIS CHILD
  11:00 I CHANGE HER DIAPERS
  11:00 I FEED HER
  11:00 EVERY
  11:00 DAY
  11:00 EVERY NIGHT
  11:01 AND WHAT’S HER FIRST WORD?!!?
  11:01 DADA!!!
  11:01 lol life is good

• A new trailer for Quantum is Solace is out.
• SaraRules pointed out a video that I neglected to check out from yesterday’s Muppet ‘Toaster:

  Watch it all the way to the end…

• Some 640,000 Texans still without power
• Did Howard Mackie and John Byrne plan on pulling a “One More Day/Brand New Day” kind of stunt in the 90s? You bet they did. Details here.
• 15 train robbers killed by poison gas
• MarknTyme: You’ll have to check this out when you get home: Habenera

And that’s that… for now.

Namaste.

Stray Toasters

• I’ve been playing HeroClix for a couple of years now. It’s taken me this long to realize something about two teams’ abilities that bears out some testing. While it won’t make me unstoppable/unbeatable, it will change a couple things about the way I play the game… and who I consider for team builds.
• Salt Lake City named eighth most-stressful city to live
• Holy Rocket-propelled Monkeys!



• Rebel attack – an all-out LEGO Star Wars battle in micro-scale
• , click here.
• Disney Prepares to Use Its Marketing Magic to Bring Back the Muppets

Up out.

Monday – 22 Sep 2008
Another work week begins.
And it’s a grey, wet morning.

Yesterday was a 2/3 good day, in terms of football:

• The Ravens beat the Browns 2.0, in Baltimore.
  28 – 10, and Ed Reed had yet another INT for a TD.
• The Dolphins beat down the Patriots, 38 – 13.
  Yes, those Dolphins and those Patriots; Ronnie Brown was a machine yesterday.
• The Panthers, however, took one on the chin from the Gus Frerotte-led Vikings.

There was a lot of good football yesterday, but I don’t think that anything amused/pleased me as much as seeing “Big Ben” Roethlisberger and the Steelers drop a game to the Eagles. Of course, ANY Steelers loss makes me smile, but the Steelers never found the end zone and were held to two field goals. We’ll see if they’re still playing this “well” next week, when the Ravens make a trip to Steeltown and face them.

SaraRules and I finished The Orphanage last night. Good movie, but not quite what we were expecting. Given the Guillermo Del Toro name, I think that we were expecting a little more “horror.” There were definite horror elements, but I wouldn’t call it a “horror movie.” I’m sure that Tyranist would disagree with me, though.

Stray Toasters

• Math is hard. Let’s go shopping!
• Kate Perry != Jill Sobule
• Sexist pigs earn more than normal men
• I’ve read some complaints about the “I’m a PC” commercials that MicroSquish is now running. Personally, I find them amusing… and far more palatable than the Bill & Jerry commercials. What I would really love to see would be a new wave of Apple “Mac vs. PC” commercials where they start off:
  

  PC: I’m a PC.
  Mac: I’m a PC, too… but I’m running Mac OS X.
  PC: *sputter* What?!
  Mac: Yeah, I’m a PC. I just happen to run a different OS. But, when you really look at it, our hardware isn’t really that different.
  PC: But, that’s just going to confuse people. Just say you’re a Mac and be done with it. People don’t want to have to think.
  Mac: *stares at PC* Are you saying to just keep the sheep quiet and happy…?
  PC: *deer in headlights look* No… no! I’m not saying that. I’m saying that you’re just going to… confuse them.
  Mac: So… they’re too slow to understand the difference between hardware and software?
  PC: I…. You…. oh, forget it! *throws hands up in the air* There’s just no talking to you!
  Mac: Actually, there are lots of ways! Wireless networking. Wired. Even good, old-fashioned SneakerNet.
  PC: *rolls eyes and walks off-camera*

• SaraRules just pointed out the following: Microsoft is pushing Seinfeld away too soon
• 
• Feds Tighten DNS Security on .gov

Today: Work… work… work…
Tonight: ‘Clix tourney.

Back to it.

Namaste.

Sunday – 21 Sep 2008
Happy Birthday to

A few of us went to The Melting Pot last night to celebrate ‘s birthday. Many of us had never been there before, so it was an interesting – and fun – experience.

After dinner, SaraRules and I headed back to my place to watch The Orphanage. Good movie, but I was tired from having gotten up far too early, so we stopped the movie early so I could call it a night.

Today, nothing much on tap… and there may be a trip to the Garden of Sweden. We’ll see…

Namaste.

Saturday – 20 Sep 2008
Yesterday after work, I stopped by to see Code Monkey BB and shoot the bull for a few minutes.  He is doing well and is enjoying his not-as-new-as-it-used-to-be job.

After that, I headed over to Far West to play a pick-up game of ‘Clix with Matt. We decided on a 400-point game. I went with:

• Deathstroke
• Green Lantern (Guy Gardner)
• Marvel Girl and
• Psycho-Pirate

Matt used:

• Bronze Tiger
• The Flash (John Fox)
• Mary Marvel
• The Thing

We played an indoor map – I’m typically a fan of outdoor maps, as I like to use fliers, so I figured that an indoor would add to the challenge for me. Another challenge of the game is not thinking of certain pieces as playing like other pieces. For example, Guy Gardner is a Green Lantern, but he’s not a blaster, he’s a scrapper – he works best when he can get into close quarters and go mano-a-mano with an opponent. I remembered that when playing yesterday and it worked well. For a while. Getting him in close to Mary Marvel and The Thing wasn’t what killed him – it was The Flash. Damned Hypersonic Speed. But he was my only casualty. I managed to eventually mill through Matt’s force. Yes, a good portion of that was due to the Psycho-Pirate’s special Perplex ability (reduce one ability of an opponent by two), but I will gladly admit that I like having him on my teams because of that ability.

After that, I came home for a bit before heading out to meet up with the Clitorati group. Coffee and dinner were both good. I have apparently picked up a head cold in the past few days. By the time dinner was done, I was feeling a bit run down. So, I decided that a hot soak was in order. It fit the bill nicely. And, I called it a fairly early night. That’s not necessarily a “bad” thing…

…but I was awake this morning at 7:40. O,o

I watched Heavy Metal – The F-15 on The History Channel. It discussed the history of the airplane and its effectiveness in modern air warfare. It was very interesting. SaraRules woke up a little later. She fixed breakfast; I fixed coffee and then we watched Rocky, which happens to be SaraRules’ favorite movie.

• Pop Quiz: How many of you knew that Rocky won the Best Picture Oscar for 1977?
• Daily Double: How many other Oscars did it win?
• Triple-Play: How many Oscar nominations did it have?

I haven’t seen Rocky in many, many years. It’s been long enough that I didn’t remember some of the details of the movie. But, I have to say that it remains a good film. I’d even go so far as to say that it’s “an enduring film.”

After the movie, we dived into some… cleaning. Yep, cleaning. I have a living room again… and about 75% of my dining room, too. A few weeks ago, I knocked over some of the ‘Clix lots that I’ve been wanting to put on eBay. And I haven’t had the motivation to resort them. Until today. I daresay that we were productive today and there’s still a good portion of the day left.

Speaking of which, it’s about time to get on with the rest 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.

Have you seen the new Microsoft Windows commercials with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld?

, for example, has seen the first one and finds it amusing.
I, on the other hand, am not overly enthused or amused by them.
(Maybe it has something to do with my apathy towards Jerry Seinfeld – I just don’t find him funny.)

In fairness, I’m something of a Mac convert (or is that really “re-vert,” as I used Macs MANY moons past…), but I still find some merits in pre-Vista Windows, including (and mostly limited to) the fact that it runs all of my favorite games.

If you have seen either or both commercial(s), what do you think of them?

Sunday – 14 Sep 2008
I had a ‘Clix tourney yesterday afternoon. I tied (2-1) with another player, but he KO’ed more figures – higher total points – so he won the day. I took the Fellowship prize, so I got a Sue Storm Limited Edition figure. Not bad.

After the game, I had dinner with SaraRules before heading off to Chris’ for the first Dark Heresy game I’ve been to in… probably a month to a month-and-a-half. Back home… to find that SaraRules wasn’t feeling well. We decided not to go to breakfast and called it an early night.

This morning, we got up and watched football. SaraRules fixed breakfast while we flipped back and forth between the early games. After the first group of games, we headed to the Garden of Sweden – she wanted something for her office and I wanted to look at some new desk and bookcase options. After that (and lunch), we went to the Utah State Fair – Attractions. Exhibits. Food. Livestock. People on parade. Rides. The usual. And cotton candy. Sweet, sweet cotton candy.

Back home for the late game and then over to SaraRules’ parents’ for a bit.

All-in-all, it’s been a good weekend. Can’t really ask for more than that.

Stray Toasters

• I saw this shortly after waking up this morning; I think that this is my new favorite Sinfest cartoon.



• We watched The Running Man tonight. I haven’t seen that in many, many rains. And it’s so ripe for being MST3K’ed, too. And we did.
• DIsk Inventory X
• I showed Logan, SaraRules’ younger brother, a picture of the Burger King mascot from when I was a kid. I do believe that he found it just about as creepy as the current mascot, if not more so.
• By way of BoingBoing.net: Sarah Palin: Spammer and Digital Secrecy Scofflaw
• , did you find a copy of Watchmen?
• 
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Mom accused of stealing daughter’s identity to attend highschool and become a cheerleader
• The new Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld ads are… something.
  (And “good” isn’t the word I’m looking for.)

Namaste.

Friday – 12 Sep 2008
Last night, SaraRules came over and fixed dinner (fajitas!) and we watched The West Wing and 21. Nice, quiet evening in. After SaraRules left, I hopped on the nerd and surfed for a while. Then – in a stroke of genius – I decided to stretch out on the couch “for a few minutes.”

That turned into 3 hours.

I woke up and dragged myself to bed. That’s when the odd, 21-inspired dreams set in. Thugs, money and lots of running. Whoop-de-damn-doo.

So far, the work day hasn’t been too bad.
And, it’s Friday. A short Friday, to boot.
Win-Win.

Stray Toasters

• As 2008 Multicultural Week draws to a close, I am reminded of this post that sent me back in July.
• Folks were talking about WoW‘s Harvest Festival in a chat forum this morning; that reminded me that it’s almost time for the 2008 CoH Hallowe’en Event.
• Speaking of Hallowe’en: Dress up your PS3
• 
• The CrüxShadows 2008 US tour brings them to SLC on the 28th. Hm.
• Sunday’s Ravens game has been moved to Monday night, thanks to Hurricane Ike. I’m not sure if there will be coverage outside the Baltimore and Texas areas.
• Your Mama Don’t Dance and Your Daddy Don’t Rock and Roll
• Vintage Monkey Cartoons
  
• 
• LEGO Album Covers on Flickr

Soon: Hometime
Next: Lunch with SaraRules
Later: Errands… and maybe a pickup game of ‘Clix

Namaste.

It’s been a bit of a busy day.
That’s not a bad thing.
It’s job security.

For some reason, despite being busy, the day seems to be creeping past. Oh, well.

Stray Toasters

• For SaraRules:
• By way of : Olbermann Slams Republicans for Exploiting 9/11 (video)
• Putting Lipstick on a Pig
• For Meliko and Tyranist: Fear And Hatred: Van Lente & Calero on X Men Noir
• Op/Ed: Forget the Rumors, Will Smith Should Be Captain America
• Coming soon from ITV4: No Heroics

• The Kid’s Comic Book Reviews – Comic book reviews… by a seven-year-old
• From NPR: Early-Onset Schizophrenia Has Never Been More Adorable

Namaste.

Tuesday – 09 September 2008
After work yesterday, I played ‘Clix with Chris. We played 400-point teams; I went with:

• Lex Luthor (with Outsmart)
• Merlyn (with Point Blank)
• Psycho-Pirate and
• Invisible Woman

Chris lined up with:

• Batman (Knightfall)
• Bishop
• Dr. Polaris
• Wolverine

The game started off with a bang: I was able to use Psycho-Pirate’s Perplex to dial Bishop’s defense value down by -2, Lex’ Outwit to get rid of that pesky Energy Deflection and Merlyn’s Ranged Combat Expert to do four clicks of damage right out of the gate. It was a beautiful thing to behold. My dice ran hot-and-cold throughout the game, and I wound up losing at the end (Merlyn vs. Dr. Polaris and Bishop, who had been hiding behind Batman), but I think that this was the closest that I have come to beating Chris in a one-on-one game. I was rather happy with it.

After ‘Clix, I headed up to visit SaraRules and her family to watch the Broncos-Raiders game. Talk about a good, old-fashioned ass-whoopin’… Damn, Gina! Denver was ON last night. And, like I mentioned in the previous post, I think that I have a new favorite (for now) videogame commercial.

After that game, I went home, plopped on the couch and vegged out to classic Jonny Quest. And I defy anyone to tell me that the show’s theme song isn’t one of the best cartoon themes – if not possibly TV themes – of all time.

Stray Toasters

• Damn and a half… this Joker, Clown Prince of Crime, is bad-ass. He’s the “Buy It By the Brick” figure for the upcoming Arkham Asylum set.
• John Hodgman: More Information Than You Require
• 
• Best and Worst Cities for Salary Growth
• By way of :



• World’s Finest has a list of the guest stars on the upcoming The Brave and The Bold series.
• And, speaking of The Dark Knight Detective: Caine fuels up Batman casting rumors.
• Leviton gives the gift of extra outlets

Attack the day…

Namaste.

I just saw this while we were watching Monday Night Football.

Cracked me right the Hell up.

Tuesday – 02 September 2008
And so, another – thankfully short – work week begins. I’m going camping with SaraRules and her family this Friday. That should prove… interesting. And undoubtedly fun.

Yesterday was a low-key day, as a holiday should be:

• Sleeping in.
• A couple of episodes of The West Wing.
• Tooling around town, including a stop at Gardner Village.
• Dinner with SaraRules’ family.
• City of Heroes.
• The Middleman season finale.

All-in-all, it was a good day.

Stray Toasters

• Congrats to SaraRules on starting her new job!




• We have a new guy starting in IT today. Selah.
• Sunday’s trip to IKEA bore some fruit… including some geeky fruit. I picked up a KUBBO light. I got a green globe to go on it. Why? Because then, I could do this:

  

  …and this…

  

• I was surprised to read news items about Governor Palin’s daughter in the news.
  I was even more surprised – pleasantly so – to hear Senator Obama’s reaction:

  “Let me be as clear as possible,” Obama said. “I think people’s families are off-limits, and people’s children are especially off-limits. This shouldn’t be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin’s performance as governor or her potential performance as a vice president.” (Full story, from CNN)
  

  I was similarly impressed with the way that he reminded the media that he was born to a young mother and that reporters should “…back off these kinds of stories.”

• How to make a papercraft Masonic Lodge
• By way of BoingBoing: Hot 8 Brass Band
• How to make a 3-D printer out of LEGO

Attack the day like birds of prey…

Namaste.

Sunday – 31 August 2008: Coda
Saturday marked one year that SaraRules and I have been dating.

We kicked off the day by sleeping in. It might sound mundane, but it was a great way to kick off a long weekend. After we got up and decided what we wanted for breakfast we were up, out and on our way! We had breakfast at The Other Place.

We left there and headed up to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts to take in the Monet to Picasso exhibit. It was a great exhibit. There were over 70 pieces, paintings and sculptures. And you could get very close to most of the pieces – within 9 – 12 inches, in some cases. Looking at these works this close was a great treat. I believe that we are planning on revisiting this exhibit before it leaves UMFA; I highly recommend seeing it, if you get a chance.

After a couple of errands, we headed to the store to pick up a few things for the barbecue that was throwing. In fact, we ran into her at the store on the way there. Surreal. (And, yes, Ms. , I do know what the word means.) The barbecue itself was fun… and wound up turning into a poker game a little while into it.

We left a bit early and came home to watch Stardust… which we both wound up being too tired to finish last night. Seriously, with about twenty to thirty minutes left in the movie, we were both nodding off. We managed to watch the last bit of it this afternoon, though.

Sunday proved another fairly lazy day. SaraRules fixed breakfast and we lazed about for a bit. When we decided to venture forth, we did so with gusto. Our first stop: The embassy of “…a land where the furniture folds to a much smaller size.” That’s right, the Garden of Sweden, itself – IKEA. We didn’t go with much/anything in particular in mind, but wound up finding a few things of use.

Next, a quick trip to Kohl’s. I have been looking for a decent pair of olive slacks for a few weeks; I figured that since I was near the store – and it was a holiday weekend (read: “Sale”) – I might have a bit of luck. And I was correct.

Back up the valley to hang out with SaraRules’ parents for a bit before heading back to the apartment. Tonight, we watched Clear and Present Danger. I still prefer Harrison Ford’s Jack Ryan to Adam Baldwin’s; I never saw Ben Affleck’s take on the character, though. Aside from a few anachronistic items (the types of cell phones and computers), this movie could have taken place in any modern time.

Tomorrow… don’t know what’s on tap yet. And that’s fine with me.

Thursday – 28 August 2008
Three down, one in the chamber… and I’m taking tomorrow off.

Last night, I headed up to SaraRules’ parents’ house for dinner. Ms. SaraRules cooked a pasta in carrot sauce dish that was very tasty.

After dinner, she and I headed back to my place to hang out. We started off watching coverage of the Democratic National Convention… but we watched it on BBC America. I may start watching all such events on BBCA, at this rate. The coverage was good and they have some of the fastest display typists I have ever seen: There were a couple of occasions when Joe Biden was speaking and – seconds later – a quote from what he said would appear on the screen.

We were going to watch Project: Runway, but either Bravo and/or my cable box was/were being a steaming pile of something left in Grace’s diaper. Instead, we wound up chatting the night away.

After SaraRules left, I toyed with the notion of playing City of Heroes, but seemed to be more in the mood to play City of Sleepy People… so I went to bed.

Tonight, I’m not sure what’s on the agenda. But, as it’s my “Friday,” I’m pretty sure that there will be some manner of gaming involved.

Stray Toasters

• From MTV.com: Should Superman Go Dark?
• Henchman T-Shirts



• Make-believe police in UK have power to issue on-the-spot fines
• Meetings. Blah. Because of meetings, I’m going to miss out on sushi today.
• Love and Rockets: New Stories, Vol. 1
• ::: jawdrop :::

More later.

Namaste.