Union Pacific's Great Excursion Adventure

“It’s just another manic…”

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Monday – 23 June 2008
Three hours’ sleep? Check.
Frozen caffeine? Check.
In the office just after 8:00? Check.

You would think that with a four-mile commute, my road monkey-to-miles ratio would be slim to nil. This morning proved that to be untrue. I even encountered one of them when I was parked. If my math is correct, I actually had a 1:1 ratio today. Four. Miles. Unglaublich!

Stray Toasters

Let’s get this show on the road.

“The creature is driven by rage…”

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Saturday: Coda
It’s been a rather full day.

I left the apartment a little later than I had planned, but I didn’t let that deter me from stopping to get a cup of caffeinated frozen joy. With that done, I was ready to face the world… or at least my opponents in the HeroClix tournament.

I took Galactus with me. Just because. There was a very slim chance that I would use him in the game (at his “Hungry” level) along with Phoenix (at her rookie level). But that was a VERY slim chance, indeed. I walked in with Galactus in my hands. The looks of “Oh… my… GOD…” from some of the other players were pretty priceless. When Keith (the judge) announced today’s tournament as “1,000 points and unrestricted”, Chris and I both decided to pull some of our big and/or colossal figures out of the mothballs. We expected everyone else to do the same. With one exception – someone brought World’s Finest –

My final decision was to go with an X-Men themed team:

I lost the first match, but won the next two games. I’m not about to complain about those results. I played pretty well, despite some craptacular dice rolls. And, I think that Phoenix presented my opponents with both a “Take that thing out of the game quickly” challenge, while still being something that they didn’t want to get too close to. Either way, I’m not complaining.

After the games, I headed to Larryland: Central to see The Incredible Hulk. It was fun and is an excellent summer movie. It paid homage not only to the comics, but to the TV show. The cameos (Lou Ferrigno, Stan Lee and Robert Downey, Jr.) were fun to watch. There as even an old Bill Bixby clip. Edward Norton did a great job of portraying Bruce Banner as a man trying to control the beast within him. Liv Tyler did a smash-up job as Banner’s love interest, Betty Ross. William Hurt did an excellent job of bringing Betty’s father – and Banner’s main pursuer – Gen. “Thunderbolt” Ross. The turn that they took with Tim Roth’s Emil Blonsky/The Abomination was an interesting one: A career special forces operative who is realizing that while he’s still at the top of his game, mentally, his body is eventually going to slow down… something that he doesn’t want to deal with. Roth did a good job of portraying this. People said that Ang Lee’s Hulk was too slow and that it took too long to see Old Jade Jaws. I don’t think that they can make those same complaints about this movie. Louis Leterrier has done a good job of bringing the Hulk, as a property, to destructive live. I give this movie an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

After the movie, I headed back to Chris and Mary’s for this week’s Dark Heresy game. So far, no one on our team has died or done anything to get their character instantly – or even slowly – killed.

Post-game, it was time for breakfast with the usual suspects. Tonight’s people watching was choice, too.

Stray Toasters

  • now has a box of Butterscotch Krimpets
  • I ran into , Josh and Christine at the theatre this afternoon.
  • Annie Lennox’ Diva is a good CD.
  • I’m Ivory Soap sure that I wanted to add something here… but I don’t recall “what.”

Quote of the Day
Today’s nugget of joy was heard at breakfast:

Pat: “Swiss Army Dick.”

And with that… bon soir.

“One night in Bangkok and the world’s your oyster…”

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Friday – 20 June 2008
The end of the work week is at hand. Thanks to putting in a few extra hours, I’m done and gone at 1:30 today. That’s worth skipping lunch for. I’m going to run a few errands and enjoy the early start to the weekend.

Last night, I watched Fear Itself, the new anthology horror/suspense summer series on NBC. Thirteen episodes, each done by different directors. Last night’s episode was “The Family Man.”

Family Man – A likeable family man switches bodies with a serial killer during a near-death experience. Now he must keep his loved ones from being added to the long list of the killer’s victims.

It wasn’t bad; it reminded me of a modern Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits. I’m going to have to investigate the previous three episodes.

I also listened to the new Duffy CD, Rockferry. You may remember that I posted the video to Mercy a few weeks back:

The whole CD is good. It has a definite British soul feel, with a number of songs making nods to the 60s style of Brit soul/pop. I give it an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

Stray Toasters

  • I chatted with a little while ago, he has left Nepal and is currently enjoying a layover in Bangkok. He should be home tomorrow evening. More on his travel adventures below.
  • After sending her a link to zombie drawings on DrawerGeeks, I just typed “Zombees!” to SaraRules… which made me think “zombie bees.”
  • By way of BBC News: One tonne ‘Baby’ marks its birth
  • Drawn! (Which I had once again forgotten about…)
  • From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: The Baby Borrowers
  • Sailors fighting in the dance hall
    Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
    It’s the freakiest show
    Take a look at the Lawman
    Beating up the wrong guy
    Oh man! Wonder if he’ll ever know
    He’s in the best selling show
    Is there life ice on Mars?
  • I found this by way of DeviantArt:

  • (click for more work by DarkAngelDTB)

  • Auto Test Tracks Revealed From Above
  • Puzzle Calendar Is Not LEGO Compatible
  • …however, this is pretty cool: LEGO Employees Have Minifigs As Business Card
  • I think I’ll treat myself to either The Incredible Hulk or Get Smart after tomorrow’s ‘Clix game.

Quote of the Day

From this morning’s conversation with
He was telling me about an email that he sent to Bot and a couple of his brothers:

I had to go through multiple roadblocks, burning tires, and brick throwers to get to the airport this morning. Today’s asshole Kathmandu protest is brought to you by students, who are demanding that fuel prices come down. Took us 90 minutes to get to the airport.

At one intersection, the driver just hit the gas and drive around the tire. A dude threw a brick at us (missed by a mile) and called me “a mother beetches son.” Best insult EVER.

Anyway, I’m here, I’m in the Thai Airways lounge, and all is well. See you soon…

Then he added:

I almost went with the sesame street theme and said “today’s asshole kathmandu protest is brought to you by the letters AMF” but i think only andrew would’ve understood it

…where “AMF” stands for “Adios, motherfucker.”

I think that he should have added it.

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Thursday morning randomness…

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Thursday – 19 June 2008
Today is Juneteenth.
It’s also NBN Thursday.
And possibly Sushi ‘Wednesday.’
(I’m still deciding if it’s going to be New Comics Day…)

Last night, while watching TV, I put together a card to go with my Phoenix ‘Clix:

I’m thinking of using it in this weekend’s tourney, and find that character cards make remembering what powers are available at a given time much easier.

Last night’s episode of JLU was “Far From Home,” the episode that featured the Legion, so I happily watched it while tinkering away on the card.

Last night’s sleep was broken by a lovely bout of acid reflux (or the closest analogue).  Blah.  I wasn’t awake for long, but it was enough to break up what was an otherwise decent night’s sleep.  So, I decided to hang in bed for an extra half-hour this morning.  While in the shower, I had the Spider-Man Theme – as done by The Ramones – stuck in my head.  When I got to the…

Wealth and fame he’s ignored
Action is his reward!

…part, I got stuck.  On ‘Action is.”  Except, in my head, it was “Action Isz,” (1, 2) like from The Maxx… but more heroic.  (Although, not necessarily in a cape or tights way.)  And, for some reason, the Action Isz looked like Rikti Monkeys (1, 2).  Bizarre.

And I was still in the office a few minutes after 8:00… including a stop for some frozen mocha refreshment.

And now… I’m in (yet another) meeting.
Yay.

Afternoon randomness…

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This morning’s meeting was not a complete waste – they showed of a couple of projects that one team has been working on that looked pretty cool. Other than that, I would refer to it in the same manner that I once referred to a meeting at the USPS: “upper management ego masturbation.”

I didn’t know what I wanted for lunch. I was on the fence, leaning towards Pho, when JoeT said that he was going for lunch, too. The only problem: He didn’t know what he wanted, either. We opted to head to Dask’s for gyros. Good call.

Stray Toasters

/break

“All she wants to do is… all she wants to do is dance…”

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Actress and singer Cyd Charisse has died; she was 86 years old. She is best known for performing in a number of movies with Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire…

…but my recollections of her come mostly from the video for Janet Jackson’s Alright, in which she dances briefly with Janet (around the 3:00 mark):

Obituary, by way of BBC News

“I’m holding out for a hero, till the morning light…”

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Monday: Coda
This evening, I just… kind of… hung out. MarknTyme and I killed some time by beating on thugs in Paragon City. After that, I watched an episode of Justice League Unlimited, “The Great Brain Robbery,” which I had not seen all the way through before. It wasn’t a bad episode, but not one of the best, either.

Next, I watched… Superfriends. It was an episode called “Professor Goodfellow’s G.E.E.C.” (1, 2) Wow. After watching JLU, this was a complete gear-shift. And, it was SO dated. More than once, I heard someone say “Groovy.” And, as if that wasn’t enough, Superman actually told Batman, Robin and Wonder Woman to “Hang loose” at one point. *jawdrop* However, as weird as some of these things were, they didn’t take me aback as much as seeing a cameo from Plastic Man.

Having just bagged on Super Friends, I’m going to admit that the Boomerang commercial bump for That Time Is Now – a remix of the Super Friends theme – is pretty decent. Check it out:

And, it seems as though someone has done a mashup of this song using footage from Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, instead:

Next, I watched the pilot for the new ABC Family series, The Middleman (1, 2), based on a series of graphic novels by the same name.

The show doesn’t take itself too seriously, in the same way Moonlighting did – but even more so, in some instances. It was…. quirky. And fun. Check out the Newsarama review of the pilot. I just realized something: The Middleman kind of reminds me of Men in Black… meets The Avengers. That’s the British series, not the comic book super-team. And subtract the aliens. The special effects weren’t necessarily ILM-grade, but somehow, they didn’t need to be. The writing was good. Since this was the pilot, the actors are still getting used to their characters’ voices, to some degree… and sometimes the extras’ acting was a little over the top. But, I have to say that I don’t think I’ve had as much fun watching a square-jawed, milk-drinking hero save the world in quite some time.

The pilot is available on iTunes as a free $1.99 download. Check it out. Sure there’s a good amount of suspension of disbelief (sometimes by the truckload), but that’s okay, it’s a fun ride.

Namaste.

“That deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball!”

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The day has been pretty good. The highlight (at least so far) was heading to ‘s house with looneybin88 and JG to play a few games of Twilight Zone pinball at lunch. Other than that, it’s been a rather run-of-the-mill day in the neighborhood.
(…in the neighborhood…)
(…in the neigh-bor-hood.)

Not sure what trouble I plan on getting into this evening. Maybe a trip to Paragon City… or *gasp* even The Rogue Isles.

Stray Toasters

Quotes of the Day
Today’s gems both came at lunchtime and qualify as “Unintentional Porn Overheard While Playing Pinball”

  1. looneybin88 was on the machine… and doing quite well. He made a play that resulted in playing with three pinballs on the table. (You have no idea how many permutations that last sentence went through before I came up with something that wasn’t porn-tastic.) Someone commented on his making a good play and the rest of the conversation went down the proverbial chute:

    Me: Sun. Dog. Ass. (My usual ‘shorthand’ for “The sun shines on a dog’s ass, too…”)
    looneybin88: What can I say? I got skills!
    : You have skills… with a dog’s ass? I’m calling animal control.

    At that point, all three balls left the field of play as looneybin88 doubled-over, red-faced and laughing.

  2. All of us had a horrible third game… except JG. When he was coming to the table to play his second ball, he looked at our scores and said:

    Huh, all I have to do is beat myself.

    The rest of us looked at each other… and broke out in raucous laughter. JG, to his credit, stoically kept playing.

And now, to find some trouble to get into.

Namaste.

Surreal Awakening

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Monday – 16 June 2008
Mondays, simply by virtue of being “Monday,” are wide open to being… odd. This morning was no exception:

While in a half-awake state, between exiting The Dreaming and entering The Waking World, I had a dream that featured Dick Van Dyke (as Bert the chimney sweep), singing Chim Chim Cher-ee, from Mary Poppins.

It was a childhood favorite movie (and song), so I don’t find that part too terribly weird.

The weirdness came as the song reached a chorus…
Bert opened his mouth…

…and instead of lyrics, out came the sound of my alarm.

“It’s so bizarre,” as Dr. Rosenblatt would say.
And it was rather amusing, as well.

Good morning.

“Into the great wide open, under them skies of blue…”

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Sunday – 15 June 2008
Happy Father’s Day

This morning started lazily. SaraRules made sauteed spaghetti and coffee for breakfast. (By the way: Drew, I did get the recipe.) Rachel hung out through breakfast and then went out for a hike. Next up: Hygiene rituals and a spot of laundry.

I’ll be heading west again in a couple of hours. It has been a good (though brief) trip – it was nice to see SaraRules and some of the places that she has talked about for the past few weeks. I’m going to try and get back out here sometime next month, God willing and the creek don’t rise.

A couple of shots from the front porch of the condo:


(click for larger versions)

Stray Toasters

  • Last night, we watched Across the Universe again. We’ve been trying to see this for a couple of months. I love the arrangements of the songs… and I had forgotten how much I liked the arrangement of Let It Be. And the visuals are great, as well. If you have somehow not seen this movie, I strongly recommend renting it. Soon.
  • Congrats to and Team Chalk-o-Licious for winning “Best of Festival” at this year’s Chalk Art Festival.
  • The Things That Carried Him – This is a story that I first heard about on RadioWest a few months ago. It tells the story of a U.S. soldier’s final journey – the journey home to be buried. It’s a pretty amazing story. Hearing the interview with the author, Chris Jones, made me look forward to getting that issue of Esquire.
  • This American Hero Wins Machinima Contest
  • By way of BBC News: The United States of Advertising
  • What the iPhone 3G Is Still Missing
  • I’m not going to get my entry for “Superman: Man of Style” done in time to submit it to Project: Rooftop… but I’m going to keep working on it. Because I can. And because it’s been pretty fun.
  • William Katt: The Hero Guest Stars on Heroes

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

“I gaze at their feverish pictures, the secrets that set them apart…”

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Saturday – 14 June 2008
It’s clear and sunny out; hopefully, it will be a little warmer than yesterday.

This day started with a good morning ping from , not a bad way to start the day. He pointed me in the direction of this article from John Scalzi’s Whatever blog. I don’t suppose that I should have read the NPR article, Obama’s VP Search: Avoiding Party’s Past Mistakes, because about the time I hit the third sentence in the section entitled “Handicapping the VP Short List,” I was done. “Gracious exit…!?” My ass. That exit was to “gracious” as Utah’s Black population is to the state total population. (Translation: “Not very.”)

Quick note for those of you in the SLC metro area: The Utah Foster Care Foundation Chalk Art Festival continues today. Go down and cheer on/vote for and Team Chalk-O-Licious. Here’s their work-in-progress:


(click for ‘s (quick) post about this piece)

SaraRules and I are going to head into Aspen in a little while. That should be fun and interesting.

Stray Toasters

Quote of the Day
“Football (soccer) is like chess, only without the dice.” – Lukas Podolski

Up out.

“Rocky Mountain high (high… Colorado…)”

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13 June 2008
Greetings from Snowmass Village.

As it had been almost three weeks since I’d seen SaraRules, I decided that a trip was in order. I had originally planned on taking the train out here, but Amtrak apparently decided that this was the weekend to do track maintenance. So, no go. *blah* We looked at other methods of getting me here: Airplane. Bus. ICBM. We finally settled on me coming out next week. Okay, to say that “we” settled on it, isn’t exactly right. We said that it seemed as though it would be next week before I would be out here. In the back of my head, I was calculating the mileage and planning to just hop in the car and drive it. And that’s exactly what I did. Hello, surprise visit. The hard part, as usual, would be making sure that I – or anyone else who knew what I was planning – didn’t tip my hand.

Fortunately, as most of my work for the past few weeks has been training-related (i.e.: LOTS of reading) – and since books are rather portable – I was able to parlay that into working on the road. The drive out here was rather nice, despite a few construction zones in both Utah and Colorado.

I have driven through Colorado twice before – when I moved to Utah and again a couple of years ago – but, both of those trips were east-to-west. And, both of those trips were along I-70, so I’m… familiar… with the road. But, I noticed things heading eastbound that I hadn’t seen before. And, I also stopped in a different part of Grand Junction than usual.

Before last night, I had never seen more of Glenwood Springs than what you get from I-70. That’s a shame. The part of it that I drove through last night seemed nice… for a small town. And, from what SaraRules has told me, the cost of living here is still a little higher than SLC, but not quite as bad as in Aspen.

The drive into Snowmass Village wasn’t bad. Until I got “to” the condo complex where AMFS is lodging SaraRules for the summer. Apparently they don’t believe in putting street signs in locations where you can see them easily, especially at night. I drove right past the entrance. I continued all the way up to Snowmass Village Town Center, which I knew to be too far. *sigh* Turn around and drive back towards Aspen. Fortunately, I was able to see the sign for SaraRules’ complex this time. Turned in, found the building, parked.

The look of surprise on SaraRules’ face – a combination of “I’m glad to see you” and “What are YOU… doing HERE… NOW?!” – was worth the drive. We unpacked the car and I got to relax. I also met her roommate, Rachel. The condo itself is nice: 2BR/2BA, nice kitchen and living/dining areas. It’s roughly the size of my apartment, maybe a little bigger. And one of the owners has a thing for bears. Pictures. Figures. I am almost at the point of wondering if she’s a shaman and it’s her spirit guide.

Today’s biggest hurdle was getting Defiant (in Windows mode) to recognize that there really was a wireless connection, so I could connect to work’s network and do some morning housekeeping. In OSX mode, it found it immediately. A few button-pushes later and I was in like Flynn.

Stray Toasters

Two cups of coffee into the game, I can make like Tom Sawyer and get “…right on to the friction of the day.”

Namaste.

“Or am I just one more late, great dinosaur…?”

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Thursday – 12 June 2008
So far the day goes well. That’s always a good thing.

<< Rewind <<
Last night, I was unbelievably lazy. I’d planned to do some straightening around the apartment. Nope. Didn’t happen. I think that the closest I came was putting the Sentinel in the case behind Phoenix… and then deciding that I liked the way Phoenix looked alone on the shelf better.

I did play City of Heroes, though. Not only did I play, I tacked two-and-a-half levels onto Kurigari. I hooked up with a good team and we ran through a few missions in The Hollows. It’s still a crappy zone for ground-pounders, but at least I’m less than two levels away from Superspeed. (Hover and Flight just don’t fit this character, so I’m not using them.)

I also watched Justice League Unlimited and ST: DS9, along with a couple of episodes of L&O: SVU. Decent episodes of each show: “Chaos at Earth’s Core,” “Emissary, Part II” and… I don’t remember which SVU episodes.

One thing that’s not a win: I’m remembering why I don’t watch G4’s Attack of the Show with any regularity. I keep comparing it – unfavorably – to The Screen Savers. TSS was a good show, you got tech news and info… with a little levity thrown in on the side. But the humour was smart and witty. AotS… just seems to go for the quick/cheap laugh or thrill and throw in something technical for fun or as an afterthought. Or maybe I’m no longer part of their core demographic.

> Play >
Coffee is a wonderful thing.
Coffee cake would be a nice addition… but I don’t have any.

Stray Toasters

The show must go on.

Namaste.

“I hear you have an unusual problem…”

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I just saw one of the new The Incredible Hulk trailers, with Robert Downey, Jr.’s cameo as Tony Stark. Not bad. I’ll admit it: I’m looking forward to the movie. I’m probably one of seven people in the world – aside from Ang Lee and Louis Leterriere who liked Ang Lee’s Hulk.

As usual, I’ve tried to stay away from reading most reviews of the film. I’d prefer to draw my own conclusions.
If it’s good, great.
If not,… well…

I’m sure that it can’t be any worse than Cool World.

“Come to me, son of Jor-El, kneel before Zod!”

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Today is Kris’ birthday. I called her this morning… but didn’t get an answer. I tried again this afternoon with much better success.

After work, I headed home to change clothes and have a bite to eat.

Next up: Scion… for the first time in nearly two months.

Workout
Today’s workout wasn’t too bad… considering that it’s been a week since I was last in the gym.

  • Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 185 lbs
  • Flys (Nautilus, high-to-low): 3 sets/12 reps – 1 set @ 95 lbs, 2 sets @ 110 lbs
  • Bent-over Rows (barbell): 3 sets/12 reps – 1 set @ 55 lbs, 2 sets at 70 lbs
  • Bench Dips: 3 sets/15 reps – 1 set with 40 lb dumbbell, 1 set with 45 lb plate
  • Lateral Raises (with forward extensions x3): 3 sets/4 reps – 2 sets @ 15 lbs, 1 set @ 8 lbs
  • Push-ups: 1 set/10 reps

Post-workout weight: 175.6 lbs

Stray Toasters

Namaste.