Random Access

Sunday – 04 May 2008
Last night was the last gathering (sort of) for the 2008 MFAs… at least until they come back for their Capstone defenses in August.  Rachel, Josh, Tyler, Lish and a couple of his friends from NC and Anna came over and hung out.  It was far more low-key than other gatherings have been, but nevertheless it was fun.

This morning was quiet (all of the roommates have already moved out) and lazy.  Today, we are going to start packing up SaraRules’ things and moving them into her storage unit.

Tonight: We’re watching the second half of Night Watch and Cloverfield.

Stray Toasters

• So far, everyone I’ve talked to has greatly enjoyed Iron Man.  I’m looking forward to seeing it again… and it seems as though I apparently missed a reference to The Mandarin in there somewhere.
  • By now, most people know of Samuel L. Jackson’s appearance in the film.  Most Marvel fans know Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.  When Marvel created their “Ultimate Universe” nearly ten years ago, they needed a Nick Fury for that setting; they based Ultimate Nick Fury‘s look on Mr. Jackson.
  • Iron Man has grossed over $100M (USD), so far in its opening weekend.
    By comparison, Made of Honor, which also opened this weekend, grossed $15M (USD).
• Markin’ Time: You might want to check out HotRants Political BlogReport.
• 
• Long-lost Vivaldi opera performed for the first time since 1730
• Integrous Quiche!
• LEGO is communication.

Quotes of the Day
As jotted down by Rachel last night:

• “I got my ‘This Little Piggy’ fix for the day, I’m good.” – Me.
• “I thought I did everyone.” – Lish
• “It sounds like they’re a pretty non-traditional poly bunch…” – Josh
• “You got little squatty feet, though.” – Anna

And on to the packing!

Namaste.

loonybin88 and I had off-site training today; SaraRules went with us. Part of the training included Iron Man.

Holy cow!
The movie was FUN.
And it was pretty damned good, too.

I give it a definite thumbs-up with an okay… with a “Sweet action,” from SaraRules.

Tony Stark
Makes you feel
He’s a cool exec
With a heart of steel.
As Iron Man,
All jets ablaze,
He fights and smite’n
With repulsor rays!
A blaze of power!
Iron Man!
Amazing armor!
Iron Man!

Yahoo has a new trailer for Will Smith’s upcoming movie, Hancock.

Check it out.

Friday – 02 May 2008
Good start to the day:

• Sleeping in.
• Breakfast with SaraRules.
• Having the Schoolhouse Rock! DVD playing while doing work.
• Seeing Iron Man in just a few hours.

How’s your Friday?

Thursday: Coda
Post-work, I got stuck in the northbound crawl to Salt Lake. There was an accident a few miles north of where I got on the interstate, so what should have been a 30-ish minute drive turned into a nearly hour-long trek. I don’t know “when” the accident occurred, but by the time I got to the scene, the vehicles were on the side of the road and being loaded onto tow trucks. But that didn’t mean that everyone had stopped rubbernecking. Quite the opposite, in fact. Yay for road monkeys!

I met SaraRules, in town for a group presentation, at her parents’. The presentation went well, she said. We hung out with her family for a while before heading to coffee – it was nice to see and hang out with the usual suspects.  Tomorrow, after work and a certain “team-building” exercise (involving personal armor with offensive and defensive capabilities), we’re heading to Cedar… where we’ll hook up with her parents again.  Saturday, she graduates with her MFA.

Stray Toasters

• The classic Jonny Quest still kicks much ass. Yes, there are some outdated concepts and stereotypes, but a lot of today’s cartoons could learn a lesson or fourteen from this toon.
• Sarah Chalke, who portrays Dr. Elliot Reid on NBC’s Scrubs, was also (the second) Becky Connor on Roseanne.
• Iron Man: The Science Behind the Fiction
• 
• Most of you have undoubtedly heard the phrase “…a quantum leap.” Many people assume that it means a major change. It doesn’t.
  

  In real physical systems a quantum leap is not necessarily a large change, and can in fact be very insignificant. A good example of this can be taken from the Bohr model of the hydrogen atom, where the observed energy shifts associated with shifts of different quantum states (quantum leaps) span a wide range from large to small (when compared to the energy required to completely free an electron). In the popular sense, the term is usually applied to mean a large or significant change, which is thus not strictly correct.

• From woot.com: Winners’ Gallery – the Best of Contest 170
• To avoid complication
  She never kept the same address
  In conversation
  She spoke just like a…
  

Namaste.

It was still snowing when I woke up this morning.
And there was a trace of accumulation.
Madness!

Workout
Today’s routine was less… stellar than some recent ones have been. But, it was a workout, nonetheless:

• Leg Raises: 3 sets / 20reps
• Bench Press (barbell): 3 sets
  • Set 1: 5 reps, 225 lbs, 5 res, 185 lbs
  • Sets 2 & 3: 10 reps, 185 lbs
• Curls (barbell): 3 sets / 10 reps, 55 lbs
• Flys (Nautilus): 3 sets / 15 reps, 95 lbs
• Curls (dumbbell, Hammer grip): 3 sets, 10 reps, 20 lbs
• Decline Oblique Crunches: 1 set / 10 reps per side

The inside of my shoulder started to twinge a bit during the first set of bench presses, so I decided to back off on the weight. That seemed to help some, but there was still a little sore-/tenderness. I’ll be keeping an eye on that.

Pre-workout weight: 172.8 lbs.

Stray Toasters

• Last night, while waiting for dinner to cook, I read this week’s four-color haul. There were a LOT of reveals in different books:
  • Action Comics
  • DC Universe 0
  • The New Avengers

  And not just throw-away stuff, either. Some good solid “Oscillating blades, meet fecal material” setup for this summer’s events.

• By way of : Stupid, stupid burning brightly or how not to win an election
• You’re charging me for what?! Airline fees way up since January 1
• The bottom line.
• pinged me this morning to say that he had just seen the new trailer for The Incredible Hulk. As he put it: “…didn’t realize there was going to be Hulk-on-Hulk action” I explained that it was actually The Abomination… but that it technically was Hulk-on-Hulk action.
• I am going to miss CSI: tonight, as SaraRules and I are going out with friends, but this amuses me:



• As I neither saw a mushroom cloud nor heard calls for evacuations from the valley, I am going to take it on good faith that now has his PS3 and GTA4… and that no innocents were unduly harmed in the process of him acquiring it. The guilty, however… well… sometimes, you just have to set an example.
• Speaking of GTA4: For everyone who is so worried about its content, repeat after me: “It’s a GAME. I really should get over it.”

/lunch

Namaste.

Sunday – 27 April 2008
All-in-all, it’s been a quiet day.  Not a bad way to spend a day…

• I slept in this morning.
• Talked with my mom and uncle.
• SaraRules and I went on an excursion to St. George.

When we got back, SaraRules did homework and… I forgot that her complex hates City.  Instead, I read a couple of Gotham Central trade paperbacks:

and
(click the titles for more information)

I have to thank Markin’ Time for his suggestion to pick these up.  I’ll have to pick up the rest of the series… even though, thanks to a couple of other DC series, I know what happens to a couple of the characters.

Stray Toasters

• Tonight’s Law & Order: SVU… wow.
• While in St. George, I picked up Space: Above and Beyond and The Pursuit of Happyness
• lj user=”melodywise” has bees.  LOTS of ’em.
• Huh.  Corner Gas is on WGN.  Who knew?!
• Reasonably Clever Pumping Iron Extreme Armor Building Contest
• …and, in related news: Iron Man opens Friday.

Namaste.

Saturday – 26 April 2008
It’s always that last 10-15% that gets you.  Thursday and Friday, I felt phenomenally better than I did Wednesday.  But, still not completely better.  Today, I would actually say that I’m in the 95-97% of normal range.

There’s still this… one… thing: Gas.

Seriously.  I’m thinking of changing my name to Exxon.  I don’t know how or why – it’s not like I’ve eaten a whole lot in the past three days, but here it is.  Yay.

I miss having an appetite.

Aside from that, I’m doing well.  I made it to southern Utah without any problems or monkeydom.  I always consider that a “good” thing.  Yesterday/last night was pretty low-key.  Today, I think we’re heading to the Braithwaite to check out the Senior BFA Portfolio Show.  Other than that, no idea what’s on tap for the day.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules made me a Mickey Mouse pancake for breakfast, since I haven’t been feeling well.  How cool is that?
• I found two items on Comic Book Resources that are nice takes on Marvel’s “Secret Invasion”: This article, by Eric Larsen and this comic by Chris Giarrusso



• Brit tourist blags his way onto Iron Man set
• By way of CNet.com (yeah, I know…): Orgone.
  (Check out their MySpace page, too)
• Student ‘Twitters’ his way out of Egyptian jail
• Which Government Agency Should Be Your Computer’s Firewall?
• Tyranist – Voluminous: app for organizing, fetching and sharing public domain books

Namaste.

Friday – 25 April 2008
Last night was very low-key. After work, I paid a visit to my four-color crack dealer. There were a few books – and one figure, Scarab Assassin – in my hold… so I treated myself to a box of plastic crack. I pulled a couple of decent figures:

• Accomplished Perfect Physician
• Rip Hunter

Not a bad take, I have to say. In fact, it was better than a couple of the books. Especially Countdown to Final Crisis: 01. If you’re going to wrap up a year-long, weekly series… you’ve got to bring your “A” game. The only – ONLY – thing that could pull this out of the fire (and NOT make if feel like a complete waste of time/money) would be if they pull out all the stops and answer a LOT of questions next week in DC Universe 0. If. Big “if.” Right now, I’m not sure how likely that is to happen… but I can hope, can’t I?

Stray Toasters

• I rediscovered Indexed last night.
• 
• Guillermo del Toro to direct The Hobbit movies; that should prove “interesting,” at the very least.
• 
• From Men’s Health and WebMD: The 10 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating
• Sleazy proposed new Dungeons & Dragons license seeks to poison open gaming systems

That’s it for now…

Namaste.

Wednesday – 23 April 2008
It’s grey-ish with a good chance of rain today. But, considering that I heard the words “chance of snow” earlier in the week, I’ll gladly take rain.

I received a late-afternoon call from Bret. A bit of a surprise, but a very pleasant one. It’s a uncertain whether or not we’ll be seeing him next week, but we made tentative plans for October… if not sooner.

Last night’s Scion game was… abbreviated, but we managed to get the new storyline moving. Globe-trotting. Saving the world. All in a day’s work. I also took dessert to the game.

Not pie…
Not s’mores brownies…

S’mores Brownie Pie

Oh, no he didn’t!
Did he just say…?
He couldn’t have!

Oh, but I did….

That’s right, kids: The next step in dessert evolution.
And it was good.
Double-plus good.
Squared.

Thanks to for sending me this:

(Click image to see the entire photo set)

Songs to get the day started:

• ABC – The Jackson Five
• Superstition – Stevie Wonder
• Boom! Shake the Room – The Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff

I believe that I will introduce a few coworkers to Munchkin today.

And with that…

Namaste.

Sunday – 19 April 2008
Turns out that the Interwebs at SaraRules’ was okay… for the most part. The complex had changed a few settings and the wireless router didn’t “know” about them. So, it pretty much ignored them. A quick reset and the series of tubes were carrying information once more.

<< Rewind <<
We wound up not going to SOAPFest last night. Instead, SaraRules made dinner, Lish came over and we hung out. About the time that dinner was wrapping up, Rachel and Tyler showed up… followed shortly by Josh. We hung out and shot the bull for a while. And then a couple rounds of flip cup started. Post-flip cup, we sat around and talked until about 2:30 this morning. I gave Lish control of the camera. I take (almost) no responsibility for what he shot (pictures here).

> Play >
Today was a lax and lazy day. I believe that everyone in the apartment availed themselves of the opportunity to sleep in. After coffee and breakfast, SaraRules suggested a trip to Park Discovery where we could fly my kite. With an offer like that, I couldn’t refuse. It was sunny and windy… and a little brisk. Neither of us took jackets with us. After a couple of fair attempts at getting the kite aloft, I “untangled” (not really the right word, but it fits) the lines. Sure enough, the kite flew much better. After we flew the kite for thirty or so minutes, we headed over to the tot lot. We climbed, slid, swung and had an all-around fun time.

Once we’d had our fill of fun – and the chillier-than-expected outdoors – we headed back to the apartment. I have been watching an item on eBay for the past couple of days. I wanted to be back in time to get a bid in on it. We did. What was I so hell-bent on bidding on?

That’s right: A Green Lantern John Stewart Minimates figure (1, 2). These were given out as convention promotions at the 2006 San Diego Comic Convention. With the release of other DC Minimates figures, including various GL figures, I had wondered why there wasn’t a John Stewart figure in the mix. A little digging showed why. So, I was bound and determined to see if I could get this one. And I won it.

Not sure what’s on tap for the rest of the day/evening.

Stray Toasters

• I chatted with for a bit this afternoon. All is well in his, Bot and Bit’s corner of the world. He also posted new pics of Bit:

  
  (click image to see other pictures)

• Your Claim to Fame LEGO Challenge
• Bit ‘o Honey candy
• Legion turns 50
• BET has landed the upcoming Black Panther animated series.
  (I wonder if the fact that Reggie Hudlin is BET’s President and writing Black Panther for Marvel had anything to do with it…?)
• Carne Asada is not a crime!
• Shakespeare’s Pulp Fiction
• I watched a few trailers on Apple’s site today, including Wanted, Boarding Gate, Incredible Hulk, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, Chaos Theory… and Zombie Strippers.

Quotes of the Day
As heard during and after last night’s Flip Cup Challenge

• Darillyn: “I just need to fill my pockets full of vibrators”
  (to SaraRules, about a bellydance move that SaraRules was trying to teach her)
• Rachel: “I’ll drink just about anything.”
  Me: “Not in a Two Girls, One Cup kind of way, but almost anything.”
  (about Rach’s choices of beverage for flip cup)
• Steve: “You could totally do me”
  (to me, about being able to bench press him)

And that’s a wrap!

Namaste.

So far, the day is cruising along nicely. The lunchtime workout was good:

• Leg Raises: 3 sets/20 reps
• Bench Press (dumbbell): 3 sets/12 reps, 60 lbs
• Pull-downs: 3 sets/10 reps, 130 lbs
• Rows (T-bar style, with a barbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 55 lbs
• Tricep Press: 3 sets/12 reps, 70 lbs (Body Masters machine, facing away from the pulley system)
• Core: 4 sets – 2 sets/full extension, 45 secs.; 2 sets/elbows, 30 secs.

Today’s pre-workout weight: 176.8

We followed the workout with a trip to Subway. Oven-roasted chicken breast. With pepperjack cheese. On Italian Herbs and Cheese bread. Tasty.

Stray Toasters

• Thanks to , I have three new icons:
  • 
  • 
  • 
• sent a me a link to “The Day After the Marathon”
• Here’s the trailer for the upcoming Iron Man videogame

• From BBC News: NY tower plans found in rubbish
• What Would Tyler Durden Do? had (they were “asked” to take them down by Paramount) cast photos from the upcoming G.I. Joe movie. The last three lines of the lead-in were classic:
  

  You may note that almost every one of these sets has a shot from the back. This entire movie is asses. It’s like a two hour Hot Buns contest.

• Truly, truly, truly outrageous!
• From Campbell’s Condensed Newspaper: Think twice before taking pictures in public

*ZOOM*

Tuesday – 15 April 2008
Today is the day that taxes are due in the U.S.

Ostensibly, that should make the Song of the Day Taxman, by The Beatles.
Screw that.

Today’s song: Knowledge Is King, by Kool Moe Dee

Lost in the sauce
And praising the dollar
Whether your faith is
Christ or Allah
The knowledge of God
Will teach one thing
The dollar is moot
Knowledge is king

Yeah. That’s about right.

I have spent the first half of my morning tracking down what happened to my primary machine in the SLC office over the weekend. Either Windows or my hard drive (or both) decided to go tits-up. So, I opted to throw a new drive in the machine. Of course, that meant the obligatory reinstallation of XP. Wahoo. But, needs must be done.

Ravens Update
That’s right.. it’s April and I’m talking football. Why? The Ravens released their 2008 schedule. Of particular note:

• 26 October: Oakland Raiders (in Baltimore)
• 21 September and 02 November: Cleveland Browns

Speaking of which: I figured out what was going in display case 2… to some degree. At least on the top shelf:

(click for larger size)

Stray Toasters

• Install. Reboot.
  Install something else. Reboot.
  Lather, rinse, repeat.
  Ah, the joys of reinstalling a Windows operating system.
• – Here you go: a Java version of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Enjoy.
• ‘Ashamed’ Pope vows no more pedophile priests
• I’m adding this to the Covet List. In fact, I’m adding to the short list.
  (For those who aren’t sure what it is: It’s a cityscape for miniature gaming, on card stock)
• Dreamworks to make a live-action Ghost in the Shell in 3-D
• 
• Greatest Time Travel Duels of All Time(lines)

/lunch

Namaste.

Also by way of : Mr. Rogers, keepin’ it real in the ‘hood…

Lovely little sister that she is, sent me a link to Broke Trek:

I had to share/spread the joy/pain. So, I shall add the following:

Star Trek: Closer

…and…

Star Trek: Sexyback