Random Access

Sunday – 13 July 2008
And on the first day, Rob worked.
Amen.

That’s right: I made like Kool Moe Dee and went to work. loonybin88 and I did a server upgrade today – we had to unrack, swap memory and hard drives and re-rack 18 servers. And like Big Daddy Kane, we got the job done.

After that, we headed to Olive Garden to have dinner.

And, when it’s all said and done, my work week is officially 20% done already.

Booyah.

Stray Toasters

• I found the following as the signature line to someone’s forum post:
  

  In Ulthar, no man may kill a cat. In Utah, no man may marry a cat. These rules were made because of the ramifications of them happening before.

  It amused me greatly.

• Steampunk Wallpaper. ‘Nuff said.
• By way of Wired: Is Sunday Morning the Best Wake-Up Tune Ever?
• By way of YouTube: Sunday Morning

• I need a steampunk icon.
  I don’t really need one, but I think that I want one.
• Microsoft cuts XBox price by $50, plans 60GB model
• 
• David Bowie: Underground

  I don’t know how much Aha’s Take On Me influenced Mr. Bowie’s decision to take the video for Underground in this direction, but take a look at the similarities:

• I’m a little… weirded out by the fact that I JUST noticed how similar Cool World and Take On Me are.
• The Cosby Show can still make me laugh.
• The classic Jonny Quest is on (not the 80s or 90s remakes). I think that if done properly (operative words: “if done properly”), it could make an interesting live-action TV show and/or movie. It could be done in the vein of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Or, it could even be told from the point of view of an older man recounting his globe-trotting adventures to his kids, grandkids or protege.
• d

Saturday – 12 July 2008 (and coda)
Wow.
It’s been a long day. And I have been on-the-go for most of it.

I woke up this morning around 8:30… with a raging headache. I just wish that I had done something worthy of such a beast. But, I didn’t stay out late last night. I didn’t even have anything to drink. So, I’m not sure what would have triggered it.

I picked up Chris and we went to the Taylorsvile V.I. for breakfast. After that, we headed to Far West for today’s ‘Clix tournament. I constructed my team Friday night (I know…! I actually did it in advance!) My original plan was to try a themed team based on something I read earlier in the week: Archers. I would have had a lot of them, too! As I was putting that team together I noticed something else: Three of the figures were related:

• Green Arrow
• Red Arrow (Roy Harper, former ward and sidekick of Green Arrow)
• Green Arrow (Connor Hawke, son of Green Arrow)

With that in mind, I decided to take a slightly different approach to the team and, rather than “Archers,” go with a “Green Arrow family” themed team. The only piece that I had to add was Black Canary. And, I did. And, I just realized that – if we had been playing for higher points – I could have added the new Speedy (new sidekick to the older Green Arrow) to the mix.

And the team did well for me. I went 2-0 for the first two rounds. And then it happened: I had to play Chris in the third round. He was 2-0, as well. He was planning on playing a “new” team but, because of the rules under which the tournament was run, at least one of his figures wasn’t legal. So, he wound up pulling out his old standby team:

• Batman
• Green Arrow
• The Flash

So it was my ranged team versus Chris’ stealth (and speed) team. The problem being: Characters with stealth can’t be seen from a distance. *sigh* And so, Chris proceeded to pick me apart, systematically. And, thus he went 3-0 and I went 2-1. But, I came in 2nd Place for the day.

After the game, I dropped Chris off at home, came back to my place for a bit and then headed downtown to catch Hellboy II: The Golden Army with Mr. and Mrs. . The movie was fun.

When the movie was done, I hopped on I-15 and headed to the Sandy Amphitheater to see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. I got to the venue and stood in line behind a guy looking for something in the seated section. The ticket attendant told him that she could get him one seat, but that everything else was sold out. He opted to sit on the lawn. When I got to the booth, I asked the attendant about the lone seat; she showed me where it was: 5th row, stage left. I bought the ticket and headed inside.

The opening act was a young man named Parker. He was a one-man band, using a laptop and digital looping to do the other tracks of the songs he sang. His main instrument was a guitar… which he used to do “drum” tracks (hitting the body of the guitar), bass lines, rhythm and lead parts. He played four songs, the first of which was The Jackson 5’s I Want You Back, which he nicely segued into a little bit of ABC. He started with the percussion and laid down a couple of other tracks on top of it. When he started the bass line, I knew what the song was going to be. And it he did a good job of it. You could tell that he was having fun, too. He said that this was the largest crowd he had performed in front of and took a Polaroid snapshot of the crowd to commemorate it.

Shortly after he was done, BBVD took the stage. I missed out on seeing them in Vegas last year and I waffled between seeing them tonight or heading to the Salt Lake Jazz Festival to see Sheila E. and the E Family. I think that I made the right choice in going to the BBVD show. They played for an hour-and-a-half and covered songs from their first CD up to their upcoming Cab Calloway tribute CD. And it was great time. During one of the featured musician spotlights, Dirk (the upright bass player) broke into the theme from The Munsters – I wonder how many people knew what it actually was and/or why so many people started chuckling/laughing at it. Once again, when they closed the show with So Long, Farewell, Goodbye, they broke into a few lines from Sweet Home Alabama… and, once again, the crowd ate it up. Yep, I definitely made the right decision.

After the concert, it was on to breakfast with the usual suspects and, after calling it a somewhat early night, I came home. Jiggety-jig.

I need to move from the “theory” of going to bed to the “practical application.”

Namaste.

Stray Toasters

• It’s 7-11 Day. Get your free Slurpee!



• While I doubt that they had ‘s affinity for cow-themed things in mind, it is apparently Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A, too.
• does this seem at all familiar?



• It looks like I’ll be working for a few hours on Sunday. All things considered, this isn’t a “bad” thing, as it will be in the middle of the day, when I’d otherwise probably just be doing my couch potato impression. And, as an added bonus, that cuts down the hours that I’ll have to be here on Friday… possibly even eliminating the need to be here on Friday. Win-Win.
• Rob Worley, from Comics2Film, has discovered a link (of sorts) between The Middleman and a certain Michael J. Fox movie
• For the WoW gamers out there:



• Mandelbrot Set you’re a Rorschach Test on fire
  You’re a day-glo pterodactyl
  You’re a heart-shaped box of springs and wire
  You’re one badass fucking fractal
  And you’re just in time to save the day
  Sweeping all our fears away
  You can change the world in a tiny way
• 

Friday – 11 July 2008
After leaving work yesterday, I was off to Ogden to go to Corps Encore with Nizlee’s stepdad, Jeff:

Of the groups scheduled to perform, I had seen Blue Devils, Blue Knights, Phantom Regiment and SC Vanguard before. I may have seen Troopers, at some point, too.

Getting there was… less than a treat: We encountered northbound rush hour traffic on I-15. There’s also a lot of construction along I-15, from Centerville to Layton, with the construction of the “Legacy Parkway.” That didn’t help, either. It took nearly two hours to go roughly 40 miles.

We got to Weber State around 7:15, which meant that we missed Spokane Thunder‘s performance. But, we got into the stadium as the Velvet Knights were taking the field. (: They wore red and black Chuck Taylor Converse – you would have loved ’em.) Their show was entitled “The Inferno.” They started with what sounded like a New Orleans funeral procession. We hadn’t gotten to our seats yet, so we couldn’t quite make out where things were heading. Had we been able to see the color guards’ outfits, we would have had a clue: They were decked out like zombies. While I recognized most of the music they played, I can’t place the names of some of the songs they performed, but I caught the middle piece in two notes: Thriller. As in “Michael Jackson’s Thriller.” Cool, in itself, but when the horn line joined color guard for a dance breakdown, the crowd went nuts. (Pictures)

Next up: Troopers, from Casper, Wyoming. Their show was titled “The Iron Horse Express.” It opened with the drumline sounding exactly like a steam locomotive. The show was western themed. (Pictures)

After a twenty-minute intermission, the Blue Knights took the field. Their show was called “Knight Reign.” (Pictures)

The Phantom Regiment‘s show was “Spartacus.” In less than eleven minutes, they performed an abbreviated version of the movie. The Regiment marched in all-white uniforms, with silver/blue sashes; the color guards were in tattered slave garb. The most interesting/shocking moment of the show was when one of the secondary drum majors walked through the horn and drum lines to “slit the throat” of one of the color guard members. There were many “Oh, my…” and “Wow” and gasps heard in the crowd. (Pictures)

The Blue Devils (no relation to the NC school) did a show called “Constantly Risking Absurdity.” It was an interesting performance, the most… unusual part of which was the neon-bright magenta and orange color guard uniforms. (Pictures)

Santa Clara Vanguard was the last corps to take the field. Their show was called “3hree: Mind-Body-Soul.” MarknTyme, you were right: They had a Philip Glass piece… and I picked up on it as soon as they started to play. (Pictures)

The scoring for the event:

1. Blue Devils
2. Phantom Regiment
3. Santa Clara Vanguard

After the scores were awarded (awards pictures), the Blue Devils’ and Blue Knights’ combined horn lines did a rendition of America, the Beautiful. Having not attended a drum corps show in ten or more years, I had forgotten about the closing song. The two corps’ lines blended nicely and they did a helluva job. Ray Charles’ version is still “The Best,” but this was a worthy top contender.

Of tonight’s performances, I think that Phantom’s “Spartacus” was my favorite.

This is the only Utah stop in all of DCI’s tours, so I’m glad that I had the opportunity to go.
Many thanks to Jeff for inviting me.

For more information about drum corps, see the Drum Corps International page.

This morning, I overslept a bit, but that’s okay: I can still be in the office a little after 8:30 or so.
And, I only have 4.5 hours left on the week. (I think that I can handle that.)

Namaste
.

Thursday – 10 July 2008
Last night, Dr. Z brought my XBox from the AF office up to SLC. Along with it, came the six games I had stored in the carrying case, including X-Men: Legends. Win-Win. I took them home and put Legends in the 360 and sat down to enjoy some comics-based gaming.

I had, however, neglected one very important factor into account: The 360’s poor backwards compatibility.

After some research, I found that I needed to download an emulator – to trick the 360 into thinking that it was an O.G. XBox.¹ (Yes, calling it “O.G.” just made me laugh.) And, even then, there’s no guarantee that the emulator will play Legends properly. *sigh* As the home network is mostly wireless, I looked to see if I had a long enough Cat-5 cable to run from the living room to the office. Nope. Next, I considered trying to cascade wireless routers, since I have SaraRules’ router for the time being. Then I decided that was more effort than I really felt like putting into it last night.

So, I opted for playing City of Heroes.

Which had a new patch release. So, I waited for it to download and then clicked to apply it. I was apparently so wiped from the poor sleep Tuesday night – possibly aided by the Shiraz I had with dinner – that I nodded off before the patch finished applying.

So I called it an early evening, relatively speaking.

This morning, I was up and ready to roll in just over 40 minutes, including the time it took to iron today’s outfit. Not too shabby. It would have been even better if I had remembered my cell phone before leaving the complex. *sigh* At least I have frozen mocha goodness to see me through the morning.

And it’s Comics and Sushi ‘Wednesday.’

Stray Toasters

• Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Sheila E. are performing Saturday. I’m a little torn about which show I’d rather go to… but leaning towards BBVD.
• The new season of Burn Notice starts tonight.
• The HeroClix Fantastic Four Starter Set should be in stores today.
• As bad as I’ve (re)discovered that Super Friends can be, this sounds like an interesting compliation.
• I haven’t played Second Life in probably a year. This is almost enough to get me to check it out again: New Babbage – A Steampunk City in Second Life:

• iPhone 3G meets the masses tomorrow.
• It looks as though the right reverend Jesse Jackson could use a good talking-to.
  But, he’s still my top choice for reading Green Eggs and Ham:

• I just introduced DaveW to Christopher Titus Apologizes. In return, he sent me back to my desk with a video from Lisa Lampenelli: Take It Like a Man

Namaste.

¹ – O.G. XBox – A conversation between a classic XBox and an XBox 360:

XBox 360: So what are you supposed to be?
XBox: Me? I’m O.G.
XBox 360: “O.G.?” Shit… you ain’t gangsta.
XBox: Gangsta? Naw, man… not gangsta. O.G. “Original Gamer.” Word.

It’s time for another round of “The Best.”

Today’s song: Come On Eileen
Bands: Dexy’s Midnight Runners vs. Save Ferris

The song first hit the airwaves in 1982 and was a rather popular dance song. It spent four weeks at #1 on the UK charts in August of 1982. While Dexy’s Midnight Runners had other hit songs in the UK, Come On Eileen was their only hit in the U.S.

The song was covered by Save Ferris in 1997, on their CD, It Means Everything, receieving an up-tempo ska makeover, replacing the strings with a horn line.

For those who need an audio-visual reminder of either (or both) version(s) of the song:

• Dexy’s Midnight Runners

• Save Ferris

For me, the more upbeat, ska-laced Save Ferris version wins out over the Dexy’s Midnight Runners version.

Winner: Save Ferris

Wednesday – 09 July 2008
Today, after two weeks, I get to relinquish the Leash.
Not only that, but I don’t have to deal with it again for eight weeks, if my math is correct.

Last night, I got my hero on… big time. I had an urge to play X-Men: Legends. Only after I started looking for it did I remember that it is in my XBox carrying case…

…with my XBox…

…in American Fork.

So, I decided to devote more time to Marvel Ultimate Alliance. That was fun. I used the Fantastic Four and the X-Men to run missions. One thing I need to work on is keeping my tanks from dying when going up against bosses: I got Colossus killed the last time I played and got The Thing killed (only briefly!) while fighting M.O.D.O.K. last night. But, it was fun.

Next, I headed to Paragon City and joined a team for a couple of missions. On the whole, it was a decent team, in terms of powers/abilities. In terms of team dynamics, however… they left a little something to be desired. There were more than “a few” team deaths involved. Still, I put on about a half-level before logging out.

Before heading to bed, I toyed with the idea of getting up early and heading to the gym. If I hadn’t kept waking up every hour-and-a-half or so, I might have actually followed through with it. *grblsnrkx*

Still, it’s Wednesday.
And that ain’t bad at all.

Stray Toasters

• On the way to work, Nomad slipped Kool Moe Dee’s I Go to Work into the mix. That made me chuckle.
• sent a few new pics of Bit. This one is adorable:

  

• Ten codes
• Thanks to for pointing this out:



• The artwork of Rob Ullman
• I was talking with loonybin88 about his weekend and, in the course of conversation, he mentioned that one of his sons is taken with one of the girls in the neighborhood. I told him that he might want to start getting the fatherly advice ready… but not like this:

• RedEye’s “Best Superhero” Tourney

Namaste.

I just discovered that I have a cover of this song, done by Sarah Brightman, in my collection of mp3s. Therefore, it’s time for another round of “The Best.”

The Best: Who Wants to Live Forever?
Queen vs. Sarah Brightman

• Queen: Their version is a bit… rough… and sounds almost plaintive, at points. And, as seen in Highlander, it evokes images of a man who realizes that he is going to outlive everything and everyone he loves.

  Sarah Brightman: Her rendition sounds somewhat… ethereal. It sounds less like a love song than… I don’t know… an angel speaking to her charge and trying to make him or her realize that their infatuation with a short-lived mortal is futile. It sounds more “Accept this as a matter of fact” than “I understand that your heart is breaking.”

  Winner: Queen

• Queen: Brian May’s guitar, cutting across the orchestration (3:18)
  Sarah Brightman: Trumpet fanfare (3:10)

  Winner: Queen

• Queen: Not the most attractive bunch of blokes.
  Sarah Brightman: Much easier on the eyes.

  Winner: Sarah Brightman

In all seriousness, the Sarah Brightman version is a good song, on its own merits, but for me, it doesn’t stand up against the Queen version.

Winner: Queen

I am apparently in need of a gaming session. I just went to look up part the lyrics to Manic Monday… but typed “Manic Monkday” instead. *blink blink*

Project: Rooftop has released their list of finalists from the “Superman: Man of Style” contest. I’m partial to entries #2 and #12.

Check out the DeviantArt gallery of Cat Stagg.
(, you’ll want to check out the middle of the right column on Page 5)

Doll on a Music Box/Truly Scrumptious

When did the term “jet lag” come into use?

Subnetting/Supernetting == *bleargh*

Monday – 07 July 2008
I hope that the holiday weekend was safe for everyone. As yet, I’ve heard no reports of anyone having to be
rushed to their local medical facility to have fireworks-related injuries treated. I take that as a good thing.

Aside from being slow on the uptake in figuring out that SaraRules had gotten into town early and Friday morning Leash doom, it was a rather good – and relaxing – weekend.

After SaraRules left for Aspen, I headed down to Kate and Perry’s to do a little tech support and to hang with the family. It also turns out that their youngest added +1 to his Crawl skill while they were on vacation. It also seems like he added +1 to his Stand (with support) skill, too.

When I got back home, I planted myself on the couch and watched a couple of episodes of Law & Order: SVU. I flipped over to watch a little bit of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi before deciding to play City of Heroes. I was invited to join a team fairly quickly; we ran a few missions against The Council and Tsoo… and a bank mission. Despite a few inglorious deaths, I was able to put on a couple of levels.

All-in-all, it was a good end to a good weekend.

Stray Toasters

• I am having Butterscotch Krimpets and coffee for breakfast. Not quite the so-called “Breakfast of Champions,” but good, nonetheless.
• July 7, 1936: Get a Grip – Phillips Screws Up the Toolbox
• Hulk vs. Wolverine

• The manual I’m reading just made an analogy between IP addresses and USPS addresses, that impressed me:
  

  “In the same way that a house address has two parts – a street address and a ZIP code (the city and state are not really used anymore – an IP address also has two parts…”

  The impressive part is that not many people outside the USPS really know (or at least think about the fact) that the City and State parts of an address are somewhat superfluous. As a rather high percentage of the mailstream is routed by automated systems, they can usually determine exactly where a mailpiece goes from just the ZIP Code and the street address.

• I’m going to a DCI show in Ogden on Thursday. I haven’t been to a drum corps show in… at least… 10 or 11 years. That should be fun.
• By way of the “You Can’t Do That on Television” file: Porn appears on rugby programme
  (The expression of the guy in the accompanying picture makes the whole thing for me)
• I am amused that this xkcd comic has had the following effect on the Wikipedia entry for “wood”

And… back to it.

Namaste.

Friday – 04 July 2008
Happy Independence Day

Yesterday, I got off work a little after noon. I headed to Oh Sushi! to see if the lunchtime group was still there. They were. And, they were getting ready to leave. I picked up an order of Ebi and a California Roll to go.

I stopped at SaraRules’ parents’ house to see if Meliko was there; she had gotten into town Wednesday evening. She was. We hung out and talked books, movies and comics until her folks got in. I hung out with the family for a bit and then headed home.

I dropped off a few things, picked up my Pivot Driver and headed to ‘s to help with the assembly of Vikki’s bed. That went fairly quickly. I also helped troubleshoot a problem that was having with her email. And, as an added bonus: I played with the kids for a bit; I didn’t get any new pictures, though.

Next stop, Borders for a rare Thursday night Clitorati. , , OnlyAly and showed up to hang out. The people-watching was pretty choice, too. When we’d had our fill of the people there, we headed to Applebee’s to get something to eat. Land met up with us a little later.

I got a couple of text messages from SaraRules as we were finishing up dinner. She mentioned that she was having a quiet relaxing evening. I figured that she was due, given all of the running around that she’s been doing for her internship. About thirty minutes after the last message, she called. I figured that it was just our usual pre-bed, “How was your day?” call. Nope. She was calling to find out when I would be home.

*blink blink*
What?

I basically said that I should be home soon… to which she replied that she would just go to bed then and see me later.

*blink blink*
WHAT?!

And that’s when I finally managed to find two brain cells to rub together to come up with “a clue” – She had come to town a day early. My “goodbyes” and “good nights” to the dinner crew were quick. And I may have set a new personal land speed record in getting home.

Best pre-Fourth of July surprise ever.

All was fine until this morning at 8:00, when the Leash started going off about a problem in the office. I gave it a couple of minutes, to see if it would correct itself. It didn’t. I logged into the system to see what I could suss out at a glance. Problems. Yay. I called to see if he knew what was up. He didn’t, at the time, but he surmised the problem – and the solution – rather quickly. And neither of us had to actually go into the office to take care of it. Selah.

SaraRules and I ran out this morning to run a few errands and to pick up some breakfast. She is working on an article for the AMFS and I’m going to squeeze in a little time playing Ultimate Alliance, until she finishes. Then, I believe that we’re spending the afternoon and evening hanging out with her folks. Not a bad way to spend the holiday.

Stray Toasters

• I realized – and remarked to – yesterday that it must sound odd to have someone say they spent an afternoon just hanging out with their girlfriend’s sister, their ex-girlfriend and doing a favor for their ex’s sister. She laughed and said that while it wasn’t odd to her, she could see where it might sound odd to others.
• North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms passed away. He was 86.
• The emmet swimming song Hey, Jesse was about Senator Helms.
• Top 10 Famous Hotel Rooms
• Thanks to for linking me to this video:

  
  Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

• New Hunter S. Thompson film focuses on writings

Quotes of the Day
All of these were gleaned from last night’s dinner conversation:

• : The rubbing makes it sensitive, the sweat makes it sting.
• : What’s an “Olympic Queen?”
  Me: East German
• “So, do we need to get you some landing lights?”
• “Does he fly First Class?”
• “Crisco… the natural lube.”

Have a safe and fun holiday and/or holiday weekend.

Namaste.

Thursday – 03 July 2008
Last day of the work week… sort of. I am keeping the Leash for an extra week, so a coworker can go camping with his family. The up side to this: I’m of pager duty for the next… 8 weeks, I think. That’s not a bad deal.

Last night, I watched Star Wars: A New Hope on Spike. Sure, it was the 90s remixed edition (you know… the one where Han doesn’t shoot first), but I was able to overlook that. For the most part.

I seem to recall Luke Skywalker being known as “the last survivor of the Death Star battle.” ( I just checked with , he remembers that, too.) I also remember this being somewhat retconned:

• Han Solo (and, ostensibly, Chewbacca) was there – he afforded Luke the opportunity to make the shot.
• Wedge Antilles survived – his X-Wing was damaged in the final run on the trench and Luke told him to wave off.

So, we have three (or four) survivors there. I realized something last night and I am not sure if it’s endemic to the updated version only or not: There is a Y-Wing bomber that also flies away from the exploding Death Star:

Let’s examine that picture…

• Millenium Falcon? Check.
• Red Two (Wedge’s X-Wing)? Check.
• Red Five (Luke’s X-Wing)? Check.
• Y-Wing bombe…. wait…. Y-Wing?! What’s that doing here?!

And so, my question is: Who was the mystery pilot?

I also spent some time in Paragon City. I got Kurigari to Security Level 20 a couple of nights ago, but didn’t feel like running his costume mission then. So, I did it last night. I had another character in Icon offer to help me out. Far be it from me to turn down a helping hand. A few minutes later, I was back in the tailor shop, getting hooked up with new threads. (And I STILL need to get a picture of this character…)

Four-Color Coverage
I picked up three (that’s right, “three”) books yesterday. It made for quick, but entertaining, reading:

• Astonishing X-Men #25 – Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi’s debut issue hits the stands. And, it’s good. The take seems to be a bit of The X-Men meets The X-Files – there is a definite sci-fi edge to the story, so far. The X-Men seem to be settling in to their new locale fairly well. They’re even on good terms with the local government. YeahbuhWHAT?! There’s even a visit from a certain wind-riding Queen of Wakanda. I must give Mr. Ellis a bit of credit for the way he handled the interaction between Ororo and Emma when Ororo asked about joining the team. If I have a problem with the book, it would be with Bianchi’s artwork… but, not for the reasons you might suspect. The art looks amazing, to be honest, but in a few cases it looks like he’s trying “too hard.” Yes, we know that the X-Men’s world is fantastic (wait, no, that’s the Four)… um… Uncanny? Extreme? New? Ultimate? Well, whatever the word is that you want to use, Bianchi seems to want to make it abundantly clear through the art. Their “car” looks like something that NASA could use for a shuttlecraft. The new X-Jet doesn’t look bad, though. Maybe his style just has to grow on me. Regardless, it was a good read and I look forward to seeing in what direction(s) Mr. Ellis takes the book.
• Legion of Super-Heroes #43 – The Legion is still facing lots of political red tape from the UP… even as they send a team to go save the newly-minted, UP-sponsored team of heroes that just had their collective recta handed to them. No rest for the weary, it seems. And who’s the kid talking with Brainiac 5 and what is his angle?
• Trinity #4 – This is DC’s latest weekly title, featuring “The Big Three,” Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman. The book is divided into two parts – the first, featuring the aforementioned trinity; the second focusing on subplots, occasionally featuring the heroes’ antagonists. Kurt Busiek presents a good take on the characters, but unless something picks up or changes in the next few issues, I may be dropping this one.

Stray Toasters

• Thank God, the angels and the Heavenly host for short work weeks.
• 33-ish
• How can you not love a webcomic that does things like this:
  • 
  • 
• Frozen mocha goodness!
• Google must divulge YouTube log
• Despite (or because of) that, I give you:

• Iron Sky. Check out the trailer.
• Inka dinka doo.

Apparently, my technopathic link extends to Defiant, as well as Nomad. After noting in the last post that I wasn’t listening to any music, I fired up iTunes. Out of the gate, I got:

• Eric Clapton – Layla (the plugged, Derek and the Dominoes version)
• The Cure – Just Like Heaven
  (…which made me wonder what a cover by the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain would sound like)
• Rockapella – Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
  (…which, reparsed in my head as “Cartman Sandiego” – don’t picture it; no good can come of it)
• DMX – What’s My Name?
• Bob Dorough – Elementary, My Dear (from Schoolhouse Rock!)
• Janet Jackson – Nasty
  (…which made me wonder how a cover of this by Morris Day and The Time would sound)

I can’t really complain about those selections.

Stray Toasters

• Thanks to for passing along these videos
  • William Shatner for President
  • Whose Line Is It Anyway? – Prison

• For the gamer (and sugar addict) on their birthday: Pac-Man cake
• Wii Wheeton
• Mavis Staples is going to be performing in Snowmass. This weekend. Verdammt.
• And… I finished off another HeroClix card last night. This was a request from someone in the LJ HeroClix community:

Back to the grind.

Yep… it’s been a while, but this is one of those days that requires a little extra somethin’ to keep it moving:

• Sneaker Pimps – 6 Underground
• Stevie Wonder – Uptight (Everything’s Alright)
• Erasure – Chains of Love
• The Gap Band – Oops Upside Your Head

That should help a bit.

And, as an added… um… bonus(?), tossed this my way:

…which led me to…

Groove in peace.

Monday – 30 June 2008
6:30 came far too soon.
So I ignored it, in favor of 7:00.
That worked out much better, as far as I was concerned. 45 minutes later, I was on the way to work.

An hour later, I was at work, with a frozen mocha and a bagel sandwich.

Booyah.

Stray Toasters

• You know, a morning that kicks off, musically, with Stevie Wonder and The Jackson 5 can’t be all bad.
  • The Jackson 5 – ABC
  • Stevie Wonder – I Wish
• This is cheesy, but you have to watch it until the third group comes on:

• For the kid and/or gamer looking to turn his or her room into a life-sized video game: Mario Vinyl Wall Decals
• If you haven’t yet, see this movie:



• Safeguarding the World’s Chocolate Supply
  (Yet, they say that bananas will possibly die out in the next 15 – 20 years…)

Attack the day…

Namaste.