Random Access

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.

By way of Tom C. comes this bit of musical goodness: Go to Hell. Check it out:

One camera. One take.

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.

Tuesday – 22 April 2008
Last night, I had big brother/little sister time with . We decided to have dinner; Jitterbug sounded perfect to both of us. Unfortunately, when we got there the place was closed. And dark. Darker than usual. Darker than a thousand midnights. Okay, maybe not quite that dark, but you get the gist. We went to Fiddler’s Elbow instead.

Too bad neither of us had considered that there was an NBA playoff game last night.
A Jazz game.
Do the math.
We still had a fun time. People-watching is always fun, after all.

When I got home, I decided to take a trip to Paragon City. I arrived just in time for a Rikti invasion. After the aliens were repelled, I was invited to join a couple of my SG-mates for a couple of missions. Level 52+ missions. Knives of Artemis and Carnival of Shadows. Yay. We died a few times. As it stands, you don’t earn any experience after you hit Level 50 (the CoX level cap), but you can still earn XP debt from dying. But, it was still fun.

This morning, I was actually up shortly after the alarm went off. Of late, I’ve had… issues… with pulling that off.

Stray Toasters

• I’ve been taking a look at some of the costumes from this year’s New York Comic Convention on Flickr. (There are “a few” tags to choose from…) Some of ’em are pretty good. Pretty good, indeed.
• SaraRules linked to Mercy, by Duffy. Good stuff. Put it in your ear:

• Markin’ Time linked to an article from Popular Mechanics: Hollywood Sci-Fi’s Bronze Age – Are Comics to Blame? This article led to the following soapbox rant:
  

  Me: Nine Hells…
  Does this guy not get “suspension of disbelief?”
  It’s a &%(%*&#( COMIC BOOK MOVIE!
  People AREN’T going to them for the science; they are going to be *GASP* entertained!
  /soapbox

  Markin’ Time: i believe he is saying that the things we are willing to suspend for our comic entertaining is dumbing down good science fiction

  Me: L.C.D.
  Let’s face it: Not a lot of the comic book/summer blockbuster readers/viewers are rocket scientists.

  Markin’ Time: ?
  true dat

  Me: Lowest Common Denominator

  Markin’ Time: ah

  Me: They aren’t going for the science.
  Sure, they might pick at the more glaring plot holes and “That couldn’t happen” points, but the bottom line is: They are going for escapism.

  Markin’ Time: but what even comes close to Blade Runner for believable extrapolation of current science. What even tries?
  I happened to LOVE Primer….but i realize thats not for everyone

  Me: Hm.
  Primer was going to be an example.
  Sunshine was good.

  Markin’ Time: he cites that in the article also sunshine, which i haven’t seen

• loonybin88 linked to an article that goes in the “People suck” file: Vandals hit in Placedo
• …he also linked me to this: Muslim call to adopt Mecca time …which almost immediately reminded me of:
  

  From a point on the compass
  To magnetic north
  The point of the needle moving back and forth

• I posted a link to this image a few months ago, not only because it shows John Stewart breakin’ of a little somethin’, but also because it contains part of an old Black boast of defiance:
  

  I don’t have to do anything but stay Black and die.

  I’ve been trying to convince SaraRules that she needs to work it into a conversation at some point; she’s considering it. But, I’m digressing from my original point: Andrew, a coworker, brought a dysfunctional monitor to me and asked if I could have it returned/replaced.

  

  I told him that wouldn’t be a problem. Then, I read the note that he had attached to it:

  

  That’s right, the monitor stayed black and died.

Quote of the Day
Last night, while looking at NYCC costumes, I found a couple and shared them with SaraRules:

Me: Okay… http://flickr.com/photos/7648924@N08/2429218357/
comic book convention == geeks

SaraRules: Umm.. yeah. Those comic book convention people kinda scare me. 😉

Me: Some of whom haven’t seen – let alone touched – a “real live girl” in years.
Then you show up dressed like this.
Mayhem ensues.

SaraRules: Yeah. They don’t need to be seeing underboob. That would cause them to explode on site.

Me: Exactly!

SaraRules: Icky. It’s just dangerous.

Me: No good can come of it.
http://flickr.com/photos/eggrollboy/2423911917/

SaraRules: Whoa. That’s way too much leg. I think my brain just broke.

Me: Sorry, but I couldn’t suffer that one alone.

SaraRules: Oh gee. Thanks. I’m going to have to wash my eyes out with lye now. 🙁

Me: I don’t have any lye. I just have to live with that pain.

Back to it…

Namaste.

Friday – 18 April 2008
The end of the week is here.

I take it as a good sign that Nomad treated me to the following songs this morning as I was getting ready:

• Snoop Dog – Undercover Funk
• Rush – Crossroads
• Newcleus – Jam On It
• DJ Kool – Let Me Clear My Throat

Not a bad way to kick off the day.

Speaking of which, it’s time to get to it.

Namaste.

Thursday – 17 April 2008
NBN Thursday in the valley. Sunny, trying to be warm.

Today has been pretty good. I have been trying to figure out a (better) way to build a list with checkboxes, pulling data from my database. Slow-going, but it’s coming along. It is also “Sushi Wednesday.” I had a Seattle roll along with Ika and Ebi (shrimp) Nigiri.

There is construction on 33rd South. There’s a deep trench running down the middle of the street. On the way to the restaurant, Joe asked what they were doing. I responded: “Laying pipe… and in this case, it’s not a euphemism.” A little later Mike showed up and asked,”What are they doing out there,” to which Joe quickly retorted: “Laying pipe,” at which we just ran with the joke:

“Laying pipe.”
“Yep, lots of men… laying pipe.”
“Pipe so big they need heavy equipment to lay it right.”

Hilarity ensued.
Stray Toasters

• I hung out with last night. She was having an issue with pools of water collecting on the carpet outside her bathroom. (Hm, that sounds vaguely familiar.) She called maintenance to look at it; the guy did what he could, but noted that he would have to check the apartments above hers for signs of leakage. (That sounds familiar, too…) After he left, we went out for dinner. Aside from the plumbing issue, it was a nice way to spend the evening.
• Two Minutes and 42 Seconds in Heaven
• By way of Markin’ Time: Coolest Fighter Jets… EVER!
• Superman and Superboy: Newsarama takes a look at the ongoing cases
• I just received the following email from my mother:
  

  Slap Your Co-Worker Day Is Coming!

  

  Do you have a co-worker who talks nonstop about nothing, working your last nerve with tedious and boring details that you don’t care about?
  Do you have a co-worker who ALWAYS screws up stuff creating MORE work for you?
  Do you have a co-worker who kisses so much booty, you can look in their mouth and see what your boss had for lunch?
  Do you have a co-worker who is SOOO obnoxious, when he/she enters a room, everyone else clears it?

  Well, on behalf of Ike Turner, I am so very very glad to officially announce tomorrow as SLAP YOUR IRRITATING CO-WORKER DAY!

  There are the rules you must follow:

  • You can only slap one person per hour – no more.
  • You can slap the same person again if they irritate you again in the same day.
  • You are allowed to hold someone down as other co-workers take their turns slapping the irritant.
  • No weapons are allowed…other than going upside somebody’s head with a stapler or a hole-puncher.
  • If questioned by a supervisor [or police, if the supervisor is the irritant], you are allowed to LIE, LIE, LIE!

  Now, study the rules, break out your list of folks that you want to slap the living day lights out of and get to slapping…..and have a great day!

• D&D Ability Score Quiz
  • Strength: 12
  • Dex: 15
  • Con: 13
  • Int: 15
  • Wis: 15
  • Cha: 15
  • Special Abilities: Sarcasm
• Young Me / Now Me

And that’s a wrap… for now.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 16 April 2008
Another midweek day in the valley. After yesterday’s snow (yes, SNOW), there are blue skies and scattered high clouds today. Go figure. Most of the snow in the valley has melted, but there are still remnants on the benches (def. 5) and mountains.

I managed to get out of bed – and out of the apartment – at a decent hour today. I even stopped for a cup of frozen mocha goodness and a copy of The Gray Lady on the way into the office. I thought of a couple of ways to modify my database UI this morning… and I’m trying them out. So far, I’m making decent headway in getting them established; turning the page into a self-referencing form shouldn’t be (too much of) a problem. And, I have to say that I’m pretty happy with the progress I’m making.

And, it’s new comics day.
Can’t beat that with a stick at twice the price.

Stray Toasters

• I have (yet) another new addition to the Covet List: Superman vs. Darkseid Statue

  

  I have been a Darkseid… fan, I guess… ever since The Great Darkness Saga (a Legion story, go figure). I have a few ‘Clix figures and a Superman: The Animated Series production sericel fromfeaturing him. I just wish that I had been able to get one of the 1999 Darkseid statues, though.

• From the “Why, yes, it IS rocket science” file: Schoolboy Corrects NASA’s Math on Killer Asteroid
• I’m a little scared by this: Children’s book about plastic surgery
• 
• I enjoy my comics and figure collections.  But, compared to this collection, I have next to nothing.  Unglaublich…
• Maverick Swedish Rock Star Reveals What Britney Could Have Been
• Moviehole has an interview with Iron Man director Jon Favreau
• Woman goes on YouTube to air divorce grievances

Quote of the Day
Today’s quote is an “Ole and Lena” joke, that Coworker Jan told me.  He usually tells me a couple of these a week and they’re made even better because Jan affects a great Scandinavian accent. The version of the joke that I found online was written phonetically, so you will get the idea of how it sounds.

Ole was out working in the field when his mule squares off and kicks him right in his wedding tackle.  Writhing in agony, he falls to the ground. As soon as he could manage, he took himself to the doctor.
“How bad is it doc?  I’m getting married next veek and my fiance, Lena, is still a wirgin – in every
vay.  I vant her to know that I’m right there with her.”

The doctor told him, “Everything looks okay, but I’ll have to put your Willie in a splint.  It should be okay next week.”  He took some tongue depressors and formed a neat little splint, and taped it all together quite an impressive work of art.

Ole mentions none of this to Lena.  They get married and go on their honeymoon. That night in the motel room, Lena rips open her blouse to reveal her beautiful untouched breasts. She said,”No vun has EVER seen deez. You’re the first vun.”

Ole immediately drops his pants and replies,”Look at dis… still in da crate!”

Namaste.

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.

Monday – 14 April 2008
Another week begins.

Alarm clocks are a necessary evil. That said, the day started with me hitting snooze more times than I had intended. After the hygiene rituals were observed and the car was packed, I began my journey back to north-central Utah. The drive was uneventful. And there weren’t any monkeys to speak of.

I got into the office and checked my email. Among them was one from Friday morning, asking me to submit my time card. *blink blink* Then, I checked the timestamp on the email: It was sent roughly two minutes before I submitted my time card, which means that I was already on the system and preparing to submit it before the email was sent. *sigh*

<< Rewind <<
Yesterday afternoon, SaraRules and I headed to the MFA house so that she could do some work… and I could use the connection there to make my way to Paragon City. We were both successful in our endeavors. Nefer-Tem is now a little less than 2 bars away from Level 50.

Steph and Kim decided to have a Taco Fiesta for dinner last night. Chicken and beef. Hard and soft shells. When dinner was done, we played Buzzword: The Not 5s (the roommates) vs. The 6-7-8s (honorary roommates). The 6-7-8s won. Barely.

Mark and Lish came over a little later. Mark asked our opinions about the Ballroom Dance Concert (he’s the director of that program); we gave him feedback. Then… it was time to play 3-way Slayer HALO. Selah. (Mark pwned both of us. Repeatedly. I need to practice.)

I showed Steph how to make the s’mores brownies. Lish said that he might try making them himself… and that he wanted to get a chef’s torch, so that he could toast the marshmallows. Ah, pyromania. A little later, Darillyn and Lish played shot glass checkers:

Lish won both games. However, Darillyn came up with a number of “Unintentional Porn Overheard in…” quotes.

> Play >
I found out that I need to add some more systems to my db and tweak the UI to be able to select from any/all systems.

Workout
Back in the saddle again:

• Leg Raises: 3 sets – 1 set, full extension; 2 sets, bent leg (lowered to only 45°)
• Bench Press (dumbbell): 3 sets/12 reps, 60 lbs
• Pull-downs: 3 sets/15 reps, 130 lbs
• Rows (T-bar style, with a barbell): 3 sets/12 reps, 55 lbs
• Tricep Press: 3 sets/12 reps, 120 lbs
• Core: 4 sets – 2 sets/full extension, 45 secs.; 2 sets/elbows, 30 secs.

Pre-workout weight: 175.6 lbs.

Stray Toasters

• There was an interesting discussion about Emperor Popetine Pope Benedict’s visit to the U.S. on The Diane Rehm Show this morning.
• Secret Invasion: Who do you trust?
• 
• Conductor Hero?: Touring game rocks concert halls
• 
  While I’m not overly taken by most of the figures, the Warrior Isis figure is nice.
• Microsoft: Vista feature designed to ‘annoy users’
• Scotty Doesn’t Know
• …and I don’t know what I want for dinner. *blah*
• Sillof’s Workshop

Quotes of the Day
As I mentioned above, Darillyn made some special “Unintentional Porn Overheard in…” quotes while playing checkers with Lish:

• “I can’t reach that with my face”
• “I was so waiting to jump you there.”
• “You get confused about a lot of things, but I’m not going to point them out.”
• “Hold on, I can’t get him out – he’s sticky.”
• “I got it out this time.”
• “You just jumped me. It’s my turn.”

Checkers and alcohol. Who knew?!

Namaste.

Sunday – 13 April 2008
The Ballroom Dance Concert, Swing, Swing, Swing!, was fun. More fun than I expected it to be.

After the concert, we came back to the apartment and watched The Last Man on Earth, the first adaptation of Richard Matheon’s I Am Legend, starring Vincent Price. Granted, it was… dated… but it was a much closer take on the story than the recent Will Smith.

Today’s been quiet and lazy. We caught the last part of Silverado… which I have never seen. Next up was Die Hard: With a Vengeance – not the greatest movie, but it has one of my favorite dialouges:

Zeus: Why do you keep calling me Jésus? Do I look Puerto Rican to you?
John McClane: Guy back there called you Jésus.
Zeus: He didn’t say Jésus. He said, “Hey, Zeus!” My name is Zeus.
John McClane: Zeus?
Zeus: Yeah, Zeus! As in, father of Apollo? Mt. Olympus? Don’t fuck with me or I’ll shove a lightning bolt up your ass? Zeus! You got a problem with that?
John McClane: No, I don’t have a problem with that.

Then the power went out. At first, we thought that it was just in the complex. Turns out that it hit a good portion of town. SaraRules, Tyler and I suspect zombie polygamist aliens as being behind it. Of course, that didn’t stop us from going to Dairy Queen for chocolate dipped cones and an Arctic Rush.

Stray Toasters

• Tonight, I’m teaching Steph how to make s’mores brownies.
• sent new pictures of Bit. You can see a few of them here.
• Charlie Daniels apparently has… an issue… with the way The Devil Went Down to Georgia is used in Guitar Hero III.
• By way of Intelligent Gamer: African Americans and the video game industry.
• Intellivision

Now, it’s time to see if I can find a workaround for getting to Paragon City.

Namaste.

sent me a link to this video. It is chock full of awesome.

Incredible! from kwest on Vimeo.

Groove on, children. Groove on.

Thursday – 10 April 2008
I was up later than I planned to be last night.
But I have s’mores brownies to show for it.

I woke up later than I planned today
*meh*

So far, the work day hasn’t been bad.

And, it’s Thursday.

Stray Toaster

• SaraRules and/or : Have either of you heard that Prince is playing at Coachella this year?
• US shamed by Mandela terror link

Back to the grind.

Namaste.

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

Tuesday – 08 April 2008
Some days you just wake up and feel like wearing a tie.
Just because you can.

Okay… maybe you don’t, but I do.

Today was one of those days for me. Of course, this meant breaking out the iron so that I could knock the rough edges off the shirt I’m wearing. I don’t mind ironing, so it wasn’t a big to-do.

Late-Morning Dance Break
Diamonds – Herb Alpert featuring Janet Jackson

Stray Toasters

• While I know and understand that English is a language that is constantly evolving, I still miss the adverb and/or “…to be…” in common usage:
  • “The dog needs walked” != “The dog needs to be walked.”
• Hypergrammar
• From Comic Foundry: 25 Most Influential Moments in the Past 25 Years
• , click here.
• , click here and here (third pic).
• Another item to be added to the Covet List: LEGO X-Wing Fighter
• Campbell’s Condensed Newspaper has crossword puzzles online! They have Sudoku, too.
• While I realize that it could come under the heading of “career-limiting moves,” yesterday I was dangerously close to telling someone up my chain-of-command to “GFY.” Multiple times. With something serrated.
• And speaking of serra…



• For those who don’t get the connection between the two ‘Toasters above: “serra” is Latin for “saw.”
• I think I just ruined part of Scott’s (coworker/boss) childhood. We were talking about the old school Battlestar Galactica, and I called it “Mormons in Space.” His reaction: “What?!” So, I went to Google and searched for “mormons in space” The first – FIRST – link it brought back “(a.k.a. Battlestar Galactica).” He said that he’s going to have to go back and watch the series and look for the signs.

Back to it.

Namaste.

Thursday – 03 April 2008
I tacked one more bar onto Nefer-Tem’s experience. Six more to Level 50.

I woke up around 7:00 this morning, but decided that consciousness wasn’t for me. I think that the head cold I’m developing may have had something to do with the “No, I don’t want to get up yet” factor, too. Either way, 8:30 felt much better.

We had an hour-and-a-half long meeting to introduce one of our new robot overlords. (Did I say “overlords?” I meant “protectors.) Then, a group of us went to Taste of Punjab for lunch. I’ll be spending the rest of the day trying to get PHP and MySQL to play nicely together on Defiant so I can make some progress on this database. Wahoo.

Stray Toasters

• I bought Twix and Butterfingers at the store last night… but neglected to bring any with me to work this morning.
• Daily Caffeine Protects Your Brain
• : I couldn’t find a video for No!, but this will hopefully suffice…
• From the “Go, Boilermakers” file: Transparent Computer Monitors? Engineers Make First ‘Active Matrix’ Display Using Nanowires
• The other night, Markin’ Time and I were talking about different possible scenarios for Marvel’s “Secret Invasion.” One of the theories he threw into the ring was that they would basically pull a “Brand New Day” scenario, using the Batch SW6 method for replacing the heroes. He posed this because he saw it as the perfect way to piss off whatever remaining fans Marvel had following Civil War and/or One More Day/Brand New Day. Damned if he wasn’t right.
• 
• How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse
  (Good information, indeed, but I think I’ll also rely on the wits/skills of SaraRules, and Tyranist to see me through.)
• I am really liking WordPress 2.5
  (“Save” is still one of my favorite functions.)
• Five Myths about Drinking Water

Back to it.

Namaste.