Thursday: Coda
After work, I met Mary, Chris, and for tonight’s entertainment: Resident Evil: Extinction. Yep. Zombies-a-go-go. And Milla Jojovich beating ’em down. It wasn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, Oscar-fare, but it was a nice way to spend an evening with friends. And, it was fun.

After the movie, Nox, Lavynder and I headed to one of the local Sampan restaurants for a late dinner. The food and company were good, as was the conversation.

Stray Toasters

• Another glass of chocolate milk might be in order this evening.
• posted about her mother’s passing last year. It reminded me that my grandmother died four years ago, this past Monday. Last week, while moving things from LJ to WordPress, I took another look at the post I did on that day. It occurred to me that I hadn’t shown it my father; so I printed it out and sent it to him. He messaged me over the weekend to let me know that he received it… and liked it. That made me smile, although I felt a little bad about having not shared it with him before now.
• posted a link to the following video:
  
• …I cringe and pretend like it won’t peel paint.
• Acolyte Derek pointed me in the direction of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. I am amused.
  
  

Anything else can wait until after the sun has put in an appearance.

Namaste.

Stray Toasters

• I checked my mail this morning, on a whim. (Mostly because I couldn’t remember whether I checked it yesterday…) I’m glad that I did – there was a letter waiting in there that made for a great start to the morning.
• Sara posed an interesting – and somewhat unusual – question last night: “What is your favorite texture?”
  My counter was “Tactile or other, such as ‘food texture,’ for example?”
  “Tactile.”
  So, I started thinking about it. The one that I’ve come up with so far is: Skin. It is common and similar… yet it can also be so varied: rough, smooth, calloused, pitted, wrinkled.
• Last night, I continued my reading of the graphic novel V for Vendetta, on which the movie was based. I had the iPod playing in the living room. I was reading the scene where Evey is being tortured in “prison” and Madonna’s Die Another Day started playing. It reminded me of the opening scenes of Die Another Day (the movie), where Bond is being tortured in time with the song.
• Along those same lines, I had forgotten that the fight between the pirates and Prince Septimus’ guard in Stardust had been choreographed against Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld (“Can-Can”), until seeing the movie again this past weekend.
• By way of CNet: Blocking memorable scenes with LEGOs
• The drive-time commute included Van Halen’s Dreams. I like the video for the song, it features the Navy’s Blue Angels. The song started playing just as I was coming to the summit of I-15 on Traverse Mountain. When I looked to my left, there were paragliders floating around the ridge. Sure, they aren’t F/A-18 Hornets, but the overall effect was good enough for me.
• , Comics2Film has a few stills from the upcoming season of Legion of Super Heroes.
• If you haven’t heard about Warner Brothers upcoming adaptation of New Frontier (1, 2), a graphic novel by Darwyn Cooke, check out this teaser/preview.
• Tonight, God willing and the creek don’t rise, I’m going to a preview of Resident Evil: Extinction. Zombies!!!

Quote of the Day
I responded to a department email with lyrics from Working in a Coal Mine, by Lee Dorsey:

Working in the coal mine
Going down down down
Working in the coal mine
Whoop about to slip down

This was the IM response I received from :

(10:38:03 AM) : Oh LORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD.
(10:38:12 AM) : I am SO TIRED.
(10:38:20 AM) : 🙂
(10:38:21 AM) : How long can this GO ON?
(10:38:41 AM) : Good morning, Mr. B.
(10:38:53 AM) : (ps- damn you for getting that song stuck in my head this early.)
(10:39:07 AM) : Could have been worse.
(10:39:13 AM) : I could have gone with Sixteen Tons.
(10:39:15 AM) : …or…
(10:39:20 AM) : The Pina Colada Song.
(10:39:21 AM) : 😀
(10:39:24 AM) : eh, sixteen tons wouldn’t have been…. FUCK YOU

Back to it.

Thursday: 20 September 2007
After work and after picking up the car, I decided to treat myself to a trip to Best Buy to acquire a copy of Superman: Doomsday. Not only was I successful in getting that, but I also picked up Scent of a Woman and S.W.A.T.

Last night, I slept pretty well. That, to some degree, makes up for Tuesday night’s poor sleep.

Four-Color Coverage: Animated Edition
I watched Superman: Doomsday knowing that it was adapted from the “Death of Superman” storyline from the early 90s. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from it, but I knew that they couldn’t do the whole story as it was presented in comic format. I remember being impressed with how well Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was executed; likewise, I was stunned with the job that Marvel and Lionsgate did with Doctor Strange… but, I still have a bad aftertaste from the abomination that was Superman: Brainiac Attacks. So, I was curious to see what they could/would do.

I wasn’t disappointed.

In fact, I was rather surprised at how well they told the story. In fact, this version exceeded my expectations quite a bit. While this movie isn’t canon, it draws on things from both the comics as well as something that I took as a nod to the “Legacy” (1, 2) of Superman: The Animated Series. And it blends them together nicely. They didn’t pull any punches (no pun intended) in telling stories revolving around:

• Superman and Lois’ relationships, personal and professional
• Lex Luthor’s genius…
• …and his desire to be the man at the top of the food chain – at any cost
• … and his ruthlessness
• Superman’s devotion to protect the people of Metropolis

The movie isn’t “dumbed down” to make it more palatable for younger audiences; it is rated PG-13. In my opinion, it earned that rating. It seems as though the writers, directors and producers came together to tell a story and, rather than churn out 70 minutes of pablum, went the opposite direction and brought their A-game to the table.

My one gripe – and it’s not a big one – is that the characters’ faces seem a little “too” angular, at least when compared to S:TAS and Justice League/Unlimited. The voice actors did a good job of bringing the characters to animated life. Adam Baldwin did a good job as Clark Kent/Superman, Anne Heche did well as Lois Lane and James Marsters turned in a nice performance as Lex Luthor.

I’m sure that I’ll be watching this again, looking for the little details that I may have missed in the first viewing. I recommend it to fans of the comic, the animated series and the Superman mythos in general.

Stray Toasters

• I had a cold glass of chocolate milk before bed.
• “I’d say, “Bunnies,” Raist…”
• Hmm… Doomsday vs. The Juggernaut.
• Preview of Justice League of America #13 – , you might want to check it out.
• “Thanks” to Acolyte Derek for pointing out this Playstation 2… made of LEGO
• posted a quiz. I took it. This was my result:
  

  Your home is a Philanthropic Gamer’s Mansion Your kitchen is stocked with chips, dips, and assorted caffeinated beverages. There’s a pantry with emergency backup caffeinated beverages. You also have some breakfast cereals in there, but you haven’t had breakfast since last Spring. Your master bedroom has blankets printed with images of Mario and Link. Your study includes unread copies of various gamer magazines, each purchased for the free demo CDs. One of your garages holds your collection of ferraris, and is measured in acreage.Your home also includes a guest wing and private quarters for your servants. Your guests enjoy your collection of every console and associated game ever made. Except the Intellivision — those controllers drive them NUTS. Outside is your hedge maze and gardens, meticulously tended by a team of world-class botanists. Below is a snippet of the blueprints:

  Find YOUR Dream Home!

This is probably the point where I should finish getting ready for work…

Namaste.

Just a few quick hits:

• I was checking out boingboing and found this item for the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file… (potentially NSFW)
• Then, there was an article for this music video, by a group called Familjen, out of Sweden… made from vintage religious event footage.
• After showing it to a couple of coworkers, I then turned around and showed them Hurra Torpedo’s version of Total Eclipse of the Heart. After all, why pass up a perfectly good opportunity to break coworkers?!
• Nebraska Senator Sues God to Stop Terror Threats
• Thanks to for pointing out the Simuring feature on Vonage.
• Thanks to Tyranist for pointing me in the direction of the Marvel Database Project. I’ll need to check out how it compares to Marvel’s site/database.
• Brain surgery changes boy’s accent

And now… gym time.

Monday: Coda / Tuesday – 18 September 2007
Tonight, I got to play “Favorite Uncle” to the kids while Kate and Perry took care of a couple of things. The kids were finishing dinner when I got there, so they were ready for a little play time before bed. Aside from using my lap as an occasional playspace, they pretty much entertained themselves.

About an hour before bed, I sat them down for some quiet time while they watched cartoons. Then, the boys decided they wanted to watch Doctor Strange before bed… so I let them watch it, with the understanding that when it was time for bed, they’d have to turn it off and go to bed. So, popcorn was popped and they sat down and watched the movie. If someone had been watching through a window, it would have looked as though the two youngest had tried to attach themselves to my hip: The baby was on my left, feeding herself and handing me kernels of popcorn when I was taking too long to get them myself; the middle child was on my right, half-watching the movie, half-trying to feed me popcorn, too. And now that I think about it, the oldest was hovering pretty close, too.

When it was time for bed, they went to their respective rooms and got into bed. No fuss. Even the baby – She ran into her room, made a bee-line for the crib, asked for one of her dolls and laid down. Just like that. I tucked them in, closed their doors and didn’t hear a peep from them for the rest of the evening.

When Kate and Perry got home, Kate asked if I “…survived the kids alright?” I told her that as far as babysitting gigs went, this was cake. The kids took care of themselves (with the exception of one pre-bed diaper change, for the baby) and were great all night long.

The Best: Killing Me Softly (prompted by post from )
Roberta Flack vs. The Fugees

While I like the up-tempo groove of The Fugees’ cover, for my money, this song is best as done by Roberta Flack. No contest.

The Best: I Can’t Make You Love Me
Bonnie Raitt vs. Prince vs. George Michael

This one was pretty close. Sara and I were listening to Prince’s Emancipation this weekend and his cover of the song started playing. I asked if she had heard the George Michael version of it; she hadn’t. Fortunately, I had Nomad with me (A road trip without my trusty iPod?! Unheard of!) and played it.

Both covers are good… but for me, this round goes to Bonnie Raitt. There’s something that sounds more emotionally charged in her version, although I’d say that the Prince version runs a not-too-distant second.

Stray Toasters

• I posted the pictures from this weekend’s Cedar Breaks hike. (Apologies to those on dial-up connections…)
• , what’s this about Maoists quitting the Nepalese government?
• For some reason, I just had the thought of a wheelbarrow race pop into my head.
• Jamie McKelvie talks Suburban Glamor
• By way of : LOLthulu
• This sounds like an interesting idea, but “Lemon-squeezin’ Jesus” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. I think I’ll stick with monkey-squeezin’ Jesus, thank ya kindly.
• Hmm… Monkey-squeezin’ Jesus vs. Micro-Jesus. That could be interesting.
• Rare Timothy Leary document on eBay
• …speaking of which: I was in a chat/conference/speech with Timothy Leary waaaay back in the days of Quantum Link – the service that eventually became the AOHell behemoth.

I should try that “sleep” thing.

Namaste.

Monday – 17 September 2007
And so, another week begins.

Friday, I spent the early part of the day elbow-up in servers, wires and DDR RAM. Yay. The first few racks I checked weren’t too bad; but the last one…? Not nearly as fun as it could have been. When I finished, I called it a day… and a week.

I ran a couple of errands and hit the road.

Destination: Cedar City
Objective: Visit Sara.

As with any good road trip, there were plenty of road monkeys with which I had to deal. Natch. Fortunately, by the time I got out of Payson, they had pretty much disappeared. The trip was rather uneventful, with the notable exception of a 15-mile stretch heading into Scipio… where the road is narrowed to one lane, in each direction. And did I mention the 55 (at best) MPH speed limit through there? Yeah. Icing on the cake. Monkeys and construction aside, I made decent time.

Friday night, Sara threw a potluck dinner party/get-together. Aside from a lack of the usual Friday-night people-watching, it could have easily been a Clitorati-esque gathering. Oh… and substitute wine for the usual caffeinated beverages, too. And there was Guitar Hero II, at which I proved once again that I either need never play it again or play it a lot and master it.

Saturday was a relaxed day that included:

• …a trip to Cedar Breaks National Monument. We hiked the Alpine Lake trail, which divides into an “upper trail” and a “lower trail,” which meet at the aforementioned lake.
• …kite-flying. Well, “some” kite-flying – the kite kept wanting to nose-dive into the ground. It looks like a couple of the lines on the parafoil are twisted, so I’ll need to see what I can do about correcting that.
• …dinner at Casa de Don Miguel’s, a small Mexican restaurant in town. I had an enchilada and burrito combination plate that was pretty good.
• …a trip to the local Dairy Queen, where I sated my craving for a chocolate-dipped ice cream cone. A craving that I keep neglecting to appease in Salt Lake.
• …EuroTrip. (Damn you, Tyranist.)

Sunday was an equally-if-not-moreso relaxed day. Sara and I hung out, headed to Chili’s for lunch and then to see Stardust. Having seen it before, I wasn’t as shocked by Robert DeNiro’s performance, although I was just as entertained by it as the first time I saw it. I paid a little more attention to Michelle Pfeiffer’s performance this time; I feel like I slighted it in my first review. She did an excellent turn as Lamia, a witch in search of Claire Dane’s Yvaine. I remember thinking at one point,”Lamia… Catwoman… Lamia… Catwoman…” I had forgotten how well she portrays villains/antagonists. After the movie was homework (for Sara) and geekery (for me) followed by dinner. And an episode of Coupling. (Damn you, Tyranist. Again!)

This morning’s commute wasn’t bad. Fortunately, the monkeys weren’t out en masse. And the fifteen-mile crawl wasn’t unbearable. And I made it to the office in good time. Of course, I realized, a tad too late that I didn’t caffeinate myself before leaving, so I will have to tread lightly when dealing with the monkeys, as the blood content in my caffeinestream is higher than usual. I should check the break room to see if there is anything brewable in there.

Football Update
I missed the game, but I did see that the Ravens shot down the Jets. Two down, thirteen to go…

Additionally, Congratulations (and “Thank you”) to for the beatdown his beloved Browns gave to ‘s Bengals.

Stray Toasters

• I need to definitely get to the Garden of Sweden this week.
• , did you and onlyaly get your Recommended Daily Allowance of speed, loops and corkscrews during your excursion to Coaster-opolis?
• 
• Superman: Doomsday comes out tomorrow.
  
• HALO 3 comes out in eleven days.
  …of course, that also means that I’ll need to get a 360 on which to play it.
• 
• Two down, two in a holding pattern.
• Discovery paves way for gamma-ray annihilation lasers
  Gamma Rays?! Are they mad!? Didn’t they learn anything from Bruce Banner’s accident?!
• Another man dies after marathon gaming session
• *voop*

Namaste.

Friday – 14 September 2007
Last night, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do about dinner, so I decided not to make a choice… so to speak.

Instead, I rang up to see what her plans were. She had none. She asked if I had a taste for anything in particular and I answered with my generic response: “Food.” She said that didn’t help. *shrug* She threw out a couple of suggestions. The one that stuck was Olive Garden. And so, we went. I tried one of their new dishes: Chicken and Gnocchi Veronese, a chicken and dumplings dish in a garlic cream sauce. It was rather tasty, but there seemed to be a disproportionate number of dumplings to chicken bits. Oh, well.

The rest of the night was spent being rather aimless and taking care of a few things around the apartment.

This morning, I woke up, got ready for work and hit the road. Short commute today. I can tell that I am ready for it to be the end of the day because I didn’t notice that I was missing my ID badge until I was in the elevator, on the way up to the office. I toyed with the notion of running home to get it, but decided against it, as it would be “too much” effort. A guest badge would do. Today, I am #10. For some reason, I started thinking, “What if this wasn’t written in Base 10? What if it’s Base 2? Or hex…?” From there, it only got worse: I started thinking of how to write “007” in different bases.

Yeah… it’s Friday.

Stray Toasters

• I’m handling Day 2 of a server upgrade survey. I talked with the person responsible for these servers yesterday, in an effort to coordinate shutting them down without affecting too many people adversely. Overnight, he apparently forgot part of what we had discussed. *sigh*
• Happy ‘coastering (not to be confused with ‘Toastering) to and onlyaly.
• I caught this meme by way of :
  1. Go to http://www.careercruising.com/.
  2. Put in Username: nycareers, Password: landmark.
  3. Take their “Career Matchmaker” questions.
  4. Post the top ten results.

  My results:

  1. Multimedia Developer
  2. Electronics Engineering Tech
  3. Electrical Engineering Tech
  4. Website Designer
  5. Optical / Ophthalmic Lab Technician
  6. Industrial Designer
  7. Architect
  8. Computer Support Person
  9. Interior Designer
  10. Tailor / Dressmaker
• World’s Worst Poluted Places 2007
• Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Ko Bop
  Shimmy Shimmy Bop
• 
• Video for MC Frontalot’s nerdcore song about Zork

Back to the grind. Need to get this stuff sorted out and done so I can get on to my weekend.

Namaste.

Thursday – 13 September 2007
A new NBN Thursday begins.

Last night was a lazy, do-a-lot-of-nothing kind of night. And you’ll hear no complaints from me about that. I got home, figured out what to do about dinner and just… hung out. And, I talked (actual vox) with . Twas fun. The conversation ranged from silly to serious, with quite a few stops everywhere in between.

This morning, I actually did something that I haven’t done in a very long time: I wrote a letter. A real-life, honest-to-God, pen-and-paper letter. Not an email. Not a few lines on a greeting card. A letter. Granted, it was a bit short, but that’s not the point here. The point is: I wrote a letter. Not only that, I folded it, put it into an envelope, sealed, stamped and addressed it and put it in the mailbox.

City of Heroes/Villains: The Hand of Nefer-Tem
Since it had been a few days, I decided to do some crime-fighting in Paragon City. I logged in right as a Rikti invasion fleet was attacking the zone where I usually park my characters. So, I joined the fray. I was invited to join an invasion team and we started beating on things. After that portion of the invasion was repulsed, we went to another part of town to fight. After the invasions broke off, the team broke up.

A short while later, a member of my supergroup messaged me and asked if I wanted to join a team and run a few missions… some of my missions, at that. Hm… let me think about that… I joined. I had a few Devouring Earth missions to run. The first one kicked our collective asses eight ways from Sunday. After numerous deaths and some team restructuring, we muddled our way through it. We ran another D.E. mission, after that; it wasn’t nearly as disastrous.

Stray Toasters

• Aside from a little congestion – and a little frog in my throat – I am pretty much done with this whole cold thing.
• How to Survive a Horror Movie
• Have I mentioned how much I like this whole “Save and Continue Editing” feature? Lots.
• And, in continuing coverage from our “Tony Stark Is a Dick” file comes this gem, by way of Wizard:
  

  TONY’S TOY COLLECTION
  Unimpressed by G.W. Bridge’s houseboat, Stark feels the need to run down the inventory of his garage, which includes a boat, some planes, a spaceship and a flying submarine. Arrogant as always, he does, to his credit, segue very awkwardly from his brag session into his real business with Bridge. It’s hard to understand where Bridge’s reluctance comes from with a proposal that begins like this.

  

• By way of contrast: From the “Before Tony Stark was a complete dick” file: the Iron Man movie trailer.
• And, from the trailer: Would the Iron Man (Mark I) suit qualify as “steampunk?”
• By way of : IKEA room planners
• For the Bruce Campbell fans out there, Comics 2 Film is having a The Man with the Screaming Brain giveaway.
• For : Morris Day and The Time – 777-9311 and Color of Success
• From NPR: John Ridley’s Visible Man – Life After the NF-Hell
• 
• Apple, AT&T: Bosom buddies or odd couple?
• Jake, a coworker and workout partner, came over to ask a question about work and noticed that I have a Green Lantern figure on my desk. He asked if that was my inspiration/goal for working out. I looked at it and told him, “No, but I would have filled out my Hallowe’en costume a lot better if it had been!”

And, that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 12 September 2007
Two down, three to go… with one in the chamber.

Yesterday’s workout was good. I opted out of going for 300 pounds again. I just wasn’t feeling it. I did get in three sets of 215 pounds, though. The last few of the third set were not pretty. The rest of the workout was good – I even managed to pull off two sets of unassisted pull-ups before moving to the assisted dip/pull-up machine.

Last night’s “Game Night” was more “Night” than anything. We talked about possibly wrapping up the All Flesh/40K game and moving on to something else. Then, we watched Doctor Strange. I picked up on a couple of things that I had missed when I first watched it. And it was just as enjoyable this time as it was the first time.

This morning, I woke up “remembering” that I had an odd stay in The Dreaming… but the details were dodgy.

Stray Toasters

• Just for the record: I don’t think that barley was ever intended for use as a nasal projectile.
• Angular momentum.
• “Triangle…” whoWHA?!
• The next contestant on The Price Is Right large-sized HeroClix figure is… this.
• 
• Collector’s Edition Slinky
• …which, of course, reminded me of this:

  

• AMD or Intel? What’s your weapon of choice? I’ve had Intel chips before, but I prefer AMD.
• 
• By way of : Superhero Supply Store.

I’m doing something that, for whatever reason(s), I haven’t done before: I came home for lunch. It makes sense to do it, I just… haven’t. I might just make a trend of this.

Namaste.

Tyranist and I were talking about books…

…and that led to library software…

…and that led to software that will catalog any/all media…

…which, somehow, led to talking about Heaven.
(I was there and I’m not even sure how we took that turn.)

That reminded me of my post about who would be in my Heaven, which I then showed him. When he hit the part of who would be my Judas Iscariot, Tyranist tried to recall what movie it was that portrayed – or alluded to – Judas as the first vampire. A couple of clicks on IMDb brought us to John Carpenter’s Vampires; he thinks that’s the correct film.

It would have been fine… had we stopped there. But, talk of Judas and his betrayal of Christ reminded me of this: Party Up – Jesus Christ Superstar.

He made it through about a minute or so of the video before he pulled of the headphones.

Handbasket? Check.
Road paved with good intentions? Check.
All I need is to find my gasoline drawers and I’m set.

Monday: Coda
The Ravens lost to the Bengals.

Okay. There. I said it. And with that, I’d like to offer a hearty “congratulations” to .

It was a “good” loss, though… despite some craptacular calls in the first quarter. And that’s not just my opinion: thought so, too. Some of the calls made us wonder what game the refs were watching. *shrug* Oh, well.

I don’t know who was suited up in the first quarter, but I don’t think that they were pro players. They couldn’t have been, given some of the mistakes they made. Both Nox and I were flummoxed by some of the blatant errors. Fortunately, the Ravens seemed to find their key players in the second quarter.

I’m going to armchair QB for a moment and say that I disagree with Brian Billick’s decision to keep Steve McNair in the game as long as he did… and then throw Kyle Boller in, with about five minutes to go, to try and pull it out. To his credit, Boller did a good job. He was shaky for about two plays and then settled in…

…but it was a bit late at that point. Granted, he engineered a good drive and some nice plays, but at the end, he was still “too fresh” on the field and fired a rocket shot at TE Todd Heap – at short range – that just bounced off Heap’s hands.

Oh, well. It’s the first game of the season. There are still 15 more to play.

Nox and I watched the game at Fiddler’s Elbow. Decent food. Good service. And, a decent crowd. Not too rowdy. Non-smoking. And just all-round “good.” Along with Guiness (on tap, no less) I tried their Cajun Chicken Sandwich. It was rather tasty. I tried their buffalo wings and barbecue wings, as an appetizer. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t quite as good as the ones at Moab Brewery.

Stray Toasters

• I messaged Kris, to see if she was watching the game. She wasn’t (she was in class), but she was recording it.
• Joust gets movie, graphic novel treatment… wait, what?
• 
• Batgirl concept, for .
• …speaking of whom, I talked with her for a little bit this afternoon. It was a pleasant surprise.
• “In the year 2000…”
• I’m not sure whether or not I want to give 300 pounds a shot tomorrow.
• Cogito Ergo Zoom

And now, to find some trouble to get into.
Or maybe I’ll just watch a movie.

Namaste.

Monday – 10 September 2007
New day. New week. Same old same.

After I (finally) managed to nod off this morning, I slept pretty well. I woke up, however, with a slight twinge in my left knee. Haven’t felt that in a while, but I didn’t think too much about it. As I was getting ready for work, I decided that wearing my knee brace might not be a bad idea, just for a little extra support and whatnot.

Too bad I couldn’t find it.

I believe that it is a “casualty” of the Great Closet Migration. I thought I remembered where I placed it in the chaos. I was mistaken. At least the ache hasn’t been bad and it’s far from debilitating, so I’ll hunt the brace this evening or sometime this week.

The commute wasn’t bad, but there were a few slow-on-the-uptake monkeys. The soundtrack of the drive-time commute was my Crüxshadows playlist. I have had echoes of Heart on My Sleeve running through my head this morning.

Football Update
Ravens. Bengals. Tonight. 7PM Eastern.

I think that I will, once again, watch the game at Fiddler’s Elbow. Anyone up for Guinness on tap and some football? Hit me up and let me know.

Stray Toasters

• I am pleased to announce that the LJ-to-WP migration is complete: All entries from 2001-2006 have been imported.
• TCP/IP… DNS… SSH. Oh, my!
• For : Kitty Pryde
• The .wav file that I use for “contact logging out of chat” on Trillian is a slamming door. I just noticed that it sounds like the bass drum in Hollaback Girl.
• How to explain terabytes to management
• Jason sent me a link to this earlier. People are dumn dumb.
• AMD Launches Barcelona
• 
• Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys chipmunks.
• introduced me to the Bloodhound Gang song A Lap Dance Is So Much Better When the Stripper Is Crying this weekend. Dear Lord…
• Photos: A Century of Helicopters

Quotes of the Day

• “So… you ever spend much time around sheep?”
• “My brother has a thing for goats.”

Namaste.

Sunday: Coda
Today was a good day.

Post-errand running and spending time at the driving range, I acquired a cup of frozen mocha goodness, picked up Sara and headed to the Hogle Zoo.

Click for pictures (and they’re great-huge, sorry to those of you on dial-up).

The weather was perfect: Sunny with a light breeze. After seeing the animals (and some prime people-watching), we headed up Emigration Canyon to see if the foliage had started to change. It had… but not much.

From there, it was back down to Parley’s Canyon… and on to Park City. For ice cream. Look, if Burt Reynolds and Jerry Reed could go to Texarkana for beer, we could go to Park City for ice cream. And we did. So there.

Westbound and down to SLC for dinner (and a little football) with Sara’s family. I met her brothers a few years ago – and, in a case of “small world gets even smaller,” I discovered/realized that one of them is a DJ at one of the local clubs – but hadn’t met her parents. Dinner was good. Football was football… but the game I’m concerned about is the Monday night game: The Ravens vs. Cincy. (That’s right, Ms. , it’s on!)

Then, home to load up on orange juice and Sudafed. Again. And work on the pics from the day.

posted this meme. I liked it. I’m copping it:

Copy this list. Leave in the bands you’ve seen perform live. Delete the ones you haven’t and add new ones that you have seen until you reach 25. An asterisk means the previous person had it on their list. Two asterisks means the last two people who did this before you had that band on their list. Three asterisks etc…

1. Nine Inch Nails*****
2. Aerosmith
3. Babyface
4. Barenaked Ladies
5. Ben Folds Five
6. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
7. Boyz II Men
8. Cake
9. The Cruxshadows
10. David Bowie
11. emmet swimming
12. India.Arie
13. Information Society
14. Jonni Lightfoot (pre-Air Supply)
15. Luscious Jackson
16. New Edition
17. Poe
18. Preservation Hall Jazz Band
19. Rockapella
20. Rush
21. Sister Hazel
22. Shawn Colvin
23. Squirrel Nut Zippers
24. Sting
25. The Who

Stray Toasters

• Just in case I haven’t mentioned it enough or there was some lingering question about it: I’m sick of being sick.
• Toll the bell
  Pay the private eye
  All’s well
  20th century dies
• Zaz!
• I think that I have a plan for the dining room: Railroad motif. I have some old railroad pictures that I think would look good, once framed. And then, although I’m still a little indecisive on this part, I may get some free-hanging shelves and put my HO and N-scale trains on them.
• How do I swear in foreign languages?
• I need to buy a new architect scale. *sigh*
• Going back through some old posts, I came across this one. It made me laugh.
• Y’know what…?
  The Candy Man can.
  Even after all these years.
• needs some attention.
• O-E-O-E-O!
• RFID implants linked to animal tumors
• VIKA Blecket

And, that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Sunday – 09 September 2007
I slept rather well last night, getting to bed somewhere around 3:00 AM.

I was up at 10 ’til 8:00.

Even better: I didn’t need to be up until 8:45.

*grblsnrkx*

I laid there/semi-dozed for the next hour.  I finally dragged myself out of bed and prepared to run a few errands.  The errand-running was uneventful, but productive.

On the way home, I treated myself to a large bucket of balls at Murray Parkway.  Today’s results were… mixed, leaning towards poor.  I had a few good drives, but nothing really consistent.  About 2/3 of the way through the bucket, a gentleman from a couple of tees over approached me and gave me a suggestion about my grip.  I adjusted and there was a noticeable difference.  He also asked if I ever made it to Golf in the Round; I told him that I had been there before.  He suggested that I talk with the golf pro there – he said that the pro had helped him more in 30 minutes of instruction than anyone else had in his 30+ years of playing golf.  Might be worth a shot.

Stray Toasters

• Jimmy Buffet’s He Went to Paris is a very good song.
• Harambee
• Sudafed.  Mmm, Sudafed.

I should probably do something along the lines of getting ready for the rest of the day.

Namaste.

Saturday: Coda
I played a couple of hours of CoH this afternoon. As soon as I logged in, I was invited to join a team. Caught me a little off-guard, as I didn’t recognize the person who had asked me to join. Clarity came a few minutes later. And then it was off to adventure.

The Hand of Nefer-Tem is now at Security Level 35. And, with the new level came a new power. I decided to go for Dark Extraction, which basically allows me to extract the (waning) life essence from a defeated enemy, infuse it with energy and turn it into a “pet,” of sorts… kind of like Sparky was for Indigo Bolt.

I was feeling run-down, thanks to this lovely cold, so I decided to leave Paragon City and head to Arkham. I read a bit of Black Seas of Infinity, while chugging yet more orange juice. Reading soon gave way to sleep – I took a two-hour nap (a two-hour naaaaaap!). I felt a bit better, post-nap.

Then, it was on to breakfast.

Stray Toasters

• Velocirobs vs. T-Robs.
  “I’m learning to open doors.”
• The Elevens.
• I may try to squeeze in a trip to the driving range in the morning.
• Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit
• While driving to breakfast, LL Cool J’s The Boomin’ System came on the iPod. What is it about that song that makes it so timeless? And just damn good and fun to listen to? I think that it has secured a place on my list of “Driving Songs.”
• Beefcake! BEEFCAKE!!!
• I can tell that I’ll be making a pilgrimage to the Garden of Sweden soon: I’m looking up the prices for picture frames.
• Tiny Titans…. interesting….
• Behold the inertial-dampening powers of coffee creamer!

Quote of the Day
While talking about travel, we wound up discussing the need to remove one’s shoes at airport security. This led into the best types of shoes to wear and wearing socks. This, in turn, led to talking about removing one’s shoes at various airports. On the subject of McCarran International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas:

: “There’s syphilis on the floor! C’mon… Drippy hookers!”

Namaste.