Random Access

Saturday – 23 April 2011
I don’t know what happened to the blue skies and mild temps we had yesterday, but it looks grey and drab outside. But, it’s a day that I’m alive to enjoy, so I’m still thankful for it.

After work yesterday, I found myself gallivanting hither and yon. I wandered into Ra-Elco, an electronics shop that I was introduced to about ten years ago. It hasn’t changed much. Next, there was a trip to The Train Shoppe, of course. They are redoing the O scale layout, so that side of the store was a little… chaotic. But, that didn’t stop me from looking around and checking out the wares. I came this close to picking up a couple of sets of trestles. But, I didn’t. Yet.  From there, I put in an appearance at Jitterbug Coffee Hop. I meandered my way southward and eventually wound up at Pin-up Girl, hanging out with Jim. Later in the evening, it was time to meet the usual suspects for Clitorati.

All-in-all, it was a good day.

Today should be another good day. I’m having breakfast with Chris in a couple of hours. I’m judging a HeroClix tourney for Dr. Volt’s this afternoon. And, SaraRules! and I have Date Night at the symphony this evening.

Stray Toasters
Nope, nothing today… or, at least, not yet. Check back tomorrow.

Namaste.

Friday – 22 April 2011
It’s my 9/80 “on” Friday. S’okay… it’s the quiet, low-number-of-employees day. That’s a good thing.

Today is also Good Friday…

…and it’s Earth Day, too.

But, it’s still a Friday, and that means that the weekend is mere hours away…

Last night, after I got home from work, I went to the basement and ran my train around the layout for a bit. To those who don’t get “how” people can derive enjoyment from “…just watching a train go in a (modified) circle,” I don’t think that I can sufficiently explain it. But I do. And it was good. And fun.

After a failed trip to the Village Christmas Shoppe at Gardner Village (it’s closed… as in permanently) SaraRules! and I picked up dinner from the Papas – John and Murphy – and went home to watch The Godfather: Part III, which I’d never seen before. It was good. (Man, it was LONG, too…) I enjoyed seeing continuation and conclusion of Michael Corleone’s rise to power and how he wielded it.

Stray Toasters

• I’m playing phone-tag with two different service companies, while avoiding… umm, “delaying”… calling two others. Yay.
• Well, $#!* Swearing is good for you, sort of
  Really?! It took them 2 years to figure this out? I could have told them that in about 2 seconds.
• SLC church distributes free copies of the Quran
• 
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How 50 Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture
• Georgia nuclear reactor shuts down; investigation under way
  • Speaking of Georgia and nuclear power, I need to correct something that I posted (at least once) before: It turns out that former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was not a nuclear engineer, as I had previously been told. He did work in the field of nuclear energy, but wasn’t a physicist or nuclear engineer. (Source)
  • Fukushima Plant Is (Officially) Dead Forever
• There’s a new Green Lantern trailer…
• At Ebenezer Baptist Church, a Glorious Rebirth
• 
• Zombie comic tutorial for using the college library
• Inquiries Grow Over Apple’s Data Collection Practices

Namaste.

Thursday – 21 April 2011
It’s another NBN Thursday in the valley. It’s partly sunny, but at least it’s not raining. For the time being, anyway…

Last night was Game Night 2, with and the gang. Actually, it was an abbreviated gang, as a couple of our group weren’t able to make it. But, we persevered and adventured on without them. And we lived to tell the tale.

Back at home, I joined SaraRules! in watching Real Salt Lake take on Monterrey in the Concacaf Champions League Final match. RSL looked a bit tired by the time I started watching (second half), but they held their own against… and the refs. I – along with a couple of the announcers – thought that the refs yellow carded a couple of plays that shouldn’t have drawn penalties AND they completely missed/ignored a red card offense against Monterrey. *shrug* RSL came out of the game with a 2-2 tie and the second leg of the match will be held at Rio Tinto Stadium next Wednesday.

Stray Toasters

• In a follow-up to yesterday’s post: Weird Al posts Lady Gaga parody song (incl. link to song)
  It turns out that her manager never forwarded the song/request to Lady Gaga in the first place.
• Mail Rail: London’s long lost underground postal railroad
• 
• For SaraRules!: Behold: The world’s most complicated Rube Goldberg machine
• In Online Games, a Path to Young Consumers
• 2011 World’s Ugliest Couch Contest
• 
• I wonder of SaraRules! would let me build one of these…
• Despite threats, security not enough of priority at utilities
• FDA warns Delta over rodent droppings ‘too numerous to count’
• Burning Question: Is Wi-Fi Squatting Illegal?
• 
• The Man’s Guide to Marriage: A Timeline
• Stumbling Into Bad Behavior
• Utah attorney general says he will file antitrust lawsuit against BCS
• Engineering a real-life ‘Star Wars’ AT-AT

Namaste.

Wednesday – 20 April 2011
It’s the middle of the week, once more. That means new comics and Game Night 2.

Last night, SaraRules! and I had dinner – at one of the local Mimi’s Cafes – with my friends Peggy and Adrian. I haven’t seen Peggy in nearly ten years, I don’t think; Adrian and I last got together about a year or so ago. It was good to see and catch up with them. And, both the food and the company were good.

After dinner, I headed over to ‘ place for a bit of Tuesday night gaming. Our group had to figure out a couple of goings-on in the city… while not getting killed by a bunch of cultists… AND figure out to whom we could talk about said cultists without getting ourselves killed. Precarious. We seemed to find an interested – and quite possibly helpful – group. We’ll see if it comes back to bite us in our collective recta.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
Tina Fey’s Prayer for a Daughter, excerpted from her book, Bossypants

Stray Toasters

• Is it possible to rickroll yourself?  If so, I think I did while shaving this morning.
  • What Defines a Meme?
• Dangerous Arts
• Grete Waitz, Marathon Champion, Dies at 57
• Interview: Melissa Bianco, City of Heroes Lead Designer
• The Ravens have released their schedule for next season, assuming that there’s a 2011-2012 season…
• 
• iPhone keeps records of everywhere you go
• Sound Matrix
• From the “Um…No, you idiotstick.” file: Man tried to rob store with game remote
• Cuba Lays Foundation for a New Leader
• A Rabbi Armed With a Blowtorch Keeps Things Kosher
• In the digital era, free is easy, so how do you persuade people to pay?
• U.S. Orders Airlines to State Fees More Clearly

Namaste.

Tuesday – 19 April 2011
It’s a kind of grey-ish day. It’s currently not raining; it would be nice if that holds up for the rest of the day.

Last night was a very casual night around the house. SaraRules! and I had dinner in front of the TV. Our viewing choice for the night: Big Trouble in Little China, a movie that I had somehow managed to go twenty-five years without seeing. To her credit, SaraRules! warned me – before the movie started – that it was a “Cool World-Long Kiss Goodnight” Scale kind of film. She was right. (But, it was fun. Silly, but fun.) We also caught an episode of Top Gear.

Stray Toasters

• William Donald Schaefer, governor and mayor, dies
  • Remember Baltimore’s Champion, William Donald Schaefer

  

• Figure Out Where Your Tax Dollars Went
• Lucasfilm Animation’s New Building Is a Sandcrawler
• What Makes Music Expressive?
• BrikWars!
• 
• Parents, don’t dress your girls like tramps
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: UK gets Viagra-laced beer
• Adrianne Palicki, Chris Hemsworth and other superhero actors Simpson-ized
• Is Sitting a Lethal Activity?
• Here comes the sun (do-do-do-doooo)
  Here comes the sun
  And I say: It’s all right…
• How big an explosion could you realistically survive?
• 2nd teen survives leap from Golden Gate Bridge
• Malls Across America

Namaste.

Monday – 18 April 2011
It’s Tax Day here in the States. Coincidentally (or not so much so), it’s a grey and rainy day. For those of you who are eleventh hour filers: Good luck.

And I’ll go ahead and dedicate today’s Groove Break to the IRS:

• The O’Jays – For the Love of Money

• Pink Floyd – Money

• Tony Toni Tone – If I Had No Loot

Yesterday was an all-around good day. SaraRules! and I attended Palm Sunday Mass, after which we dropped in and said “Hello” to the in-laws. Then we headed home and did a little yard work. I did the first lawn mowing of the season. Unlike ‘s “One and Done” lawnmower start, my mower started on the third pull. (But, it started, and that was the key thing.) Post-lawn care, I plopped down on the sofa and watched some DVR fare: A pre-Christmas episode of Human Target and – along with SaraRules! – an episode of Lopez Tonight from last week, on which Prince performed. We both noted how young and fit he looks at 52. Seriously, the man looks like he’s still in his mid-30s. (Two words: “Dorian. Gray.”) Next we headed back to the in-laws’ for dinner… and we watched Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe, which was a fun tide-me-over until the new season of Burn Notice kicks off in June.

Stray Toasters

• The Trebuchette project hit their funding goal… with four days to spare!
  If you haven’t yet donated, consider doing so.  After all, you can get a trebuchet out of the deal!
• The MTH 2011 Volume 2 Catalog is now available. Helloooo, Covet List!
• By way of MarknTyme: Sleep, performed by Eric Whitacre’s “Virtual Choir 2.0”

• Retailers Retool Sites to Ease Mobile Shopping
• Chrysler vows new Dodge Viper supercar due next year

  

• TSA security looks at people who complain about… TSA security
• Monopoly Redesign: Do Not Pass Go!
• New Gaga song shocks religious leaders
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Belly dance scuppers ‘disabled’ ex-wife’s divorce deal
• Lionel LLC unveils ‘Lindbergh Engine’ model at Railroad Museum
• 
• Scrutiny Lags as Jetliners Show the Effects of Age
• Choco-Thulhu is real!
• Repelling Bugs With the Essence of Grapefruit
• Things That Earn Their Keep

Right on to the friction of the day…

Namaste.

Sunday – 16 April 2011
Today is Palm Sunday (1, 2).

And every time I think of that, my mind wanders off to Palm Sunday Downpour, by the band a friend of mine used to be in…

…which, apparently, one of his former bandmates has covered/released on his own. Huh. Go, Power of the Interwebs!

Yesterday was a good day. It was, to be certain, a long day, but it was a good one, all around:

The morning started with SaraRules! and me heading over to say “Goodbye” to Kate, Perry and the kids. They moved out of town this morning. I’ve known Kate for… close to ten years and I’ve known Perry for 8 or 9-ish; they’ve been very good friends. They’re going to be missed.

Next, we headed to Thanksgiving Point to check out:

“Eye-Candy Overload” was a wee bit of an exaggeration… but I think that was only because of how much the weather has flip-flopped from warm-to-cold-to-warmish over the past couple of weeks. Yes, there were tulips in bloom. But, upon our arrival, there weren’t as many as we would have expected. As the morning wore on – and as we neared the end of our excursion – more opened. This isn’t to say that we had a bad time, though. Far from it. We had a good walk and I got a lot of pictures around the gardens.

On the way home, we stopped at In-N-Out Burger for lunch and at the local Kohl’s, so that I could look for a couple of pairs of slacks. Lunch was successful; the clothes shopping, not as successful.

I decided to venture northward. I stopped in at Almosta Junction in Clearfield, where – for the first time in all of my trips there – their layout was in operation! That, of course, meant that I was compelled to shoot video (15 MB, m4v file) of it. I left with a couple of books and an O-Scale BMW 6 Series car. Next, I headed up to The Wonderful World of Trains. There were plenty of things there that could easily wind up on The Covet List, but I managed to leave with just the first FasTrack book that Lionel put out.

Back home. It was almost time to start getting ready for the evening’s outing. Black suit (Nod Ya Head), white shirt, black tie (with grey squares and white dots), black shoes. I had the good fortune to accompany both SaraRules! and to dinner and the symphony. We ate at Settebello; I had the Margherita pizza (with sausage) and a couple of cappucinos. After dinner, we walked to Abravanel Hall to hear Utah Symphony perform

(click image to see the program for the evening)

We missed most of the Mozart – we were a bit late, due to how crowded Settebello was – but the rest of the concert was quite good. Despite having heard Also Sprach Zarasthustra and On the Beautiful Blue Danube numerous times before, it was quite another thing to hear them performed live; I should think that Maestro Fischer would be proud of how the symphony performed under Mr. Schwarz’ direction.

Before heading home, we stopped at Capo for gelato. It was a good way to end the evening.

Stray Toasters

• Inability to Detect Sarcasm, Lies May Be Early Sign of Dementia, UCSF Study Shows
• From Jill Pantozzi’s “Has Boobs, Reads Comics” blog: New York Times insults female readers, they write back
  • How to Pick a Local Comic Book Store
  • Block Quote: The Case for Comic Books
• Trebuchette – the snap-together, desktop trebuchet
  These guys are only a few dollars – and a few days – from having their project fully funded. Why not pitch in and help them meet their goal? (Besides… who wouldn’t love to have their own trebuchet?)
• Keep Your Thumbs Still When I’m Talking to You
• Appalachian History Boxed Up in Shuttered Museum
• Ouch. Talk about “poor product placement.”

  

• FBI shuts down poker sites in online gambling crackdown
• You vs. the TSA: How to Survive an Invasive Pat-down
• She keeps her ex’s pistol
  On the table beside her bed
  To scare the ghosts that come
  As the bourbon slips to the back of her head
• Eight Is Too Much for ‘Short Sleepers’
• ‘Sweet Valley’ Twins Are Back, and, Like Readers, Fully Adult

Time to start getting ready for Mass and the rest of the day…

Namaste.

Friday – 15 April 2011
It’s my “off” Friday. Rather than idling the day away, I’m heading over to Kate and Perry’s in a bit — I’m helping them load up a moving truck. They finally sold their house and are moving this weekend. Getting used to the fact that they won’t be around has been odd, and I expect it to be even more so – at least for a while – once that becomes a reality.

Groove Break

• Teddy Riley and Guy – Groove Me

• Eric B and Rakim – Microphone Fiend

• Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock – Joy & Pain

• Jay-Z – Izzo (H.O.V.A.)

Yesterday was a decent day. Thanks (or “no thanks,” depending on your perspective) to working on Saturday, I had some extra time banked, so I was able to cut out of work a couple of hours early. Win. After dinner, I called my friend, William, whose birthday I managed to miss on Sunday.  We talked for better than half an hour, catching up on all the latest news from our respective families. After that, SaraRules! and I headed downtown for a night at the opera ballet:

The performance was good; we both especially liked the staging and choreography of the Bolero piece.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
posted a link to this last night; I found it rather intriguing: The Truth about Race, Religion and the Honor Code at BYU

Stray Toasters

• By way of SaraRules!: Wheelchair becomes 19-year-old’s BMX bike
• A Young Son’s Goal: Making Money for His Mother
• Jos. A. Bank is having another “Buy One, Get Two Free” sale on suits, sport coats and tuxedos
• “America the Beautiful”

  

• The World’s Largest Gummy Bear
• I should try to squeeze in a trip to a train and/or hobby shop today…
• Confessions of a fuzzy twit: Simon Pegg
• Why Are So Many People Dancing in Apple Stores?
• Brazilian Police to Wear Glasses That Can Scan Faces to Find Criminals

  

• The Last Fiesta – I’m not sure that I even have the words to describe this adequately…
• Why the Internet Is No Substitute for a Library
• The World’s Creepiest Opera Is Still Under Construction

Up. Out.

Namaste.

Thursday – 14 April 2011
It’s another glorious NBN Technical Friday. This morning started with clouds and a little snow… but it looks as though the sun is trying to put in an appearance. We’ll see how that goes.

Last night was D&D 4.0 night with and company. We adventured. We got loot. We walked right into the middle of a war between factions in a city… and had to choose sides. Hopefully, we chose well.

After the game, I headed home and occupied a nice and comfy spot on the couch, as my stomach decided that it wanted to try out a new acrobatics routine. I am attributing it to “The Revenge of Lunch!” Fortunately, by the time I got ready to call it a night, it was better. I attribute that to milk and Tums.

Stray Toasters

• Training monkeys to assist people with severe disabilities
  Didn’t any of these people learn anything Monkey Shines?  (I didn’t know that this was a George Romero film. Huh.)
• How to dig jive talk
• Seeking Execution Drug, States Cut Legal Corners
• TSA under fire for enhanced patdown of 6-year-old girl
• 
• Barry Bonds found guilty of obstruction of justice
• “Goony-goo-goo!”
• Esquire Style Presents: The American Revolution
• 
• Microsoft distributes 17 patches for 64 flaws
• The Management Myth
• 
• Study Finds Drop in Deadly V.A. Hospital Infections
• New Chevrolet Camaro will outpower Ford Mustang
  But, I’d personally still prefer the Mustang over the Camaro.
• UMaine Researchers Use Lobster Shells to Create Biodegradable Golf Ball

Namaste.

Wednesday – 13 April 2011
It’s midweek, which means that it’s also new comics and D&D 4.0 night. But, today is also my brother-in-law, John’s, birthday:

Yesterday, I got off work a little early, so I ran a couple of errands before heading home. For dinner, SaraRules! suggested Thai food, so we went to Pawit’s.  Por Pia Sod…. Mmmm.   After dinner, we headed home and vegged for the rest of the evening, catching up on the previous nights’ episodes of NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles.

Stray Toasters

• Today is a suit day. Another one, that is.  Today: black suit, white shirt, black/grey/pink tie and pink pocket square.
• NASA Announces Space Shuttles’ Final Homes
• Ex-Mafia Boss Breaks a Code in Telling All
• Air France A380 spins Delta regional jet in JFK collision
  • NTSB releases post-collision photos of JFK A380 incident
  • JFK runway collision spotlights dangers on the ground
• 
• Japan nuclear issue: PM seeks to calm food safety fears
• For Flip Video Camera, Four Years from Hot Start-up to Obsolete
• Miniature Town Brings Its Creator a New Life
• ‘Business casual’ causes confusion

And now, it’s time for a meeting. One that wasn’t on my schedule. WHEE!

Namaste.

Tuesday – 12 April 2011
Work week: Day 2

As Google’s “classic” home page reminds us: Today is the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin becoming the first man in space

…also known as “Cosmonautics Day,” as well as being Yuri’s Night.

Thanks to an early day in the office, I was off work at 3:30 yesterday. I popped in to SaraRules!’ office, to say “Hi” for a surprise. From there, it was on to The Train Shoppe; they had completed the coupler repair on my Chessie locomotive. Next, I met , Tina and Casey for a stroll around Liberty Park. We did a couple of laps around the park which, assuming that the info I found is correct, means that we did about three (3) miles. I’m calling that a workout.

I came home, just in time to see SaraRules! off to her Justice League Junior League event. That meant that I was a “bachelor for an evening!” My first conundrum set in fairly quickly: What did I want for dinner? I solved that riddle with a quick trip to the local Five Guys. I came home, plopped down in front of the TV and DVR and watched a pre-Christmas episode of Human Target. I followed that up with a bit of HALO: Reach. Yeah… it was a good way to spend an evening.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules! and I bought a pair of trebuchets last night.
  • It reminds me of the time I wanted to build a Mad Cat in the backyard, like Jim Martin did. I actually emailed him back in… 2003 or 2004; he was a nice enough gent.
• Human Spaceflight’s 50th: The Glorious Past and Uncertain Future
• Jerry Lawson, Inventor of Modern Game Console, Dies at 70
• Little girl joins the Dark Side

  
  EMBED-Little Girl Joins The Dark Side – Watch more free videos

• NFL, Players Ordered to Mediate
  • For the Panthers, a QB or no QB with first NFL draft pick?
• For SaraRules!: Rube Goldberg photobooth
• Minority business program to undergo changes
• 
• New York Airport Jet Clips Smaller Plane’s Tail at JFK Monday Night
• Gas Prices Rise, and Economists Seek Tipping Point
  • This Is the World’s Greatest Driveway
• Epsilon may have been tipped off that it was a target

Namaste.

Monday – 11 April 2011
I just realized that it’s 11/4/11. Palindromic. Other than that, it’s just the start of another glorious week in Paradise.

The weekend seemed short, but I’m sure that’s because I spent part of Saturday in the office and got a lovely 5AM wake-up call from the office yesterday morning. Aside from that, it was a nice weekend. Yesterday, SaraRules! and I had brunch at Ruth’s Diner. As we were eating, we noticed people staring at the ridge across the road from the diner. Then we noticed them taking pictures. It didn’t make sense until we got ready to leave:

The elk was just standing there, taking in all that surrounded him. He was there for at least a good ten to fifteen minutes.

From Ruth’s, we ran a couple of errands before heading home for a bit. Then, it was over to the in-laws’ for Logan’s birthday dinner. Dinner consisted of barbecued chicken, roasted root vegetables, and salad. For dessert, we had a homemade gingerbread cake – some/most people had homemade applesauce for “frosting,” I opted for ice cream.

Last night, I slept moderately well. I woke up a few times, half-expecting to get another call from work and having to go in at O’dark-thirty. As it was, I roused myself about a half-hour early and just decided to make a day of it. Thanks to a bit of prep work last night, I was in the office about an hour earlier than usual, which means I’ll be leaving early, too.

Stray Toasters

• Civil War anniversary events go forward despite lack of funds
• Detroit Symphony Returns to a Giddy Reception
• As much as it pains me to see disheartening things about The Garden of Sweden: IKEA’s U.S. factory churns out unhappy workers
• Say goodbye to 1-year Verizon contracts
• 
• Couric’s Rocky Path to a Likely Parting with CBS
• A Flapper’s Dictionary
• That Noisy Woodpecker Had an Animated Secret
• Sinister Chevrolet Corvette ‘Centennial’ is car noir
  • Texas considers highest speed limit in nation
• 
• Being Bilingual May Boost Your Brain Power
• A New Push to Let H.I.V. Patients Accept Organs That Are Infected
• Woods becomes that Tiger again; not long enough
• 
• Could You Pass Harvard’s Entrance Exam from 1869?

Namaste.

Sunday – 10 April 2011
Today is my brother-in-law’s birthday, well… one of my brothers-in-law, that is:

…and a classmate’s:

…and my friend, A.J.’s (one of the opera residents):

This morning started early. With a 0450 phone call from corporate… telling me about a continuation of yesterday’s problem. Nothing like the surge of adrenaline one gets from being jarred out of sleep by your phone ringing and then racing into another room to pick it up only to find out that it’s work calling. After answering a few questions and making a couple of command decisions, I put the phone down and got back into bed. It took me a few minutes to wind down enough to fall asleep again.

The sun has been trying to put in an appearance this morning. This song was the first thing that went that went through my head:

This was the second:

I’m not sure which amused me more.

Yesterday, I spent four hours at work, dealing with the aforementioned problem. At first, I was pretty annoyed about the whole deal. After a little while, I gained a different perspective: I was being paid to wait for service technicians to come in and work on the problem… AND… it means that I’m already eight hours into the upcoming week’s schedule. In other words, by the time I leave work tomorrow, I’ll have 17 hours on the clock already. And, this is my “off” Friday, to boot. Coming to those realizations made having to work a little better.

SaraRules! was kind enough to bring me lunch yesterday. The original plan was for me to run to work, assess what was wrong, fix it if possible, run an errand and then meet SaraRules! and her parents for lunch. That whole “four hours” thing blew that to Hell and back. So, the Best Wife Ever brought lunch to me.  And she even hung out while we – my coworker, Cade, came in also – sorted out the problem.

After I got back home, I decided to run down to The Train Shoppe. It was a trip with a two-fold purpose: 1) I wanted to see if they’d gotten anything new, and 2) I needed them to take a look at the couplers on one of my locomotives. I managed to walk out empty-handed. Barely. My next stop was Borders. It’s become a scavenger pit. If my math is correct, I believe that they will be closed as of this coming Saturday.

After my excursion, SaraRules! and I took in a movie. We saw Hanna. It was… interesting. We both kind of enjoyed it, but we agreed that it could have used a bit more plot and background development. The story revolved around a girl, her father and the intelligence agency operative who apparently wanted them both dead. Oh, yeah… the girl had been raised to be an assassin. A very effective assassin, at that. It was also something of a coming of age movie, as well: Hanna had been raised alone in the woods by her father, with no contact with the outside world. And her adventure took her across Africa and Europe, where she was introduced to many new things… like electricity, music, and computers. As an action movie, I’d give this pretty high marks, but on the whole, its shortcomings/oversights drag it down a few pegs.

Stray Toasters

• Globe Poster: An Illustrated History of American Music
• The O’s beat the Rangers 5-0 yesterday, giving them a 6-2 record…. which puts them on top of the Yankees and Red Sox

  

• Film director Sidney Lumet dead at age 86
  • 6 Things to Know About Director Sidney Lumet
• If you’re not reading Fables, why aren’t you?
• When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?
  • Gender stereotypes woven into language of toy ads
• I want to know just WHAT was this guy thinking…?!
• Murdoch paper admits phone hacking as victim rejects payout
• Pinup Girls Before and After: The Original Photoshop
• Sesame Street heads to Pakistan

And now, off to brunch with the lovely SaraRules!

Namaste.

Saturday – 09 April 2011
It’s snowing again this morning. I guess I could have just said “It’s still snowing.” It snowed, intermittently, all day yesterday; although, it tapered off and stopped last night. I guess that Mother Nature hasn’t finished saying all that was on her mind.

Last night, SaraRules! and I met up with , , Angy, and for our usual Friday night gathering. I have to say that the people-watching was pretty prime. (…and so was the running commentary.)

Stray Toasters

• I need to hit the local post office sometime this morning. An item that I was selling on eBay sold… to someone out of the country.  I have to find out what kind(s) of forms I need to include in the packaging, as well as how much it’s going to cost to ship — I was getting two different prices from the USPS and I’d like to be certain of the price I quote the buyer.
• For SaraRules!: Here’s a little Rob Base and D.J. EZ Rock:

• U.S. to issue terror alerts on Facebook, Twitter
  I actually don’t think that this is a necessarily “bad” idea…
• Astronomers may have witnessed a star torn apart by a black hole
• Wozniak: I Would Consider Returning to Apple
• By way of Project: Rooftop comes Kris Anka’s Wonder Woman and Michelle Sciuto’s Victorian Birds of Prey
• What If Your Favorite Album Was a Book?
• 
• Getting Animated: Fave Cartoon Themes from Bugs to Batman
• Jon Favreau Shoots for Western Realism in Cowboys &a Aliens
• 12 Cool Products Inspired by LEGO, by way of lj user=”duckspeaker”
• All Star Trek coming to Netflix, make it so
• Too Much Alcohol May Cause Cancer
• Friday most popular day for bank robberies

And with that, it’s time to think about finding some trouble to get into…

Namaste.

Friday – 08 April 2011
It’s another 9/80 “on” Friday… and this one came complete with snow!

Yep, “Welcome to Utah.” I’m still expecting at least one more snowfall this month (and maybe a dusting in May).

Last night was a lazy night around the homestead. SaraRules! had cancelled her evening plans and stayed in, so we spent the evening watching the teevee. We caught up on a NCIS episodes, as well as an episode of CSI: (which we haven’t watched in at least a year). And when did Lady Heather, sorry… Dr. Kessler become “Dr. Kessler” and not “Lady Heather,” anymore?! We also watched Beef on Fuse, about the feuds in rap and hip-hop from the 80s to the early 2000s.

And here’s a little 3T to help your Friday groove along:

…and…

Stray Toasters

• No Accord in Budget Talks as Policy Fights Hamper Deals
  • Q & A: What could happen during a government shutdown?
  • It May Be a ‘Budget Battle,’ but Some Skirmishes Have Little to Do With Money
• For SaraRules!: FBI releases files on Biggie Smalls murder; still no killer named
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• Cars, Houses, Human Remains: Debris from Japan Is Headed Toward U.S.
• Jean Bartik, Software Pioneer, Dies at 86
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• Brass Goggles: The Lighter Side of Steampunk
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Chinese censors ban time travel TV shows

Namaste.