Random Access

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.

Wednesday – 02 June 2008

I started to wind down a little after 1:00 last night/this morning… and it wasn’t a gradual decline, either.  It was more like a shelf edge. Seeing the signs, I got up and promptly started the end-of-the-day rituals.  I attempted to read a few pages of Snow Crash before calling it a night.  I think I read a paragraph (maybe two!) before the text degraded into indecipherable gibberish. I put the book down and went to sleep.

I vaguely remember turning off Alarm 1 this morning.  I distinctly remember turning off Alarm 2… and sprawling across the bed for what I swore would be “just a minute.” The next thing I know, there were landscapers outside my window. I checked the clock – it was well past time for me to be under way.  I was done – including a shower, brewing coffee and  a rousing game of “What Am I Going to Wear Today?!” – in just over 30 minutes. For those of you who are unfamiliar with WAIGtWT, the rules are very simple:

1. Got to your clothes closet
2. Open the door
3. Stare blankly at the clothes
4. Wait for something to magically leap off the rack and into your hand.
   (If nothing happens at Step 4, you’re doing something wrong.)
5. Walk away, to attend to some other aspect of getting ready.
6. Return to closet, to see if anything has thrown itself on the floor (or bed, if close enough).
7. Swear.  A lot.
8. Repeat Steps 4 through 7, as necessary.

So far the day looks good. I keep having the nagging suspicion that there’s something that I had tentatively scheduled for this evening… but I can’t put my finger on what it was.

Oh, well… the show must go on.

Namaste.

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: Coda
Tonight has been spent playing City of Heroes with MarknTyme and watching The Middleman. Both of them were terribly fun:

• City: I haven’t played a lot in the past few weeks, but I am still enjoying the time that I do get to spend in Paragon City. I put a level-and-a-half on Kurigari. I need to get a screen-cap of him.
• The Middleman: This show is just fun – a little campy, a little quirky and just… makes me smile. And laugh. And tonight’s episode even had Mark Dascascos (The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, Brotherhood of the Wolf) as Sensei Ping, teacher/trainer to Wendy… and luchadors! LOTS of luchadors.

Now, there’s DS9.

Win. Win. Win.

Namaste.

Until last night, I had forgotten that this is a short work week.  I apparently forgot it again this morning… until I started thinking about how I wanted to spread out my work hours – I was planning on working a bunch of 9- and 10-hour days and taking off early on Friday again, when it dawned on me that Friday is a freebie.  Had gone with my original plan of pulling 10-9-10, I would only have two hours of work on Thursday.  I may still do that.

Stray Toasters

• Michael Turner, artist and President of Aspen Comics, passed away Friday night.  He was 37.
• Wizard has a 6-page preview of Astonishing X-Men #25, Warren Ellis’ first issue on the title.  Page Four alone is reason enough to buy the book.
• Walk Score
• In the same vein as someecards comes WrongCards.  They even have an “In event of zombies” section.
• There are rumblings of Frank Miller working on some sort of sequel to 300.  I feel about this the way that I feel about The Dark Knight Strikes Again, his follow-up to The Dark Knight Returns:  You captured lighting in a bottle the first time around.  Don’t force it.  And, more importantly, why screw up a good thing?!
• Wizard, in their “Corps Curriculum” column, posted this picture… with the caption: “Yoda couldn’t have done it better.”  The funny thing is, you could actually overwrite Luke and Yoda’s X-Wing raising dialogue from SW:TESB on this page… and have it fit perfectly.

All that and a new episode of The Middleman tonight.

Huzzah!

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.

Sunday: Coda
Well… after I managed to pry myself from the sofa and actually get moving, I had a fun evening.

I headed downtown to check out the Utah Arts Festival, as I mentioned earlier. I went with a little trepidation: Last year’s festival seemed dull and unexciting, with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band providing the event’s only saving grace. OnlyAly, and went Saturday afternoon and said that it was good, but still…

I got to Library Square a little after 6:00. There seemed to be a good mix of exhibitors in the area between the library and The Leonardo. That was a hopeful sign. I browsed through a number of the booths. I next checked out the ones on the southeast side of the City and County Building. Again, good selections. Checking the time, I found that I still had time to spare before Desert Gypsy went on…. so, I wandered through some of the booths set up along 2nd East. Some of the artists whose work caught my eye included:

• Kenny Tong
• Greg Gawlowski
• Julie Stutznegger
• Penelope Moore
• Brett Varney
• Daniel Ng
• Mason Fetze
• J.P. Jespersen
• Whit Bronaugh and
• Bruce Reinfeld

I headed back over to the City and County Building to watch Desert Gypsy; my friend, Georgia, dances in one of their troupes and I told her that I would come down and check out her performance. It was fun. You could tell that the dancers – and the audience – were enjoying themselves. When they were finished, I hung around for a few minutes to talk with Georgia before she went to get changed.

Next up, I checked out the Salt Lake Alternative Jazz Orchestra. They were fun. I missed out on seeing them last year. I’ll be on the lookout for them from now on, though. When they were done, I headed back over to Library Square, with the intent on checking out Samba Fogo. Unfortunately, the best spots had already been taken. So, I headed up to the walkway that overlooked the square. Not much better; I could only see the tops of the dancers’ heads. But, I was in a good spot to watch MASS Ensemble‘s performance… with their 700’-long “Earth Harp” – stretched between the library and the Amphitheatre Stage.

There is a marked difference between “watching” a performance and “hearing” it. Let me narrow that down a bit: I saw and heard Mass Ensemble; what I did not hear was the harp. Hopefully people who were sitting/standing directly under the strings could hear them. I did enjoy Mass Ensemble’s performance otherwise.

Another band kicked off at 10:00 on the Park Stage, so I wandered over that way. The band was Way Way East Bay, a funk band (with horns!) from Logan, UT. That’s right, I used the words “funk band” and “Logan” and “Utah” in the same sentence. They were pretty good. They did some covers (including Tower of Power’s Dont Change Horses (in the Middle of the Stream) and Delbert McClinton’s Standing on Shaky Ground) as well as some original songs. They were having a good time and they sounded good, too. The crowd wasn’t large (most were still watching the MASS Ensemble performance), but it was of a decent size and they seemed to enjoy the music.

Around 10:30, I’d had my fill of the festival and decided to call it a night. But, the overall experience far exceeded last year’s disappointment.

On the way home, I dropped in and chatted with for a bit.

Stray Toasters

• Ten months
• , I was sorry to hear about the fire/water damage, but glad to hear that you and the Mrs. are okay.
• This still makes me grin:



• , I think that you’ll like this. (Let me know if the link doesn’t work for you…)
• I need to allocate some time for watching Space: Above and Beyond.
• Earth-D
• Eridani Light Horse

Methinks, that’s good for now.

Sunday – 29 June 2008
It’s seems as though June just got here… and now it’s almost gone.

Playing ‘Clix with Chris last night was good. We played two games, a one-on-one game and one with Matt and me taking him on. Chris won both. (Yay for sporadically crappy dice rolls!) I also understand now why he hates the “Indoor: Prison” map from the Sinister set… although, I think that it would be an interesting map to play with non-powered figures (S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, various law enforcement figures, A.I.M., Checkmate and/or thugs).

After gaming, I headed down to Sandy for breakfast. Not only was a small group, but we wound up leaving relatively early as everyone seemed to wind down from their week/day pretty quickly.

This morning, I managed to sleep in – I made it to the double-digits. Barely, but I did. I also woke up with a less-than-delightful headache. I assumed that it was lack-of-caffeine induced, but coffee has not as yet done anything, so I set two Aleve tablets on the job. Hopefully, they will do some good.

I’m trying to gear up to head downtown to visit the Utah Arts Festival. However, the whole “lazy” thing has had me firmly in its grip.

Stray Toasters

• This test is something of a test – I am trying to determine whether one WP-to-LJ cross-posting plugin is better than another.
• I finished the HeroClix character cards I was working on for Chris:
  • Logan
  • Magneto
  • Parallax
  • Superman
  • Wolverine
• Big haul of Crohn’s genes shows disease complexity
• 
• Checkmate
• Floyd Landis, winner of the 2007 Tour de Lance France, has been stripped of his win and had a two-year ban imposed on him.
• Teen killed by roller coaster
  While it’s sad to hear about this, I have to chalk this one up to the boy’s own lack of regard for the warning signs.
• 
• This place could almost be the USPS…

I should kick it into gear…

Namaste.

Saturday – 28 June 2008
I had some odd dreams this morning. The topper was one where, in an otherwise “normal” situation, I ran into – and was subsequently chased by – the JLApe. Madness. Even worse: I woke up thinking that it was Sunday. It took a few minutes for it to sink in that it really was Saturday. O.o

Otherwise, today has been great:

• I went to see WALL*E with and . It was great. Much better than I had expected. And it was a lot of fun. There were a lot of tech in-jokes, too – they caused and me to laugh a lot. And, the Pixar short before the movie, Presto, may have just supplanted Boundin’ as my favorite Pixar short. I heartily recommend this movie to everyone.
• Next on tap: A trip to the Garden of Sweden. They’re having their summer sale. I picked up a few more storage containers and picture frames.
• While in IKEA, I ran into . We noticed each other walking towards the checkout. After a couple of moments, he shouted (okay, it was really just a slightly notched-up “indoor voice”),”I know you…”
  Me: *blink blink*
  : From… LiveJournal!
  That kicked a few relational databases into gear… and I realized that we did, in fact, know each other. It was odd – in a far-from-bad way – to be recognized like that from someone I haven’t seen in at least… three years.

Now: I’m grabbing a bite to eat.
Next: Heading to Chris’ to play dolls HeroClix.
Later: Breakfast.

Namaste.

Being done with the work week is a nice thing.
Lunch at Jitterbug == good

Stray Toasters

• By way of Indexed: “On roads and online forums”



• Thanks to for pointing out Giant LEGO Storage Buildings: 65-foot-high LEGO Cathedrals Store 19 Billion Pieces a Year
• I caught myself whistling You’re the One That I Want, from Grease, a little while ago. I was about ready to shoot myself when I realized it.
• Happy 90th Birthday to Nelson Mandela



• Mandela != Madonna
• 
• Two cards down, two to go.

Pow!

Today’s sushi was good. Tony even threw in a couple of extra nigiri for us to try; I had albacore. Not bad.

Before lunch, I finally picked up my guitar from Acoustic Music. I’m a bit anxious to play. And, speaking of play, I’ve realized something: I want to play some of my older XBox games. Just because. Like X-Men: Legends and X-Men: The Next Dimension… and even X2: Wolverine’s Revenge and Spider-Man.

Stray Toasters

• For Derek:



• Pop culture + bukkake + macaques = ???
  (And I’m not really sure that we really want to know, either.)
• What Would Barack Obama Do Listen To? Wired took a few guesses… check out how they did.
• The Artist Formerly Known As The Fresh Prince (not to be confused with “just” Prince) backs Barack, too. BBC News has the skinny. Will Smith has been on The Late Show and The Colbert Report over the past couple of days, both interviews were entertaining.
• Mayor Mick’s bike returned
  (Did this kind of thing ever happen to Rocky Anderson? Richard Daley? Ed Koch?)
• 
• Orwell’s 1984 as a pulp novel

*voop*

Thursday – 26 June 2008
Last night was a relaxed night. After work, I headed to Dr. Volt’s to pick up this week’s comics. Home. Dinner. City of Heroes. I was invited to join a team for some Tsoo missions and nearly tacked on two levels before logging off. And, in an unusual turn, I felt tired fairly early – so early that I was showered and in bed a little after 12:30.

When the alarm went off this morning, I wasn’t quite ready to roll out of bed and face the morning, so I laid in bed for a few minutes… which turned into me falling asleep again. I woke up when alarm 2.0 went off. After staring at the ceiling and walls for a few, I got up, got ready and got under way.

Of course, I didn’t notice that I had left The Leash at home until I got to the office. Fortunately, the monitoring/notification software that sends alerts to the pager has a web interface. So, really, I’m just cutting out the middle man, not to be confused with The Middleman.

I need to decide whether today is a sushi day or a workout day. Bah.

Stray Toasters

• I got another package from my father yesterday: The 47 currently released state quarters.
• SaraRules has updated the Aspen section of her site with a couple of recent goings-on.
• Dave Koz: You Make Me Smile

• MarknTyme: Fix your GoogleTalk settings – you keep bouncing on/off.
• By way of : Christopher Titus Apologizes

• The 10 Best Fan-Made Hip-Hop Videos with The Sims
• DNS & BIND == *bleh*
• Brothel bus makes last stop in Miami Beach
• 

It’s a sushi day.
Decision: Rendered.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 24 June 2008
After work, I headed home to figure out what to do with my evening. I decided that I’d watch The Middleman and then head to the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner. Turned out that the 8:00 episode was a rebroadcast of the pilot. So, I went to the store first. Came home, started dinner and watched The Middleman. I had another thought on how to “define” it. Somewhat. It’s The X-Files meets Men in Black, leaning most heavily towards MiB.

After a little channel surfing (including a 45-second delay on Boomerang – man, Super Friends really did blow), I found the second hour of Beverly Hills Cop on Bravo. And there I sat. I haven’t watched BHC in years… and I have somehow not purchased it yet.

After ‘Cop and The Late Show (featuring a really funny Will Smith interview), I decided to call it an early night.

Stray Toasters

• I am working on a few new ‘Clix cards for Chris. It’s… oddly fun and the “worst” part is trying to come up with some of the quotes – I still need to find something for Superman (Icons, veteran) that works for his “Ranged Combat Expert” ability.
• Thanks to MarknTyme for pointing me in the direction of DC Elseworlds
  

(Click image for site)

• By way of SaraRules: Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (Part I)

• “whiffy”
• Uptown got its hustlers
  Bowery got its bums
  42nd Street got Big Jim Walker
  He’s a pool-shootin’ son of a gun
• With the disclaimers of: 1) I’m a guy and 2) I don’t have kids, I have a question: Is there something offensive about the cover of the July 2008 issue of GQ?

  

  The reason that I ask is this: I was in Target last night and there were copies of this issue in the news rack next to the candy and gum. Something that I’ve noticed here in Utah – and it may exist in other places, but I haven’t noticed it – is that when a magazine cover is deemed “too racy,” they put an opaque plastic insert in front of the magazine, so that only the title shows. And, lo and behold, this issue was one of them.

• And, since we’re already talking GQ: 2008 Fall Preview: Reinvent Yourself
  

Namaste.

Monday – 23 June 2008
Three hours’ sleep? Check.
Frozen caffeine? Check.
In the office just after 8:00? Check.

You would think that with a four-mile commute, my road monkey-to-miles ratio would be slim to nil. This morning proved that to be untrue. I even encountered one of them when I was parked. If my math is correct, I actually had a 1:1 ratio today. Four. Miles. Unglaublich!

Stray Toasters

• Shirley Bassey to miss Mandela concert in London
  And… just in case the name doesn’t ring a bell:
  • Diamonds Are Forever
  • History Repeating
• I find it odd, amusing (and a little scary) that I found these two articles within a couple minutes of each other:
  • Portable Karaoke Machine for Singing on the Fly
  • Brando’s Portable Disco Lights Do It Psychedelically with Lasers
• What do you get when you cross Fargo with snowglobes? Something along the lines of this, I’d guess.
• 750,000-brick Kennedy Space Center Is the Mother of All LEGO Models
• They’re… um… “rebooting” ReBoot. For more info, click here.

Let’s get this show on the road.