Random Access

Sunday – 22 June 2008
When I got home from breakfast last night/this morning, my upstairs neighbor had what sounded like a classical music playing. I pretty much ignored it after noticing it… until I noticed that I was hearing the same phrase over and over. For about an hour-and-a-half. I figured that it must be a DVD, replaying the music on the menu screen. I went to bed and thought no more of it.

When I woke up this morning, it was still playing.

And two hours later, it’s still going strong.

Chris bought a Parallax ‘Clix figure last week. He saw the cards I did for Galactus and Phoenix and asked if I’d mind doing one for Parallax. I told him that I didn’t mind; this is what I came up with:

Once again, the hardest part was trying to come up with the quotes to put with each power. But, on the whole, I’m quite happy with the results.

Stray Toaster

Some of the usual suspects are meeting for lunch at Jitterbug… then I’m going to make an effort to get some drawing done.  And then, it’s back to Chris’ to play ‘Clix with the guys from Far West.

I’d better get a move on.

Namaste.

Saturday: Coda
It’s been a rather full day.

I left the apartment a little later than I had planned, but I didn’t let that deter me from stopping to get a cup of caffeinated frozen joy. With that done, I was ready to face the world… or at least my opponents in the HeroClix tournament.

I took Galactus with me. Just because. There was a very slim chance that I would use him in the game (at his “Hungry” level) along with Phoenix (at her rookie level). But that was a VERY slim chance, indeed. I walked in with Galactus in my hands. The looks of “Oh… my… GOD…” from some of the other players were pretty priceless. When Keith (the judge) announced today’s tournament as “1,000 points and unrestricted”, Chris and I both decided to pull some of our big and/or colossal figures out of the mothballs. We expected everyone else to do the same. With one exception – someone brought World’s Finest –

My final decision was to go with an X-Men themed team:

• Bishop
• Gambit
• Phoenix
• Professor X
• Rogue
• Soldier X (Cable) and
• Wolverine

I lost the first match, but won the next two games. I’m not about to complain about those results. I played pretty well, despite some craptacular dice rolls. And, I think that Phoenix presented my opponents with both a “Take that thing out of the game quickly” challenge, while still being something that they didn’t want to get too close to. Either way, I’m not complaining.

After the games, I headed to Larryland: Central to see The Incredible Hulk. It was fun and is an excellent summer movie. It paid homage not only to the comics, but to the TV show. The cameos (Lou Ferrigno, Stan Lee and Robert Downey, Jr.) were fun to watch. There as even an old Bill Bixby clip. Edward Norton did a great job of portraying Bruce Banner as a man trying to control the beast within him. Liv Tyler did a smash-up job as Banner’s love interest, Betty Ross. William Hurt did an excellent job of bringing Betty’s father – and Banner’s main pursuer – Gen. “Thunderbolt” Ross. The turn that they took with Tim Roth’s Emil Blonsky/The Abomination was an interesting one: A career special forces operative who is realizing that while he’s still at the top of his game, mentally, his body is eventually going to slow down… something that he doesn’t want to deal with. Roth did a good job of portraying this. People said that Ang Lee’s Hulk was too slow and that it took too long to see Old Jade Jaws. I don’t think that they can make those same complaints about this movie. Louis Leterrier has done a good job of bringing the Hulk, as a property, to destructive live. I give this movie an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

After the movie, I headed back to Chris and Mary’s for this week’s Dark Heresy game. So far, no one on our team has died or done anything to get their character instantly – or even slowly – killed.

Post-game, it was time for breakfast with the usual suspects. Tonight’s people watching was choice, too.

Stray Toasters

• now has a box of Butterscotch Krimpets
• I ran into , Josh and Christine at the theatre this afternoon.
• Annie Lennox’ Diva is a good CD.
• I’m Ivory Soap sure that I wanted to add something here… but I don’t recall “what.”

Quote of the Day
Today’s nugget of joy was heard at breakfast:

Pat: “Swiss Army Dick.”

And with that… bon soir.

Saturday – 21 June 2008
This morning’s title ran – actually, it was more of a “casual stroll” – through my head as I was typing the day/date for this post. I took it as an omen and just went with it. The line was from a commercial bump between Saturday morning cartoons… back when NBC actually showed cartoons, way back in the day.

Yesterday, I rolled out of work at 2:00. I have to say: It was nice to be done for the week that early. I’m going to shoot for it again next week. I left the office and headed to Dr. Volt’s to pick up two weeks’ worth of four-color goodness. Next on the docket: Lunch. I headed to Jitterbug; and her brother joined me.

From there, I headed home for a few before heading back out for coffee and dinner.

This morning, I was up (slightly) before the alarm went off. I think I have a handle on my team for today’s games… but I still want to find a backup. Just in case. Either way, I need to find pieces that I will be happy with for all three rounds.

Stray Toasters

• Today is also Free RPG Day.
• The Violent Femmes (Blister in the Sun) have done a cover of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy… and it’s pretty good. Check it out here.
• 
• Everyone has a little secret he keeps
  I light the fires while the city sleeps

Time to get a move on.

Namaste.

SaraRules just reminded me that today is the first day of Summer.

With that in mind, I give you DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince:

Groove on, brothers and sisters. Groove on.

Friday – 20 June 2008
The end of the work week is at hand. Thanks to putting in a few extra hours, I’m done and gone at 1:30 today. That’s worth skipping lunch for. I’m going to run a few errands and enjoy the early start to the weekend.

Last night, I watched Fear Itself, the new anthology horror/suspense summer series on NBC. Thirteen episodes, each done by different directors. Last night’s episode was “The Family Man.”

Family Man – A likeable family man switches bodies with a serial killer during a near-death experience. Now he must keep his loved ones from being added to the long list of the killer’s victims.

It wasn’t bad; it reminded me of a modern Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits. I’m going to have to investigate the previous three episodes.

I also listened to the new Duffy CD, Rockferry. You may remember that I posted the video to Mercy a few weeks back:

The whole CD is good. It has a definite British soul feel, with a number of songs making nods to the 60s style of Brit soul/pop. I give it an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

Stray Toasters

• I chatted with a little while ago, he has left Nepal and is currently enjoying a layover in Bangkok. He should be home tomorrow evening. More on his travel adventures below.
• After sending her a link to zombie drawings on DrawerGeeks, I just typed “Zombees!” to SaraRules… which made me think “zombie bees.”
• By way of BBC News: One tonne ‘Baby’ marks its birth
• Drawn! (Which I had once again forgotten about…)
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: The Baby Borrowers
• Sailors fighting in the dance hall
  Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
  It’s the freakiest show
  Take a look at the Lawman
  Beating up the wrong guy
  Oh man! Wonder if he’ll ever know
  He’s in the best selling show
  Is there life ice on Mars?
• I found this by way of DeviantArt:


(click for more work by DarkAngelDTB)

• Auto Test Tracks Revealed From Above
• 
• Puzzle Calendar Is Not LEGO Compatible
• …however, this is pretty cool: LEGO Employees Have Minifigs As Business Card
• I think I’ll treat myself to either The Incredible Hulk or Get Smart after tomorrow’s ‘Clix game.

Quote of the Day

From this morning’s conversation with …
He was telling me about an email that he sent to Bot and a couple of his brothers:

I had to go through multiple roadblocks, burning tires, and brick throwers to get to the airport this morning. Today’s asshole Kathmandu protest is brought to you by students, who are demanding that fuel prices come down. Took us 90 minutes to get to the airport.

Anyway, I’m here, I’m in the Thai Airways lounge, and all is well. See you soon…

Then he added:

I almost went with the sesame street theme and said “today’s asshole kathmandu protest is brought to you by the letters AMF” but i think only andrew would’ve understood it

…where “AMF” stands for “Adios, motherfucker.”

I think that he should have added it.

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Thursday – 19 June 2008
Today is Juneteenth.
It’s also NBN Thursday.
And possibly Sushi ‘Wednesday.’
(I’m still deciding if it’s going to be New Comics Day…)

Last night, while watching TV, I put together a card to go with my Phoenix ‘Clix:

I’m thinking of using it in this weekend’s tourney, and find that character cards make remembering what powers are available at a given time much easier.

Last night’s episode of JLU was “Far From Home,” the episode that featured the Legion, so I happily watched it while tinkering away on the card.

Last night’s sleep was broken by a lovely bout of acid reflux (or the closest analogue).  Blah.  I wasn’t awake for long, but it was enough to break up what was an otherwise decent night’s sleep.  So, I decided to hang in bed for an extra half-hour this morning.  While in the shower, I had the Spider-Man Theme – as done by The Ramones – stuck in my head.  When I got to the…

Wealth and fame he’s ignored
Action is his reward!

…part, I got stuck.  On ‘Action is.”  Except, in my head, it was “Action Isz,” (1, 2) like from The Maxx… but more heroic.  (Although, not necessarily in a cape or tights way.)  And, for some reason, the Action Isz looked like Rikti Monkeys (1, 2).  Bizarre.

And I was still in the office a few minutes after 8:00… including a stop for some frozen mocha refreshment.

And now… I’m in (yet another) meeting.
Yay.

This morning’s meeting was not a complete waste – they showed of a couple of projects that one team has been working on that looked pretty cool. Other than that, I would refer to it in the same manner that I once referred to a meeting at the USPS: “upper management ego masturbation.”

I didn’t know what I wanted for lunch. I was on the fence, leaning towards Pho, when JoeT said that he was going for lunch, too. The only problem: He didn’t know what he wanted, either. We opted to head to Dask’s for gyros. Good call.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules sent me a link to Americans for the Arts ads. That, in turn, led me to the following banners:

  

  

  

• Woman sues Victoria’s Secret Over Injury from Defective Thong
  You can find more information about this on CNN – an item about it aired on Headline News while JoeT and I were at lunch. And it raises a few questions for me:
  • If the panties were “defective,” why refuse to let VS’ attorney look at them?
  • Were they “defective” because she bought them 2 sizes too small?
  • Had she worn them before without a “wardrobe malfunction?”
• ‘Geek Girl’ helps keep Mozilla safe in scary times
• 
• Easy Ways to Save Money on Gas
• Does anyone remember Skate or Die or its follow-up, Ski or Die?
• Dale Mathis’ Clockworkpunk Executive Desk

/break

Actress and singer Cyd Charisse has died; she was 86 years old. She is best known for performing in a number of movies with Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire…

…but my recollections of her come mostly from the video for Janet Jackson’s Alright, in which she dances briefly with Janet (around the 3:00 mark):

Obituary, by way of BBC News

Monday: Coda
This evening, I just… kind of… hung out. MarknTyme and I killed some time by beating on thugs in Paragon City. After that, I watched an episode of Justice League Unlimited, “The Great Brain Robbery,” which I had not seen all the way through before. It wasn’t a bad episode, but not one of the best, either.

Next, I watched… Superfriends. It was an episode called “Professor Goodfellow’s G.E.E.C.” (1, 2) Wow. After watching JLU, this was a complete gear-shift. And, it was SO dated. More than once, I heard someone say “Groovy.” And, as if that wasn’t enough, Superman actually told Batman, Robin and Wonder Woman to “Hang loose” at one point. *jawdrop* However, as weird as some of these things were, they didn’t take me aback as much as seeing a cameo from Plastic Man.

Having just bagged on Super Friends, I’m going to admit that the Boomerang commercial bump for That Time Is Now – a remix of the Super Friends theme – is pretty decent. Check it out:

And, it seems as though someone has done a mashup of this song using footage from Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, instead:

Next, I watched the pilot for the new ABC Family series, The Middleman (1, 2), based on a series of graphic novels by the same name.

The show doesn’t take itself too seriously, in the same way Moonlighting did – but even more so, in some instances. It was…. quirky. And fun. Check out the Newsarama review of the pilot. I just realized something: The Middleman kind of reminds me of Men in Black… meets The Avengers. That’s the British series, not the comic book super-team. And subtract the aliens. The special effects weren’t necessarily ILM-grade, but somehow, they didn’t need to be. The writing was good. Since this was the pilot, the actors are still getting used to their characters’ voices, to some degree… and sometimes the extras’ acting was a little over the top. But, I have to say that I don’t think I’ve had as much fun watching a square-jawed, milk-drinking hero save the world in quite some time.

The pilot is available on iTunes as a free $1.99 download. Check it out. Sure there’s a good amount of suspension of disbelief (sometimes by the truckload), but that’s okay, it’s a fun ride.

Namaste.

The day has been pretty good. The highlight (at least so far) was heading to ‘s house with looneybin88 and JG to play a few games of Twilight Zone pinball at lunch. Other than that, it’s been a rather run-of-the-mill day in the neighborhood.
(…in the neighborhood…)
(…in the neigh-bor-hood.)

Not sure what trouble I plan on getting into this evening. Maybe a trip to Paragon City… or *gasp* even The Rogue Isles.

Stray Toasters

• 10 Awesome Shirts for Geeks
• From the world of golf: After 19 Extra Holes, Woods Captures His Third U.S. Open
• Stan Winston Dies
• By way of : Death of Spock Mash-up

• …which led me to: William Shatner or…

• Hulk vs. The Universe
• I’ve rediscovered Exiern



• How to improve your home wi-fi network
• was on a roll today: He told us about a video of a teenager kicking a cement wall… and the aftermath. As neither looneybin88 nor I had heard of this, let alone seen the video, he sent us a link to it. (Disclaimer: If you’re squeamish, you may just want to skip this one. Seriously.)

• Top Ten: Comics’ Bad Dads
• Wizard World Chicago…
• Wait… wait… wait. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2? And it may be a Civil Bore War storyline? Not sure how I feel about that.

Quotes of the Day
Today’s gems both came at lunchtime and qualify as “Unintentional Porn Overheard While Playing Pinball”

1. looneybin88 was on the machine… and doing quite well. He made a play that resulted in playing with three pinballs on the table. (You have no idea how many permutations that last sentence went through before I came up with something that wasn’t porn-tastic.) Someone commented on his making a good play and the rest of the conversation went down the proverbial chute:
   

   Me: Sun. Dog. Ass. (My usual ‘shorthand’ for “The sun shines on a dog’s ass, too…”)
   looneybin88: What can I say? I got skills!
   : You have skills… with a dog’s ass? I’m calling animal control.

   At that point, all three balls left the field of play as looneybin88 doubled-over, red-faced and laughing.

2. All of us had a horrible third game… except JG. When he was coming to the table to play his second ball, he looked at our scores and said:
   

   Huh, all I have to do is beat myself.

   The rest of us looked at each other… and broke out in raucous laughter. JG, to his credit, stoically kept playing.

And now, to find some trouble to get into.

Namaste.

Monday – 16 June 2008
Mondays, simply by virtue of being “Monday,” are wide open to being… odd. This morning was no exception:

While in a half-awake state, between exiting The Dreaming and entering The Waking World, I had a dream that featured Dick Van Dyke (as Bert the chimney sweep), singing Chim Chim Cher-ee, from Mary Poppins.

It was a childhood favorite movie (and song), so I don’t find that part too terribly weird.

The weirdness came as the song reached a chorus…
Bert opened his mouth…

…and instead of lyrics, out came the sound of my alarm.

“It’s so bizarre,” as Dr. Rosenblatt would say.
And it was rather amusing, as well.

Good morning.

Sunday – 15 June 2008
Happy Father’s Day

This morning started lazily. SaraRules made sauteed spaghetti and coffee for breakfast. (By the way: Drew, I did get the recipe.) Rachel hung out through breakfast and then went out for a hike. Next up: Hygiene rituals and a spot of laundry.

I’ll be heading west again in a couple of hours. It has been a good (though brief) trip – it was nice to see SaraRules and some of the places that she has talked about for the past few weeks. I’m going to try and get back out here sometime next month, God willing and the creek don’t rise.

A couple of shots from the front porch of the condo:

(click for larger versions)

Stray Toasters

• Last night, we watched Across the Universe again. We’ve been trying to see this for a couple of months. I love the arrangements of the songs… and I had forgotten how much I liked the arrangement of Let It Be. And the visuals are great, as well. If you have somehow not seen this movie, I strongly recommend renting it. Soon.
• Congrats to and Team Chalk-o-Licious for winning “Best of Festival” at this year’s Chalk Art Festival.
• The Things That Carried Him – This is a story that I first heard about on RadioWest a few months ago. It tells the story of a U.S. soldier’s final journey – the journey home to be buried. It’s a pretty amazing story. Hearing the interview with the author, Chris Jones, made me look forward to getting that issue of Esquire.
• This American Hero Wins Machinima Contest
• By way of BBC News: The United States of Advertising
• What the iPhone 3G Is Still Missing
• I’m not going to get my entry for “Superman: Man of Style” done in time to submit it to Project: Rooftop… but I’m going to keep working on it. Because I can. And because it’s been pretty fun.
• William Katt: The Hero Guest Stars on Heroes

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

SaraRules and I headed into Aspen this afternoon.  We went to the Aspen Music Festival and School campus.  From there, it was into town to the Aspen Art Museum and to wander around; it reminded me a bit of Park City – a decent place to visit, but I don’t think I could live in either place. Next, we headed to the Aspen Music Festival concert grounds.  And then… back to Snowmass Village.  Jiggety-jig.

All that and pictures, too.

Stray Toasters

• Sock Monkey Named for Obama Criticized as Racist
• 3G iPhone coverage from…
  • Gizmodo
  • Engadget
• Shakespeare… in manga form: Much ado about manga.
• Sweet Christmas!

Zoom!

Saturday – 14 June 2008
It’s clear and sunny out; hopefully, it will be a little warmer than yesterday.

This day started with a good morning ping from , not a bad way to start the day. He pointed me in the direction of this article from John Scalzi’s Whatever blog. I don’t suppose that I should have read the NPR article, Obama’s VP Search: Avoiding Party’s Past Mistakes, because about the time I hit the third sentence in the section entitled “Handicapping the VP Short List,” I was done. “Gracious exit…!?” My ass. That exit was to “gracious” as Utah’s Black population is to the state total population. (Translation: “Not very.”)

Quick note for those of you in the SLC metro area: The Utah Foster Care Foundation Chalk Art Festival continues today. Go down and cheer on/vote for and Team Chalk-O-Licious. Here’s their work-in-progress:

(click for ‘s (quick) post about this piece)

SaraRules and I are going to head into Aspen in a little while. That should be fun and interesting.

Stray Toasters

• From NPR: Songs for Dad: Father’s Day Jazz
• Men in Black is still fun – and funny – movie.
• By way of Wired: Coolest Movie Metamorphoses – From Wolf-Man to Hulk
• USA Today has a poll asking how readers would feel about an Obama/Powell or McCain/Powell ticket.
• I skipped “Blog Like It’s the End of the World Day” – not for lack of ideas, I just couldn’t get into it.
• Worthplaying.com takes a look at LEGO Batman

Quote of the Day
“Football (soccer) is like chess, only without the dice.” – Lukas Podolski

Up out.

Managing and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Environment wasn’t really hitting on anything today.
Instead, I returned to DNS & BIND. And by “return,” I mean “started reading anew.” It’s been a while.
That worked out better.

Even though I’ve never been to the Aspen area, I wasn’t inclined to go out gallivanting today… for two reasons:

1. SaraRules is at work… and, thus, not around to hang out
2. I was “on the clock” and had work to do. (I have a work ethic, sue me.)

Today’s reading locations have included:

• The dining room table… under the lamp of antlers.
• The window nook
• The front porch
• The back porch
• The kitchen counter

The view from the front porch isn’t awesome, but I wouldn’t mind catching a sunrise over it… if the sunrise wasn’t 5:41 AM. The back porch looks up the mountainside. It’s green and has a few trees. And, by the time I moved out there, it had the sun. Oh, the warm, joyous sun. (Not to be confused with the angry sun.) Aside from a butterfly, some birds and a few other assorted insects, I haven’t seen any of the local fauna.

Speaking of fauna: I saw some deer or antelope (hard to tell in traffic at 80 MPH) on the… dunes?… outside Green River yesterday. And, I saw my favorite not-sheep along Route 6, too.

Stray Toasters

• The local wireless connection doesn’t like iChat, it seems. Other programs do just fine, but iChat craps out at random. I’ll have to test it with City later.
• The Food & Wine Classic in Aspen starts today. Check out the ticket prices. Somehow, I think we’re going to skip this.
• “Unboop”
• I had iTunes on random and Rocket Man came on.
  Not Elton John.
  Nor Kate Bush.
  Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Interesting version. I checked All Music Guide and it seems as though it’s been on a LOT of albums/CDs.
• Robert Cray’s Smoking Gun is still a great song.
• So is Diamond in the Rough, by Shawn Colvin.
• Thanks to for making sure that I saw Classics in LEGO
  …which, in turn, led me to this…
  



• She bop -he bop – a we bop
  I bop -you bop – a-they bop
  Be bop – be bop – a-lu-bop,
  (I hope He will understand)
  She bop -he bop – a we bop
  I bop -you bop – a-they bop
  Be bop – be bop – a-lu-she bop

And that’s all for now.