Random Access

Sunday – 02 December 2007
The Pillowman was good. I didn’t read the Wikipedia article on it yesterday, aside from when it premiered and some notes on different performances – I wanted to go into the play knowing as little as possible about it, so that I wasn’t prejudiced about what to expect.

The play was performed by SUU’s Stage 2 in the Black Box Theatre, their small – intimate – theatre, there were (maybe) 75 or 80 seats. SaraRules and I were on the second row and were about ten to twelve feet from the stage. The play was dark, thought-provoking and good. It had moments of drama, comedy, with religious – and sacreligious – overtones, a good bit of physical violence and strong language. I liked – and recommend – this play.

This morning started with coffee and comics in bed. Nothin’ like a lazy Sunday morning. This was followed by breakfast and football. The CBS affiliate was showing infomercials, so I watched the Seattle-Philly game. It was wet and cold in Philly and the Eagles stayed close… but couldn’t pull off a win. I also noted that the referees were wearing their black track suit-looking pants, so I decided to look up “why.” The answer: It’s the new cold-weather uniform.

I talked with both of the ‘rents today. All is well in their respective parts of the Right Coast.

This evening, SaraRules and I are heading out on a “triple date” with a couple of her roommates. I think that the overall plan is dinner and a movie, Enchanted, I think.

Football Update

• The Raiders beat the Broncos. ‘Grats, SaraRules
• Carolina beat the 49ers. Congrats to
• The Vikings beat up on the Lions. Congrats,

• Cleveland racked up a loss to the Cardinals. Sorry, . (No, really… REALLY!)
• Philadelphia lost to the Seahawks. Sorry,

Tonight, the Bengals take on the Steelers. Good luck to and .
Tomorrow night, the Ravens go up against the Patriots. Yeah, not exactly expecting a “win” here, but I’ll be watching the game… and hopeful.

Four-Color Coverage

• Countdown: 22 – Mary Marvel’s seduction by the dark side continues. Jimmy Olsen’s “miraculous” escape. And a big change in the Trickster/Pied Piper team.
• Green Lantern Corps #18 – Sodam Yat is the new bearer of the power of Ion. And in this issue, he goes head-to-head with SuperBrat Prime. The Guardians told him about the power of Ion… and “a little” about the benefits of being a Daxamite under a yellow sun, but did they tell him enough?
• Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #37 – The quest for Cosmic Boy continues, but this was mostly a Saturn Girl and Supergirl story. Facing “Evolvo Lad,” the duo – plus Lightning Lad – come upon a strange piece of equipment with strange ties to the 21st Century. But what should they do with – or about – it?
• Superman Annual #18 – The conclusion to the “Camelot Falls” storyline. Superman continues to defy Arion’s allegations that mankind is doomed to extinction… unless Superman dies. Will even the help of the Phantom Stranger be enough to help Superman survive, let alone win? Kurt Busiek also provides a nice short story of a Kent extended family outing.
• Superman/Batman #43 – Dr. Light, with a continuing mad-on for the Justice League goes up against the World’s Finest. Featuring an appearance by the original Teen Titans. Kind of.
• X-Men: First Class #6 – This wasn’t an exemplary story, it was… fun, but nothing “great.” In fact, the most notable thing about this isue is that it was printed out of order – seven pages of the middle of the story were printed as the first seven pages of the book. *blink blink* Gotta love that quality control.

Stray Toasters

• I picked up a copy of Utne Reader for the first time in a while a few days ago. I used to read this magazine regularly; I even had a subscription to it for a while.
• Video game giants in $18 billion merger
• 
• Surfer defies giant waves alert
• By way of BoingBoing: US gov’t to British court: We can kidnap Brits, it’s legal
• Princess Tiana, the ninth official – and first African-American – Disney Princess
• Damn-and-a-half, pistachios are tasty
• The Dark Side of Soy

Quote of the Day
From last night’s post-play hanging-out, Vince was talking about why he’s doing so well in his accounting class:

I’m Jewish – they take the foreskin from your penis and give you an honorary MBA in Accounting.

Namaste.

Saturday – 01 December 2007
It would seem as though I avoided a lot of snow (between 8″ and 12″) by not being in the Salt Lake Valley yesterday.  Sure, I had to drive through some snow last night – and there was about an inch in Cedar, which was mostly slush this morning – but that was fine.  I figure that UDoT should have things under control by now, or will by Monday, at least.

Today saw a slight change in the Saturday morning routine: We got up and went to breakfast with SaraRules’ parents… and then came back and watched ‘toons.  Today’s Legion episode, “Message in a Bottle,” featured the city of Kandor.  I missed some of the beginning of the episode, but – assuming that my complex didn’t lose power during Friday/Saturday’s snow – I set the VCR to tape it.  After cartoons and hanging out with the ‘rents, we went to the Braithwaite Fine Arts Gallery to see the Annual High School Fine Art Competition Exhibit.  The exhibit was very nice and I saw four pieces that I really liked.

I bought three of them.

The fourth had already been purchased.  I will be able to pick up the pieces after the exhibit closes in January.  That should give me enough time to decide where I want to hang them.

This evening, a few of us are going to see Vince (Roommate #1’s boyfriend) in a performance of The Pillowman (Wikipedia entry).  After that, who knows?

Namaste.

Friday: Coda
Sweet frozen zombie monkey-squeezin’ Jesus…

I’m in Cedar City. That’s a good thing. The trip down here was… not entirely hellish, but the Utah’s “It should be Winter now” weather was in rare form. It started drizzling this afternoon, around the time I got done with my workout. It continued through the afternoon. By the time I got between Filmore and Beaver, the rain decided to turn into snow.

<sarcasm> Yay. </sarcasm>

This, of course meant that most of the people on the road slowed down to a bit below the speed limit. The Council for Better Driving considers this a adherence to Rules #1 and #2. Nuff’ said. There were, however, a few monkeys who decided to roll the bones and drive at approximately the same speeds that they would in dry weather. The Fates must have smiled upon them, as I did not see any of them upside-down on the side of the road. After I got a little past Beaver, the snow turned into intermittent rain again.

I got to SaraRules’ around 6:30… and fell almost immediately asleep. Her parents got into town about forty-five minutes later and we went to dinner at Cafe Orleans. Tonight, I tried their crab cakes (they were “okay,” but I’m not sure that I’d order them again), a grilled chicken po’boy and the chicken and sausage gumbo, both of which were good. After dinner, we came back to the apartment and watched Blade: Trinity. It was alright, not “great,” but a nice way to kick back at the end of the day.

Stray Toasters

• I just learned that Evel Knievel died today. He was 69. If you were born after… 1980 or so, that name might not mean a lot; but if you were a kid in the late 60s/early-to-mid 70s, you are probably at least passingly familiar with his exploits. And the toy line that he inspired. (And I had quite a few of those toys, back in the day…)
• Did you know that Kris Kristofferson (yes, the country and gospel singer/actor) is a Rhodes scholar. He was also a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army. And, he dated Janis Joplin.
• 
• Uranium ore for sale on Amazon.com

*voop*

Friday – 30 November 2007
The end of the week is at hand.

Dinner last night was a lot of fun. We went to Sampan. Tasty beef lo mein… with enough left over to make a decent post-workout lunch. After dinner, most of us headed to Barnes & Noble for coffee and conversation. I also picked up a new Windows Server 2003 book, that is perfect for some of the things that I’m going to need to know for work.

After the group broke up, came over to take pictures for my Christmas card. She took many pictures. MANY. So I’ll have a good number of options from which to select. It was nice to see – and hang out with – her this past week.

This morning, I overslept a little. Only by half an hour. And I was happy that it was “only” a half-hour, as I didn’t get to bed until somewhere around 3:30. So, while I didn’t get as early a start on the day as I could have, I wasn’t as far off the mark as I could have been. Today’s workout was a good way to wrap up the week:

• Leg Raises: 3 sets / 20 reps
• Bench Press: 3 sets / 8 reps at 225 lbs.
• Nautilus Fly: 3 sets / 10 reps at 95 lbs, with a ten-second hold on the last rep of each set
• Decline Dumbbell Press: 3 sets / 10 reps at 50 lbs.
• Bench Dips: 3 sets / 20 reps – all sets with a 35 lb plate
• Dips: 1 sets / 10 reps
• Lower Back Raises: 3 sets / 15 reps

Stray Toasters

• I have too much blood in my caffeinestream. Not even the coffee I brewed seems to be changing the ratio, or it’s failing to do so at a satisfactory rate.
• I found this site last night: DonorsChoose.org It looks like an interesting way to give.
• 
• Incognegro
• I haven’t made a successful pilgrimage to the Garden of Sweden this week, but I still had a couple of IKEA cinnamon roll for breakfast this morning. Selah.
• Best Moments of 2007 (DC)
• Best Moments of 2007 (Marvel)
• The morning constitutional helped with the “getting the blood moving” factor. This is a good thing.
• shockpuppet now refers to me as “W&W,” which I have been informed is pronounced “dub ‘n’ dub”
• 
• By way of CNet: Holiday Tech Gifts We Don’t Recommend
• Justice League of America #15 (preview)
• Rabid comics fans are/can be scary. Marvel is changing the cover style for Fantastic Four… and some of the responses made me think of this sound bite.
• Phables

Quotes of the Day
Today’s quotes come from last night’s coffee gathering:

• (after seeing an ad in Lürzer’s Archive): I want to be able to shit cupcakes! I’d be []’ best friend!
• (referring to… an acquaintance): She’s the Amazing Expando-Girl!

And that’s a wrap!

See you on the other side of Juab County.

Namaste.

Wednesday: Coda / Thursday – 29 November 2007
Before I left work, Land called to ask if I had any plans for dinner. I didn’t. We decided to meet at my place and figure out what we wanted to do from there. We decided to go to Porcupine Pub & Grille. As we were walking to our table, a couple yelled at us… well, specifically me. I looked over to see Fiona and at the next table. They offered us seats and we joined them. Dinner was nice. After dinner, I decided that I wanted to go to the Garden of Sweden, so Land and I went. Unfortunately, I was wrong about their closing time. Oh, well… another time. Back home and…

City of Heroes – The Scales of Justice
….I took a trip to Paragon City with Nefer-Tem. I decided to clear out a Devouring Earth mission that I’ve had in my queue for a few weeks. Solo. Well, not entirely solo – I had my “pet,” whom I may start calling “Inky.” We didn’t exactly sail through the mission, but I didn’t die – despite the best efforts of a couple of Void Stalkers. As I was winding up the mission, I was joined by a player – and occasional teammate – whom I haven’t seen in a while. We wrapped the mission and considered picking up another one, but opted to hold off until another time.

Stray Toasters

• I had Indian (dot, not feather) cuisine for lunch. Very tasty. VERY filling.
• Hiren’s Boot CD. *nod*
• Bicycles with sick soundsystems
• The new beta for Parallels is a little more stable – and has a couple of improvements – but still doesn’t render City properly. So… I may go ahead and set up a partition under Boot Camp for Windows. We shall see.
• + + = Damn you, Tyranist.
• Truly Scrumptious / Doll on a Music Box
• SaraRules just sent me a link to this picture, by Jan Van Holleben:

  (click image for more)

After work, I stopped at Dr. Volt’s and fed my four-color crack – and plastic crack – addiction. Among the ‘Clix items I got were:

• Beast (one that I can’t find on the site)
• Bishop
• Dazzler and
• Marvel Girl

Tonight, dinner with and the usual suspects. And there’s a rumor that we may do some bowling afterward.

Sunday – 25 November 2007
Another Salt Lake Valley Sunda-a-ay…

With the exception of the Ravens’ loss to the Chargers, today’s been a good day. Slept in. Went to SaraRules’ parents for football, dinner, Mojitos and Hogfather. No, that was not a typo. And, no, it’s not a porcine remake of The Godfather. It was a movie based on a Terry Prachett book (set in/on the Discworld) of the same name. It wasn’t your typical holiday movie… but in a way it was. Yeah, it was like that. It was a British production and, according to SaraRules’ father, was fairly faithful to the book. A tip of the hat and a wave of the cane to for making a note of this broadcast.

Football Update
As I mentioned above, the Ravens took one on the chin, thanks to the Chargers. Go team.

Congrats to and for the Bengals’ win.
Congrats to for the Browns’ win
Congrats to for the Vikings’ win

Commiserations to and on the Eagles’ and Panthers’ losses, respectively.

Stray Toasters

• I used iPhoto to make a web gallery of photos that have been sitting on my hard drive for months. MANY months. Once I got the hang of “what goes where,” it was a VERY fast and easy process. I still want to play around with the settings, to see what customization – if any – is available, as I don’t have a .mac account to upload it to and it seems set for .mac integration. But, I was pretty happy with the results.
• Last night, after tracking down a copy of it, SaraRules and I watched The Lady Eve, starring Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck. It was fun and a nice change of pace.
• Absinthe, a Potent Potable Makes a Comeback
• 
• I learned today, by way of SaraRules, that Shel Silverstein wrote the Johnny Cash song, A Boy Named Sue
• Related sidenote: I need to acquire a copy of the Uncle Shelby’s ABZ Book
• Defiant‘s new memory should be here Monday… sometime, according to the FedEx site.
• Anatomical heart made from candy hearts

And that, as they say, is a wrap.Namaste.

Saturday – 24 November 2007
A quiet, lazy day in the valley. The morning started off with an odd dream: I was back in school and taking a mid-term… and couldn’t remember any of the answers. Very frustrating and a little disconcerting. That was followed up by episodes of Legion of Super-Heroes and The Batman – reruns, but episodes nonetheless. While SaraRules continues work on her project, I have been watching bits of Armageddon and Lethal Weapon 3. I think that I’m going to switch over to Madden 2005, in a little bit.

Last night’s Clitorati was fun – it was nice to hang out with the usual suspects. Borders also had a couple of deals that I couldn’t pass up: The West Wing – The Complete Second Season and Firefly: The Complete Series, both for $19.99. And I also picked up a book, Guards! Guards!, that SaraRules’ father mentioned to me at Thanksgiving dinner. Post-Clitorati, SaraRules and I broke out Trivial Pursuit: Warner Brothers Edition. After the way that she pwned me at backgammon, there was no way that I was going to lose at Trivial Pursuit. I mean, it’s trivia. And pop culture. HOW could I possibly lose!? For a while I wasn’t sure that I was going to be able to pull it off – the “Classics” category kept kicking my ass. Fortunately, I hit a question when going for the Classics wedge that I knew. I won. I like to win. Go figure.

Stray Toasters

• I have been sorting some of my plastic crack into bins by teams. Gaming: the Addiction. Who knew?
• A Steampunk’s Guide to the Apocalpyse (pdf)
• 
• PS2 controller cuff links and Wiimote earrings
• Steampunk mp3 player
  
• What happens when the designers at Chrysler spend too much time playing Halo 3? Something like this.

Time to find some trouble to get into.

Namaste.

Thursday: Coda
Today has been not only a good NBN Thursday, but a good Thanksgiving, as well. I talked with the various factions of my family. I spent the day with SaraRules and her family. Food. Football. A tryptophan-induced nap. Pie. Serenity. The pies turned out well. I don’t know how often I’ll be making them, but I know how to now.

Four-Color Coverage
Yesterday’s haul was light – only four books – but there were items of note:

• Action Comics #859 – This issue continues the Superman and the LSH story. We find out who has subverted the name “Superman” in the 31st Century, as well as “how” and “why.” We also learn what happened to turn Sol into a red star. There was even a look at the BatCave of the 31st Century… long-since unused, but with many familiar objects that seem to have withstood the passage of the years. This was a solid issue and would have had me sold, even if it hadn’t included the Legion.
• The Brave and the Bold #8 – The Flash, his wife and children are invited to meet with Dr. Niles Caulder and the Doom Patrol to see if Dr. Caulder can help stabilize the younger Wests’ accelerated metabolisms and aging processes. While the tone of this issue was – on the whole – fairly light, the pay-off on the second-to-last page made the whole story worthwhile… and a little chilling.
• Countdown: 23 – Most of this issue was spent watching SuperBrat-Prime torture Mxyzptlk (with the help of the Earth-3 version of Zatanna). Among the best scenes in the book was Mxy telling Prime off:
  

  Mxyzptlk: Wise up, Clark Bent. I’d never give a rube like you anything except the finger. Shame you broke alla mine. Y’see, Junior, there’s an art to the battle of wits I fight with the real Superman everyone knows and loves. And actually, if you had approached me with one iota of the maturity he has, I might have cut ya a deal and played along — if the punchline to your little plan was funnier.
  Superman-Prime: This is a joke to you?!?
  Mxyzptlk: Oh, Margaret! They don’t come any richer! See, most beings in the Fifth Dimension are content to stay there and endlessly reshape their own individual realities — they want to be something, POOF! They become it, sometimes for eons. You know my girlfriend once spent thirty years as a female version of me? Flattering, but not very pretty. Now me, I’m something of a showoff. Matter of fact, I’ve perfected mischief to a form of Zen. I’m an imp that loves an audience, and I found a great one in the Third Dimension. I’m sure you’ve heard some of the names I’ve answered to over the centuries… Loki, Coyote, Anasazi…
  Superman-Prime: You expect me to believe this garbage?
  Mxyzptlk: You still don’t get the joke, do ya, Prime Rib? I’m the damn Trickster God! I couldn’t be square with you if I tried. Ha, ha! That’s what we in the comedy business call a topper, son!

  Quite the interesting twist, casting Mxyzptlk as the DCU’s incarnation of the Trickster God.

• Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Annual #1 – I picked this up, more or less, on a whim. I wanted to see how someone would write Tony Stark as the billionaire playboy who just happens to run an international intelligence agency. And without his powers or his armor. With just his wits and intellect (and a trio of secret agents at his side) to rely on. Turns out, this was a fun read. And it looks as though there may be a (or “yet another”) shake-up in the MU’s criminal underworld.

Stray Toasters

• I just ordered memory for Defiant. pointed out that Crucial is offering 10% off, so I checked it out. I was able to get 4GB (two sticks of 2GB) – with tax and express shipping – for only 42¢ more than their offered 4GB kit.
• Chicken butt.
• Watching Serenity reminded me of this comic:

  

• Pringles… Ice cream sandwich… Pringles… Ice cream sandwich…
• Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, save it for a rainy day…
• Most people know that as far as I’m concerned, there are only three (3) Superman movies: Superman: The Movie, Superman II and Superman Returns. In some parallel universe, someone had the bright idea of making Superman III and Superman IV. I think that I must have journeyed to that alterna-verse as a kid, because I have memories of seeing Superman III. But, that’s silly. I mean… don’t you think that I’d remember a travesty of a Superman movie that didn’t feature Lex Luthor, but had Robert Vaughn as a Luthor stand-in villain… and Richard Pryor as a computer genius!? C’mon. I have a good imagination, but damn! Anyway… it appears as though the original outline for Superman III has landed on the Interweb. It chills the blood. It’s even worse than the Superman III that was released. Y’know… in that alternate universe.

It’s early Friday morning now. “Black Friday.” In some parts of the country, people are already lining up for first crack at super shopping bargains… against the hordes and teeming masses of monkeys. Screw that. I’m staying in my warm apartment. And (eventually) sleeping. Besides, I can get equally good – if not better – deals shopping online. So there.

Namaste.

Wednesday: Coda
This afternoon’s lunchtime trip to Dr. Volt’s was a bust – there was a delay in the shipment, so they were late getting the books sorted. But, I had sushi with SaraRules, shockpuppet, , Joe and Mike (another name with which I will have to resort a numeric nomenclature, it seems).

Back to the office for a bit and then home. I logged into City of Heroes for a bit. No one in my supergroup was on, so I decided to roam around Founders Falls and beat on a few things. I apparently forgot one very important thing: They beat back. I’ve been so used to playing on a team that I neglected to remember just how squishy Kheldians are. I wound up in the hospital at least three times before I logged out of the game. Even so, I had fun playing. (I want to upgrade the RAM on Defiant and see if I can get City to run in Parallels.)

As I was leaving my complex, I couldn’t exit because two (not just “one,” but “TWO”) vehicles were trying to make left turns… from dead-center of the exit. The exit which is easily wide enough to accommodate two cars, one making a right and one making a left turn. *grblsnrkx* It was enough to make me want to start a list of rules for the Council for Better Driving. Not even five minutes later, another idiotstick pulled a hare-brained maneuver in front of me. That cemented what I think shall become Rule #1:

Council for Better Driving Rule #1: Don’t be a fucker.

Back to Dr. Volt’s to feed my four-color habit. It was a light week, but I had forgotten that I had asked Dave to put something on hold for me: Justice Action Figure Set. I also picked up two boxes of the new Mutations and Monsters set of HeroClix. Of note:

• Colossus
• Cyclops (First Class)
• Iceman (First Class and Modern)
• Iron Man (Zombie)
• Jean Grey (Age of Apocalypse)

From there, it was on to SaraRules’ parents’ house. On the bill tonight: Making my contribution to Thanksgiving dinner – sweet potato pie. Tonight marked the first time that I have tried making a pie. I used a recipe from a family friend – a recipe that made enough for three pies. They seemed to turn out well. Tomorrow will be the test, though. While the pies were baking, SaraRules and I watched Super Troopers, which I had not seen before. Funny movie.

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig. And now, sleep.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 21 November 2007
Sweet Big Butter Jesus… it was 19°F when I woke up this morning. NINETEEN! (N-n-n-nineteen! Nineteen!) But, at least it is Sushi Wednesday; at least, it is according to shockpuppet.

I am in the SLC office and just met a new coworker. He looked at me and recognized me… from the gym. But, it was the gym in American Fork. We used to workout at roughly the same time. “Curiouser and curiouser,” said little Alice…

Stray Toasters

• I opted to go with a Cafe Mocha, rather than a frozen mocha, this morning.
• Sneakiest Uses for Everyday Objects
• I like this LEGO ad:

  

• Because of (who should click here), I am craving Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
• I need Dream Girl, Supergirl (this one, because I already have this one), Triplicate Girl and Colossal Boy (Micro Lad!) to complete my plastic crack Legion of Super-Heroes. I think that I already have a Shvaughn Erin… otherwise, I need one’a her, too.
• The art of Adam Koford.
• Girl to have arm taken off back
• Is Brian Michael Bendis just writing everything for Marvel now?
• Speaking of Marvel, here’s another look at the new Captain America

  

For those who will be traveling today/this weekend: Good luck against the masses and may you arrive safely at your destination.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Namaste.

Monday – 19 November 2007
Another work week begins… but it’s a short week. I like to shake it, shake it short weeks. They’re nice. And this one has the added bonus of: SaraRules will be in town tomorrow.

Yesterday was full of football and general laziness. SaraRules and I watched the Browns-Ravens game… until it went to overtime – I was Ivory Soap-sure that I knew what the outcome would be. (I was right, by the way. Congratulations, .) After the game, we headed to St. George. I stopped in Old Navy, intent on picking up a few turtlenecks or mock turtlenecks, as the weather is starting to turn a bit chilly. No go, Flight. The only sizes they had were for toddlers. I’m short, but not quite that short. Guess that I’ll have to check Eddie Bauer. Next stop: ColdStone. We tried the Mud Pie Mojo, a coffee ice cream-based flavor. It was very good. Next: Best Buy. I’ve been mulling over an Xbox 360 for a while, and decided that if they had the right package, I’d probably go ahead and pick one up. When I looked around, all I saw was the “Arcade” package. Definitely not what I wanted. SaraRules tapped me on the shoulder and pointed me in the direction of a stack of Xboxes about 20 feet away. VARIETY!!! Yes!!! For those who don’t know, Micro$oft has multiple “versions” of the Xbox:

• Arcade: This is the base model. No frills, no bells, no whistles.
• Core System: Includes a 20 GB hard drive and two games.
• Halo 3 Special Edition: Basically a Core System that, for an extra $50, has been painted green and orange, just like everyone’s favorite Spartan. (No, not these Spartans… this Spartan.) And, did I mention that this does NOT include a copy of Halo 3? It doesn’t.
• Elite: If Microsoft was going to have “sexy black hotness,” this would be it. Where the other Xboxes are white with grey accents – or Halo 3 green – and plastic, the Elite is shiny black metal. Or, at least the original limited edition ones were. It comes with a 120 GB hard drive and two games. And all for only $100 more than the Core System.

I went with the Core System. And I’m good with that.

The end of the evening held a trip to the grocery store, me cooking dinner (with an assist from Steve, who did the garlic bread), wine, football and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Fun movie. Quirky, even. I went into it expecting something else, so I was a little thrown-off… but I enjoyed it. I found out afterward that SaraRules is a big Robert Downey, Jr. fan, so I showed her the trailer for Iron Man. Her reaction: “We are so there.”

This morning’s drive wasn’t bad. I played intermittent leap-frog with an SUV from Beaver up to Spanish Fork. It reminded me of Smokey and the Bandit in a way: One vehicle would lead (and make sure that the path was clear, the other would drive “a little” faster than the posted limit. To my knowledge, though, neither of us had a trunk full of Coors. (At least, I didn’t.) There wasn’t any construction on the northbound side of I-15; there was a little… something… going on that forced the southbound side to one lane, just north of Cove Fort, though. And, of course, there was general monkey-rifficness almost as soon as I crossed into Utah County. Go figure.

I thought about something this morning – that I first thought about Friday night, on the way to Cedar City: I have an eclectic mix of music on my iPod. No news there. From The Powerpuff Girls theme to Nine Inch Nails’ The Perfect Drug. I also have a tendency to sing along with whatever song strikes my fancy while driving. My car is equipped with the OnStar service; I don’t subscribe to it, but it’s there. I remember hearing about cases where the FBI used OnStar to eavesdrop on suspects. It made me wonder if a bored OnStar advisor ever listened while I was singing away… and what they thought of the rather odd assortment of songs to which I listened and/or sang.

Work hasn’t been bad. I’ve had a couple of issues to forward to other people and a few small equipment needs to fill, but otherwise the natives have been quiet. Which means that I was actually able to get some reading done.

Stray Toasters

• I think that Chris is coming over to play a little Marvel Ultimate Alliance later.
• What about the teachers? (An op-ed commentary from Marketplace.)
• Marketing. *snicker*

  

• Do Not Open: An Encyclopedia of the World’s Best-Kept Secrets
• , you might want to check this out.
• The Dangers of World of Warcraft
• By way of : Steampunk iPod Skin
• Update: Chris did come over. And we did play MUA… after I figured out how to connect the #*@&^@! second wireless controller to the #*@&^@! Xbox.
• Food Banks: Less supply, more demand

I should start thinking about prepping my things for tomorning.

Namaste.

Sunday – 18 November 2007
I opted to stay in last night, rather than go to the basketball game. I worked on some PHP coding, which I haven’t done in FAR too long, and watched Chasing Amy. Just before the movie ended, Darillyn and company showed up; we sat around and shot the bull. Steve, one of the MFAs in SaraRules’ program, came over and hung out. SaraRules got home around 10:30 and the lot of us hung out and rounded out the evening.

This morning has started with coffee and a couple of dismal football games. The Ravens are getting owned by the Browns. The Browns, for Pete’s sake! And, the Panthers are getting rocked by the Packers. It’ s pretty bad when I have to look to this season’s Dolphins (0-9 this season) for a ray of hope.

Stray Toasters

• I want to go to St. George. (There’s a Best Buy there…)
• For the Mac-philes out there: What are some of your favorite Mac-related websites?
• Engraved Victorian tentacle-horrors from Dan Hillier
• Was that… Ray Lewis… who just picked off a pass and ran it back for a 35-yard touchdown!? Why, yes, yes it was!
• 
• I think that it’s all but official: Defiant is slowly assuming most of the functions for which Intrepid was responsible. I think that Intrepid will most likely be redeployed to the Neutral Zone as a media PC in the living room.
• Massively – Daily News about MMOs
• By way of Etsy: Toilet decals
• 

Namaste.

Saturday – 17 November 2007
As Bobby Darin sang, “What a difference a day makes…”

Last night’s drive to Cedar City was relatively uneventful, although long. I left SLC a little later than I had planned, thanks to some office monkeydom. Nature of the beast, I guess. Leaving late meant that I got caught in the Great I-15/I-215 Southbound Exodus crunch. It’s great when it takes you 20 minutes to go four miles. Once I got past 106th South, traffic wasn’t bad… until I got to Orem. At UVSC, I-15 turned into a parking lot again. A monkey-filled parking lot. And, that had barely cleared up when there was another clot around Center Street in Provo. Not so amazingly, when I got out of Utah County, traffic was (for the most part) fine. Although, there seemed to be more southbound traffic than I am used to seeing. *shrug*

When I got here, aside from seeing SaraRules, I was also reunited with my work ID badge, which had decided to stay here on holiday. SaraRules, Roommate Kim and I ate take-out from Wendy’s and watched Batman Begins, which made for a good way to end the day/week.

So far, today has been quiet and lazy. In true Saturday fashion, the morning started with breakfast and coffee and cartoons – a new episode of Legion; a rerun of The Batman. Now, SaraRules is knocking out some homework and I’m playing around on the Interweb. And deciding if I want to play around with Parallels. Tonight, I’m either going to a basketball game – which will get me back on track for my “Year of Sports” goal – or going to a Gershwin… opera-type-thingamabob.

Stray Toasters

• I have a taste for something sweet, but I haven’t pegged “what” yet.
• posted a link to this: Elise Hendrick’s piece Fuck Euphemisms. Go read it.
• LEGO Master Working on 100,000-piec, 21 foot long Battleship Yamato model
• I was showing a coworker the video for Weapon of Choice (which he had never seen) yesterday. That led me to look up Christopher Walken’s IMDb page. I noted that he had also appeared in Madonna’s Bad Girl video, which I had never seen.
• iStat menus
• 
• Automata for Sale – papercraft, DIY and wooden
• Typing of the Dead shall be played today (or tonight)!
• Best book covers of 2007
• Does anyone remember the game Marble Madness? Of course you do. You know that you spent quarter after quarter trying to get the damned marble to the bottom of the track/maze without getting eaten or crushed by the Steelie or just running it off the edge. But, I digress… check this out.

Time to find some trouble to get into…

Namaste.

Thursday: Coda
The rest of the day – and so far, the evening – has been quiet.

I neglected to mention a late birthday present from Chris and Mary: Star Fleet Battles: Captain’s Edition Basic Set. I had mentioned that I used to play it in college and, being set in the Star Trek universe, it piqued Chris’ gamer’s curiosity. I don’t know how or where Chris dug it up, but it put a rather large smile on my face. Mary, apparently unaware of what it was, asked,”So… what did he get you?” My response: “Wood… in a box.”

Four-Color Coverage
Of this week’s haul, only four titles really seemed to stand out:

• All-Star Superman #9 – It’s a shame that this title has gone to bimonthly release. Of course, if it means that we continue to get the great stories that Morrison has been pulling out of his hat, then the wait is worth it. The story picks up as Superman returns to Earth from Htrae (Bizarro World) to find that he’s been… replaced… by two Kryptonian astronauts who escaped the planet’s cataclysm.
• Madame Mirage #1 – This series from Paul Dini is a noir take on the superhero genre. When laws were passed to ban vigilantism, the heroes submitted (and some were jailed), while the villains went underground to consolidate their power and – using the law to their advantage – formed corporations and syndicates, through which they could “offer their services.” Someone is unwilling to turn a blind eye and let the “former” villains run amok. That someone is the elusive Madame Mirage.
• The New Avengers #36 – I’m still having a hard time with the art in this book. And I will be quite glad when they “shit or get off the pot” with the Skrull invasion storyline… which won’t happen until the “Secret Invasion” crossover is over. But… this story intrigued me because two-thirds of it is told by Luke Cage to his wife, Jessica Jones, while they’re lying in bed. The Venom “invasion” of New York. The aftermath. The meeting with the officially-sanctioned Avengers team. And, to his credit, Bendis makes the retelling sound like two people lying in bed talking.
• Thor #1-3 (collected) – The Odinson has returned. And he’s choosing to set up shop in… Oklahoma?! Yep, you got it. Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain! And Asgard? It’s back, too… hovering a few yards above the ground. In Oklahoma. Now all that remains is to locate the lost gods. And, Tony Stark (futurist, Director of SHIELD and Iron Man) drops in for a visit. Let’s stop and look at this situation: When you’re THE guy who said, “Hey… see that dead God of Thunder over there? Go get me some DNA so I can clone him,” and the dead Thunder God comes back, how happy do you think he’ll be to see you? Hint: “Not very.” And Thor proceeds to beat on the armor-plated Avenger like nobody’s business. (To be honest, I bought the issue because I had seen a preview of that fight a few weeks ago.) J. Michael Straczynski – yes, the Babylon 5 guy – is writing this one. I’d dare say that the book is in capable hands.

Stray Toasters

• I’m slowing coming to a realization: Defiant may be replacing Intrepid. It was never really an issue with Valiant (the laptop formerly known as “Defiant”), because it was an old system and there was no way that it could replace one of my desktops. Not so with the new hotness. Time will tell.
• Moonbeam.
• The first Leopard update (10.5.1) is available now.
• Transfer Songs from Your iPod to Any Mac with Sentui
• Chocolate milk.
• The Wizard List: DC’s Grisliest Moments – I actually own the issues in which 13 of those moments occur.
• shockpuppet, wife of , amuses me.
• , click here and here.
• Steampunk Virtuoso Datamance, aka Rich Nagy, Shows Us His ‘Tesla Cane’
• Fight Thieving Restaurant Servers with Checksum Tips
• , check this out: Apocalyptic Manhattan 50-building Terrain for Warhammer 40K

Namaste.

Thursday – 15 November 2007
Three down, one in the chamber and one to go.

Today has been pretty good. There were a couple of small fires (tiny things, really) to put out when I got in. Other than that, it’s been pretty quiet here in the south forty. Today’s workout was a bit painful – I apparently tweaked my shoulder in the past day or two:

• Bench Press: 225 lbs / 2 sets, 8 reps; 205 lbs / 1 set, 12 reps
• Standing Curls (dumbbell, hammer grip): 25 lbs / 3 sets, 10 reps
• Decline Press: 155 lbs / 1 set, 12 reps; 165 lbs / 2 sets, reps
• Cable Fly (Nautilus): 95 lbs / 3 sets, 10 reps
• Reclined Curls (dumbbell): 20 lbs / 1 sets, 10 reps; 25 lbs / 2 sets, 10 reps; 20 lbs / 1 sets, 10 reps
• Bench Dips: 3 sets / 15 reps

Eric and I tried to do a rep at 300 lbs today – neither of us made it – and we noted something about Tuesday’s workout: We left two (2) ten-pound weights off the bar, so we only did 280 lbs. I also neglected to list the Decline Press in Tuesday’s workout. We did three sets of 12 reps at 135 lbs.

Stray Toasters

• I found out that a coworker was worried – for weeks – that I would be horribly offended by something he said. I remember the situation, total case of “no blood, no foul.”
• Of course, that didn’t stop me from toying with him this morning.
• Drew Barrymore as Edie Beale
• I brought in Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word for Eric. I’ve had two other people ask if they can read it when he’s done.
• To err on the side of caution, I told the mangers about it… so that if someone saw the book and came to one of them, freaking out about it, they would already know the score.
• This happened at the V.I. where we usually go for late-night breakfast.
• By way of : The Real Voice of Darth Vader
• A coworker asked if I had a version of The Girl from Ipanema in my mp3 collection. I told him that I had three. He browsed my mp3s and found them. He told me, a little later, that he wasn’t aware that Sammy Davis, Jr. had been anything other than a comedian. *jawdrop* He had never heard of The Rat Pack, either. *FLOOR*
• Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, one of my all-time favorite movies.
• I want to drive this.

Namaste.