Random Access

Saturday – 02 February 2008
Derek (visiting a friend here in Cedar) and I left work yesterday and headed south. On the way, I shared with him the thoughts about one of our coworkers reminding us of Homsar. He found it as amusing – and just about as fitting – as we did. The trip was fairly uneventful, even when we drove through a few areas where snow was falling. Oddly, Beaver was not one of those areas.

Upon arriving in Cedar City, I dropped Derek off and headed to SaraRules’ place. I was a little more tired than I thought, so I took a short nap. When I woke up, Tink told me that I had missed SaraRules mixing it up with Roomie #5’s boyfriend. *jawdrop* Apparently, the spat didn’t last long and Miss SaraRules handled business… but, I still wish that I had been awake for it. Steph came home from her performance – she is dancing the lead in a production of Sleeping Beauty. So the fight recap was told again….

…as it was when Kim got home
…as it was when Vince got here
…and as it was when a few friends of Steph and Tink’s got here.

It was just one of those stories that gets better with each retelling.

Vince and I played a bit of Magic: the Addiction Gathering last night.  He tuned a couple of decks; I played with three of my old decks.  My first deck (black-and-red) played slowly, Vince won that game.  I used my blue deck next.  Much better results.  After that game, I went to my black-and-green deck.  I lost that game, but it was a closer game.  Back to the blue deck.  I won the next couple of games.

Today has been a fairly typical Saturday: Toons, breakfast and coffee. Today’s Legion was (yet) another rerun; but, The Batman was new. After we got our weekly dose of toonage, we observed the necessary hygiene rituals. Next up, SaraRules took on some homework while I took on bad guys in Paragon City. I am still about 80,000 points from Security Level 40.  But, I’m getting closer.  I also retuned my black-and-red deck, to (hopefully) get it to play a little faster… y’know… just in case a game of Magic breaks out later tonight.

Tonight, we’re having dinner with Tink and Vince at Cafe Orleans and then seeing Sleeping Beauty.

After that?
Who knows.

Tomorrow: Super Bowl.
What are your predictions?
I’m not sure who I really want to win: I would be interested in seeing the Patriots having a complete perfect season, but it would be nice to see Eli Manning and company pull off an upset.  I guess we’ll see tomorrow.

Namaste.

Sunday – 27 January 2008
Last night, SaraRules and I went to play Minister G’off after all. We got her brother, Logan, to go along with us. We have the pictures to prove it.

Today, we slept in a bit. Later, while SaraRules was reading The Walking Dead, I finally remembered how to make an animated icon in Photoshop:

This afternoon, we went to the Capitol Theatre and saw Utah Opera‘s production of Tosca. It was a great production. The set was from the Seattle Opera; my favorite part of the staging was in Act Three, when they took the set from pre-dawn to early morning.

After that, we headed to SaraRules’ parents’ for dinner and to hang out for a while.

Back home for SaraRules to do homework and for me to save the world. For a bit, at least. When she was done, we watched Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. I had forgotten how fun it was… and a decent story, too.

And that’s how I spent my Sunday.

Oh… and it’s the 50th Anniversary of the LEGO brick!

Wednesday – 23 January 2008
Mid-week and all’s well… if grey, gloomy and generally “blah” can be considered “well.”

I got a decent start on the morning… even after someone dialed my number at 5:45 AM. No idea who it was, because no number came up on the Caller ID. Monkeys. I was up and nominally mobile a little after 7:00 this morning and out the door, caffeinated (and bagel-laden) and in the office by 8:30. As an added bonus, the first song on Nomad’s shuffle play was Big Daddy Kane’s A Job Ain’t Nuthin’ But Work. Nice way to kick off the short commute.

Mo’ money, mo’ money, mo’ money got get made
To get paid in this trade
And I believe that I can acheive
To make ends meet like a hair weave

Survivin’ in this economy people in the world wanna be
Stayin’ in the upper class so you’re the path
The rich gets the most and the poor gets so little
And only Monie Love can make it in the middle

The work day wasn’t too chaotic. Fortunately. I was asked to check out a problem with a server… which not only was not having a problem (today), but was also in the middle of running some tests for one of our engineers. So, that got downgraded from “Put this at the top of today’s to-do list” to “Keep an eye on this.” I’m okay with that. I’ve also managed to work in some hardware testing… which means that I have been able to clear stacks of dysfunctional machinery out of my work area. I actually found some work space under all of the dreck!

Sushi Wednesday.
New Comics Day.
‘Nuff said.

Genius that I am, I left the power cord (POWER CHORD!) for Defiant at work. *sigh* This meant that – rather than go buy a (“yet another”) new one – I had to go back to the office to retrieve it. This was good on a couple of counts… as I also forgot that I needed to pick up a few things at the store, too. So, I headed to the office to find…

…neither of my badges worked on the main doors of the building. *grblsnrkx* Fortunately, I had messaged Code Monkey BB to see if he was still at work before leaving home. He was. I called him and he brought my cord down to the lobby. We chatted a bit before I took off to run some more errands and he went back upstairs to sling some more code.

After errand-running, I decided to see if was in. She was. I told her that I had her Trader Joe’s shwag with me and would drop it off, if that was alright. Not only was it alright, she asked if I’d mind lending a hand to , who had been helping her resurrect her PC – at this point they were having a problem getting her mouse to respond and needed to rejoin the PC to the wireless network.

No problem!
Piece of cake!
We’d have it back online and humming in no time!

An hour and a half later, we finally had things up and running again. Just like Tom Tom the Piper’s Son… but without the pigs.

Stray Toasters

• I had many things in the four-color hold today… and I picked up a couple new Stikfas:
  1. Alpha Male Samurai with Stallion
  2. Omega Male Black Knight
• By way of comes Gaslight Justice League, a steampunk/Victorian Era look at the JLA.
• had a few things to say about peoples’ reactions to Heath Ledger’s death.
• Today was also Sushi Wednesday for … who, along with the Sib-1 sister-unit, has been interviewing pediatricians. It sounds like it has been a feast-or-famine kind of thing.
• : has your Trader Joe’s items, as you are more likely to see her on Friday evening.
• Area 51 designated with a new name
• By way of : The Internet Party: What happens when Google’s parents leave town for the weekend?
• By way of : The 5 Most Horrifying Bugs in the World
• SR-71A… made out of LEGO. Win-Win!

I’m sure that there was probably more that I was going to add to this… but all I want to do now is save the world (if I can find a team) and read the rest of this week’s four-color haul.

Namaste.

Saturday – 19 January 2008
This morning SaraRules and I got up, observed the hygiene rituals and then headed off to enjoy a few things in the greater L.A. Metro area. But first… on to the nearby Target for a couple of new SD cards for the camera. Next, we went to a bagel shop around the corner from Meliko’s place. I had ham, egg and swiss on a sesame bagel, which was rather good.

And then…Seal Beach. (pictures) We walked down the pier and then walked down on the sand… and a little way into the surf. The ambient temperature was in the mid-60s and the water 57°F, pretty chilly but still okay to stand in (briefly!). There were surfers on the north side of the pier and sunbathers on the south side. And, we even saw one wakeboarder trying to “surf” down a sand dune. He was unsuccessful in all four attempts that we watched. There was no wind, so I didn’t get to fly my kite.

Back to the apartment to meet/pick-up Meliko and then we headed to Messob, an Ethiopian restaurant. The ladies split a vegetarian platter; I had Sigo Wat – a braised beef dish. All of it was good and I understand why it is that SaraRules tries to make this one of her “must go to” places when she’s in L.A.

After lunch, we went to Beverly Hills (cue Axel F) to go to Sprinkles Cupcakes. I had heard them both rave about the cupcakes… and bemoan the fact that there was usually a wait to get in the door. When we got there, we had 20-ish minute wait to get in. That gave us the perfect opportunity to do some people-watching. We weren’t let down. We counted more than “a few” fashion faux-pas and straight-up “fashion don’ts.” Finally, we went inside, ordered our cupcakes and were on our way to…

…Gallery 1988 for Under the Influence: A Tribute to Stan Lee. As cool as the pieces looked online, they were even more impressive in the gallery. If I had the money to do so ($$$), I would have added a couple of pieces to my burgeoning art collection. If you’re in the L.A. area – and are a fan of comic-related art – you should definitely see this exhibit (on display through 01 Feb 08). After looking at the exhibit, we went next door to Golden Apple Comics.

*bliss*

I found some old issues of Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, a handful of Legion of Super-Heroes and an Elseworld title that I haven’t seen in a while: Speeding Bullets. Not only that, I picked up a few pieces of plastic crack, including:

• Captain America
• Lex Luthor
• Shadowcat
• Superman Blue
• Triplicate Girl (!)
• Wasp and
• Wonder Girl

Yeah, I was pretty stoked. Back to the car – by way of a nearby Baskin-Robbins – and back to the apartment.

Next up, we’re going to see Cloverfield in a bit.

::: time lapse :::

So, SaraRules, Meliko and I just got back from Cloverfield. It was well-done. Very well done, in many ways… but be warned: It’s shot in Blair Witch cam. Even more so than the second and third Bourne movies. However, the technique was used very effectively in this movie. And the characters were rather believable. And the movie was written with the assumption that the members of the audience actually had functional brains. So… I give the movie a thumbs-up with an okay.

Tomorrow: LEGOland.

Namaste.

Friday: Coda
Annnd, we’re here. Long Beach. SoCal. According to Weather.com, it’s 49°F here. Forty-nine. At almost 10:00 PM. SLC won’t see the other side of forty for the next couple of months, probably.

The trip was fun. Long, but fun. We stopped in St. George (so I could pick up my camera – kudos to online shopping/in-store pick-up). While we were off the interstate, we decided to pick up lunch at the nearby Burger King. This was… entertaining.

We pulled up to the drive-in and SaraRules started to place our order. I think that it took four tries to get the first part of the order in and have the person on the mike actually get it right. Then, SaraRules put in the second part of the order. That was, comparatively, a piece of cake – she only had to repeat herself once.

And, just as we were about to add an extra order of onion rings to the mix, we were cut off, given a total and told to drive around.

*blink blink*

We drove up to the window… and added in our onion ring request. Because, as SaraRules put it: “We already had food and knew that they would not spit in our onion rings.”

So, the whole exchange – which should have taken about… four minutes – took nearly ten. Wow. Talk about “fast” food.

We drove through Vegas and the NV/CA state line and on to Baker, CA. If you’ve never been to/through Baker, you’re not really missing much: A few gas stations, some restaurants (mostly attached to the gas stations) and a buttload of mobile homes. Oh, and the world’s tallest thermometer. On the plus side, they did have a Dairy Queen, so I was able to sate my chocolate-dipped cone craving.

On the road again and on to Long Beach! Tally-ho!

As we dropped through Cajon Pass and into San Bernardino, the traffic picked up… the way that traffic does when you’re entering a major metropolitan area. It reminded me of the traffic on 495 in/around DC.

We made it to Meliko‘s. When we got there, Jeff and Adrienne – friends of theirs, were there. We said our “hellos” and then decided to head off to get something to eat. We went to a place called Marri’s Pizza and Italian Restaurant. I had the chicken alfredo. Good stuff. By the time we got back, Meliko’s roommate, Cat, was home. SaraRules and I hung out while the four of them (Meliko, Cat, Adrienne and Jeff) practiced a song.

Stray Toasters

• Right after this afternoon’s post, pointed me in the direction of 25 Amazing Photos Taken at the Exact Perfect Time
• : I got ya covered. There’s actually a TJ’s just around the corner. Literally.
• How bad-ass is Wonder Woman? Not only did she whoop Batman’s ass, but she’s a therapist: Ask Golden Age Wonder Woman
• The newest “Sneak Preview” from the upcoming HeroClix release Crisis: The Flash. The Barry Allen “I’m going to run myself to death” Flash.

  

And, since I’m on vacation… I’m done.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 16 January 2008
It snowed today. Okay, that may be a bit of an overstatement. It flurried today. But, it was Sushi – and Comic Book – Wednesday, so that made up for a lot of wrongs. For the most part. I only had two (2) books in my hold today. Two! Unglaublich! So, to make up for some of the pain I felt, I picked up the last two boxes of Origin ‘Clix in the store. Most of the pieces were… average, but I managed to walk away with a couple nice pieces:

• Batman (unique)
• Jakeem Thunder (unique)

So, it wasn’t a bad haul. And, I finally remembered to use my gift certificate, so there was even less out-of-pocket money that had to be spent.

As I was getting ready to leave Dr. Volt’s, I got a text message saying that the technician (who was supposed to be there yesterday) had arrived. So, I headed back to the office with all due haste. I shouldn’t have worried: The guy was not exactly “social.” Oh, well. At least the hardware has been repaired and everything should be hunky-dory, once again.

After work, I came home to do some cleaning and a bit of laundry. Yay, domesticity! It needed to be done and apparently, I have neither gnomes nor house elves who are going to do it for me. (And I never learned to warble/yodel/whatever it is that the Disney princesses do to summon legions of animals to do the cleaning for me, either.) Frankie dropped by for a while and we caught up on what each other has been up to for the past few months. She’s doing well and it was nice to see her.

Tomorrow is “Friday.” Put in some time in the north office. Head south to put in some time and make sure that things are copasetic…

…and then it’s off to southern Utah to see Ms. SaraRules and prep for a sunny – and WARM – weekend in southern California. Selah.

Four-Color Coverage
Short and sweet this week, as I only have a couple of titles to cover:

• Countdown: 15 -Mary Batson, the former Mary Marvel, washes ashore on Themyscira. Ray Palmer, the former Atom, finds a backbone. Donna Troy vs… Donna Troy? And Monarch’s armies whoop some ass.
• Justice League of America #17 – Black Lightning can’t catch a break. He has to snap off a little somethin’ in an airport before he can even get on his plane and go on vacation. Batman… a conspiracy theorist?! Say it ain’t so! A bunch of villains attack the Hall of Justice?! Where.. the.. heroes… hang out and plan stuff. Together. Wait. What’s wrong with this picture?!

Stray Toasters

• It’s 11:30 PM… and I’m making brownies. Just because.
• By way of : A god in Nepal: second only to the Dalai Lama
• I woke up to a comment on last night’s post from Julie Lawson, wife of Jerry Lawson – former lead singer for The Persuasions. How cool is that?
• Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?
• NCSoft President Speaks on Publisher’s Future
• “Flame on!”

  

• Six steampunk saints fit on a quarter
  (But, I still want to know how many angels fit – or can dance – on the head of a pin.)
• Wow… it’s been a while since I’ve had a “steampunk”entry.
• Art exhibit of Stan Lee tributes now showing at Gallery Nineteen Eighty-Eight
  I’ll have to see if we can sneak in a trip to the gallery this weekend…
• Cloverfield opens this weekend, too.

Time to finish packing… and maybe, just maybe, sneak in a little world-saving.

And have a brownie or two.

Namaste.

Friday – 11 January 2008
Grey and overcast… and snowy… day in Utah Valley. When I drove into the AF office this morning, I was surprised to see the road leading to the office and the parking lot covered in snow. Apparently, 6 – 8 inches fell late Tuesday/early Wednesday.

The work day hasn’t been bad. After a brief stop in the SLC office, I headed to AF. Jason helped me suss out a problem with one of our servers, so that I could get it rebuilt and back online. Then some lovely Win2K3 reading. Huzzah!

Today’s workout was good. I was able to move more weight today. (I may not be able to move tomorrow.)

• Bench press: 3 sets/10 reps – 185 lbs, 205 lbs (x2)
• Cable Fly: 3 sets / 10 reps – 80 lbs, 100 lbs (x2)
• Curls (dumbbell, standing): 3 sets /10 reps, 25 lbs
• Push-ups (elevated): 3 sets / 15 reps
• Curls (dumbbell, incline bench): 3 sets/10 reps – 20 lbs
• Dips (bench): 2 sets / 25 reps
• Lateral Raises: 3 sets / 10 reps – 15 lbs.

I’m heading out soon and heading south. Hopefully, the drive through Beaver (NOT to be confused with “drive-thru beaver”) won’t be bad.

Stray Toasters

• I almost had The Pina Colada Song stuck in my head earlier. I headed it off at the pass with some well-timed Schoolhouse Rock!, thankfully.
• From the “Kids These Days…” file: 14-Year-Old Turns Tram System into Personal Train Set
• FBI Wiretaps Dropped Due to Unpaid Bills
• By way of Comics2Film: Gamma Blog – Capes and Costumes
• : Dawnstar will be in the new Crisis set for HeroClix.

  

• Darth Vader and Yoda in Soul Calibur IV
• 
• Penn Jillette’s video rant show
• Death on holiday (Photoshopping contest)
• Keith Giffen takes a look at One More/Brand New Day: Unfortunate Confluence of Words
• LEGO Catalog

And, with that… I’m a vapor trail.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 09 January 2008
This morning started early. 6:15 early. All things considered, that’s good for many reasons, not the least of which was that I was able to chat with Mom for a few minutes before I headed off to work. And when I stepped outside… I saw that it had snowed. And it continued to snow, intermittently, throughout the day.

The work day has been relatively quiet, allowing me to dive back into Win Server 2003 reading – which at this point includes a lot of going back and taking some notes on things I read before our Winter vacation. But, it’s proceeding apace.

Today was also Sushi Wednesday (Oh Sushi, the restaurant formerly known as Go Sushi) and Four-Color Crack Day. Due to the holidays – and some delays from Diamond – shipments for the past two weeks have been a little “off.” So much so that last week, Dr. Volt’s had two shipments: One on Wednesday (the previous week’s shipment) and one on Friday (last week’s intended shipment). Since I worked out of AF – and headed south – on Friday, I missed out on getting the second day’s haul until today. And even with the today’s new arrivals, the haul was fairly light. So, I made up for it by picking up this and this, after all…

1. It’s a John Stewart figure. (If I need to ‘splain beyond this, just stop reading now.)
2. They’re more X-Men Minimates for my “Sentinel Attacks!” scenario. ‘Nuff said.

I neglected to cover yesterday’s workout in yesterday’s post. Let me start off by saying that it hurt. A lot. Something about “not going to the gym for three weeks” comes to mind. The overall workout was light and more of a “getting back into the swing of things” routine:

• Pull-ups: 3 sets/10 reps (on the last set, the last half were done with my feet braced against the back of the Roman Chair)
• Leg raises: 3 sets/20 reps
• Dips: 3 sets/15 reps
• Bench press: 3 sets/10 reps, 135 lbs. (Like I said: “Getting back into it”)
• Nautilus Cable Fly: 3 sets/10 reps, (2 sets at 95 lbs, 1 set at 80 lbs)
• Seated dumbbell curls: 3 sets/10 reps, 25 lbs.

Like I said: It hurt. A lot. Yesterday. Today. And maybe even tomorrow.

Tonight, I think that I shall spend some quality time in Paragon City… or the Rogue Isles. I’m not quite sure “which” locale sounds more appealing.

Stray Toasters

• Rather than going to bed at a nominally reasonable hour last night, I took time to set up my LEGO train alongside the Rokenbok Factory. I’ll have to take some pics of the “new” setup at some point.
• Speaking of LEGO: SaraRules and I are looking at the feasibility of visiting LEGOland: California in a couple of weeks, while in Lost Angles.
• Yes, I know “Los Angeles” is misspelled above.
• My Favorite James Bond portrayers, in descending order:

1. Sean Connery
2. Daniel Craig
3. Pierce Brosnan
4. George Lazenby / Roger Moore (tie)
5. Timothy Dalton

• I went the high-tech route an text messaged (rather than call) my father to tell him it was snowing. Again. He asked that I keep the snow out here and not send it eastward. Again.
• Falafel.  Black Ops.   Back, Crack and Sac Wax.
• From Wired: Best Vintage Tech Commercials
• For an as-yet unexplained reason, I had the chorus from Wake Me Up Before You Go Go stuck in my head this morning.
• I’ve been spending time on the Rokenbok site. Sweet, sweet ‘bok goodness…
• I got a call from this evening; she needed help troubleshooting a computer problem. A little mental “elbow grease” and a short time later, we sussed it out.
• 
• From Reuters: Election 2008 – The Latest on the Leading Candidates
• By way of Craigslist: Halloween Observations
• PokerStars makes a Mac client.
• Yet another item to add to the Covet List.
• It’s a REALLY quiet night in Paragon City.
• Chocolate Jesus Crunchies.

*BAMF*

Monday – 07 January 2008
Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

Remember the snow I mentioned last night? It didn’t stop until this morning. Given this, you would think that UDoT would have sent a plow or two to take care of clearing I-15 Northbound. Nope. And, if… IF… they did, it must have been in the wee hours of the night and not since. Therefore, the drive from Cedar City to Beaver – which usually takes about 35 minutes – took over an hour. *sigh* There were a couple of small patches of clear road up to Beaver, but each of them was less than a half-mile long. I should also mention that for most of the Cedar-to-Beaver trip, only one lane was decently drivable. Yay. And then there was was that driver from Nevada who decided that she could/would not be passed: When I made a go of it – on one of the rare clear stretches of two clear lanes – she sped up to pace me… until I hit the next slushy/icy patch. Monkey.

Once I got a few miles north of Beaver, you would have never known that there had been snow on the roads. Seriously. The roads were bone dry. I made up a little time, but didn’t really drop the hammer.

Work was quiet and low-key today. This was a good thing. I was asked a few questions; I gave a few answers. Not everyone went away happy, but they knew what was up.

Stray Toasters

• I’m (finally) reading Batman: The Long Halloween. It’s pretty damned good.
• Interesting mashup: Thuggy Stardust and the Hustlers from Mars
• The X-Files Are Coming Back, But They Never Left
• If you have kids, watch this video: TED Talks – Gever Tulley: 5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do
• LEGO pictures (clickable), by way of The Brothers Brick:
  • 
  • 
  • The next pair are for :
    • 
    • 
  • 
• Bob Staake Works in Adobe Photoshop 3.0
• World Series of Poker. Mmm…
• and Tyranist: Storm

Okay, that’s enough for now. Time to go save the world…

Namaste.

Sunday – 06 January 2008
It’s snowing. And not just a little bit. It’s supposed to snow through some time tomorrow. That should make the morning commute… interesting. Let’s hope that UDoT gets a handle on the situation early enough to make sure that I-15 is more than just “passable.”

Today has been quiet and relaxed. After sleeping in and coffee, we met up with Steve and went to lunch. After lunch, we headed over to Rachel’s and hung out with her and Tyler. Back to SaraRule’s to return Steve to his truck and then we were off to the grocery store. In the seven minutes that it took to do shopping, the snowstorm started. There was enough snow on the windows that I had to use the snow brush/ice scraper. In seven minutes. Unglaublich! Fortunately, we don’t have anyplace to go this evening.

Four-Color Coverage

• Action Comics #860 – The Superman and the LSH story continues. We are reintroduced to a few more Legionnaires and the Legion takes on the Justice League again. Where’s Brainiac 5? Wasn’t bringing Superman to the 31st Century his idea?! Shouldn’t he be around to explain “why?”
• Green Lantern #26 – The Second New Law of the Book of Oa is written: The Creation of the Alpha Lanterns. Who are they and how is their mission different from the rest of the Corps? Hal Jordan has a talk with an imprisoned – and oddly… smug – Sinestro. We see John Stewart, dealing with the his greatest failure.
• Green Lantern/Sinestro Corps Secret Files #1 – DC updates the information on the Green Lantern Corps, including updating the bios of some of the GLs. One of the updates was John Stewart’s bio, to include his stint in the Marine Corps, as first noted in Justice League.
• House of M: Avengers #3 of 5 – I know… I know… I wouldn’t have expected to ever have something with the words “House of M” to appear in FCC, but here it is. This series focuses not on mutants, but on the humans living in the world of the the House of M. This issue introduced a certain FBI agent named Frank Castle.
• JLA Classified #49 – This was a well-told story called “To Live in Hearts We Leave Behind.” It looks at a day – a busy day – in the life of the Justice League… from the point of view of their loved ones. Lois Lane and Alfred Pennyworth serve as the anchors for this story, in which the League is off-world and the world awaits news of their mission. I don’t usually collect Classified, but this was a nice addition to the collection.
• Legion of Super-Heroes #37 – This issue marked Jim Shooter’s return to the Legion. I think that this was more of a “setting the stage” issue. Lightning Lad deals with the mantle of leadership and Princess Projectra deals with a a blow to her royal status.
• Mythos: Fantastic Four #1 – This is a/another retelling of the FF’s origin… but from the point of view of a congressional inquiry.

Stray Toasters

• We just played a game called Buzzword. Our teams were The Cock Whippers (guys) vs. Pussy Control (girls). The Cock Whippers won.
• Did I mention that it’s snowing?
• 
• The trailer for Will Smith’s upcoming summer movie: Hancock
• National Spelling Bee (YouTube video… NSFW)
• “Your Mom”

  

• Warren Ellis’ angry, profane Three Laws of Robotics

And that’s it.

Namaste.

Saturday – 05 January 2008
Yep. Lazy Day. And, to quote the Jonathan Coulton song: I Feel Fantastic.

This morning started, as any good Saturday should, with breakfast, coffee and cartoons. Both Legion and The Batman were repeats, but they were good episodes.

City of Heroes
I decided to give Defiant‘s alternate configuration a solid shakedown cruise for a bit this afternoon, so I fired up Windows and City of Heroes. Sweet Mother Mary… *genuflect* Not only did it play City, it played it better, smoother and a little faster than DS9. Even when I cranked up the graphics settings. Yeah, it was that good.

The Hand of Nefer-Tem was invited to join a group for a Level 44 mission. How could I say “No” to that?! The mission went well… even if it was a Council of Thorns mission. In the middle of it, a member of my supergroup asked to join a task force group. I figured,”Why not…?” When the mission was done, I quit the group and logged out.

I logged back in with Corvus Nox, as we were going to do Positron’s Task Force: The Rule of Three, which is geared for Level 10-15 characters. Nox is 17, so I was examplared down to 15, but I didn’t seem to lose access to any of my powers. Talk about an ass-kicker. I knew that the TF would be long; I’ve done a couple of TFs before and they ran a couple or three hours. This one took us over six hours to complete. About an hour or two into it, I noticed that I wasn’t gaining any experience for the missions. Then it dawned on me: Exemplars earn influence and prestige – “money”/credit for personal use or supergroup use, respectively – but they don’t earn experience. *sigh* It would have taken me a long way towards getting him to Level 20. Despite taking MUCH longer than I had planned, I had a good time. And I earned a few badges, as well.

After that, SaraRules and I kicked back with Steph and watched the end of Dante’s Peak. We then decided to start in on Season Three of Coupling. It was great. I will never think of Spider-Man in quite the same way. (Thanks, once again, to Tyranist for allowing us to borrow this.)

And that’s how I spent my summer vacation Saturday.

Namaste.

Thursday – 03 January 2008
Not a bad day for an NBN Thursday. I woke up (more or less) when I had planned to. Getting out of bed was a different matter altogether. I got up after a bit of decided laziness and started the day.

Work was a bit busy. I was trying to track down some hardware information, but kept running into proverbial walls. After a few hours of what felt like spinning my wheels, I think I found a way to get what I needed. I’ll know for sure tomorrow morning.

After work, I came home and had a bite to eat – and watched a little bit of Rio Bravo – before meeting up with Chris and heading to a comic shop near his place to play dolls HeroClix. We played against a few other guys. We played 1000 points per side; which is one of the – if not THE – largest “small” game I’ve played in. I picked a force comprised mostly of the JLA, Teen Titans and one of the X-Men:

• Batman (Red Rain)
• Green Lantern (John Stewart)
• Dmitri Pushkin (Rocket Red)
• Cyborg
• Raven
• Bishop

Chris played with mostly X-Men, along with a different Batman and a paramedic. Healers are a GOOD thing in that game. We started off alright, but hit a string of craptacular dice rolls in the middle of the game. Fortunately, the Luck Lords of Ventura looked upon us fortunately in the waning turns of the game: Chris and I won. I had a lot of fun.

And now there’s Whose Line! (With Robin Williams, even!)

Stray Toasters

• I did it: Boot Camp.
• I did it again: City of Heroes on the Defiant.
• Four Root DNS Servers Go IPv6 on February 4th.
• Four words: LEGO. Indiana Jones. Game.
• Five words: LEGO. Batman and Robin Game.
• Two more words: Coming soon!
• By way of Wizard Entertainment: 2008 Preview – Notable Comic Anniversaries
• Guillermo Del Toro Ready to Unleash Frankenstein’s Monster

Quote of the Day
From a conversation with :

: 12:44 s’ok
spent an hour with my team giving an american civics lesson this morning
was kind of neat, actually
one of those rare moments that take me out of my privileged bubble
: 12:44 Cool.
: 12:45 funniest part of it all was one of my guys asking “but the woman…she is from the clinton caste, so shouldn’t she be next for president?”
i keep forgetting where i am
: 12:47 So, how did you ‘splain it?
: 12:49 i said anybody can be president…response was “but as long as i can remember, only clinton and bush castes have been leaders.”
ok, true
however, if you are over 35 and you were born in the USA, you can run
“but can you win? here anybody can run but only upper castes win”
yes…that’s partially true in USA too
“so this man…this black man…can win?”
: 12:50 HA!
: 12:50 yes, he just won in iowa
“so he is president?”
no, thsi is just the first caucus
“but if he wins many caucuses?”
yes, he can be the nominee, and then maybe be president
“but he is black.”
yes.
“wow.”
yes. wow.
: 12:50 If he wins many caucauses, does that make him Caucasian?
: 12:50 HAHAHA
now that is a quote of the day.
: 12:51 *bow* I do what I can.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 02 January 2008
The year is another day older.
A new work week – and work year – began this morning.

Wahoo.

Yesterday, SaraRules and I headed over to her parents’ to watch the Rose Bowl (Illinois and USC) and just… chill. It was nice. The game, not so nice. The Fighting Illini got their midwestern hindparts handed to them, eight ways from Sunday. TLC would have called it “Unpretty.” (It’d make you feel unpretty, too…) After we turned from the game – somewhere in the third quarter – we watched Resident Evil: Extinction. I had seen it before, but it was a fun way to spend the evening.

We left, and came back to the apartment and decided that we weren’t tired enough to call it night, so we watched Superman: the Movie. At SaraRules’ request, not mine, believe it or not. *jawdrop* Wow. And, again, for two-and-a-half hours, I was a seven-year-old kid.

This morning, I don’t know if the alarm went off. If it did, I turned it off in my sleep. I woke up a little bit later, performed the hygiene rituals and hit the bricks. A week-and-a-half vacation is hard to recover from. But I – and everyone in the office – managed to pull it off. At lunch, SaraRules came to the office (she wanted to say “Hi” to ) and we met shockpuppet, and Joe for lunch. Sushi. Go-Sushi. Post-lunch, I picked up last week’s four-color shwag and then headed back to work.

After work, I came home and hung out with SaraRules before she headed back to Cedar City. After she left, it was time to have a bite to eat and then head to Paragon City with the Hand of Nefer-Tem. I was invited to join a team. We fought the Council of Thorns. And the difficulty level was cranked waaay up – we had our virtual hindparts handed to us, eight ways from Sunday. (It made us feel unpretty, too.) But, the experience was good, so I can’t complain too much.

I just got a call from SaraRules: She made it back to southern Utah without any problems.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
A commercial for Staples just came on and made me think of something: You see all of the ads for “Back to School” buys and whatnot in August. Every August.

And, because every year people apparently forget that they need to by school supplies – until they see those ads – there’s a bit of a rush at the stores to get supplies for little Johnny and Susie.

My question: Why not buy some/all of the supplies sooner? I mean, it makes sense… but it’s not something that you really think about – or want to think about – until you need it.

Kind of like buying a plunger.

Stray Toasters

• I have a taste for… some… kind of dessert, but I’m not sure exactly what.
• 
• Thermochromic Toilet Seat
• The Electric Company. Mm-hmm, that’s right… Easy Reader.
• Proving that he really is 2 Legit 2 Quit – MC Hammer’s Next Act: Tech Entrepreneur
• I’ve been rather vocal – at least to comic-reading friends – about how completely asinine I think the resolution to Marvel’s “One More Day” and “Brand New Day” storyline in the Spider-Man books is/was. (Short version: Joe Quesada and company have retconned Peter Parker and Mary-Jane’s wedding right out of existence. By making a deal with the devil – okay, technically it’s Mephisto, but come on… he’s as close as you’ll get to Old Scratch in the Marvel Universe.) I found a few blogs on Comics2Film that sum things up nicely:
  

  1. One More Day: One Less Reader
  2. One More Day: The Right Way to do a Retcon
  3. One More Day: The Art of the Swerve

• The Men’s Warehouse is having their Winter Sale. Hmm…
• IKEA is also having their Winter Sale. Hmm…
• Goats.
• Bruce Springsteen was right: “57 channels and nothing’s on…”
• Keys to the Kingdom

Namaste.

Sunday – 30 December 2007
An intermittently snowy day in the SL Valley.

Last night, SaraRules and I assembled (and played with) the Rokenbok Monorail that I’ve had, but never assembled, for… four-and-a-half years. We had more fun than should be allowed. I also discovered that my X-Men Minimates are the same size as the Rokenbok figures. (“X-Men Save the Factory” storyboards, here I come!)

This morning started lazily and slowly. As there was not a new shipment of comics this week, I figured that I would not get to partake in the weekly “coffee and comics in bed” ritual.

I was mistaken.

I had forgotten that Meliko had gotten me Ocean for Christmas. And that’s what I read. It was a great story. Science fiction (or “speculative fiction,” if that suits you better). Mystery. Intrigue. And action. All in one story. Correction: All in one well-told story. It made for a great way to start the day. Tyranist: If you haven’t read this, I think that it would be up your alley. While I read Ocean, SaraRules read the Justice mini-series (1, 2, 3).

After we finished reading, it was time for a late breakfast and football. Imagine my surprise to discover that the Steelers-Ravens game was going to air in this market. You could have, happily, bowled me over with the proverbial feather. It was the final game of the season and a division rivalry game… and they broke out the all-black uniforms. The game was good. Really good. “Ravens on top early” good. The team came to play some serious ball. Granted, a lot of starters were out, due to injuries, but their replacements did a great job. Troy Smith looked good in the QB spot. Second-year RB Cory Ross was all over the place. New-to-the-Ravens LB Nick Grieson did a great job of covering the ball on the defensive side of the game. To their credit, with many of the Steelers’ starters out due to injury and/or injury avoidance (as the Steelers made the playoffs), their second-stringers played well. But, in the end, the Ravens came away with the win.

Tonight, SaraRules and I went to visit Chris and Mary for dinner and a couple of movies: Dollman vs. Demonic Toys and The Ice Pirates. Both of these movies were “Cool World-Long Kiss Goodnight” Scale fodder, but they were also fun to watch… especially in the company of friends. A couple of odd bits of IMDb-supported trivia:

1. Tracy Scoggins and Tim Thomerson (both in Dollman vs. Demonic Toys) and Mary Crosby (from The Ice Pirates) were all in episodes of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Scoggins was a regular cast member in the first season; Crosby and Thomerson were guest stars.
2. Crosby and Scoggins were also guest stars on episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

And now, we’re home, sipping hot chocolate and eating biscotti. Huzzah!

Stray Toasters

• I talked with Adam today; all’s well with him and Chelsea.
• My uncle called me in the middle of the second quarter of the Steelers-Ravens game. Just to say “hi” and to commiserate over the fact that the game wasn’t playing in his area.
• Nintendo Wii Hacked
• There’s a new Monorail Metropolis Start Set. *adds to Covet List*
• The Red Balloon has become a dangerous store for me: They carry Rokenbok toys.
• Going to a Go-Go: Hip-Hop repays its debt to Chuck Brown
• 
• What in the Nine Hells has Joe Quesada turned Marvel Comics into!?
• Jon Favreau talks Iron Man
• Three weeks to L.A.

Namaste.

Friday – 28 December 2007
Yet another lazy day about town. I have to say that the downtime has been nice.

I woke up and puttered around the apartment for a bit this morning and early afternoon, while SaraRules went to lunch with an old friend. I was nominally productive though: I hung the LEGO key rack she got me for Christmas.

After she got back, we headed out for a bit to get lunch (for me) at Go Sushi. I had their Teriyaki Rice Bowl Combination (with chicken). It was just the right mix of food:

• Miso soup
• Teriyaki chicken and vegetables over rice
• Gyoza (potstickers) and
• California roll (half order)

I had a couple of pieces of Ika nigiri and some green tea to wash it all down.

Next, over to Dr. Volt’s… only to find that the shipment that should have been in yesterday was delayed again and now most likely will not be in until next Wednesday. And that’s on top of the already scheduled-to-be late shipment that’s due next Friday. To console myself, I got a couple of boxes of ‘Clix and the hardcover edition of The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes, to replace the (signed) softcover edition I can’t find. *shakes fist* Although, I was able to find it with the last printing’s cover, so it matches the softcover copies of Dream Country and The Wake that I have. A few pieces of note from the plastic crack haul include:

• Granny Goodness (unique)
• Power Ring (super-rare)
• Toyman

Then, we popped over to see SaraRules’ parents for a bit. We’re having brunch with them tomorning. Now, all we need to do is figure out “where.”

Back home for a bit… and some time in Paragon City.

Stray Toaster
Just one thing, for the moment: Solid!
(Click on the picture… you have to see the larger version. Comedy.)

And now… off to Clitorati!

Namaste.