Random Access

Monday – 14 December 2009
I’m enjoying another extended weekend Monday off. I got up when SaraRules did, to see her off to work, and then proceeded to veg on the sofa. There’s been the typical morning TV (meh) and CSI: is on now. I should get a bite to eat. And then, consider getting around to some errand-running.

Instant Replay: Football
Yesterday was a pretty good day for football action:

Detroit Lions at Baltimore Ravens
3 –48
We didn’t get to see this game, but a game with a “W” for the Ravens always makes me smile. I would have liked to have seen this game, as it appears as though Lions QB Dante Culpepper tried to put up a fight… but both Joe Flacco and Troy Smith did some decent work on the Ravens’ side of the game. Additionally, this win helps to keep the Ravens in the hunt for a Wild Card spot in the AFC playoffs.

.

Washington Redskins at Oakland Raiders
34 – 13
The Raiders took one on the chin from the ‘Skins.Early in the game, it looked as though the Raiders were making a game of it, until QB Bruce Gradkowski left the game in the third quarter, after injuring both knees. Sorry, SaraRules and .

.

Miami Dolphins at Jacksonville Jaguars
13 – 23
This is another game I would have liked to have seen, but at least the Dolphins came away with a win.

.

Cincinnati Bengals at Minnesota Vikings
10 – 30
This was another game that wasn’t broadcast locally. Congratulations, . Commisserations, and .

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Carolina Panthers at New England Patriots
10 – 20
The Cats dropped this one to the Pats.  *sigh*

Boilermaker Watch

• • Drew Brees and the Saints fought off the Falcons – led by former Ravens QB Chris Redman, who played one heck of a solid game – to remain undefeated. Too bad Redman was too far down the depth chart to get much playing time when he was in Baltimore; he looked solidly in control yesterday.
  • Denver QB Kyle Orton and the Broncos dropped this one to the undefeated Colts.

Stray Toasters

• Stan Lee Explains Hannukah for Digital Holiday Special
• The Facts About Bottled Water
• The Orient Express Takes Its Final Trip
• posted a link to Zoho International Artforms. Yep, Covet List.
• 
• How electricity became a right, and it that means for broadband
• I need want a new brown hat.
• Southwest thrives on policy of free checked bags
  • Trivia: Southwest trades on the NYSE under the keyword “LUV”
• The Problem With Best-of Lists

…right on to the friction of the day.

Namaste.

Sunday – 13 December 2009
Yesterday was a long and busy day…

After breakfast and a fairly lazy morning, SaraRules and I headed out to do a little Christmas shopping. Next, we stopped in to see Kate, Perry and the kids. From there…

…we went to see The Princess and the Frog (1, 2). The movie marked a return to 2-D animation by Disney Animation Studios. The movie follows Disney’s newest princess, Tiana, in her quest to achieve a dream that was inspired by her father. Tiana also holds a couple of  distinctions in Disney lore:

1. She is Disney’s first African-American princess
2. She is not a “help me, save me” princess, but more of a driven/determined young woman – much in the vein of Pocahantas or Mulan.

Let me start by saying it was a great movie. I enjoyed pretty much everything about it, from the animation to the voice casting (including Oprah?!) to the songs. The movie was set in New Orleans, in the… 20s and 30s. The animators did a good job of capturing the look and feel of the Crescent City in those days. Additionally, the animation used in a couple of Tiana’s dream sequences was also fantastic.

The movie’s dark side – provided by villain Dr. Facilier, a street con/voodoo magician – includes some scenes in which he… works his magic (sorry, couldn’t be helped)… that could be frightening to younger viewers. Dr. Facilier’s methods and motivations are reminiscent of Aladdin‘s Jafar.

The music was a fine combination of jazz, zydeco, and gospel. The different styles were used, quite effectively, to enhance the given atmosphere and attitude of specific scenes.

All-in-all, this was a fine movie and a worthy successor in Disney’s line of “Princess” movies. SaraRules made the comment: “I feel that I could let our children watch this without feeling like I just fed them a bunch of shite.” I concur.

After the movie, we headed home for a bit and then, it was time to head over to OnlyAly and ‘s for their annual “Nightmare Before Christmas” horror movie marathon.

We watched Pitch Black, The Descent and Dawn of the Dead (2004). As always, it was a fun way to spend an evening. Thanks, again, to the hosts for their hospitality.

This morning involved a good bit of sleeping in. And now… there’s football. Unfortunately, the Lions-Ravens game isn’t being aired in this market, so I’m relegated to tracking the game on NFL.com’s Game Center.

Stray Toasters

• It’s snowing. Surprise!



• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Santa Claus banned from visiting locked-up children in UK asylum detention centre
• I just saw this commercial; I like it and the message it conveys: LEGO: Build Together

• Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN adviser
• forwarded a link to My Fortress of Solitude. I think that this belongs on The Covet List. I’d love to do something like this, but I’m not sure that I could pull it off, given the types of desks that we have at work.
• Black Mesa Coffee Mug
• I looked up a little more information about The Super Hero Squad Show, specifically the voice acting talent. I was surprised and amused to note that they got Shawn Ashmore and Ray Stevenson to do the voices for Iceman and The Punisher, respectively… given that the actors portrayed those characters in live-action movies.
• went to see the Faster Than a Speeding Bullet: The Art of the Superhero exhibit yesterday. I’m a tad jealous.

Namaste.

Sunday – 29 November 2009

Friday afternoon, SaraRules and I went shopping. As I mentioned, I had expected most of the early-birds to be back in their respective aeries. That wasn’t the case as of the early afternoon, when we headed over to JoAnn Fabrics. I was amazed at the number of people in line to get fabric cut! If I remember correctly, there were literally about EIGHTY (80) people ahead of us! Unglaublich! Fortunately, SaraRules had the presence of mind to take a number before she started looking for fabric; I’d hate to think how much longer we would have waited had she not done that. And, we also picked up a wreath while we were there. The rest of the day and evening were rather low-key. We went to coffee and – aside from Carilyn (former coworker of mine) – were the only ones there.

SaraRules, Logan and I went to see The Blind Side yesterday. It was good. Very good, in fact. And… I have something of a confession: I’ve never really been a huge Sandra Bullock fan. I don’t mean that I dislike her – I’ve enjoyed her in other films – it’s just that she’s never really done anything that’s made me go, “Wow!” Until this movie. I actually thought,”Whoa… she can pull of depth and range beyond ‘comic actress.'” I enjoyed her portrayal of Leanne Tuohy. And, while I’m not a modern country fan, I have to give Tim McGraw props for both cleaning up nicely and doing a fine job in front of the camera, too. It was definitely “an inspirational sports movie,” but it was quite good in the way it told its story… and the fact that Michael Oher is the Ravens’ Left Tackle didn’t hurt, either.

We came back from the movie and I finished a project that I started Friday afternoon: Cleaning the office. It had been “far too long” since I had any verification that there was actually a floor in there. I set about proving that there was… and I was right! It looks about 300% better in there now.

For my final amazing feat of the day, I decided to do HeroClix mod. Like many people I wasn’t thrilled with the sculpt of the Spider-Man figure that came out in WizKids’ Secret Invasion set: The figure’s proportions weren’t right and it just looked… well… cheap. I had been toying around with some ideas and put them to work:

• Old and busted:

  

• New hotness:

While this wasn’t as much of a mod as either Winter Soldier/Captain America or Sodam Yat, it was as much fun to do as either of the others, including doing a complete repainting of the wall (including a covered-over zombie poster on the back). For a better look at what I did to make a better-looking Wall-Crawler out of Spidey, you can take a look at the before and after shots. I’m rather happy with how he turned out.

Stray Toasters

• posted a link to Super Emo Super Friends.
  (Consider the whole set as having been added to The Covet List.)
• Okay. I lied. Only one ‘Toaster, so far.  Maybe I’ll post more later.

And now, brunch at Cisero’s with SaraRules and the family!

Namaste.

Tuesday – 24 November 2009
Last night was a quiet, football-watching night, unlike last week’s Monday night game.

This morning, while cold (24°F, when I left this morning) was clear and bright. On top of that, today is “Technical Thursday;” I’m trying to decide if I want to make it NBN Technical Thursday. I opted not to bring Star Trek to work this morning. Tomorrow, however, there… may…. be a movie (quite possibly The Wrath of Khan) playing on my large monitor.

Instant Replay: Football

Tennessee Titans at Houston Oilers
20 –17
The Titans rolled into the Lone Star State to take on the Texans. (There’s a bad “Clash of the Titans” joke to be made in there somewhere, but I’m not going to pursue it.) Somehow, it had eluded me – until the second quarter – that this match was exactly the same as the Baltimore-Cleveland rivalry: The Titans were the former Houston Oilers… who moved to Tennessee and changed their name; Houston was awarded a new team a few years later. SaraRules and I weren’t expecting too much out of this game, to be honest. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that it was a solid game, from start to finish. It was also nice to see how much Titans QB Vince Young has matured as a quarterback. He was calm, collected and, as Stuart Scott would say: “Cool as the other side of the pillow.” He played a very good game, managing the players – and the clock – very well.

Stray Toasters

• Madlessly!
• Zombie Outbreak Simulator: Sim City Plus Google Maps Plus the Undead
• By way of SaraRules: Kay Jewelers Has Decided to Give Us the Creepiest Commercial of All Time for the Holidays
• What is ‘mouthfeel?’
• The Best Smartphones on Every Carrier
• From the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file:
  • Man Arrested with 15 Lizards Strapped to Chest at LAX
  • Man in Japan marries anime game character
• 
• WETA’s new cheaper, delightful, detailed plastic ray guns
  (This might actually be an “add” for The Covet List…)
• German ‘Robin Hood’ banker gets suspended sentence
• Modern Tech Versus the Past
• HIV infections and deaths fall as drugs have impact
• 3, 6, 9… 12, 15, 18… 21, 24, 27…. 30!

Namaste.

Friday – 23 October 2009
It’s my prerogative… 9/80 “on” Friday.
That means that it’s vewwy, vewwy qwiet around here.
I might just have to break out the DreamCast in a little while…

::: lunch break :::

I went to lunch with Paul (Boss⁺¹).
Five Guys.
Good.
Filling.
Nearly food coma-inducing.

It was still quiet when we got back.  That was good.  I’m getting a 3-day weekend, as Monday is International Robert Neal Day… and I’m taking the day off. So, all things considered: Win.

Stray Toasters

• I still want to build one of these someday. You know, when I have a yard.  And some woodworking equipment. And a welder. And… And… And…
  • I was discussing this in a chat… which, in turn, led to today’s Quote of the Day (below).
• I could pretty much add all of the stuff from this site to the O-Scale Railroad/HeroClix Covet List.
• Woman with dystonia can only walk backwards
• I stumbled across Bowling for Sandercoe on Oblong Pictures last night; I thought it was amusing:

• posted a link to Prince Armory earlier. Nice stuff… nice, spendy stuff.
• From the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Ice skating bear kills Russian circus hand
• I watched part of Whose Line Is It Anyway? last night for the first time in… in… well, let’s just say “a long time.” They did “Greatest Hits” as one of the sketches; as usual, Colin Mochrie made it fun:

• The Creepiest Thing You’ll Ever See

Quote of the Day
The aforementioned BattleMech conversation:

[12:36]     Ahpuc: r0b: Better not have an HOA when you have a yard. They are bitchy about cool stuff like that.
[12:37]     r0b: “What part of ‘rocket launcher’ and ‘flamethrower’ did you not understand, Mr (or Ms) HOA President?”
[12:38]     r0b: ….as I power up the weapon systems.
[12:38]     r0b: 😀
[12:38]     r0b: Wait.
[12:38]     r0b: That leads to “terrorist action” police reports.
[12:38]     r0b: Hm.
[12:38]     Ahpuc: Not just that, but if YOU can do it, so can your neighbors.
[12:38]     r0b: Have to remember to install trap doors and cells.
[12:38]     Ahpuc: I mean, sure, you can be trusted with an operational battle-mech. but what about the jerkoff who can’t even be bothered to mow his lawn noce a month?
[12:38]     r0b: Well, DUH!   Then we could have a full lance of ‘Mechs.
[12:39]     r0b: Think about it.
[12:39]     Ahpuc: You think he will remember to rotate the rocket propellant and service the engines?
[12:39]     r0b: If he can’t deign to mow, what is the workmanship of the mech going to be like?
[12:39]     r0b: *power on*
[12:39]     r0b: *SPLODE*
[12:39]     r0b: -problem solved-
[12:39]     Ahpuc: Then he gets methed up one night, tries to use it to shoot an invisible cat that is inside his left eyelid, and blows up the whole neighborhood.
[12:39]     Ahpuc: Property values rapidly decline.
[12:40]     r0b: Okay… you might have a point with that one.
[12:40]     r0b: “Miles doesn’t know it, but we’ve secretly switched his rocket propellant with decaf!  Let’s see what happens…”
[12:40]     Ahpuc: This is the problem I have with the “right to bear arms” branch of the libertarians…They all think THEY should be able to have RPGs if they can afford them, but they don’t think through the implications when it comes to the average retard.
[12:42]     r0b: Hm.  So maybe I shouldn’t start with a Mech.  Maybe I should just start with Elemental armor, instead.
[12:43]     Ahpuc: How about you start with a bomb shelter?
[12:43]     r0b: Of course, finding someone 8′ tall to pilot it might be a bit difficult.
[12:43]     Ahpuc: Cause then you can do whatever you want indside it without the neighbros seeing.
[12:43]     r0b: Bomb shelter…. Mech Bay….
[12:43]     r0b: It’s “same brand, different flavor,” isn’t it really?
[12:46]     Ahpuc: If they neighbors cannot see inside, call it whatever you want.
[12:46]     Ahpuc: “Now that I have a shed up, with power, I need to put a lattice around the bottom to cover the “crawlspace” thing.”

Namaste.

Thursday – 15 October 2009
NBN 9/80 Thursday = ‘Technical Friday’
Nothing has blown up yet, so I’m counting the morning as good. So far.

Last night, I headed over to Chris’ to help him get his Windows machine up and running. It had a hard drive crash, so we had to reinstall the OS on a new drive and get drivers and… well, the usual stuff associated with an OS installation. All things considered, it went fairly smoothly. He still needs to install some programs, but he has a working box once again.

Stray Toasters

• There are many things in this article that are being placed on The Covet List. Many things, indeed.
  • In a related note, DC Comics has a rather decent Blackest Night site up, as well.
• Mormonism and the Negro
  I found this yesterday after a brief search, based on the articles that sent me. I am not casting aspersions about it, I merely find it interesting and curious.
• Reality TV’s Thoroughly ‘Modern’ Mistakes
  (This caught my attention because they mentioned Project Runway, specifically, when discussing this.)
• Lost in space race: Female pilots
• , you might be interested in the fact that this, this and this are now available as prints.
• 
• Social Security Makes It Official: No COLA in 2010
• Cool and Classic – Enlivening a Dallas Cultural District
• Kid ‘n Play – Rollin’ With Kid ‘n Play

• A G.O.P. Agitator Not Named Palin
• The Monty Python circus keeps rolling on
• From KUER’s RadioWest: The Art of Making Money
• In Texas, a Police Officer for Everyone?

Namaste.

Tuesday – 13 October 2009
So far, it’s been a relatively quiet morning. That’s not a bad thing.

Football Update
I have been a Dolphins fan since… 1990, roughly. They were “my team” until Carolina got the Panthers and Baltimore got the Ravens. They’re still my #2 AFC team. They haven’t been really noteworthy in many years, but they are still one of my favorites. When I heard that they were playing in this week’s Monday night game, I was excited, but I wasn’t expecting much.

New York Jets at Miami Dolphins
27 – 31
Wow. I was expecting a bit of a sleeper, to be honest. I had no idea that a football game was going to break out. And it was a good game, at that! Chad Henne, Miami’s QB, looked good under center – he was poised, cool under fire and was able to deliver the ball, on target, in both long and short pass plays. Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown ran the Dolphins’ famed “Wildcat” offense with more options than Baskin-Robbins has flavors. Even third-string QB, Pat White, got in on the fun. Mark Sanchez and the Jets had a solid offensive game, staying close to the Fish throughout the game. Their defense, however, only showed up intermittently. Head Coach Rex Ryan called the Jets’ performance “…an embarrassment” during the post-game interview. All-in-all, this was a satisfying – and exciting – game to watch with my #2 AFC team. If, for whatever reason, you missed it, look for the rebroadcast on NFL Network this week.

I also had something of an apostrophe epiphany last night: My favorite teams cover air, land and sea: Ravens, Panthers and Dolphins. In a very geeky way, it made me laugh.

Stray Toasters

• Methinks I need to start looking at picking up a Dolphins jersey or two…
• I was looking for an animated .gif of the Lion (or Tiger) from Kenya, when I stumbled upon these:

  
  (click for more info)

  Yep… these are going straight to The Covet List.

• Should Americans banish the burger?
• You Let Our Child Watch What!? Army of Darkness
• As that there are a few runners who will read this: How to run, meditate, and not get hurt
• Has hip-hop grown up?
• 
• Guy’s Guide to Geek Girls (The Sequel)
• The Clothes Make the Superman
• Girls sell sex in Hong Kong to earn shopping money
• Super Mario Cupcakes
• Memory not first Alzheimer’s sign

Namaste.

Thursday – 17 September 2009
Another NBN Thursday has begun. And, to make it even more sweet: It’s my “Friday.”

I posted some engagement photos on Facebook yesterday. While many are cute and some are even “fun,” my favorite one of the set was this one:

For those of you who haven’t seen them, you can click here.

And…. my NBN Thursday has been shot in the foot. It happened about 0945 this morning: We lost power in the A.F. office for about half an hour. In and of itself, that’s not bad. “Bad” was, when the power was restored, some systems decided that they didn’t want to come back online. Getting them kicked into gear took an additional forty minutes. *sigh* Hopefully, the rest of the day will conform… or be cast out.

Stray Toasters

• I have a new addition to The Covet List: Brick Construction Shirt
• Fringe starts its new season tonight.
• By way of SaraRules: A million little pieces: LEGO exhibit arrives at the Kimball Art Center
  I have also been informed that we’ll be going to this!  Win-WIN!
• Looking for a gift for the RPG-er in your life? pointed out an excellent suggestion: Dungeons & Dragons Limited Edition Spellcasting Soda
• Sister-in-law-to-be Meliko sent me a link to this:

  

• Maria Pinto has designs on Michelle Obama
• By way of comes The 50 best foods in the world and where to eat them
• Feds keep little-used airports in business
• For the survivalist on your list: Zombie shooting range targets.
  That’s right. Zombies. On shooting range targets. Full of “AWESOME!”
• Covered – comic book covers, reinterpreted by other artists

Namaste.

Wednesday – 15 July 2009
I went out to dinner at Redrock Brewing Company with SaraRules, her parents and her grandparents. I had the French Onion Steak Sandwich (which, although very messy, was delicious) and washed it down with a tasty Cream Stout.

After dinner, I went to play ‘Clix with Chris. We decided to play a non-themed game, which allowed us to play with some figures that we hadn’t used before. I threw a decent team together…

• Black Widow (Ultimates)
• Captain Marvel, Jr.
• Dark Beast
• Iceman and
• Spider-Girl

…but didn’t adhere to the strategy that I’d started with and put the wrong pieces in the wrong places at the wrong time. Thus, Black Widow – a lynch-pin in my game plan – wound up getting beaten down. Game plan go *poof*. Dark Beast fell next. Spider-Girl went next and was followed, very shortly, by Iceman. Despite all of this, CMJ did well… relatively speaking. He took a fair bit of punishment, but was still dancing toe-to-toe with Chris’ Hulkbuster Iron Man. In the end, he got taken out, but he went down swinging; I was impressed with the figure – I’ll definitely be putting him in the field again.  (Hopefully, with better dice rolls…)

This morning has been… not too bad, but there were a couple of items that were on the fast-track when I got into the office. One was fairly easy to deal with, the other was… out of my area of expertise. (I’m willing to bet that John Hodgman could have handled it, though.) Fortunately, a workaround was found and life continued apace.

Stray Toasters

• It’s Comics and Sushi Day.
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Rifle-mounted cup holder
• 100 Geeky Places to Take Your Kids This Summer
• After seeing this a week or two ago, I’ve had the song intermittently stuck in my head.
• 
• “No one expects the…”
• From the “Jane’s Addiction” file: TSA officer caught stealing laptops at JFK
• New items for the Covet List.  Too bad I’m not going to SDCC…
• From the “Headline That Didn’t Make Sense out of Context” file: Holy water ban to halt swine flu

Namaste.

Friday – 12 June 2009
A 9/80 Friday off begins. Well, that’s not entirely true – it started over ten hours ago. It would be closer to the truth to say that I slept in and that it’s been a lazy day so far.

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away I came home from work, had dinner… and then fell asleep on the couch. For nearly two hours. I thought I’d nap for maybe half an hour. I was mistaken, for the second time this year. After I finished with my Rip Van Winkle impression, we watched Slumdog Millionaire: What is one young man willing to do to chase down a dream? What if that dream isn’t something ethereal and elusive… but the heart of a young lady? This movie answers that question. And it’s an excellent movie. I can see now why it garnered so much attention at the Oscars. AND… it ends with a Bollywood-style dance scene!

Stray Toasters

• The Bureau of Communication – Fill-in-the-Blank Correspondence
• Skipping School? Get a Presidential Excuse
• Mattel has a new Green Lantern 3-figure pack coming out. Covet.
• pointed out GroomGroove.com
• The Least Appropriete Wedding Songs Ever
• Why No Famous Scientists or Engineers?
• Both SaraRules and I are amused by this commercial:

• By way of Rachel: Surviving the World
• Out of Your Life. Their tagline kills me: “It’s time to break up with his jewelry, too.”
• By way of : Fossil Fuels Brewing Co.
• Horror Movie Shower Curtain & Bath Mat
• More Nerd Merit Badges

Time to find some trouble to get into.

Namaste.

Friday: Coda
Earth was good. It runs for ninety minutes and follows the journeys of three animal families: Polar bears, elephants and whales. The imagery is stunning and deserving to be seen on the big screen.

On the ride home, SaraRules and I decided to (finally) break open the Planet Earth DVDs that she got me a few months back. We started with the first DVD, first episode: “Pole to Pole.” We were a little stunned to see footage that looked incredibly similar to some that we had just seen at the theatre. After that happened a couple more times, I consulted IMDb and discovered something: Planet Earth and Earth are, more or less, the same thing, with a couple of differences.  Basically, Disneynature is simply distributing Earth in the U.S., as it has been released in other countries as long as two years ago, by other local distributors. Other things I learned:

• Richard Attenborough narrated the original BBC version of Planet Earth, which is the version we own).
• Sigourney Weaver narrated the version which aired on The Discovery Channel, which is what we originally saw.
• There are (at least) three narrators for Disneynature’s Earth:
  • James Earl Jones, in the U.S.
  • Patrick Stewart, in the U.K.
  • Ulrich Tukur, in the German version
• The narration for Earth uses much/most of the text from Planet Earth.
• Earth “changes”/creates some of the story of the animal family seen in Planet Earth. Specifically, when discussing the polar bears – there are references to a father and his journey in Earth… that aren’t seen in Planet Earth…. or, at least not in the part we’ve seen.
• Earth simplifies some of the narration, making it a little more accessible to families and children, whereas Planet Earth takes a more scientific, “here is why/how this happens” approach.

On the whole, am I upset that we spent money to see Earth? No. As I said in the opening paragraph: It deserves to be seen on the big screen. And, I enjoyed it enough to recommend others to see it in the theatre as well. If it helps, think of Earth as a prelude or teaser to the more in-depth coverage provided on the Planet Earth DVDs.

After the movie, SaraRules and I headed to coffee. We hung out with some of the usual suspects, but were surprised, pleasantly so, to see Victoria and Jim (her father/Jess’ stepfather) come in a little while later. Coffee was good. Following that, some of us went to Applebee’s for dinner. Shannon, our normal waitress, had prepared something for us: A framed copy of Jess’ obituary. It was very sweet of her. After giving it to us, she asked what had happened and how — all she had known was that Jess was “sick,” but not to what degree; we gave her a rundown of the past few months. The company of friends was good, very good indeed.

Stray Toasters

• There is a new addition – or four – to The Covet List.
• Airman Spots Jetliner Fuel Leak at 35,000 Feet
• Girl Scouts have a Comics badge!
• Open Letter to J.J. Abrams About the Star Trek Sequel

Time to call it a night.

Namaste.

Monday – 04 May 2009
I slept in this morning. I was surprised to find out by how much I slept in, actually. But, it both felt good and I apparently needed the rest.

As I noted yesterday, we – and a few of the usual suspects – saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It was a good summer popcorn movie. Yes, they played a little fast and loose with some continuity, but not so much that it was disturbing to me; I found it a nice blend of comic continutity with (some of) the previously established continuity of the first two X-Men movies. I give it a definite thumbs up with an okay.

We then headed over to SaraRules’ parents’ for dinner and the start of a movie. Dinner was a very tasty beef stew; the movie was Catalina Caper. More specifically: The Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of Catalina Caper. While I realize that virtually any movie that wound up on MST3K was “bad,” this movie set the bar to an all-time… low, I guess. The most entertaining thing about the twenty or thirty minutes that we made it through was Little Richard, and he wasn’t even “all there,” it seemed.

Back home for a rather lazy evening: I played a little City of Heroes and worked on some props for my Heroclix City; SaraRules did some reading.

Stray Toasters

• Art student’s car vanishing act
• Supermen!: The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1939-41
  ::: adds to The Covet List :::
• LEGO Torture Scenes Protest Media Censorship
• 
• Photoshop Contest: Cartoon Ren 3
• NASA to begin layoffs as shuttle retirement nears
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” files: Warner Music to Warner Music: You are pirates!
• Free Range Kids author says: Raise kids without fear!
• Photos of food and their sugar cube equivalent
• Five years (FIVE YEARS!) after the “wardrobe malfunction” incident, it seems as though CBS is still under the gun and may still be fined for it.

And, as I’m taking the day off, there’s nothing officially on tap. I like that.

Namaste.

Friday – 24 April 2009
This morning started slowly and lazily, thanks to the server room upgrades. I got to come in a little late… since we have to work later into the evening.

Many evenings, SaraRules and I will kick back and watch The Herculoids (1, 2, 3).  (Hey, it’s a childhood favorite…) Sure it’s horribly dated, but we enjoy watching – and MST3K-ing the episodes. I’ve been wanting to mod a few ‘Clix figures into Herculoids figures, mostly because it would amuse me to do it, but last night, I started to wonder: “Why haven’t there been any Herculoids toys?” To the BatWeb!

A few keystrokes later, I came across this:

That’s right, Toynami is producing a line of Herculoids toys. Yep, yet another “Add” for the Covet List.

Stray Toasters
…are going to have to wait until later – we’re elbow-up in server room work.

Namaste.

Monday – 13 April 2009
Casablanca was good; I enjoyed it quite a bit. The movie holds up quite well, especially when one considers that it was released over 65 years ago. One thing that I kept coming back to was how Rick Blaine reminded me of Han Solo. Actually, it would be more proper to say that Solo reminded me of Blaine, but you get the idea. There were a couple of other Star Wars, also, but they were a bit more fleeting.

The 6:35 alarm came early this morning, or so it seemed. I barely remember waking up long enough to turn it off… and turn over and go back to sleep.

When I got into the office, I was informed that email wasn’t working. *sigh* I’d barely stepped in the door; it’s definitely a Monday, it seems. A few searches, a test or two and a phone call later, it was being worked on.

Stray Toasters

• Schoolgirl told to choose: Country or parents
• There’s a new addition to The Covet List.
• Tweenbots
• By way of : Smart Car Crash Test

• I just caught up with yet another high school classmate on Facebook.
• Game/art: See the artwork from Giant Robot’s Game Over/Continue exhibit

And so it goes…

Namaste.

The tasting went well.  It was also beneficial for something that I hadn’t considered: Seeing how the space “flowed” when it was full of people. Even with tables set up and people throughout the building, there was a good deal of space in which people could move around. The food was good and we came up with a few ideas for our menu.

Stray Toasters

• By way of Nyx: Shirts My Way, custom-made men’s dress shirts
• I’m running a new screen saver on my work PC called Electric Sheep. It’s… interesting, in a good way. I’m just glad that I’ve never been been one who is inclined to partake of “herbal cigarettes” (as Craig Ferguson refers to them). Because doing that and then looking at this would most likely be world-changing. Electric Sheep is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
• Gizmodo ran an article about Miniatur Wunderland. After checking it out, I passed it along to a few people. Drew shot back with a video of Madoradam, in Holland.
• , I know what you mean. I get That Time Is Now (the Superfriends bump) stuck in my head…
• Inspriation for Super Friends’ Hall of Justice
• There are far too many of these on The Covet List.
• Ian McKellen: The Player, by way of
• Disney hasn’t released Song of the South in the U.S. on DVD or video; it’s been deemed racist. *GASP* A few days ago, I found this site, offering the unedited movie on DVD. I’m leery, but curious. Very curious, indeed…
• Mafia Wars
• Komodo dragons kill man

Back to it.

Namaste.