Random Access

Thursday – 05 June 2008
I must really like Sting’s Shadows in the Rain at a very deep level.

Why do I think this?
Because I keep enacting the “Woke up in my clothes again this morning” line.

I have a rather comfortable couch. Last night, I watched the end of DS9. I felt fine, fairly alert. Seven Days came on, but it was an episode that I’m not overly fond of, so I switched over to Law & Order: SVU. I don’t even think I made it to “Law.” I may not have even made it past the “L.” Next thing I knew, it was 6:30. I didn’t think that I was that tired. Guess I was wrong. *shrug*

Got up. Did the rituals. Ran into two of my neighbors on the way to the car. Hit the B&B for an iced mocha. And started the day.

And so it goes.

And so far, it goes well. Besides that… it’s Sushi and Comics NBN Thursday. Win-win.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
Now that the Democratic Nomination Debacle seems to be over, I’m… somewhat intrigued… by some of the news media’s choices in whom to interview about the groundbreaking importance of Senator Obama’s campaign and nomination.

CNN interviewed Jesse Jackson a couple of days ago. I was torn about this. On one hand, it made logical sense, as Rev. Jackson has run for office in the past. On the other hand, it seemed as though part of the reason they chose him was because of his role as a so-called “Black leader.” That gives me some pause. I’m not sure that I would really bestow that title upon him today. Yes, he’s done good things in the cause of the advancement of Black – and others’ – civil rights… but, to me, he seems to have moved from that to be more of a demagogue (def. 1) than an actual leader. Or, dare I say it: A rabble-rouser.

Sometimes, he seems to just… magically appear… at whatever scene is getting the most coverage. He’ll say a few words that play to the crowd and/or are useful as sound bites, but I don’t often find myself agreeing with him.

I would also put Rev. Al Sharpton in this “Who can we interview to get ‘the Black perspective'” category. However – and this is a pretty big “however” – I have to admit that I’ve seen Rev. Sharpton jumping on the latest bandwagon far less often in the past few years. I don’t know if I would say that he has “calmed down in his own age,” but it seems as though he’s more judicious about which windmills he chooses to joust.

I would go on to say that I’m not sure that there is “a” Black leader… or even two or three of them. (Of course, I currently live in Utah, so they could be out there, but I just don’t hear about them from behind the Zion Curtain…) The leaders of the 60s through… 80s, I’d say, have a certain perspective that I’m not sure is completely relevant today. I don’t mean this to diminish any of their accomplishments; I wouldn’t have many – possibly ANY – of the opportunities that I have enjoyed had it not been for their struggles and the paths they trod. But, when listening to them, it sometimes seems as if some of their old biases and prejudices still tinge their opinions.

To be honest, I’m not sure that I really want a “Black leader.” The “Black Experience,” as it is called, draws from a common history, but has so many facets that I believe that no single leader would be able to bridge them all.

Besides I’d rather have a leader who can speak to all people and draw them closer, as a whole, while acknowledging and respecting their differences.

Stray Toasters

• While I like many versions of Ave Maria, I am particularly fond of the Franz Schubert version.
• The 31 Places to Go This Summer
• There’s been a shake-up at the top of the Air Force chain of command, due largely to the nuclear warhead-laden B-52 that flew from North Dakota to Texas last year.
• How Tech-Savvy Will the Next President Be?
• 
• New trailer for Hunter S. Thompson documentary
• Forty days and forty nights,
  Didn’t it rain, children.
  Not a speck of land in sight,
  Didn’t it, didn’t it rain.
• Photographers aren’t terrorists and vice-versa
• ST: TAS / Common People mash-up:

• The Picture of Everything

Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?

Namaste.

Wednesday: Coda
This evening, I saw Iron Man again; I went with Max and Perry. It was just as much fun this time as it was opening day. Perry and Max both enjoyed it, as well. And this time I was able to catch a glimpse of Captain America’s shield in Tony’s workshop.

After the movie, I headed back to Kate and Perry’s and hung out for a while. This translates mostly into getting some surrogate uncle time with the kids. And, as a new twist, the two youngest asked me to read them a bedtime story: Go, Dog. Go! That was both unexpected and fun. After the youngest kids went to bed, Perry, Max and I watched Justice League Unlimited; tonight’s episode was “Question Authority,” in which The Question discovers the truth behind the founding members’ secret concerning an alternate/future President Luthor and The Justice Lords. This episode also contained one of my favorite lines from the series: The Question confronts the contemporary Lex Luthor about his plans to run for President of the United States. Luthor laughs and responds:

“President?! Foolish, faceless man… my campaign is a farce! A small part of a much grander scheme. President. Do you know how much power I’d have to give up to be President?! That’s right, conspiracy buff… I spent seventy-five million dollars on a fake presidential campaign… all just to tick Superman off.”

(You can also listen to it – as Luthor smacks The Question around his office – here.)

Perry just looked at me askance as I quoted most of that line while Luthor was saying it. Kate just laughed and shook her head.

Stray Toasters

• I was (pleasantly) surprised to see a news item saying that Senator Clinton is (finally) ending her bid for the Democratic nomination… especially as Senator Obama got the magic number last night.
• I asked our HR guy if I could post A Different State of Race Relations – and a commentary – on our internal site or an internal email. He thought about it and then decided that it would probably be best to get some sort of go-ahead from corporate HR. So, I’m going to kick it up the chain of command tomorrow, I do believe.
• “Elitist.” *chuckle*
• Number Five… made of LEGO
• I caught the tail end of DS9‘s series finale, “What You Leave Behind,” tonight.

I think that there is a glass of milk calling my name. I don’t know if it’s chocolate or not. Yet.

In a “comics world meets real world” crossover sort of way, Dwim sent me a link to an article from The Deseret News about Britain’s Prime Minister helping to stave off Marvel’s “Secret Invasion”:

(11:17:41) Dwim: http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,5143,700231575,00.html
(12:58:50) Me: If only we, as Americans, had an alien-fighting political figure.
(12:58:54) Me: Oh, wait…
(13:35:46) Me: No, he’s not really fighting aliens.
(13:35:54) Me: He wants to make them feel more welcome.
(13:35:56) Me: Hm.
(13:36:09) Me: GW… Skrull sympathizer?
(13:36:12) Me: Interesting spin.
(13:36:15) Me: OR
(13:36:21) Me: Is GW a Skrull himself?!
(13:52:12) Dwim: He’s not so much a Skrull as, say, a psychopathic megalomaniac who seeks to consolidate the power of all three brances of government into a single throne while removing the liberties currently enjoyed by his subjects with the excuse of keeping them safe from Muslim boogeymen, and while making his co-conspirators wealthy through a program of endless war.
(13:52:58) Dwim: Also, he enjoys golf, the occasional drink, and banging Laura on the weekends.
(13:54:09) Me: Right, but consider this: If he keeps the weathly/elite happy, they will be much more complacent and docile when their Skrull overlords sweep down upon the planet.
(13:54:24) Me: And the golf, alcohol and Laura items are just fringe benefits.
(13:54:29) Dwim: Have you considered the connection with the Skrull and Bones Society?¹
(13:54:35) Me: >.<
(13:54:42) Me: That was bad.
(13:54:46) Dwim: Thank you.

¹ -  For those who didn’t catch the pun (or just didn’t get it):  Skull and Bones Society

Wednesday – 04 June 2008
A grey and wet day in the valley. It was in the mid 70s (at least) yesterday; today, we’ll be lucky to break 60°F. Welcome to Utah.

Human of the Day
Speaking of “Welcome to Utah,” pointed out an article in The Washington Post entitled A Different State of Race Relations, about… well… race relations in Utah. For this, I name him today’s Human of the Day.

Windows Server 2003. Blah.

Stray Toasters

• I think that these should go on the Covet List not only because they would be neat, but also because I can see more or less practical uses for them, especially when dealing with monkeys.
• By way of SaraRules: Metropolis Symphony. Now, I just need to find an excuse to get to Aspen on a Wednesday. Maybe I’ll call in sick. Or ask if I can work in the Aurora office that week. Or something.
• Yesterday’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day was “tokenization.” This made me laugh because Marci, one of the QA testers, had come to me with a deliciously subversive idea: Being the only woman in the QA department – and the only woman in a non-executive or non-admin position in the SLC office – she is planning on getting a shirt that says “Token.” She recently asked me if I wanted one, too. I told her that I’d take one in black, if she got one in pink.
• Bone Chillers Ice Tray
• I don’t know what to say
  The monkeys won’t do!

  

• Mr. Spock: The ‘Mystery of Masculinity’ Embodied
• The Zurich Chamber Orchestra put this together as a promotional piece:

• As soon as I typed that, “Cantaloop Flip Fantasia 2000” went through my head. That would make for an interesting remix… of some sort.
• Thanks to and for pointing out the following “cubicle rage” videos:

  …and, from a second angle (and in color):

  
  Office Worker Meltdown Second Angle – Watch more free videos

• By way of NPR: Bobblehead of State?

Namaste.

Tuesday: Coda
When I got home, I turned on the TV and started surfing. I landed on CNN. As the Montana and South Dakota primaries were tonight, I watched the coverage. I missed Hillary Clinton’s… “No I’m not done, yet” speech. There’s a part of me that’s glad I did. I did watch Barack Obama’s speech. Once again, it was a classic. He didn’t bash Senator Clinton and there was only one jab (that I picked up on) at Senator McCain. Other than that, he seemed sincere and humble and appreciative.

After I watched a little more primary coverage, I flipped over to L&O: SVU. It was a rebroadcast of the season finale, which I didn’t see in first-run. It was a good episode, but it left a few questions about next season.

While waiting for dinner to cook (i.e.: “putting it the nukerator”), I installed a light in one of the display cases. It looks nice. I may move some things around to catch the light better. I may not. We’ll see.

Stray Toasters

• I chatted with Rana briefly this evening. She and Bit are back in the States and doing well.
• Liv Tyler is on The Tonight Show. She seems so… grounded. I find that odd/interesting, as her father is Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler. I guess that I was expecting her to be more Jack and Kelly Osbourne.
• , guess what character is getting a new action figure made. Here’s a hint:

  

• With Eric’s help, I was able to recover data from DS9’s former hard drive. After the process, I dismantled the drive – it was the first time that I had done that.
• I made the mistake of flipping to Boomerang a little while ago. Space Ace was on. That reminded me of the proliferation of video game-related cartoons that were part of the CBS Saturday morning lineup in the 80s.
• By way of Despair.com:



• AirPort Extreme. Hmm.
• A commercial for Burger King, featuring The Artist Formerly Known as Puff Daddy, was just on. In it, a BK marketing guy tells P. Diddy (as he is now known),”We need a new ad campaign.” Young Mr. Combs looks at him and, very simply says, “Tell ’em Diddy says ‘BK is open late.'” And then something FINALLY hit me: Something about the name “P. Diddy” struck me as both odd/ridiculous… but strangely familiar, however I didn’t make the connection until tonight:

  

  That’s right: Diddy Kong. He renamed himself… after a cartoon/video game monkey.

• Donkey Kong was adapted into a cartoon, too. Also on CBS. Also far from good.
• There’s a Utah Blaze game Monday night. That could be a nice change of pace way to spend the evening.

Time to figure out what I want for a pre-bed snack.

Namaste.

Who knew that Barack Obama was a Rush fan!?

(snapshotted from CNN’s Election Center 2008 page)

By way of wikiHow: How to Celebrate the International Year of the Potato

…due, in no small part, to our conversation at breakfast on Saturday night:

…not that I really needed any other reasons, mind you, but this one is a peach:

Every Night’s Another Story

Particluar item: “Tip of the Day”
(It’s at the bottom of the post.)

His rationale:

With the “glass is half empty  or half full” analogy, optimism is better than pessimism.  So the way you phrase it, makes people feel like they are choosing one nationality over the other, and they don’t know what to say

Priceless.

And for this, I will name Derek “Human of the Day”

Cocaine

Afte????????r stopping to pick up an iced mocha and a bagel sandwich, I made it into the office. I found a good parking space – one of the benefits of getting in early-ish. I gathered my things and headed into the building.

There was an older woman already at the elevator core as I approached. She saw me headed in that direction and called down the hallway,”Would you like a ride up?”

I answered,”Yes, thank you,” and she held the door for me.

As I got into the elevator, she smiled and said (and I quote): “I like your Cuba Gooding look. It looks as good as you as it does on him.”

I returned the smile and thanked her.

While I personally don’t think that I favor Cuba Gooding, Jr. or Will Smith or Tupac – all of whom I’ve been told, at one point or another, that I remind people of – I’m not about to knock a compliment… especially not first thing on a Monday morning.

Besides, as I said: It made me smile.

Monday – 02 June 2008
Jump on outta bed and I stumble to the kitchen
Pour myself a cup of ambition
And yawn and stretch and try to come to life
Jump in the shower and the blood starts pumpin’
Out on the street the traffic starts jumpin’
With folks like me on the job from 9 to 5

Up. Out.

Sunday: Coda
I took the scenic route to Jitterbug this afternoon. About five minutes from the shop, I got a text message from Pat, saying that he wasn’t going to make it. A few minutes later, I got a call from , asking if I had gotten Pat’s message. I told her that I had and that I was going back to my original plan of heading to Borders to do some drawing.

And that’s exactly what I did. I picked up a couple of photography magazines and took about thirty minutes to see if I could glean any ideas. I found a few things that caught my eye. Then I got down to brass tacks. I’ve had something nagging at the back of my head for a couple of weeks, but wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with the idea. It finally came to me today. It’s probably going to take some time to to flesh out, but I’m really liking what I came up with.

After Borders, I headed down to Kate and Perry’s to hang out with – and play City with – Perry. We teamed up with a couple of members of my supergroup and a couple other people (Defenders!) to tackle some Rikti and Malta missions.

Next on the agenda: Over to Chris and Mary’s to play ‘Clix. Chris and I faced off against Matt and Emiliano, from Far West Comics. I tried out a variation on my tournament Legion team, while Chris played with a variant Brotherhood of (Evil) Mutants:

• My team:
  • Brainiac 5
  • Dawnstar
  • Dream Girl
  • Saturn Girl
  • Supergirl and
  • Ultra Boy
• Chris’ team:
  • Black Tom Cassidy
  • Fabian Cortez
  • Jean Grey
  • Juggernaut
  • Magneto
  • Mystique and
  • Sabertooth

Matt and ‘Mano brought an assortment of characters, with no particular theme in mind:

• Alex Luthor
• Captain America
• Deathstroke
  
• Flash (Justice Legion A)
• Hourman (Justice Legion A)
• Monarch
• Superman (Justice Legion A)

And… they beat us down. Hourman and Monarch both had Probability Control… you know, my new favorite power that Dream Girl has. It’s great when you have the power, but when your opponents have it – and have it on two characters with line-of-sight on your characters who have a snowball’s chance in Hell of doing anything with – it can be a royal pain in the ass. Between Probability Control and craptacular dice rolls on our parts, Chris and I were sunk early on. The first two characters that they took off the board were Supergirl and Ultra Boy, my two heaviest hitters. After that, it was just a matter of watching us bleed out.

But, it was fun.

And I still need to figure out who I’m using in this weekend’s tournament. 300 points and restricted to only sets in print since November of 2006. I’ll come up with… something.

Stray Toasters

• I just saw something really fun on TLC: Rock the Reception. I only caught the last two or three minutes of the show, but I came in during a couple’s first dance, done to Jet’s Are You Gonna Be My Girl? About halfway or two-thirds of the way through, the bridesmaids and groomsmen joined in. And it looked like they were all having a blast.
• Fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent has died; he was 71.
• I’m not sure what I want for a late-night dessert.
• There are a handful of people who grok why I find this so amusing..

  

  …and they are either shaking their heads or laughing (or both) as they see this.

• Project Rooftop has a new contest up: Superman: Man of Style.
• Action Comics #1 cover… redone in LEGO

Time to figure out what I want for a late-night snack.

Namaste.

Sunday – 01 June 2008
I wound up sleeping in later than I had planned this morning; going to bed at 4:00 AM *might* have had something to do with that, though.

Shortly after waking up, sent me this:

Whiskey Tango…?!
It was not the first (or second or thirty-fourth) thing to which one expects to wake up.

But, as far as using We Will Rock You in a commercial, this is still my favorite:

And, of course, I’m still waiting to see if Nintendo tries to come up with a “Wii Will Rock You” commercial/campaign.

Don’t know that I’m going to make it to Borders to draw, as a few of us are supposed to head to Jitterbug for lunch. Maybe I’ll just head there a little early and draw there.

Zoom.

Saturday: Coda
I had lunch with at Jitterbug. Then I headed down to hang out with Kate, Perry and the kids for a bit. I left with a few new (to me) ‘Clix – ones of which Perry had spares and I had none.

Around 7:00, I headed to Chris and Mary’s go talk about the new Dark Heresy game that Chris wants to run. We got the bare-bones basics of what our characters would know and then rolled up characters. Tomorrow evening, I’m heading back there to play ‘Clix with Chris and Mark. Hopefully, I will get some ideas about who I want to use in next Saturday’s tournament, too.

Breakfast with the usual suspects. There was some decent people-watching tonight. The conversations were good, too.

Tomorrow, assuming that I’m awake early enough, I intend to join for one of his Sunday morning meditational/inspirational treks. I also plan on getting in some drawing time – I’ve realized that it has been FAR too long since I’ve really done any drawing of note. It’s time to rectify that.

Stray Toasters

• I saw and Uriah while at Jitterbug today. That was a nice surprise.
• According to SaraRules: Aspen is ‘spensive.
• Steve Harvey, from The Original Kings of Comedy DVD:

  The part that always cracks me up about this starts about 2:45 into it… and the song that starts around 5:30 in.

• “Pubic Toupee” and “Black Hole of Misery”
• When I saw this article, it made me a bit sad. I realize that running for political office puts a candidate’s life under scrutiny, but come on… to drive a person out of their home church? That’s a bit too far.
• The upcoming “Secret Invasion” set of HeroClix will include a new Cloak and Dagger figure:



• According to this item, the new set will also see the debut of Power Pack in the game. Yes, Power Pack still holds a happy, warm spot in my comics-loving heart.
• Purple monkey dishwasher.

It’s early and I have to get up later.

Namaste.