Friday – 02 May 2008
Good start to the day:
How’s your Friday?
Thursday: Coda
Post-work, I got stuck in the northbound crawl to Salt Lake. There was an accident a few miles north of where I got on the interstate, so what should have been a 30-ish minute drive turned into a nearly hour-long trek. I don’t know “when” the accident occurred, but by the time I got to the scene, the vehicles were on the side of the road and being loaded onto tow trucks. But that didn’t mean that everyone had stopped rubbernecking. Quite the opposite, in fact. Yay for road monkeys!
I met SaraRules, in town for a group presentation, at her parents’. The presentation went well, she said. We hung out with her family for a while before heading to coffee – it was nice to see and hang out with the usual suspects. Tomorrow, after work and a certain “team-building” exercise (involving personal armor with offensive and defensive capabilities), we’re heading to Cedar… where we’ll hook up with her parents again. Saturday, she graduates with her MFA.
Stray Toasters
In real physical systems a quantum leap is not necessarily a large change, and can in fact be very insignificant. A good example of this can be taken from the Bohr model of the hydrogen atom, where the observed energy shifts associated with shifts of different quantum states (quantum leaps) span a wide range from large to small (when compared to the energy required to completely free an electron). In the popular sense, the term is usually applied to mean a large or significant change, which is thus not strictly correct.
Namaste.
I use iGoogle as my home page.
I formerly used the classic Google search page as my home page, but I’ve come to like the iGoogle one more.
When I loaded a new browser window, I glanced at the CNN.com headlines, as I usually do when the page opens. And there it was, big as day and twice as bright:
Barbara Walters: I had affair with U.S. Senator
Do we really care – or need to know – about this?!
*sigh* And people still wonder why I always think of Dirty Laundry (1, 2) when I think of news.
It was still snowing when I woke up this morning.
And there was a trace of accumulation.
Madness!
Workout
Today’s routine was less… stellar than some recent ones have been. But, it was a workout, nonetheless:
The inside of my shoulder started to twinge a bit during the first set of bench presses, so I decided to back off on the weight. That seemed to help some, but there was still a little sore-/tenderness. I’ll be keeping an eye on that.
Pre-workout weight: 172.8 lbs.
Stray Toasters
And not just throw-away stuff, either. Some good solid “Oscillating blades, meet fecal material” setup for this summer’s events.
/lunch
Namaste.
Thursday – 01 May 2008
The first day of May. (Granted, it’s just after midnight, but still…)
May Day.
And it’s snowing. Not much, but it’s snowing. On May Day. Snow. Unglaublich.
Today is also Bret’s birthday:
I want a snack.
Zoom.
Thanks to
Today has been decent, so far.
I decided to take a slightly different tack on my PHP program. I’m seeing some progress, but I am still getting hung up on trying to pass one – kind of important – variable to a form. I may wind up posting to a few forums and see if anyone can point out where I’m stuck on stupid.
Speaking of forums, I decided to do a little digging and look up a nagging question about the Power Cosmic team ability and Outwit, namely: “Can Outwit negate Power Cosmic?” And it seems as though it cannot. Which means that Galactus should have been a lot more of a force to reckon with than we were playing last night. (When I called Chris with the new information, I could almost picture the wince.) Good to know for next time.
I got an instant message from someone in our California office… saying that their Internet connection was down. An instant message. (Their intranet still worked.) But, I don’t know what she expected me to do from almost 1000 miles away, other than pass the message along to someone else. Which is what I did. I really need to work on that “wiggle your nose and magically fix problems” power.
Stray Toasters
Namaste.
Wednesday – 30 April 2008
“That explains the Crisco and the jelly beans… but HOW does the feather duster come into play?!”
Tuesday: Coda
Chris came over around 7:00. We talked comics and other geekery. We headed out for a bit to eat. And then we came back and played ‘Clix.
Galactus versus a slew of X-Men.
The game started off a little slowly… but I did pretty well. Took out five of Chris’ team in fairly short order. Then the numbers started to wear me down. And they did. According to the scenario, they didn’t kill Galactus, they just made him think that other planets looked more appetizing.
We tried again.
Chris reminded me that I hadn’t been using a particular ability during the first game, so I tried to keep that in mind. The dice rolls weren’t nearly as favorable to me as they were in the first game, however. And, I neglected to deal with the characters whose abilities were negating a couple of my abilities.
But, as SaraRules put it: It was good practice for the next time I decide to use Galactus.
Things I learned from tonight’s gaming:
All-in-all, it was fun. I look forward to using the figure again.
Now, it may be time for a little ice cream before hitting the rack.
Namaste.
Tuesday – 29 April 2008
Happy Hatching Day to
…and to
I woke up from an odd dream this morning and realized a couple of things:
One of this morning’s dreams is a prime example of that: I was jogging in Baltimore. I “know” that it was Baltimore because it was “supposed” to be Baltimore. (I am pretty sure that it’s a good thing that my career as a City Planner is limited to SimCity.) Along the way, I ran into
Strange.
With one notable exception, it was a good work day. The notable exception being the “customer service” (and I’m using that term in its most broad sense) monkey I had to deal with for a hardware return. His voice reminded me of Ira Glass, from This American Life…
…if Ira Glass talked about 4x faster
…and never let people get a word in edgewise.
…and was an insufferable know-it-all.
Suffice if to say that by the time the call was over, I was ready to reach through the phone and throttle someone.
Chris is heading over in a bit to play dolls. The character card for Galactus was printed on the rules sheet for the figure. So, rather than the usual 4″x2½” card, I have a 5″x11½” sheet of paper. Correction: “Had.” I scanned the card and made a few modifications:
from this to this 
Much easier to put on the table for easy game-time reference, I might add. I even printed it on card stock (thanks to Ms. OnlyAly) so it doesn’t try to shrivel up and die if someone looks at it crosswise. We’ll see how well the game goes and if I can possibly snap my losing streak to Chris.
I should get back to straightening up and getting ready…
Namaste.
Monday – 28 April 2008
Indulge
That’s exactly what I did this morning: Indulged myself with staying in bed. Forty-five whole extra minutes. Alarm? Yep, it was set. And it went off. A few times.
Didn’t matter.
Didn’t care.
This morning was about enjoying the last vestiges of the first full good night’s sleep that I’ve had in almost a week. And it was totally worth it. As an added bonus, I got to spend a little more time with SaraRules. Can’t beat that at twice the price, either. Sure, it meant a later start to the commute. And a later end to the work day, but like I said:
Didn’t matter.
Didn’t care.
Workout
Coming back to a workout after a week off is not fun. Today was no exception. We pretty much did (most of) last Monday’s routine:
Post-workout weight: 170.2 lbs.
(If nothing else, not having an appetite for four days helped get rid of a few pounds…)
Home. Everything seems to be in one piece. That’s a good sign.
Stray Toasters
before, but you should also check out Brad Guigar’s other comics, Courting Disaster and Phables.And now, to see if I can figure out what sounds good for dinner…
Namaste.
Sunday – 27 April 2008
All-in-all, it’s been a quiet day. Not a bad way to spend a day…
When we got back, SaraRules did homework and… I forgot that her complex hates City. Instead, I read a couple of Gotham Central trade paperbacks:
and 
(click the titles for more information)
I have to thank Markin’ Time for his suggestion to pick these up. I’ll have to pick up the rest of the series… even though, thanks to a couple of other DC series, I know what happens to a couple of the characters.
Stray Toasters
Namaste.
We got back a little while ago from seeing the Utah Valley Handbell Choir perform; a friend of SaraRules is a member, so that was added incentive to go. The performed ten pieces:
The performance reminded of drum corps productions, in the timing and the similar tonalities. It was also a little amusing to find that I remembered all of the words to Hava Nagila, which I haven’t really sung in over 30 years.
Stray Toasters
Quote of the Day
SaraRules: “I love you more than garlic.”
Namaste.
Saturday – 26 April 2008
It’s always that last 10-15% that gets you. Thursday and Friday, I felt phenomenally better than I did Wednesday. But, still not completely better. Today, I would actually say that I’m in the 95-97% of normal range.
There’s still this… one… thing: Gas.
Seriously. I’m thinking of changing my name to Exxon. I don’t know how or why – it’s not like I’ve eaten a whole lot in the past three days, but here it is. Yay.
I miss having an appetite.
Aside from that, I’m doing well. I made it to southern Utah without any problems or monkeydom. I always consider that a “good” thing. Yesterday/last night was pretty low-key. Today, I think we’re heading to the Braithwaite to check out the Senior BFA Portfolio Show. Other than that, no idea what’s on tap for the day.
Stray Toasters
Namaste.
