Random Access

Thursday – 28 February 2008
As I was getting ready for work, I heard what sounded like water drops falling on the floor or in a cabinet.  And, after the toilet debacle of a few weeks ago, I decided to see if I could track it down.

I checked the master bath.  Nada.

Hall bathroom…

• Under-sink cabinet: Dry.
• Floor: Dry.
• Countertop: Mostly dry, except for one area along the wall.

I looked higher up the wall.  Bingo.  There’s a section of paint that’s been cracking/peeling for a little while.  I had been attributing it to the building settling.  I was wrong.  It’s where water has been leaking from one of the apartments above me, apparently:

• Down the wall.
• Onto and behind the light fixture.
• Behind the mirror.
• Onto the counter and/or floor.

It hasn’t been “a lot” of water, but that whole “onto and behind the light fixture” thing had me concerned.  So, I took a picture of it and made it management’s concern.   The person I talked with seemed… “a little”… concerned by the issue and immediately dispatched someone from maintenance to look into it.  I’m just hoping that it doesn’t require waiting until the re-piping job  (scheduled for next week) to get fixed.

And, fortunately, it hasn’t been enough of a problem to ruin NBN Thursday.

Quote of the Day / Unintentional Porn Overheard at Work
I was talking with a coworker about a problem in the AF office.  He’s not directly in-the-loop, but he’d been helpful in getting us in touch with the person needed to fix the issue.  When I asked him how we should proceed from this point, he said:

“I’m not really part of that.  I just… reach-around.”

I had no response for that other than, “Uh-huh.”

And now to “get on to the friction of the day.”

Namaste.

Wednesday: Coda
After work, I headed to Dr. Volt’s to get this week’s selection of comics… and a few packs of the new HeroClix Crisis set. Of the three boxes, I only had one duplicate, which I immediately traded for another figure. Included in the take were:

• Batwoman
• Harbinger
• Karate Kid – Yes, my plastic Legion continues to grow!
  (“He doesn’t even have super-powers…!” – You know who you are and you know why that’s funny.)
• Mary Marvel
• Star Sapphire – GL Hal Jordan’s former girlfriend/arch-enemy.
• Teen Titans:
  • Aqualad
  • Kid Flash
  • Wonder Girl

I also pulled a Dial “H” for Hero dial.  It will be interesting to see how it plays.

All-in-all, it was a good haul for ‘Clix.

When I got home, I ate dinner, read this week’s comic selection and then played City of Heroes.  I didn’t manage to hit Security Level 45, but I’m less than 300,000 XP away from it.  I did, however, help a teammate get a character to Level 20; that was fun… although it was more fun after we added a Controller to the team.  (Who knew?!)

And now: Bed.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 27 February 2008
Last night, I couldn’t find a team in City of Heroes – and I didn’t want to solo – so I called it an early (for me) night. I picked up Guards, Guards and managed to read a few pages before Morpheus bid me welcome to The Dreaming.

Today’s been rather good. For lunch, James, Jason and I went to ‘s to play pinball. That’s right: Pinball. He has a full-size Twilight Zone pinball machine. It had been a long, long time till touchdown brings me ’round again since I had played. And it was fun. A very pleasant change of pace. Of course, this meant that I missed out on Sushi Wednesday and picking my this week’s comics at lunch, but I think I’ll survive. And, I think that may just have to go to the driving range that’s across the street from the office for lunch on Friday.

The Best: Pinball Wizard
The Who vs. Elton John

As much as I enjoy The Who’s version of this song, I have to give props to Sir Reginald Dwight for some rather adept finger work and a fine cover of this song. Both versions have their own flavor and their own merits.

Verdict: Tie.

Stray Toasters

• showed us $240 Worth of Pudding before we started playing pinball. Comedy.
  
• PHP.
• By way of Coworker JoeT (not to be confused with ): Failblog
• Yesterday, showed me the site for LightTape.
• Today, I countered with Digital Tattoo Interface. That’s right, we’re all going to be cyborgs soon.

Namaste.

Tuesday: Coda
After work, I stopped at Best Buy to pick up copies of 30 Days of Night and Justice League: The New Frontier. After a stop to pick up some groceries, I came home to have dinner and watch some TV and video.

Four-Color Commentary/Reeling by on Celluloid
I started with Justice League Unlimited: “For the Man Who Has Everything.” This episode was an adaptation of the Alan Moore DC Comics story of the same name. Again, this was an episode that I haven’t watched in a long time. It was just as good to watch tonight as it was in 2004.

Next up: Justice League: The New Frontier. I had read a only few chapters of the graphic novel, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect.

Wow.

It was a good story: It was set in the mid-1950s, in the wake of McCarthyism, in an America in which heroes have been sent into hiding and/or exile by a government that fears them… or wants to control them. The characterizations, writing, the animation and… well… the whole damned thing, to be honest, were spot on. And there were plenty of Easter eggs for long-time comics fans. This movie is rated PG-13, for some language and violent content. But, if you’re looking for a good story and a nice way to spend 75 minutes, this is a good way to go.

Not a bad way to spend an evening.

Tuesday – 26 February 2008
I woke up this morning and there was the sun. The actual, honest-to-goodness sun. And there was hardly any haze obscuring the view of the valley. Win-Win.

Clarity is a good thing.

And, in the interest of clarity, it has come to my attention that I apparently need to make a few points about the upcoming move of commenting from LiveJournal to Random Access:

• While I like the community of friends and interests on LiveJournal, I wanted to host my blog on my site. To that end, I have been using WordPress as my primary blog tool/repository since August of 2006.
• After I switched to WP, I found a plug-in that allows my posts to be automatically crossposted to LJ, eliminating a need to cut-and-paste or forget/neglect to make sure that a post made it from Blog A to Blog B.
• I was also able to use the LJ export function to export older posts into XML and a WordPress function to import the posts into Random Access.
• Neither the export nor import function transfered the comments for the older posts.
• The inherent problem that I found was that this split comments between the two sites – if someone posted a comment on LJ, I had to check it there; if it was on Random Access, I had to check it there.

So, that brings us to the past month or two. After some deliberation – and a few chats with as to why he forced comments to his WP blog – I decided to consolidate all commenting to Random Access.

I was recently asked why I assumed that some people ever look at the post on RA, if it is mirrored on LiveJournal. Valid question. My answer: I had not made such an assumption. I just decided that I wanted to have things “in one place.” To that end, I’m moving commenting off of LJ and on to Random Access.

What does this mean?

• There will no longer be a link for commenting on my posts in LiveJournal.
• In the “Originally posted at Random Access” banner at the top of each post, there will be a link to the comments page on Random Access.
• Due to some issues with spam/spambots, I “locked” commenting to authorized users only…. so, the first time (ONLY) that you move to RA to comment, you’ll have to “sign in.” After that, it’s click-and-comment.

If anyone decides to fore go commenting on future posts after 29 February 2008 because of the change, I understand, but I’d like to say “Thank you,” in advance, to those of you who are willing to accommodate my idiosyncrasy.

Namaste.

Monday: Coda
I just finished watching Justice League Unlimited on Boomerang.  I lucked out, they were showing “Initiation,” the first episode of the show.  Kind of.  It was the first episode of the new 30-minute format, as opposed to its previous two- or three-episode (60 or 90 minutes) format as Justice League.  They shined it up, added a bunch of heroes to the group and gave the theme song a rock-and-roll twist.

I haven’t seen this episode in at least a couple of years.  I had forgotten how good it was and how little I should have worried about the change in format.  They did a great job with the characterizations:

• Green Lantern as the seasoned veteran, acting as “drill sargeant,” stuck on a mission with…
• Supergirl, a headstrong teenager out to prove: a) that she’s worth being on the team AND b) that she’s not her cousin…
• Captain Atom, a still-by-the-numbers former Air Force officer turned hero and
• Green Arrow, a hero who’s more concerned with looking out for the average man more so than fighting monsters and alien invaders.

The lack of teamwork nearly jeopardized the mission, but after regrouping – and having two members of the team taken out of the fight – they were able to dispatch the DCAU version of Brimstone.

I heartily recommend this episode to any and everyone.

Monday – 25 February 2008
Back in the saddle again. The commute wasn’t too bad, despite pea-soup fog from Enoch to just south of Beaver and again from Scipio to Mills. They have apparently “fixed” the “NEHPI” sign…

…by covering the “HPI” with a “PHI” banner. Priceless.

Stray Toasters

• I joined LinkedIn this morning. *shrug* At least I still haven’t hopped on the FaceBook bandwagon. Yet.
• Second shot across the bow: I will be moving all commenting for this blog to Random Access as of Saturday, 01 March 2008.
• Justice League: The New Frontier and 30 Days of Night both come out on DVD tomorrow.
  
• Check out the papercraft artwork of Peter Callesen
• I’m diving into PHP again.  And, again, it’s for work.  Can’t beat that.
• Salt Lake City Weekly‘s Best of 2007: Food and Drink
• I was talking with Dwim, a little while ago, about some of the comics that we read.  He was saying how he felt that some heroes shouldn’t have secret identities.  Wonder Woman was one example.  Green Lantern was another.  I mentioned that while Hal Jordan does have a secret identity, John Stewart doesn’t – he hasn’t worn a mask in his GL identity since the 80s, I think.  Besides, would you want to be “that guy” who tried to hassle John Stewart in his civilian ID?  Let’s look at the deterring factors:
  • Ex-Marine.
  • Even more so: Ex-Marine sharpshooter.
  • Wears a ring (let’s call it what it is: “a weapon”) that can create anything he thinks of.  Anything.
  • Trained as an architect, so he can be… creative.  (Granted, Kyle Rayner‘s an artist, so he’s usually a little more creative, but that goes off along an entirely different tangent.)
  • Good knowledge of mechanics and usually “builds” his ring constructs “from the inside out.”
  • Has probably kicked more ass on – and off – Earth than you have.
  • Did I mention “anything he thinks of?”  I did?  Okay, just wanted to be sure.

  And, it’s not like he takes the ring off when he’s not on-duty.

• Visualization: Movie box office data
• 

Namaste.

Sunday: Coda
I made it to Cedar City without any incident. That’s always a good thing. I took a few pictures along the way.

SaraRules and I headed to the nearby Chili’s for dinner and then over to the Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. Proving, once again, how cool she is, she picked up two packs of Cadbury Creme Eggs and the following for me:

Mm-hmm. That’s right.

Sunday – 24 February 2008
Last night’s breakfast was fun.  And a bit unusual.  I have pictures to prove it.  The dolls – FAR from what I was expecting to see in the claw machine – just about killed me.

After I got home, I was up for another two hours, playing City of Heroes.  At 3:30, my eyelids became an irresistable force; I got up from the desk and went to bed before I became an immovable object.  I woke up this morning and played for another hour and some change.  I’m roughly a bar and a half from Security Level 44.

Next on the docket: Moving things out of a few rooms so that some plumbing work can be done. “Sometime in the next 5-7 days,” the potable water lines in my building are being replaced.  This means nothing under or on the cabinets in the kitchen or either bathroom.  And, because of where some of the pipe access is located, I have to clear out some space in a couple of closets and my bedroom, too.  Yay.

Then, it’s off to the south, once more.

Namaste.

Saturday – 23 February 2008
Last night’s Clitorati gathering was fun. It was a very nice way to wind up the week. And, even though I was told “Don’t play with your food” while I was growing up… there are just some things that can’t be passed up:

The second pic nearly did not get taken:

While setting up the shot, I asked to move a bit. He did. Just as I prepared to take the picture, the cup – with coffee still in it – tipped over. I put down the camera and reached for the cup.

And the camera fell off the table.

Fortunately, I was able to catch it between my legs.

As the camera was falling, looked over and saw me catch the camera. After we all shared a “Did that really just happen?!” moment, she reached over to get it…

…just as the camera took a picture.

There was a pregnant pause and then we all broke out in laughing fits.

Today has been a mix of what I planned to do, a few things I didn’t plan on… and completely skipping a couple of things that I planned on. All-in-all, not too bad.

The morning started, as usual, with the Legion and The Batman. Both, however, were repeats… but that didn’t stop me from enjoying both. As I was rounding the clubhouse turn and watching Stargate SG-1, called and asked if I had eaten lunch yet. I hadn’t. So, we went to Macaroni Grill. I had the Chicken Marsala; the pasta was a little dry, but otherwise everything was fine.

After that, I ran a few errands and then went to visit Kate, Perry and the kids. Next up: A stop in the Red Balloon to see if they had anything that I just couldn’t live without for my Rokenbok set. I considered a couple of things, but ultimately walked out empty-handed. There is a set that I am looking for, but they didn’t have it in stock.

I headed up to say “Hi” to SaraRules’ parents. I finally remembered to take over a couple of movies that they hadn’t seen. When I got there, they kindly invited me to stay for dinner; I did. Over dinner, they asked how the trip was; I gave them my side of the story (which was a positive accounting of events). I showed them pictures from the trip, as well.

Back home to chill out and spend some time in Paragon City.

Now, off to breakfast!

Namaste.

From a conversation with :

: i don’t believe this…
your niece just pumped both of her fists up and down in the air
and on the down pump, ripped a 6.0 richter scale fart
i’m appalled and more than a bit impressed

: Sweet.

: lol i’m already getting talking-tos from rana…”she’s not a boy, you can’t let her think that’s funny”

And this is just at two-weeks-old. I can only imagine how glorious her deeds will become as she gets older.

Friday – 22 February 2008
I wound up staying in SLC all day Thursday. I was going to head down to AF after working on a system here, but was… convinced to stay north of the county line. The day was… something. In fact, at one point it came precipitously close to breaking the No Bad News Thursday rule. I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t bad news, just a very poor presentation of information.

After work, I ran a couple of errands and then headed to Jitterbug to meet and for dinner. And coffee. And catching up on the latest things going on. After that, I headed home for a few.

Next up: A jaunt to ‘s to help her with a computer problem. Nothing earth-shattering (or even earth-shaking, like yesterday’s earthquake – which I, again, slept through). While there, I saw and played with the kids. They have new collars – Sissy has a green one. That’s right: My cat wants to be a Green Lantern when she grows up. (I’m so proud of her…)

Home again. I fired up City of Death Heroes and joined a team with a couple of guys whom I’ve grouped with before. They’re both “a little” gung-ho. Unfortunately, they were both Scrappers and not Tankers. Suffice if to say that there was plenty of death to be had for everyone. *sigh* I left that team and was invited to join another. The second team had their act together.

Stray Toasters

• and I had to explain Zork and grues to Jason yesterday.
• Speaking of which, you can play an HTML/PHP version of Zork here.
• You can play ports of other Infocom games here.
• Clinton doesn’t vow to go on beyond March 4
• And now, another episode of “How Rob’s Mind Works”:
  

  While getting ready for work, I saw the packaging for some toilet paper in the trash can and had the following thought: “Cottonelle… Cotton-elle… Hm… Superman’s Krytonian aunt… who was a sanitation engineer? Yeah, that works.”

• Smurfs at 50: Ready for a Comeback
• Next week’s release of the Crisis set for HeroClix includes another Legionnaire: Karate Kid

  

• From Gamespot: GDC ’08: LEGO Batman First Look

  

  

• Pleas for condemned Saudi ‘witch’
• Yeah, toast!

Namaste.

Thursday – 21 February 2008
…contrary to what Folgers and Rockapella would have you believe, is not “Folgers in your cup.”

It’s “waking up.”

But, a very close runner up, in my opinion, is (or in today’s case, “was”): After spending too much time lollygagging around the apartment, I decided to get serious about getting ready for work. As I disconnected the wireless mouse receiver from Defiant, it woke the computer from sleep mode. In the process of waking up, it reconnected me to my messaging services: AIM/ICQ, Yahoo! (Is it MicroHoo! yet?) and iChat/GoogleTalk.

And whose user icon should I see in iChat but SaraRules, who is currently in Los Angeles on a… “field trip,” of sorts, with her MFA program. Thus, I got to chat with her for a minute or two before she had to leave.

Nice surprise and a great way to start the morning.

Now, it’s time to attack the day.
(…and maybe brew some coffee to take with me, too. Damn, Rockapella!)

Namaste.

Wednesday: Coda
I came home and cooked dinner. Not fish fillets and fries. Not ramen. Not soup. Not spaghetti. I actually fired up the stove and the oven. Tonight’s fare:

• Baked chicken
• Rice, cooked in cream of mushroom soup
• Corn
• And a glass of milk. (Milk, it does a body good. Pass it on!)

Not only that, but I watched last week’s CSI: (kind of hard to watch live at 35,000 feet) and tonight’s Law & Order (well, I’m watching it now). AND I read this week’s four-color haul. And I may still make a trip to Paragon City. All-in-all, not a bad evening.

Stray Toasters

• I found the following articles while looking up some completely unrelated information this afternoon…
  • How to Know if You Are Irritating
  • How to Not Be Annoying

  I hung a copy on my wall in SLC; I’m doing the same in AF tomorrow.

• I also want this bumper sticker. Lots of them.

  

• I found a home for Sao Paulo (the laptop formerly known as Defiant): It’s going to my father.
• Are you using Windows? You might want to check this out – Killer Download: The Big Three free security applications
• FAA investigates whether go! Airlines flight crew fell asleep
• Microsoft… makes… action figures. I think my world just collapsed a little.
  (But, you should read some of the character bios. Dear Lord…)
• CNN Fires Producer Over Personal Blog
• Is your King James or New International Bible too boring for you? Give The Manga Bible a try.
• Nautilus-themed steampunk home theatre
• Geek-to-Geek: ‘grats to on your new flying mount.
• Old school:

  

  

  If I need to explain this, you just need to skip on to the next ‘Toaster. Seriously. Right now.

• The Century’s Top Engineering Challenges

Time to go fight some evil.

Namaste.