Random Access

Sunday – 04 November 2007
Sleeping in is even better with Daylight Saving Time. That whole “Fall back…” thing. It kicks grass. I woke up this morning thinking that I had fifteen minutes until the first round of NFL games. Wrong. I had an hour-and-fifteen minutes. So, that time was spent reading the two most recent issues of GQ, with a cup of coffee, while SaraRules read the latest Vogue. After checking NFL.com, I realized that there weren’t any games in the early set that I was really jazzed about watchng, so I was able to enjoy my reading time.

Last night, we went to see American Gangster. The movie tells the story of 1960s/1970s Harlem drug dealer Frank Lucas and New Jersey police office Richie Roberts, the man who brought him down. Wow. It was a very well-done piece of cinema. As usual, Denzel Washington did an excellent job, as did Russell Crowe. In fact, this movie did many great things to wash the lingering memories of Virtuosity out of my mind – the last picture in which I can recall both Washington and Crowe starring. I give this movie an enthusiastic thumbs-up with an okay.

Stray Toasters

• I played Backgammon for the first time in probably… ten years… last night. I lost fabulously.
• By way of : Shatner woo remix
• : Glad to see that you enjoyed Across the Universe. (Told ya so!)
• 
• Wal-Mart’s Terrible Nintendo Wii Knock-Offs
• By way of Slashdot: Elephants on acid – the 10 wackiest experiments of all time

*voop*

Namaste.

Saturday – 03 November 2007
So far, it’s been, to quote Mr. Rogers, “…a beautiful day in the neighborhood.”

As with any good Saturday, it started with sleeping in. This was followed by breakfast and coffee (and college football) and then cartoons (Legion and The Batman, natch). After observing the necessary hygiene rituals, SaraRules and I headed out to check out the shops on Main Street. Highlights included a couple of bookstores (picked up a new-to-me Spenser book!), the kite shop and the sporting goods store. The latter store amused me because I noticed that the guy working the desk was playing poker on PokerStars; he seemed a little surprised when I mentioned it. Back home for lunch (and more college football) and some other random TV watchin’.

Tonight, we – along with a couple of the roommates and their S.O.s – are going to see American Gangster. We had considered making it a double-bill with Across the Universe, but the roomies’ schedules wouldn’t work with it. Oh, well.

Stray Toasters

• I think that I have found the perfect item for use in this year’s Christmas card. Perfect, I say!
• Duane “Dog” Chapman has had his show placed on indefinite hiatus, after a conversation in which he used racial epithets in trying to convince his son to dump his girlfriend was brought to light. But, he apologized. I would like to think that he apologized because he was sorry for what he said… rather than simply because he got caught.
• Whose Kingdome Come? Geoff Johns Talks JSA
• “What’s a Nubian…?”
• BBtv: American Furry – Life, Liberty and the Fursuit of Happiness
• 
• 8-bit retro game sound synthesizer
• I have been wanting to play some good, old school fashioned Lode Runner, lately.
• Impossible Mission, too.
• Steampunk Pac-Man
• From Baltimore’s City Paper: Hallowe’en Masks VIII… especially notable/amusing – the “Play Caller of Cthulhu” mask.
• Here there be zombies!
• For those of you who watch NFL on Fox, you’re familiar with “the Touchdown Robot.”  Well… guess who’s getting his (its ?) own action figure?
• Hot chocolate.  Boo-yah!

Namaste.

Friday – 02 November 2007
And so the weekend starts. Actually, it started last night: I cleared things with and got on the road for Cedar City. Late start, but that also meant that there was almost no traffic. Which means… say it with me…. “No monkeys!”

This morning, I slept in. Oh, glorious sleeping in… how we love you. While waiting to SaraRules to get done at school and work, I ran to the bank and the gas station and the car wash (Oh-oh-oh-oh, at the car wash, yeah!). After we met back at Sara’s, we decided that we were hungry. Next stop: Costa Vida. With food out of the way, we headed back to campus for a few, so I could say “Hi” to a few people.

I wanted to do some shopping – slim pickin’s in Cedar – so we went to St. George. Outlets. Dairy Queen. And Best Buy. Amen.

Back to Cedar. Tonight, it’s Papa Murphy’s and Dog Soldiers.

Tomorrow… we’ll see.

Namaste.

Thursday – 01 November 2007
Good All Saints Day to everyone.

When I got in from work, I started reading some of the four-color shwag I had picked up before lunch. Among the things I started was the latest issue of Action Comics… featuring the Legion. I was so stoked about reading it that I was a little late getting to last night’s gaming session. I had to make a concerted effort to stop reading it after only a few pages. (Yep… that was pretty much the last nail in the coffin, confirming beyond any/all doubt that the Legion – in all of its incarnations – is my “warm, happy place” in comicdom.)

Last night, we wound up not playing Call of Cthulhu. Sort of. We played Arkham Horror, which is more or less a boardgame version of the RPG. More specifically, we played with The King in Yellow supplement – as weird as the original game is, this addition adds another couple levels to the weird-shit-o-meter.

Today has been relatively uneventful. I had to stop in the north office before coming down to the South Forty. Things here have been quiet. I’ve been able to answer a few questions from the field and get some reading done. Today’s workout was basically a repeat of Tuesdays, with a couple of changes:

• Bench press: 185 lbs, 3 sets / 10 reps (third set was 8 @ 185, 3 @ 155)
• We added shoulder presses (20 lbs, 3 sets / 15 reps) before back raises.
• Unlike Tuesday, I managed to do all three sets of back raises.

And stuff.

Stray Toasters

• I have Twix.
• Twenty-six and change.
• Wired‘s various looks at Rock Band
• By way of Broken Frontier: Whoreoween Isn’t Just for Girls Anymore
• Pragmatism. Go figure.

Wow. Nice to completely space off the fact that this was open for a while… considering that I had planned to post this right after lunch. Huh. I should probably do that now.

Namaste.

After lunch, I went on field trip to try and find a less-dry (and slightly more up-to-date) book to cover one of the things I studying. I went to the Barnes & Noble in Sugar House. It was nearby. It was a good-sized location. What could be better? How about the fact that I probably have a larger selection of technical books in my personal library than this store did? Okay, that’s a gross overstatement, but I was horribly disappointed at the store’s selection. I considered trying another location, but changed my mind and just decided to head back to the office.

As I’m in line, waiting to get out of the parking lot, a white Ford Expedition rolls past me, trying to cut me off. So, I moved up – cutting it off – and looked at the driver with a “What in the Nine Hells do you think you’re doing?!” look on my face. The driver rolled down the passenger window.

Have you ever had one of those moments where, after the fact, you wished that you had just let the stupid things that people do just… go… and move on with your life? This was one of mine.

The driver and passenger looked like they had been working on getting three or more sheets into the wind. She gave me a story about how she was “…so out of gas, so I was just going to cut you off so I can get to a gas station.” I waved her on ahead. I didn’t want any of the backwash of stupidity to splash over on me. *gah* With monkeys like these, who needs pets? And, might I add: The nearest gas station was about 300 yards up the hill. Yeah, waiting that extra seven seconds was going to make her run out of gas. *sigh*

Stray Toasters

• I had sushi for lunch.
• Boldly go where no corpse has gone before: Star Trek Coffin Warps Your Corpse to the Final Nerd Frontier
• Gawker Shirt-of-the-Day
• Top 10 Sexiest Hallowe’en Costumes of 2007
• just tried to decapitate me.
• 
• Western Digital rolls out 320GB 2½” Scorpio hard drive

Namaste.

Wednesday – 31 October 2007
Happy Hallowe’en.

I don’t remember the alarm going off this morning… and I left the iPod in the car, so I didn’t have my usual backup. Oh, well. At least it’s the short commute today. The day started nicely, though: a quick message from SaraRules followed, almost immediately, by a brief chat with Mom on AIM. The two conversations called to mind a lyric from Barenaked Ladies’ Straw Hat and Old Dirty Hank:

Mother Nature & Mother Earth
Are two of three women who dictate what I’m worth

Weird, but that’s the way I’m wired. Go figure.

Now it’s time to Get Down on It and Ease On Down the Road.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 30 October 2007
After finally going to bed last night, I figured that sleep would come easy and I would almost immediately be welcomed into the gates of The Dreaming.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I think that I spent more time tossing and turning that I did sleeping. Therefore, when the alarm went off this morning, I turned it off and resolved to ignore the fact that it had ever sounded. When I finally felt rested enough to get up, I did and started the day.

Fortunately, the day has been pretty good… and pretty much monkey-free. Eric suggested a change to the workout:

• Dips, leg raises and pull-ups, alternating.
  • Dips: 3 sets / 20 reps
  • Leg Raises: 3 sets / 20 reps
  • Pull-ups: 2 sets, unassisted; one set – 6 (unassisted) and 5 (assisted, 90 pounds)
• Bench press: 155 lbs / 2 sets, 12 reps; 155 lbs, 9 reps; 135 pounds, 4 reps
• Rows: 120 pounds, 3 sets / 12 reps
• Lower back raises: 2 sets, 10 reps – reverse fly at the top, 5 pound weights in each hand

By starting the dips and pull-ups, our arms got a good pre-bench press workout… which is why our bench weight was so low. And, by the time we got to the third set, getting through half of the set felt like a major accomplishment.
Stray Toasters

• I have finally opened my first box of Butterscotch Krimpets. They make a tasty breakfast, with coffee.
• Golden introduced me to Top
  
  Gear today. Interesting. And quite fun.
• LEGO Key Rack. Why do I not have one of these?!
• For SaraRules, … and others, by way of Deacon Derek:

  

• 25 items to build an Apple Store
• Last night, I found a link to this Masters of the Universe video. (17 mb file, .mov format)
  Today, I found this webcomic.
• For the golfing and Star Trek geek on your Christmas list: Star Trek Enterprise Putter Destroys Romulan Birdies of Prey
• Recursive Queries. Iterative Queries. Inverse Queries. *ack-thbbpt*
• How things would be different on Earth without the Moon

Where does the time go when you’re reading a tech book?

Namaste.

Monday: Coda
It’s been a relatively quiet post-work day. And that isn’t a bad thing. At all.

After work, I came home and decided to spend a little time in Paragon City. I caught one of my Super Group-mates online, so I asked her about the Hallowe’en event – specifically, where were places that I could Trick or Treat. She (and one of our coalition members) hooked me up with the zones where I could knock on doors and hopefully not die.

So, I headed to one of the zones…

…knocked on a door…

…and received a Trick: A Fir Bolg, a Witch and a Zombie walked into a bar attacked me. Yay. I fought them and won. So, I tried again. Another Trick: A Witch and a Sorceress. Whoop-de-damn-doo. I beat them… but not before they landed a few solid hits on me.

About this time, I remembered a couple of real world things that I needed to take care of, so I logged out and handled them. When I came back home, I decided that “food” came under the heading of “good thing,” so I fixed something to eat.

And then I headed back to Paragon City. C’mon… it’s the Hallowe’en Event! And I haven’t really played much in the past few weeks. No sooner than I logged in and said “Aloha” to my coalition, I was invited to join a team. I did. We kicked some Council and Devouring Earth… um… well… robots don’t really have butts – with the possible exception of Bender – and I don’t want to think about the DevEarth having recta, either. So, suffice if to say: We whooped ’em. Soundly. After the team broke up, I did a little more Trick or Treating. This time, for my efforts, I scored a couple of temporary powers: Hallowe’en costumes. I’ll get a couple of pics up in the next few days.

Stray Toasters

• I almost mistyped that as “Stray Tiasters,” which (for some reason) made me think “Stray Tiamats.” And absolutely no good would come from that.
• Speaking of Stray Tiamats (but hoping not to see one), morrownight is Game Night: D&D.
• And, Wednesday night is Hallowe’en… which means that will be running his annual Hallowe’en Horror Game. This year, it’s Call of Cthulhu. And I get to dust off a character who hasn’t seen the light of day in some time… a character that I had a lot of fun playing.
• This one’s for SaraRules, Tyranist and Nox: From Wizard – The 21 Greatest Horror Movies of the 21st Century. Examine and discuss.
• “Thanks!” to and for their helpful hints in getting acclimated to the Mac way of thinking.
• This post is being written on Defiant, now that I seem to have it properly trained on the network.
• I need to remember that there is NO mouse attached to Defiant. Just the touchpad. *sigh* I keep reaching for ‘Nine‘s mouse when I try to move the cursor across the screen.
• I just described Defiant to Code Monkey BB as “Black as midnight, sweet as sin.” He got a chuckle out of it… as did I.
• Style is like a second cousin to Class…
• UK Minister detained at Dulles Airport
• While trying to see if someone had posted a copy of Joe Cocker’s performance of Come Together, from Across the Universe, I found this video of the cast singing Hey Jude in Central Park. It’s a little rough, but pretty cool… and you can see that they – and the crowd – were having fun.
• Steampunk Time Machine
• One of the Coworker Daves – I swear, I’m going to have to number them to keep “who’s who” straight – emailed a link to today’s post from The Best Page in the Universe to a few of us in the office. I was chatting with both of them at the time and mentioned to Maddox that the link was going around the office… and to Dave that Maddox is a friend of mine; Dave seemed surprised by that, even though he knows about my superpower of knowing just about everyone. On the plus side, this encounter reminded me that I hadn’t added Maddox’ page to Random Access’ blogroll – an oversight that was quickly corrected.
• “party representative submission position”
• Celebrate Halloween with Halo, Lord of the Rings Online
• From Wired.com’s How To Wiki: Shred Like a God in Guitar Hero 3

.eof

Monday – 29 October 2007
A new week begins.

Getting up and on the way wasn’t so bad this morning. I chatted with for a few minutes before hitting the street. It seems as though there was a 5.0 earthquake in Kathmandu this morning. Oddness. And here are some interesting stats about Nepal.

Stray Toasters –

• Defiant is now running Leopard (Mac OS X – 10.5). New hotness for the new hotness.
• By way of SaraRules: ‘Fall Trio’ at Bountiful gallery; Mössel’s magic realism at SUU
• 
• The 13 Scariest Things in IT in 2007
• My Green Lantern ‘Clix should arrive soon. Very soon.
• Preparing for Diwali
• 
• Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi…
• I feel yet another pilgrimage to the Garden of Sweden coming on.
• 
• Man place on sex offender register for sex with bike
• Driver denies threatening officer

Quote of the Day
Land called Saturday to share this gem, from a consultant (obviously not from Utah) with whom he was working. She had apparently asked about getting some coffee and, when met with odd/curious looks, spouted off this beauty:

Oh, that’s right… you don’t drink coffee. Something to do with the purity of your temple or some shit like that.

Yay for ignorant and insensitive monkeys!

Namaste.

Sunday – 28 October 2007
Last night and today were both quite good.

After Friday night’s festivities, we slept in Saturday morning. Ms. SaraRules fixed a… sauted (I think) pasta dish for breakfast; it was pretty damned good. We ate and had coffee while watching ‘toons and Jim Croce videos.

Next, it was off in search of costume goodness. I had toyed around with the idea of doing a Hand of Nefer-Tem costume and even taking a suggestion from and going as Bill Cosby – Heaven knows that I have more than enough sweaters to pull it off. Sara was going to go as Little Red Riding Hood, but wasn’t able to find a red cloak… so, a trip to Target later, she went as Red Riding Hood… in the ‘hood. That made me rethink my idea. Instead of America’s favorite Jell-O Pudding-eating dad, I opted to redo my White Trash Party outfit and go as Tha’ Wolf. Complete with 40 of Miller Genuine Draft (which I think will be used to cook brats or shrimp). Home to change and then we were off…

First we stopped at Chris and Mary’s. Horror movie party. We sat around and shot the bull for an hour or so before starting the first movie: Eight-Legged Freaks. Unfortunately, the movie decided to be… uncooperative, so we only made it about 30 minutes into the movie. That’s when we noticed the time; we needed to roll out. We headed across town to and onlyaly’s place… unfortunately, we missed out on ‘s gathering. For pics of some of the Hallowe’en costumes, click here.

Sunday morning started with breakfast at Sara’s parents’ house. Waffles. Homemade, none of that Eggo stuff. Then… football. The Ravens had a bye this week. We watched the Pitt-Cincy game. As much as it hurt to do, I was rooting for Cincinnati to win. They didn’t. We left to meet up with and to take some pictures in Memory Grove. After that, we all stopped at Redrock for drinks. Back to Sara’s parents’ place for dinner… and MORE football.

Back home.

Stray Toasters

• I am typing this post on the new black hotness that is the new Defiant. I think that I shall rechristen the old laptop either Valiant or Sao Paulo.
• I still have two boxes of Butterscotch Krimpets… and haven’t eaten any of them – I gave one box to , as she is rather fond of them.
• Talking Action with Gary Frank (: This includes some LSH news)
• 114
• Simon Pegg (you know, from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz)… as Scotty in J.J. Abrams’ upcoming Star Trek film? Interesting.
• If the Dead Ruled – a Worth1000.com Photoshop contest
• From The Salt Lake Tribune: Liquor commissioner wants booze out of view
• Failed Futuristic Predictions

And there you have it.

Namaste.

Saturday – 27 October 2007
Yesterday was fantastic! Thank you to everyone who sent well-wishes for a good and happy birthday. Thanks also to those of you who came out for dinner and then came over for cake. I had a wonderful time; I hope that you did as well.

After indulging in one of my favorite pastimes, sleeping in, I puttered around the apartment, doing some cleaning (…and getting distracted by random bright, shiny objects). I got calls from everyone in the family and a few friends, as well as a few emails, text messages (*shakes fist at ) and other electronic notes.

SaraRules arrived a little before 6:00; she brought a delicious yellow cake with chocolate/chocolate chip frosting that she baked. We ran out to pick pick up a few party-related items, brought them back and then headed off to dinner at Outback. We took over a good bit of their real estate, both in the (TINY) waiting area and in the dining area. Cheese fries. Food that food eats (a.k.a. “salad”). Prime rib. And Foster’s (“Australian for beer!”). Tasty.

Back home for cake, ice cream and assorted beverages. And chat. And just a good time hanging out. It was just like going to the bookstore for Clitorati… without the annoying “they’re having a good time, tell them to stop” people. Or the volumes of books. (I have books here, but they have me beat, ever so slightly.)

Great way to kick off thirty-seven.

Now, it’s time to go tune in Legion of Super-Heroes (new episode!) and play with the new black hotness.

Namaste.

Friday – 26 October 2007
Thirty-seven.
Thirty-seven times I’ve avoided the cold embrace of the Dark Lady.

So far, I’ve had calls from: Mom, Dad, Kris, SaraRules, and Perry. I call that a great way to kick off my Hatching Day. Dad made me laugh when he called: He actually referred to today as “International Rob Day.”

I need to kick it into gear and finish cleaning up around here so I can go run some errands… and make a possible pilgrimage to the Garden of Sweden. Or We ‘B’ Toys. Or… or… *head go splodey* Of course, as I don’t really have anything on the agenda for the day, I can do all of those. Or none. Or whatever combination of them I choose.

Thirty-seven.
I may be getting “older,” but I’m still going to fight that “growing up” thing as long as I can.

Namaste.

Thursday: Coda
And so, the work week comes to a close. Friday is International Annual Rob Day, known in some regions as “Pope Groovalicious Day.” In honor of that I am hereby declaring it a personal holiday:

After work, I met for dinner at Tepanyaki. Sushi and a Teriyaki Steak and Chicken combination dinner. Nice. The couple sitting to our right was nice, even somewhat conversational. The family on our left… not so much. Oh, well. After dinner, I headed around the corner to CompUSAirways to pick up some memory for ‘Nine. Yes, I know I’m getting Defiant (Mark II) tomorrow, but I’m not abandoning ‘Nine… and Intrepid has been wheezing along since I lobotomized it to up ‘Nine‘s memory a few months ago. And, added bonus: The memory was on sale. Win-win.

On the way home, I stopped to see and onlyaly. No sooner than I had entered was I also greeted by Daisy and Sadie. I think that I got a decent workout from playing with Daisy – almost enough to make up for not going to the gym this afternoon.

Since getting home, I haven’t done much. So far, the highlights have been:

• Getting an early birthday call from Mom; she’ll call back tomorrow, but didn’t want to call me at O’dark-thirty… especially when I told her that I was taking the day off and sleeping in. God bless her.
• Ordering a couple of pieces of plastic crack on eBay: Green Lantern (John Stewart) from the out-of-“print” Cosmic Justice series. The price was right and I’ve been on the fence for a while too long in deciding whether or not I was going to get them.

Stray Toasters

• I was surprised/shocked/about to wet myself by/because of “The Leash” just before dinner. Fortunately, it was just a status message.
• Rock Band. Not necessarily my cup of tea, but I know a few grad students eagerly awaiting its release.
• Steampunk + LEGO = ???
• …with a hint of lip gloss.
• Horrifying cute animal photoshop contest
• I think that there’s an ice cream sandwich in my immediate future.
• Worm study may bolster idea of human sexuality being hard-wired in brain
• Madlessly.
• The Ravens have a bye this weekend… and next take the field on 05 Nov 07 against ‘s beloved Bengals, for a Monday Night Game. Fiddler’s Elbow, anyone…?
• Porno-embroidered handkerchiefs

Yep. That’ll do it.

Namaste.

Apparently, local entertainment mogul Larry H. Miller doesn’t have quite enough money…

(clickable image)

Okay, let’s look at this:

• Lawrence Horne “Larry H.” Miller (born April 26, 1944) is a Utah businessman and philanthropist. He is well known as the owner of the NBA‘s Utah Jazz. Miller is also the owner of an automotive dealership, and a variety of other business ventures including Prestige Financial, Jordan Commons, Larry H. Miller Megaplex Theatres, KJZZ-TV, Miller Motorsports Park, the FANZZ chain of sports apparel stores, and the EnergySolutions Arena (previously called “Delta Center”).    (excerpted from Wikipedia)
• Estimated net worth: $480 million (USD)

The man, literally, has more money than God.  (After all, God doesn’t really need money; but that’s another conversation altogether.)  His various entertainment complexes bring in the money hand-over-fist (Paper around the stone…) and here’s another scheme to rake in more dough.  $25 a head to play…?  $3 a head just to watch?!?  The thing that I would be interested in finding out is:

The email notification was apparently sent roughly 24 hours before the event – how large will the turn-out be, both for players and for spectators?  And, by association, how much moolah will LHM rake in from it?

Apone: All right, sweethearts, what are you waiting for? Breakfast in bed? Another glorious day in the corps! A day in the Marine Corps is like a day on the farm. Every meal’s a banquet! Every paycheck a fortune! Every formation a parade! I LOVE the corps! All right, sweethearts, you’re a team and there’s nothin’ to worry about. We come here, and we gonna conquer, and we gonna kick some, is that understood? That’s what we gonna do, sweethearts, we are going to go and get some. All right, people, on the ready line! Are ya lean?
Marines: Yea!
Apone: Are ya mean?
Marines: Yea!
Apone: WHAT ARE YOU?
Marines: Lean and mean!
Apone: WHAT ARE YOU? HUDSON! Get on the ready line, Marines, get some today! Get on the ready line! Move it out! Move it out, goddammit! Get hot! One, two, three, four! Get out, get out, get out! Move it out, move it out, move it out! Move it out, move it out, move it out! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven! Aaarrrrr, absolutely badasses! Let’s pack ’em in! Get in there!

Thursday – 25 October 2007
Dreams are weird.

Sometime this morning, I dreamed that lj user=”asdf_cat”, Jason and I had gone… somewhere.  I’m going to guess that it was a business trip, because we were staying in a hotel.  We were talking about something when there was a knock the door.  I went to the door and there was someone my brain almost immediately identified as Brian Tochi (1, 2).  Odd, in itself.  The weirdness hit Shade, the Changing Man levels when a second person entered the room: The man who had been the Manager at the REC when I first moved to Outpost Planet: Utah.  That was bizarre.

Willpower is a good thing:

• I still have three unopened boxes of Butterscotch Krimpets
• I haven’t thrown this [expletives deleted] server that I’ve been working on out the window.

After I got home last night, I learned something about “The Leash” – it was locked and I had no clue what the code to unlock it was.  *d’oh!*  Fortunately, there were no alerts last night… so I didn’t have to wind up calling someone else at odd hours of the night.

And now, we dance!