Random Access

Wednesday (coda)

Stray Toasters

• I pretty much positioned myself as the de-facto Office Manager of our Utah County office; we don’t have an Admin in that office and since I handle the equipment requests (I’m the IT guy… go figure), I thought: “I might as well do the general supplies, too.” Today, our Controller brought in some replacement pull-chains for the blinds in some of the offices and asked me to find a home for them. As I was taking them back to my desk, I had an epiphany…
  

  I walked over to one of the programmers areas and stood there for a second, chains hanging from my clenched fist. I looked at one of the programmers, held up the chains, and said: “Your name is Toby!”

  He stared at me, blankly… absolutely no recognition of what I was doing on his face.

  So, I repeated myself.

  Another programmer, across the aisle, spoke up: “Kunta Kente!”

  I looked at him and laughed and said,”See… [He] knew the reference!”

  A third guy looked up and said,”No. He was just the only one not afraid to say anything.”

  It made me smile.

• Jason sent me a copy of Coupling (Season 1, episode 4: “Inferno”). Nine Hells… it was funny. Tyranist had loaned me the first season on DVD, but I haven’t had the opportunity to watch it. Or I haven’t made the time to watch it. One or the other. Or both. Or something like that. I will have to make the time to watch it… from the beginning.
• A friend sent me a link to If My Nose Was Running Money, kind of a… country version of If I Had $1000000. Kind of.
• Applegeeks Blog: Mr. Grenade
• The night I baked brownies, I sent a quick email to my mother. It simply said: “How domestic am I? I just baked brownies.” She sent this back, in reply:
  

  JUST HOW DOMESTIC? Obviously, far-r-r-r-r-r-r-r more than your Mother and your Baby
  Sister…if you BAKED brownies! CONGRATS! Were they good? Edible? 🙂
  MOM

  “Edible?”
  She cracks me up.
  (And, yes, they were – and continue to be – edible.)

• 
• Virtual Recruiting for Real-World Jobs
• Ted (sixth one on the page) obviously thinks:
  

  1. That it is 2750 (or after).
  2. That he has jump jets.
  3. That he can pull off “Death From Above.”

  Click here to see why.
  Click here and here and here for explanation of the above points (if you don’t already get it, that is).

• 
• Earth, Space, Hendrix: The Most Significant Album Ever

Okay, enough of this. Time to fight crime… or something to that effect.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 22 August 2007
It’s not Tuesday.
This isn’t Belgium.
But I am in Amurric’n Fark today. Unexpected trip to the south forty, but work is work. So, I can’t complain.

Last night’s game went… well. Translation: “We didn’t get our asses handed to us. Much.” Sure, we took some damage. But the Luck Lords of Ventura smiled upon us (along with a bit of goodwill from lj user=”nox_aeternus”) and we survived. Thus, our characters live to adventure another day.

Stray Toasters

• I need to make or find a Master Chief icon.
• Tyranist brought in his copy of Black Seas of Infinity, a collection of H.P. Lovecraft stories. So much for catching up on other reading…
• “I’m sorry… I don’t speak Blonde.”
• From the “How NOT to Use The Internets” file: An IM Infatuation Turned to Romance, Then the Truth Came Out
• One day I feel I’m on top of the world
  And the next it’s falling in on me
  I can get back on
  I can get back on
  One day I feel I’m ahead of the wheel
  And the next it’s rolling over me
  I can get back on
  I can get back on
• sent me a link to this; I shall have to print a copy of it and put it on my cubicle wall.
  
• Most Dangerous Object in the Office This Month: $2 Pocket Shots
• From the “Almost Too Absurd to Be True” file: China to Tibetan Buddhist monks: no reincarnating without our ok
• Cheesecake from The Fresh Market (GSO) would be very good right now.
• Halo 3: How Microsoft Labs Invented a New Science of Play
• Sweet Mary, mother of Jesus… A friend has a couple of kids who will be going to this school. Brand-spankin’ new school. State of the art. Green. Check out the information brochure (.pdf) on it.
• NMKY (Finnish cover of YMCA)

Quote of the Day

: Wow. You could teach the Japanese something about polite rudeness.
Me: *bow* I’m going to take that as something of a compliment.
: You should.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 21 August 2007
Waking up this morning was something of a chore. And one that I didn’t really want to do. But, who really enjoys chores? But, I mustered up some go-get-’em and did it anyway.

I don’t know what happened, but about 2/3 of the way through the commute, it seems as though a couple of road monkeys decided to have a meeting. Physics was involved. And I’m sure that there was a measure of deceleration trauma involved as well. There had to be…

…because that’s the only rational explanation that I can devise for the two-mile backup on I-15. Rather than try to navigate an alternate route, I rolled down the windows, fired up the iPod and crept down the road.

The rest of the day went well, comparatively. Including the lunch workout. I’m getting more comfortable with my sets of 205; I was able to do all three sets without having to break up the third set or having to decrease the weight.

On the way home, there was another accident on I-15.  Northbound.  Around 80th South.  There was a notification of the accident around the time that I crossed the county line, which was around… 150th South.  Traffic stopped around 120th South.  And it took about :20 minutes to go five miles.  Good thing I had the iPod.  Again.

Tonight is D&D Night.   The highlight of the game: We had to figure out how to get into the lower levels of a fortified pyramid.   Which was a bit of a problem since the hunger god’s follower’s had set spiked walls of doom at the bottom of the “chimney” that we were planning to use as an entrance.

Our solution was to pour pitch and Greek fire into the hole… and send a dragon down to light it on fire.

…and hilarity ensued.

City of Heroes/Villains: View from the Aerie
Last night, for the first time in a while, I took Corvus Nox to Paragon City. I was invited to join a team shortly after logging on. Unfortunately, they grabbed me because I am a Defender. Defenders are most often the class of healers. I’m more of a…. field medic. At best. And, I warned them of this right off the bat. The invitation stood. But, they apparently didn’t take me seriously. For which a few of us died. A few times. But, we did manage to make it through that mission. And, eventually, we found another healer… with roughly the same Health set as mine, but working in tandem seemed to work well for us. And there were a lot fewer deaths.

By the end of the evening, I had tacked two-and-a-half levels on to Nox.

Stray Toasters
No Toasters, especially since I:

• …have been working on this post (thank God for “Save” and “continue editing”) for hours.
• …am in the middle of figuring out what to do now that our characters have made it into the hunger god’s pyramid… and we don’t want to die.

Namaste.

One word: “Brownies.”

That’s right.  Brownies.  Fresh out of the oven.

And they shall be washed down with a nice glass of milk.

Monday – 20 August 2007
A new work week begins.

So far, the day’s been nominally busy, but not overly so.

Football Update
The Ravens played last night. Pre-season game. I went to Fiddler’s Elbow to watch the game… and to enjoy Guinness by the pint. Draft. Mmm. The Ravens wore their “Pitch Black” uniforms, but the intimidation wasn’t quite enough to help pull off a win. But it was a decent game.

• Steve McNair looked good for the time that he was in.
• Kyle Boller looked MUCH better than he has in the past few seasons – not jittery or unstable, fairly confident in his choices.
• Drew Olson, one of the candidates for the 3rd QB spot was…. there. I didn’t really see anything that made him stand out.
• Troy Smith, however, looked good. He got sacked on his first snap – the offensive line fell apart in front of him – but the rest of his game was solid. Not bad for the 2006 Heismann Trophy winner from *ahem* “THE Ohio State University.” , what can you tell me about Mr. Smith’s college years?
• The defense looked decent, but there were a few problems. They should be able to suss out the issues and get things to gel by the time the regular season rolls around, though.
• NY suffered four (4) pretty big casualties of war during the game, including the loss of WR Mike Jennings for the rest of the season.
• NY backup QB Jared Lorenzen…. You just don’t think of someone his size as a QB. But, he has skill and moves better than you’d think he expect. AND he has an arm. Well, it’s more of a gun, but you get the idea.

Stray Toasters

• Brownies. I am craving brownies. I may just have to bake some this week.
• “Excuse me… who are you?”
• Everyone knows it’s Windy!
• Scotty doesn’t know… but Jason is figuring it out.
• US property tycoon Helmsley dies
• 
• Radioactive, by The Firm
• Dwim came by a little while ago to tell me that he was taking Acolyte Derek somewhere. In and of itself, that’s pretty mundane. But, he told it in MMORPG terms. That made it much more amusing. And geeky. And stuff.
• If Victor Von Doom Developed a SuperSoaker…
• Joker. Lurch. Riker.
• Anotherloverholeinyohead (video)

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Um… I mean.. uh…

Namaste.

Sunday – 19 August 2007
So far, today has been extraordinarily lazy. I’m not saying that it is a “good” or “bad” thing; it simply… is. The most productive things I’ve done so far are:

• Got out of bed.
• Dealt with some of the hygiene rituals.
• Installed Empire Earth, Locomotion and Railroad Tycoon II on ‘Nine.
• Finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I’m still in need of food and coffee. And a shave. And did I mention coffee? I did? Okay, good.

My company’s summer party was yesterday. It was a decent affair, but there wasn’t as much… punch… to it as last year’s event. I still had a bit of fun and it was a decent way to spend a couple of hours. And I still have two bags of cotton candy to show for it!

Four-Color Coverage
I was watching one of my favorite parts of Superman: Last Son of Krypton (the three-part beginning of Superman: The Animated Series) a few days ago and realized something: All of the modern (since 1978) major introductions of the character have involved a sequence involving the saving of an airplane/space shuttle:

• Superman: the Movie (movie, 1978)- Air Force One is struck by lightning, losing an engine and part of the port wing.
• The Man of Steel (comic, 1986) – The Space Shuttle Constitution experiences a system failure and is about to crash-land in Metropolis.
• Superman: The Animated Series (television, 1996) – A commercial airliner is struck by an errant missile while Superman is attempting to apprehend four criminals who have hijacked an experimental LexCorp aircraft.
• Superman Returns (movie, 2006) – The launch of an experimental space shuttle, being piggy-backed on a Boeing 777, proves nearly disastrous after Lex Luthor conducts an experiment with Krpytonian crystal shards. The shuttle’s engines engage – while it is still docked to the jet – melting off the tail.

My theory on this is: You’re dealing with a character “…with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men,” one of which is flight. Sure, you could have him stopping a runaway bus (just think of how much shorter Speed would have been…) or stopping a train, but an airplane? It just seems… more natural. For, you know… a… flying guy.

Something that I really like about the saves from S:TAS and Returns is that Superman doesn’t always come up with the “right answer” right off the bat. In fact, in both cases, his first attempt seems to do more harm than good. Thus, he has to deduce a better method for saving the passengers and bystanders… in a hurry. And since we’re talking about Superman…

They say that Superman is one bad…
Shut yo’ mouth!
I’m just talkin’ about Superman.
We can dig it.

…you know that he’ll figure something out.

Stray Toasters

• I found a very simple recipe for Jambalaya a little while ago. I might have to try it this week.
• The Ravens have a preseason game tonight. I believe that I shall have to watch it.
• Girls at risk amid India’s prosperity
• The DCAU
• 
• Lethal blaze at Twin Towers site
• From boingboing.net (and the “Too Much Free Time” file): Alien made of vegetables
• Missile dumped at US gun amnesty
• 
• From BBC News and the “Too Strange to Make Up” file: Beijing’s penis emporium
• Sony plans to recycle electronics for free

“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”

Namaste.

Saturday – 18 August 2007
The morning started with some errand running. One of which seemed to go smoothly, but I discovered a gross error and had to go back to correct it. It was handled quickly, fairly efficiently and effectively.

On to coffee with Perry. dropped in a short while later. The three of us chatted for a bit before we decided to make a pilgrimage to the Garden of Sweden. Of course, it was a bloody madhouse. But, we basked in the glory of “the land where the furniture folds to a much smaller size.” We ate lunch in the restaurant and then it was off to the races: I picked up the last two frames I need for my tourbooks and a couple of curtain rods for a banner I have been wanting to hang.

Four-Color Coverage

• Action Comics #854 – The secret’s out. (I’ll cover this more in the Countdown bullet.) Mr. Action, Superman and… Krypto take on the Kryptonite Man and Titano. And, young Jimmy Olsen asks his buddy if he can get a try-out for the JLA.
• Booster Gold #1 – When Booster Gold first appeared in the post-Crisis DCU, he was a definite sign of the times: A self-aggrandizing hero who was all about appearances and what he could do to earn a fast buck. Sure, he actually managed to pull off some actual heroics, but it was all about the glory game. Over the years, he managed to get into the Justice League… but was mainly written off as comic relief. Second-rate. “Crowd control.” (That last one will make more sense if you’ve seen the Justice League Unlimited episode, “The Greatest Story Never Told.” But, following the events of 52, Booster’s back and trying to do the right thing. Too bad that no one will ever know…
• The Brave and the Bold #6 – Batman, Green Lantern, Supergirl and Adam Strange face off against the Lords of Luck. The prize: The Book of Destiny. And time’s running out. No, time’s changing. So, the heroes call in some help. Maybe it will be enough.
• Countdown: 38 and 37 – Oracle vs. The Calculator. Zatanna and Mary Marvel vs. Deep Six. Robin vs. Mr. Action?! All of this plus: The reason that Karate Kid and Una broke into Oracle’s lair. And, as I said above: The secret’s out – Jimmy Olsen finds an astounding discovery about Clark Kent.
• Green Lantern #21 and #22 – The Sinestro Corps War rages on. Lanterns continue to fall before the onslaught of the newly-formed Sinestro Corps. And it looks as though many more will fall before the war’s end. Guardians Ganthet and Sayd recruit Hal Jordan to undertake a secret mission. He’s going to need help. Unfortunately, the Lost Lanterns – GLs whose rings Hal took (and whom he left for dead) when he was possessed by Parallax – still have axes to grind with Jordan, so it doesn’t look like he’s going to get much assistance from them. And just what is it that Hal Jordan fears? Plus, Hal takes on a Parallax-possessed Kyle Rayner. And, Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg-Superman, asks the Anti-Monitor for a boon.
• Justice League of America #12 – I actually bought two copies of this… so I could have both halves of the Alex Ross cover. This issue deals with two shadow figures watching the JLA as they deal with… “Monitor Duty.” The duo are voicing their opinions about the various members, what each brings – or could potentially bring – to the team. And they look at how those various elements, no matter in what combination, serve to make the team stronger than the sum of its parts.
• The New Avengers #33 – Welcome to another rousing round of “Are You a Skrull?!” The team, already under stress from the events and aftermath of Civil Bore War, shows how tightly wound they are as the lack of trust grows. And who’s that making shadowy deals with crime lords (and a lady)…?
• Superman/Batman #39 – Scarecrow. Desaad. Darkseid. And a brainwashed Superman. Yep, the Dark Knight has his hands full with this one. Very full.
• Ultimate X-Men #85 – Bishop’s all-new, all-proactive X-Men take on Sentinels. Jean’s talking to her imaginary friends again. Dazzler pulls a new trick out of her sleeve. And a couple of someones may be getting visitors from their pasts. While this book is still rather hit-or-miss, I’m intrigued enough by the new story to stick it out a little longer.

I should probably decide which brand of trouble I’d like to get into this evening.

Namaste.

Friday – 17 August 2007
Yesterday morning’s monkeydom was punctuated nicely by more simian antics on the way home. As much as I wish that I could say that they ended at the county line… I can’t. They carried on all the way until I got to 90th South. So many monkeys, so little ammunition.

I stopped in to see Perry and the kids for a bit. And rifle through his plastic crack collection. And stuff.

Reeling by on Celluloid: Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead
Satire.

Pronunciation:

\ˈsa-ˌtī(-ə)r\

Function:

noun

Etymology:

Middle French or Latin; Middle French, from Latin satura, satira, perhaps from (lanx) satura dish of mixed ingredients, from feminine of satur well-fed; akin to Latin satis enough — more at sad

Date:

1501

1 : a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn
2 : trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly

synonyms see: wit

I took an elective English class on Satire in 10th Grade, from a teacher of whom I was not fond. (Some of you may have heard the “mastication” story. Yeah, that guy.) In fact, I didn’t think that he was all that great of a teacher, but what do I know…? I mean, it’s not like I have any teachers in the family or anything. </sarcasm> If he spent as much time on curriculum as he spent on trying to look or “be” cool, he could have actually been a decent educator. But, we learn different things from all experiences.

Unfortunately, I didn’t learn much about satire from him.

But, I’m not here to talk about him.

Instead, I am going to talk about a couple of movies that I watched at the behest of Tyranist: Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright “get” satire. They also know where the fine line between “funny” and “absurdity” is… and they trample on it mercilessly.

Hot Fuzz tells the story of Nicholas Angel, a London police officer who was good at his job. Very good. Too good. And, as a reward for his performance, he was shipped off to a sleepy little town in the English countryside. Quaint. Quiet. Peaceful. And that’s when the real fun begins. On the surface, the movie seems little more than a funny buddy cop movie. To be honest, when I saw trailers for it, that’s exactly what I had taken for granted… and what eventually made me decide not to see it. I had decided that if I wanted a funny buddy cop movie, I would watch Beverly Hills Cop or Rush Hour. I did the movie a horrible disservice in brushing it aside in such a cavalier manner. It was funny, surprising and very well-written.

Shaun of the Dead is… well… a zombie movie. Whoops, I just said the “zed word.” Sorry. But, let’s face it: That’s what it is. And it’s funny. Beyond that, it is a buddy movie. And a movie about family – the one you’re born into and the one(s) you choose. And, it’s a movie about the sometimes too grey world in which we live – the one that we trudge through, day after day, moving forward as simple creatures of habit. And what happens when we wake up one morning to find that things have changed. Again, I was surprised to discover how sharp a movie it was. (Yeah, yeah… three years after pretty much everyone else figured it out, but I got there. Finally.)

I also made a comment to Tyranist about how Simon Pegg and Nick Frost – the male leads in both movies – in their own ways reminded me of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Not so much in their acting styles, but in the way that you can tell through the on-screen chemistry that you’re watching a couple of friends having a good time hanging out with each other… while there happens to be a camera recording the whole thing.

These movies may not necessarily be considered “family fare,” and they may not be everyone’s cup of tea (U.K. films… tea… Oh, Hell, if I have to do all the work for you, what’s the point?!) , but they are good pieces of entertainment. And, thanks to these movies, I will never listen to Queen or the phrase “By the power of Greyskull…” in the same way. Ever again.

I give both movies enthusiastic “thumbs up with an okay.”

Stray Toasters

• I’m still a bit jazzed about yesterday’s 275.
• : You need to click here.
• I still love this:
  
  … and there’s a (not small) part of me that thinks that it would be fun to actually do!
• Dungeons & Dragons 4^th Edition Announced
• Three words (well, one of them is a compound word): Black Cherry Kool-Aid.
• I’m not a fan of so-called “reality television.” That said, I watched Who Wants to Be a Superhero? while hanging out with Perry. Amusing, a little hokey, but… I have to admit it was fairly entertaining. And it had Stan Lee.
• Plain soap as effective as antibacterial but without the risk
• Tom Cruise… as Capt. Christopher Pike? *shudder*
• When I look at the first and fourth panels of this picture (possibly NSFW), I think that Pam Anderson might make an interesting Power Girl. (I dont know who Alex Ross uses as his model for P.G.)
• NASA has opted not to repair Endeavour‘s heat shield tiles. I hope this doesn’t turn into a total cock-up and come back to bite them in the ass.
• UCF physicist says Hollywood movies hurt students’ understanding of science

And off to work!

Namaste.

Thursday – 16 August 2007
Another day of bliss in Happy Valley.

Today’s big news: I tried a new max weight on bench press – 275 pounds.

I managed to do two reps at that weight. The first one was slow, but steady… the second one was wobbly. I tried 300 pounds. The operative word in that sentence is “tried.” The bar just hovered (BARELY) a couple of inches above my chest. I’ll get there someday.

But, I got the 275.
1.71 times my body weight.
And that is chock full of awesomeness.

That even makes up for the plethora of road monkeys that I had to deal with this morning.

The Best: Hungry Like the Wolf
Duran Duran (video) vs. Bruce Campbell (video)

Bruce Campbell. No contest.

The Scales of Justice
Last night found the Hand of Nefer-Tem in Paragon City, once again. I teamed up with members of my supergroup… kind of. Two of them were running characters who had “aged out” of the primary group and have since been moved to the senior group – kind of like graduating from the Teen Titans to the Justice League… or from the New Mutants to the X-Men. We were up against The Carnival of Shadows. There was much dying and resurrecting and/or hospital-going. But the experience, even despite the XP debt, was good; I’m roughly 60% of the way through Security Level 32.

Stray Toasters

• sent me a link to this. *blink blink* How she found it, I don’t know. WHY she found it, I do not know. What possessed someone to try this in the first place…? Let’s go for the hat trick: I don’t know that, either.
• TV’s Uhura joining Heroes
• Dolores O’Riodan: Life After The Cranberries
• 
• US schools ask 14-year-olds to declare a major
• Turtle cheesecake.
• Action Figure Modders
• From NPR: It’s Easy to Miss the Memo on Recalled Products
• SR-71. No, not this one (this time)… this one.
  

Namaste.

Stray Toasters

• The car looks great. was right about this place: They do good work. I dropped it off at 9:30 and it was done around 3:00. When I went to pick it up, Brian – the guy who worked on it – came out to say that he was “done,” but asked if I could possibly wait a bit because he wanted to try and remove some residue. I told him that was fine… and ten minutes later, I was on my way.
• We went on an away mission before lunch today.
  And I found a new toy/hobby shop.
  All in one stop.
• I talked with for a few minutes this afternoon. She seems well. Busy, but well.
• Too bad dark languages rarely survive.
• Steampunk monocycle on eBay
• And out of nowhere comes a craving for sushi.
• Covet!
• I’ve got the acumen of a seasoned pro
  I’ve got the legacy of a billion souls
• Wearing your anatomy on your skin: The Anatomy Tattoo Gallery
• 
  I’ve made no bones about how much I enjoy the Evil Inc. webcomic. I’ve suggested that many of you – okay… all of you – read it, too. A year-long story arc just wrapped and Brad Guigar, the webcomic’s is about to give new readers a jump-in point. From his blog:

  In a story arc that started the day Evil Atom was forced out of the company he single-handedly created, the new CEO of Evil Inc — a superHERO — has had to grapple with making the company profitable.
  
  Failure would cause the demise of the Legion of Justice — which invested heavily in Evil Inc.But success would, of course, mean aiding and abetting super-criminals.

  Last week ended with a mysterious explosion and this week began with an equally mysterious memorial service. The next nine days are not to be missed.

  If you’re not a regular reader of “Evil Inc,” there’s no better time to start. Jump in here — and buckle your seat belts.

• Atomic Madhouse (t-shirts)

Namaste.

Wednesday – 15 August 2007
Two down, three to go.

Last night, I met the group (formerly ?) known as Black & Tan for coffee with Sara, who’s in town for a few days. She’s, in her own words, “Fabulous.” And, it was nice to spend a few hours with the former Monday night (ir)regulars. Cocoa Caffe had been chosen as the venue, but their “summer hours” have them closing at 8:00 PM. Right. Instead, we wound up at Salt Lake Roasting Company. It was a good alternative.

Hours later, I came home and decided to go adventuring in Paragon City. I was invited to join a team that included at least three people with whom I’ve been on a team in the past few days. As I joined the team, I caught the very tail end of a conversation wherein someone was complaining that I teleport team members “too often without warning/asking.” Um… no. She was just “a bit” touchy because there was a bit of miscommunication between us – two days ago – on the one time that I ‘ported her before she was done selling items. Did I mention that this is a game?! No? Well, I’m Ivory Soap sure that you were pretty much able to deduce that on your own. *shrug* The sticks in some peoples’ asses…

Stray Toasters

• I found the rules to the ST:TNG Drinking Game while looking for some files last night. It amused me.
• Pasties and tassels and hammocks… Oh, my!
• I started watching Hot Fuzz, but I didn’t finish it. I will most likely do so this evening. Funny movie.
• They have remade 3:10 to Yuma. Hm.
• 
• Phil Rizzuto, Yankee Shortstop, Dies at 89 – Mr. Rizzuto had stopped playing ball LONG before I was born; but I think that I played a few games of Earl Weaver Baseball on my college roommate’s Amiga with “him” in the game. I do remember him as the pitch man for The Money Store, though.
• 
• I’ve exchanged a few emails with Matt Silady, the writer of The Homeless Channel. He seems rather personable. I will have to try to pick up the book this weekend.
• 3

Attack the day, like birds of prey…
(I just like the sound of that, in the sense of “Carpe Diem!”)

Namaste.

Tuesday – 14 August 2007
Last night, I had dinner with and Vikki at David’s Kitchen. Potstickers and Beef Lo Mein. Beef Lo Mein which I meant to bring to work today for lunch… but just realized that I left it in the fridge. *sigh* At least I know what I’m having for dinner.

This morning has seen an odd assortment of weird music-related items running through my head:

• I’ve had Tom Jones’ It’s Not Unusual randomly running through my head for a little while. Just the chorus, though.
• I was listening to 2112: Overture and Temples of Syrinx on the morning commute. I was, for some reason, reminded of how much I despised it the first time(s) that I heard it – 8th Grade carpool. First thing in the morning. VERY loud. Had I been using the term *grblsnrkx* back then, it would have been applied often. In fact, I couldn’t stand Rush from 1982 until late 1987, when a friend in my dorm actually asked me to sit down and actually listen to… of all things… 2112. *twitch* I agreed to do so. It took a few tries, but I got past my grade school loathing of the song and the band. The rest is history, as they say.
• I’ve been thinking about songs that are usually played back-to-back and just don’t sound “right” when not played together:
  • 2112: Overture and Temples of Syrinx
  • We Will Rock You / We Are the Champions
  • Eye Would Die 4 U / Baby, I’m a Star

  I’m sure that there are others, but these are the ones that keep sticking out in my mind.

• Puttin’ on the Ritz just popped into my head. The version by Taco… although when the chorus came up again, it was the one from Young Frankenstein.
• And now, something from a video game – which one I can’t seem to remember – just passed through.
• While playing CoH last night, I was on a bit of a Jim Croce kick. YouTube helped me get my fix, as I had, in a masterful stroke, left my iPod at work.

Other than that, it’s been a good day… not that I consider the aforementioned to be “bad” things.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
Life is an ongoing series of checks and balances:

• Check: My coworker who was diagnosed with the tumor has undergone surgery and is in recovery. He seems to be doing well… but will have to learn to walk again.
• Balance: I got a phone call yesterday saying that there’s been a death in my extended family. It was not entirely unexpected, but still something of a shock.

The Scales of Justice
The Hand of Nefer-Tem dispensed some justice in Brickstown last night. I joined a team for a few missions against The Council. Level 36 Council. Oh, boy. The team had a good balance and did pretty well. By the time the team disbanded, I was (only) 5,000 points from Security Level 32. Oh, so close…. so close….

I was preparing to log out when I was invited to join another team. The desire to level was strong, so I did. This was a smaller team, but it was well-constructed and we managed to run through a couple of missions with a fair amount of ease.

And, by the time I left that team, I had made it to Level 32 and a new power: Resuscitate.

Stray Toasters

• I cleaned up the links page on Random Access last night. While there may not be rhyme nor reason, there is order.
• The Subtle Pleasures of Building a Dungeon
• doot doot doot
• Time in a Bottle (video)
• For those of you who’ve been to Paris, does this hold true?
  
• Miniot’s Hand-Crafted iWood Cases
• By way of… I don’t remember whom: Mind-blowing magic
• A Softer World Laundry Day (t-shirts!)
• 
• 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Karl Rove

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Monday – 13 August 2007
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

This morning’s good intention was to get up (relatively) early and get a jump on the day. I reconsidered, however, when the alarm and iPod went off. Three-and-a-half hours of sleep is usually not bad… but having capped the night off with a tall glass of Merlot (and a Sam’s Summer Ale) made an extended stay in The Dreaming a very pleasant thing, indeed. And, I was still in the office at a decent time, so I’m good with having caught a few extra ZZZs this morning.

Last night, post-movie, I stopped by to see Kate, Perry and the kids. The kids crack me up. Pure, straight-up comedy.

Scales of Justice
When I got home, I decided to take a side-trip to Paragon City. As soon as I logged in, I was invited to join a team. No waiting. No muss, no fuss. I accepted.

Then, I noticed who was on the team: The same tank who got us killed (repeatedly) on Saturday. *grblsnrkx*

And, guess what…

The team mortality rate was fairly high. Until he quit the team. After that, no problems. Go figure.

And now, The Hand of Nefer-Tem is knocking on the door of Security Level 32.

Stray Toasters

• I had a corned beef sandwich for lunch. And you didn’t.
• Mike Wieringo Passes Away
• Merv Griffin dead at 82
  • It’s pretty well-known that Mr. Griffin created Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! What’s not quite as well-known is that he wrote the theme for Jeopardy!, the music that they play when contestants are considering their answers for “Final Jeopardy.” Most people refer to the song as “The Jeopardy! Theme” or even “Think Music;” but he originally wrote that song as a lullaby for his son, Anthony, and it was originally named “Time for Tony.”
• Beheaded snake sends man to hospital
• I received a friendly, neighborhood reminder about registering my copy of Eudora a few days ago. It actually made me laugh:
  

  Please register your copy of Eudora.

  Registration will enable us to provide you better service when you contact us for technical support and it comes with these benefits.

  — list of benefits —

  We’ll also erect a giant statue in your image on the front lawn of our corporate headquarters.* How cool is that? C’mon, register! It’s easy and it’ll stop this stupid box from popping up!

  *Giant statue offer void to Eudora users living on the planet.

• From the “Holy crap! Who’d’ve thought it was possible” file: Girl overdoses on espresso
• 
• There are a couple of articles floating around the Interweb that basically say “NASA considering repairs to gouge in shuttle heat shield.” *blink blink* Let’s look at the basic math and physics behind this:
  • The shuttle orbits Earth at a little over 17,000 mph (nearly 28,000 kph)
  • It re-enters the atmosphere at roughly Mach 25 (~ 5.3 miles per second or almost 9 kilometers per second).
  • The heat shield endures temperatures over 2700° F (1500° C).
  • The gouge in the heat shield is 3½” long and goes ALL THE WAY THROUGH the thermal shielding.

  “Considering?” Hi. I’m sorry… I’m thinking that Mr. Goodwrench better be well past the “considering” stage and on his way – tools in hand – to get the job done.

• I read this Real Life Comics strip… and immediately was reminded of this movie clip.
• Steampunk cloque

Namaste.

*EDIT:  Went back to correct the math on the re-entry speed.  It’s MUCH faster than I had originally posted.

Stardust

Based on the novel of the same name by Neil Gaiman, this is another story that comes under the heading of “modern fairy tale.”

The movie tells the story of Tristan Thorn and his quest to bring home a fallen star to win the heart and hand of his beloved.  I know that this is going to sound like a bit of a cop-out… but to tell you much more about the story beyond what I stated above would be telling too much.

I can say that the story – and the way that it was presented – was quite simply… magic.  The acting, the casting, the costuming, the sets and scenery… all of it… was great.  Charlie Cox did an excellent job of bringing Tristan to life.  Claire Danes was great as Yvaine, the fallen star.  Michelle Pfeiffer was delightful as the witch, Lamia.   And then there’s Robert DeNiro, with a little bit of what you expect… and a lot of what you never saw coming.

I will most likely see this again in the theatre… and will definitely be adding it to the DVD collection, when it is released.

All-in-all, I can’t recommend this movie enough.  Go see it.  Take friends.  Take family.

But most of all… enjoy.

Sunday – 12 August 2007
Quiet day around the ranch, so far. I should do some cleaning, but I’m just not feeling it. Which is all the more reason to just do it and get it over with. There’s not really that much that needs to be done. So, it’s not like it’s some daunting task. I do believe that this comes under the heading of: “I have caught a case of the Lazies.”

The Scales of Justice
Last night, I decided to do my part to fight crime in Paragon City. I logged on and discovered that most of the members of my supergroup were on, but were in the middle of a task force – a series of missions that usually take a few hours to run. The drawbacks to TFs are:

• You can’t “save” a TF – once you start it… you’re pretty much in it until it’s done.
• Once it has started, others can’t join the group.
• If you quit a TF, you don’t get credit for the portion you’ve run. That’s right: You get to do it ALL over again.

On the “plus” side, however, you typically earn a few goodies for the investment of time and effort.

However, I wanted to get in and play, so I looked for a team. I wound up having to start one. We were small, and ragtag, but we seemed like we had a good build.

If only that was true.

Our Tanker, the one who was supposed to keep the bad guys occupied so that we could beat on them from a relatively safe distance, embodied the philosophy of “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” I believe that he, singlehandedly, caused our party to die at least twice. *sigh* He quit shortly. Selah. I rebuilt the team.

Better.
Stronger.
Faster at kicking ass.

I got lucky and found one Hell of a good Defender for our healer; she stayed right on top of things and didn’t miss a beat. We also picked up a Scrapper, Blaster, and another (BETTER) Tanker. And we went through three missions like a hot knife through butter.

Stray Toasters

• There are about seventy-leven reasons that is one of my favorite people, but among the top reasons is because he sent me this little gem: Eddie Izzard – Death Star Canteen… in LEGO!
• “With a name like ‘Smuckers,’ it has to be good!”
• Impossible Mission. Ah, nostalgia.
• Prophet 60091…
• I found this design, from 2Warped.com, to be rather amusing:
  
• Jackie Cane
• , what do you make of this? v6?
• From Wizard World Chicago: Toys! Toys! Toys! (I still want one’a those John Stewart GLs from the DC Super Friends collection.)

Looks like has come up with a viable option for the afternoon: Catching a movie. Now, I just have to choose between The Bourne Ultimatum or Stardust.

Namaste.