Random Access

Wednesday (Coda)
Work was somewhat slow this morning.  Pretty laid back, in fact.  Around lunchtime, however, it decided to ramp up the pace.  This wasn’t a bad thing, though.  It was nice to have something to keep me moving.  Although… it did keep me from another project that I had intended to work on today.  So, that gets pushed back until tomorning.

called me and invited me to dinner.  Z Mandarin Buffet.  I can see why she and like it.  Otherwise, the evening has been fairly quiet.  I spent a portion of it helping to edit a friend’s (long overdue) paper.

Stray Toasters

• My thumbnail – smashed in a car door back in August – has almost completely regrown.  Thank God.  There’s still a pretty major depression/dent in the middle of the nail, but it seems to be moving towards the nail edge; I think that I will “outgrow” it, so to speak.  At the rate it’s going, the last bits of the old/dead nail should be gone within a week.
• sent me a link to this shirt on T-Shirt Hell.  It made me laugh aloud.
• Sib1 and .
  
• I just had part of the theme from For Your Eyes Only run through my head.  I can live with that.  I had Time of the Season running through there this afternoon; I caught myself whistling it at least three times.
• Parents’ Choice Toy-Buying Mistakes
• I first heard of Benny Hinn (1, 2) many years ago, by way of an aunt or one of my grandmothers… I think.  I haven’t found too many people out here who know who is.  But, those who do know thought that this video was hysterical.  Thanks to for posting a link to it.
• I showed the above video to a few coworkers.  That led to a comparative religion discussion… of sorts.  I discovered that one of the guys is not LDS, as I had thought; he’s Catholic.  So, I posed the question: “Why is it that you never see Pope Benedict and Emperor Palpatine in the same place at the same time?”  He didn’t have a good answer.  I explained my belief that they are the same person: Emperor Popetine.  He didn’t refute this.

  A few minutes later, John – another coworker – came over and told us a story about the late Howard W. Hunter, former President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  The Mormons.   (If you grew up in the 70s, I’m willing to bet you just heard “The Mormons” in the same voice that was used in the commercials back in the day…)  It seems as though Mr. Hunter, in the midst of giving a speech, leaned back… continued to lean… and proceeded to fall straight back.  Flat.  Boom.  He was helped back to his feet where, after composing himself, he continued his talk as if nothing had happened.  (Did I mention that he was in his 70s – possibly 80s – when this happened?  No?  Well, he was.)   I – and the other guys – was impressed by this feat of fortitude.  I declared him “The Iron Prophet.”

  Then it dawned on me that there had been a missed opportunity.

  The world would never get to see one of the most awesome religious battle since David and Goliath… Samson against the Philistines…  Moses and the Red Sea versus Pharoah’s army.

  The Sith Pope versus The Iron Prophet.

  Cage match in Vegas.  (C’mon… two of the world’s top religious figures in Sin City.  It would have just been… fitting.)  Best two out of three falls.  No holds barred.  It would have been amazing.

• : Given your affinity for fine watches, I think that you’ll appreciate this.
• Lucy Lawless may be providing the voice for Wonder Woman in an upcoming Justice League DVD.
• Diamond Select Toys and AFX present: Phoenix and Marvel Girl Mini-Busts
• 
  This is great… except that it runs counter to both the Freeman-Nimoy and the General Zod ’08 campaigns.

Namaste.

A little while ago, asked for my help to figure out how his domain host handles URL redirection. Being a dutiful brother-in-law, I started poking around to see what I could find. Along the way, I hit a 403 error, which means that the user has reached a forbidden portion of the site. That led to this:

[10:42] : Dear God….
[10:42] : I admit to being a fan of the Big Blue Boy Scout.
[10:42] : What can I say…?
[10:42] : I’m a comics kid.
[10:42] : I accept that.
[10:42] : I’m good with it, even.
[10:42] : But…
[10:43] : When it starts crossing over into other forms of geekery…?
[10:43] : *shrug*
[10:43] : ?
[10:43] : Remember the scene at the end of Superman: the Movie where he’s about to go back in time and Jor-El’s voice speaks to him and tells him that he can’t?
[10:44] : “It is forbidden to interfere in the course of human history….”
[10:44] : Well…
[10:44] : ya
[10:44] : Um…
[10:44] : While looking at things on your site, I hit a 403 error.
[10:44] : k…?
[10:45] : And that IMMEDIATELY translated in my head as:
[10:45] : “It is 403 to interfere in the course of human history….”
[10:45] : ok you need to get out more
[10:45] : Sad, I know.
[10:45] : *sigh*

Wednesday – 06 December 2006
Middle of the week and (so far) all’s well.  Of course, the day’s just beginning, so it could go either way.  But, for the sake of argument, let’s stay on the lighter side of things.

Last night was Robotech night with , Chris and .  We beat on bad guys and saved the townsfolk… at least for the time being.

Stray Toasters

• I found this amusing: Disappearing Civil Liberties Mug
• Blue skies and gentle landings to .
• : Could the UCBD use something like these barrier posts?  If nothing else, the traffic camera videos would be amusing.
• Nyx sent me a link to the Alien Loves Predator comic below.  Apparently, someone has been watching – or at least listening – to us on D&D nights…
  
• From Marvel Comics comes Astonishing X-Men Primer, highlighting Joss Whedon’s run on some of the most well-written X-title stories since Grant Morrison’s run on New X-Men.
• If In Doubt, Give It Boobs
• Random cameraphone picture time…
• I saw this ornament in a Restoration Hardware store and my first thought was: “Your name is Kal-El. You are the only survivor of the planet Krypton. Even though you’ve been raised as a human, you are not one of them.”
  
• Tommy, a coworker, has this bus-shaped Hershey’s tin in which he keeps some of his Magic: the Gathering cards.  Yes, it’s a Magic Bus.
  
• I found this sticker inside a locker at the gym.  The logo, which isn’t very clear in this picture, is for Fruit of the Loom.  Write your own punchline.
  
• Zoom.  Maybe it’s just me, but to call any cereal “Zoom” that says it is “Naturally High in Fiber” is overkill… not to mention redundant.  “Colon Blow” would have probably been the only other equally inane name they could have given it.  But, at least you know what you’re in for.
  

And with that, I’m up out.

Namaste.

(click picture for larger image)

8 LCDs. EIGHT! Can you imagine…?

< groove>

• Gwen Stefani – Hollaback Girl
• Ben Folds Five – Song for the Dumped
• Edie Brickell & New Bohemians – What I Am
• emmet swimming – Hey Jesse
• Babyface and Toni Braxton – Give You My Heart

< /groove>

How does your Tuesday sound?

Monday (Coda)
Not a bad start to the week. Work was good. In fact, it started with a very good conversation with a coworker. The rest of the day was… nominally busy. Not badly so, but enough to keep me occupied.

After work, I went to visit Kate, Perry and their kids. It was fun. I played with the kids for a bit and talked geek with Perry… while Kate mostly shook her head at us. When we headed downstairs to look at a few things in Perry’s gaming area, I noticed that he had some books… that looked a lot like books I used to own. Books that I had been considering replacing. I had completely spaced off the fact that I had loaned them to Perry with an open-ended return. *duhr* I was greatly relieved to learn that I wouldn’t have to replace them, as three of them are VERY hard to find.

I came home, fixed dinner and watched Heroes. Wow. Didn’t see a lot of that coming. “Curiouser and curiouser,” said little Alice… Yeah. And I’m going to have to wait six weeks (for the midseason hiatus) before we find out who’s doing what. *taps vein*

The Adventures of Indigo Bolt
Say it with me: “Security Level 47.”

Stray Toasters

• Today’s musical selection for the ride to and from A.F. was Private Times… and the Whole 9!, by Al B. Sure! I haven’t listed to this CD in a very long time. Not bad. It starts off with a nice R&B cover of Hotel California and segues into a series of slow songs before closing out the CD with a number up upbeat, danceable songs. It ends with a bass guitar mix of Hotel California and a lite piano jazz final song.
• 77 Design Gifts for under $77
• KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!
• This video is just… um… yeah. Check it out and see for yourself.
• By way of boingboing.net: Sun of Suns: novel of sky-pirates, awesome world-building
• “How do you stop an exploding man?”
• Trend Alert: Clear Wheels to Replace Spinners and Black Rims?
• Goo.
• Best Blogs of 2006 that You (Maybe) Aren’t Reading

Namaste.

made a comment in his most recent post…

That Justin Timberlake song keeps running through my head.

…that reminded me of something that I omitted from this morning’s post.

Last year, when City of Villains was released, they removed a number of hairstyles, including “Buzz,” which was a flattop fade. If you look at any of my Indigo Bolt pictures from July-November of last year (or any of my ‘Bolt user icons), you’ll see what I mean. I was messing around with Indi’s costume – including his face – and changed the hairstyle… not realizing that “Buzz” was no longer in the list. So, I was forced to find a style that worked nominally well. And, I have to say: Aside from “Afro” and “Bald,” there were not a lot of styles that look good on a Black character. At least, not in my opinion. So, I chose what I considered the least of all possible evils and went with “Combed Back,” which can be seen in any of the pictures since that time. Then, to make it consistent, I had to change the style on his civilian costume to. ‘Cause I’m a stickler like that.

Last night, while messing around with the character generator in City of Heroes, I clicked on the hair template to see what styles might look good on my new character. As I scrolled through the list, I crossed a style called “Ice.” Damn-and-a-half it it wasn’t the same flattop fade that I had originally used on ‘Bolt!

It pains me to admit that my immediate first thought was: They brought the sexy back!

I laughed – and shuddered – when I realized what had just gone through my mind.

After looking at a few other styles, I decided to go with a full (head-covering) mask for the new character.
Full mask as in “no hair visible.”
Go figure.

But, I can still go back and change Indi’s hair to the high-and-tight that he still has in all of his pre-City of Villains release pictures.

< boogie>

• Parliament – P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)
• David Bowie – Miracle Goodnight
• Poe (ft. Mark Danielewski) – Hey Pretty
• Aerosmith – Pink

< /boogie>

Somebody say, “Is there funk after death?”
I say, “Is Seven Up?”
Yeah, P-Funk!

Monday – 04 December 2006
Another week begins.

Sunday was pretty laid back.  I consider that a good way to spend the end of your weekend.  I slept in a bit.  I lounged a bit.   I went to coffee with Perry.  I introduced to Game Pedler and Greywhale and the art of shopping for used – I mean “previously owned” -  videogames.  I shopped for groceries.  I watched Without a Trace.  I spent way too much time checking out a build for a new character in City of Heroes.  I don’t have an origin story for him… yet… but I’ll get there, eventually.  And then, there is the concept for the other hero that I have in mind.  *sigh*

Stray Toasters

• I heard a (new) song last night called “No Fear of Falling,” by The Badlees.  I like this song.
• An interesting look at Dark City, by way of Mania.com
• TIE Fighter made of gingerbread.
• Pete Goldlust’s Carved Crayons.  Too much free time? Maybe… but these are cool to look at.
• I know who’s getting one of these for Christmas…
• The 12 Gizmos of Christmas

Time to make like the cast from The Wiz (the broadway play, not the movie…) and Ease on Down the Road.

Namaste.

Saturday – 02 December 2006
Another day in the valley.

Yesterday was good, for the most part.  Work went well.  The drive home wasn’t bad, either.  For a Friday.

Before heading to Clitorati, I stopped at CompUSAirways.  I needed a now mouse.  Okay, maybe I didn’t exactly “need” it, but I wanted one.  And I got one.  Then, I was off to coffee.  We had a decent turnout.  I also picked up Ray and Cool Hand Luke, for $7.99, each.  On to dinner.  Then home.  I wasn’t feeling exactly top-notch as dinner wound down; by the time I got home, I wasn’t feeling any better.  After an extended visit to the SanFac, I turned in.  Me… in bed… before 1:00 AM… on a Friday.  Go figure.

I slept in this morning.  When I made it out of bed, I simply lounged around the apartment.  I showered and got ready to do not much else for a bit.  A short while later, dropped by and invited me to join her for lunch.  I did.  We went to Hopper’s.  The food, as usual, was good… but the service was lacking – our waitress didn’t seem like she was fully in the game, so to speak.  And we weren’t the only ones to comment on it.  The ladies at the booth next to our table echoed our sentiments.

Leaving the restaurant, we made a stop at F.Y.E…. where I (finally) found a copy of Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin.  I’ve been looking for this, locally, for the past few weeks.  Next stop, Target.  I needed to get cards and gifts for a wedding later in the day.  From there, Circuit City.  I am now the owner of Superman II: The Richard Donner Edition and Superman Returns.
Home to change and get ready for the wedding.  More correctly: The wedding reception.  (This is still Utah, after all.)  I ran into a few people whom I haven’t seen in a long while and and arrived a short while later.

Earlier in the day, asked me if I wanted to catch a movie.  I picked her up and, after a jaunt home to change, we saw Stranger than Fiction.  Will Ferrell is growing on me.  He’s getting rid of the stigma that I had associated with him from most of his tenure on Saturday Night Live.  Slowly, but he’s getting there.

I bailed on breakfast, opting instead to spend a leisurely soak reading Dark Force Rising.

Namaste.

So far, it’s been a good day.  It took a little bit of an odd turn a few minutes ago, though…

I was in the server room, helping to rack some new servers.  I was attaching rails to one of the servers when I took note of the fact that the chorus from a song was running through my head.  Then I realized what song it was: Blame It on the Rain, by Milli Vanilli.  I was both amused and appalled by this.

In light of this (and because I saw Ms. ‘s post), I decided to formulate My Evil Planâ„¢

Your objective is simple: Become King

Your motive is a little bit more complex: Power

Stage One:

To begin your plan, you must first incapacitate a Queen. This will cause the world to sit up and take notice, stunned by your arrival. Who is this Criminal Mastermind? Where did they come from? And why do they look so good in Norman?

Stage Two:

Next, you will seize control of Crown Council. This will cause countless hordes of Knights to flock to you, begging to do your every bidding. Your name will become synonymous with Fear, as lesser men whisper your name in terror.

Stage Three:

Finally, you will Unleash your Armies of Destruction, bringing about the Destruction of the Masses. This will all be done from a neighboring Kingdom, an excellent choice if we might say. These three deeds will herald the end, and the citizens of this planet will have no choice but to elect you their new god.

Trust us, it’ll all come together in the end.

So it is written.  So shall it be done.

Thursday (Coda)
It turned out to be a good NBN Thursday.  Work went well.  The midday workout was good.  Wes agreed to do one of my workouts.  Instead of doing general exercises that cover a range of groups, my routines usually focus on one or two groups for the entire workout.  Today we did chest and biceps.  It was work.  But, it was good.

On the way to SLC, traffic was… varied.  From American “Fark” to Lehi (about three miles), traffic crawled along at an almost stop-and-go pace.  Apparently, there had been an accident.  Therefore, people had to rubberneck to see what had happened.  (: What does the UCBD have to say about accident and roadside incident rubberneckers?)  Things were fine again until I hit Point of the Mountain.  At that point there was a lot of brake-tapping.  *shrug*  Things were okay until I got onto I-80.  I was in the right-hand lane when I realized that there was a slow-moving truck ahead of me.  Just as I decided to change lanes to get around him, he decided to change lanes, too.  Yipee-ki-yay.  I got back into the right lane and passed him.

I stopped at Dr. Volt’s to get my weekly four-color fix.  As I was checking out, I noticed two things:

1. I had, once again, neglected to take my gift certificate.
2. There was a lone Alpha Male Stikfas figure for sale.
   

I added the Stikfas figure to my shwag, paid for my stuff and came home.  After sitting on my kiester for a bit, I cooked dinner and made a new batch of Chocolate Jolts.  This time, I tried to use more coffee.  And I went with a flavored coffee, at that – Vanilla Bean.  It will be interesting to see if the tastes compliment each other.  After dinner, I met online and we played a Titan game of Battlefield 2142.  I can see that I’m going to need a lot of practice with this game.  And a new mouse wouldn’t hurt, either.  I got by butt handed to me a few times, but I had fun.

Football Update
The Ravens and the Bengals played last night.  The Ravens were playing to clinch the AFC North Division.

And they lost.

Marvin Lewis and the boys from Cincinnati held the Ravens scoreless until late in the Fourth Quarter.  The Ravens are now 9-3 on the season, but they’re still on top of the division… although the Bengals aren’t too far behind.
Congrats, .

Stray Toasters

• I talked with the Matriarch as I was driving home.  All’s well there.
• Sterling Skull Cufflinks
• Lemming that I am…
  
  

• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Barbie doll set comes with plastic dog crap
• For Nox (and a few others): Do You Worship Chthlhu? card game
• I am nearing the end of Book Two of the Thrawn trilogy.  I’m rather enjoying this series.
• Volkswagen Redefines the Sled
• Starship Troopers 3 ?!?  *shiver*

And now, it’s time to get the job done like Big Daddy Kane.

Namaste.

< groove>

• Chuck Berry – Johnny B. Goode
• Jim Croce – Don’t Mess Around With Jim
• US3 – Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)

< /groove>

Thursday – 30 November 2006
Another Thursday begins.  Hopefully, it will conform to NBN standards.

Yesterday was, on the whole, a good day.  I had a few moments of irritation with a coworker.  He said something that bothered me a bit.  I expressed my concern; I think I got the point across.  It put something of a damper on the latter part of the day, but it wasn’t insurmountable.

The day ended hanging out with and watching last week’s CSI:.  The Who‘s Roger Daltrey was a guest star, as was Barbara Bain, whom I most remember from Space:1999.  Interesting episode and Mr. Daltrey’s performance was quite good.

Stray Toasters

• The Making of a LEGO Brick
• By way of : Video Game Evolution
• *grblesnrkx*
• nofrag.com had a Battlefield 2142 photoshopping contest.  You can see the entries here.  Two words: “Tyrannosaurus Rex.”  That’s all I’m sayin’.
• From Slashdot: History Proves that Videogame Ads Are Awful
• 
• Pillows that look like giant anti-depressant pills
• , you might be interested in this: Open Classical Music Repository
• From the upcoming Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer – First Look: Fantasticar Flows Onto Film
• 

Up out.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 28 November 2006
Last night, I nodded off at my desk.  This morning, I ignored the alarm (okay, I turned it off…) and slept in for an additional hour.

Work wasn’t too bad.  There was only one monkey-related issue… which I dealt with fairly easily.  The signs of a pending issue with the same monkey reared its head, but I managed to deftly sidestep it.  Other than that, the rest of the day was a piece of cake.

Tonight, after a month-long hiatus, saw the return of the Shadowrun game.  The team met their contact and got under way.  They met with an NPC who gave them a potential lead.  Extra kudos to for some rather inspired roleplaying.  Next time, we will see where their newfound information leads them.

Stray Toasters

• I downloaded and installed the new Battlefield 2142 patch.  I can now play the game online and not get summarily rejected when I try to connect to game servers.  Hallelujah.
• Snow.  Whoop-de-fuck.
• Easy Throw-away Email Addresses, by way of slashdot
• From CNet: Why Do All Our Gadgets Break?
• Cranberry-Apple Juice.
• Gallery of Monster Toys
• From the “Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting” file: Bruce Lee theme park coming to China
• , this had your name all over it: Using tape to repair plane wing
• This would be a good place to stop.

Namaste.