Random Access

Thursday
Today was good. Work was productive; so was the lunchtime workout. Today’s area of focus: Shoulders. I’m pretty sure that they’ll hate me in the morning, but it was worth it.

This morning, on the way to work, I stopped at Beans & Brews for a cup of frozen mocha goodness. As an added bonus, I got a pass to see Freedomland, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore. and I went to check it out. Very interesting movie, it was like an odd cross between… Flightplan and Do the Right Thing. It was an emotionally intense movie. I recommend it, but it is definitely not a movie to see if you’re looking for pick-me-up, feel good fare.

Stray Toasters

• Today was the first day with the new contact lenses. It was good. Quite good.
• The real origin of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
• 
  For those of you not in Utah, Gordon B. Hinkley is the President of the LDS Church and is also referred to as “The Prophet.”

• : Polly and the Pirates
• Considering that I received a phishing spam from “eBay,” this amused me:
• There was a trailer for The Da Vinci Code before Freedomland. It looked really good.
• : “Play! A Video Game Symphony” Concert Series

Namaste.

Wednesday
Three down and two to go.

All in all, it’s been a good day. There were new monkeys who joined the zoo today. Other than that, there wasn’t anything too out of the ordinary at work. In the words of Icehouse: N-n-n-nothing too serious.

On the way home, I picked up my brand-spankin’ new Passive Optical Enhancers. If all goes well, I’ll be glasses-free tomorning. Once I got home, I changed clothes and patrolled Paragon City for a bit.

Stray Toasters

• Bret called tonight. Just checking in… and making sure that I saw his team bring home the Lombardi trophy.
• showed me a site called JesusPets. I’m not sure which is more disturbing: The site or the fact that she found something online before I did.
• I was talking with couple of coworkers about the model train show that I went to a couple of weeks ago and mentioned an upcoming show. That reminded me of a monorail that someone built in his backyard. (See? Building a BattleMech in the backyard doesn’t sound so far-fetched now, does it?) That, in turn, reminded one of the coworkers about this monorail, which he used to ride when he was on his mission in Germany.
• If this is true, it will be interesting to see how it shakes out: Apple to take bite at Palm?
• By way of Wired: Sharper Image, Better Performance (And, on top of that, they just look cool.)*
• From North Sydney, Australia comes Patch Me Up, from Root Kit. (Warning: Geekery ahead.)
• Superman. Bizarro. Brainiac. Luthor. Game on.
• What happens when you introduce Richard Simmons into the Whose Line Is It Anyway? mix? This.
• Ethics…? Who needs ’em? –
• pointed me in the direction of this house. Make sure that you click on the “More Photos” and “Property Tour” links. Wow.
• Check out the art of David Michael Beck. (comic book-related stuff, mostly)

Namaste.

Tuesday : 07 February 2006
Today was a good day at work. The lunchtime workout was good, too. I maxed my bench press at 185 pounds. Granted, I only got three reps out of it, but it’s still more than my body weight. That makes me happy.

Tonight was Shadowrun game night. I think that I’m just about done with this arc. Once again, the group’s rather “creative” gameplay led to a couple of interesting situations. But, they did a good job of preparing for and executing their objective.

Stray Toasters

• I spoke with Adam again tonight. He makes me laugh. In a good way.
• Brain changes significantly after age 18, says Dartmouth research
• Apple has released a new iPod Nano and slashed the price of the Shuffle.
• A hero or a hooligan?
  Well, that part’s never clear
  Pride or shame, it’s all the same
  Who’s innocent or who’s to blame?
• 
• A Green Lantern’s ring is said to be the most powerful weapon in the (DC) universe.
  The Star Brand is said to be the most powerful weapon in the (Marvel ‘New’) universe.
  I wonder what would happen if they went head-to-head.

• Pirate Valentines
• Tora! Tora! Tora!
  I mean… “Torso! Torso! Torso!”

• After the game, let me add a few ‘Clix to a figure order that he was placing. I’ll soon be another step closer to completing my classic JLA set of figures. And, I’ll also (finally!) have a Captain America.
• [Ilya] Salkind Talks Superman Series (from the Superman: the Movie through Superman Returns)
• Screaming Yellow Zonkers!
• Charles Babbage + LEGO = something like this
• From What Would Tyler Durden Do? : Britney Spears is completely unfit
• I need to do more with my Wacom.

• What Force User Are You?   created with QuizFarm.com
  (Although my score (67%) was tied with Mace Windu; and I find it amusing that got Mace.)

Quote of the Day

: You really are trying to kill me…
I turn down the heater in the car
: I am freezing! I have been cold all day. And if you tell me “You should have taken your coat, I’ll kick you.”
I think this over
: You should have taken your coat.
: You can’t do that! When I threaten you, you can’t challenge me on it. Because if I don’t go through with it, it makes the threat so much less effective.”
: You should have taken your coat.
: *glare*
I stifle a comment
: What?!
: Nothing…
: No… what was it?!
:No, because if I tell you, you will kick me.
: I will not kick you.
: I was thinking, “It’s like talking to a brick wall.”
: *GASP* It is not! Do you know what the difference between talking to me and a brick wall is?
I wait…
: A brick wall will hear you. I mean… it won’t hear you!

I laughed for the next 20-something odd blocks as she tried to correct herself.

Monday : 06 February 2006
Today was a good start to the week. No fires to put out. No monkeys to punch. And it was a productive day.

Tonight was D&D night at ‘. We wrapped up this storyline, I think. We saved an outlying village, we stopped a raid and we killed spiders. And we set things on fire. Lots of things, lots of fire. And no one in the party died. All the way around, those are good things. Tomorrow night: Shadowrun.

Stray Toasters

• I got a call from Adam this evening. My cell signal dropped and I haven’t been able to catch up with him since then. I’ll try to get him tomorrow.
• I’m tired.
• Four words that I don’t think that I would have ever put together: “Hello Kitty Belt Sander”
• Ugh. I look so stupid. I hate this uniform. –
• 
  Growing up, I had a… fascination… with boomerangs. I’m pretty sure that it stemmed from a cartoon that I used to watch. But that’s not the point. My father would buy me boomerangs and take me to this baseball/football field across the street from where he lived and throw it with me.

  Fast forward a few years…

  I was living in NC and had… you guessed it… a boomerang.

  I had gotten nominally good at throwing it and having it return to roughly where I was. One afternoon, I was in the backyard, playing with my boomerang. I gave it a toss and watched it sail away from me. It spun around and it gained a little altitude while flying. I watched it make an arc as it got farther away. It curved back towards me. This was a good thing. It made me smile.

  Then I noticed something: Some quick mental math told me that its path would bring it “back” to me… somewhere above my head.

  Right where the kitchen window was.

  *PANIC*

  I watched as the boomerang spun its way back to me.
  And the house.
  And the window.

  I could just picture myself trying to explain to Mom what had happened.
  Not good.

  *PANIC*

  I watched it sail over my head and towards the house.

  It hit the house.
  About three feet away from the window.

  I don’t think that I had ever been so happy to miss a target. I might not have hit the broad side of a barn, but I was far too close to hitting that stupid window.

• This strip and this strip, both from Two Lumps, made me laugh.
• Meet Virginia Valentino Cthulhu
• As if killing spiders in tonight’s game wasn’t enough, I just killed one in here.
• Was it just me or were some/most of Sunday’s Super Bowl commercials really… lackluster? Yes, there were some that were funny and memorable, but on the whole, I wasn’t impressed. (And the GoDaddy.com commercial? Can you say,”Beating a dead horse,” boys and girls?)
• 
  (The punch line and the commentary.)

Quote of the Day
From Friday’s conversation with a coworker:

[09:29] : Do you know how many man-hours are being lost on your side of the wall right now?!?
[09:29] Eric: are they full men?
[09:30] : That’s a rather personal question.
[09:30] : …and one that I’d rather not investigate.

It’s early and I have to get up later.

Namaste.

<groove>
     The Rolling Stones – Sympathy for the Devil
     David Bowie – Looking for Lester
     Victor – Promise
</groove>

Get it started.

Sunday : 05 February 2006
<< Rewind <<
Yesterday was a “be lazy and sleep in” day. It was nice. came over and we headed to her grandparents’ house to see her father and brother off. While there, we watched the UConn-Indiana game. UConn won, thankfully. (Sorry, my inner Boilermaker’s favorite teams are Purdue… and whomever’s playing Indiana.) From there, it was on to get an eye exam. The doctor said that my eyes looked good and healthy; this was a good thing. I ordered a couple of boxes of Passive Optical Enhancers (colloquially referred to as “contact lenses”) and we were on our way.

Next stop: We dropped in to see Perry, Kate and the boys. Kate headed to work, Perry and I talked geek and played with the kids. Perry hooked me up with a custom ‘Clix of the Martian Manhunter, so I now have ‘Clix for the roster of the animated Justice League, before they went “Unlimited.” This makes my inner geek smile broadly. While in the neighborhood, we stopped at Colosimo’s and picked up bratwurst for Sunday’s Super Bowl party.

There were a few more party-related errands, a little down time and then it was on to breakfast. Small gathering, good times. We sat next to a large group whom we think was related to the Impact group that’s there from time to time. Someone in that group apparently ate something foul a few hours before because they kept letting go with a few rather raunchy “one-cheek sneaks.” Foul. Rank. Just plain “bad.”

> Play >
Woke up this morning. Armed myself with a frozen mocha and finished up some around-the-house pre-party cleaning. People came over. The grill was fired up. The beverages – leaded and unleaded – were poured. Life was good. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

Super Bowl XL
Pittsburgh vs. Seattle
21 – 10
Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Steelers on their win over the Seahawks. Yes, there were some botched calls in the game. Yes, there were some fouls that the refs didn’t catch. But, the bottom line is: The Steelers are the latest team to hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy as victors. And I bet that some of them are even going to Disneyland or Walt Disney World. And what happened to Mike Holmgren, the Seahawks’ head coach, after the game? Steelers coach Bill Cowher went to mid-field for the traditional post-game handshake… and Holmgren was nowhere to be seen? In fact, I believe that I saw Cowher ask: “Where’s Holmgren?” as he looked around; he seemed a bit disappointed that Holmgren wasn’t there. I don’t know if Holmgren’s non-appearance was intended as a snub to Bill Cowher (which I would hope was not the case) or a reaction to some of the calls made by the refs, but whatever the reason, it was just bad form to not even show up to congratulate the winning team.

Stray Toasters

• I talked with my uncle a couple of times this afternoon/evening. He’s a Steelers fan, so he was rather happy that they won.
• By way of BoingBoing.net: Fantasy Novel Title Generator
• The Temple of Gaiman – Part One
  The Temple of Gaiman – Part Two

• Not vanilla
• This article, The Effective Emailer, gives insight into constructing an email that will not only get read, but will most likely elicit a response.
• – Al Lewis, Beloved as ‘Grandpa Munster,’ Dies at 95
• LEGO + Cthulhu = this
• …and while we’re on the subject: Cthulhu Tales #1
• The more that I see about Marvel Animations’ Ultimate Avengers, the more I like.
• : You might want to check out the article that goes with this picture.
• HorrorClix Collectible Miniatures Game Announced
• From SciFi: Samuel L. Jackson talks Afro Samurai

Namaste.

Friday : 03 February 2006
Tonight’s post: Clitorati quotes

• Alyce: “I was trying to go behind, because it was the easiest way to get what I wanted.” ¹
• : “I would much more prefer the ramming down the throat…” ²
• : “I so want to mount you on my dash… I want to lick your ass and mount you on my dash.” ³

Namaste.

Original contexts of the quotes:
¹ – Trying to reach around (heh) someone to get a magazine
² – On (possibly) preferring the style of talk radio hosts – such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, etc. – who shout, scream and generally push their agendas onto their audiences to the quiet, somber tone of NPR
³ – I had just done some head movement that reminded of a bobble-head *sigh*

I decided to come in to work for a bit this morning, so I figured that I should have something decent to listen to…

<boogie>
     The Ohio Players – Fire
     DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince – Summertime (Wishful mid-winter thinking….)
     Big Daddy Kane – A Job Ain’t Nuthin’ But Work
     Queen – One Vision
     Duane Eddy and The Art of Noise – Peter Gunn
</boogie>

Loverboy sang Everybody’s Working for the Weekend.
I know what they meant.
And, I’m almost there.

Have a good one.

Thursday : 02 February 2006
Four days down… and I’m deciding whether or not to go in tomorrow. As of the time that I left today, I had 36.5 hours in; believe it or not, I’m actually torn about whether to go in or just take the remaining 3.5 hours as personal leave time. Decisions, decisions… Today’s workout was good. I put Coworker W through my shoulders and triceps workout routine. He held his own. I was proud of him. I was proud of myself, too: I did two reps of 225 pounds. Nearly 1½ times my weight. They weren’t necessarily pretty reps, but I got them done. When I got back to the office, I checked a couple of sites to get a rough idea of my BMI and body fat percentage. My BMI is 25.8, which is considered overweight. (Sorry, but if I weighed what that thing said I “should” weigh, I’d be nearly two-dimensional.) My body fat, depending on the source, is between 13 – 15%.

Post-work, I hung out with , her boys and her brother (in town for the weekend). We watched Ice Age – which I’d never seen all of the way through before – and a rather interesting episode of CSI. ( Your “Ice Age” post now makes much more sense.)

The High-Flying Adventures of Indigo Bolt and “Sparky,” the Ball Lightning Wonder
I decided to take in a quick patrol around parts of Paragon City. Talos Island seemed fairly quiet, so I headed to Independence Port. Shortly after I arrived, I was asked to join a group in Brickstown. I did. Just outside the train station, a trio of Sky Raiders decided that I would make a suitable target dummy. Some peoples’ children, I tell you… I boarded the train and met up with the team. We took on a group of Freakshow and Nemesis. All of whom were two, three or four levels above us. We all died once. But, we went back and mopped up the floor with those rejects from a science fiction B-movie.

Stray Toasters

• I need to get my eyes examined this weekend. While wearing my glasses has been a nice respite for my eyes, I’m getting tired of them.
• Thanks to for solving the TurboTax conundrum: They charge the “Refund Processing Fee” if you have them draft the e-file fee directly from your refund. If you charge the e-filing fees, you pay $24.95 to file your federal and state taxes. I still think that I’m going to mail mine in.
• 
• : Coming soon to a HeroClix collection near you… Colossal Boy (…or ‘Micro Lad,’ if you will).
• Dark Horse Announces Star Wars: Legacy
• By way of Slashdot: RIAA Sues Woman Who Has Never Used a Computer
• : Since you’re not going to be here for Clitorati, do I still have to do my crossword puzzle upside-down? While you’re thinking about that, Podcast of Amazing Randi’s science-skeptics conference with Penn Jillette.
• From the “Life Imitates Art” file… (kind of): Captain Jack Sparrow to Join the Audio-Animatronics Crew of Disney’s Pirates of the Carribbean Attraction
• Five Things Steve Jobs Has Misled Us About in the Last 30 Years

This is a good stopping point for the night.

Namaste.

Wednesday : 01 February 2006
Welcome to the first day of Black History Month.

Today was a grey, occasionally snowy day in the Salt Lake and Utah Valleys. Yay. It was another good and productive day at work.

Post-work was quiet. I had to skip tonight’s Cthulhu game. (Although, that should mean that my character managed to stay out of trouble… and not go potential right ’round the bend. Operative word: “Should.”) called and asked if I wanted to go out and get something to eat; I said “yes.” We went out to dinner and then watched Purple Rain. Gotta love Morris Day.

Stray Toasters

• I continued my downward spiral into gaming geekiness: I downloaded the manual for MechWarrior: Age of Destruction, so that I can compare the stats against those of HeroClix… and possibly set up a Battle Royale (with cheese) between a lance of Mechs and some of Marvel and DC’s finest. Of course, I could just put the Mechs up against Phoenix and Darkseid and let God sort out the rest.
• When you’ve hacked just about everything else, why not h4x0rs Scrabble?
• As a follow-up to Tuesday’s post: It seems as though I can do one-handed push-ups. Not many, but I can always work on that.
• : “Corn topper?” Do I even want to ask…?
• Hm. Speaking of Phoenix and Darkseid, I just realized that I might have all of the ‘Clix to represent everyone from the Teen Titans/X-Men crossover from the mid-80s. I’d have to look at the lineups from the books to be sure.
• Jungle love… Yes!
  O-E-O-E-O!

• The new Honda Accord ADAS can drive itself.
• From ABC News: Civil Rights Movement Losing Icons, Focus
• 
• : I don’t know if you got yours when we first talked about this, but it seems as though LEGO is bringing back the Classic Creator Watch.
• “…uh-oh.”
  

• Oldest remains of the African slaves brought to the New World found in Mexico
• I don’t recall the source, but I thought that this was very interesting:
  

  Composing legend John Williams seemed a little staggered by the fact that he is now second only to Walt Disney in total Oscar nominations. Disney received 59 in his lifetime, while Williams’ two nominations this year bring his tally to 45. “That’s amazing,” Williams said, “and he had a whole studio behind him. … It’s a hard reality to really comprehend.” With his scores for Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” and Rob Marshall’s “Memoirs of a Geisha” going head-to-head, Williams chooses to espouse no favorite. “You have all of your children — aspects about each one you admire and things you wish you could improve,” he said. “I’m proud of both of them.”

• : The full-color cover to Storm #1
• Everybody Wang Chung tonight…
• I went back and checked TurboTax to see if I had mistakenly clicked on something that would expedite my refund and, thus, incur the additional “Refund Processing Fee.” I didn’t. The bastards want $54 and change for you to e-file, if you buy the boxed version of the software.

Namaste.

I just found a sour apple Blow Pop in my desk drawer.

That just happens to be my favorite flavor of Blow Pop.

It made me smile… just before I unwrapped it and put it in my mouth.

Now, I’m smiling on the inside.

Tuesday : 31 January 2006
Overall, today was a rather good – and productive – day. We like those. We like them a lot, in fact. This afternoon’s workou was good, too. Near the beginning of my workout, an older woman (in her 50s or 60s) asked me if I could do one-armed push-ups. She had been watching me do dips and leg raises on the Roman chair and said that I looked strong enough to do them. I smiled, thanked her and told her that I should probably try doing them at home first, so that I didn’t fall on my face and embarrass myself in front of everyone at the gym. She laughed at that. But, her comment was a definite ego boost.

After work, I came home and had a difficult time deciding what I wanted for dinner. After due deliberation, I came to a decision: I wanted to cook out. And I did. If any of my neighbors were looking out their windows, I’m sure that they wondered what in the Nine Hells had possessed me to take out the grill in 30-something degree weather. Oh, well. I did… and I liked it! And the steaks were good; I overcooked them a bit, but they were still damned tasty.

I helped with a travel-related problem. Yay for the Interweb and damn IVRs (Interactive Voice Recordings). I showed her how to get around the IVR on Delta Airlines’ telephone system.

Wednesday marks the beginning of Black History Month. I’ll refer you to the “Random Access” section of this post for my thoughts on what you can do to learn more about it.

Stray Toasters

• Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., died today. She was 78.
• Evolution of Controllers – from the Atari 2600 to the Nintendo Revulotion
• I sent a link to this video to . He trumped me with this one (NSFW…)
• Putting Star Wars to the MythBusters Test
• From MAKE: Blog – Make Spaceships from Aspirin Bottles and Toilet Items
• Horrorwood
• Black sf writers and white sf
• : By way of Cinescape, Directors Who Matter – George A. Romero
• And in the “Could We Have Waited Any Longer” file: Henson Reignites Dark Crystal

Quote of the Day
From a conversation with :

[12:42] : Hoi, chummer.
[12:43] : i never understood why “chum” meant friend
[12:43] : but hi
[12:43] : “chum” = “bait
[12:43] : yes which is why i don’t understand
[12:43] : “chum” = “bait” = “If we get fucked over, you do know that I can outrun you, don’t you?”
[12:44] : lol are you pulling this out your backside?
[12:44] : *nod*
[12:44] : ah ok. hope it’s not too painful
[12:45] : High-fiber diet and a good laxative. That’s all I’m sayin’.

Namaste.

<groove>
     Rush – Limelight
     Jimi Hendrix – Fire
     emmet swimming – Never Crawl
     Duran Duran – A View to a Kill
     Jim Croce – Don’t Mess Around with Jim
     Kool & the Gang – Get Down on It
     The Time – Skillet
</groove>

This musical bliss was followed by a figurative small fire that I had to put out. *sigh* No rest for the wicked…

How’s your Tuesday shaping up?

Monday : 30 January 2006
Neither “Manic” nor a “Rainy Day,” so I’ll give the day a passing grade.

The work portion of the day went without incident.

The non-work portion of the day was quiet and restful. For the most part.

I decided to buckle down and do my taxes. And I did. Thanks to TurboTax, I was done in something between fifteen and twenty minutes. Then came the aggravation. I decided to e-file my returns. That’s when TurboTax informed me that it would cost me $29.90 to e-file and an additional $24.95 for – get this – the “refund processing fee.”

*braincramp*It was at this point that I informed TurboTax that it could go and do a biologically-impossible rudeness to itself. Many times over. (Oddly enough, it didn’t reply to that imperative.) I clicked back a few pages and printed my returns. I don’t mind kicking out 78¢ to mail the return, but $54.95 to e-file? In the words of LL Cool J: “No man, I don’t think so.”

After that, I headed out to get a bite to eat and to visit . I introduced her to the world of 24; she seemed to enjoy it.

And now, it’s snowing. Again.

Stray Toasters

• I spoke with my father for a bit tonight. All’s well with that side of the family, it seems.
• Blue skies and gentle landings to .
• sent me a link to this, which is pretty neat.
• From the “Having a Bad Day” file: Museum visitor trips, breaks Chinese vases
• Introducing “AirTroductions”
• “Press any key to continue.” –
• Do you use Winamp? You’ll want to look at this article about a critical flaw.
• Moonstone Comics and the 70^th Anniversary of The Phantom
• The first panel of this is for . May God have mercy on my soul.
• From SciFi Wire: Potter V Casting Revealed
• The art of Laurenn McCubbin
• Mr. & Mrs. Smith was a fun movie. But why was a version of it picked up as a pilot for television series?!
• The Strong Bad email on Technology made me laugh.

  Quote of the Day
  Today’s gem comes from a conversation I had with :

  [16:38] : Hola.
  [16:39] : Is it a “bad” thing that I was sitting here, about to tell a friend about a possible Hallowe’en costume, and had the thought: “I did tell you that I work in Mormonopolis, didn’t I?”
  [16:41] : No. Not at all. You are in the depths of Mormonopolis.
  [16:41] : Oh, okay. Good.
  [16:42] : You’re so far behind the Zion Curtain that it’s like you’re way back in the kitchen and you can’t even see the front room from there, let alone the curtain.

  And with that…

  Namaste.

<groove>
     Boyz II Men – Motownphilly
</groove>

<edit>
…which was followed, much later, by…
Was (not Was) – Walk the Dinosaur
</edit>