Random Access

Sunday : 18 December 05
The day started with brunch. and I met and at Ruth’s Diner. We were joined later by Mrs. .

and I then headed off to round out our Christmas shopping. There were lots of people milling to and fro in the snow. And there were even more of them in the shopping centers and malls. But… we finished up with the shopping. And life was good.

I headed to ‘s to watch the Atlanta Falcons take on Da’ Bears. The first have was a sleeper. In the Third Quarter, the Bears broke off a little somethin’ on the Falcons and held on for a 16-3 lead. I know that people talk about the “Madden Curse,” but it’s been (at least) two years since Michael Vick was on the cover of the game – he should have been a little more effective than he was tonight.

Sometime during the night, Mother Nature looked down on the valley and decided that we needed snow. Welcome to the eight months of Utah Winter… Driving home was slow. The fact that I needed to stop at the grocery store didn’t help speed me along, either. But, I made it without incident. Hopefully, by the time that we leave in the morning, the streets will be nicely scraped and salted.

Stray Toasters

• I spoke with both parental units today. All is well in their respective parts of the East Coast.
• “Live Wire”, by way of
• I have remembered another thing that was on the “Never” list: “I’ll never use Windows XP.” Work shot that to Hell back in March. But, I am not using it at home. Yet.
• 
• “Okay, I think we’re ready.”
  

• Until a week or so ago, I did not know that Blinded By the Light, most often attributed to Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, was written – and first performed – by Bruce Springsteen.
  

  The chorus of the song features the commonly misunderstood lyric,“Blinded by the light, cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night.” (“Deuce” refers to a ’32 Ford Deuce Coupe.) Manfred Mann changed this line slightly (as “revved up like a deuce”) and repeated it much more frequently in their version than Springsteen did in the original; they also omitted parts of the verses and rearranged the order of the remaining lyrics.
  -Wikipedia entry

• From Slashdot: The History of Videogame Lawsuits
• It’s no secret that I’m eagerly awaiting Superman Returns.
  It’s also no secret that I think that “the powers-that-be” in Hollywood have… morals (?)… that change direction more than Pac-Man being chased into a corner by four ghosts.
  Then I read this.
  You have to be kidding me…

• Disabled Fans Shut Out of Star Wars Galaxies
• I came close to ordering some plastic crack today. Very close, indeed.
• “Words fail me.” –
• The upcoming issue of Wizard has a 28-page preview of the aforementioned Superman Returns. It hits the stands on Wednesday. (Mental Note: I must remember to pick up my comics before heading out of town.)
• “Dammit! You can’t crash now! I didn’t save!” (Dedicated to and .)
  

To sleep, perchance to… something or other.

Namaste.

Saturday : 17 December 05
It’s been a good – and productive – day.

I had lunch with and . Good food and good company. After that, it was off to Dr. Volt’s to pick up my four-color print goodness. I also picked up three Heroclix:

• Magma (one of the second wave of the New Mutants)
• Quicksilver and
• War Machine

Then, it was time to get some Christmas shopping taken care of. And, I got a good portion of it wrapped up in fairly short order. There are still a couple of loose ends to tie up, but I’m pretty much set at this point.

For the big finale: My reservations for flying home are set. I leave Saturday morning, bright and early. I was able to get a flight into Greensboro for a decent fare; I was floored by that. And, I’ll be there in plenty of time to go to Midnight Mass with my uncle.

Stray Toasters

• Since it moved to Sunday nights, I’ve been missing The West Wing. I was shocked to find out that John Spencer, who played Leo McGarry, died of a heart attack. I have been a fan of his since he was on L.A. Law.
• Don’t call it a comeback, I been here for years!
• I need a new calendar. I don’t know what I want to get, though: Planes, trains or something comic book-related.
• From Real Tech News: Ultimate Rant: Why Macs Suck

Quote of the Day
Tonight’s gem comes from Melody, manager of the Village Inn that we frequent; she was talking to Patrick:

“I’m going to have to move your sack of goodness!

She was referring to a bag of Christmas goodies that he had sitting next to him. But, it’s more amusing to add it to the Overheard Unintentional Porn list.

Namaste.

Friday : 16 December 05
Work wasn’t bad and the day moved along rather nicely. I followed up with one of the Team Leads about yesterday’s meeting. He hadn’t talked with his group at that point, but a short while later, an email appeared in my inbox: It informed that team’s members of the procedure changes that I discussed. It made me quite happy.

Clitorati was small and relatively quiet. I think that I broke – or at least severely bent – . It was pretty funny. The look on her face was priceless, if only someone would have had a camera at the ready.

Stray Toasters
I’ll hold off on these until tomorrow.

Quote of the Day

(08:06:00) : Mornin’
(08:06:03) : How goes?
(08:06:17) : i would like to stab people 🙂

Namaste.

<groove>
     Johnny Kemp – Just Got Paid
     Fatboy Slim- Weapon of Choice
     Harold Faltermeyer – Axel F
     Janet Jackson – Control
     Harry Belafonte – Jump in Line (Shake Shake Senora)
</groove>

Y’know… this isn’t a bad way to start a Friday.

How’s your morning playlist treating you?

Thursday : 15 December 05
Today was a good day… and not just because it was “No Bad News Thursday.”

This morning, I called a meeting with all of the Team Leads in the office. (Yeah, I called a meeting… go figure!) I needed to establish some sort of protocol to handle dealing with the needs of everyone in the place while still dealing with my day-to-day job. They seemed rather receptive and amenable to my ideas. That’s cool – plain and simple. The rest of the day proceeded apace. I got in a good workout; I’m fully expecting my shoulders to protest in the morning. The rest of the work day was busy, but not too bad.

I received an IM from my friend, Cecilie, asking if I had any dinner plans. I didn’t, so we met for dinner at Grecian Gardens. The food was good. There was even a belly dancer. She was pretty good and it showed that she was enjoying herself.

A little later, I was off to visit . We talked about games, work, and anything else that came to mind.

Stray Toasters

• “Dinosaur! RRRRR!”
• First, there was Kenya.   Now… HOLY CRAP. SANTA! TOURS
• Tom Cruise… Sith Lord? I’m not saying it’s true, but you can judge for yourself.
• : You might want to check out this post from
• Where’s Waldo?
  Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?
  I just realized that you never see those two together. Either they are dating… or they are the same person.

• : Newsarama has more info about Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes #16.
• One of my coworkers sent me a link to The System Administrator Song. It was uncanny how dead-on it was to aspects of my job.
• has once again proved how evil she is by showing me this. And it plays the song, too. I must possess it.
• Attention Span – How short can it go?
• : You might be interested in this article, forwarded to me by .
• The Wild Wild West (when I roll into the)
  The Wild Wild West (when I stroll into the)
  The Wild Wild West (when I bounce into the)
  The Wild Wild West…

• From Buzzscope: Battleground Showcase #3: Batman vs. Mr. Potato Head
• Peas. Pod. Pot. Kettle.
• How can anyone not like The Monkey Song from Animaniacs?
• John Constantine – the way he was meant to be
• : Click here
• What on earth… did you get into the spiked eggnog?”
  

• may disown – or unfriend or something – me for this, but: Warren Zevon’s cover of Raspberry Beret does nothing for me.

Quote of the Day

[00:31] Bill: whats up Mr. Black ?
[00:32] Bill: or is it Commisioner Black?
[00:32] : Pope Groovalicious the Chocolate, actually.
[00:32] Bill: lol
[00:32] Bill: that is badass
[00:32] : *nod*

It’s about forty-five minutes past when I had planned on being in bed. Time to rectify that.

Namaste.

<groove>
     Rockapella – Indiana
     Sting – We’ll Be Together
     Will Smith – Switch
     Atomic Kitten vs. Geri Halliwell- Ladies Night
     Kool & the Gang- Jungle Boogie
</groove>

What’ve you got?

Wednesday : 14 December 05
Today was a good day. The work day progressed nicely. There weren’t any fires to put out. (I didn’t start any, either.) A few things that I had requested around Thanksgiving finally showed up. That was good as it allowed me to be productive. And it was then that I realized that there were still a few things that hadn’t showed up. And may not show up this week, either. That means that I’ll have to be… “creative;” not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing, mind you.

Tonight’s been fairly quiet. I hung out with the cats… watched Invader Zim on NickToons… cooked dinner (it was ready just as got home from work). After that, I hung out with for while. And now, I’m here.

Here I stand (here I stand..)
Look around around around around
(Around around around around..)
But you won’t see me (you won’t see me..)
Now I’m here (now I’m here..)
Now I’m there (now I’m there..)

And now, I’m giving some serious thought to a hot shower (maybe even a shave) and calling it a night.

Stray Toasters

• I actually picked up a pencil and paper and started working on (re)building my comic book – and any other media – database. I didn’t have the hard copies of the ColdFusion code that I wrote last year, at the time. I need to look at it and get some ideas of how to reparse it into a non-ColdFusion format, preferably PHP with some flavor of SQL on the server side.
• forwarded this to me. Visually work-safe, but the language goes straight to “sailor” about halfway through.
• – This I Believe: Live Your Life So That You Will Have No Regrets
• The Anatomy of Web Fonts
• “The tree’s gonna EXPLODE!”
  

• I had thought that I had lost a book that was given to me as a gift. Turns out that it was exactly where I had set it down. Imagine that.
• Alcohol Tester Makes Sure You’re Not Getting Watered-Down Drinks
• If Captain America looks worried, you know – with no doubt – that’s about to hit the fan.
  At very high speed.
  And with wide dispersal.

• More “Unintentional Porn Overheard at Work”:
  

  A coworker was trying to describe the color of a recliner that he has. I figured that the easiest way would be to use an HTML color guide as a visual aid. It kind of worked. Then, he noticed some of the descriptors that the site’s creator had given to some of the colors…
  Coworker 1: “Dark Hard Pink. That just sounds like a bad movie.”

  Another coworker was talking about a piece of equipment that wasn’t being recognized by his computer, so he had to unplug and replug it to get it to work properly…
  Coworker 2: “Sometimes it just has to be taken out and stuck back in.”

• Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach – Sign up for beta testing.
• 
  

• Once upon a time, a junkman had a dream…
  “I’m gonna build a spaceship, go to the moon, salvage all the junk that’s up there, bring it back and sell it.”
  So he put together a team. An ex-astronaut…a fuel expert…they built a rocketship…
  And they went to the moon. Who knows what they’ll do next?¹
  Along those lines: Virgin Galactic Spaceport to be built in New Mexico

• Costumes for Hallowe’en: Good.
  Costumes for your pet: *ehn* If that’s your thing, go with it.
  Costumes for your Roomba? Umm… yeah.

• His assets frozen….
  The venue chosen:
  It’s the ends of the earth!
  WHEEEEEE!
  So long, ex-Prince Ali…..!!!

• I probably shouldn’t be as amused by these as I am, but… oh, well: Voodoo Toothpick Holder and Voodoo Knife Rack
• Can you say “Tholian web,” boys and girls?
• “I just miss my partner in crime, I guess.”
  “Don’t be so melodramatic.”
  

• That’s gonna leave a mark.
• : Cover to Storm #2
• All Things Considered – Widening the Internet Highway to Rural America

Namaste.

¹ – Salvage 1: I remember watching this for the roughly half-season that it was on. What I had forgotten was that Richard Jaeckal was on the show; he went on to play Lt. Martin Quirk on ABC’s Spenser: For Hire. (And my affinity for that show – and the books that spawned it – is well-known and documented.)

<boogie>
     Billy Ocean – Get Out of My Dreams (Get Into My Car)
     The Bangles – Hazy Shade of Winter
     Barenaked Ladies – Brian Wilson
     Ben Folds – Rockin’ the Suburbs
</boogie>
Looks like Winamp is going with an “Attack of the Killer B’s” sort of “playlist” this morning.

How’s your media player treating you?

Tuesday : 13 December 05
For a work day that only lasted eight-and-a-half hours, time seemed to take its time passing today. That didn’t exactly help to improve my mood. Fortunately, I had the virtual “company” of a few good friends to help make the minutes move along a little faster. Going to the gym at lunch didn’t hurt, either.

A few of you know why I was in a poor mood this morning. For those of you who don’t: Jess () and I broke up last night. We had been talking about it for a few weeks, but last night… it happened. As it stands, we’re both doing all right. We’re staying in the house. And the really important part: We’re still friends. Thanks again to those of you who sent various well-wishes to the two of us over the course of the day – they were greatly appreciated.

This evening has been fairly quiet. I called off tonight’s Shadowrun game; I’m not sure if I’ll try to squeeze in a session next week or just wait until after the holidays. Instead, and I went to Hopper’s for a bite to eat and sixteen-ounce curls. I hadn’t tried their Madame X Nitro Stout before; it was one of the most smooth beers that I have ever had the pleasure of imbibing. It’s a new favorite, in fact.

Stray Toasters

• I received a call from the father-unit tonight. No real reason; just to say “hi.” That was cool.
• knows and understands my… like (?)… affinity (?)…. no… obsession (!) with . She is also evil: Today, she sent me an email entitled “Become a card carrying member of IKEA.” The email contains a link which takes you to a page where you can sign up for…Something like that in my hands would be akin to giving a pyromaniac a 55-gallon barrel of gasoline, a box of matches and telling him “Go play!” Bad things… Bad things… But, oh the fun I could have…
• Mythos. The first three pages… Wow.
• : I know that he’s your boy and all, but someone needs to go on a Bat-diet with the quickness!
• : This and from DC Comics’ Secret Files: Catwoman
• Snoopy vs. the Red Baron – the video game
• “A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty “Hi-yo Silver” – The Lone Ranger!”
• This afternoon, sent me this link. Umm…
• 
  

  “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.”
  “How long has it been since your last confession?”
  “Um… well… never. I’m Baptist, we don’t usually do the whole confession thing. But this is a special case. Even more so than me liking Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett’s It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere.”
  “That’s okay, my son. It’s a catchy song. And, as you said: It has Jimmy Buffett.”
  *silence*
  *ahem* “Yes. So then… what is it that you wish to confess?”
  “I was watching Gilmore Girls the other day…”
  “I’m sorry… did you just say ‘Gilmore Girls?’ ”
  “Yes, sir.”
  “I…see. Oh. I’m sorry. Please continue.”
  “Well, I was watching it and there was a scene with a house party. And… *sigh*… I looked at one of the actors and almost immediately recognized him as Brandon Routh.”
  “And he would be…?”
  “The new Superman.”
  “I see. And you picked him out of the crowd?”
  “Not exactly. He was in the foreground. But it only took me a second or two to figure out who he was.”
  “And you’re sure that it was him?”
  “Better than Ivory Soap sure.”
  “Excuse me?”
  “Ivory Soap. 99.44% pure.”
  “Ah. Yes. Please continue.”
  “I checked on IMDb to make sure. And there it was in his bio: Big as day and twice as bright.”
  “I see. So, what exactly is the sin that you wish to confess?”
  “Um…. that whole “watching the Gilmore Girls” thing. I don’t think that I can live with the guilt.”
  *chuckle* “My son. There’s is nothing… inherently sinful about watching that show. I have heard a few of my parishioners talking about how much they enjoy it.”
  “But.. I mean…”
  “Honestly. It’s all right. But, if it makes you feel any better: Say ten ‘Hail Marys’ and donate at least an hour of your weekend to help a neighbor. Oh… and you may not want to let the guys at the gym know about this, either.”
  “Thank you, Father.” *genuflects*

  I think that I have not only seen, but read, this comic.

  All-Star Batman and Robin Statue Start savin’ your pennies, Ms. ‘Lightning.

  I had to inform a (relatively) new coworker of Celine Dion’s sole purpose in life. Until today, he wasn’t aware that she even had a purpose. Then, I discovered that yet another coworker didn’t know that she had brokered a deal with Chrysler and Caesar’s Palace… after her “retirement.”

  : Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #16

  : You were the first person I thought of when I saw this.

  Micro Rail Gun – Need I really say more?

Namaste.

Monday : 12 December 05

To be continued…

Namaste.

Sunday : 11 December 05
I slept in today – I didn’t get up until nearly 11:30. It was divine. I didn’t even watch any of the early games. Instead, I patrolled Paragon City. After a while, I headed to ‘s to watch the Ravens game.

Football Update

Baltimore at Denver
10- 12
The boys from Charm City flew into the Mile High City to take on Mike Shanahan’s Broncos. It wasn’t a pretty game, by any stretch of the imagination. Neither was the final score. I’m going to put a lot of the blame for today’s loss on Kyle Boller. While he’s shown some promise and maturity over the past couple of games, today… he just couldn’t seem to pull it together. He was too erratic. At times, he looked like a poised, seasoned NFL quarterback; other times, he looked like a panicky rookie. He turned the ball over three times – two poorly thrown interceptions and a fumble. In other football news: – The Colts are now 13 – 0. – The Bengals beat the Browns. ‘Grats, … sorry !

The High-Flying Adventures of Indigo Bolt
This morning, I went on a couple of missions, fighting Tuatha de Danaan, in Croatoa. I found an old partner of mine – along with a couple of other heroes – and we ventured into the sewers below Salamanca. There were a lot of Tuatha to be dealt with. And they weren’t exactly in the mood to move along quietly. So, a lot of fighting ensued. We finished the mission and were then asked to rescue hostages from an office building that had been overrun by Fir Bolg and Tuatha. (Sidenote: If you see a… pack/herd/whatever of Tuatha running in the direction of the Fir Bolg that you are currently fighting, get out of the way quickly.) We rescued the hostages and cleared the building of the Fir Bolg and Tuatha.

Stray Toasters

• As of last night, I’ve been wearing a pink (“It’s like red, but not quite…”) breast cancer awareness bracelet in support of a friend.
• I may have to remove the word “never” from my general vocabulary, at least when referring to things that I do not think that I would do. When companies started making plastic bracelets to signify any and everything, I said that I would never wear one. But, here I am wearing one. And a pink one, at that.

  Just like I said that I would never move to (someplace like) Utah.
  Or that I would never shave my head.

  Yeah… I think that I need to put “never” on a “Special Use Only” list.

• Youths reveal racy Bible calendar
• From PingMag – The Website Development Process (done with mini-figures)
• Grey.
• Coca-Cola Blak
• “Welcome to Apokolips, Mister Mannheim.”
  “Who are you?!”
  “Your new lord and master. You may call me… Darkseid.”

• Gamers are better at multitasking
• From Buzzscope: Geek Gifts for 2005
• Offbeat Tech Toys for Your Holiday Gift List
• Review of Hatter M: The Looking Glass Wars #1
• Gummy worms.
• “Ah, I see you’ve got the TV hooked up. Yay for priorities.” –
• Hello humans can you feel me thinking
  I assume you’re seeing everything I’m thinking
  Hello humans nothing starts tomorrow

• The Justice League – I like his choice for Green Lantern.
• Chibi spazz
• I saw a picture of post-King Kong Peter Jackson earlier. He’s lost a LOT of weight since doing The Lord of the Rings. Had his name not been on-screen at the time, I wouldn’t have known that it was him.
• : I think that I may have found the perfect alarm clock for you.
• “drm madness” –

Quote of the Day
The Detroit-Green Bay game was a bit… lackluster, so we flipped back and forth between it and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. One of the home makeovers was for a veteran who had lost both of his legs. One of the commercial bumpers showed the soldier at a Veteran’s Hospital, talking with another amputee and they were comparing their prostheses:

Me: “My leg’s better than your leg!”
: *look of incredulity* (She thought that I was talking about my leg versus their prosthetics…then she realized that I was doing a “voiceover” for the show.)
: “Oh. They were showing off their parts to each other.”

Namaste.

Saturday : 10 December 05
I started the day at Bad Ass Coffee Co., enjoying a “Monkey Mocha” and visiting with Perry. Nothing wrong in getting the day going with a coffee drink and good company.

Later, I hung out with and her boys. This included watching Bewitched, with Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell. It was a cute movie… and not nearly as painful as I had thought that it would be. The little bit of Legally Blonde that I caught, however… that was just cruel (like a real green dress).

In the evening, there was dinner with and his Missus and a few other friends. I think that we’ve seen Mr. and Mrs. more in the past two to three months than in the previous year – this is not a bad thing. We ate at Charlie Chow’s Dragon Grill.

News
– The Boundless Gifts of Richard Pryor

01 December 1940 – 10 December 2005

• I get to sleep in tomorning/today, since the Ravens’ game is in the second half of tomorrow’s double-headers.
• : The Ravens-Browns matchup is on 01 January 06 at 11:00 AM. Just a quick heads-up.
• : This review is a good follow-up to our Friday night discussion about Fantastic Four
• By way of Slashdot: Christmas Shopping for a Gamer
• “Teal’c… what’s with the hair?”
• They’re doing a CHiPs movie?! This bodes ill…

Namaste.

Friday : 09 December 05
Too little sleep.
Just enough caffeine.
And the week draws to a close.

I called my uncle this morning, to wish him a “Happy Birthday.” He thanked me and then asked,”So… does this mean that you’re not going to call on the 19th?” I had confused his birthday with a friend’s birthday. Brilliant. Fortunately, my uncle found it amusing; that made me feel a little less bad about it.

The rest of the day was good; it was followed by an equally good evening, spent with The Clitorati.

Quote of the Day
From a late-morning conversation with :

(11:13:28) : so you’ve had what.. 2 hours of sleep? 🙂
(11:15:01) : Um…
(11:15:10) : About 2 and a half, give or take.
(11:17:40) : fear.
(11:18:01) : I have the willpower of 10 men.
(11:18:11) : That’s what makes me such an awesome Green Lantern.
(11:18:14) : *flex*
(11:18:30) : huh. wont those other 9 men miss their will power?
(11:18:51) : We…. don’t talk about that.
(11:19:57) : I see. So you are happy with your Will Power Transference Machine XL5000? We at ACME Super Villain Supply take great pride in our products and want to be sure our customers are happy.
(11:20:11) : Yes. Quite happy with it.
(11:20:21) : In fact, I’ve been telling the other members of the Corps about it.
(11:20:31) : You should see orders pouring in, any day now.

I’m tired. Very tired. A visit to The Dreaming and the hospitality of Morpheus is in order.

Namaste.

<get your morning started grooves>
     Goldfrapp – Strict Machine
     Walter Murphy – A Fifth of Beethoven
     The Art of Noise – Dragnet ’88
     Harry Connick, Jr. – Funky Dunky
</get your morning started grooves>

Set it off.

Thursday : 08 December 05
Another “No Bad News Thursday” where all of the kids behaved. Gotta like those.

And, since I apparently haven’t sacrificed enough sleep this week, I decided to catch a 12:10 AM showing of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I never read the book and I only have vague recollections of an animated feature from many years ago, so I was basically coming into this cold. I understand why it’s been getting good press. I might even have to check out the book and find out what I missed.

Stray Toasters

• I am desperately going to need massive amounts of caffeine tomorr… um.. later this morning.
• Fandango. They may have funny/silly/stupid ads, but the service is good.
• Survey: Most home PC users lack security
• It’s cold outside. Again.
• “Our floors run white with the Styrofoam blood of my corrugated foes.” –
• Christmas Story in 30 seconds, re-enacted by bunnies
• Rumours are going around about Bob Hoskins playing The Penguin in the sequel to Batman Begins.
• The music of Jon Schmidt
• 
• The Diane Rehm Show – Bart Ehrman: Misquoting Jesus

Quote of the Day
Forwarded to me by a coworker, excerpted from a Conan O’Brien monologue:

“This year, President Bush and the First Lady sent Christmas cards to the leaders of 200 countries. Apparently it would have been 201, but someone told the President that Legoland isn’t a real country.”

Namaste.