Random Access

Tuesday : 06 December 05
I don’t know who put in an order for snow, but they got their money’s worth. And a lot more. It must have been “Buy one, get five free” day, because it snowed from… roughly 9:30 this morning until sometime after 7:00 tonight. And, of course, I called my father to let him know…

Then there was the snow-impeded homebound traffic. Joy. I must say that most people behaved and didn’t try to drive as if the roads were dry. That was a definite plus. Taking nearly an hour to make a normally twenty-five minute trip, however…? That was a minus.

Another plus was saving me from sitting at Borders for a few hours because the people in charge at ‘s job saddled them with four hours of overtime tonight. I knew that there were reasons why I don’t miss working there… I hung out with Eva and her boys, including watching Fosters Home for Imaginary Creatures. Interesting toon. And, it made me laugh.

picked me up and we headed for home. Pulling into the circle, we saw one of our neighbors starting to shovel our driveway; that was very nice and very appreciated. I put on some more appropriate clothes, grabbed a shovel and got to work on the rest of the driveway. He stayed outside and helped me finish the job.

I’m not sure what I want to do for the next couple of hours. I could take a trip to Paragon City or the Rogue Isles…. or I could take a hot bath and finish off a few more chapters of Bad Business. Although, my recent track record for reading in the tub without falling asleep isn’t very good. So far, I’ve managed to keep my books from falling into the tub, but a couple of those instances were very close calls.

Stray Toasters

• Despite my desire to stay away from X3-related items before seeing the trailer – no, I don’t want to see the trailer online first; I want to catch it on the silver screen – I have seen pictures of Kelsey Grammar in costume as Dr. Hank McCoy, The Beast. He looks pretty good.
• There are all kinds of goodies on the way from Diamond Select.
• Multiverse – Create your own MMOG.
• From the “Island of Misfit Toys” file: Bicycle Riding on Square Wheels
• …and, in a related note: Bike helmet covers shaped like brains, frogs, mohawks, etc.
• Deflexion seems to be a non-virtual version of Reflections, but with an Egyptian twist.
•    –   Forging a Bond with the Chain Gang
• DC Comics Superhero Stamps Coming
• , and anyone else who might be interested: We’re All Mad Here – The Looking Glass Wars
• “Dear God! It’s the boxes!! They’ve found us!! –
• posted a link to this video. I really dunno what to say about it other than: It’s nominally work-safe… if you listen to it with headphones.
•     –    Shaping Character and Destinies: John McCain
• 20 Years of Tetris
• For the Stephen King fans: Here is a little more info about his forthcoming project at Marvel Comics.
• For : Poison Ivy
• From TechNudge: Who Watches the Terrorist Watch List?

I think that will do it for now.

Namaste.

It’s snowing. Again. But that’s okay… I have my music and it’s getting me through.

<dance break>
     Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen – Theme from Mission: Impossible
     Amuro Namie – Come
     Led Zeppelin – Rock and Roll
</dance break>

Monday
It was a good day… although it was colder that I like. The day passed quickly enough. Nothing extraordinary to report. Tonight, and I watched the Seahawks demolish the Eagles… in Philly. 42-0. It was not a pretty sight.

And did I mention that it’s COLD outside!? Well, it is.

Stray Toasters

• I received a phone call from my father around 9:30. He was calling to tell me that it was snowing. I doubled over, laughing, when he told me that. In the… seven years that I’ve been here – and been calling him when it snows – this is the first time that he has called to tell me that.
• Thanks to for the link to Artists for Literacy
• Linux Inspirational Posters
• “Oh, you’re still alive…?”
• Dice-rolling machine made from LEGO® bricks
• WizKids has announced the winners of the polls for their MechWarrior Army Builder Kits and the HeroClix Collector’s Sets:
  • MechWarrior – Republic of the Sphere
  • HeroClix – DC HeroClix: Alien Green Lantern Corps
  • HeroClix – Indy HeroClix: Invincible

  The sets will be available in the summer of 2006. Time to start saving up those pennies…

• “We’re not cool, Eben.”
  

• , , : Click here
• …and, as if getting beaten up by almost everyone in the DCU wasn’t enough: Guilty or Innocent: Batman and the OMACs
• Caffeine May Help Reduce the Risk of Liver Disease
• The sun is a mass of incandescent gas…
• Blues Radio Stations, Shows and Programming in the United States

Namaste.

This isn’t so much a Dance Break as it is a list of some of what Winamp has served up this morning:

• Drowning Pool – Bodies (FIRST song out of the gate)
• The Rolling Stones – Paint it Black
• The Sylvers – Boogie Fever
• Cookie Monster – C Is for Cookie
• Brassed Off Soundtrack – Colonel Bogey’s March

With a lineup like that, even a Monday can’t be so bad.

What is your media player sending your way?

Sunday : 04 December 05

I slept in a little later than I had planned this morning. That may have been somewhat attributable to the fact that I didn’t toss myself into bed until after 4 AM. Maybe. I woke up and got ready for today’s football action. Kate, Max and Perry dropped in for a while around 11:30; they were picking up their ladder and some props they left from the Hallowe’en party. We talked for a while before they had to take off.

came over to watch the Texans-Ravens game. Post game, she, and I headed out to Jordan Landing for lunch and a little shopping. Later in the evening, I hung out with and watched a strange oleo of football, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Law & Order: SVU.

Football Update

Houston at Baltimore
15- 16
Dom Capers and the Texans rode into M&T Bank Stadium to take on the Ravens. And the Ravens WON. It was a low-scoring, primarily defensive game, but it was a solid sixty minutes of football action. It was far too much of a nail-biter for my taste: The game was decided in the last minute and ten seconds. A Texans’ field goal, putting them ahead 15-13, was followed by a Matt Stover FG… with six seconds left on the clock. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win. And I’m not going to argue with that. In other football news: – The Colts have advanced to a perfect 12 – 0. – The Bengals whooped up on the Steelers. ‘Grats, ! – The Steelers lost. (I just can’t say it enough.) – Cleveland took a loss and rejoins Baltimore at the bottom of the AFC North.

Stray Toasters

• I was looking through a few back entries and came across the links a couple of online games that I enjoyed playing:
  • Gridlock and
  • Reflections
• A lot of the current wave of television commercials make me laugh.
• There was a line on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in which the host said “In just seven days…” and the first thing that popped into my head was “…I can make you a ma-a-a-a-an,” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I nearly doubled over in a laughing fit.
• Little tiny swimmer kicks!
• 
• One of my coworkers used to work for Union Pacific Railroad and is still a big train buff. I am presenting him with a copy of Railroad Tycoon II tomorrow. Something tells me that he might enjoy it.
• The Monkees’ I’m Gonna Buy Me a Dog is a silly song, but I like it.
• I would like to purchase a new pair of black jeans, but neither Eddie Bauer nor Old Navy wish to cooperate with me. Does anyone have suggestions of where I might find a decent pair?
• Hot Tamales® candy.
• The HALO Command Center has a floor again, more or less.
• 

Quote of the Day
From Law & Order: SVU – Detectives Tutuola and Munch, canvassing an assisted living center, are approaching an elderly gentleman to ask him some questions about one of the nursing assistants:

Tutuola: “Mr. Jackson…?”
Mr. Jackson: “Are you the nude models I ordered?”
Munch and Tutuola exchange quizzical looks

And that’s all the news from Lake Saline.

Namaste.

Saturday : 03 December 05
After a leisurely start to the day, I had lunch with . As we were riding to the restaurant, it started to snow (yet again). So, I took a necessary course of action: I called my father to tell him (yet again) that it was snowing. He laughed, which was my intent. We talked briefly; all seems to be well on the northern homefront.

After lunch, it was on to visit ; he was watching ‘s girls. Eva, Nox and I chatted for a while, as the girls bounded about the living room… with enough kinetic energy to power a small Third World country for a month. Kids. Go figure. I left to pick up from work, picked up this week’s four-color shwag and headed home.

Back to Nox’ for poker, coffee… and Guinness. My poker skills are a bit rusty, but I am apparently quite adept at flipping poker chips into my coffee mug. My still-full-of-coffee coffee mug, that is. *sigh*

And then, it was on to breakfast. Decent turnout, but not too much going on with the people-watching. Oh, well. The company was good. , I gave something for you; I hope that you like it.

Stray Toasters

• The Forbes Fictional 15
• From Wired: The 10 Best Dystopias
• glarkware
• I wish I could fly
  From this building, from this wall
  And if I should try,
  would you catch me if I fall?

• Purple monkey dishwasher!
• To Boldly Go Where No Fan Has Gone Before
• Innocence, meet Purity.
  Purity, Innocence.
  *handshake*

Since the Ravens have another early game, I should probably give more than “a little” consideration to calling it a night.

Namaste.

Friday : 02 December 05
Five between the eyes and this week is over.

Today was a good day. It was busy, but not like the past couple of days – I actually managed to sneak in a couple of breaths. Around 2 O’Clock, I saw a faint trace of blue sky, peeking through the drab grey fog and clouds that had been draped over Happy Valley Utah Valley. It put a smile on my face. I was also glad to see that the blue area spread until most of the cloud cover was gone.

Tonight’s Clitorati group was smallish, but good. At one point, Josh asked if I was aware that there was a new Superman movie coming out. This made me chuckle. I told him that I’d been following the (lack of) progress of the new film for roughly fifteen years. That somehow spiraled into a general comic book conversation between , Josh, and me. All right, “conversation” might be too strong a word; “a discussion led by me” might be a little more apropos. But, hey… how often do I get to geek out comic book-related things?

Stray Toasters

• I (finally) received the rebate check for my Vonage adapter a few days ago. Must remember to take it to the bank tomorning…
• The Adobe-Macromedia acquisition closes on 03 December 05. It will be interesting to see how they determine which software packages live or die.
• Engrish!
• : I saw this article and thought of you.
• 
• Atheist group offers free porn in exchange for Bibles
• I’m not sure whether to smile or wince about the return of Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew in Teen Titans #30 and #31. Of course, it was CCatZC that gave us: SuperSquirrel, Wonder Wabbit and Batmouse… and… Green Lambkin, so it can’t be all that bad. Can it?
• Thirty-eight Ways to Win an Argument
• “I can’t find the catbox.”
  

• With holiday shopping in full swing, TRUCE Offers Toy Shopping Tips
• I think that I want to see Aeon Flux this weekend. *shrug* I can turn my brain off for a couple of hours. I not looking for an Oscar caliber performance, just some decent entertainment.
• BehindYourBack.net: The People Database. “Your Opinion of Others.”
• Have you ever wanted to bomb the living Hell out of your coworkers? (C’mon… you know that you have thought about it at least twice this week alone.) Well, now you can. Voldemort, beware…
• and : This is for you.
• “Hmmm… three generations of Jones boys chasing the one woman.”
  “This reminds me of when Junior had a crush on his French teacher at school.”
  

• : I’ve forgotten what link I was going to (re)post for you. Sorry.

Quote of the Day
Excerpted from a late night conversation with :

: After the first Death Star battle, there were four ships flying away: The Falcon, two X-Wings and a Y-Wing.
: Han, Luke, Wedge and….. ???
: Who’s the other pilot?
: Me.
: *nods sagely*
: Ah.
: Thought so, but wasn’t sure.

Excerpted from a midday conversation with :

(14:54:07) : How are things on the WoW side of life?
(14:55:55) : Pretty good! Clicking along really rather well. The guild we founded just had its first birthday yesterday, as a matter of fact. 🙂
(14:56:08) : Congratulations.
(14:57:31) : yeah, kinda weird to think about it, but there it is. 🙂
(14:57:44) : There. It. Is.
(14:58:26) : EX. ACT. LY.
(14:59:09) : *nod*
(14:59:22) : N. O. D.
(14:59:58) : The Notorious N.O.D.
(15:00:38) : bwahahahahaha!

Namaste.

<dance break>
     Janet Jackson – Rhythm Nation
     Arrested Development – Mr. Wendal
     Janet Jackson – Black Cat
     Janet Jackson – Nasty
     LL Cool J – Mama Said Knock You Out
</dance break>

Winamp seems to really like Janet this morning, but I can’t argue with its selections.

How are you setting off your Friday?

Thursday : 01 December 05
Another one down. And it was a busy one. Hectic, even. But it wasn’t “bad.”

Tonight’s CSI was a rerun. So, I flipped channels. For the first time in… a long time, I watched part of South Park. Seven kids, a whale and a rocket. õ.Ô After that, I channel-surfed some more and found Star Wars: Empire of Dreams.

There’s talk of possible snowfall tonight or tomorrow. Whoop-de-fuck.

Stray Toasters

• I have had snippets of Everybody to the Limit running through my head for the past few days. It is nowhere as annoying as having Escape (The Pina Colada Song) stuck there, so I’m content to deal with it.
• Talk of the Nation – Segregation, 50 Years after Bus Boycott
• sent me a link to The Greenskeepers’ Lotion video. Interesting.
• I posted a link to this in my 14 November 05 post. sent me links to the follow-up comics (15th and 16th) this afternoon. They made me laugh.
• : Guess what I found on Amazon today. Give up? This.
• Yar’s Revenge
• The first trailer for X3 will appear in front of King Kong.
• That Nokia commercial with Travis singing the Dukes of Hazzard theme is on. *laugh*
• posted a link to this picture, which “contains” 75 bands in it. I was able to get 35 of them.
• “Oh, I’m afraid the deflector shield will be quite operational when your friends arrive.”
• CTRL+ALT+DEL: The Animated Series
• Wolfsbane. Check.
  Mirage. Check.
  Karma. Check.
  Cannonball. Check, as of last week.
  Now, All I need is for WizKids to come out with a Sunspot ‘Clix so that I can complete a set of the original New Mutants.

• : John Jackson Miller on Knights of the Old Republic, coming in January from Dark Horse Comics.

That’s it for now.

Namaste.

Wednesday : 30 November 05
Three down, two to go.
Today was good.
Added bonus: There was no (new) snow.

Happy Birthday to the December Birthday LJers:

Stray Toasters

• I was pleasantly surprised by a call from my mother this evening, shortly after getting in from work. She asked the dreaded question: “What do you want for Christmas.” I gave her my standard “I have no idea” answer.
• eToys: Help Gulf Coast Children
• This is… something. I’m not sure exactly “what,” but it’s “something.”
  I still contend that is evil (EEEEVIL!) for showing it to me.

• Reasons not to fly an ultralight
• From The New York Times: 100 Notable Books of 2005
• 
• Scratch that Metaphor
• “Well, we both know Hawk is a little girl-crazy.”
  

• From BBC News: Woman has first face transplant
• Got to concentrate
  Don’t be distractive
  Turn me on tonight
  Cause I’m radioactive

• posted a link to this video earlier. It’s amusing.
• Stan Berenstain, Co-Creator of Those Fuzzy Bears, Dies at 82
• Evil. Still.
• Shaun of the Dead re-enacted with knitted dollies
• *sigh* “Magic isn’t real, Snooch.”
  

• From the “Twenty Years After the Fact” file comes this.
  

<dance break>
     Electric Chair
     Partyman
     Trust
     Batdance
</dance break>

How are you getting down this morning?

Tuesday : 29 November 05
It’s officially the Christmas season: I heard Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth on the radio this morning, before work.

Work was… busy. Quite busy. Not “Dear Lord, I’m going to kill the humans…” busy, but it was busy enough for me to keep my nose to the grindstone all day. That’s a good kind of busy. Going to the gym provided a nice respite. However, having taken a week off from working out was apparent. Still, it was a good workout.

Tonight was Shadowrun night. I finished running the group through the module we started two weeks ago, DNA/DOA. Everything was going swimmingly well… until they decided to take a rather radical departure from the proscribed linear game plan. In fact, it was so much of a departure that they skipped three sections of the module altogether! I had to improvise a couple of things to make up for the difference. But, once again, I have to give them credit for ingenuity and thinking outside the box… and for forcing me to actually think and adapt a no-brainer module on the fly.

Stray Toasters

• Girl dies [from] peanut butter kiss
• “Microsoft customer support.” –
• Homestar Runner Playsets and Toys
• For : The Cthulhu Circus – Family Circus meets an elder god…
  (This was the link that I was looking for earlier… the one that I thought I had already posted. *sigh*)

• …and Romero Talks Land Sequel
• 
• 10 Reasons to Drink During the Holidays
• The B-Team –
•   In Utah. 2007. Details here.
• Sony BMG’s MediaMax Software Installs Even If You Decline
• I was chatting with a friend and mentioned something from Eddie Murphy’s Raw stand-up routine/movie. Since I was already on the Interweb, I checked to see if I could find a copy of the transcript. Yep! I should have known that Drew’s Script-O-Rama would have it. I read through a little of it. It made me laugh.
• New Record for Drilling Small Holes
  

  Just for perspective and so you don’t think this is some dumb ho-ho, the diameter of a human hair is 25.4 microns. The applications for this process in manufacturing could be legion and, as the process is refined, medical applications are possible as well.

• Evil Stevie’s Pirate Game
• Micronauts
• Reposted, by way of and :
  

  A lot has been said about how to prevent rape.
  Women should learn self-defense.
  Women should lock themselves in their houses after dark.
  Women shouldn’t have long hair and women shouldn’t wear short skirts.
  Women shouldn’t leave drinks unattended.
  Fuck, they shouldn’t dare to get drunk at all.

  Instead of that bullshit, how about:

  If a woman is drunk, don’t rape her.
  If a woman is walking alone at night, don’t rape her.
  If a woman is drugged and unconscious, don’t rape her.
  If a woman is wearing a short skirt, don’t rape her.
  If a woman is jogging in a park at 5 am, don’t rape her.
  If a woman looks like your ex-girlfriend you’re still hung up on, don’t rape her.
  If a woman is asleep in her bed, don’t rape her.
  If a woman is asleep in your bed, don’t rape her.
  If a woman is doing her laundry, don’t rape her.
  If a woman is in a coma, don’t rape her.
  If a woman changes her mind in the middle of or about a particular activity, don’t rape her.
  If a woman has repeatedly refused a certain activity, don’t rape her.

  If a woman is not yet a woman, but a child, don’t rape her.
  If your girlfriend or wife is not in the mood, don’t rape her.
  If your step-daughter is watching tv, don’t rape her.
  If you break into a house and find a woman there, don’t rape her.
  If your friend thinks it’s okay to rape someone, tell him it’s not, and that he’s not your friend.

  If your “friend” tells you he raped someone, report him to the police.
  If your frat-brother or another guy at the party tells you there’s an unconscious woman upstairs and it’s your turn, don’t rape her, call the police and tell the guy he’s a rapist.

  Tell your sons, god-sons, nephews, grandsons, sons of friends it’s not okay to rape someone.

  Don’t tell your women friends how to be safe and avoid rape.
  Don’t imply that she could have avoided it if she’d only done/not done x.
  Don’t imply that it’s in any way her fault.
  Don’t let silence imply agreement when someone tells you he “got some” with the drunk girl.
  Don’t perpetuate a culture that tells you that you have no control over or responsibility for your actions.
  You can too control yourself.

  If you agree, repost it. It’s that important.

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

<dance break>
     Janet Jackson – If
</dance break>

Monday : 28 November 05
Today was a good day… even for a Monday.

I came home and cooked and then watched the Steelers head into Indy to take on the Colts. Did I mention that the Colts were 10-0 coming into this game? I didn’t? Well, they were. And they played like it, including scoring their first touchdown on an 80-yard pass play on their opening drive. Total time of possession: Ten seconds. By halftime, the Colts were up 16-7. invited me over to watch the second half of the game. And it just didn’t get any better for the Steelers. To the tune of: “They never scored again.” Meanwhile, The Colts threw another ten points on the board and won the game 26-7. And advanced with a perfect 11-0 record.

Stray Toasters

• I talked to my uncle around halftime of the football game. It was nice to be able to tell him, for the second week in a row, that his team was losing.
• The new Southwest Airlines commercial for Ding makes me laugh.
• “Ture.”
• This I Believe: “The God Who Embraced Me”
  This is an excellent counterpoint to last week’s “There Is No God,” by Penn Jillette.

• From the “Almost Too Good to Be True” file: Ronald MacDonald Charged With Robbing Wendy’s
  I read that and laughed. Then, I read the comments on this site and laughed even more.

• 
• By the time that Superman Returns hits the silver screen, it will have been 18 years since there was a new Superman movie. There had been rumblings and rumours of a movie during the 90s, but nothing ever came of them. Thankfully. This article (and it’s a LONG one) details the roads to Superman Returns. And they were roads best left untraveled.
• 
• Bionic Body Part Becoming a Reality
• Here is another look at the Windows vs. Linux debate
• This is so true…
• boingboing.net has a link to Fantasy tabletop game built out of LEGO® bricks
  As if they didn’t have me at “fantasy tabletop game” and “LEGO®,” this made it all worthwhile:
  Elephanthulhu

• This gives a new “old school” twist to “Yo, Joe!”
• “Today… is the day we strike back!”
  

• Peter Chung talks about Aeon Flux
• “This is where the rich people live.” –
• Catalog your books online with LibraryThing

I should go put the dishes in the dishwasher so I can start the getting-ready-for-bed routine…

Namaste.