Random Access

I found a gumball in my jacket pocket while taking my mid-morning walk.

It’s a simple thing, but it made me smile.

Thursday : 03 November 05
It’s been a pretty good day.

But I am beat. I am going to call it an early night.

Namaste.

<afternoon dance break>
     Billy Ocean – Get Out of My Dreams (Get Into My Car)
</afternoon dance break>

<dance break>
     Blackstreet ft. Mya and Mase – Take Me There
</dance break>

What’ve you got?

Wednesday : 02 November 05
I woke up tired this morning.

Falling asleep in the bathtub last night probably had something to do with it. I decided to take a hot soak and do a little reading. That part went pretty well. After I finished reading, I decided to enjoy the warmth of the tub a little longer… or as long as possible, given that the back of the tub is not sloped and is thus not exactly conducive to relaxing comfortably. The next thing I know, the water is cold. I turned on some warmer water for a shower as the cold remains of the bath water drained out. After that, I fell into bed.

As, I said above: I woke up tired this morning.

The rest of the day was good. Work wasn’t too bad. I had a couple of… “interesting” discussions with my coworkers at lunch. One of them was the result of what I consider a lapse in someone’s judgment – that person made a statement that was ill-suited for the argument that he was trying to make. What was said and what were meant were, in my and others’ opinions, radically different. It took a lot of restraint not to go off when he made his original gaffe. Fortunately, the rest of the workday was uneventful and rather productive. I also discovered that a networking issue that I had been dealing with wasn’t a problem due to anything that I did – it was the result of someone mislabeling a group of ports. Vindication is a wonderful thing.

I came home this evening and took an impromptu nap. I cooked dinner (chicken stir-fry) and compared notes with over how our respective days went. A little later, I headed over to ‘s; we watched Mean Girls. I don’t think that I’ve seen this since it was in theatrical release – it still amuses me.

And now, it’s just about time to call it a night. But this time, without a nap-inducing soak.

Namaste.

Tuesday : 01 November 05
I had a lot of low- to mid-level static buzzing through my head today. It was distracting and made it occasionally difficult to focus on work. So, I took a mid-morning sabbatical to try and clear it out. It helped. Going to the gym at lunch also helped. The rest of the day proceeded fairly well.

Tonight’s Law & Order: SVU was rather… intense. It opened with a child getting shot on a school playground. As the show progressed, viewers discover that the episode is about hate crimes. An oft-used device of the L&O franchise is that some sort of plot twist is introduced during the second half of the show. This episode was no exception. Had there been only one twist, that would have been fine. There were at least four, if I’m counting correctly, in this one. And they were not arbitrary things, either. To their credit, NBC didn’t pull many punches with this episode.

Stray Toasters

• Three days later and I’m still not used to having a (nearly-) naked chin. Even though it was a worthy sacrifice for my costume, I’ll be glad when my goatee grows back.
• SinceSlicedBread – “What’s your common sense idea?”
• My Fellow Americans: Barbara Odanaka, Skateboard Mom
  (…and also: The International Society of Skateboarding Moms)

• By way of boingboing.net: Web Zen: zombie zen
• Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu
• The Mystery of the Green Menace – The science of Absinthe
• Annoyances.org
• From Real Tech News: USB Ports to Replace Car CD Players
• “It’s 16, not 91.”

Monday : 31 October 05
Another week begins…

On the whole, it’s been a good day. This evening, I watched the Ravens-Steelers game and handed out assorted goodies to trick-or-treaters. We had a fair number of “kids” show up this year… some where “a little” older than others. I decided to wear my costume while serving up candy – I got a lot of wide-eyed looks and “That’s a cool costume” comments. And, while I was in a Hallowe’en mood, I uploaded my pictures from Saturday’s party.

Football

Baltimore at Pittsburgh
19 – 20
The Ravens looked like an honest-to-goodness NFL football team this week. Anthony Wright did a good job of moving the offense downfield. The defense, minus Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, did an admirable job against the Steelers. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite enough. The game literally came down to the last two minutes. Baltimore had a chance to move into field goal range and win the game, but things just didn’t fall into place that way.

Stray Toasters

• Gummy worms. I have ’em. I’m eating ’em.
• : Shag: The Art of Josh Agle
• Darth Vader and Yoda… sculpted out of butter
• : Knowing your love of all things Public Enemy, you might want to take a look at this article.
• It’s time for the 2005 edition of The Worst Jobs in Science.
• I… I… *sigh* To think that this started off so nicely…
  

• Heh… G.I. Joe “…and knowing is half the battle” spoof on Family Guy.
• 
• I’m looking forward to seeing how MTV’s The Boondocks turns out.
• If you’re in the greater SLC Metro area – and you’re a fan of science fiction/fantasy, you might want to know that Robert A. Salvatore will be doing a discussion and book signing at the Borders book store in Murray, tonight at 7:00 PM.

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Sunday : 30 October 05
The party was fun; did the honors of taking most of the pictures from the evening; I have a few and will post them… tomorrow or Tuesday.

Waking up wasn’t as bad as I had feared that it would be – there was only a very slight twinge of a headache near the back of my head, but that was gone fairly quickly. I talked with for a while, as we waited for to depart The Dreaming. A little more conversation and we decided that it was time to go in search of food. We ate at Ruby Tuesday’s; I had the Chopped Steak Stacker and it was pretty good.

Post-lunch, we dropped of and then headed to Best Buy. I finally broke down and picked up a new Wacom Graphire4. It’s only the 4×5 model, but I realized that I don’t really need more than that at this point. Sure, it would be nice to have one of the larger models – or an Intuos – but it’s not a “must have.”

I headed to and Chris’ place for Zombie Jamboree zombie moviefest. We watched Undead and Land of the Dead – an Aussie zombie flick and a George Romero one. I really don’t know what to say about Undead; Land of the Dead wasn’t too bad… even though I started nodding off in the middle of it. I left as the crew was starting Jason X.

I drove around for a little while after that. I headed towards South Jordan/Riverton and looped back up on Redwood Road. It was a nice drive.

And now, I’m off to find the gates of The Dreaming.

Namaste.

Saturday : 29 October 05
Quick hit before bed…

It’s been a good day. The Hallowe’en party seemed to go off well. Everyone seemed to enjoy him- or herself. And that was the point of the whole thing. We had a good turn-out and a good mix of people. Thanks to everyone who showed up; I hope that you had a good time. As far as I am concerned (and as far as I am aware at this point) the party was a success.

did an amazing job on the costumes for , Chris and me. has the pics of us… somewhere.

Stray Toasters
Right. Like I’m coherent enough to actually post ‘Toasters tonight. Check back morrownight. Maybe.

Namaste.

Friday : 28 October 05
It’s been a good day.
It started and ended well.
And the middle wasn’t too shabby, either.
This one definitely goes in the “Plus” column.

Stray Toasters

• I still have cotton candy.
• : Hope that you’re feeling better soon.
• There will be a Storm (Limited Series) beginning in February of 2006.
  

• You must watch this video.
• Pop Quiz: Without looking it up, what does the “ZIP” in ZIP Code stand for?

I’m beat. Anything more will keep until later.

Namaste.

Thursday : 27 October 05
I guess that in the grand scheme of things, today was a good day.

That doesn’t mean that it didn’t have its rough spots. It did. Right in the middle of the work day. *decompress* I don’t mind answering questions on the job; it comes with the territory. What I do mind is when someone asks the same question, repeatedly (over the course of several days)… and I answer it the same way every time. At that point, take 50¢ and go buy a clue: If or when something changes, I’ll tell you. Until then, don’t keep harping on the subject. *GAH* I was vindicated when he asked someone else the question… and they snapped back at him.

The post-work evening was good. I headed to Jo-Ann Fabric to look for a pattern for my costume’s pants. I found two. Not sure which one I’ll go with. *shrug* I made a couple of other quick shopping stops and then it was off to pick up and and find food. Olive Garden fit the bill tonight. It was a good way to (mostly) unwind from the day.

Stray Toasters

• My father called me this afternoon. That in and of itself isn’t too unusual. He was calling to see if I needed a photo printer. *blink blink* “Need,” no. But, I wasn’t foolish enough to turn it down.
• Stephen King… writing for… Marvel Comics?
• Life Model Decoy. “LMD,” for short.
• Cool World was a horrible movie – which is why it’s the bottom end of the “Cool World – Long Kiss Goodnight Scale” – but it had a pretty decent soundtrack.
• Just in time for Hallowe’en: Necronomicon as papercraft
• Okay, : You’ve mastered the bleeding Jell-O® hearts. Let’s see if you can pull of The Phantom Manor.
• I’m not aware of too many things
  I know what I know, if you know what I mean…

• Target (yes, that one) will be selling Home Video Arcade Machines, starting in November. I only have one thing to say about this: Joust! (I won’t even go into the fact that “jousting” is for rings; when two combatants go at it, it’s called “tilting.”)
• I know that it’s a little… odd… for jousting to be a state sport. *shrug* You get used to it. What I did not know was that Maryland has a state drink: Milk. You can find other Maryland state symbols here.
• I have cotton candy. That put a (much-needed) smile on my face.

And that’s all for now.

Namaste.

Wednesday : 26 October 05
Another day passes, another year is celebrated. Earlier this evening, I was chatting with , here’s how part of the conversation went:

: How old are you now? Twelve?
: Mentally? Just about. 😉 I’m 35.

That pretty much sums up how I feel about it. I don’t feel “old,” despite several people asking me how it feels to be old. I wouldn’t know. And, if I have anything to say or do about it, I never will. I’m happy to have my health and well-being. I intend to keep that frame of mind for as long as I possibly can.

It’s been a great day. I slept in. I saved the world (a couple of times!). I went out for the semi-traditional birthday dinner at Outback with a few friends. Nothing says “Happy birthday” like twelve ounces of prime rib. Unless you’re vegetarian… in which case it say’s anything but “Happy birthday.”

Along with birthdays come the obligatory calls, text messages and IMs from family and friends. They started early this morning (before I went to bed) and kept coming through 9:00 PM. Fortunately, everyone was kind enough to allow me time to sleep in and enjoy a restful morning. Even the cats were relatively inactive this morning. It was nice. If I haven’t mentioned it recently, I have been fortunate and blessed enough to have a rather good, loving family and equally cool friends. Thank you.

The High-Flying Adventures of Indigo Bolt   
As an additional bonus to the birthday, I made Security Level 26 tonight. And a new power: Voltaic Sentinel. Basically, I create a “pet” ball of electricity that follows me around. Just like an electric puppy (…because an electric cat would just do its own thing).

I also managed to get out of experience debt this afternoon… only to get back into it tonight. Fortunately, the team that I was with tonight was fighting just enough above my level to get me out of debt and over the threshold to Level 26.

Security Level 27 is only 89,254 points away.

Stray Toaster
I neglected to post the following last night:

Tuesday : 25 October 05
It was a good Tuesday. I worked, I worked out, I went back to work and I came home.

I had everyone here to run the Shadowrun game tonight. It went well; I was expecting to have the party get into a big brawl with some toxic shaman. They didn’t. But they did roleplay the Hell out of their characters.

I even got a couple of calls wishing me an early “Happy Birthday,” for Wednesday.

And all of the above made me smile.

The High-Flying Adventures of Indigo Bolt
32,000 points of experience debt.
*sigh*
What’s a hero to do?

He gets out on patrol and serves up some electrical justice, that’s what!

I sidekicked with a semi-regular partner, .Guttermouth, and a few other people in Peregrine Island. I didn’t do much damage, but the combat helped me to knock some points off of my experience debt total. As people started to log out, I exemplared another character in Skyway City. After that, I hooked up with a couple of members of my supergroup and helped with a mission in The Hollows.

And when I was done, I had under 20,000 – possibly under 15,000 – points of debt left to get rid of. Slowly, but surely… it’s coming down.

Stray Toasters
None tonight.

Namaste.

<groove>
     
</groove>

How are you getting’ your groove on today?

Monday : 24 October 05
For a Monday, it wasn’t a bad day. Not even the fact that I had to get up at 5:30 to get ready for work dampened the day. Besides, it was nice to beat my Team Lead into the office – especially since he has at least half of the commuting distance that he used to and would often arrive at work before I would. If I beat him in tomorrow, I think that I will have Wagner’s Die Valkyrie playing (loudly) on my computer. (Now all I need are some plastic helicopters, Army men and napalm…)

<post arrival-at-the-office edit>
I was the first one in this morning. I put in the Wagner CD and pumped up the volume. The payoff came about 15 minutes later:

“Good morning, Rob. Riding the Valkyries today, huh?”

</edit>

There was a coffee machine and bean grinder waiting for me when I got to work this morning; it turns out that they were in the old office but rarely got used. So… I inherited ’em. I took some coffee down with me this morning. But, I neglected to pick up any milk or creamer. Oh, well.

This evening has been good, as well. We got together with the Black-and-Tan gang and had dinner at Porcupine Pub and Grille. Bad puns, good beer and good company.

News
BBC News: US civil rights icon Parks dies
The New York Times: Rosa Parks, 92, Founding Symbol of Civil Rights Movement Dies

Stray Toasters

• One week later, I have finished with the pictures from the trip to Disneyland, although I still contend that they could/should call it “Dizzyland.”
• I got a birthday present a couple of days early: A new gas grill. Booyah! Sunday football barbecues are back!
  Lots of “Thank yous” to .

• City of Heroes and VG Cats…? Together? Be afraid.
  

• , you here’s a little something that you might be able to put into a Backwash: Red or Sex-Kitten column: Eco-friendly erotic spanking paddles
• …and, speaking of kittens: Sissy, Lightning and Presto.
  

• iPod Shuffle cross cap
  

• : Miyazaki film festival on TCM
• : This bunny’s for you.
• : Cthulhu DVD said to be totally coolh
• “Is there a word for being both flattered AND perplexed?”
  

• 2005 HALO Machinima Award Winners
• Lucas Unveils Star Wars Exhibit

Namaste.