Random Access

Wednesday
I managed to wake up this morning and not think that it was Thursday. That’s a good thing. (Although, thinking about last week’s miscalculation does make me chuckle.)

The work day was good. Nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing to write home about.

After work, I came home and mowed the jungle. Thirty minutes later, it actually looked like a lawn again. I also sprayed underneath the deck and the flower bed outside the HCC window… with a water and bleach combination. I want the weeds there dead. Very dead.

A shower and change of clothes later and I was off to and ‘ place for tonight’s WoD game. So far, we’ve got our characters lined up and all together. Next week, we should be getting into the storyline.

Stray Toasters

• I still need to rename this section. I may wind up going with “Random Access” here and just find another heading for the rant section. We’ll see. I’ll miss mistyping “Stray Toasters” as “Stray Taoists,” though.
• The Mighty Marvel Comics Strength and Fitness Book
• I like boingboing.net; they have some interesting and/or neat things. Sometimes, they just have weird (but still interesting/amusing) things… like Vintage XXX Movie Posters, including one for The Erotic Adventures of Zorro.

  And if I have to tell you that this is a NSFW link, then you should just skip right on to the next bullet.
  No, seriously.
  Move along.
  Really!
  Go! Now!

• : I think that I have found the perfect t-shirt for you.
• Great monkey-squeezin’ breakdancing Jesus!
• By way of Real Tech News: Greatest Airline Complaint Letter Ever Written: Don’t Sit in Seat 29E
• “That new diet kibble Mom put you on is miraculous!”
  

• From Campbell’s Condensed Newspaper: “Tech titans wish we wouldn’t quote them on this baloney”
• Kingdom of Loathing merchandise
• I don’t need more reasons to like Morgan Freeman, but he keeps on giving me more and more of them.
• Little Britain: “What does the world look like to a child?”

Namaste.

Tuesday
Long weekends are great.

…until they’re over. Then it’s the work-a-day grind, once more. Today wasn’t a bad day, though. Things went fairly smoothly. Also on the day’s “plus” column: I had lunch with my friend, Cecilie, who was up from Cedar City.

After work, I went to…. wait for it… the gym. I did another chest and biceps routine, hoping to stretch out some of the stiffness from last week’s workout. I think that I got most of the kinks worked out. However, I really must have jacked up my pecs because the sets of free weight flys that I did were not pretty. And I was even using fairly light weights. I’ll have to work on it some more.

After a shower and dinner, I hung out with Cecilie, Kitty, , Rhett and Mike. I haven’t seen Rhett and Mike since God was a boy. The guys, along with Wally (who showed up later) have moved into a house downtown. I got the nickel tour; it’s a nice little bachelor pad they have.

Stray Toasters

• I had mp3s and music videos playing while I worked today. The video for Blind Melon’s No Rain came on. The song may be cheesy, but I like it. And, I like the video, too.
• By way of comes: How the Joneses’ 23rd Goldfish Narrowly Escaped Death
• Philosophomon – Great philosophers’ heads… on the bodies of Pokèmon.
• “Booya! How does the bitter taste of defeat feel, huh?”
  

• : The Crimes After the Games
• I don’t have a joke for this, so you’re on your own.
• Teen Girl Squad!
• Okay… let me get this straight: Astrologer sues NASA over comet probe. This is almost as amusing a thought as the “NASA blew up Jesus’ pet rock” conversation that we had on IRC the other night.
• “I don’t seem to recall you ordering an Oreo milkshake.” –
• Stories like this (found by way of and ) make wonder when either God or the aliens are coming back with the anal probe for the Earth.

Namaste.

Monday
04 July 05

In 1776… (Fireworks!)
There were fireworks too. (Red, white and blue!)
The original colonists,
You know their tempers blew. (They really blew!)
Like Thomas Paine once wrote,
It’s only common sense (Only common sense!)
That if a government won’t give you
Your basic rights,
You’d better get another government.
      – “Fireworks,” performed by Grady Tate (From Schoolhouse Rock!)

For those of you in the United States and it’s territories, I hope that you had a pleasant and safe Fourth of July.

While looking through my webcomic bookmarks last night, I found this (“The Fourth of July…” image at the top and the “Burn, Baby, Burn” blog at the bottom) on Squidi.net. I used it as the opening salvo in a discussion group post. And, it didn’t seem to open the can of worms that I was concerned about. While I don’t support everything that Mr. Howard had to say, I do admire him taking a stand and defending his position.

That’s what freedom and liberty (“…and justice for all”) is all about.

Tonight, we watched three fireworks displays (Rice-Eccles Stadium, Murray Park and what we think was Sugar House Park) from our back window, while some of our neighbors set of pyrotechnics of their own. The cats didn’t seem too fond of the nearby noise and hullabaloo. I’m sure that they will be equally thrilled when the 24th rolls around and many of our neighbors light fireworks in honor of Utah’s own holiday: Pioneer Day. The Colony kid in me still looks a bit askance at the fanfare that Pioneer Day generates (mainly because it would make more sense to me if it celebrated the day that Utah became a state… which was in January), but I understand the significance the day holds for the local population.

Stray Toasters

• For reasons that I have yet to fully comprehend, ‘Nine‘s OS partition flipped me off this afternoon… and then wouldn’t reboot. This was more than “a little” aggravating. But, after thinking it over for a bit, I decided to simply wipe the partition and start over. And tomorrow: I image the drive. This whole “take hours out of your day to rebuild a partition” crap is for the birds.

  However… this did afford my inner Star Trek geek to do something that I’ve been considering for a while: I set my “Start Windows” sound from that st00pid “Microsoft Sound” to a .wav of one Captain Benjamin Sisko welcoming someone to Deep Space Nine. And that makes my inner (and outer) geek smile.

• By way of Backwash: Apropos of Something
• Once again, I held both my video card-to-be and City of Heroes in my hands.
  Once again, I put them both back on their respective shelves.
  Until the end of next week.

• I finally read the three issues of Battlehymn (as I previously mentioned here) that I picked up on Friday. I’m impressed. It’s a very well-crafted story. And, it seems that while the government is trying to put a good public face on the Watchguard team, the beauty is only skin deep. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
• How big is your ecological footprint?
  I didn’t know how large my footprint was; I was surprised by the result:

• As if I needed yet another thing to add to the “Covet List,” Rykodisc has put out a DVD set that I must own: Spenser: The Movie Collection. I like what A&E has done with the new movies in the series, but for me… Robert Urich will always be the face of Spenser. Not to mention the fact that Avery Brooks’ Hawk was one bad mother… (Shut yo’ mouth!) …and is also featured in the movies, too.
• A man has been convicted… for modding an Xbox.
• Over the past three years, I have gone on and on about how highly I regard Cartoon Network’s Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. So, I won’t do it again. This time. Instead, I’ll let someone else do it. By way of Cinescape, I give you this week’s “TV Wasteland” column, by David Michael Wharton: Who Watches the Justice League?
• I’ve been generally happy with the Internet service that Comcast provides. However, I had a major bone to pick with them yesterday: I wasn’t aware that they cap their subscribers’ newsgroup downloads to 2 GiB… PER MONTH. *braincramp* This notion doesn’t exactly thrill me.
• By way of (and SciFi.com): Warp 11
• These people spent 10 hours building a LEGO® Star Destroyer. You can watch a 4-minute .avi of the construction.

Namaste.

Sunday
Yep, sleeping in is a good thing. After waking up, I spent some time being lazy. It felt good. Very good. Great, even.

and I met Perry for a cup of coffee. We drank our caffeinated beverages and talked for a bit before taking off in the direction of one of the local Best Buys. I left the store with three Hayao Miyazaki movies: Castle in the Sky, Kiki’s Delivery Service and Spirited Away. They have been reduced to $14.99 each, from their regular $25 – 30 each; it was a deal that I couldn’t resist.

From there, it was off to meet and her boys for dinner. We had a nice visit with them; the boys were – as usual – well-behaved. Our waiter reminded me of Martin Short.

Then it was back home for a quiet Sunday evening. Part of that was spent watching “Flashpoint,” a new episode of Justice League Unlimited. Holy… cow. I was amazed. A couple of seasons ago, the episode “A Better World” did an Elseworlds-like story whose premise was “What if the Justice League established themselves as the de facto leaders of the not-so-free world?” It was a darker episode than most, but a compelling story. There have been allusions to that episode over the past two seasons… including the animated introduction of the DCU’s secret government facility, The Cadmus Project (1, 2). The animated series has made Cadmus far more shadowy and sinister than it’s four-color print counterpart. And that has only added to the intensity of the ongoing subplot. Until the last minute-and-a-half of the show, I had thought that there had been some major fireworks. I was wrong. It looks as though big things will be happening over the next few episodes. Very big. And I can’t wait to see how it unfolds.

Stray Toasters

• I’ve been mulling over the purchase of City of Heroes. Of course, this means that I would have to get a new video card, too. That’s not really a bad thing, as my AIW 7500 is three or four years old. And… if I get the new card, I can give this one and then pull the vid and tuner cards out of her system.

  I went to the CoH website to get some more information about it… and I came across the CoH Costume Contest. After last year’s Green Lantern costume for Hallowe’en, I should be the last person to rag on someone dressing up. Operative words: “Should be.” (And since my PR people tell me that I need to work on my image, I won’t.) I have to admit, though, that a lot of those costumes were very well-done.

• Massive Snickers and Mars Bar Candy Recall No Laughing Matter
• Do you remember Statler and Waldorf, the two curmudgeonly Muppets who sat in the balcony on The Muppet Show? They’re back. And they are reviewing movies.
• : I’m pretty sure that you might have already seen these, but if not, I think that some of them might be up your alley: Industrial Design Excellence Awards
• Moviefone has a trailer for Neil Gaiman’s Mirrormask. I saw this earlier this year at Sundance. I’m looking forward to seeing it again.
• Seeing the before and after pictures of ‘s bathroom project has inspired me to start/finish painting the living room. Now if I could just find the verdammt motivation to do so…
• I first noticed Sandy Collora after seeing his short film Batman: Dead End. Lately, I’ve been enjoying the “On the Fly” column that he’s writing on Buzzscope. This week’s topic: Where the Hell are all the original ideas??? He has a valid point. (But, I’m still looking forward to Fantastic Four… and Superman Returns… and King Kong.)
• Speaking of Marvel’s “First Family,” Boomerang had a marathon of the 60s animated series. Fanboy that I am, I watched a few episodes. It reminded me of being a kid in Columbia and watching the cartoon on Channel 20, after school.
• A… new… Highlander movie? *sigh*
• By way of boingboing.net: Japanese Star Trek art
• I just sent an email to a discussion group of which I’m a member. I guess I’ll know soon enough if I sparked a (minor) shitstorm.
• Will Microsoft’s Acrylic be a “Photoshop killer?”

Namaste.

Saturday
When I woke up this morning, I was still sore from Thursday’s workout. But, I dragged myself out of bed and got ready for another ride on the Jordan River Parkway. I wanted to check out the south end of the trail.

EveryDave showed up at 10. We loaded the K2 onto his bike rack and we were off. met us at the trail head. We unloaded and we were on our way. We ran into a couple of gents who needed some assistance; reached into her utility belt tool kit and had just the tool that was needed. Onward! We had a good ride… until we approached 90th South. Then the trail… ended. Just like that. Ô.õ We rode through/around River Oaks Golf Course, hoping to pick up the trail.

“No go, Flight.”

We wound up riding 5th West down to 106th South, where we picked up the trail again. Which we did. No problem. We followed the trail until it ended at 115th South. We thought that it went a little farther, but… *shrug* We double back a few blocks to a little community park. We dismounted and rested before heading back.

The trail did continue north past 106th South. All the way to 100th. Then it just… died. Again. *GRRR* The really pitiful thing: You could see the south end of the golf course, just a short way to the north. With no direct way to get to it. *sigh* So, back to a road ride. We made it back to the trail and had a pretty easy ride back to the 64th South trail head.

Home. Downtime. Shower. Impromptu nap.

When I got myself together, we headed out for lunch and a little shopping. I walked into and out of Best Buy and CompUSAirways empty-handed, except for one brochure. We stopped at another shopping center so that I could buy a new pair of cross trainers; I wound up buying a new pair for , too.

On to Cafe Med for their anniversary shindig. We met , , and Chris, Everydave and Alyce there. Food. Bellydancers. Fireworks. In one package. It was a nice affair.

Stray Toasters

• I’m tired. Thankfully, I can sleep in as much (or as little) as I choose on Sunday.
• A friend sent me a link about how to make an origami Yoda
• Sith Psychology 101

Namaste.

Friday
Thank God it’s…

Today was good. Work was… um… “not as productive as it could have been.” I hit a wall when trying to recall how to handle a process. That was a bit frustrating. But, there’s always Monday.

emailed me with some good news: It looks like I’ll be seeing Fantastic 4 on Thursday evening, God willing and the creek don’t rise. And, on the subject of four-color press, I swung by the shop of comics and picked up this week’s haul.

Tonight’s Clitorati gathering was good. Most of the usual suspects were there; , and joined us, too. I don’t think that we ran anyone off this week. But I couldn’t swear to that. Oh, well. What’s done is done. From there, it was on to dinner. Out of those who went to the restaurant, only… three… had entrees. Tonight wasn’t about the food – it was about the company.

Stray Toasters
>>> Under Construction<<<

I’m nodding off at the keyboard. I’ll take that as a sign that it’s time to go.

Namaste.

Thursday
Today was the last day of June.
The year is now half-done.
On the whole, it has shaped up to be a good year, thus far.

Today was, on the whole, substantially better than yesterday. The work day was good; I even went to the gym at lunch, as planned. I may make that a regular Tuesday/Thursday habit. It was good. Painful, but good. I didn’t do much of anything this evening. Just hit “Autopilot” and disengaged.

Happy Birthday to the July LJers:

Stray Toasters

• I took a stab at correcting the file names of some of the mp3s that iTunes (Damn you, iTunes!) bastardized last year.
• and , you might be (somewhat) interested in this: Talking Anime Business Blues
• This gives an entirely new meaning to “crappy restaurant.”
• “Boy, it’s crunchy-bacon hot out there!”
  

• Check out Renderosity’s Artists of the Month for June and July: jgmart and Svenart, respectively.
• : Jeckie (v5)
• Darth Vader fetish chick…. in Korea (What is it with Korea this week?)
• For : Mouse got back!
• The art of Junko Mizuno
• 
• Kill some time: Bookworm

Namaste.

Wednesday
Today was.

That pretty much sums it up. Today at lunch, we spent an hour talking about the various incarnations of Star Trek. It was an hour of science fiction geeky goodness. There was a bit of madness that set in around 2:30 or 3:00, but it was transitory. On the down side, it somewhat soured my mood for the rest of the day. I was still a bit grumpy – and a little tired – when I got home. I didn’t even go to the gym. *shrug* I’m going tomorrow at lunch with one of my coworkers.

I haven’t done much this evening… and that’s suited me just fine. The downtime has been good.

Stray Toasters

• “I am the terror that flaps in the night…”
• One of my coworkers sent me a link to the trailer for Peter Jackson’s King Kong. I was a little… “concerned,” when I saw something about 2/3 of the way through it, but then I read the King Kong (1933) section of this page… and whaddayaknow?!
• : Batman/Scarecrow: Year One #2
• From boingboing.net: Street Fighter II – themed Salsa Contestants in South Korea
• drew this for / on me a couple of years ago.
  I had people coming up to me all day asking “Did… you really get a tattoo?!” It made me chuckle. Still does, when I think about it. These were people who had just seen me the day before… and there was no swelling or bleeding – let alone large bandages – around the work. *sigh* Some peoples’ children…

• The Art of Dan Krall (He’s the Art Director for Samurai Jack.)
• By way of Slashdot: Britain’s First Jedi Member of Parliament
• g0t 70’s-style wallpaper? They do.
• Family Album: A Year in the Life of a Southwest Baltimore Household
• posted a link to Crimson Room earlier. I first tried it a little over a year ago, but I went through it to see if I could remember how to get out of the room. I did. And I even got stuck in the same place that I did last year. That made me laugh.
• I enjoy the Backwash website. I really do. It’s where I find some of the more unusual links that I post here. Including this one for: forget-me-not panties^TM. I really don’t know what to make of this. Panties… with built-in GPS?! Do we really need these? And in the interest of being fair: Where are the forget-me-not tighty-whiteys/boxers/boxer-briefs for the guys?

  Quote of the Day
  GizmoDuck (1, 2), DuckTales and Darkwing Duck came up in a conversation tonight. And, thus, tonight’s quote comes from the “Just Us Justice Ducks” episode of Darkwing Duck:

  Darkwing: This is the second most painful moment of my life.
  Stegmutt: What was the first?
  Darkwing: “Put out the Darkwing! Put out the Darkwing!”

  Namaste.

Tuesday
Someone has been messing with Utah’s climate control. It was clear(ish) this morning… but gave way to a storm that blew through this afternoon… which gave way to clear skies this evening. As Dr. Rosenblatt would say: “It’s so bizarre…”

It was a good day at work. I had an interesting discussion about African-Americans and the LDS Church with a few of the guys on my team at lunch. I think that I made one of them a little uncomfortable, but I’m not sure. It wasn’t my intention. I simply wanted to hear what they understood the doctrine to be. I appreciate the fact that they were comfortable enough to be straight-up and straight-forward with it.

And, as an added bonus: I ran into at lunch, too.

When I got home, I decided to take the K2 out for a spin. Dear Lord, what could I have been thinking? I couldn’t believe how hard I was breathing on one of the uphill sections. (Okay, it was really “two” of them, but that isn’t the point…) It wasn’t a particularly difficult ride, but by the time that I got home, my quads were TIGHT. Walking up or down stairs was not fun. At all.

A quick shower later and I was ready for folks to show up for tonight’s game. And show up they did. I think that it went well… for a first session. We were a little rusty with some of the rules, but that happens when you haven’t run/played a game for over ten years. The group seems to mesh well; there’s a quirky dynamic to the party that will be interesting to watch when the bullets and spells are flying.

Stray Toasters

• I showed the Dresden Dolls’ Coin-Operated Boy video to one of my coworkers. I don’t think that he knew quite what to say about it. I should show him Undercover Funk next.
• The Lawsuit of the Rings or… Sue, Hobbit, Sue!
• Ethan. Take the controller plug out of my belly button.
  

• For : The Zombie Survival Guide
• Sandy Collora’s On the Fly #10: “Did Batman: Dead End inspire Batman Begins?”
• Good, good, good… Good Eleven
  Never gave me any trouble till after nine.
  Good, good, good… Good Eleven
  Eleven will always be a friend of mine!

• Genie

Namaste.

Monday
Something is wrong.
Horribly wrong.
And I don’t know what to do about it.

The problem: Today was a good day.

Everyone knows that Mondays aren’t like that. Everyone. Especially Solomon Grundy.

But today really was good:

• Work went well.
• The weather was great.
• We got a lower rate on the mortgage.
• We went to a Stingers game with , Lisa and the Wilsons. It was a great way to spend the evening… even though the home team lost.

Tomorrow, I start the Shadowrun game. I’m looking forward to making tons of mistakes the game. I think that it will be fun. And, if it isn’t, I’ll simply nuke everyone’s characters. With a dragon. A big dragon. A very big dragon. And I’ll even name it “Lockheed,” just because.

Stray Toasters

• I am eating Jujubes.
• By way of (and Rockapella): It was a zombie jamboree…
• found this. It’s just another reason to love her.
• …she also found: “What makes me swear”
• I’ve been a fan of the X-Men for years, but… um…. hm. Here. You decide.
• For this, I would love to be in Sandy Eggo next month…
• “I knew I should have been the ballerina.”
  

• For :
  • Take one part Batmobile
  • Add one part razor.
  • Shake.
  • Serve warm.
• “What’s a fashmight?”
  

• Communist propaganda posters
• I think that I am in lust. Literally. With this (which is really this). I don’t really need to finish the bathroom down here. And that space would be the perfect spot for a cockpit.

  I wonder what would have to say about that…? Maybe I won’t tell her. Maybe she wouldn’t notice it. And when she asks why I decided not to finish the bathroom, I could just make up something witty and clever. Hm… That sounds good. Yeah.

• Umm… –
• : You might want to check this out.

…and with that, I do believe that I will call it a night.

Namaste.

Sunday

<&lt Rewind <<
I didn’t mention, in my earlier post, that I spent the better part of the post-bike ride day in the very pleasant company of three lovely ladies: , and our friend Lisa, who’s back in the States on a short holiday. I felt just like Bernie Mac’s Bosley in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. Without all of the explosions. We went to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. The food was quite good, as always. After dinner, we came back to the house and hung out for a few hours, until breakfast. Breakfast was… not too bad. The people watching was better-than-average. And that was despite the lack of The Singles, too! There was a large group that came in around 12:30. I don’t know really what to say about them other than the fact that I don’t think that I have ever, before last night, seen a group where the men were ALL better-looking than the women. All of them. To a man. *shiver*

> Play >

Last night, I said that I was “beyond tired.” I didn’t realize just how tired that was. I figured it out when I woke up and looked at the clock this morning. It was ten minutes before noon when I finally dragged myself away from The Dreaming and back into The Waking World.

I puttered about the house for a couple of hours before I realized that here isn’t where I wanted to be. A conversation with and a shower later, I was ready to be out in the sun. And to get something to eat.

We stopped at Jitterbug Coffee Hop for lunch. The shop was empty; Bruce said that it had been slow all day. People started showing up after we got there. Go figure. Bruce even cracked a joke about it: “What did I say about it being slow today?” After tasty sandwiches and drinks, we were off to…

The Utah Arts Festival was being held at Library Square this weekend. There were many cool exhibitions. More than once, I wished that I had lots of money to spend on some of the items that I saw. Fortunately, most of the artisans had cards/flyers… with their website addresses on them. I may have to shop at a later date. One of the very cool events was the presentation by Project Bandaloop

Project Bandaloop honors nature, community, and the human spirit through dance. The company, under the artistic direction of Amelia Rudolph, creates a blend of dance, sport, ritual, and environmental awareness. Inspired by the possibilities of climbing and rappelling, the choreography draws on aerial, vertical and horizontal movement to craft dances, many site-specific. The work explores the relationship between movement and gravity and stimulates viewers’ awareness of their natural and built environments. Project Bandaloop hopes to enrich the quality of life with their performances, out-reach and ability to bring dance to new audiences. Since 1996, the company has enjoyed performing for close to half a million people.
      – from the Project Bandaloop website

They did an… aerial ballet (best way to describe it) on the side of the City Library. Literally. On. The. Side. It was quite a sight. I took a few pictures, hopefully, I’ll get them posted in the not-too-distant future. After their performance was over, we watched The Great Basin Street Band play Dixieland Jazz, which is one of my favorite styles of music. We saw ‘s mother and stepfather – for the first time in a long time – while listening to the band. The band played a forty-five minute set; they closed with a rousing version (and let’s face it: Is there any other version) of When the Saints Go Marchin’ In. When their time was done, we left the Festival.

We stopped at and ‘ place, since it was (indirectly) on the way home. Nox was just finishing a game of Twilight Imperium when we got there; Nyx hadn’t come in from work yet, but she got there about ten to fifteen minutes after we arrived. We had a nice visit, as usual.

And now, we’re at home… and I’m contemplating the joys of a late-night bowl of cereal.

Stray Toasters

• I still haven’t come up with a new name for this section.
• Beam me up, Hollywood! – “We count off the greatest beams, lasers, death rays and photon streams in movie history”
• posted a link to this videogame quiz. I got 15 out of 18. Yeah… guess who spent as much time as I could as my mother would allow in an arcade (or playing Intellivision). Mm-hmm, that’s right. Me.
• Nyx sent me a link to this webcomic. It’s fairly work-safe… as long as your boss isn’t reading over your shoulder. (Has to be “reading,” the pictures are work-safe.)
• Power Tool Drag Races – I really don’t know what else to say.
• “God help us.”
  

• founditemclothing.com
• I can’t believe that I completely forgot this car when I wrote Thursday’s Stray Toaster about “Hollywood’s most loved car.”
• Robots Bunnies in disguise! –
• Top 10 Mac Failures
• 
• “SkyNet is now online…”
  Okay… so thisisn’t really SkyNet. Nor will they start mass-producing Cyberdyne CSM-801s that look remarkably like Arnold Schwarzenegger (we hope), but it does involve George Lucas, so it’s anybody’s guess as to where and how it will end up…

• “I’m so glad I’m on LiveJournal.” –

…and that’s all for tonight.

Namaste.

Dateline: Saturday, 25 June 05
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

I took the K2 for a ride up the Jordan River Parkway. I had invited a few people to join me, but no one took me up on the offer. Their loss.

I started at the 6400 South trail head. I set a moderate pace; I had nothing but air, opportunity and time, so I didn’t see a need to rush. I made it to the International Peace Gardens in roughly an hour and fifteen minutes, which I thought was a reasonable time. That also included the time that I took me to get back on the trail after veering about a mile-and-a-half or two off the path. I’ll just say that I took “the scenic route… through a residential area.” “They,” some nameless division of the Salt Lake Parks and Recreation Department, are repairing parts of the trail. One of the places where there is no path – but there is lots of construction equipment – was under the 2100 South overpass. I had to dismount and walk the bike through this area.

When I got to the Gardens, I stopped between the German, Japanese and Lebanese gardens. I called the paternal unit and talked for a while before getting back on the bike and heading a little further north. I made it to 400 South – around the I-80 overpass – when I lost the trail. It just seemed to… stop. I know that it picked up somewhere on the other side of I-80, but I figured that I could discover where on another excursion. I turned around and headed back.

The southbound trip was good… despite the fact that I was riding into a head wind. Even so, I enjoyed the ride. I also discovered where it was that I lost the bike trail on my northbound ride. I believe that my thought when I saw where I’d turned off was “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me…” And I rode on. Around the time that I got near 4800 South, a light sprinkling rain, though not enough to call it a “drizzle,” started to fall. The opening to The Who’s Love Reign O’er Me started playing in my head; it made me laugh. The rain stopped and I pressed on.

I made it back to the car around 1:40 PM. I was hot, tired, and VERY sweaty… but it was worth it. Spending a few hours out in the sun was a good thing. Except for the “biker’s butt.” I have/had always wondered about guys who wore biker shorts. But, now, I’m beginning to see the benefits of ’em… especially the ones with the padded seats. I might have to make some serious inquiries into acquiring a pair or two…

After the ride, I made a few realizations:

1. I like the new bike.
2. Getting out and riding was a fun – and more productive – alternative to being a couch/computer chair potato.
3. There was no one but me to push me to keep going. I think that I did a good job of that – after getting to the Gardens, I planned to ride up to at least North Temple Street. I-80, however, put the kibosh on that. For now.
4. While it would have been nice to have others along for the ride, it was nice to go it alone. I could set my own pace and not have to worry about going too fast or too slow.
5. For the most part, people on the trail practiced common courtesy to others around them. I think that I only noted two or three exceptions to that.

I may have to do this again next weekend. Although, it will probably ride to the southern end of the trail, for variety.

Saturday
I had a great day.
But I am beyond tired.
I’ll put in a few words about the day after I get some sleep.

Namaste.

Friday
I had planned on waking up and taking a brief ride before getting up for work. Instead, I woke up forty-five minutes later than I had planned – which was still fine for regular work-prep. In a very un-me-like manner (at least of late), I was showered, dressed and ready-to-go in short order.

Work was productive, but not busy. I finally got around to doing a couple of things that I have been planning for a couple of weeks. This was good because it will make parts of my job easier. And I’m all for making things easier and a little more streamlined.

After work, it was off to ‘ders for tonight’s Clitorati gathering. I got there early. I sat and read while I waited for everyone to show up. Slowly, the masses gathered; we had a good group – I think that it may have been the largest that we’ve had in a long time. I don’t think that we ran anyone out of the cafe tonight… despite some of the conversations. We headed to Cheers: North a little early. There were so many of us that we sat at the bar. We took up almost all of the seats. Too bad we didn’t have Nerf guns…

Bad news: and Marie are heading back to Michigan tonight. 27 hours. Two dogs. And a lot of road. That’s almost as good as Smokey & the Bandit, although Burt, Jerry and Jackie aren’t involved. Nor is there a truckload of beer.

Good news: will be back in early September.

Tomorrow, I am taking the K2 out for a trail ride. The Jordan River Parkway (1, 2) isn’t too far from the house and it’s a nice trail. I haven’t decided where I’m going to start, though; it’s a toss-up between the 64th South and 70th South trail heads. I do know that I’m planning on being on the trail by 10:00. I’m going to go at least as far as the International Peace Gardens. If I’m up for it, I might even ride to the north end of the trail. We shall see.

Stray Toasters

• This was forwarded to me by a coworker. It amused me because it reminded me of the days of Quantum Computer Service’s “Quantum Link” (1, 2) (or Q-Link) service of the late 80s. Just me, my Commodore 64… and the company that would become AOHell. Those were the days…
• As if I didn’t have enough distractions: BrickJournal.
• The Photographers’ Railroad Page
• For those who have been trained by it
  No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.
       “Discipline,” by Bobby McFerrin and Voicestra, featuring Robert McFerrin, Sr.

• The Dying Art of Bullet Making
• Just when you think that you’ve seen everything: Chocolate Sneakers
• First there was Dance Dance Revolution.
  Then, there was Dance Dance Immolation.
  Now… there’s Kick Ass Kung-Fu.

• For : From the cover of Black Panther #8 – Storm.

Namaste.

Thursday
(…and this time, I’m sure that it’s Thursday!)

All-in-all, it was a good day. We didn’t have any grand discussions at work today. *shrug* There’s always tomorrow… The workday was good. I was able to accomplish a few things and put myself in a good place for winding up the week.

The post-workday was cool, too. , Marie, Bruce (whose BW nick I can’t recall) and Larry (not of the bowling crew) came over and watched Game 7 of the NBA Finals. And Men in Black (not to be confused with Men on Bikes) was on HBO, after the game.

AND… I had a nice conversation with , who should make it to Clitorati tomorrow night. And that’s always a good thing.

Stray Toasters

• I’ve used the term “stray toasters” as a synonym for “the random things that just pop up in my head” for a few years now. I have liked the phrase ever since I first saw it – it was the name of a Marvel Comics graphic novel. I am beginning to think that I might want to find a new phrase to use. But, I have no idea of “what.”
• Did… did your butt just say “Ow”? –
• By way of : http://www.esao.net
• For Nyx: I hope that you feel better soon.
• We the people
  In order to form a more perfect union…
  Establish justice, insure domestic tranquility…
  Provide for the common defense…
  Promote the general welfare and…
  Secure the blessings of Liberty,
  For ourselves and our posterity,
  Do ordain and establish this Constitution
  For the United States of America….

  How many of you hummed the Schoolhouse Rock! version of that while you read it?

• “Ooo! Whatcha doin’?”
  “It’s a game called The Sims. Humans amuse themselves by pretending to be in control of their destiny.”
  

• : Have you heard about this? Supreme Court gives companies the right to bulldoze homeowners’ houses for mini-malls and the like. There was something about it earlier on Slashdot, as well:
  

  “CNN is reporting that the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in a case where a local community seized private houses for commercial development (not public works) under the guise of eminent domain. Needless to say, the little guy loses to the commercial developer this case… “

• Apple’s new Intel-based Mac
• : Click here.
• From the Calgary Sun:
  

  Hollywood’s most loved car’s back
  After a long gap, Disney is finally making another Herbie movie with Herbie: Fully Loaded, starring Lindsay Lohan. The successful franchise of a Volkswagen Beetle (numbered the now legendary 53) began in 1968 with The Love Bug.

  The MOST beloved car? What about KITT, from Knight Rider? Or Bandit’s Trans-Am from Smokey and the Bandit? How about the General Lee (also making an appearance on the silver screen in this summer’s The Dukes of Hazzard)? Or the various incarnations of the Batmobile…?! Hell, I’ll even throw in My Mother, the Car (…and, no, I did not make that up). I know that Herbie is/was a very beloved car, but “the most?” I don’t know about that.

• Kicking ass and taking names… for God.
• A little something for …
  

• Rosey Grier’s Needlepoint for Men
• For Nyx and Nox: Pirates, Pirates and Zombies…

I’m up out.

Namaste.