Random Access

Wednesday
Midweek.

The twins seem to be doing well. Not quite back at 100%, but I’d give them high-80s to low-90s. And they’ve become quite the attention whores, as Jess calls them. Sometimes, they get pretty mouthy when they aren’t being lavished with attention and affection. But, they’re still cute.

On the flip side of the coin, Sissy seems to be more perturbed with them now than she was before we took them to the vet. Maybe she thought that they weren’t coming back and is mad that she has to share again. She’s been growling and generally bitchy to them. *shrug* She’ll get over it. Eventually.

NPR and Other News
Morning Edition: Car Salesman Taken for a Ride
All Things Considered: Paris Marks 60th Anniversary of Liberation from Nazis
Fresh Air: Robert Plant, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, William Shatner
Fresh Air: John Barry (composer) and Tom Jones
KUER-FM: Building a Jazz Library

Electronic Frontier Foundation: Music Publisher Settles Copyright Skirmish Over Guthrie Classic

CNN.com: What would you say?

Stray Toasters

• Played in my first online poker tournament tonight. I finished 1005 out of 5998 total players. I’m pretty happy with that.
• Note to self: When uploading pictures, use “Binary” transfer, not “ASCII”
• Beer Advocate
• Thanks to for the link to The World’s Largest Pink Ribbon
• Arthur Alsberg, scriptwriter for The Flintstones and The Jetsons died.
• I don’t recall what I was looking for, but in going through some old posts I came across the link to Reasonably Clever. It’s chock full of Lego® goodness.
• loves me so much that she wants to hug my face off.
• : Dark Knight Returns action figures and screen caps from The Batman
• When there’s evil on the attack
  You can rest knowing they got your back
  ‘Cuz when the world needs heroes on patrol…

• I just made the background on part of my page annoyingly bright, so that I can tell when the DNS servers are pointed to the new address.
• The Superfriends (or at least their voice) speak out…
• Star-Spangled Ice Cream… “Ice cream with a conservative flavor.”
• Words can’t even begin to explain how ludicrous this story is…
• Vin Diesel… as Lex Luthor…? *shiver* That would be wrong on so many levels.
• I just read an preview about “This Little Piggy,” this week’s episode of Justice League Unlimited. It made me laugh.
  

  “This Little Piggy,” this Saturday’s episode of Justice League Unlimited, features a musical number with Batman.

  Really.

  “Since 1991, when we first started making Batman, we always joked about making Batman: The Musical because Kevin Conroy, who voices Batman, is a fine singer,” explained Justice League voice director Andrea Romano. “In this episode, Batman is forced to do something humiliating in order for a spell to be reversed. And what he is forced to do is sing a song, and he sings it wonderfully.”

  Rachel York, who plays Circe in “This Little Piggy,” also gets to sing in the episode.

  “You just don¹t get to do many musical numbers in Justice League, so that’s really, really fun,” Romano said.

• When I think of “Thor,” this (big guy on the left) seems much more appropos than this one.

Poll of the Day

I think that’s all.
For now.

Namaste.

Tuesday
Today’s highlight: Picking up the twins from the vet. We had them declawed and had their plumbing reworked so that there will be no incest kittens. (NOTE: We chose to have them declawed; if you’re not a fan of declawing, I respect that and expect the same type of respect for our choice in reciprocity.) Unlike when we brought Sissy and Xena home from their appointment, the twins have been moderately active… at least as active as their “kitty Lortab” will let them be. Maybe this even means that we will get a kitten wrestling-free night of sleep!

I talked with Mom and my stepfather this evening. All seems well on the eastern front. Mom also said that Kris is adjusting to her new place and law school.

Stray Toasters

• The great domain migration (Thanks, !) is under way. Sometime over the course of the next few days, some of the images in my posts might go *pfft*. I’ll do what I can to put them into the proper places, post transfer.
• : I saw this and immediately thought of you.
• : This one’s for you.
• Wow.
• I have a mansion, forget the price…
  I’ve never been there, they tell me it’s nice.

• It was bound to happen, someone was bound to do it: Cherry has designed a Linux keyboard.
• Get a girlfriend, you’ll understand.
• The Virtual Toilet Paper Museum

It’s MUCH later than I had thought. And that means…. Bedtime!

Namaste.

Monday
I finally got to sleep around 5:45 this morning. Not good. I slept in MUCH later than I had planned, but it was a very restful sleep… so that was good. I just hope that the cycle breaks soon.

No one showed up for poker, either. *sigh* came over after she got off work. She, Jess and I watched some of the Olympic coverage on NBC and Bravo.

Stray Toasters

• In theory, putting a new bookcase in a room should help make things more neat and orderly. *looks around room* So, what happened here?!
• I don’t have a joke here, but I found this and couldn’t keep it to myself. The rest of the site is pretty good.
• George Lucas may make sequels to the Star Wars trilogy. If Episode III turns out to be another piece of tripe, will audiences really want to pay to see them?
• “You know, once you feng shui the organs, it’s kind of cozy.” -Stewie
• I have been doing searches for JLU pics – time to update my GL icon to reflect his new look. I did a search for “Justice Unlimited” and it returned pictures of the U.S. Supreme Court. On the whole, this line-up is even more scary looking than the ’86 Celtics starting five. *shiver*
• : I think that the transfer can be done fairly easily. And painlessly.
• This reminded me of far too many days at the REC:
• The “Ultimatization” of DC comics? Published under their Wildstorm banner? This bears keeping an eye on.
• From the promo blurb for an upcoming She-Hulk TPB comes the best personal ad for a superhero:
  

  Single Green Female, outgoing, intelligent, great sense of humor. Enjoys clubbing, dishing with gal-pals and saving the universe. Ready to put old issues behind and make a fresh start. Contact Jen W. at Avengers Mansion.

• New rumours… of a possible… Legion cartoon…
• Is it a bad sign that I actually want to see Resident Evil: Apocalypse? Of course, if it’s a total piece, I can hold out hope for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
• “And free cookies.”
  

• : The Oompa Loompas in Tim Burton’s new “Charlie And The Chocolate Factory” are planned to be all CGI and each a different colour. They are currently test-shooting footage for this. (from Comic Book Resources)

Okay, time to try sleeping.

Namaste.

Sunday
Sleeping in = GOOOD!!! *gesture* I think that my lack of sleep finally caught up with me. Thank God. Not being able to sleep is not fun. Catching up on the rest was a good thing. And, it’s been a semi-lazy day about the house. I did do few things that I can stick under the “productive” banner.

came over this evening and worked on the gauntlets for my Hallowe’en costume. Aww, yeah.

And there’s poker morrownight. Selah.

Stray Toasters

• Last night’s 2D high score: 190.
• The Moody Blues song Nights in White Satin is not about the Klan; it would be Knights in White Cotton, if it was.
  (But, the spoken part at the end of the song used to creep me out as a kid.)

• Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip…
• I had yet another good (and thought-provoking) conversation with this evening.
• Jean Grey… or The Phoenix… or both of them… are coming back. Perhaps for the last time.
  

  With Phoenix’s 25th anniversary on the horizon, Marvel announced at Wizard World Chicago last weekend that it will celebrate that landmark with a new five-issue mini-series, “X-Men: Phoenix – Endsong,” written by Greg Pak (“Warlock”) with art by Greg Land coming January of 2005.

• Utah drivers.
• “Who doesn’t like parfait?” (Or three-legged races?)
• From Slashdot: News of an origami convention in Japan.
• , I think that you’ll like this.
• I should call the ‘rents tomorrow…um… “today.”

Quote of the Day

[22:23] *UglyKid* any one have time stamped when i asked how to spell martyr?
[22:23] [21:52] *UglyKid* how do you spell Mar-ter?
[22:23] [21:53] *DArcThang* martyr?
[22:23] lol
[22:23] *UglyKid* 9:53 then?
[22:24] Technically, you asked at 9:52, but my clock…. but why quibble.
[22:24] *UglyKid* well…yeah…i ment when did i get the word…oh well…
[22:24] That wasn’t the question that you asked, though. 🙂
[22:24] You asked “…when I asked…”
[22:24] *UglyKid* wrote a new song it took me about 30 min 🙂
[22:25] *UglyKid* yeah yeah…always with the technicalites
[22:25] Comes with the job. 😀
[22:25] *UglyKid* 🙂
[22:25] I figured that you’d be used to it by now.
[22:25] *UglyKid* yep..and i wouldnt change it
[22:25] Good answer. 😉
[22:26] *UglyKid* rob i’ve always considered you my batman to superman…my frylock to shake…
[22:26] *UglyKid* dont know if i ever told you that
[22:26] *UglyKid* but that’s how i see our relationship
[22:26] *UglyKid* usual the batman/superman one
[22:26] I can live with that.

And I’m not tired. Verdammt. Maybe a drive will help lull me to sleep.

Namaste.

My affinity for Cartoon Network and Boomerang are common knowledge. Today, Boomerang featured shows from 1980. I caught part of Thundarr the Barbarian and Superfriends. I have been a fan of the Justice League for many years. I remember waiting to watch the various animated incarnations of the team (and the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man and… and… and…) with a bowl of cereal in hand.

Something that I never understood: The “need” to have the “Junior Superfriends” (Marvin, Wendy and Wonder Dog or Jayna, Zan and Gleek). Did the powers-that-be think that kids needed younger heroes’ perspective to be drawn into the shows? C’mon. We’re talking the big guns of the DCU. How many kids have to be prodded into watching Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and the rest? Well, I can understand needing a helpful nudge for watching Aquaman, but why quibble? And it’s not like the DCU didn’t have young heroes with decent powers, as evidenced when the Wonder Brats disappeared and were replaced with Firestorm and Cyborg. I never liked the Wonder Twins. Unless they were in mortal peril. They were like the poor man’s version of Robin the Boy Hostage Wonder!

But I digress…

Today, they showed an episode called “The Lord of Middle Earth.” I watched a few minutes of it before flagging down to suffer with me. In it the Wonder Hostages, um, I mean “Twins” were captured by “Malhavoc,” turned into trolls and forced to… oh, just read the synopsis.

This is the play-by-play of the conversation that and I had while watching it:

[14:05] : Do you have Boomerang?
[14:05] : Yeah…
[14:05] : I apologize for this, but turn it on.
[14:05] : Episode: “The Lord of Middle Earth”
[14:05] : O_o
[14:07] : Batman sounds like a pussy
[14:08] : *cracks up*
[14:08] : This just reinforces why I [heart] JLU
[14:08] : Bat-Troll
[14:08] : *cracks up*
[14:09] : THREE DEADLY TASKS!
[14:09] : Magic ring of Gandor?!
[14:09] : *FLOOR*
[14:10] : <facepalm>
*Batman/Bat-Troll gets captured by the tongue… of a cave that has become a giant mouth*
[14:10] : Bat-Vienna Sausage
*Troll-der Woman defangs the cave and she, Bat-Troll, Gleek and the King of the Trolls run into the reverted cave*
[14:11] : Wasn’t that just trying to eat him?
[14:11] : what in god’s name?
[14:11] : And they…run…in…?
[14:11] : yeah…
*insert stupid “M.O.T.O.” comment from Bat-Troll*
[14:11] : No shit, Captain Bat-Obvious.
[14:12] : Cro Mag-Bat
[14:12] : heh
[14:12] : Hera to Wonder Woman: Sit up straight! You’ll ruin your posture!
[14:12] : BWAHAHAAHHA
*Batman/Bat-Troll temporarily captures Malhavoc in a Bat-forcefield*
[14:13] : You’ve got to be kidding me…
[14:14] : That’s all it took!?
[14:14] : O_O
*HIGHLIGHT OF THE EPISODE: The Wonder-Trolls, in a cage, are being lowered into… something… that spells certain doom for them*
[14:14] : Let ’em fry!
[14:14] : Let ’em fry!
[14:14] : Superman looks a li’l gawth…
[14:16] : I can’t watch this…
[14:16] : Tolkein must be rolling in his grave.

Finding out that some of the Saturday morning cartoons that I used think were great were just pabulum shatters so many of my illusions. Granted, a lot of today’s toons aren’t much better, but I still hold out hope that more of them will reach the level of JLU or any number of anime series.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled LiveJournal reading…

Friday
Not much to the early day to report.

I hung out with Perry for a bit this afternoon. He’s been having some networking issues, so I told him that I’d help out. Seems that Kate’s computer is being uppity. I’m going back over there this weekend to adjust its opinion of the other computers. Or break it. Whichever comes first. (Although, I think that fixing the problem will be the cheapest solution.)

We had a decent turnout for coffee tonight. A good mix of people and a wide range of topics makes for a good way to spend the evening. And, adding to the goodness: has some ideas for GL costumes for Perry and me.

PRE-SEASON FOOTBALL!

Baltimore at Philadelphia
17 – 26
Preseason game in Philly. Since I wasn’t home, I taped it. The boys didn’t win this one, but it was a pretty decent game. There were enough mistakes to cost them a “W” but I’m sure that Coach Billick will have them back in shape next week.

NPR and Other News
Morning Edition: Lactic Acid May Not Cause Muscle Fatigue
TotN – Science Friday: Formerly Conjoined Twins Leading Independent Lives
All Things Considered: Reggae Singers Warned over Anti-Gay Lyrics
All Things Considered: Muslim Women Break Barriers to Reach Olympics
All Things Considered: Relic a Reminder of Slavery’s Horrors
All Things Considered: The Middle East and the West: WWI and Beyond

New York Times: Senator Blacklisted by No-Fly List

InformationWeek: IE Flaw Affects Windows XP SP2 Systems

Stray Toasters

• If all goes well, we may be rid of one of the lilac bushes tomorrow.
  *crossing fingers*

• I recently discovered that Reflections has landed on Shockwave.com’s “Gameblast.” A service for which you have to pay. GRRR.
• Comics Continuum has breakdowns on some of the major characters from Warner Bros.’ new cartoon: The Batman.
• I think that I have mentioned that I’m a fan of Dick Van Dyke at least once or twice. Something that I didn’t know was that he is into computer graphics. No, not MS Paint. Think more along the lines of Lightwave. Yeah, one of the big guns. Who knew?! Thanks to for the article.
• Ever wonder what your fish are up to when you aren’t around?
• Slashdot has an article about D&D documentaries.
• Infoworld’s Six great myths of IT
• U.S. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps has been nothing short of spectacular over the course of the Summer Games. In and out of the water. I think that his decision to step aside and give his place in the 400M medley relay to Ian Crocker epitomizes the word “sportsmanship.” And all of this from a nineteen-year-old. If more athletes in other sports were so willing to share the spotlight, what would the sporting world be like…?
• “If you don’t thtop, I’m going to get vampire cootieth all over you.”
  

Quote of the Day
Gleaned from Leah at tonight’s coffee gathering:

I thought my boobs were going to fall off…

Namaste.

Thursday
Stuff… stuff… more stuff… other stuff.

And then we went to Cheers for dinner. Kate was there. I do believe that I’m going over to her place to hand out with Perry for a bit tomorrow. Gotta talk GL costumes and whatnot.

Chris Rock: Never Scared. I haven’t seen one of his stand-up routines in a long time. It was funny.

NPR and Other News
Morning Edition: Naked Olympics Tale Exposed
Morning Edition: Oscar-Winning Composer Elmer Bernstein, 82, Dies
Morning Edition: Dungeons and Dragons Turns 30
Morning Edition: Spanish Town Hosts Running of the Bulls for Kids
All Things Considered: Women Unrepentant over Man’s Killing in India
All Things Considered: The Middle East and the West: Carving Up the Region
All Things Considered: Maine Lighthouse Searches for New Owner

Stray Toasters

• Gummy Worlds + Gatorade = Best of both worlds.
• There’s a preseason game tomorrow night:
  vs.
  At the Vet. Kick-off is at 6:00 (MDT). And I won’t be here. Looks like I’ll see this one on tape.

• From come two bits of video amusement: Godless video and Reno 911
• A friend from the USPS sent a link to this.
• POVCOMP 2004 – Digital art. Very good digital art.
• I’m not sure how many to whom this will apply: PowerBook G4 Battery Recall
• Jimmy crack corn
  And I don’t care…
  If he was “popping” corn, on the other hand, I’d be all over it.

• The Functions of Henna Traditions during the Childbirth and Postpartum Period
• There’s a rumour (just a rumour, at this point) that Smallville‘s Tom Welling may have agreed to test for the lead in Brian Singer’s version of Superman. Some of the powers-that-be at Warner Bros. aren’t too thrilled about it. (They’re most likely thinking about their Smallville revenue going *poof*.)
• caloriesperhour.com
• By way of Backwash: The Great American Road Trip
• I can usually count on pics in the DCG to make me smile. This was no exception.
• Former Teen Titans Hawk and Dove move up to the Big League on this week’s episode of JLU
  

• Just when you thought that it was safe to buy an aquarium:

Quote of the Day
From Chris Rock: Never Scared

If Iraq was such a bad country… how come we took it over in two weeks? You can’t even take over Baltimore in two weeks!

Namaste.

Wednesday
Prokofiev.
Schober.
Mozart.

Those are the composers whose works were performed this evening by Keith Lockhart and the Utah Symphony, with guest artists eighth blackbird. It was the last of the Deer Valley Music Festival series. And it was fun. The classical pieces were performed by Utah Symphony; and while I’m not a typically a fan of modern composers, Schober’s work, performed by the symphony and eighth blackbird wasn’t bad. It was a very nice change of pace. I think that I want season tickets to the symphony.

NPR and Other News
Morning Edition: Want Pot with That Shake?
Morning Edition: Mel Brooks: A Lifetime of Laughter
Morning Edition: Ruby Tuesday’s: An Experiment in Eating Out Smart
Morning Edition: Ozomatli: A Multi-Ethnic Musical Fusion (See also: Ozomatli.com)
All Things Considered: College Challenges Oregon’s ‘Diploma Mill’ Law
All Things Considered: A Case for Nude Olympians
All Things Considered: ‘The Reunion:’ The Integration of Shaker Heights
All Things Considered: The Middle East and the West: Rise of the Ottomans

USA Today: Blind students to launch rocket under NASA program

Stray Toasters

• Toblerone white chocolate. Mm-hmm, that’s right. Bow down.
• Thanks to everyone who responded to the biking poll. I have one question for those of you who said that you aren’t riders: How did you come about your answers to the other questions if you don’t ride a bike? I’m not trying to be a smartass (this time), I’m just curious. It reminded me of this poll in which I asked “Do you currently have a broadband connection?” The follow-up was “If you answered yes…” And I got responses from non-broadband users. *boggle*
• Sib3 still wants to be a pirate, but he remembered why he didn’t want to join the Navy (white uniforms aside): He’s not too fond of the water. So, I think that I’ve convinced him to become a sky pirate. That way he gets the best of both worlds: He can be a pirate AND still get to fly.
• are hatching plans to run for office. We don’t think that we can run as a ticket, so… we have to figure out a way to get him into a position in the ascendency. Something like Speaker of the House.
• By way of : Bears of discriminating taste prefer Rainier.
• By way of : Star Trek Service Pack 1
• Sharon Stone is on The Late Show with David Letterman She’s amusing. She might be a bit tipsy.
• Interview with Paul Dini
• Badminton is an Olympic sport!? When did this happen?!?
• USA Today ran the following poll: “What movie match-ups do you want to see?” As of 12:35 AM (MDT), the results were:
  38.59% – Halle Berry’s Catwoman vs. Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman
  27.16% – Batman vs. Spider-Man
  16.74% – Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man vs. Shrek 2‘s Gingerbread Man
    9.68% – Ewoks vs. the Hobbits
    7.83% – Bad Santa vs. Santa Clause
• Antigravity

Artist of the Day
PCAF exhibitors Amelia Chao and Paul Ogren: Lightscape Gallery

Namaste.

Tuesday
Another day done. I didn’t get as much done as I wanted… or would have liked.

But, there’s always tomorrow.

NPR and Other News
Talk of the Nation: Carl Reiner: Comedy as a Life’s Work
All Things Considered: Creative Spaces: Phylicia Rashad’s Nature Escape
All Things Considered: Coal Miners Lose Health Benefits in Bankruptcy
All Things Considered: The Middle East and the West: The Crusades

USA Today: ‘Boots’ takes Gold at the Ferret Olympics
(: You might want to start getting Simon in shape!)
USA Today: Cat in cockpit causes emergency landing
USA Today: Spielberg to direct War of the Worlds, Cruise to star.

Stray Toasters

• Gummy worms. ‘Nuff said.
• By way of Slashdot: Article about Star Wars (Eps. IV – VI) DVDs.
• I just saw a very cool commercial for the Clark Planetarium.
• Goodbye Kitty
  (Disclaimer: No real cats were harmed in the making of this journal entry.)

• …speaking of which: , click here.
• Keep on looking forward, no use in looking ’round;
  Hold your head above the ground and they won’t bring you down.

• “I got points off for writing ‘incesters’ instead of ‘ancestors.’ Same difference.”
  

• Even though I don’t care for Sealab 2021, I have to admit that the “trailer” for Tinfins made me laugh.
• I just finished watching Pluto Nash. Not a great movie, but it was mindless fun… I’d still have to put it on the Cool World-Long Kiss Goodnight Scale. Mid 7s to low 8s. I’ve been an Eddie Murphy fan since… oy… his early Saturday Night Live appearances. While I watched Nash, was giving me the play-by-play of her latest Bollywood fare. As scary as it might be, I may have to watch it.
• Time Squad!
• By way of Backwash: Marry Blaire.
• I just received spam titled “Re: Spiderman Pharmacy”

Poll of the Day
Based on a couple of things that I saw while driving around today…

Quote of the Day
Comedian Alonzo Bodden, on The Late, Late Show with Craig Kilborn:

I think there ought to be a rule: If you’re hanging out with a bunch of women and they don’t help you get laid, one of them should take one for the team.

Namaste.

Monday
Slept in again this morning. I needed it.

Ran a few errands, including a trip to reprint my resume – I had to correct a point that and pointed out this weekend. Ran into KKKaren at ‘ office. She actually spoke! I gave her a short answer and walked away. If I had really been thinking, the “short answer” would have been the “curt answer.” Maybe next time.

Poker night with one of – if not “the” – largest groups we’ve had. Lots of fun.

Stray Toasters

• Talked with the parental units today. All is well.
• I think that I surprised the poker group when they saw my tasty iced creams topped with a heaping helping of Honeycomb® cereal. *shrug*
• Lego® + Alien = this.
• By way of came a link for: Quantum Sleeper.
• Here are a few comics-related goodies:
  • : For you – 1 and 2, 3.
  • : Click here and here.
  • : I think that you’ll like this.
• If you’re a child of the late 60s or early 70s (or if you have Cartoon Network and/or Boomerang), you know who this is:
  Beginning in November, he will star in a 6-issue mini-series from DC Comics.

  SPACE GHOST #1
  Written by Joe Kelly, art by Ariel Olivetti and cover by Alex Ross.

  It’s the real Space Ghost in a way that’s never been seen before anywhere — in all-out super-hero action!.The cartoon hero is the star of the 6-issue mini-series that sheds light on this mysterious figure’s shadowy past.

  A young policeman joins an elite space force that turns out to be horribly corrupt. When his moral standards don’t permit him to live a lie, our hero attempts to stop them…at the cost of his own family — and his soul. Witness the origin of one of the most beloved super-heroes ever.

• While I like having the futon in the HALO Command Center, I’m thinking of taking it out. What would I use to replace it? No idea. Putting it in the guest bedroom seems to be a tad more apropos… and it would save us from having to get a bed, at least for the short term. Besides, if I do take it out, I could get a table and put up my Lego® train and Rokenbok® Monorail. Decisions, decisions…
• I think that I will continue to mow the lawn in the middle of the week. I like not having to deal with it on Saturday afternoons. And that means more play time!
• Finland, Finland, Finland…

Namaste.

Sunday
I slept in until late this morning early this afternoon. And it felt good. Except for my back. It hurt a bit when I woke up. But, the twins were nice enough to let me sleep, too.

Didn’t do much today. I did watch “Kids’ Stuff,” the episode of JLU that I missed yesterday. It was worth the wait. Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern and Superman were regressed to pre-teens. I don’t know how many of the writers have young kids, but the dialogue and interplay was great. (And DCU fans will note an homage of sorts to GL Kyle Rayner…) This episode could easily become one of my favorites.

We had dinner with and at The Mayan. It was as amusing, as usual. Our waitress, Stephanie, was a joy. More service personnel should be so pleasant. 🙂

Stray Toasters

• I got calls from Bret and my uncle this afternoon. I couldn’t let them get off the line without throwing a couple of digs in about the Rusty Iron Curtain getting whooped by Detroit.
• What do you get when you combine SoulBlade/SoulCalibur and Nelly? I didn’t know either… until Nyx showed me this.
• …and then she sent this.
• A couple of Batman Begins Q&A panels from Wizard World Chicago (1, 2).
• The last panel of this is dedicated to .
• Zombie Panda!
• Banners!

Rant: Team USA Basketball at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games
I watched some of today’s coverage. I saw Puerto Rico snap off a little somethin’ on Team USA. And while I want the U.S. teams to do well, I was glad that they lost.

This was the first U.S. team to lose a basketball game in sixteen years, when professional athletes were allowed to play for the U.S. The prevailing attitude seems to have been “We can’t be beaten.” Well… today, they were.

It was nice to see karma and reality team up to slap a bit of the cockiness out of the team. Even the coach, Larry Brown, has said that he hasn’t felt confident about the way the team has played. And there was the drubbing that they took at the hands of Italy in the pre-Olympic games…

Hopefully, this means that they’ll buckle down and start playing like a cohesive unit. And maybe, just maybe, they’ll bring their “A” game the next time they lace up their sneakers for a game.
</rant>

And with that…

Namaste.

Saturday
After staying up until nearly 5:00 and getting up around 9:30, it’s easy to understand why I was ever-so-slightly tired this morning. I napped intermittently from 11-something until 1:30. In between, I caught snippets of the Scooby’s Laff-A-Lympics marathon on Boomerang. I flipped over to Cartoon Network and was drawn into the world of Duck Dodgers in the 24½ Century.

I half-heartedly pondered what to do with the rest of the day. Thankfully, Bill called. He was having the same quandary. We decided to head to The Gateway, get something to eat and wander around. Hark! We had a plan!

When he got here, we watched some of the coverage of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games. We saw Michael Phelps not only win a gold medal in the Men’s 400 Meter Individual Medley (swimming) with a time of 4:08.26, we saw him set a new Olympic record and a new world record (breaking his own record, if I understood the commentary correctly). And, he’s from Baltimore, to boot.

The Gateway was suitably crowded for a Saturday. We decided to try Samba Grill for lunch. It was a good, albeit expensive, choice. About 1/3 of the expense came from the Caipirinha drinks that we had; I had one, Bill had two. Very tasty. Very spendy. Especially for how small the glasses were. I also ran into a former manager and engineer from the REC while there. I was surprised to find out that they had gotten married since I had last seen them. I was also pleasantly surprised when Mike (the former manager) recalled some of the work that I had done under his watch and how favorably he looked upon it. What a nice change from the problems that I had with the last REC management team under whom I worked… I believe that I will be paying him a visit at work in the next few days – a reference/recommendation from him might be handy.

While wandering around The Gateway, we stopped in Z Gallerie. I’ve heard people mention how cool it is, so I decided to give it a shot. I wasn’t really wowwed by anything there. It kind of reminded me of an even more “upscale” Pier One Imports… but not. *shrug* I did see a couple of things that caught my eye, but they were mostly small novelty items.

We also stopped in a gallery (whose name eludes me) on the ground level. There were some nice pieces in there. The story behind the gallery’s inception can be found here. The proceeds from the sales were donated to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (or Multiple Sclerosis Foundation or possibly both, I forget which). When Pino heard about this he donated more pieces. Other artists followed. The gallery still donates proceeds from sales to the NMSS or MSF.

We picked up Jess and headed home. We watched a bit more Olympic coverage before bowling. The USA men’s gymnastic team had a rough go of it. Blaine Wilson had a nasty fall from the high bar during his routine. But, he got back on it and finished. He then went on to compete in the floor exercise. He sat out of the pommel horse exercise, but did the sill rings. NBC ran a brief story about his background as he prepared for the rings… Wow. This guy has overcome a lot of hardships – including tonight’s fall – and has bounced back to meet and defeat them.

Bowling was good. There was a good turnout, including a visit from . Larry, Mary and I bowled ironman. I did all right (145, 115/130, 148/148, 164/138). Breakfast was good, as well. There were many conversations to keep track of and many laughs. It was a good way to end the day.

Stray Toasters

• Confession: I missed JLU and Teen Titans tonight. I forgot to turn off the VCR so the timer would kick in. And I was looking forward to seeing tonight’s JLU. Fortunately, the episodes will be rebroadcast at 3:00 PM on Sunday.
• I really don’t want to second-guess the motives behind Hal Jordan’s return as Green Lantern, but… *sigh* I really hope that it was something that was at least nominally planned ten years ago (when he went insane and then regained his sanity and then sacrificed himself) and not just pandering to the “We hate Kyle, we want Hal back” brigade.
• Get yer banners that Nyx and I made for the 2004 write-in candidates!
• I need a chainsaw. And a ladder.
• Potential t-shirt designs (1, 2) from
• Two 2x4s. Running. A police officer. Restaurant with confused/startled patrons.
• I get my thing in action!
  Verb! That’s what’s happening!

• The psychotic ex-girlfriends of friends. *sigh*
  (Although, I must admit that I’m glad that it’s not one of my psychotic exes causing drama).

• Mom just logged on. I almost messaged her… then I thought about what her response would be: “Why are you not asleep?!” It’s amusing/comforting to think that I’m 33 – and two-thirds of the way across the country – but she still thinks of me as a little boy sometimes. I’ll call her after the sun’s up… and I’ve had some sleep.

Quote of the Day
Garnered from yet another chat…

[01:50] *Iso8* vollyball and beach vollyball are olympic sports? wtf?
[01:51] news to me.
[01:51] *Iso8* wtf is next? olympic frogger?
[01:51] so’s table tennis.
[01:52] *Iso8* 30 seconds watching was enough.
[01:53] *Iso8* they should only have the original sports in the olympics.
[01:53] *Iso8* chariot racing and shit like that. put these fuckers on wheels, give them spiked clubs and let them tulchuck the shit outta each other. then I’d watch.
[01:55] *Iso8* even better if they were made to wear clown suits.
[01:56] or school girls uniforms.
[02:00] *Iso8* in the original olympics, the competitors all competed naked.
[02:00] *Iso8* at least according to this doushbag on the history channel.
[02:00] so i’ve heard.
[02:03] *Iso8* they had a show where they dug up the body of one of the origianl olympians, and then spouted bunch of bullshit about how he would compare to modern athletes based on his bones.
[02:03] so what’d they come up with?
[02:03] *Iso8* they concluded that he could jump further because he was closer to a monkey.
[02:04] BWAHAHAH!! what?
[02:11] *Iso8* monkey = wrong

Namaste.

Friday
Not much to report about the early part of the day.

The evening was spent with friends over coffee and fruit smoothies. And crossword puzzles.

…and then…

One of my all-time favorites. I was a bit indecisive about whether or not I should go when everyone else bailed on me. I got in touch with and asked if she wanted to go. She agreed. We rolled out. We got to the theatre and – to my surprise – it wasn’t full. It wasn’t even half-full. This made finding seats easy. I saw m2ke and Steve S., so we sat with them.

It was a great way to end the night and the week.

News
Morning Edition: Faith Battles at the Bar
Morning Edition: Director’s Cut of Cult Hit ‘Donnie Darko’ Released
All Things Considered: New Dead Zone Forms Along Oregon’s Coast
All Things Considered: Newport Jazz Festival Celebrates 50 Years

Stray Toasters

• Unlike Sissy, it seems as though the twins like “people food.” Presto saw me eating Hostess Cupcakes earlier (with a tasty glass of cold cow squeezins) and demanded that I share. I did. A little. She pretty much devoured the bits that I gave her.
• S.H.A.F.T.: Super Heroes for Anarchy and Free Thought
  Part comic. Part satire. All funny… (if your delicate political sensibilities can handle it).

  Marvel Girl: I’ll just incapacitate the guards by psychically implanting every N*Sync song ever recorded directly into their cerebral cortex, then I’ll be inside.
  Beast: You carry that stuff around in your head? Wow. And here I thought Wolverine was the ultimate warrior.
  Marvel Girl: Sometimes you just gotta whip out the big guns.

• KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!
• If you haven’t done so already, check out the ticket that Nyx and I are proposing as write-in candidates for the 2004 election.
• Grace.
• By way of Slashdot: Life After Doom
• Wrath of Khan Trivia: All of Khan’s men were Chippendale dancers at the time.

  It has been widely debated that Ricardo Montalban’s chest was actually a prosthetic piece that he wore during the film. In the director’s commentary in the special edition DVD, Nicholas Meyer is quoted as saying that it was, in fact, Montalban’s actual chest and that he was a very muscular man who worked out. But he still had a bad wig.

• I just had the “Wrecka Stow” scene from Under a Cherry Coke… umm… Under a Cherry Moon go through my head. I think that I should be concerned about that.
• ATVs and boats. In the middle of Liberty Park.

Artist of the Day
Chuck Castro and Terrene Creations.

And with that, it’s time to call it a night.

Namaste.

and I have been examining the presidential candidates for the 2004 election. None of the current choices really seem to fit our desire for President and Vice-President, so we’re going with write-in candidates:

She felt that Mr. Nimoy was the “logical” choice for President.

I thought that the man who taught a generation to read (as The Electric Company‘s “Easy Reader”) was the perfect choice to lead that same generation to new heights of glory and greatness. And, he’s played everyone from a street pimp to God, including President of the United States. That’s the kind of versatility that I’d want in my Vice President.

Feel free to use these banners in your journals and/or spread them to your friends.

Thursday
After I dropped off Jess this morning, I stopped in to see her sister, Jenny. She cracks me up. She was telling me, half-jokingly, that she wants to be on Extreme Makeover. A few of her coworkers came into her office while I was there; she introduced me as her brother-in-law. That’s fair – I’ve been referring to their parents as “the in-laws” for about four years.

PRE-SEASON FOOTBALL!
I had completely forgotten about this game until earlier today. But the HALO Command Center now reverberates with the echoes of ESPN’s coverage of the game from M&T Bank Stadium. Selah.

Atlanta at Baltimore
0 – 24
The last time that these two teams met in pre-season (almost a year ago), Michael Vick was taken out of the game… for fourteen weeks. While I’m hoping for a Baltimore win, I know that it’s not a big deal. Yet. Because it’s “only” preseason. The Ravens had a a great first defense set and forced a punt from the 5-yd line. After a penalty on the kick, Baltimore opted to go for a re-kick. Shouldn’t have done that… because Lamont Brightful fumbled on the return. *sigh* In the end, the boys from B’more not only won, they dominated. And all was good.

NPR and Other News
Morning Edition: Skip ar Your Own Risk
Morning Edition: Paralyzed Teen Makes Bid for Gun Company
Morning Edition: Bovine Boob Job
Talk of the Nation: The Business Behind Summer Concerts

Various sources: N.J. Governor Resigns
Jess called me about this. I surfed for a bit and then turned on the television. I missed the announcement, but caught the reaction pieces on CNN. The best response that I’ve heard so far came from Crossfire‘s James Carville: “We don’t know now what we’re going to know 48 hours from now.” And with that, he refused to make any other speculations about Governor McGreevey’s reasons for what he did. Tact. I like it.

Stray Toasters

• Did I mention that there was a pre-season game tonight? And that the Ravens played in it? And that that they won?
  I did? Oh.
  Well, just for the record: There was. They were. They did.

• As an added bonus, the O’s whooped up on the Angels. 6 – 0. In Anaheim.
• I’m going to see Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan morrownight. In a theatre. The only thing that would top it would be seeing Superman: the Movie or Superman II on the big screen again.
• Piro’s most recent rant/blog on Megatokyo mentioned that he is working on a poster for the American Library Association. I went to the site and found a Neil Gaiman poster in their “Author Series.”
  
  : They had a Batgirl poster and matching bookmark, too.

• Joss Whedon says that he has not been offered the director spot for X3.
• By way of Slashdot: Turn Real Life into a Cartoon
• Jet Li is still considering the role of Kato in the proposed Green Hornet movie.
• “The Near-Death Star” (Gotta love Futurama.)
• Snack.
  Snackage.
  Snacajawea.

• Monkeysphere
• It appears that both The Beatles’ and Aerosmith’s versions of Come Together are “just” too slow to synch up with NIN’s Closer. Oh, well. I know that the two songs can be intermingled, but I just can’t do it, at the moment.
• …speaking of which: Lightning was sitting on my desk when I was watching the Flash animation of Come Together. He actually sat there and watched it. I think that the colors and movement piqued his interest.
• I caught the rebroadcast of the Celebrity Poker Showdown tournament. Jeff Gordon was one of the participants. They showed a clip of the match that he played against Penn Jilette where Penn was shouting: “Jeff Gordon goes all in!” It made me laugh.
• Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?

Artist of the Day
Don Niblack is another artisan whose work was on display at PCAF this weekend. Check out the spiders.

Namaste.