Random Access

Tuesday
Not as bad as yesterday. Which I consider a good thing.

After work we came home and mowed the jungle. We borrowed a mower from a friend on the way in… and I managed to get our mower working after we got here. Two mowers! Front and back lawns! This was perfect! We could knock them out in no time at all!

What I hadn’t taken into account was three weeks’ growth. Even the most stout-hearted of lawnmowers would be sorely pressed to stand up to the challenge. But we charged bravely forward!

And back.
And forward again.
And restarted the mowers when the grass got too thick.

And then we pressed forward again.
And back. Again.
And restarted, as necessary.

Forty-five minutes later, we prevailed! Both lawns are cut. And all was good. But, I think that I might have to consult with on the joys and benefits of xeriscaping the parking strip.

We celebrated our victory with dinner at Cheers. joined us. And I made a new shake: Peanut Butter Cup. And it was pretty damned tasty, too.

News Stories
Talk of the Nation: Lewis Black on the Democratic Convention (Funny!)
Talk of the Nation: ‘An Alchemy of Mind’
All Things Considered: Creative Spaces: Artist James Prosek’s Studio
All Things Considered: Chicago Lures Commuters into Cycling
All Things Considered: Canada Holds First Gay Divorce Proceeding

Stray Toasters

• I let my inner kid play on the Interweb this afternoon. As a result, I am now subscribed to LEGO Magazine! For two years! For free!!!
• Sandy Collora, the man behind Batman: Dead End, has done it again: World’s Finest.
• Do you have any idea how amusing it is to get emails from “postmaster” or “noreply” of your own domain – or to have “bounced” emails from other (non-existent) users of said domain – when you are the mail admin for the domain? After you get past the “It’s *#$& spam” part, it’s actually pretty funny.
• 
  

  Catwoman qualifies as top-grade catnip for connoisseurs of trashy camp. But that’s not to say that this batty extravaganza won’t find an audience, that it isn’t watchable (at your peril), or that Halle Berry doesn’t give her heedless all to the cause of feline femininity.

  She plays Patience Philips, a graphics designer who spends most of the first tedious hour tiptoeing through her life as a timid wage slave ­ she’s Mousewoman, really. Then something very silly happens ­ I won’t tell you what, but Andrew Lloyd Weber shouldn’t eat his heart out ­ and Patience turns into a lip-glossing, hip-tossing, bike-riding, whip-cracking dominatrix who’s clad (sparsely) in black leather bra and slinky pants, with a helmet that suggests something between medieval executioner and Mouseketeer.

  This nice-but-nasty temptress represents a radical break with the DC Comics character played by, among others, Michelle Pfeiffer, Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt. But the movie wants us to take Patience and her halter ego semi-seriously, as before-and-after poster persons for women’s lib “Catwomen are not contained by the rules of society”, Patience is told by Ophelia Powers, a reclusive cat lady played by Frances Conroy. For that matter, Catwoman’s director, a visual-effects specialist named Pitof, is not contained by the rules of filmmaking. Scenes that make sense? Nonsense. Characters with inner lives? Completely passe. Pitof sells his scenes as point-of-purchase displays featuring assorted emotions.

  Still, Catwoman is not all about leather. There is a plot, and it involves the despicable husband-and-wife directors of a cosmetic company, and a beauty cream that rots the skin on women’s faces. The husband is played by Lambert Wilson in a cheeky bid for the title of Worst Acting Job Of the Year, and the wife is embodied by Sharon Stone. Shrewd lady that she is, Stone protects herself from ridicule by striking ethereal poses that haven’t been seen on the silver screen since Falconetti played Joan of Arc.

• From ThinkGeek: Homer Simpson Cubicle Tin Signs
• posted an interesting quiz in his journal this afternoon. Curiosity got the better of me… and I took it.
  
  Category I – The Hub
  
  You’re a ‘people person’. Networking runs in your
  blood. Consequently, you can move through most
  social circles with ease.

  What Type of Social Entity are You?
  brought to you by Quizilla

• Another X-23 pic: The cover of Uncanny X-Men #451
• By way of Slashdot: Patriot Act Used to Enforce Copyright Law?
• Also gleaned from Slashdot: SpaceShipOne and Wild Fire to Go for the Gold
• I’m sure that many of you have seen the Bush/Kerry “This Land Is Your Land” parody on JibJab. According to this story, The Richmond Organization (who own the copyright to the original Woody Guthrie song) have sent in the lawyers.
  

  “This puts a completely different spin on the song,” said Kathryn Ostien, director of copyright licensing for the publisher. “The damage to the song is huge.”

  TRO believes that the Jibjab creation threatens to corrupt Guthrie’s classic — an icon of Americana — by tying it to a political joke; upon hearing the music people would think about the yucks, not Guthrie’s unifying message. The publisher wants Jibjab to stop distribution of the flash movie.

• If you haven’t seen the trailer for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy yet: AVI or RealMedia. I laughed. I knew what was coming (to a point), but it made me laugh. If the movie is done as well as the trailer, the late Douglas Adams’ fans should have nothing to worry about.
• Courtney Love (yes, that Courtney Love) collaborated on a concept for a manga (def.) called Princess Ai. I’ve read a part of the story, thanks to a TokyoPop sampler that got for me at a trade show that she attended. According to Broken Frontier: “Entertaining stuff with a story that actually holds its own; Princess Ai is certainly worth a look at.”
• : I know that we’re only issues away from the newest reboot/retcon, but I thought that you might be interested in this.
• Jess just sent me a message saying that the kittens are wound up. This is decidedly not the kind of thing that one wishes to hear before retiring for the evening.

With a tip of the hat and a smile, he strolled across the room and out the door…

Namaste.

Monday
Recipe for a Monday:

1 part apathy
1 part irritation
1 part restlessness

Mix ingredients thoroughly.
Serve cold.

Fortunately, tonight was poker night. That provided a bright light at the end of the tunnel. And the night lived up to the anticipation. , , , and came over; I didn’t get in touch with in time to let him know that we had a green light for tonight’s game.

The twins apparently wanted to play, too. But they couldn’t quite master the concept of betting – and they wanted to eat other peoples’ food – so they were sent to one of the bedrooms for a bit.

NPR Stories
Talk of the Nation: Page Not Found: Internet Slowdown
Talk of the Nation: Vacations off the Beaten Track
All Things Considered: Finding Hope in Music at New York’s P.S. 86
All Things Considered: David Lipsky on Honor, Character Duty and Country (Part II)
All Things Considered: Lawsuit over Servers’ Tips and Credit Cards

Stray Toasters

• Wasatch Pizza makes a pretty nice pie.
• sent me a link about Jesus in India. Interesting concept. I won’t say that it couldn’t have happened – I wasn’t around to prove or disprove its validity. But, like parts of the dominant local religion, it’s not my paradigm.
• My wrist is feeling almost back to normal.
• “Just think of it as an electronic boob job” –
• Justice League Unlimited has a new homepage. The character bios even include a new look for Green Lantern. Yep, I think that we have a candidate for this year’s Hallowe’en costume…
• : Click here.

Time to hit the rack.

Namaste.

Sunday
It was a pretty relaxing day. I didn’t do much in the morning… because I slept until almost 11:30. Thankfully, the twins didn’t get wound up until somewhere around 9:00… and I was able to get back to sleep without a problem.

Speaking of the twins, they wander all over the house now. It’s not uncommon for them to appear down here. And since I still have a few things strewn around the floor, there are plenty of nooks and crannies for them to explore. And Presto seems to like walking on my desk.

We went to see The Bourne Witch Project… um, The Bourne Supremacy this afternoon. Good movie, bad cinematography – I’m sure that the director had a good concept in his head, but it lost something in translation from “theory” into “practical application.” But, the cinematography was my only real issue with the movie. I thought about something while watching a car chase scene: It reminded me of the 70s/80s chase scenes in James Bond movies.

I watched the FX premiere of Rescue Me, a series that follows Tommy Gavin (adeptly portrayed by Dennis Leary) and members of his NYFD station. It combined drama, comedy and even a bit of pathos… and made it work. Well.

Stray Toasters

• Tour de Lance VI: Armstrong’s Revenge.
  A world record setting six consecutive Tour victories. Congratulations.

• First Slate, Microsoft’s online magazine, had the audacity to recommend Mozilla Firefox over Internet Explorer. Now, M$ is in talks to possibly sell Slate.
• Steel Ball Hitting Sand
• Name That Candy Bar!
• She’s a teenager, has four claws and has more than “a little” in common with a certain Canadian mutant with a bad attitude. And she is about to make comic book debut. X-23 (1, 2) appears in Uncanny X-Men #450 and #451, coming in October.
• The X-Men and the FF? Together? Someone’s about to kiss their own pucker goodbye.
• Forwarded to me by : This.
• words words *static* blah blah words
• Explore the “Dark Underside” of the 100 Acre Wood
• Not only did the following make me smile, it made me laugh:
  

  “Save your money and spend it on something that might actually entertain you. Like watching clothes dry at the laundromat.”

  Read the full review (with some spoilers) here.

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Saturday
I didn’t do much today. Yes, I managed to rid the HCC of a few more boxes and put some things away, but that’s the highlight of the early part of the day. Cartoon Network, Boomerang and G4TechTV were all nice enough to keep me company while I moved things around. I watched a few episodes of Code Lyoko on Cartoon Network. Something struck me about halfway through the second episode: The show reminded me of Reboot! in a certain way. A bit of a spin on the Reboot! concept of being inside the computer. I’ll have to give that a little more thought at a later time.

The next most interesting activity of the day would be: I took a nap. The nap was good, but I did something to my right wrist while I dozed. I only wish that I knew “what” it was. It has been aching for the past nine hours (give or take a bit). I can’t remember it hurting like this since I fractured it in Ninth Grade. It’s not that bad, that’s the closest analogue that comes to mind.

This evening, I changed the power cord on the dryer, hooked up the vent hose and put the dryer in position next to the washing machine. Worm-screw clamps and duct tape are friends…

Even though my wrist was (and still is) very achy, I bowled tonight. My games were decent with a high game of 172. We met a couple of new people; I’ve talked with one of them on IRC for the past few weeks, but this was the first face-to-face meeting. After bowling, they joined us for breakfast; and put in appearances, as well.

I need to get a little more done around here tomorrow – we’re having a few folks over for poker again on Monday.

For now, however, sleep.

Namaste.

Friday
And I can’t tell you how glad I am that it’s finally here.

Yesterday, the DSL router at work kicked the bucket. I called our ISP and they said that it wasn’t their problem (which technically, it wasn’t but I wasn’t expecting to hear that) and to call Qwest. When the tech told me that, every sphincter in my body clinched. For those who may have joined our story already-in-progress, I am NOT a fan of Qwaste… I mean “Qworst”… no that isn’t right, either…. “Qwest.” Yeah, them. In the three years that I used their service I had far more problems with it than in 25 years of C&P/Verizon, BellSouth and GTE combined! And, that’s part of the reason why we don’t have a land line, but that’s another story… So I called Qwest, talked to a tech who wanted to walk me through the same damned processes that I had gone through on my own. At which point, I told her that I actually have – and know how to use – working brain cells. *braincramp* After a few minutes, she came to the same conclusion that I did: The router was dead. *sigh* She put in an order to have a new router overnighted to us.

I went in early this morning to be sure that I was there when the new router arrived. I got to work around 9:50. The UPS driver doesn’t come until 10:00 or a little after. Perfect! I even turned on the front office lights so that any average idiot would see that there were signs of life inside.

10:00… nothing.
11:00… nothing.
12:00… still more nothing.
1:00… yep, you guessed it: nothing.

At 2:00, I had gotten tired of walking and decided to go for my afternoon walk. I gathered my keys, phone and sunglasses and headed outside. I turned to close the door and what do I see?

“We attempted to deliver (item) on 7/23/04….”
“Livid” begins to describe how I felt at this point. Fortunately for the driver (and his family and the rest of the SLC-area UPS fleet), he left the router next door. I collected the package, set up the router, and went for my walk while it configured itself.

When I came back, I felt a little better. That was only until I came back to see that the router had configured itself to sit on the shelf and look cute. Serving up URLs? Ha! As if. But… having configured its predecessor, I knew how to get around the “Router Configuration for Dummies” setup that had been included. I changed the necessary settings, rebooted the router and PC, and voila! Hellooooo, Interweb!

Of course, I was now in no mood to do much else, so I sent a few emails, checked out a few sites and waited for a text message from Jess asking if we should take off early. (If it hadn’t, I was going to send her one that simply said “BOOOOOOORED,” but I didn’t have to.) A few minutes later, the message arrived. We decided to get while the gettin’ was good.

We came home for a bit and then it was off to Friday night coffee with the usual suspects; Perry and Max joined us, too. Twas good. I didn’t do much people-watching (not many other people there and I was busy playing around with Max), but I had a good time. And then, dinner and back home.

All-in-all, not a bad Friday.

NPR and Other News
Talk of the Nation – Science Friday: Space Update: Planetary Exploration
Talk of the Nation – Science Friday: McNeil’s Nebula
Talk of the Nation – Science Friday: Ode to the Lab Mouse
Talk of the Nation – Science Friday: Examining Epigenetics
All Things Considered: The 9/11 Report, Privacy and Civil Liberties
All Things Considered: Auto Deal a Challenge to Europe’s 35-Hour Work Week
All Things Considered: Flawed Tracking System Suspected in Missing Nuclear Data
All Things Considered: Ali G: Fooling Serious Interviewees, All for a Laugh

Stray Toasters

• Presto apparently likes spaghetti noodles.
• forwarded this to me.
• Slashdot Poll: Preferred Cubicle Decoration?
  (And I notice that they left “dreidel” off the list…)

• History of the Automatic Teller
• From Slashdot: Hatch Pushes INDUCE Act
• “Boo!” –
• The bad reviews of Catwoman continue to roll in…
  And every new one brings another smile to my face.

• So does: The way it should have been done…
• You can call the Ghostbusters, if you want. These are the folks that I’m gonna call…

Namaste.

Welcome to Thursday.
Please remain seated.
Please make sure that your safety restraints are securely fastened.
Thank you and enjoy your ride.

There was a new twist to the sleeping arrangement last night: Lightning wasn’t sleeping on my side of the bed. He was curled up on Jess’ pillow. Just above her head. It would have been picture-worthy, if I didn’t think that it would have been extremely hazardous to my health.

I stopped in to say “Hullo” to for a bit this afternoon. Among other things, we told each other stories of our days in retail. It was amusing. And, it was a nice midday diversion.

I also saw, and said goodbye, to . She asked that I pass along a “Goodbye” and an apology for not posting one herself – she wrote one… and her computer and/or LJ ate it. Either way, she should be back online in a few days.

NPR and Other News

Talk of the Nation: Revisiting Pre-emption Policy

All Things Considered: Mark Bittman’s Tips for Easy, Delicious Barbecue

All Things Considered: Film Composer Goldsmith Dies at 75
(See also: Cinescape: Jerry Goldsmith 1929-2004)

All Things Considered: Small Town Flips for ‘Jailbreak’ Song

Stray Toasters

• “…news of Doom III going gold…
• Worst Case Scenarios
• Three things that made me smile:
  1. Review: ‘Catwoman’ sexy, but that’s about it
     “Here’s ‘Catwoman’ in a hairball, er, nutshell: Halle Berry looking luscious in leather; Sharon Stone looking sizzling in Spandex; Benjamin Bratt looking good, period. You’d have to scratch long and hard to get anything more significant out of this whisker-thin flick.”

  2. Review: ‘Catwoman’
     “Halle Berry needs to take out her Oscar every morning – the 2002 Best Actress Oscar she lauded as a breakthrough for women of color – and swear to it that she will not accept any more demeaning, stupid roles.”

  3. Review: ‘Catwoman’
     “As an adaptation, it is literally just terrible. No respect for the original material… and no real wonderful work of creativity replaces it.”
• : Click here.
• Slashdot Poll: Favorite Mouse?
• Even if this hadn’t happened in Utah, I’d still find it amusing.
• saw this and said that it made her think of me. I just hope that it was the Borg part and not the “Hello, Kitty” part.
• …and then she sent this.
• Will Smith will be on Inside the Actor’s Studio on Sunday.
• Myths & Facts: About Wearing Seat Belts
• I like The West Wing. Enough to have watched this episode, “Privateers,” twice in the past week.

Back to poker (on TV and the game that I’m playing online).

Namaste.

Wednesday
Ugh. The early part of the day was long. Very long. It might have had something to do with the fact that I woke up around 5:30 feeling rather ill. I wasn’t awake long, but it was enough to make the rest of the sleep that I got a bit fitful.

As such, the first part of the workday dragged. I also had a bit of a time getting/staying focused on things. *sigh* Oh, well.

The post-work part of the day was good. As I was leaving, I saw what appeared to be a LARP group in the parking lot. Interesting. I don’t recall having seen them previously. Picked up Jess and then it was off to Kate and Perry’s. Perry’s play room is verra cool. It outpenises the HCC in terms of movie- and comic-related figures, maquettes, etc, but I edge him out in tech. And he’s a bit of an RPG’er, too. *nod* I knew that I liked him for a reason.

NPR and Other News
Talk of the Nation: States and Slot Machines
Talk of the Nation: New Freshman Requirement: The iPod
Talk of the Nation: Author Molly Ivins, ‘Political Animals I Have Known’
All Things Considered: What Comes First: Speech or Thought?
All Things Considered: On the Beat in Lowell, MA: Lessons from Two Decades of Policing a Small Town
All Things Considered: More Turn to Hobby of Making Flint Points
All Things Considered: Golfer Returns from Playing Across Mongolia

Stray Toasters

• Ginger snaps + milk = Tasty snack.
• By way of Slashdot: FAA Approves Sport Pilot License
• Jess’ comment to a post that someone made:
  

  You know, I served in the Army for this country, and I was sent to Somalia. I fought for both this country and another. I’d be more than willing to serve again if needed and I was very tempted to drop everything and rejoin after 9/11.

  If you hate it here so much, please, feel “free” to move. Maybe if more people served their country they’d appreciate it a bit more.

  I was screened or filtered from seeing the original post… for reasons that I have yet to ascertain. Oh well.

• As Bill Cosby said: “The beatings will now commence…”
• g0t webcomics? Comic Alert does, too. Lots of them. Find RSS feeds of your favorites in one, convenient place. Thanks to for the heads-up on this one.
• I came across the following while skimming through the Comics2Film site this afternoon. It made me happy. Very happy, indeed:
  

  “Heard anything good about ‘Catwoman’ recently in the media? Well, there’s a reason for that. You see, after nearly a year of solid bad buzz that has plagued the production like a cancer, it turns out every last instance of ill will was justified…This movie is simply appalling.”

• : I found something on the NPR site that might interest you: Explaining Celiac Disease, a Little-Known Food Allergy
• The Dollar Dance
  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?! I wonder if this is “legal” behind the Zion Curtain…?

• It’s nice to go through your comics and find issues that you bought at a store’s closing sale… but haven’t read yet. It’s like Christmas in July!
• This and this are variant covers for Issue #2 of Devil’s Due Publishing’s Megacity 909.

Time to find a distraction for the next little while before bedtime.

Namaste.

Tuesday
I got to bed far later than I had planned. And when I did get to bed, Lightning decided that I needed a bath. Cat style. I think that he licked my nose, cheek and forehead for almost five minutes. It made me laugh. When he finished, he settled in behind my knees,where Presto was sleeping, and the two of them began… wriggling around – it wasn’t quite their usual wrestling match. But it was distracting.

The day, on the whole, wasn’t bad. I’ve also discovered that taking walks around the office park (one around lunchtime and another around 3:00 or 4:00) helps to break up the day nicely.

I came home and watched World Series of Poker on ESPN… and then a different episode on ESPN2. And, as if that wasn’t enough card-playing, Jess and I played online poker with a few friends.

NPR and Other News
Talk of the Nation: The Inner Life of Airports
Talk of the Nation: Remembering the Moon Landing
All Things Considered: Texas Mental Health Plan Could Omit Thousands
All Things Considered: GAO: Hospital Reviews Miss Most Errors
(See also: GAO: Reports and Testimony Report Abstract)
All Things Considered: A Woman Who Dreamed of a Moonwalk
(See also: ‘The Mercury 13’: Training U.S. Women for Space)
All Things Considered: Candidates on the Issues: The Patriot Act

sent me a link to this post from earlier. I was a bit taken aback. When I think of “the draft,” I prefer to think in terms of “football season” or even “basketball season.” I have three sibs who are 26-and-under. Granted, Adam is in ROTC, so I’ll pull him out of this equation; this still puts both of my sisters potentially in jeopardy. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be able to defend our borders or to maintain security in our installations around the world, but I am not thrilled by this turn of events.

Here are some other pages that we (and a couple of other people) looked at:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/2004/07-26-2004/insider/draft.htm
http://www.sss.gov/perfplan_fy2004.html
http://www.sss.gov/FSwomen.htm
http://www.sss.gov/FSconsobj.htm

Even after checking out and ‘s comments to the original post, I think that it will be interesting to see how this plays out…

::: gets down from soapbox :::

Stray Toasters

• J. J. Abrams, the man who gave Alias and Sydney Bristow to our Sunday nights, may be the new director for Mission: Impossible 3
• All my base are belong to online poker.
• “You pour thing, if you don’t see the point of spelling correctly”
• I said, “Doctor (Doctor . . .)
  Mr. M.D. (Doctor . . .)
  Now can you tell me
  What’s ailin’ me?” (Doctor . . .)

• Can you say “Robbers go ‘All in!’” boys and girls?
• I was going hrough some old files and found my results for this quiz from the BBC. According to the quiz, I am an “Interpersonal Thinker.” You can see all of the possible results here.
• From Pravda: TIps for women to cope with booze
  Ah, Russia…

• By way of Backwash: Carry A. Nation: The Famous and Original Bar Room Smasher
• The Hidden Song Archive: “A comprehensive listing of hidden and unlisted tracks from albums by all types of artists.”
• Slashdot poll: Do you sneeze when exposed to bright light?
  (Now we know the real reason that you are not supposed to expose Mogwai to bright lights!)

Time to wander the lands on the other side of the gates of The Dreaming.

Namaste.

Monday, Monday…
The day started off well… and only got better. Work wasn’t too bad. I took on a couple of problems and, after some judicious mental gymnastics, I think that things are hunky-dory.

After work, , , and came over for Poker Night. (So, in a manner of speaking, “Game Night” lived again!) We played Texas Hold Em, Stud and Draw. It was fun; this might have to become a regular occurrence. And, it’s nice to have a place large enough to accommodate it. Plus, a wave of the cane and a tip of the hat to for bringing me a large cup of frozen mocha goodness!

NPR and Other News
Talk of the Nation: ‘Acquainted with the Night’
All Things Considered: The Imagined Galaxies of Ruth Stone
All Things Considered: Vietnam Veterans Put Photos on Exhibit
Fresh Air: Interview with John L. Allen (author of All the Pope’s Men)

Stray Toasters

• Wow. tipped me off to Grayson. Impressive. It would be interesting to see an entire movie based on this premise.
• Congratulations to : Some of his photography will be used in next week’s edition of the Salt Lake City Weekly.
• From Slashdot: Duke University Giving iPods to 1650 Freshmen
• Slashdot Poll: Worst State?
• Also from Slashdot: Game with God
• From CNET News.com: Brazilian Internet craze angers English Speakers
  Are we really this xenophobic?

• linked the following:
  • Rainbow *jawdrop*
  • The Calamari Wrestler (If you read Japanese, you’ll probably get a bit more out of this one than I did)
  • tranceforums: Ruff Rydas
  • Home Run (This has nothing to do with baseball.)
• and I had a conversation that ended up with us talking about the “smurf people of Kentucky,” as she referred to them. How can that not make you laugh?!
• As Halle is no longer on my list, I find this story incredibly amusing.
• Hey, : New Batmobile pics!
• It’s official: Bryan Singer has signed on to direct the new Superman movie.
• “Holy Monkey Jesus” and other Poker Night (pseudo-)blasphemies.

I should go to bed. It’s not like I don’t have things to do tomorrow. Make that “today.” Hopefully, the twins are sleeping and won’t want to wrestle on the bed.

Namaste.

Jess just called me on the way back from taking the twins to the vet. They’re both in good health. And even though he looks bigger, Lightning weighs less than Presto. But, all-in-all, they’re both doing well.

And there was another bit of news: Presto is a girl.

Yeah. That was our reaction, too. Jess said that the vet asked what “her” name was, to which she replied, “No, they’re both boys.” The vet said that Presto was, indeed, a girl. She’s apparently also a “flamepoint;” and a female flamepoint is rare, according to the vet. *shrug* They also thought that she might be polydactyl, as well; she isn’t.

Boy. Girl. It doesn’t matter. As long as she’s in good health.

Of course, this whole “Presto is a girl” thing might alse explain the dynamic between her and Lightning and Sissy.

Yesterday, We made a trip to the veterinarian to get some enzyme cleaner for the spots where the kittens (both of them, it turns out) left “gifts” last week. We asked if there was anything that might be contributing to the problem. The assistant asked where the litter box was (upstairs) and where the kittens had been spending their time (living room, downstairs). She nodded and reminded us that at this point the kittens are at the rough functional equivalent of a two-year-old… and that the litter box might just be “too far.” That made sense. So, we picked up another litter box and some litter and put it in the living room. Lo and behold, they’ve been using it. And… they’ve been using the upstairs one, too! Hallelujah!

We didn’t do much else until time for 2-D Physics. I (finally) put together some cubes so that I can get my books and magazines out of the moving boxes and into some form of organized storage.

2-D wasn’t bad: I bowled way too many (read: “nine”) games:
162 – 143 – 176 – 136 – 143 – 139 – 172 – 155 – 145

Breakfast was fun. We had a good crowd. And the people-watching was unbelievably good… even without The Singles being there. Much hilarity ensued.

So far, today has been pretty lax. We’re going to see I, Robot in a bit. I should finish getting ready.

Stray Toasters

• Gray’s Anatomy Online
• Pirates of Dark Water
• I have something I’d like to try with the fire tutorial.

Time to find something to eat and then off for a couple of hours of watching the Fresh Prince save the world from robotic doom.

<post-movie edit>
The movie was good; I can see it as an addition to the DVD collection. And, thanks to Mycah, I have an I, Robot theatre poster – the double-sided, used in theatre lightboxes kind.
</post-movie edit>

Pax.

“Aha! Look what I’ve created! I have made FIRE!”

Friday
The day started off all right. Again, it was a little slow due to lack of caffeination, but that was okay.

I got a call from ‘s dad a little before noon; he had some free time in his schedule and said that he could come over to take a look at our evaporative cooler. So, I came home. He gave me brief lesson in “Swamp Coolers 101” and then we went on the roof to look at the unit. We came down, talked a little about what it would take to switch over to central air and took a look at the furnace… which would most likely have to be replaced in order to accommodate central A/C. But, all-in-all, things looked (and worked) pretty well.

Back to work.

On to Borders for coffee and chat. As we pulled into the parking space, I noticed the third sign of the Apocalypse: Speaker stands in the cafe. *braincramp* We ventured in. captured the singer in pencil. We had a small group tonight, but it was nevertheless fun. We adjourned to Cheers: North for a bite to eat afterwards.

Stray Toasters

• ‘s dad pointed me in the direction of Animusic. I think that I’ve seen the site, or at least animations from it, before. But, it was still pretty cool. As a rebuttal, I showed him the Drew Cope taiko drumming Flash animation; he liked it.
• I read Ultimate Fantastic Four #8 while at Borders; the writing continues to draw me in. Warren Ellis, go figure.
• From Salon: Defunct Domain Names
• Jack Black… as Kyle Rayner? No. NO. NO! According to an article that showed me on Ain’t It Cool News, it’s true. Nail. Coffin.
• They Might Be Giants interview in Newsweek.
• From the Comics2Film DCG: Nice.
• As this is in MacNewsWorld, there might be a tinge of bias here: Are Mac Users Smarter than PC Users? I use both (and Linux), where does that put me?
• eHow: More than 15,000 How-to Solutions
• By way of Backwash: 15 best break-up songs of all time

A little after three… but I don’t want to go to bed. I’m tired, but not quite ready to call it a night. I probably should. But I don’t want to. Even though I don’t have anything that really demands that I stay awake any longer. I wonder how much more waffling I can do on this…? If I stay awake, I could play a game. Or watch Stargate SG-1 and Stargate: The Next Generation Stargate: Atlantis. But, I taped them, so I can watch them at any time. I could watch the sunrise over the Wasatch. Or dream of a more vivid one. Decisions, decisons…

I’ll suss something out and go from there.

Namaste.

Thursday
Today was a *blah* day. I came home at 3 and hung out with the Sissy and the twins. And took a nap. At least, I tried to – sleep was intermittent.

The nap was good, considering that I didn’t get to bed until 4:00 this morning… and couldn’t get to sleep until nearly 5:00, thanks to the Lightning. He decided that 4:15 was the perfect time to start pouncing my legs and feet. This piqued Presto’s curiosity. Of course. Soon the two of them were wrestling. On my legs. Yay. Of the nap, the kits came over and napped with me: Presto was on the seat, next to my right leg; Lightning was on the back of the chair, just above my left shoulder.

And, speaking of Presto: Maybe our joy at the twins’ use of the litter box was a tad premature. Living up to his name, Presto made a gift magically appear. Right before our very eyes. In the family room. We weren’t happy about this. I took him up to the litter box. A short while later, he actually used it. We were happy about that.

I got a call from my father shortly after we got in. He wanted me to relay a message to my mother: Nathan Carter, Chairman of the Department of Fine Arts at Morgan State University died this afternoon. He and my mother had worked together on a few occasions. And beyond that, they were friends. I called mom and gave her the news. She asked if I had called my Godsister (she used to sing in the MSU Choir and I think that Dr. Carter was her advisor) with the news. “No, I haven’t.” So I do. She didn’t know. And it apparently came as a surprise; she took it as well as could be expected. Oy. I find no joy in being the Harbinger of Ill Tidings.

NPR Stories
Talk of the Nation: Debating the Merits of Class Action Lawsuits
Talk of the Nation: A History of Intelligence Failures
Talk of the Nation: Writers’ Views: On War
All Things Considered: Dr. John Celebrates New Orleans on ‘Dis, Dat’ CD
All Things Considered: Air Passenger Screening Program Shelved
All Things Considered: Georgia’s ‘Faster Pastor’ Race

Stray Toasters

• Celebrity Poker Showdown on Bravo. Tonight’s stars: Ron Livingston, Penn Jillette, Angie Dickinson, Kathy Griffin and Jeff Gordon. It was fun to listen to the table banter. And, I’m picking up more on how to play Texas Hold ’em.
• The Puttin’ on the Ritz bit with Stewie and Chris on Family Guy made me laugh. So did the riff on Stephen J. Cannell.
• g0t conspiracy theories? AboveTopSecret does.
• As if we needed other reasons to goof off at work: AddictingGames.com
• Powers of Ten
• Celiberal: Celebrity Liberal Whine List This was listed as “Pinko Commie Celebrities on Backwash.
• And, on the other side: Protest Panties
• Also from BW: Writings on the Stall
• Qwest’s nuts roasting on an open fire…
• From The Ad Council: Campaigns that Have Made a Difference
• It seems as though Jessica Simpson will not be Alison Blaire (Dazzler) in the upcoming X-Men movie, after all.
• …and McG, who helmed the Charlie’s Angels movies, will not be in the director’s chair for the next Superman movie. Thank God. Brian Singer, director of the X-Men movies, has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the job.
• As soon as I saw this cover for an upcoming issue of Daredevil, Led Zepplin’s Fool in the Rain started playing in my head. (, if I find out that you had something to do with it, there’ll be Hell Toupee Hell to pay!)
• Here comes a world o’ hurt…
• sent this to me this afternoon. It’s an interesting concept.

It’s early and I have to get up later, so I should probably call it a night.

Namaste.

But they’re marching to Bastille Day
La guillotine will claim her bloody prize
Free the dungeons of the innocent
The king will kneel, and let his kingdom rise

Wednesday
Miracle of miracles: Lightning wasn’t staring at me this morning when I woke up! Instead, he was curled up, asleep, on Jess’ pillow. Very cute. Of course, the three-ring circus had me up at 3:00 and at 5-something. But they were only brief moments of consciousness.

Research + lack of caffeinated liquid = Ass-draggin’ Rob.
The day passed very slowly. But, I seemed to perk up around 5:30 PM.

Jess and I met for a quick jaunt to Costco (and some quality people-watching). Then we came back here and she met the twins. (, what’re you waiting for…?)

NPR Stories
Talk of the Nation: A Life on the Right: William F. Buckley
All Things Considered: On the Beat in Chicago’s South Side
All Things Considered: Free Speech and Religious Hatred
All Things Considered: Ghost Hunters in the Thick of Night

Stray Toasters

• I was looking through the new issue of FHM and saw articles about Cuddle Party and Banana Guard. The things that people come up with…
• Five Ways to Kill a Man by Edwin Brock
• Mina: I don’t want to watch you drink blood, pervert!
  Lord Fluffy: Are you kidding? It touched the floor. Disgusting.
  Read the rest:

• Ray Liotta is rumored as a candidate for the role of Doctor Doom in the upcoming Fantastic Four movie. For info about the FF and the not-so-good Doctor can be found here (click on “Fantastic Four” under “Browse By Families.”)
• : Teen Titans Season Three begins Saturday, 28 Aug 04.
• : Click here
• One of the many joys of being in a house (and having my office in the basement) as opposed to an apartment: I can listen to music/watch TV at varying degrees of loudness and still not disturb Jess while she’s sleeping.
• When I See an Elephant Fly, from Dumbo, is one of my favorite Disney songs. It’s silly and fun. That’s good enough for me.
• Lilo & Stitch: Quotes, Trivia and Goofs
• And in an odd aside: Kevin McDonald (one of the Kids in the Hall, who also provided the voice of Stitch) appeared in Outkast’s Roses video. When I read that, it made me chuckle.
• Was (not Was)
• I worked in retail for a few years before I started working for the USPS. I remember approaching a customer (a professor at one of the local colleges) and asking how he was doing. His response: “I’m wonderful. Do you know what that means?” I said something to the effect of “You’re doing well…?” He looked at me, smiled broadly and said,”It means I’m full of wonder.” I don’t remember what he bought that day, but I remember that he was one of the most pleasant and cheerful – and full of wonder – customers that I had the pleasure of helping.

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Thought for the Day
A week ago, I wrote about friends and why I think that they’re important. Over the course of the week, I’ve been thinking about that and family and the concept of “home,” as well.

There are a couple of old sayings: “You can’t go home” and “You can’t choose your family.” I never really understood the former and I never really gave the latter a second thought until a few years ago. After appointing a few brain cells and synapses to the matter, I came to a conclusion: Both of those sayings are wrong.

You can go home. Dorothy did it in The Wizard of Oz. Superman did it (he went to the debris field that used to be Krypton). Hell, even MacGuyver went home. You can go home anytime you choose. But, the person who returns to the place that was once “home” will not necessarily be the same as the one who left. Or, “home” may not be the place that it once was; it may be somewhere completely different or unexpected. The Temptations and Rockapella pretty much nailed this concept with Papa Was a Rolling Stone and My Home, respectively. I’ve called a lot of places home: Maryland, North Carolina, Indiana and Utah (As a kid, I would have never imagined that “Utah” would wind up on the list…). And of them all, there’s no place that I felt that I couldn’t return.

Family is important. We may not always agree with them – we may not even like them – but they are ours. And we’re stuck with them. For better or worse. Till death do us part. Amen. Genetics, go figure.

I believe that you can choose your family, too. I’ve met people who have transcended from “friend” to “family.” I grew up with some of them. Some, I’ve know for many years. Others, I’ve had the good fortune and/or Providence’s grace to meet and we just “clicked.” Just like a genetic family, there are times when we don’t agree. Or, there may be occasions when we drift apart, due to physical distance or emotional differences. But, they’re still “there.”

One of my high school yearbooks had a saying in it: “I am a part of all I have met.” That’s true. So is the converse: “All I have met are a part of me.” Some have become bigger parts, some minor. Parts and counterparts. It’s good that we don’t always see eye-to-eye, because how else would we learn about each other? Or ourselves?

What happened to our innocence,
Did it go out of style?
Along with our naivete,
No longer a child.
Different eyes see different things,
Different hearts beat on different strings.
But there are times
For you and me, when all such things agree.
   – Different Strings

Stitch: This is my family. I found it, all on my own. It’s little, and broken, but still good. Yeah, still good.

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Namaste.