Random Access

I woke up around 9:00 for reasons that I have yet to determine. I got up, showered and proceeded to do nothing much for the next couple of hours.

Jess was going to meet a friend for lunch, so I made plans to meet to help her find a couple of books… but she wasn’t feeling well, so I spent the time working on Serra 2.0. I’m happy with the overall progress, but I’m still having… “an issue”… with a hip and leg. I’ll just get the reference material that I need and fix ’em.

On the way home, we got a call from Jon (former Cheers employee) asking if we’d be interested in going to a Stingers game. He didn’t have details about the time, so I asked him to call me back with the info. Shortly after that, I got a call from Justin asking if we’d be interested in seeing Starsky and Hutch. I told him that I’d have to get back to him after I found out whether we were going to the game. A few minutes later, Jon called back with the game details. I called Justin back, thanked him for the invitation and told him that we were going to the game. I asked if she wanted to join us – it would get her out of chores and housework. She agreed.

The four of us and Jon’s friend, Melissa, met at the stadium. The Stingers were hosting the Fresno Grizzlies. It was a good game… even though the Stingers lost 10-9. We had hot dogs and cotton candy. There was lots of cheering (and some booing). We had a great time. And there was a fireworks display, too. It wasn’t bad; there’s something about fireworks that’s always good.

And there’s never anything wrong with spending the day in the company of good friends.

Of course… now I want a cotton candy machine. Go figure.

Namaste.

I’m not sure which cat it was – most likely Sissy – but one of them hopped up on the bed at 8:57 this morning. I exited The Dreaming long enough to acknowledge the following:

• I was no longer asleep.
• It was bright outside (and, to a lesser degree, inside the room).
• There was a cat standing on the bed next to my legs.

…and then I rolled over and went back to sleep. I woke up around 11:30 and decided to get the day going. I played around on the computer for a bit and then got ready to go out.

I went to Borders and did some drawing. met me there and we sat, chatted and looked through books and magazines. After a conversation with a few days ago, I’ve wanted to do a picture featuring a Serra Angel (1, 2, 3) and/or a pic with Dawnstar (1, 2, 3), from the Legion of Super Heroes. I found a reference that I liked and started work on the Serra pic. It needs work. I’m going to use this as a base, but I’m probably going to wind up starting over – that’s fine with me. It’s good training and it builds character.

, , , , Larry, Mycah and I saw Day After Tomorrow for our Sunday fare. It was fun. Not a “great” movie, but I liked the effects. Roland Emmerich really has an eye for blowing things up… or in this case: “freezing things over.” The special effects were good. The dialogue was way over the top in spots , but you make allowances for some things. And they tried a few means of tugging at the audience’s heartstrings, too. *sniff* It’s a mid- to upper-“Cool World-Long Kiss Goodnight Scale” movie, but it wasn’t too painful to watch. There were a few interesting trailers that preceded the movie, as well: Hero, I, Robot and Collateral.

We followed up the movie with dinner at Cafè Med and after-dinner coffee at Greenhouse Effect. There was a group at Greenhouse who were answering random Trivial Pursuit questions; we started chiming in answers sporadically. They didn’t seem to mind too much. And, and : Stop giving me shit for knowing that tomatoes are not part of a Big Mac and that the Care Bears live in Care-a-Lot.

Stray Toasters

• : The Legion Movie That Might Have Been!
• The Single Man’s Guide to TV Dinners
• TechTV is no more.
  Now, it’s G4TechTV.
  While a few TechTV shows seemed to have survived the transition (they could have dumped Unscrewed and I wouldn’t have cared), there seems to be more of an emphasis on gaming. I’ll give the “new” channel a chance before I write it off completely.

• 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know
• g0t emulators?
  By way of Backwash: Download Any Emulator for Any OS

• Were you a fan of Joust, Defender or Spy Hunter? You can now play these games, and seven others, on the Midway Games website. Just click on the “Play Classic Games” link (on the left side of the screen).
• As I mentioned a while back, there’s a new Firestorm in the DCU. And by “new,” I don’t just mean they brought the title back. I mean that the protagonist is not Ronnie Raymond, the first teenager (along with Professor Martin Stein) to be brought into the Firestorm matrix. In fact, there’s no mention of Raymond or Stein, so far; Dan Jolley, the title’s author, says that the changes will be explained in a few months. I’m hoping that this doesn’t fan another “Who’s Better…?” rift among DC Comics fans in the same manner as the Kyle Rayner/Hal Jordan debate among Green Lantern fans.

And, as it is after midnight:

Happy Memorial Day

Time to go peruse my new issue of GamePro and call it a night.

Namaste.

Saturday
I slept pretty well last night.
And I wasn’t awakened at an ungodly hour by the cats. Yes, Xena did wake me up this morning when she tried to get into the windowsill… but that was at 9:59. That was acceptable. And, the fact that she was trying to get into the window is another sign that she’s feeling better.

told me about Megas XLR last night. It was on shortly after I woke up, so I watched it. Concept: What if a kid who works in a junkyard found a giant robot? This show answers that question. It was entertaining. Today’s episode, “The Bad Guy,” was an amusing parody of Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets and Voltron. I laughed many times. I’ll probably watch the show again.

After getting showered and dressed, I mused over going to Home Despot. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a chaperone. So, I decided to go it alone. That’s about the time that Jess woke up. She went with me. We were there for about an hour-and-a-half, but we were actually looking at specific things… so I don’t think that was too bad.

I discovered an unexpected source of inspiration at Home Depot: Paint sample cards. Yes, the ones that have different shades of paint on them. When you finish laughing and pick yourself up off the floor: Yes, I have seen these before. Many, many times. I’ve even used them when painting rooms at my parents’ houses. The revelation that I had: Using them would make an excellent way to preview color combinations when setting up websites and templates. I grabbed about 15 of the cards.

Justice League: “Starcrossed” just finished. It was amazing. They pulled out all the stops for this series “finale.” From “Secret Origins” to “Starcrossed,” this series continually amazed me. Tonight’s episode highlighted the best of almost all of the characters; this was made even more impressive since it was a Hawkgirl spotlight episode. (Personal Bias Time: Green Lantern John Stewart is still the man.) They also touched on a couple things from the series’ history and from Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series. I was a little worried when I first heard that Cartoon Network was “ending” the series. I should not have worried. For more information, check out: Tramm Wigzell Talks Cartoon Network’s Justice League Ending and Unlimited‘s New Beginning.

Stray Toasters

• With the upcoming move, I’m going to have my broadband antenna moved… or change service. According to Broadband Reports, I have a few options for other services. However, if I’m going to change providers, I’d rather have a few other peoples’ opinions of their services for background. With that in mind:
• Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Screenwriter Interviews Himself
• Coming soon to The Museum of Television & Radio: Look! Up at the Screen! It’s Superheroes on Television
• Trapped in a Lyric They Never Wrote

Quote of the Day
From today’s episode of Duck Dodgers

I am a winner.
I am unstoppable.
I am in excruciating pain.

Time to get a few things done before heading to 2-D Physics.

And did I mention that John Stewart kicked ass? He did. He even got whooped up on, too… but he still dished it out nicely. And the preview shot of him from JLU was tight. August 7th. I’m there.

Namaste.

Friday
Sleep wasn’t bad last night.
This morning, however, was an entirely different story.

My morning started around 7:15. Waking up to the mystery of “Where in the Closet is Carmen Sandiego Sissy the Wonder Kitty” is not something that I would necessarily consider an auspicious start to the day. I found her, removed her from her hiding place and closed the closet doors. But, I was awake. And slightly irritated. So I went into the HALO Command Center to find something to bide my time. I checked my email. I read some news stories. I even looked to see if there was anyone with whom I wanted to chat.

Nada. Nein. Zip. Zilch. “No go, Flight.”
Nothing to do, no one to talk to.
So…

Around 7:30, I headed back to bed. I figured that I could get another hour of sleep. That would be good. I laid there, trying to get comfortable for about :30. And all that served to do was to increase my level of irritation. Ten minutes later, Sissy decided to mount another assault on the closet. That was the final straw. I leapt out of bed, moved Sissy out of the way, angrily (and apparently noisily) moved other things out of the way and forcefully closed the closet doors. Sleep, at this point, was no longer an option. And so, I hit the shower and started my day a little earlier than I had planned.

While getting ready for work, I watched some of the videos that I had downloaded:

• Mr. Telephone Man – New Edition (when they really were “new”)
  : I’m watching an old New Edition video.
  [10:47] : OMG
  [10:48] : Mr. Telephone Man
  [10:48] : Wait…. it gets better: I actually downloaded it.
  [10:48] : (before Bobby Brown started looking all thuggish)
  [10:48] : nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo say it’s not so
  [10:48] : *nod*
  [10:48] : LOL
  [10:48] : It’s true.
  [10:48] : Okay… he’s not thuggish, but the boy was never cute

• I’m Going Slightly Mad – Queen
  Watching this made me think that Freddie Mercury might have been interesting as The Joker.

• Wonderful Tonight – Eric Clapton (live on SNL)
• Close My Eyes Forever – Lita Ford ft. (a young-looking) Ozzy Osbourne
• History Repeating – Propellerheads ft. Shirley Bassey
• Don’t Lose My Number – Phil Collins
  Even after 15-17 years, I still like this video. It’s the first video that I can remember that’s about “making a video.” Part tongue-in-cheek, part high concept. All fun.

The rest of the day went well. For that, I am glad (and grateful).

Borders Night was good. Time spent in the good company of friends is never a bad thing; joined us for our usual revels, as well. After that, some of the group broke away, while a few of us headed down to Cheers.

NPR and Other News Stories
All Things Considered: The Key to a Good Math Teacher? Insight on Error
All Things Considered: Gender at the Grill – Why Guys Do Most of the BBQing
All Things Considered: War Veterans React to WWII Memorial

Stray Toasters

• Toyzz.com ‘Nuff said.
• 
  [16:31] * is listening to Maktub – Just Like Murder
  [16:31] * is listening to Rush – Vapor Trails – 08 – Secret Touch (headphones)”8
  [16:31] : Of course, murder could be considered a “secret touch.” >-)
  [16:33] : indeed…
  [16:33] : “just like it” anyway
  [16:34] : Have you ever checked out any of the Maktub stuff?
  [16:34] : Nuh-uh.
  [16:35] : oh damn. Go to www.maktub.com right now and get Just Like Murder and You Can’t Hide. NOW. DO IT.
  [16:36] : !
  [16:36] : Ma’am!
  [16:36] : Yes, Ma’am!
  [16:36] : LOL I’m dead serious. This is good stuff. 🙂 I’m partial to You Can’t Hide, but they are both incredible
  [16:39] * is listening to We All Fall Down – Blue Murder
  [16:39] * is listening to Basia – Time and Tide (headphones)”8
  [16:39] : …yet again. 🙂
  [16:39] : I had it earlier, but you weren’t on
  [16:39] : LOL
  [16:43] * is listening to Maktub – Just Like Murder (headphones)”8
  [16:43] : 🙂
  [16:43] : you shouldn’t be disappointed.
  [16:44] * is listening to Maktub – You Can’t Hide (headphones)”8
  [16:44] : So far, so good.
  [16:45] : I’m gonna have to go listen to that one now. It makes me chair dance. 🙂
  [16:45] : I can tell why. 🙂
  [16:46] : I believe it’s my personal mission in life to tout the goodness of Maktub
  [16:46] : And the panty liner cups.
  [16:47] : LMAO
  [16:47] : …..well they’re not QUITE panty liners, but yeah
  [16:47] : I couldn’t remember the name. But, you know what I meant. ;
  [16:47] : You’re a guy, I don’t expect that to make sense…. LOL
  [16:47] : 😉
  [16:48] : It does.
  [16:48] : ok
  [16:48] : But, I couldn’t recall the name.
  [16:48] : soft cups
  [16:48] : I just needed to get the concept across. 😉
  [16:48] : Those!
  [16:48] : 🙂
  [16:49] : BTW, the concept of panty liner cups is just HORRID
  [16:49] : You know what I meant!
  [16:49] : 😛
  [16:50] : I know, but the IMAGES!!!! THE IMAGES!!!!

• Speaking of , check out today’s Junk in the Trunk.
• sent me a link to this. I still don’t know exactly what to make of it…
• Coming up on PBS’ Frontline: The Way the Music Died (check local listings)
• The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame
• The art of Greg Horn and The Hildebrandt Brothers
• From BBC News: Library of Alexandria discovered

I just had a glass of milk. And I’m getting tired. I think that it might be time to call it a night.

And God help any cat that decides to wake me up before 9:00 tomorning…

Namaste.

Thursday
I had another night of fitful sleep. It wasn’t made any better by the fact that I had a semi-recurring dream rear its head, either. I call it “semi-recurring because it’s the same concept, but almost never the same scene.

I was in school (college) again. It was finals week and I couldn’t remember whether or not I had dropped a class… but went to the final for that class anyway. The professor walked in and started going over a few things before giving out the exam; I only got part of what he was talking about. I understood some of the concepts, but overall… lost. Then he handed out the papers.

That’s when I woke up. More than slightly disconcerted and disturbed, but awake. I hate that dream. I’m not sure if it’s come back because I have been giving a lot of thought to finishing out my Bachelor’s Degree… but I really wish that it would just go away. *sigh*

The rest of the day was good, though. I stopped at a coffee shop for a mocha and a bagel on the way to work. Nice place. It’s been there for a couple of years, but I had never stopped there before. I’ll definitely go back.

On to work.

Away from work and back home to take Jess to her follow-up appointment; everything looked fine, according to the doctor.

From there it was off to American Stone. Now that we’re looking at houses, I can actually put serious thought/effort into the three “projects” that I have had in mind:

1. Wiring the house for Ethernet/sound.
2. A ‘Mech or Yard’Mechs.
   

   <edit>
   I just emailed the man who built the ‘Mech in his backyard. Let the waiting begin…
   </edit>

3. A Japanese garden (1, 2, 3) – albeit a simple one.

My garden will be a stone garden – we have cats and I don’t want a Japanese litter box. I’m not sure about plants, but I wouldn’t mind having a bonsai tree or two in it. The trip to American Stone was to get an idea of what kind of damage I’m looking at. It’s not nearly as bad as I had thought. The salesman whom I spoke with gave me a lot of interesting ideas… and he said that I gave him a few about creating a garden of his own. Turnabout is fair play.

NPR and Other News
Talk of the Nation: DNA in Property Crime Investigations
Talk of the Nation: Traveling on the Cheap
All Things Considered: Book Traces Origins of the ‘Chess Queen’

Other News: I came across this a few minutes ago. Where’s the justice in what happened here? “Summer school and transportation?” Please. To me, that’s patronization more than anything else. I hope that the mother sues the school system. And wins. BIG.

Stray Toasters

• Before I forget to ask (again): Does anyone (in the SLC area) have a steam cleaner/carpet cleaner that I could borrow next month?
• On the way back from American Stone, I was subjected to the Shawn Hannity Show. Thank God that I had gotten my fix of NPR earlier in the day. They did a “Man on the Street” segment with a young lady from New York. She was vapid. I’m not being mean when I say that; if anything, I’m being kind. It wasn’t even “funny” in a sad way. It was more… pitiful than anything else.
• : Have you heard of – or been to – Niche Gardens? If so, how is it? It looks like a place where I could get some nice photos.
• It’s common knowledge that bowling is one of my favored forms of 2-D Physics, pool being the other. I came across this earlier today. That’s a bit too over the top. Even for me. But, it doesn’t really surprise me that it’s a Utah company that’s doing it.
• Synorgy – Burning Man… Utah-style.
• For fans of The Simpsons: Guide to Springfield USA
• A Modest Destiny: “Can vampires see in the dark or something?”
• Reminder for and : Justice League: “Starcrossed” airs May 29 on Cartoon Network. Set your VCRs.
• From The Irish Examiner: Catwoman rescues Halle Berry
  (One life down, eight more to go. Maybe they’ll get it right next time…)

• The Uncanny X-Men… at least, it’s their latest lineup. And the first one since Marvel’s Powers That Be decided to put them back into costumes. Speaking of which, I think that they could have come up with better designs for a few of them. Storm, Sage (in the hood), Bishop (back, left) and Wolverine (of course) came out of the deal okay. The rest…? *shrug* I mean, really… Marvel Girl (Cyclops and Phoenix’ daughter, Rachel) is in what looks like workout togs. *boggle*

Until next time…

Namaste.

Wednesday
Middle. Of. The. Week.
I chatted with the Mother Unit this afternoon.
I avoided Lowe’s and Home Depot. Despite the temptation to stop into the Depot on the way home. Maybe I’ll go this weekend.
And… AND… I had Chinese food for dinner. Beef Lo Mein GOOOD!!! *gesture*

Stray Toasters

• I’m thinking of replacing my Mace Windu icon with a Shaft one. So, I went to AllTheWeb to do an image search. One of the items that it returned was this:
  
• pointed me in the direction of this. It made me laugh many times.
• Energizer Bunny Energizer Serra Angel.
• Thanks to for linking me to Star Wars Spoofs!
• Melissa Rowlands (the woman who was on trial for murder in Utah for refusing to get a C-Section – one of her babies was stillborn, they say that a C-Section might have allowed it to be delivered alive) is in the news again. If I heard the news item correctly, she is in Ohio… and pregnant again. She was apparently trying to make arrangements to sell her child.
• I saw an ad for an upcoming reality TV show while watching Law & Order tonight: Next Action Star. It looks like the bastard offspring of The Real World meets Ultimate Stuntman Competition. The prize: The chance to do stuntwork in “a major motion picture.” Whoop-de-fuck.
• I just discovered Sarah Brightman’s cover of Who Wants to Live Forever. I like it.
• From Wired, by way of Slashdot: Welcome to Planet Pixar.
• There have been many movie-to-game adaptations of late, especially in the wake of the comic book movies that have appeared over the past few years. And a lot of the games have… um… sucked. I think that it would be really amusing if the Catwoman game does better than the movie. And then there’s this (which someone on the DCG made). I’m not sure whether to laugh or twitch in fear.
• Also from the DCG: Phoenix in Flight
• : Take a look at this.
• The new Extra Gum commercials with the talking stick of gum? I think that they’re insipid.

To play a game or not to play a game? That is the question.

Namaste.

Tuesday
It’s almost June and I live in the high desert. I expect it to be warmer than this.
I did a little comparative research between here and home:

City	Temperature
Baltimore	84°
Greensboro	85°
Salt Lake City	57°

Oh, well.

Thank you to everyone who sent Jess well-wishes yesterday. She is doing fine. Thanks to the miracle of modern painkillers (Lortab), she was relatively pain-free yesterday afternoon.

Stray Toasters

• For …
  

• : Teen Titans marathon is June 18th. (details)
• There’s a poll in in which someone asked “Do you give your computers names?” and “If so, what is the name of the machine you use most often?”

  Being the Star Trek fan that I am, mine are: DS9 (PC), Defiant (laptop) and Enterprise (older PC that’s running Linux); Jess’ PC has a non-ST designation.

  Of course, this all goes out the window if I am troubleshooting the systems. Then they become: Bastard Ass (PC), Son of Bastard Ass (laptop) and Fuckwad (Linux PC)… and Jess’ becomes whatever random epithet happens to cross my lips at the time.

• Last night’s gaming session was (at least from my p.o.v.) productive; might disagree, but… *shrug* I think that we actually started doing things to advance the storyline. There were still distractions, but they didn’t seem to be as prevalent as they have in the past few weeks.
• If I had a hammer…
  Actually, I have three hammers:
  1. An old metal one
  2. A Stanley fiberglass one
  3. M.C. (on CD and mp3)
• The U.S. Army is redesigning GIs’ Fatigues
  

  There’s still a slight whiff of vaporware in the air at Natick. Powering all these doodads, for instance, won’t be easy. The Army wants to keep the total “power budget” for FFW down to 15 watts or so — a quarter of what a typical light bulb takes. “We don’t even know where to begin,” sighed Kalish Shukla, FFW’s power-management chief. They have at least one idea, though. “Avoid the use of Microsoft Windows operating systems,” a recent memo on the subject directed. FFW is going open source. Cleaner software needs less energy to run.

• : Click here.
• Windows… for supercomputers (story)?
  

  Microsoft has launched an effort to produce a version of Windows for high-performance computing…

  Can you say “oxymoron,” boys and girls?

• I just discovered the DIY Network’s website. After yesterday‘s little excursion, this bodes ill…

Nyx has a world to conquer…
I have a world to save.

Namaste.

After far too little sleep, I woke up before the sun rose over the mountains. Can’t really call that “O’ dark-thirty,” since there was light (and a good amount of it, at that). After observing the hygiene rituals, I took Jess to her doctor’s appointment. I killed the intermittent hours by sketching, reading and watching the wallpaper curl. I brought her back home and kept an eye on her while she slept. She woke up a few hours later; I ran to the store to pick up a few things and fixed her a light lunch. Seeing that she was feeling better, I decided that I was going to head to Home Depot and Lowe’s to check out a few things.

That seemed harmless enough.

I headed out a little before 2:00. I decided to grab a cup of frozen mocha goodness on the way. I stopped at the soon-to-be-VERY-local Beans & Brews. I wasn’t aware that it was “Mocha Monday,” but since it was, I had a large frozen mocha (with two espresso shots) for less than the price of a medium (without shots!!!).

Three LDS missionaries were also there. Missionaries… at a coffee shop?! My mind reeled from the seeming paradox. Two of them hung out by the door. The third was in line and ordered a hot beverage. This may seem innocuous enough, but there is a verse in… The Word of Wisdom, I believe… that cautions against “…hot and strong beverages…” (Yes, I do pay attention to the things that my LDS friends tell me. Yay for Comparative Religion!) The young man got his drink and the trio departed. Suffice if to say that I was a little stunned. And more than a little amused.

Then I was off to the Lowe’s at Jordan Landing!

As I said, the trip to the home improvement stores was intended to be fairly quick and painless.

It was painless.

“Quick?”
Not even close.

It’s finally happened.
I had heard friends talk about it, but never completely understood it.
At least not in this sense.

I can lose track of time in a Best Buy. Easily.
Ditto for Toys ‘R’ Us. (Especially if Joe is there. And there are FunNoodles around. We tend to have “swordfights” through the store.)
I can spend hours in an IKEA. Some people have been unfortunate enough to have experienced this phenomenon firsthand. (: I forgive you – more or less – for having gone to IKEA without me on Saturday.)

This… this was something else.
I spent over two-and-a-half hours in Lowe’s.

I really went in just to price lawn mowers, particle board and/or drywall. And joint/wall compound – because I need to patch a couple of wiring holes that I put in the walls here. (What?!? I needed to be able to run a couple of cables from the living room into the office. And I surely wasn’t going to have cables running along the floor down the hall!)

I think that I walked down EVERY aisle in the place. Taking notes. Getting pamphlets. Trying to figure out “Where could I use one of these…?”

I think that it’s official: I’ve been assimilated.

And… AND… I didn’t even look for anything to construct the ‘Mech.

And we haven’t even moved into the house yet.
God help me when we do…

*sigh*

It’s Game Night. I should get going.

…but there’s a Home Depot along the way.

Pray for me.

Sunday
Bowling and breakfast were good last night. and her husband joined us. : 137, 170, 183, and —/124 (ironman). The left lane game ended in the ninth frame… and I have no recollection of my score, other than it was 100-something.

<edit>
just informed me that the left lane ironman score was: 154
</edit>

Breakfast was good. I made shakes for and and waited on the prep line for more shake tins to become available (so that I could make mine). The restaurant was a tad crowded/busy, so I got a few odd looks from other patrons who just saw me standing there looking bored. I found it amusing.

This morning’s sleep was again interrupted by cats. Both of them. Which, on one hand, is a good thing (Xena is getting back to normal); on the other hand it’s not so good (having my sleep interrupted twice).

• The first time was somewhere between 6:30 and 7:00 this morning when Sissy decided to go climbing in my closet. I’m used to her lying on the comic book boxes in there, so I didn’t think too much of it when I first heard the noise. But it didn’t stop. So I roll out of bed to see what was going on. She was nowhere in sight. *boggle* Then I heard her moving around again. I looked up. She had climbed up to the recently-cleared top shelf. I told her to come down and she did. I had to give her points for ingenuity and creativity, though.
• The next awakening came around 9:30 when Xena decided that she wanted to sit in the windowsill. This involved her getting past/through/around the blinds. Noisily. Then she wanted to move around between the window and the blinds. Noisily. *braincramp* I took that as a sign that I should get out of bed. I decided to play on the computer. That was short-lived. I wound up curling up in the big comfy chair in the living room. I slept until a little after 11:00.

After returning to the Waking World, we headed to Borders to meet someone (More on this in ‘Toasters). After the meeting, I started on a new drawing. After that, it was off to see Shrek 2 with and . It was fun. And funny. A very good sequel. We went to IHoP for post-movie snacking.

Stray Toasters

• Some of you already know this, but here’s the big announcement:
  *** We had our bid accepted on a house! ***
  We met our real estate agent at Borders to sign the offer/counter-offer acceptance. We’ve been looking for a couple of months. A couple of weeks ago, we had an offer in on one that we liked… but it wasn’t accepted; the owner got three bids on the house and someone apparently bid the full asking price. (It was a nice house, but there were a few things that it needed to have done and thus made it not worth quite that much.) If all goes according to schedule, we’ll be moving at the end of June. Details to follow as they become available. But, this means that I’ll have an all-new HALO Command Center… and maybe, just maybe, my ‘Mech. I need to measure the yard and see if it will accommodate it. Of course, I could always just go Yard’Tech scale; there’s plenty of room for that.

• William Shatner may be coming back to Star Trek. Whether it will be as Capt. James Tiberius Kirk remains to be seen…
• The theme from Hawaii Five-O and women’s underwear.
• : Justice League: “Starcrossed” will air on Cartoon Network on Saturday, May 29, at 7:30pm Eastern and Pacific Time.
• A Modest Destiny
• There was a trailer for Shark Tale before Shrek 2. It looks promising. And funny.
• While she doesn’t look as much like Martha Stewart in this picture, Sue Storm does not look very happy. Not even a little bit.

I believe that’s about it for today. Until next time…

Namaste.

It’s the weekend.
And that’s almost never a bad thing.

Last night’s coffee was good. We had a decent turn-out: , , , , , , , Maddox and Cherry. There was some guy who kept trying to solicit customers for… something. Fortunately, Matthew (the on-duty manager) stopped him just as he was approaching our table; he sent him on his merry way. But the guy came back in a short while later. Some peoples’ children…

After coffee, most of us headed to Applebee’s for a late-night bite to eat. And Coronas. Amen. Dinner conversation was as random as ever. That’s just one of the benefits of having an eclectic group of friends.

Last night’s sleep was… not fitful, but a little broken last night. I had a really weird dream sometime after 7:00 this morning.

We had been driving north along I-15 and had made the exit onto Route 201, westbound. Next to us was a tractor-trailer with an extended load. A very extended load. Six trailers. (That may have been the east coaster in my subconscious having a bit of fun with me: Trucks are allowed no more than two trailers east of the Mississippi River.) As we completed the “turn” onto 201, the truck pulled ahead of us… and the trailers came unhitched. I woke up just as one of the trailers slammed into the barrier wall between lanes and spilled its contents on the road in front of the car.

I woke up a little agitated. I managed to get back to sleep a short while later.

I can’t explain it, other than possession by the spirit of either Benson (one of my all-time favorite shows) or Geoffrey (from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), but I have been on a bit of a cleaning binge today. It’s been sporadic, but I have made progress. I even managed to find a few more things to donate to Deseret Industries (The LDS Church’ equivalent of Goodwill Industries). Hoo-AH! There are still the kitchen and living room to tackle… not to mention my bathroom… but they might wait until tomorrow. *shrug* We’ll see.

Stray Toasters

• : You pointing and telling me where to clean is NOT the same as you cleaning up for me.
• isn’t coming down this weekend after all. *sigh* But she has inaugurated a new section in her posts: Junk in the Trunk, her version of ‘Stray Toasters.’
• …speaking of whom, she sent me this: Do Penis Enlargement Pills Work.
  Exercises! *cracks up*
  Comedy. Pure comedy.

• Sissy is curled up and sleeping on a box.
• Xena seems to be feeling better. Finally. She’s still a little dodgy about taking her medicine, but on the whole, she’s been more responsive and a bit more active. This is definitely a good thing.
• The Dot Game
• I have mp3s from The Ad Hog Camerata – Grunt: Pigorian Chant in which “barnyard animals” sing Gregorian-style chants. In Latin. It’s bizarre, but oddly amusing.
• MTV2 (or the MTV that still remembers what a “music video” is) aired their “Controversial Videos” show earlier. Smack My Bitch Up was the topmost controversial video. At least, it was when this program originally aired. I haven’t been keeping up on cutting edge/bleeding edge videos, so there’s a chance that there’s a new challenger to the throne out there.
• The world is not enough
  But it is such a perfect place to start, my love…
  I like the video for this song, too.

• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was on HBO earlier, too. I watched the last few minutes of it. That was plenty.
• To cleanse my mental palette, I watched an episode of Jonny Quest on Boomerang. That made everything in the world all right once more.
• From Backwash: ihateclowns.com
• Also from BW: Why you should never put your picture on the Internet…

Back to the cleaning fest…

Namaste.

It’s Friday.
Selah.

Unspeakable Vault (of Doom).
Webcomics and the Old Gods – a match made in… some dimension’s Hell.

This made me laugh.

Thanks to for passing along the link!

On to the rest of the day!

Thursday
Today was a good day.
Four down.
One to go.

Xena’s still sick, so we took her back to the vet. Again. Apparently, someone there forgot to tell us something that we were supposed to be doing to help rehydrate her. *braincramp* So, we came home early, got her and were off to see the Wizard! the vet. Turns out that we are supposed to give her water via a subcutaneous injection. (Translation: “We have to basically give her an IV, but not really an IV – it’s just below the skin, but not in a vein.”) Not nearly as bad as we’d supposed that it would be.

Came back home, got Xena settled, fixed something to eat and then headed off to see and . We hung out and chatted for a bit. Then we decided that we wanted ice cream. So, it was off to Iceberg for milkshakes!

A couple of fire trucks pulled into the lot just after we did. We didn’t take it as an ill omen since there were no plumes of black, billowing smoke coming from inside. We ordered. We ate our milkshakes. (Mmm. Tasty shaked milks.) We watched the locals; we were not disappointed with the cavalcade of people that paraded past.

After we returned Nyx and Nox to their place, it was of to Super Mart of Wal for cat litter. (If you have a cat, I recommend Feline Pine; it’s great at stopping odor… assuming that your cat buries his or her offal.) And then, home again.

Stray Toasters

• Thanks to Nyx for showing me a link to HowStuffWorks website. It’s pretty damned cool.
• Slashdot has offered up an article on The Physics of Baseball.
• …and an article that referenced a commentary on MSNBC that asks: “Can Star Wars: Episode III Be Saved?” Good question.
• By way of IRC: ‘SpaceShipOne’ Becomes First Privately Funded Vehicle to Break Through Earth’s Atmosphere. When I hear about things like this, it reminds me of Contact and Salvage.
• This just in… (or just getting to me, rather): The photoblog of the young lady who has been motorcycling through Chernobyl seems as though it may be a fake.
• This is an interesting take on Dexter’s Laboratory.
• “A little piece of home… a little taste of hell!”
  Doesn’t that pretty much sum up a lot of family vacations?

• From Wired (by way of disinformation.com): XXXchurch Wants No More XXX
• Also by way of disinformation: Top 10 Conspiracy Theories of 2003-2004

And with that…

Namaste.

Three down.
Two in the chamber.
And, it was a beer night.

All in all: the day was good.

Stray Toasters

• Would you like some coffee with your caffeine?
• A Modest Destiny – Behold the work of Gustav.
• By way of : Dodgeball’s a Hit – With Adults
• I knew that there was something that I wanted to mention Sunday night, but forgot: There were two comics-related trailers before Troy – Catwoman and Constantine. I continue to be unimpressed by the press on Catwoman; the trailer did nothing to raise my hopes. This will be a definite “Pass.” Which is doubly sad because it is a comics-related property and it has Halle Berry. *sigh*

  The trailer for Constantine held some promise. Which is doubly sad because the nice folks at Warner Brothers don’t think that American audiences are savvy enough to accept John Constantine as a Briton and it has Keanu Reeves. *sigh* (To be honest, I have enjoyed his… um… acting… in a few movies. It’s really the “We’re going to make him American” thing that sticks in my craw. But I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a jab.)

• 
  This is a picture of the (possible) new Supergirl. DC seems to be retconning Superman continuity. Again. Which really doesn’t bother me too much – haven’t many of the stories that we have grown up with been adapted and reinvented many times over? The current question that DC is posing is “Will she be Supergirl?” I don’t think that they would have gone to the lengths that they have to posit this if they weren’t planning on keeping the character around for a while. And, given the fact that it looks like DC is caving to old school Green Lantern purists and bringing back the formerly-deceased Green Lantern Hal Jordan as the “new” GL, this doesn’t surprise me in the least.

• While helping look up some information on the comic book incarnation of the Teen Titans, I noticed that DC has finally updated their Secret Files page.

That’s enough for now.

Until tomorrow…

Namaste.

Today was a pretty good day. If for no other reason than because I said so. It was windy, too. was right – it would have been a good day for kite flying. If I could have taken advantage of it, that is.

I watched two hours of 24, last week’s and tonight’s. Wow. This show continues to impress me. I also watched tonight’s Law & Order: SVU “with” and . Lots of plot twists… a couple that I figured out and one that I never saw coming.

Stray Toasters

• Xena’s still sick. The vet thinks that it might be possible kidney failure, but she wasn’t 100% sure. So, we get to give her a different medication for the next week or two. Anyone who has ever tried to give medicine to a cat (or other pet) understands what this means.
• I want a house and a yard. For one reason. No, wait: TWO reasons.
  1. Yard’Tech or my ‘Mech, depending on the size of the yard.
  2. I want to get some outdoor speakers, a copy of Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman’s Time To Say Goodbye… and an oscillating lawn sprinkler.

     Why?

     Because I’d synchronize the sprinkler to the music when I’d water my lawn.
     Just like the water show at the Bellagio.

     I might even water it a few times a day.
     Just like the water show at the Bellagio.

     That’s right. I’d annoy the bejeezus out of my neighbors every weekend.
     But I’d have a green lawn.
     And nice music.

• Tony Randall died today. I caught the story this morning. I remember watching him on reruns of The Odd Couple with my father.
• Lewis Black makes me laugh.
• had a great post about the decline of men’s fashion. We agree on this.
• Ah, A Modest Destiny. (1, 2, 3)
• Cinescape has a story about a possible sequel to Bruce Almighty. *sigh* This movie was fine as a one-shot. *sigh* Does anyone else remember when movies were made for the sake of making movies and not for the sake of starting a franchise?
• This is a Red Dragon. They’re fond of people. For lunch. Or an appetizer.
• Broken Frontier’s I Need A Hero makes me laugh, too.
• Stargate: The Next Generation
  Stargate Atlantis
  Well, if it worked for Star Trek, Law & Order and CSI, why not?

Quiz of the Day

You’re an Etch-a-Sketch!! You’re the creative,
artsy type who doesn’t need to actually utilize
a single muscle group in order to have fun.
Doesn’t matter though, you’re still cool.

What childhood toy from the 80s are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Quote of the Day
David Letterman to Jack Hanna: I’m not smelling your weasel!

And that’s a wrap…

Namaste.

I gave my laptop a lobotomy yesterday afternoon. Eight minutes is a little too long for start-up. After a fresh installation of the OS (and putting a few programs back on it) it’s back down to a much more manageable minute-and-a-half.

Game was… umm… a little off last night. We were all there, but we weren’t “all there.” There were distractions aplenty. We managed to find out some information to move the story along, but we didn’t actually do much…

Nyx wants to kill me. Not that this is really new; it’s part of the whole little sister-big brother dynamic. Maybe she really is my “Lex Luthor,” after all.

I neglected to post last week’s 2-D Physics scores: 140-133-150-114/128
Not great, but acceptable… especially considering that I had a week off. I just hope that I can pull it together this weekend so that I don’t get completely trounced when ‘s here.

Thanks to for Troy in Fifteen Minutes.
(It’s hysterical, but be warned: There are tons of spoilers in it.)

Thanks to Maddox for pointing this out to me the other day. (If you’re reading this, we need to do coffee again soon.)

The Gods of Arr-Kelaan
I was a late getting into this webcomic, but I like it.

: I still think that Camptown Races would be funnier.

Esquire Magazine’s Brutally Honest Personals. Pure Comedy.

Yeti Sports

.eof

And now, on to face the day.

Namaste.