Random Access

Thursday
Yet another indecisive day, weatherwise, in the neighborhood.
I felt a little closed-in at work this afternoon, so I decided to work at the library. I took with me, for good measure.

Later, Nyx, and I went to Chinese Gourmet (or “Chuck E. Chinese,” as we like to call it) for dinner. Mongolian Stir-Fry GOOOD!!! *gesture* The people-watching there was good, too.

Stray Toasters

• Flight times have been verified. Tickets have been purchased. In two weeks, I will be back in North Carolina for a long (5-day long) weekend.
• Kitty and Rogue. I saw this picture the other night and thought,”Wow…”
• Koolio – The Robot Refrigerator
• See the Ugly Dolls.
• Jim Lee’s steps to a Superman cover: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
• An interview with Kill Bill Vol. 2 star David Carradine.
• If there are two men whose bad side you don’t want to be on, these are the men. And, if you needed another example (as if the first one wasn’t enough), here.
• I found a little something that might just put a smile on the face of Miss .
• I made no bones about the fact that I looked forward to – and enjoyed – the big screen adaptation of S.W.A.T, a TV series that I watched in my younger days. But… I can’t see any good reason for this. None. Zip. Zilch. Zero. (And not even “My Hero, Zero” at that!) But, maybe it’s just me.
• This, on the other hand, I anticipate with abounding joy… just like I’ve done in the nearly twenty years since it was written.
• From Slashdot: Operation Fastlink Cracks Down on Warez
• Rick Berman has finally admitted that he is working on a new Star Trek movie. A prequel. He’s still being rather tight-lipped about it. Just like Captain Sisko.
  

• Tigger Woods. (I still can’t believe you said that.)
• From Blender: The 50 Worst Artists in Music History
  (: Check out #26!)

Once upon a time, in New York City in 1941… at this club open to all comers to play, night after night, at a club named “Minton’s Play House” in Harlem, they play jazz sessions competing with each other. Young jazz men with a new sense are gathering. At last they created a new genre itself. They are sick and tired of the conventional fixed style jazz. They’re eager to play jazz more freely as they wish then…

In 2071 in the universe… the bounty hunters, who are gathering in the spaceship “BEBOP”, will play freely without fear of risky things. they must create new dreams and films by breaking traditional styles. The The work, which becomes a new genre itself, will be called… “COWBOY BEBOP”

Namaste.

Wednesday
Grey morning.
Blue(-ish) afternoon
Indecisively overcast evening.

Today saw twice the normal coffee action than a typical every-other-Wednesday. and I got together for a late lunch-time coffee… but the shop that we were planning going to (The Coffee Tree) wasn’t there. Literally. That’s sad because it was a quaint little shop and it was in a decent (though not great) location. I think that might have been part of the problem: It was off of Redwood Road (one of SLC’s main drags), but it was not facing the street and I don’t recall it having any signs along the frontage of the property. So, we went to Wendy’s instead.

<interjection>

Support your local coffee shop(s) so that they don’t disappear while you’re not paying attention!

If you’re in the SLC area, some of the shops that I have visited – and recommend – are:

• Jitterbug Coffee Hop
• Brew’d Awakening
• Beans & Brews (small chain, but still local)
• Greenhouse Effect and
• Brew Monkey

</interjection>

Tonight was a coffee night, so we met with the regular irregulars at Greenhouse Effect. This was good as I was able to use my punch card to get a free ham and cheese crepe. I forgot to get Beth to do her Aku impression, though. Even after seeing a picture of the Samurai Jack: The Shadow of Aku game last night. Maybe next time…

Stray Toasters

• Office pranks (1, 2) from InteractiveTools.com
• Lyrid meteor shower
• : Bet you can’t guess what’s behind this link.
• Animal rights activists line up against Batman
• Stan Berkowitz has been writing about superheroes for a long time. Toon Zone interviewed him about his career (and a few other things). Check it out here.
• ::: searching for airfare :::
• : One word (well… a name, really): Morrissey
• Bratstreet is back!
• Mr. Know-it-All’s Online Guide to Signs

Oy. I’m up far past the time that I had planned to be in bed. Time to rectify that.

Namaste.

Tuesday
On the whole it’s been a decent day.
Cemented a few strategies at work, including scrapping some old ideas and paving the way for bringing some other ones into the light.

::: prays to St. Jude :::

Stray Toasters

• Things have been worse
  Since I lost your St. Christopher
  Even the roses have thorns…

• Once again, the latest episode of A Modest Destiny saves the day.
• I was going to put a link to a very cool drawing of San from Princess Mononoke here… but apparently, Renderosity has made gallery viewing “Members Only.” *shrug* Instead, I’ll present a picture of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, from Comics2Film
• SturkWurk – the digital art of Doug Sturk
• This sounds like an interesting premise for a comic book:
  

  MY FLESH IS COOL, mini-series from Avatar Press, art by Juan Jose Ryp. To quote COMICS INTERNATIONAL, which gave it an 8 out of 10, “An experimental drug enables Evan Knox to work as a highly paid assassin and troublemaker who can take over other people’s bodies. He can get to anyone, anywhere, without detection. He does whatever he wants, and uses other people in a ruthlessly instrumental way. The catch is this: what if everyone could get their hands on the drug? Both script and art are adult and gritty. This comic is cool.”

• Fulp Piction
• I’ve seen a LOT of… unusual… auctions. This ranks right up there with them.
  ::: edit ::: It was a link to a 19-year-old young woman in the U.K. who was auctioning her virginity.

• “One-third of email now spam,” according to this article in The Register.
• Paris Hilton…. as The Riddler… *shrug* Click here to see.
• It looks as though Renderosity left something of a back door to the site for non-members, after all. Of course, it’s kind of like going around your ass to scratch your nose, but if it works… who am I to argue. (That was a rhetorical question.) Anyway, check out Juji’s gallery; the San pic is there (page 2).
• An irritated Martha Stewart Sue Storm.
• Knock knock…

Namaste.

Monday
…and all I can think is “Is it Friday yet?”
Not that it’s been a bad day. It’s been a good one, in fact.
I think that I just want it to be the weekend again.

Stray Toasters

• and I were talking about a friend of ours who is living a vegan lifestyle the other day. I remembered that an ex-gf of mine has a daughter who is vegetarian… but liked Rice Krispies® treats. The problem being: There’s gelatin in marshmallows. My ex told me that she made the treats with Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme. No gelatin, thus no problem. This got me to thinking about gummy bears/cola bottles/worms… So, I did what any net-addicted person would do: I looked it up. This (second paragraph) is one of the things that I found.
• Tuesday, 27 April 2004. Mark that date on your calendar(s).
  Why? You mean other than “Because I said so?”
  How about because it’s Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s.
  …and because I said so.

• I was checking out a few random journals and came across . Many of his entries made me laugh.
• 2003 Nebula Awards
• FROLIC!
• Shiny Shiny: A Girl’s Guide to Gadgets
  (Is it just me or does the name of this site sound “more than a little” patronizing?)

• As we are moving into Spring, and severe weather season in many parts of the country, FEMA has “…put together a site by and for kids that have lived through or observed such events.” The site is Disaster Connection: Kids to Kids.
• By way of comes Beatallica and The Trip Back
• I found a link to Beyond Black, White and Brown: A Forum on disinformation. It is an article from The Nation wherein a number of respondents discuss the legacy of Brown vs. Board of Education. Interesting reading.
• Also from disinformation: The Most Dangerous Vaccines
• Once again, A Modest Destiny has brought a smile to my face (1, 2, 3).

It’s Game Night and I should be getting ready to hit the road.

Namaste.

Today was a good day, even if the weather didn’t decide to cooperate until late in the afternoon.

and I had brunch at Rivers with and the lovely Mrs. . It the first time there for all of us; it was a nice place. The atmosphere was pleasant, food was excellent and the service was also top-notch.

After that, came home and hung out for a bit until it was time to head out to see Kill Bill Vol. 2. I enjoyed it quite a bit. The style was a different than the first movie, but that did not detract from the story. And Tarantino still has quite an ear for dialogue.

And the rest of the evening has been spent relaxing.

I hope that everyone had a good weekend and has a good start to the week at hand.

Namaste.

Last night was good: It started off with coffee time at Cheers North. I saw a couple of the ladies with whom I usually chat on Sunday afternoons. I sat and talked with them for a while. Dinner at Outback with , , , , and the as-yet-non-LJ’ed Christopher. Good food, good company and bad puns.

I’ve been up for hours and I still have no idea what I want to do today. That’s not a good thing. “Being lazy” is pretty high on the “things to do” list. The thought of playing a game is good… but I have no idea of what I want to play.

It’s windy enough for kite-flying, but I’m enjoying the warmth of being indoors.

If anyone has a few hours to kill and wants to do something, let me know.
I’m open to suggestions because I am actually giving serious thought to cleaning.
And that just isn’t right.

Namaste.

Friday
End. Of. The. Week.
Amen.

Stray Toasters

• Reason #536 of “Why We Love
  

  [09:49] (check my latest LJ entry)
  [11:11] *checks*
  [11:13] “Batman” and “masturbation” are two words that I never want to see in the same sentence again.
  [11:13] BWAHAHAHHA!

• Gummy worms. Mmmm.
• There’s an article on Slashdot about a study that Earthlink did claiming that the average user’s PC has 28 spyware programs on it. More information can be found on Earthlink’s spyware auditing page. I’ll take this opportunity to recommend AdAware, AVG and ZoneAlarm as defensive tools.
• It’s a great big universe and we’re all really puny…
• W.W.G.D. (What Would Godzilla Do?) And this tells you what it’s all about. For the most part.
• Alex Ross has done two drawings of Superman with Tom Welling (Clark Kent on the WB’s Smallville).

Time to go out and play for a while.

Namaste.

Thursday
All-in-all, today was a good day… even if it was mostly grey and drab outside.

I had dinner with , and ; we went to Olive Garden. We had hoped to see , but she wasn’t there. Maybe next time. After that, we headed to Cheers for dessert and shakes.

<sidebar>
Jon is sporting a new hairstyle. He looks like Benicio Del Toro.
</sidebar>

We had a good time catching up on the past couple of months since left Utah and has been busy with work and other things.

Stray Toasters

• I got to chat with the mother-unit today. Briefly. But it was good.
• : There’s some potential Futurama news in here in which you might be interested.
• It looks like Florida is, once again, looking to put a tax on LANs.
• I came across this on Backwash. The first thing that came to mind: “If Mighty Mormon Power Panties were swimwear…”
  Yep. Hell, meet Handbasket. Gasoline, meet Drawers.

• Tarnished Images – The Artwork of Ruth Thompson
• Does anyone have a suggestion or two for a good spam filter?
• Slim and the Seductress. I’m waiting to see where this goes…
• More amusement from A Modest Destiny

So, make it one for my baby… and one more for the road.

Namaste.

Wednesday
Typical start to the day.
Typical middle.
The end was a little different.

I had dinner at Sampan with and . Mmm, Chinese food. Strolled through the mall and saw some of the HALO action figures (Blue Master Chief and the Banshee… but I want Sargeant Johnson, too) and the “Battle Damaged” MechWarrior Mad Cat II and Jupiter die-cast figures. And the MW ones are on sale. Methinks that I will have ‘Mechs, after all.

And there was a Bank of America ATM in the mall!!!
A tiny vestige of civilization from back home!
I was so happy, I ran up to it and hugged it!

Came home and watched Adult Swim and putzed around on the computer. I had planned to do something productive on it. No go. “Laziness” was the operative word… and I went with it.

I got a call from home around 11:30 PM. It was my father. He handed the phone to my sister. She’s getting married. Ô_õ Congratulations to her and ! (More on this in the QotD, below.)

Stray Toasters

• Gummy bears.
• Sissy is chasing her tail on the other chair again.
• Utah drivers. *twitch*
• and I were having a discussion about the two versions of Ocean’s Eleven. I like both versions, but there is… something… about the older version that has a style to it that the new one doesn’t. Maybe it’s just a Rat Pack thing.
• Airtoons
• Sometimes, a short walk can be the perfect addition to your day.
• From Backwash: Chainsaw Chick, the chainsaw artwork of Cherie Currie, former vocalist for The Runaways.
• Also by way of Backwash: This. Irreverant, but funny… and 99.7% work safe.

Quotes of the Day

Item #1:

[00:03] : yea your dad sat to the side watching mrs. n and rana go back and forth
[00:03] : mrs. n kept going “my baby’s gettin’ married”
[00:04] : dad goes “young man…my sympathies.”
[00:04] : I [heart] my dad.
[00:05] : yea he was in rare form

Item #2

[15:37] : Oh… what was the word on the door?
[15:37] : Panes?
[15:37] : $108! 8/
[15:37] : Total?
[15:37] : they’re coming to fix it monday.
[15:37] : yeah.
[15:37] : That’s NOT bad.
[15:37] : for 2 stupid panes of tiny glass? : “)
[15:38] : Unless you’re going to blow it yourself…
[15:38] : i guess it’s some weird tempered glass they have to order in, that’s why monday.
[15:38] : yeah yeah. : “)
[15:38] : …said the Actress to the Bishop.
[15:38] : 😉
[15:38] : bwahahahahha!!

Namaste.

Tuesday
(But I’m not entirely sure that it wasn’t Monday 2.0)

I normally wake up around 8:30, unless I’m going to the gym; in that case, I wake up around 7:15-7:30. This morning, after sleeping excruciatingly poorly, I was awakened a few minutes before the alarm went off. By the phone. *braincramp* It was the auto shop – one of yesterday’s errands was to drop off my car. He was calling with the suggested items to be taken care of and the estimates. Oy vey.. This is not the way that one would/should choose to wake up. But, it needs to get done.

The rest of the day wasn’t bad, but I was a tad grumpy until later this evening. After dinner, and since 24 was pre-empted until Sunday night, I went for a drive. There’s something about getting out on the road that helps clear the mind. And the jazz (music, not team) on the radio didn’t hurt, either.

I got a call from asking if I wanted to hang out for a bit; I did. She, , Christopher and I went to Greenhouse Effect for coffee and chat. It was good. And, it helped to ease the last bit of tension/irritation in my mind.

Stray Toasters

• Peanut M&M’s.
• Internet Bumper Stickers
• While going through old posts again, I came across: The American Pantheon.
• A little something for : 1, 2, 3
• A little something for : Guess who…
• A little something for : 1
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file:Grow
• Sodaplay
• I’ve mentioned my affinity for Backwash and Adult Backwash, but I have neglected to mention yet another aspect: BackwashKIDS! (Parents: There aren’t any direct links from BWKids to the other parts of the Backwash domain.)
• I’m not sure if this is “the latest and greatest” or “the next big thing” in fashion, but…. here’s The No-Contact Jacket. (Think: “Taser in clothing form.”)

Now that I have overshot my intended bedtime by at least an hour, I’m calling it a night. Tomorrow is Wednesday – that makes everything just a little better.

Namaste.

Monday
It’s been a beautiful, blue-skied day here in the Land Behind the Zion Curtain.
Today was “Taking Care of Errands” Day.
And they were taken care of.

Tonight is Game Night.
<note to self>
Don’t forget to take the Adventure! sourcebook for Nyx.
</note to self>

Stray Toasters

• Even though I have it in my Favorites: Entertainment bookmarks folder, I “forget” that I have a link to Cinescape.com. Last night, I saw it and decided to rummage through. Good thing that I did or else I would have missed the link to Joyride Studios. And, thus, I would not have known about their figures for:
  

  

  

  I don’t think that the English language has the words to express just how wrong that would have been.

• and : Click here.
• : Click here, too.
• We saw this while driving around this afternoon.
• And, while on the topic of “mullets,” as much of a fan of Longshot as I was, there’s no denying that he has the mother of all mullets in comicdom.
• And, by way of : MulletJunky and The Doom Song.
• Can you say “Covet,” boys and girls? Look at this and then repeat after me: “Mmm. Covet.” (If anyone is wondering what to get for my birthday, this would be a welcome item. And, you’re even getting six (6) months’ advance warning!)
• Evil Pictograms
• By way of Backwash: Diary Quotes
• Also from Backwash: The Room
  (Even though it’s set up like a meme, this seems to be some sort of promotional ad-thing for Umbra. But they seem to have some cool items for sale.)

That’s all for now. Time to get ready for tonight.

Namaste.

Sunday
I hope that everyone is having a safe and peaceful day, whether you celebrate the holiday or not.

It’s been a lazy day around here.
I talked with the parental units and my uncle, I may try calling the sibko in a bit.

I have spent the past hour or so copying over the pictures from the White Trash Party at and ‘s house.
Many pictures.
They can be found here. (And for those of you who were caught here in compromising positions, remember: I have the original pictures and Photoshop. And, I’m not above blackmail.)

Time to get ready to head to ‘s parents’ house for Easter dinner.

Namaste.

Saturday
Today was a good day, the highlights of which include:

• Brunch with and
• White Trash Party at and ‘s house.

More details will follow sometime after I regain consciousness. How soon after, I have no idea.

Happy Easter to everyone.

Namaste.

Friday
Not too much to say.
The day was good, made better by the fact that it was “Friday.”
The evening was spent with the usual assortment of friends.

Stray Toasters

• Once again, A Modest Destiny brings a smile to my face.
• For those who haven’t yet seen it: Spider-Man 2 Trailer
• From PBS‘ Robert X. Cringely: The Only Way Microsoft Can Die Is by Suicide
• Build your own Steadycam… for only $14. (What a bargain!)

Quote of the Day

Dee: Mine is world domination… but I’ll settle for regional influence.
(Talking about things we want over coffee tonight)

I should probably make an attempt at getting some sleep.

Namaste.

Thursday
Weekend = One Day Away.
Now, the question is: Will it be a full day or a half day? Decisions, decisions…

NPR Stories
The big item in the news today was Dr. Condoleezza Rice’s appearance before the September 11th investigation commission.
And, in other news…
Talk of the Nation: Changing Minds
All Things Considered: Ford’s Mustang Turns 40
All Things Considered: Illinois Apologizes for 1844 Murder of Mormon Leader

Stray Toasters

• A Modest Destiny
  What’s love meatloaf got to do… got to do with it?

• http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?gameid=955
• I just saw the new Spider-Man 2 trailer. *jawdrop*
• From Grist Magazine: Control-Alt-Recycle
• Spontaneous Combustion?
• It’s time for another Slashdot Poll!
• Having posted a link to “Subservient Chicken” last night, I just saw a Burger King commercial with the chicken in it. *shiver*
• Is there a PC game that you used to play years ago that holds a special place in your memory? Do you think that it deserves another chance? Home of the Underdogs probably thinks so, too.
• Get to Sleep… Even When You’re Stressed.
• There’s an ad campaign here that deals with “how bad the sun is for you.” These commercials are almost as annoying as some of the anti-smoking ads or the Totally Awesome/PC Laptops commericals that I rant about. Almost. But, they are gaining ground.

“Mr. Toad, how many licks of you does it take to get to the center of a Rhode Island prison?”

It’s midnight-ish. That means it’s gymtime!

<Update>
1:23 am
Gym GOOOD!!!
:::gesture:::
That seems to have fit the bill. Now for a lite snack, a shower and then, off to The Dreaming.
</Update>

Namaste.