Random Access

Friday
‘Nuff said.

The evening was spent with some of the usual suspects for coffee and chat. I worked on a drawing from a skating mag; gave helpful hints and critique, per usual.

It’s been snowing today. Not much has accumulated (yet), but it’s still snow. Only three more months of winter and then June will be here. Meanwhile, it’s going to be 53° in Baltimore and 50° in Greensboro on Saturday.

Stray Toasters

• This week has been a complete wash, as far as working out goes. I might try to go sometime this weekend, but I doubt that will come to fruition.
• From Wired.com: Lawmakers Alarmed by RFID Spying – Utah (yes, that “Utah”) passed the first-ever RFID privacy bill this week. Now, if we could just get them to do something about the asinine liquor laws…
• Al Rio Art
• “Accoutrements!”
• I have had some of the most random songs playing in my head today; one of them (and it was there for far too long) was Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina. The upbeat dance remix. I’m reasonably sure that is to blame. Even if he isn’t, I’m blaming him.
• Broken Frontier has an article about The Science of Superheroes.
• …and they also have a rather amusing superhero parody comic: I Need a Hero
• For : “Teaching Comics” (Part One, Part Two)
• Prince is going to be on the Ellen Degeneres show Wednesday; I may have to watch this.
• I don’t know who’s been sticking quarters in Sissy, but she’s been very… “bouncy” this week. More so than usual. It almost borders on “twitchy.” The other night she was on a chair, chasing her tail. The evil part of me kept waiting to see if she’d fall off. (She didn’t.) Cats. Go figure.
  

Thursday
I’m tired.
And hungry. (Can’t forget the “hungry.”)
(::: edit ::: The hunger has been abated.)

I’m not sure “why,” but I had a difficult time getting to sleep last night. I think that it took me oven an hour to fall asleep. One would think that I should be far more tired than I am currently. *shrug* Maybe it will hit me soon.

NPR Stories
Morning Edition: D.C. Says Water Unsafe for Kids, Pregnant Women
Morning Edition: Heroin in America: Life with Methadone
Morning Edition: Nellie McKay, Live in Studio 4A
Talk of the Nation: The Passion and the History of the Gospels
Talk of the Nation: ‘Movie Menus:’ Food for Film Buffs
All Things Considered: Coming Home: Female Soldier Back on Duty
All Things Considered: Omar Sharif

Stray Toasters

• From rain to snow to clearing skies. Welcome to Utah.
• On tonight’s Futurama, Bender was on an Iron Chef parody, “Iron Cook.” It made me laugh. At the end, Chairman Koga told Bender “Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.” That made me laugh, too.
• From upcoming Marvel books: Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate FF, and She-Hulk.
• 1Up has a nine-part article on “Interactive Fiction.” (If the name “Infocom” has any meaning for you, you might want to check this out.)
• Hero Cliques, by way of Comics 2 Film Cinema
• Faster than a rolling “O”…
  More powerful than silent “E”…
  Able to leap capital “T” in a single bound…
  It’s a bird, it’s a plan, it’s _________ !

• pointed out the Top 250 Films list on IMDb. I have seen 88 of them. ( just told me that he’s seen 163 of them; I feel like a slacker.) As a corollary, check out the American Film Institute’s 100 Years… 100 Lists.

Namaste.

Wednesday
To those who celebrate it: Good Ash Wednesday.

The day wasn’t too bad.
The night was good – spent in the company of friends, with liberty and justice dinner and coffee for all. Amen.

NPR Stories
Morning Edition: Stupid Human Tricks
Morning Edition: Heroin in America: From Patient to Addict
Talk of the Nation: New Heroin Users
All Things Considered: Walgreen’s Policy Draws Fraud Charges
All Things Considered: V.A. Struggles to Treat Iraq Vets

Stray Toasters

• It’s official: Cartoon Network is retooling Justice League into Justice League Unlimited (1, 2). Looks like we will be seeing more heroes from the DCU. And, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
• What your music tastes say about your personality
• From Slashdot: Japanese Government Raids Microsoft Offices
• I have mentioned before that cats can be funny. Vikings can be amusing, too. Led Zepplin is almost always entertaining. But, what do you get when you put them all together? This.
• How does your city rate?
• Witch Hunter Robin… It’s got a dark side. A very dark side. Far more than anything else on Cartoon Network that comes to mind. I was actually surprised by the railyard scene from tonight’s episode.
• What are some of comicdom’s big names’ (including Eric Larsen, Neil Gaiman and Warren Ellis) “Top Five” movies? Take a look here and see what they said. I think that I might have to compile a list of my top five or ten movies…
• I got bored and decided to let the Fickle Finger of Fate (by way of UROULETTE) pick a URL for me. This is what it brought up. *boggle* I remember this being fairly popular in the 80s/90s, but is that still the case? Was it even the case in 2002, when this page was created?

Royal Oil, come on bubble and boil
Stabs like dagger, make you stagger
On the hot tin foil
Mind your mind or it will surely spoil
Then you sleep down in the soil
Nothing comes from nothing, come on
Royal Oil…

Namaste.

Tuesday
Grey. Overcast. But, it’s another day closer to the weekend.

Not too much happened today. But, there was 24 and Law and Order: SVU tonight. Both of them were good; SVU was… odd, but well done.

NPR Stories
Morning Edition: ‘The Cajuns: Americanization of a People
Talk of the Nation: Constitutional Amendments
All Things Considered: Bush Favors Constitutional Ban on Gay Marriage
All Things Considered: The Not So Random Coin Toss

Stray Toasters

• I think that I have just seen my new favorite commercial bumper on Adult Swim. It came on during Inuyasha:
  

  The Tetsaiga transforms from a katana to a falchion.
  That changes its damage from 1-10 to 2-8.
  And it’s threat range to 18-20.
  If you know what that means…
  You have a problem.

  And I can think of a few people (besides myself) who do know what that means.

• I always thought of kites as a simple way to enjoy a breezy afternoon… until reading this.
• As an amusing counterpoint to the NPR story (above) about the Shrub, I give you this.
• From Slashdot: What (non-PC) Hardware Do You Hack?
• Zombie eraser heads
• Slashdot Poll: Cell Phone Notification
  Imperial March is the song that ran on continual loop in my head when I was a supervisor for the USPS. And, for the record: My current cell phone “ring” is the James Bond Theme.

• : There’s a Nightwing movie in C2F Cinema. And… they’ve named the actor who will play Ra’s Al Ghul.

I think it’s time to blow this scene…
Get everybody and their stuff together.
Okay, 3, 2, 1… Let’s jam!

Namaste.

Monday
Monday, yes.
Manic, not really.

It’s hazy again, but there were traces of blue in the sky.

NPR Stories
Morning Edition: Heroin in America
Morning Edition: Intersections – Ve Neill, Hollywood Makeup Magician
All Things Considered: Gay Marriage in Historical Terms
Fresh Air: Interview with Sofia Coppola

Stray Toasters

• I’m watching Super Millionaire. Regis Philbin can be a right bastard. I like it.
• From BBC News: Girl gamers strike at the boys
• …speaking of gaming: I was playing X-Men: Next Dimension last night (read: “very early this morning”). I really don’t like the Sentinels, especially the Sentinel A variety. They’re hard to kill. I think that I’ll go and whoop up on a couple of them tonight. Just out of spite.
• On eBay: Star Wars Full-Sized Han Solo in Carbonite
• If you live in Utah and are looking for something to do: Go to Utah Arts Festival’s “Tardy Mardi Party” on Feb. 28 from 7 p.m. to midnight at Salt Lake Hardware Building, 105 N. 400 West. Food, drink, music, good company. Tickets are $25; call 801-322-2428. Look for , she’ll be doing henna… and maybe even some body painting.
• The Grand List of Console RPG Clichès
• And, given that, I can’t forget about The Evil Overlord List!
• The Starship Destiny I’m sure if this was an intentional Drum Corps joke or not, but it still made me laugh.
• First cell phones, now this.

Time for some Adult Swim and then XBox time.

Namaste.

I woke up with a headache
like my head against aboard
Twice as cloudy
As I’d been the night before
And I went in seeking clarity.

Having a headache is not an auspicious way to start the day. If I’d been drinking last night, I could justify it.

I was inconsistent at 2-D Physics last night, but I had a few good games: 117-167-113-171-147-118-105. There was an excellent mullet sighting a couple of lanes away from us. There was a girl on the lane next to us who had never bowled before. She was bowling circles around the others on her lane. And she did all of this in a floor-length formal dress. It was rather amusing. Breakfast was good. Former fave-waiter Jaysin put in an appearance. So did Pat.

So far, the day has been quiet. I’ve been watching World Series of Poker on ESPN. And now, Boomerang is showing Valley of the Dinosaurs.

I need to head to a bookstore and get some reading done. Perhaps there will be coffee, too.

Namaste.

Today has been a lazy day. And I can’t complain about that. I think that I needed it mentally and physically.

I’ve been playing around with some HTML and CSS. I think that I’ve wrapping my head around some of the CSS concepts that had been troubling me. That’s a good thing. This will help when I (eventually) get around to redoing my site.

The TV programs that have kept me company include:

• Star Trek: TNG – “All Good Things…” (the series finale)
• Hong Kong Phooey
• The Screen Savers
• Stargate SG-1 (The movie was bad, but I enjoy the series)
• Andromeda
• Super Secret Movie Rules

I don’t think that I fully appreciated “All Good Things…” when it first aired. I believe that this is the first time that I have watched it all the way through since 1994. It was a fitting end to the series.

I should probably think about getting ready for 2-D Physics.

Namaste.

Friday
The morning started off with me sleeping in (AGAIN!)… and missing the gym (AGAIN!), but I think that I really needed the rest. The morning, otherwise, was… okay. The rest of the day was better.

After work, we met up with the usual suspects for coffee and chat. Thanks, again, to for her comments/critiques with tonight’s drawrin’. I went on another around-the-store adventure with Gabe. While we were upstairs in the children’s book section, he found a book about bulldozers… with wheels. Shortly after that, I put him on my shoulders; as we were on our way downstairs, he decided to “drive” the book on my head. It was funny.

NPR Stories
Morning Edition: A Conversation with Malcolm X’s Grandson
Morning Edition: Unhappy Shareholders Could Rock Disney
Morning Edition: ‘Kitchen Stories’: A Seriously Silly Film
Talk of the Nation – Science Friday: White House Science Policy
All Things Considered: Live Performance in Studio 4A: Trio Medieval

Stray Toasters

• Does anyone remember when movies were made for the sake of “making movies” and not for the “Hey… let’s make a franchise and milk this for all it’s worth” factor?
• RoboSapien.
• Since everyone else is doing it, I’ll be a lemming and jump off the cliff, too…
  

  Winamp Random Playlist Meme
  Artist	Song
  —	Theme: Men in Black – the Series
  Elton John	Island Girl
  Victor	I Am The Spirit
  Oingo Boingo	Stay
  Natalie Merchant/Michael Stipe	To Sir, With Love
  Wang Chung	Everybody Have Fun Tonight
  Cameo	Single Life
  —	Main Theme: Final Fantasy VII
  Soul Sonic Force	Planet Rock
  Enigma	Principles of Lust

• Why is it that Americans view animation as something primarily for kids? I’m not sure when that stigma became attached to the art form. Other countries use animation as a means of storytelling; and they often use it, very effectively, to reach audiences of all ages. Here, one often gets odd looks if they mention watching an animated movie/television program. Does anyone have any ideas/thoughts on this?
• Hush puppies. I’ve been craving them for the past few days. The food, that is… not the brand of shoe.
• hindu muslim catholic creation evolutionist
• “I didn’t know that you had to have your Bachelor’s before you could get your Master’s Degree.” That still appalls/eerily amuses me.

Eep Opp Ork Ah Ah.

Namaste.

Thursday
It snowed today. But, by the end of the day, there was clear sky. *shrug* Welcome to Utah, the Land Behind the Zion Curtain. If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes – it’ll change. Unless there’s an inversion involved, in that case you’ll have to wait a few weeks.

NPR Stories
Morning Edition: Town Keeps Beefy Name
Morning Edition: Explosive Dinner
Talk of the Nation: ‘Playback:’ 100 Years of Music Machines
All Things Considered: Whites-Only Scholarship Causes Flap
All Things Considered: College’s New Class: Turntable 101
All Things Considered: An Orphan’s Tale” ‘Love in the Driest Season’

Stray Toasters

• If you haven’t answered the questions that I asked at the end of yesterday’s post (“Poll of the Day”), do so now. Do not pass “Go.” Do not collect $200. If, on the other hand, you did respond to the poll, please proceed to the next item. (Unfortunately, you do not get to collect $200, either.)
• It seems that Morgan Freeman will play Lucius Fox in the new Batman film, after all.
• William Gibson interview
• The guy in the black/red/white armor is Acroyear. You can’t see his face behind the mask, but I’m pretty sure that he’s not in his “happy place.”
• I didn’t watch The Family Guy when it was in first-run episodes. That’s a shame. It not only has an acerbic wit but it is also a great satire. Fortunately, Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim is carrying it.
• If you were an RPG gamer in the 80s, you may remember Paranoia. It’s coming back, this August. Details here.
• We’ve taken care of everything
  The words you read, the songs you sing
  The pictures that give pleasure to your eyes…

• For : Poll!
• Brownies. Two kinds. In the kitchen. Now.
• That reminds me: I need to take the clothes out of the washer and put them in the dryer.
• Star Wars: Republic Commando. Coming soon to an XBox near you.
• …and speaking of the XBox, Danny Elfman (yes, that Danny Elfman) is composing the theme for Fable, due out later this year.

Quote of the Day
Actually, it’s a bunch of them… all from The Family Guy, courtesy of IMDb.

And, in honor of the eBay auction, this quote:

Stewie Griffin: [Picking up the phone.] Hello, operator. Hello… Oh god, that’s right you have to punch in the numbers nowadays. Uhhh, I should know this. Oh yes…
[dialing number]
Stewie Griffin: 867-5309, yes that’s it. Wait that’s not it, damn you Tommy Two-Tone. Huh, only one thing to do 111-1111, Lois? Damn. 111-1112 Lois? DAMN. 111-1113…

Bang.

Namaste.

Wednesday
Where does the time go? Really. It doesn’t “feel” like Wednesday, yet it is. Not that I am complaining. Far from it, in fact.

I ache. The muscles in my legs are protesting over Tuesday night’s workout. Quite a bit, in fact. Following tonight’s workout, my upper back and triceps have joined the chorus.
&lt sarcasm&gt This should make tomorrow’s workout (chest/biceps) fun. &lt/sarcasm&gt

NPR Stories
Morning Edition: Sweets Gum Up Traffic
Talk of the Nation: Steroids and Sports
All Things Considered: Gay Marriage: Listener Questions
All Things Considered: Scientists Accuse White House of Distortion

Stray Toasters

• May I see some ID, please…?
• One more for
• …and, to be fair: Another for
• Cast in the name of God. Ye not guilty. “We have come to terms.”
• In “My, how the tables have turned” news: RIAA Countersued Under the RICO Act
• I have M&M’s.
• I am enjoying Witch Hunter Robin, the latest addition to Adult Swim’s lineup. I also like it’s closing theme; it ranks up there with the themes from Cowboy Bebop (“Tank!” and “The Real Folk Blues,” opening and closing, respectively) and The Big O (“…and Forever,” closing).

Poll of the Day
I have a few questions for coffee/tea/chai drinkers; I need your feedback and welcome as many opinions as I can get on this (Translation: Please ask your friends to weigh in on this, too.).

• When you go to a coffee shop/tea house, what are some of the features that you look for?
• Are you a fan of chain stores (Starbucks, etc.) or local shops?
• Do they offer any perks, no pun intended: (Buy X drinks, get one free; etc.) ?
• Do you prefer a place where the people know you (think Cheers) or where they just take your order, give you your beverage and leave you to go about your business?
• What are some of the things that you like most about your shop of choice?
• What are some of the things that you dislike most?
• What kind of atmosphere/ambience do you look for?

See You Space Cowgirl, Someday, Somewhere.

Namaste.

Tuesday
It was like “Monday Lite.” Quiet, but productive day. I didn’t even think about the fact that it was “Tuesday” until I was on the way to the gym tonight. That’s pretty unusual. It was grey and overcast (high clouds) today, but there didn’t seem to be any inversion-related haze; and it was even decent temperature-wise for a winter day – even by my standards (anything below 70° F is “cold” to me).

NPR Stories
Morning Edition: ‘Madame Butterfly’ Turns 100
Talk of the Nation: Antibiotics and Breast Cancer
Talk of the Nation: Harriet Tubman
Talk of the Nation: Civil Rights Travel Guide
Talk of the Nation: Quilts as Code
All Things Considered: San Francisco Scrambles to Fulfill Marriage Requests
All Things Considered: Title IX Used in Murder Suit
All Things Considered: Youth Radio: Returning from Iraq

Stray Toasters

• I saw the “Slam Dunk and Win $1,000,000” commercial for 7-Up a little while ago. The preposterousness of it makes me laugh. I like the new guy that they are using in the ads, but I have to say that Geoffrey Holder and Orlando Jones still take the top spots for me as 7-Up pitch men.
• Public Agenda
• Why Mr. Peanut Can Never Marry
• The way The Big O ended. Didn’t see that one coming.
  (It’s anime. Get your mind out of the gutter.)

• : Here’s another one for you.
• …and for , we have this.
• “Thank you, magic biped!” (from tonight’s Futurama)
• Well, it looks like Daniel…
  Must be the clouds in my eyes.

Yeah, that’s (more than) enough for now. The Dreaming awaits.

Namaste.

For a Monday, the day moved along rather nicely. Why can’t all Mondays be like this?

NPR Stories
Morning Edition: Meth Math
Morning Edition: Toy Fair Kicks Off
Morning Edition: F-18 for Sale (I know that it isn’t a P-51 or an SR-71, but if anyone would like to buy this for me, I most definitely would not argue.)
Talk of the Nation: The Foreign Film Industry
All Things Considered: The Translator’s Tale

Stray Toasters
…will be posted later.

Game Night calls.
Namaste.

Sunny morning… even if it’s cold.

Yesterday’s quest to find food – ostensibly before the coupled masses descended upon every restaurant known to man – was something of an adventure. We wound up driving through a good portion of Sandy, Murray, Midvale and Fort Union before we decided to head to Bohemian Brewery. It was a little crowded, but there wasn’t a three-hour wait like at Outback. And, unlike Outback, I was able to have a tasty, microbrewed Cherny Bock.

There was a brief trip to a local B&N, and then it was off to 2-D Physics. : Congrats, you won again this week (161-123-125-168). Something that I don’t grok: Bringing your date – in a formal dress/gown – to the bowling alley. Yet, I’ve seen it more times than I can recall. We were also treated to the “Strippers-in-Training,” as Jess called them, two lanes over. The only thing missing was a pole. On the other hand, we saw a quality mullet. So, things balanced out. Post-bowling breakfast wasn’t bad… until two or three groups of people showed up and one of their members decided to sing. Loudly. Off-Key. *twitch* Then she started into a speech/toast/rambling thing. We left.

Stray Toasters

• As if the icon wasn’t a give-away, it’s pretty well-known that I am a Star Trek fan. Especially DS9 and Capt. Benjamin Sisko. And, as noted here, Trials and Tribble-ations is my favorite episode of the series. With that said…
  • Item 1
  • Item 2

  …have just been added to my “Things That I Covet” list. And I still think that they should sell “The Trouble with Tribbles” and “Trials and Tribble-ations” together as a set.

• is my candidate for canonization.
• There’s a James Bond book/movie titled Diamonds Are Forever. From this article, one could infer that God not only has a sense of humor, but that he is a Bond fan, as well. I wonder if He thinks that Connery was the best James Bond…?
• Conjunction Junction, what’s your function…?
  : I have the 4-CD set of all of the Schoolhouse Rock songs. Would Fiona be interested in them… or would that be enough to drive you over the edge?

• I have been getting rid of the stacks (yes, stacks) of old magazines that I have accumulated over the past few years. As I was going through an old Utne Reader, I came across ads for Save-A-Cup Recycling Company and ReMarkable – a pair of environmentally-friendly companies. I like the ReMarkable concept.
• Hardcastle?
  McCormick?
  Chief?
  McCloud!
  (For those of you who didn’t see the last line of that as red text, I’ll take this opportunity to say how disappointed I am that IE6 doesn’t seem to like in-line CSS and praise the fact that Mozilla does.)

Time to find something to do…

Namaste.

To those who wish to celebrate the day: Happy Valentine’s Day.

To those who do not: I refer you to Paragraph 3 of this.

Be well and be good to each other.
Namaste.

Friday
It was a good day.

• Work was all right.
• I called home to wish Rana (the formerly foreign-based, next-oldest member of the sibko) a happy birthday.
• After work, there was coffee with the usual Friday night group. As usual, it was fun. And, as an added bonus, I paid back for making me nearly spitting coffee last week.

NPR Stories
Morning Edition: Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Live in Studio 4A

Stray Toasters

• : I did some number crunching and determined how fast the cat would have to go to stop the truck. I need to verify that the math is correct and that what I remember from Physics class was right, but it looks like it would have to be going fast. Very fast. I’m not sure if teflon is going to be enough; we might have to look into the heat-shielding tiles that are used on the shuttles.
• I made a snowflake. You can make one, too. Thanks to Nyx for the link.
• By way of : 867-5309. Yes, the number from the song. It is for sale. On eBay. See here for more details.
• …and just so Jenny doesn’t have all of the fun: What does your phone number spell? Go to PhoneSpell to find out. So far, has the coolest phone number-to-word “translation.”

That will be all for now.

Namaste.