Random Access

Wednesday
Three down, one to go.
There’s a football reference just under the surface, but I’ll let it keep for now…

Work wasn’t bad. The day passed rather quickly. (: Pinwheel!)

After work, I came home… and was shortly visited by missionaries. *sigh* I talked with them… actually only one of them (the younger one did all the talking); she was cute. I don’t think that her senior companion said more than 10 to 15 words; she stood there and smiled a lot, for the most part. We talked – no, she (the younger missionary did most of the talking) – for about 15 minutes. I get the feeling that she’s relatively new in the mission field. She left understanding that I was happy with my paradigm, but didn’t mind speaking with her. Non-threatening. Just a couple of people talking. I can deal with that.

Next, came a trip to the local V.I. with , and . Food and good table chatter. A fine way to pass the evening.

Stray Toasters

From comes this.

From comes this

From comes this

According to this article, we may soon find out if the SCO claim of Linux containing copied Unix code has any validity.

From Slashdot: What the RIAA Gets Out of File-Sharing and…. RIAA Sued for Amnesty Offer

There’s yet another critical hole in Windows. Are we surprised?

Marvel Comic Book Library… on CD-ROM!!! :::covet mode:::

That’s about it for now.

Namaste.

Midweek morning.
So far, it’s been a decent day… if you overlook the fact that it was only 50° or so when I woke up. And… AND… there was SNOW on the mountain tops, to boot! Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!?! *sigh* Almost five years here behind the Zion Curtain and I still don’t fully grok the weather here. I’m actually rather partial to the weather control ideas in Camelot:

It’s true! It’s true! The crown has made it clear.
The climate must be perfect all the year.

A law was made a distant moon ago here:
July and August cannot be too hot.
And there’s a legal limit to the snow here
In Camelot.
The winter is forbidden till December
And exits March the second on the dot.
By order, summer lingers through September
In Camelot.
Camelot! Camelot!
I know it sounds a bit bizarre,
But in Camelot, Camelot
That’s how conditions are.
The rain may never fall till after sundown.
By eight, the morning fog must disappear.
In short, there’s simply not
A more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here
In Camelot.

Camelot! Camelot!
I know it gives a person pause,
But in Camelot, Camelot
Those are the legal laws.
The snow may never slush upon the hillside.
By nine p.m. the moonlight must appear.
In short, there’s simply not
A more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here
In Camelot.

Now all that I need to do is find a lady (who just happens to live in a lake) wielding a magic sword and I’m set…

Other than that, things proceed apace.

And I’m one day closer to seeing my mother.
And getting out of SLC.
Two birds; one stone.

The person with access to the remote control for the music in my head must be in a really good mood… or just has a very odd sense of humor:

• Yesterday, I kept “hearing” snippets of Billy Joel’s The Entertainer. Just snippets, not the whole song. I like the song, but it would just pop up at random moments.
• Today, it’s been I’m Gonna Buy Me a Dog by The Monkees.

I’m pretty sure that today’s song has nothing to do with ‘s quandary over whether or not she should get a cat, as the song has been in my head since shortly after I woke up and I didn’t see her post until half an hour later.

I was watching TV last night and saw a commercial for a direct-to-video movie. Nothing really unusual there. The amusing part was that it was for Lego Bionicle. Coming soon to DVD and VHS! It made me laugh.

This morning, Robert sent me a link to this. This, too, made me laugh. The Bible according to Lego.

Amen.

So far, it’s been a pretty good day. A little cooler than I would expect for this time of year, but that’s fine.

Getting out of here shortly to spend the evening celebrating a couple of birthdays: and Jenny (Jess’ sister ). This has been quite the weekend for birthdays.

And… it’s going to be another abbreviated week: I just found out that my mother is going to be in Las Vegas this weekend. And, since I haven’t seen her in… hmm… 18 months and since she keeps asking when I’m coming home to visit and since she’s going to be this close, I’m taking a day or two off to see her. In Vegas. *nod* This song always reminds me of her. And that makes me smile. (Even on a Monday.)

.
Moo.

Hope that you have a great day.

Goodbye, Warren Zevon.

He died in his sleep Sunday (information).
Rest in peace.

1947-2003

The final tally:

• 
  Lost, but at least made the score look respectable. Kyle Boller had a decent outing for an NFL rookie. He had his confidence shaken in the first half and that seemed to stick with him. A few more games and he should get that under wraps. But, there’s a lot of potential there. While I didn’t agree with Coach Billick’s decision to leave him in the game at first, I think that he did the right thing by keeping him in.

  I spent most of the fourth quarter on the phone with Bret. Watching the game with friends… even if they are on the other side of the country… is fun. And it’s amusing when your friends are fans of the opposing team. Oh, the trash talk. It was great. And our teams meet up for the final game of the regular season, too. That’s something to look forward to, as well.

• 
  I don’t know when or how they did it, but they lost it somewhere in the second half. They dropped this one to the Texans… by a field goal.

• 
  I didn’t watch this one, but they managed to pull out a win. *jawdrop*

Opening weekend. *nod* And, there’s still the Tampa Bay game tomorrow night.

Namaste.

So far…

• – Getting their asses handed to them.
• – Showing Houston how it’s supposed to be done.
• ….not good, either.

But, it’s football. And I’m happy, nonetheless.

Namaste.

Hmm… I didn’t get to bed until a little before 0300 and I was waking up shortly after 0830. Sure, I’m happy for the start of the season, but damn! Oh, well… in a little over an hour, my eyes will be glazed over as I watch

take on
This is usually a fun matchup because a friend of mine back home is a big Steelers fan. The trash talking usually starts about a week before the teams meet up… and it doesn’t end until a little after the final whistle blows.

Saturday recap…

• The morning started off well. I woke up, caught about 2/3 of XME before getting ready to head to the birthday party.
• The Party. Not at all bad. There were seven (7) kids. Cupcakes. Balloons. Games. Swimming pool. I didn’t have to ride herd very much; most of my duties were taking pictures. It was a veritable piece of (cup)cake. After the kids left and the clubhouse was clean, we went to Jenny’s and hung out for a few hours.
• Back home for a bit before we…
• Headed to Macaroni Grill for a birthday dinner for Sharon (Adrian’s S.O.). Good company, good food and good service made for a rather pleasant evening.
• Quick stop into Borders. Saturday nights are the nights that they typically have live music – last night was no exception. Charlie called the artist “…a wannabe Tori Amos.” It made me laugh… even more so because I like Tori’s music. One of my first reactions to watching her play:
  

  Hmm, music in the cafe….
  She’s cute…
  HEY! An iBook! stare at equipment

  Was it bad that I was more interested in the iBook and her music setup than listening to her play? *shrug*

• Bowling. I had a rather consistent high-scoring night. My warm-up game was craptastic (I think around 107), but my next-lowest score was a 149. I didn’t break 200, but I had three games that were in the neighborhood. A side bonus: Paul, a friend and former coworker, and some friends of his were there. I even bowled for a few people on his lane.
• Breakfast was good, but very quiet. The restaurant was dead last night.

And so, I wait for the last :25 before the game starts. This would probably be an ideal time to fix something to eat. And make sure that the futon is clear of all obstructions. Yep… that sounds like a game plan.

Namaste.

The day was filled with good/fun things.

Details later.
Sleep now.
Football tomorrow.

Namaste.

While at the book store this evening, I picked up a copy of Dungeon magazine, looking for a little inspiration for a new drawing. And there it was:

An ad for the Dragonlance Campaign Setting book.
::: bliss :::

I don’t really have a desire to get into a D&D campaign, but Dragonlance has been a long-time favorite of mine. I wouldn’t mind having that book just for the nostalgia and the reference information.

I went upstairs to look for the book – which I found – and I found something that provided the inspiration that I sought: The D&D Monster Manual.

The next piece that I’m working on: A drider. This will help me break away from doing mostly human figures and get into something a little different. This should be good…

Namaste.

On the way to ship some packages, I saw a bus with a sign on the side that read:

HOOTERS FOR NEUTERS

Of course, I did the obligatory double-take.

It was an ad for the Hooters restaurant chain. I really hope that they were talking about pets, because I just don’t see them being quite that progressive towards the transgendered (or in this case: non-gendered) communities.

I also hope that it didn’t mean that they were offering to turn men into eunuchs. *twitch*

Because he sends me links to things like this.

Yep. He’s a keeper.

Thursday
And so, another day is down. I left work early because ‘s mom flew in this afternoon. We took her down to Jenny’s, ‘s sister, (where she’s staying) and then went out for dinner. We haven’t seen her folks since they moved to Oregon last fall, so this will be a nice visit.

Jenny also informed me that I’m going to be in charge of supervising some of the activities at Connor’s birthday party, Saturday morning. 7 – 10 kids. And me. *grin* That’s like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. I’m not sure that she knew what she was getting into with having me do this. This will be fun.

And…. football season is officially under way. Hoo-AH! Life is good.

Song of the Day
Big Houses by emmet swimming from the CD “Arlington to Boston”

Stray Toasters

• Greetings, felicitations and good wishes to .
• Madden and Michaels. *nod*
• Tonight’s winner:
  Patrick Ramsey, the Skins’ QB, looks pretty good. He might just be someone to keep an eye on this season.

• A couple of links from various IRC conversations:
  • It was a zombie jamboree….
  • Fireworks. Hospital. That’s all I’m sayin’…
• From Slashdot: Electronic Voting: Your Worst Nightmares Are True
• Remember Joss Whedon’s Firefly, the short-lived series on Fox last year? Well, it’s coming back… on the big screen.
• Another Slashdot item: RIAA Sales Compared to Download Statistics
• First, James Bond…. and now, coming soon to a dealer near you. Maybe.

Soapbox Issue of the Day
The friendly folks at LJ have instituted a few changes. I checked the post that made about the changes. There are (as of this writing) 817 comments. Some people like it. Some don’t. That’s to be expected. For the record: I like it; I’ve been using this format for the past few months. What I didn’t expect was the number of people bitching about “how bad it is.” *sigh*

It’s not like someone is forcing you to use it. Nine Hells. Unclench! It’s just the default setting. If you don’t like it, change it to something else! I think that the thing that torqued me the most about the complaints was: The last time I checked, LiveJournal is a service. Period. It’s not a right. It’s not an obligation. Yes, there is a sense of community. Yes, it’s a good way to meet people in your area. But, let’s put this in perspective. One of the things that the admins have always touted was the ability to customize the interface. Operative word: “Customize.”

I was talking with about this earlier. She made a great comment on it:

[20:51] : i would think that more people would follow the news or lj maintenance communities ( and ) so they’d actually know what’s going on with the site.
[20:52] : i just thought about it cause i’m looking through my friend’s pages and people keep asking what’s going on with the site though, it isn’t hard to find out information.

Amen.

And with that…

Namaste.