Random Access

Monday
Started off all right… had a couple of snags in the middle of the day… got better.

Came home, ate and watched

-vs-

Song of the Day
Cristofori’s Dream by David Lanz

Stray Toasters

• On the way home, I passed a young lady driving down I-215 who had a small fleet of Imperial Star Destroyers (I think that they were the ones that Hallmark sell) hanging in her back window. It made me laugh.
• Hummingbirds and bio-mechanica.
• They’re Pinky and the Brain
  Yes, Pinky and the Brain
  One is a genius
  The other’s insane…

• MIT robot walks on water
• And, in “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” news: Florida Proposes Taxing Local LANs
• Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
• Sci-Fi Movies and ‘Bad Science’
• Greg Rucka will soon be the new scribe for DC Comics’ Adventures of Superman. *nod* I was reading an interview that Comic Book Resources had with him. At one point, discussing Lois Lane, he made a very interesting point:
  

  The biggest thing that gets me, and one of the reasons that Lois gets tarred with the ‘bitch’ appellation, is that we assume rightly that Clark would be attracted to a woman who is strong, passionate and capable. But those very positive traits can be portrayed – if you’re not careful – as very negative things, especially when issues of gender get involved. It’s very easy to go from strong and outspoken woman to ‘bitch.’ A lot of that’s societal, there’s a sexism involved that allows that kind of self-confidence can be read as arrogance.

  I thought that it was very well-stated. If you get a chance, read the entire article.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is that.

Namaste.

Sunday
Today was another relatively lazy day… which started a little earlier than I had planned. We left the windows open last night as it was a pleasant temperature out. I got to bed somewhere around 3:00 – not too late. At 9:00 I was awake.

• Not because emergency bladder voiding was necessary.
• Not because one of the cats thought that I needed to be up.
• Not because someone called with urgent news.

I was awake because it was windy… and the blinds were rattling. Yay. I was agitated enough that I couldn’t get back to sleep and thus decided to start the day. I was lazy until roughly 10:30 when I started getting ready to head to Borders.

Borders was good. I did more work on the Cindy Turlington drawing. I looked at a couple of magazines for reference material on poses and hairstyles. I talked with the ladies whom I met a couple of months ago. put in an appearance and we chatted a while.

I came home and since no one had come up with a good idea of something to do this evening (all of this weekend’s movie options were… not good), I set up a dinner gathering at one of the local Olive Garden restaurants. Dinner GOOOD!!! ::: gesture ::: After that, we headed to Greenhouse Effect for dinner and conversation.

And now, it’s nearly time for MacGuyver in Space Stargate SG-1. Yeah, it may not be the greatest piece of sci-fi out there, but I like it. *shrug* Stop laughing. No, really…. stop laughing.

Stray Toaster
Answer: Aunt Fannie’s Bloomers.
Question: What is the unusual, but appropriate, name of a florist in South Salt Lake?

Namaste.

Saturday
So far, my day has consisted of:

• Watching my morning toonage.
• Doing some honest-to-goodness cleaning.
• And lots of sittin’ on my butt.

In other words: It was a good day off.

Stray Toasters

• I caught the tail end of MTV’s Big Urban Myth. Hmm. That’s pretty much all that I can say about that. Afterwards, I managed to catch a couple of episodes of MTV’s Spider-Man. Interesting animation. Not bad… I was expecting more traditional animation and not CGI. But, it’s a Mainframe show, so it’s to be expected.
• It seems that my Palm Pilot wasn’t quite as terminal as I had feared. I gave it a week off… as in I drained the battery and let it sit for a week before recharging/resynching it. It looks like the digitizer is still a little off, but I can reset it daily if need be.
• Cats + Laser Pointer = Comedy.
• Last night’s coffee gathering was pretty good. even put in a guest appearance. And, and did a couple of collaborative drawings. (See their respective journals for the pieces.)
• I’ve been clearing out my various email inboxes. I came across a comment to a post that I made a few months ago, re: IMDb’s Date Search – it tells who was born on what day. Something that I didn’t notice (and something that I’m sure that will get a kick out of): I share a birthday with Lauren Tewes who played “Julie, the Cruise Director” on The Love Boat.
• For : “Whoa… I know Shakespeare.”

Doot doot doot.

Namaste.

Bopping around to a song while you’re trying to shave your head isn’t the best idea in the world.

You tend to stop shaving.

Which doesn’t help in the “getting ready for work” department.

But, damn it’s fun! 🙂

Thursday
Work. It didn’t suck. No, really. It didn’t. And, I even figured out why the guy at the Post Office looks so familiar: He used to work at the station near the place where I used to live.

After work, I spent a pretty quiet evening around the homestead. CSI. Tech TV. FLCL. And… the thunder and lightning storm! It reminded me of the storms back home. *sigh*

Song of the Day

• Suspicious Minds
• A Little Less Conversation
• Jailhouse Rock

by… that’s right… “The King,” Elvis Presley.

Stray Toasters

• posted a link to this in her journal earlier this evening. After reading that, I went to the Parents Television Council website. I was flabbergasted. Stunned, I tell you! The PTC is up-in-arms about shows that kids shouldn’t be watching. Um… last time I checked, most kids had these people around them called “parents” and/or “guardians.” And, I seem to remember hearing something about these people being responsible for what the kids around them saw/heard/etc. And….and… the last time that I checked, every television that I have seen have this amazing feature called “the On/Off Switch” or “the Power Button.” *braincramp* I find the lyrics to Rush’ song Witch Hunt very apt in this case:
  

  They say there is strangeness too dangerous
  In our theaters and bookstore shelves.
  That those who know what’s best for us
  Must rise and save us from ourselves.

• Hand signals. (Work safe and rather amusing)
• The People’s Crotch Attack!
• “Does IM Make U Dum?”
• I just saw the Foot Locker commercial. It was set in a movie theatre. During a kung fu movie. I laughed.
• posted a link to this earlier. Some peoples’ children… *bristle* They need someone to do the same thing to them. On a busy freeway. At high speed.
• Vash the Stampede and Nicholas D. Wolfwood. Two of a kind. Nothing alike.
• More about the MSN Messenger “mandatory upgrade.”
• RIAA and MPAA against the world….

Idiotsticks of the Day
More “Adventures with Utah Drivers.” Today we saw two – yes TWO – different people driving in reverse… in the midst of traffic. ::: boggle :::

Quote of the Day
From tonight’s episode of Trigun: After arriving in May City, workmen are unloading passengers’ luggage from the bus. Three of the men lift Wolfwood’s cross from the top of the bus and toss it down to him:

Men: Damn! That thing is heavy!

Wolfwood catches it, easily…
Wolfwood: That, my friend, is because it is so full of mercy.

Namaste.

The Beatles’ Drive My Car is a fun song to sing along with and to bounce around the office to.

That ends this interlude; we now return you to whatever you were doing…

Wednesday
Work. Blah, blah, blah… Good overall day. Blah, blah, blah… and I were approached by a wandering artist who was peddling his art work. Blah, blah, blah… More work. Blah, blah, blah… Hometime.

After work was an off-week Wednesday night coffee. With a surprise: Sara is back in town. (If you don’t know who she is, don’t worry. If you do know her -and you didn’t know already- she’s back.) We hung out, drank coffee, ate VERY rich chocolate mousse and gabbed.

Song of the Day
Yakko’s Universe from Animaniacs

Stray Toasters

• I had a very pleasant – and rather unexpected – IM chat with a friend (and ex-coworker) in N.C. It had been far too long since we’d chatted. I will have to make it a point to keep in touch with him.
• Strange goings-on outside the 7-11 across from the Salt Lake Roasting Company. O_o
• The much embattled “Spike TV” will apparently feature a series featuring cartoon shorts gleaned from the Spike & Mike Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger political cartoons
• The new Matrix Revolutions trailer is here.
• From Slashdot: MSN Messenger Access to be Restricted
• Big Brother is watching you. Anyone who has read George Orwell’s 1984 (or seen the movie) is familiar with that line. Now, it’s not just Big Brother… or maybe it is…. anyway, Microsoft has been monitoring newsgroups and some public email lists, at the suggestion of their “in-house sociologist,” Marc Smith. Fact stranger than fiction? Maybe. Read more about it here.
• Super-teen extraordinaire
  Freakazoid! Freakazoid!
  Runs around in underwear
  Freakazoid! Freakazoid!

  Rescues Washington D.C.
  Freakazoid! Freakazoid!
  Unless something better’s on TV
  Freakazoid! Freakazoid!

• Do you like Microsoft Flight Simulator? Do you like it this much? (Yes, that is an actual setup – 13 monitors and 9 PCs.) Yes? No? Maybe? Well, that setup is good… but then there is this. This is definitely the brainchild of someone with lots of free time.
• Chun Li… or, as we used to call her “Thunder-Kick Barbie.”

Namaste.

Tuesday
What. A. Day. But, I mean that in a good way. I spent most of the day going through the backlog of customer service email. Oi. It wasn’t all bad. And, it made the day pass quickly. And we even received a few positive emails, to boot!

Quiet evening at home. And… ‘Bebop’s about to start.
::: pause :::
Okay, where were we…? *thinks* Right. Got it. So, it was a quiet evening. Watched L&O: Special Victims Unit. Watched Adult Swim. Enjoyed a Stolichnaya Citrona.

Song of the Day
The Little Blue Frog and Lonely Fire both by Miles Davis

Stray Toasters

• *sigh* Microsoft wants to be able to automatically update patches on your system. Linux is looking better and better…
• For : This.
• For : This.
• I just love the last line of this. “Yay for trustworthy computing.” *laughs*
• When talking about possible candidates for Wonder Woman (Diana), Nicole Kidman never crossed my mind. And, I still have to go with my top three candidates. But… after seeing this, I think that Nicole would make a good Artemis (1, 2)… who was Wonder Woman (3) for a brief time.

Quote of the day

But all too soon the serums and the shocks took their toll, and the dear lad began to share such secrets with me, secrets that are mine alone to know… Bruce. It’s true batsy, I know everything. And kind of like the kid who peeks at his Christmas presents I must admit it’s sadly anti-climactic. Behind all the sturm and bat-o-rangs you’re just a little boy in a playsuit crying for mommy and daddy. I’d be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic. Oh what the heck, I’ll laugh anyway. HA HA HA HA HA!
-The Joker, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

Oh, Hell… Take a look at the other quotes from Return of the Joker, too.

Namaste.

Monday
Not a typical Monday. At least, it wasn’t typical by the last few Mondays’ standards. In fact, it started off amazingly well. It turns out that a customer with whom we had been having a few problems (delays, lack of contact, and a few other assorted issues) gave us great feedback. That made my day. It even countered the end of the day where we had a meeting that was less-than-great. (Even though said meeting pushed me off the timetable that I had set for the afternoon AND it left me feeling a little edgy… but no where near as tense/irritated as last week).

Mondays happen. Oh well. Take a number, move on. We have a game plan worked out for tomorrow and – barring any unforeseen complications – the day should will go well.

Song of the Day
Anthem by Rush from “Fly By Night

Stray Toasters

• :::: edited :::
  Thanks to for leaving a link to (something that you won’t get to see because apparently Something Awful doesn’t like off-site linking). It made me laugh. I am almost tempted to do something like that to my stop sign. Almost.

• What do chess, knights and magic have in common? And, if you said “Archon” you get points for creative thinking… but that’s not the answer that I was looking for. The correct answer was this. Even more impressive: The nine-year-old kid who can do that in his head.
• Can you say “double standard,” boys and girls? No? Well, take a look at this and I’m sure that it will be much easier to say. Thanks to for pointing that out.
• And, on the David Bowie front, Is There Life on Mars? If the Russians have their way, not only will there be life on Mars, there will be nuclear power.
• We’re tiny!
  We’re toony!
  We’re all a little loony!
  And in this cartoony…
  We’re invading your TV!

• A rolling stone gathers no moss. Apparently, neither do Rolling Stones. But they do gather a large discography. And they even put it online. Who says you can’t teach an old dog Stone new tricks?
• Stikfas!

Joke of the Day
This has been one of my favorite jokes for years. Why? I don’t know. It just.. is. Anyway, here it is:

A snail goes to a local Nissan dealership and looks at the inventory. A salesman walks up to him and asks “May I help you?”

The snail looks at him and says, “I’m here to buy a car. I’d like to test drive…. that one,” as he points to a brand new Z.

The salesman looks a little surprised. “Oooh-kay.” He walks inside, comes back outside and returns to the snail. He hands him the keys. “Here you go.”

“Thanks!” The snail gets into the car and turns the key. The engine purrs. The snail presses the accelerator and the roars. He drops it into gear and races out of the parking lot.

Ten minutes later, the car whips back into the lot. The snail gets out with a huge grin. “That was great! I’ll take it! But there’s just one thing…”

The salesman shifts a little. “Yes, sir…?”

The snail turns to look at the car and turns back to the salesman: “I want you to take off the “Z”.”

“But, sir… that’s… that’s….”

“That’s my condition. I’ll pay for it right now and drive the car off the lot, but the “Z” has to go. I want you to put an “S” on it, instead.”

The salesman looks a little uneasy. “Let me… see what I can do.” He heads inside of the dealership. He returns a few minutes later. “Okay, it looks like we can take care of that for you. It will take about twenty minutes.”

The snail smiles widely and says,”That’s no problem.”

The two go inside as a mechanic exits the building and drives the car into the auto shop. They fill out the paperwork and shortly afterwards, the snail and his new car are tearing out of the parking lot.

Another salesman comes over to the first one and asks,”So… what was that all about? The deal with taking the car into the shop and whatnot?”

“Oh, he wanted the “Z” removed from the car… and an “S” put on in its place.”

“Huh?! That’s weird.”

“Yeah, but look at that little S-car go!”

Namaste.

Sunday
Sleeping in is nice. Very nice, indeed. So is spending a lazy morning around the apartment. Know what else is nice? Crab cakes from Phillips (I like the Harborplace location). But, since I didn’t have those today, I won’t mention them in this post.

I went to Borders and did a bit of drawing. I also went through a few photography books to get some ideas for things to draw; there were many good pictures from which I could choose. The book on Herb Ritts portraits was a particularly good source; the Cindy Turlington picture on which I am currently working is from that book. I need to do a little more work on her mouth and eyebrows and a touch more shading, but it is coming along nicely.

Now, I’m killing a little time before heading out to our Sunday evening fare. And, as a change of pace, we’re heading to the Clark Planetarium. They have a program called “Universe Tonight” and will be talking about Mars this evening. I haven’t been to a planetarium in many, many years; this ought to be both entertaining and educational.

Stray Toasters

• Holy prognostication, Batman! Wired Magazine ran an article last September about putting the world on one power grid. I’m sure that the people in the midwest and northeast would have been much happier last week had something like that been available.
• Does anyone remember the days when Apple computers, especially the Apple II series, were all that you saw in schools’ computer labs? According to this, Apples’ presence may fade away…
• Thank Heaven for Slashdot. I was checking out the recent articles and came across this article, which led to: The Scout Walker Kama Sutra.

And with that…. Auf Wiedersehen.

Namaste.

Saturday (Abridged)
No time to watch toons this morning, there were aliens to kill! , one of his coworkers and I went to an XBox LAN party (“Did you say ‘LAN party’?”) this morning at 10:30. Almost seven hours of digital fragging. And it was good. I [heart] the pistol and sniper rifle.

After that, I came home for a while. I watched this morning’s toons (VCRs are wonderful inventions) and tonight’s ep of Teen Titans. Then it was off to bowling and breakfast.

I think that I had a few thoughts for ‘Toasters, but none of them are coming to mind. Oh well. If they return in the morning, I’ll jot them down. If not… I won’t. Amazing how simple that is.

Namaste.

Friday
The work week is done. Let the revels begin.

After work, I came home and discovered that I was not as clean-smelling as I had thought myself to be (working in the warehouse does that…). A shower was called for! And so it was done. And it was good. Amen. Then it was on to Borders for coffee, chat and a bit of drawing. And after that, Applebee’s.

Song of the Day
Jimmy Olsen’s Blues by the Spin Doctors from “A Pocketful of Kryptonite”

Stray Toasters

• Not only do we have e-tickets to Hell, and I even have our seat assignments and our meal preferences taken care of. Why? Because today was the introduction of “Nano-Jesus,” even smaller than “Micro-Jesus.”
• Utah drivers. *GRRR*
• It’s time for Animaniacs!
  And, we’re zany to the max!
  So, just sit back and relax…
  You’ll laugh till you collapse…
  We’re Animaniacs!

• Pulse Detonation Engines Very interesting…
• Chemical Element 110 To Be Named My personal suggestion would be “Chemical X,” but there might be a few copyright issues involved with that.
• A Roseanne Barr reality TV show. Do we really need this? (For the record: This was a rhetorical question.)

I need to hit the rack; I’m going to a Halo LAN tomorrow at 10:30.
Have sniper rifle, will travel.

Namaste.

This happened as I was getting ready for work this morning:

I had just finished shaving and was preparing to get dressed. I got a pair of socks and my tennis shoes from the office (where my clothes closet is) and headed to the bedroom (where my jeans were).

I put on my socks and started to untie the shoes. When I last wore these, I apparently kicked them without untying them – which is something that I do very rarely. With the shoes now untied, I started to put the left one on.

Something in the back of my head clicked and whirred, but the actual calculations were not immediately forthcoming. Then it dawned on me… just as Jess was asking, “Shouldn’t you put your pants on first?”

We both laughed.

Genius I am, I tell you!

And that is Reason #27 why I’m glad that today is Friday.

Thursday
It was a rather productive day. It went by quickly. That was a plus.
Quiet night at the homestead: Watched CSI and anime.

Song of the Day
Madrigal by Rush, from “A Farewell to Kings”

Stray Toasters

• I have no problem admitting my Lego addiction:
  • Two (2) Lego watches
  • The new train set
  • Star Wars Jedi Defense set
  • A Bionicle figure
  • A Monkey – it came with one of the watches.
    (Haven’t you always wanted a monkey?!)

  Not to mention the Rokenbok monorail which is Lego-compatible. Yeah. I couldn’t deny it if I tried. So, naturally, I got all wrapped up in the Lego site last night… when I had planned to be sleeping. Nope. No go. Nuh-uh.

  Lego site. *click* (O_o)
  Club Lego. *click* (o_O)
  Lego trains. *click* (@_@)

  In retrospect, it was funny. In a Lego kind of way.

• The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, featuring the Ant Hill Mob and their car, Chug-a-Boom. On Boomerang. I remember watching this many rains ago.
• Cheryl Ladd. Before she was an Angel, she was a Pussycat.
• Doug, the uber-cool FedEx guy.
• Lady in the white Chrysler 300M. Not cool. Nor,apparently, was she familiar with the concept of “Check your mirrors and your blind spots before backing up.” *sigh* Utah drivers.
• Like Don Quixote tilting at windmills, so goes SCO. Now, they are apparently trying to delcare the GPL (General Public License) invalid because they claim that it violates the U.S. Copyright Law. *boggle* The Don Quixote analogy may be more apropos than I had realized. Dulcinea, Don Quixote’s beloved, existed only in his mind; many have said that the “threat” to which SCO is reacting is similarly illusory.
• Scientists in China have created hybrid embryos. “What sort of hybrids,” you ask.. Ones with a mix of human and rabbit DNA.

Quote of the Day

[22:46] : Got the pocket watch set. *beam*
[22:46] : ?
[22:46] : Ah!
[22:47] : Congrats. 🙂
[22:47] : Thanks. 🙂 I’m resourceful.
[22:47] : Does this mean that I should start calling you MacGuyver?

And with that… good night.

Namaste.

We’ve had a couple of people interested in having us sell things for them:

• One person is selling a completely rebuilt 1972 Oldsmobile 442. This car has been tweaked out and has raced at the local track (I’ve seen the speed/time sheets).
• Another person has a hand-crafted piano for sale. A very expensive hand-crafted piano.

So… I’ve been doing some research as to how similar items are selling. The cars are more or less what I expected. The piano… Let’s just say that the prices vary. A lot. The one that made me stare in awe: This one