Random Access

Folks on IRC were talking about the Megalomaniac World Conqueror Name Generator, so I decided to give it a try:

• Robert the Gratuitous Violator
• Rob the Fierce Breadpuncher

Now that I have a name to strike fear into the hearts of my enemies and The Evil Overlord List, I am one step closer to total global domination!

::: insert maniacal laughter here :::

Wednesday
Mid-week. And today was better (by FAR) than yesterday. I didn’t get quite as much accomplished as I’d hoped, but there is always tomorrow.

I came home and discovered yet another reason why I have the coolest girlfriend in the world. Knowing the kind of day that I had yesterday, she wanted to make sure that I had a better day today. This included a surprise waiting for me when I got home from work. There was a bag in the living room, near the front door. In the bag:

• A Lego® train set (picture)
• Wolverine: Adamantium Rage for my XBox
• A paddle-ball/marble/bubble set
• A DVD rack to hold my XBox games

I was floored. And, it definitely made me smile.

After a refreshing shower (I spent most of the day in the warehouse and schlepping packages to FedEx and the Post Office) and a bite to eat, it was off to Wednesday night coffee. It was a nice evening, so we sat on the patio. We drank coffee and tea. We talked. We watched the moon and Mars rise.

In all, today was an excellent counterpoint to yesterday.

Song of the Day
I Can See Clearly Now by Johnny Nash or Jimmy Cliff

Stray Toasters

• My dad called a little while ago. He made it back from Oklahoma… although not through the itinerary that I had set up for him; he had to make a last minute change in one of the segments in his route. But, he’s home.
• Kudos to and for sussing out the origin of last night’s quote/paraphrase.
• I’m still curious: What does your Personal Heaven look like… and who’s going to be there?
• “Young Lady.”
• Doug, our favorite FedEx clerk, is a definite keeper.
• “Ask for your own long handle…”
• Australian researchers have found that creatine not only enhances athletic performance, but it can boost intelligence and memory. But… one of the side effects is “an unpleasant body odor.” Read more about it here.
• There’s nothing like having your coffee cup lid decide that it doesn’t want to be attached to the cup. Right after you take a sip of mocha latte. While wearing a white shirt. Thank Heaven for Spray and Wash Stain Stick! I wasn’t able to really appreciate how funny it looked until I got home and looked in the mirror. It was at this point that I came up with what would have been a great off-the-cuff retort to anyone who asked what had happened:
  

  Person: What did you spill on your shirt?
  Me: Nothing. I’m lactating.
  Person: But… that’s brown.
  Me: Yep. Chocolate milk.

• An aquarium case mod for a PC? Yes. You read that correctly. “Aquarium. Case. Mod.” Details here… kind of. (They are in Danish… with a conclusion in English.)
• One of our topics of discussion over coffee this evening was: Comic book movies. (Aww yeah! Right up my alley!) The big question was: For iconic characters, should they have to tell an origin story? My take: Yes. Even if they don’t go in-depth with it. A minor recap, even done as quick flashes, is good; it helps to show what made a character wake up one day and decide to put on a cape, tights/armor and maybe a mask.
• Homemade Voodoo Kit! *cracks up*
• In what might be a partial admission of guilt, Microsoft blames third-party code/software for half of all Windows crashes. Just half. So… are they owning the blame for the other half?

Quote of the Day
: For a photographer, he isn’t very observant.

.eof

Namaste.

Tuesday
Today was not a good day. The edginess that I was feeling earlier in the day did not subside. In fact, it got worse. I feel… thin. Worn down. I believe that Jimmy Buffet stated it best with Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude. That’s what I need. And in fairly short order.

Song of the Day
Rain by Madonna

Stray Toasters

• I saw a Jeep Cherokee with the license plate: RSH2112. It made me smile.
• While going to pickup some packing supplies, I thought about something that almost made me laugh. We drove past the water park (pools, slides) on 17th South. It’s called “Raging Waters.” What amused me was the irony: “Raging waters” …in the middle of the desert.
• Utah drivers. *sigh* There was a lady driving beside us on the way back from getting the supplies… reading a magazine while she was driving. *GRRR* I watched her for a good 10 to 15 seconds. She spent as much time reading as she did driving.
• On the way home, I was passed by a truck with “Fly By Night deliveries” painted on the door. Complete with the white owl. This made me smile, too.
• Popeye cartoons on Boomerang. A couple of things…
  1. There was a toon called ‘Popeye’s Aladdin’s Lamp.’ I am a little fuzzy on the details from the original tale, but there seemed to be plenty of things that the Disney version… borrowed from this one. I need to look into the original story and figure out what was common to all three versions.
  2. Some toons featured his four nephews. And they all have corncob pipes. But no one ever said anything about that.
  3. In one cartoon had Bluto inadvertently kissing Popeye. A couple of times. I’m curious as to what made people find this funny as opposed to instilling feelings of homophobia. I’m sure that something like that would never get past today’s censors.
• Identity Theft Countermeasures
• Samurai Jack. *nod*
• Adult Swim has returned ‘Bebop to the lineup! And, while whirling in eddies in the space-time continuum (Ah, is he? Is he?)¹ the Adult Swim thought-stream: I’m not sure that I grok FLCL, but I think that I like it.
• The Diamond Age. Now, it’s more than just a book by Neal Stephenson.
• The Crow… animated series? Don’t laugh. It may actually happen.

Namaste.

¹ – Bonus points to whomever can identify that reference…

Today is grey, overcast and windy.
Prelude to a storm.
Rain would be good.

I feel… something.
Inside.
But I cannot give it a name.

I am not quite on the brink of a storm…
But there is a quiet chaos roiling
Just below the surface.

I need something
To wash away this disquiet.
To restore a balance.

Rain would be good.

Monday
Not a bad start to the week.

Song of the Day
I Can’t Make You Love Me by Bonnie Raitt (although the George Michael or the Prince versions are good, too)

Stray Toasters

• Salacious Crumb (from Return of the Jedi) and Stripe (from Gremlins)
• Lee Press-On® Whiskers
• The disappearing Highway Patrol officer
• Microsoft… lost a patent case!?
• Chimera twins (people with two (2) sets of DNA)
• Lee Press-On® Tongue
• Black Cherry Kool-Aid.

.eof

Namaste.

My inner five-year-old is appeased: We saw S.W.A.T. tonight.

It was verra cool. Frosty, even. A nice spin on an old favorite.

• Mr. Jackson proves once again why he is “The Man” (after Avery Brooks, that is).
• Colin Farrell filled the Jim Street role (a.k.a. “The Role Formerly Played By Robert Urich”) well.
• LL Cool J made a good Deke.
• Michelle Rodriguez just kicks ass in general.
• Seeing Josh Charles (formerly on Sports Night… and also from Baltimore) as T.J. McCabe was a welcome surprise.

…and there were even cameos with Steve Forrest and Rod Perry (from the TV series) and Clark Johnson (the director and formerly on Homicide: Life on the Street).

Yes, my inner-Kindergartener was happy. Quite so. So much so that I will be buying this when it comes out on DVD.

And now, it’s almost time to get back into the work-a-day mindset for the upcoming week.

Namaste.

Two thumps… under the table.

Goodbye Gregory Hines.

Although he first became known for his dancing, he carved out a decent niche for himself as an actor. Comedy. Drama. TV. Movies. He covered all of the bases. I think that the role for which I will remember him most is as Marvin King in the movie adaptation of Waiting to Exhale. I wasn’t fond of the movie, on the whole (a lot of it seemed to be man-bashing), but his character was a man of… well, character. And integrity. His portrayal was excellent.

The entertainment industry – and the world – has lost a great talent.

Not to mention a good man.

1946 – 2003

New X-Men: Evolution. That’s always a good thing. They’re introducing Apocalypse next week. They’ve been hinting at it over the past season. Next week, he appears. I’m interested to see the XME take on him.

A rerun of this Static Shock’s season opener. I hadn’t seen it, so I was rather pleased with this. It featured Batman, Poison Ivy… and Harley Quinn. (Sorry, . I looked to see if you were online, but you weren’t. And I wasn’t about to call you and wake you up.) Amusing quotes from the episode:

• After Batman and Static (and no, that doesn’t have the same ring as “Batman and Robin”) were attacked by Harley and Ivy, they are cocooned in wood “shells,” for lack of a better term. Batman escapes his and frees Static. Static passes out. Fade to black. Fade in at the Batcave. Alfred is pulling wood slivers out of Static’s arm:
  

  Static: Who are you?
  Alfred: Batman
  Static: I don’t think so…
  Alfred: Just once, I’d like someone to believe that.

• After Alfred finishes patching him up, Static heads over to the Bat-Computer where Batman is putting together clues to track down Harley and Ivy:
  

  Static: Where’s Robin?
  Batman: With the Titans.
  Static: Who?
  Batman: You’ll meet them one day.

  HAH! Cross-promoting another series. I love it.

• Batman and Robin Static track the Gotham Girls to a ship. Static attempts, unsuccessfully, to blast Harley:
  

  Harley Quinn: Face it, kid. You don’t have the juice to catch me.
  Static: *squint*
  ::: electrifies the hull and deck of the ship :::
  Static: Wait for it… Wait for it….
  ::: the ‘shockwave’ overtakes Harley :::
  Harley: EEEEEEEE! ::: thud :::

• After Harley and Ivy have been collected, Static creates a blinding flash of light… and disappears:
  

  Ali (schoolmate of Static’s): Where’d he go?!
  Batman: The kid’s got style.
  (Batman smiled… or at least smirked.)

All this and a new episode of Teen Titans tonight. I love Saturdays.

Namaste.

and I were discussing Heaven this morning and wandered onto the subject of “What would your personal Heaven look like?” After giving it a little thought, I decided that my Heaven would look like IKEA. (Later this afternoon, I decided that it would look like IKEA… with a Best Buy section and a Toys ‘R’ Us section… and a Japanese rock garden.)

Then came the hard part: Who would be in my Heaven?

Here’s what I have come up with, so far….

• God: Morgan Freeman. This was an easy one. (George Burns would be the understudy.)
• Christ: Micro-Jesus has the top spot, but I’m still thinking about this one.
• Holy Spirit: Still deciding this one, too…
• St. Peter: Sean Connery. Come on. You’d want someone at the Pearly Gates who would welcome you, look at your list of deeds, invite you in and then be glad to have a pint with you at the local pub. (Hey… it’s my Heaven,I can have a “local pub” if I want.)
• St. Christopher: Samuel L. Jackson. The patron saint of travellers (among others). Why Mr. J? The following exchange, from Pulp Fiction hemmed it up:
  

  JULES: That’s what I’ve been sitting here contemplating. First, I’m gonna deliver this case to Marsellus. Then, basically, I’m gonna walk the earth.

  VINCENT :What do you mean, walk the earth?

  JULES: You know, like Caine in “KUNG FU.” Just walk from town to town, meet people, get in adventures.

  VINCENT: How long do you intend to walk the earth?

  JULES: Until God puts me where he want me to be.

  VINCENT: What if he never does?

  JULES: If it takes forever, I’ll wait forever.

  Yeah. That’s my patron saint of travellers.

• Judas Iscariot: Any of the interchangeable members of all of those annoying boy bands. Think about it: You’d want someone whom you could dislike on sight. (Well, with the possible exception of Joey Fatone. He amused me in My Big Fat Greek Wedding… so, I’ll spare him.)
• Angels: The Victoria’s Secret Angels. Do I really need to ‘splain this one? (Hint – Two words: “Tyra Banks.” Do the math.)

That’s all I have so far. More later when I decide on “Who’s Who…”

So, who’d be in your Heaven?

Thursday
Four down… Friday to go.
Nothing too out of the ordinary happened today. And that’s a good thing.

Post-work was rather mundane as well. (Also good.) I watched CSI… of which I had previously seen the last half; it was nice to be able to see the “why” behind the story.

Song of the Day

• Some Like It Hot by Power Station
• I Go to Extremes by Billy Joel
• Freeze (Part IV of ‘Fear’) by Rush

Stray Toasters

• Someone on the email discussion group posted a link to this. Some of the responses to it were rather amusing. posted a reply to the group and mentioned that she had seen a mosaic of the Shrub… comprised of pictures of Jesus… for sale on eBay. *blink blink* Apparently it was long ago enough that it had been removed from eBay’s servers. Fortunately, someone mirrored the page. And I found it. And that continued my downward spiral to the Abyss…
  

  [11:44] : I think that I may have just found that Bush/Jesus mosaic.
  [11:44] : ::: looks :::
  [11:44] : Is it something other than an ebay link?
  [11:44] : Maybe…. that’s what I’m checking.
  [11:46] : Bingo.
  [11:46] : Someone mirrored it. 🙂
  [11:47] : Ooh, could you send me the link? ^^
  [11:50] : http://mirrors.meepzorp.com/ebay/our-christian-president/
  [11:50] : Just sent it to the ‘Screw, too.
  [11:52] : It’s creepy, isn’t it?
  [11:53] : A bit.
  [11:53] : But then, so’s he. 🙂
  [11:53] : Although it doesn’t look like they used different colored pictures of Jesus to do the picture, it just looks like they superimposed a picture of Bush on tope of the Jesuses. ^^
  [11:55] : Jesuses?
  [11:55] : Jesii?
  [11:55] : Jesi?
  [11:55] : I was thinking Jesii as well..^^
  [11:55] : Makes ya wonder: “What IS the plural of ‘Jesus.’ ”
  [11:56] : Haha, yes. ^^ I t might just be easier to refer to him as Yeshua, so you get the plural word “yeshuas” ^^
  [11:58] : Probably so.

• Anagrams! I threw my name into that and discovered that
  • Terra Noble
  • Laborer Ten
  • Alter Borne… and my personal favorites…
  • Rob Eternal and A Rebel Torn

  are some of the permutations that can be made. threw “George W Bush” into it. Lots o’ wrongness came out of that one.

• This just in…
• While I was watching Monk on USA Network, a teaser for the Monday broadcast of Waterworld came on. The voiceover said: “He broke all the rules and scored a hit.” I wonder if whomever wrote that actually saw the movie. Or remembers the critical and public drubbing that this movie took. I’m guessing not. If ever a movie deserved to be on the Cool World-Long Kiss Goodnight Scale, this was it.
• Kazaa’s CEO vs. RIAA’s Hilary Rosen. In the words of ex-Marine, boxer, lawyer, judge… and referee Mills Lane: “Let’s get it on!” (Oh, yeah… did I mention that he was even digitized for at least one version of Electronic Arts’ Knockout Kings? Yep. He was.)
• Assembly ’03
• Is Jenny from the Block about to be “Jenny on the Block?” According to this article, that may be. It seems as though the less-than-awe-inspiring figures posted by the Jennifer Lopez/Ben Affleck movie Gigli have sparked rumors of a breakup.

Quote of the Day
: There is not a scent on this earth to compete with that!

.eof

Namaste.

Wednesday
Three down, deuce to go…

Not a bad day at work… once the day kicked into gear. It was actually pretty productive. It might have been even more so if I had remembered to take my camera. *shrug* The batteries needed recharging anyway.

Post-work was a semi-impromptu trip to Borders. , and and I hung out there for a while and then headed to the V.I. for a late dinner.

Song of the Day
Get Involved by Raphael Saddiq and Q Tip

Stray Toasters

• In a move that is sure to have long-lasting repercussions, Rev. Gene Robinson was affirmed as bishop of New Hampshire. Many people feel that this could lead to a major division within the Episcopal Church.
• “I’ll be back…”
  Any sci-fi fan (and lots of non-sci-fi ones) will know that line from 1984’s The Terminator. Well, true to his word, Arnold is back. He’s in the news. And on the ballot. That’s right, the former Mr. Olympia will be running for governor against incumbent governor Gray Davis in California’s October recall election.

• MouseBungee No, it’s not about rodent extreme sports. It’s something for your computer mouse.
• The All Night Light and Power Company. Digital art. Very good digital art, indeed. I first saw this gentleman’s work on Renderosity; he posts there under the name “Archangel_Gabriel.”
• James Brown (“The Godfather of Soul”… “Soul Brother Number One”…. “the Hardest Working Man in Show Business”), Carol Burnett, Loretta Lynn, Itzhak Perlman and Mike Nichols are this years recipients of this year’s Kennedy Honors.
• Heeb Magazine. Source of much mirth during tonight’s Borders excursion.
• I got my Dazzler: Skywriting litho back from the framing shop today! It currently resides on what is now my X-Wall – this and this are on opposite sides of it. Now, I have to decide where to hang my Darkseid animation cel.
• SCO, the company that has been in the news over IBM’s Linux licensing, is on the warpath again. Now, they are after TiVo users… and the U.S. Government. (Details here)
• Sundance Online Film Festival

Quotes of the Day

• (after our dinner conversation about biscuits/muffins, muffin-fu, muff-fu and Godzilla took a left turn at Albequerque):
  

  Cockzilla versus Muff-ra…!

• While at Borders, I showed a copy of Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia, a story featuring Batman.
  

  : Why is she stepping on his head?
  : Because she’s about to kick his ass.
  : Wonder Woman can’t beat Batman! He killed Predator!

Namaste.

Tuesday
Work, for the most part, was good. One of the things that I had to… deal with, so to speak… was a customer email. Under normal circumstances, they aren’t bad and are handled fairly easily. This one, however, made me just stare in wide-eyed wonder – and not in a good way, either. When I finally composed myself, I decided to submit my thoughts on the matter to an email discussion group of which I’m a member; you can read what I wrote here.

*stretch*

Otherwise, I had a great day. And it was nicely capped off with dinner at the Outback in the company of and .

Song of the Day

• Black and White by Three Dog Night
• Black or White by Michael Jackson

Stray Toasters

• Micro Jesus. (Yes, and I have e-tickets to Hell waiting for us when we get to the banks of the River Styx.)
• Utah drivers. Once again. Although, there was one person who amused me: It was a woman driving a Suburban (or some other GM large truck/SUV) whom I saw on the way to dinner. I think that she was listening to the same radio station as me… but she was completely rocking out at a red light.
• Academy Awards of Halo Videos
• Hey, !!! Look! It’s Writing with Elvish Fonts!
• “Dracucell” That’s right. “A device that produces power from the glucose in human blood.” Maybe they could market this under “Blood, Sweat and Gears.”
• It’s about time for my laptop to get a lobotomy. Or at least a fresh reinstallation of its OS. Hmm. If I’m feeling really adventurous, I might see if I can make it a dual boot (Linux/Win) system.
• From the BBC comes a story about “The Effect of Pirated CDs”
• The construction (widening Redwood Road) outside our complex has hit the “Annoying” phase. Again. However, it was rather amusing to see that whomever was responsible for preparing the “Business Entrance” sign was a little… “fuzzy” on how to spell “Apartments.” On the sign, it’s spelled “Appartments.” I just hope that this person doesn’t have access to the keys of the heavy machinery out there, too.
• “Beer. It’s what’s for dinner.” No, that was “beef.” Oh, well. “Is Beer Food?” The folks at BeerAdvocate.com think that it is.

Namaste.

Monday: The Cliff’s Notes version…

• After going to bed sometime around 3:00 AM, I slept well… until a little after 7:00. When I tried to go back to sleep, I woke up every ten to fifteen minutes until the alarm went off at 8:30.
• Work.
• Home…
• The return of Monday Night Football!!! ::: bliss :::
  – VS –

• The rain-out of Monday Night Football!!! BAH!!!
• An otherwise quiet evening at home.

Stray Toasters
Tomorrow night. If you’re good.

And that’s all there is.

Namaste.

Sunday
An atypical day… and a very cool one. We (, , and I) headed to Park City to meet some friends (including ) at the Park City Arts Festival.

The outing started with an attempt to find parking relatively near the area where we usually park on P.C. excursions. No such luck. We had to park at Deer Valley (a couple of miles away) and take a shuttle bus into town. No biggie. We ate at The Eating Establishment. It was a nice restaurant and the food was good.

(rant)
About halfway through lunch, the elderly couple at the table next to us prepared to leave. The woman stood; her husband attempted to do so… but was unsuccessful. The gentleman shifted a little in his seat, braced his back against the wall and attempted again. He was able to get part of the way up, but couldn’t quite stand. His wife came over to help him. She didn’t have the strength and/or leverage to help him. I went over, asked if I could help and offered my hand. He took it and pulled himself up. I held on to his arm for a moment while he got his balance and then returned to my chair.

The irritating factor was that no one else seemed willing to help the man. The restaurant was nearly full. I noticed that other people were watching the man… and seemed very nonchalant about “his problem.” It was a simple thing to help the man to his feet. I waited a few moments before stepping in because:

• I didn’t want to seem as though I was intruding
• I didn’t want to infringe on the gentleman’s sense of pride
• I wanted to see if the wife would be successful in helping him.

Simple things. But there was a sense of personal honor. No, there were two matters of honor: The man’s and my own – no one enjoys feeling helpless or unable to do things for him-/herself; and I couldn’t stand by and watch as the couple was in what had to be an uncomfortable situation.

So, I acted. No one else – staff or customer – seemed willing to put themselves out to help someone who was obviously in need of aid. It seems odd to have to put it that way: “…put themselves out,” but that’s pretty much how it came off. No one was willing to take a few seconds to do a small measure of human decency and kindness. *sigh* often says that she has little to no hope for the fate of humanity. Today, I could understand why.
(/rant)

After lunch, we wandered up and down Main Street and saw MANY artists and their creations. It was great. I wished that I had lots of surplus money because I saw far more things that I wanted than I could afford. I did treat myself to a couple of prints that I liked. I did get many artists’ business cards and sign up for mailing lists¹. Hopefully, this way I will be able to at least keep an eye open for items that I’d like to purchase at a later date.

Leaving Park City, we headed back to SLC and stopped at Borders. We were joined by Robert and Mike. The five of us decided to have dinner at Cafè Trang. I’d never been there before, but I had heard good things about it. The restaurant lived up to its reputation.

After dinner, , , and I came back to the apartment. We sat and talked… and then watched the rebroadcast of Real Time with Bill Maher.

And that’s the day in a nutshell.

Namaste.