Random Access

Monday
Another work week begins. Nothing out of the ordinary.
No gaming tonight. ::: shakes fist :::

Went out to dinner at The Olive Garden. and came over a later. Nox and I killed many things (…and died many times…) in Halo. Then came music videos on various stations. Within two (2) minutes, we saw the same White Stripes video on three networks. THREE networks! Egad!

Song of the Day
Party Train by the Gap Band (…for )

Stray Toasters

• came back from a long weekend of SCA warring. She made a comment about being happy that she didn’t have to deal with the “Flaming Blue Idiots” at this event. and I exchanged a more-than-slightly puzzled look and then asked her about it. She explained it as follows:
  

  At an SCA event a few months ago, some drunken idiot decided that soaking his penis in brandy and lighting it on fire sounded “fun.” So he did. Word of this spread around the camp. Soon, over thirty people – men and women – decided to try it. One person even got so bold as to use a butane or propane (I forget which) lighter to ignite himself. One of the participants made the observation that a blue flame was better than an orange one. (O_o)

  When she finished her tale, and I could only stand and stare in slack-jawed bewilderment.

• Hullo and welcome to
• Actor Hume Cronyn has passed away.
• Business Owner Chases, Runs Over Robbery Suspects In Hummer
• After Friday’s news items about The Shrub and the Segway, this seemed to go hand-in-hand with it.

I have an earlier-than-usual start of the day coming up… I should probably call it a night here.

Namaste.

A friend of mine (the one who was here last month) has been doing photography on the side and has a site just in case someone might be interested in buying his work (stock photography) and/or having a photo shoot done. The name of the site is NotablePhoto. If you’re in the Tampa Bay, Florida area… and you’re looking for photographic services… it may be just what the doctor ordered.

Here are a few pictures that he took while he was here:

• Ambition
  

• Isolation
  

• Rob
  

• Jailhouse Sepia
  

Larger versions of each of the pictures can be found here:Ambition, Isolation, Rob and Jailhouse Sepia. Be warned: The large versions of these pictures are roughly 1.3 Mb, each… except Isolation – it’s 640k.

Check out NotablePhoto.
Look at the gallery.
Leave comments.

Namaste.

Sunday
Happy Father’s Day, to those to whom it applies.

It’s just a little after 6:00 PM and it’s been a great day.

I spoke with both the paternal-unit and the foreign service sister-unit this morning. That involved some minor braincramping in trying to relay a concept, but nothing insurmountable.

I went to Borders to do some drawing… and was drawn into the conversation that was going on at the next table. The people were discussing issues about racism and race relations and my interest was piqued. I asked if they would mind if I made a quick comment and found myself a part of the discussion. It was great. They informed me that they semi-regularly met there on Sunday mornings and invited me to join them; I will be taking them up on that offer. After the discussion broke up, I managed to get in some drawing. put in an appearance and he and I chatted with Jonas.

When I came home, I edited a paper for . Just needed a little polish and minor tightening-up of the conclusion, but it was a great paper.

And now, off to Outback for dinner. Hoo-AH!

Namaste.

Saturday
I didn’t do much today. I spent the early part of the day being lazy. I went out to lunch and to Hastur’s with . I came home and was lazy (again).

After Jess got in from work, we went to Mac’s (an arts and crafts store) to finally get my litho of Skywriting framed. I wasn’t expecting it to be as much as I was charged. Oh, well. It took me 15 years to find a print – and a rather inexpensive one, at that! I can stand the expense of getting it framed.

This was, followed by bowling and post-bowling breakfast.

Stray Toaster
I was listening to random mp3s this evening when The Bird, by Morris Day and The Time, started. I began doing the arm gestures (as seen in one of The Times’ performance scenes in Purple Rain). This caught Jess a little off-guard; she has never seen the movie. At this, I got the DVD from the collection and showed her the scene. She nodded in understanding as I waxed nostalgic: I remember seeing this movie with Bret and Tammy when it came to theatres in the summer of 1984. While it may not have been a “great” movie, I still think that it is a “fun” one.

And that, as they say, is that.

Namaste.

Friday
End of the week. Not that it was an overly stressful week, but I’m glad that Baby has been put to bed rather than thrown out with the bathwater.

Work wasn’t bad today. As noted in an earlier post, I even listened to NPR and PRI. We were lightly staffed today, and I were the only ones who were there all day. This isn’t a bad thing, as there wasn’t too much to be done.

After work, I headed for CompUSAirways. Walked around, did some comparative price shopping, considered a few things… but I ultimately walked out empty-handed. Not bad. Next stop: Best Buy. I was in there for probably 00:45, talking myself into and out of buying “something.” I called Bret for “help.” Big mistake. No, that’s not entirely true. We had one of our funniest conversations in many, many moons. (I would have said “many rains, but I do live in the desert… rains don’t typically appear too often.) When I walked out, I had a KVM switch for my PCs and a copy of The Animatrix. On to Borders! Jess met me there and I did a bit of drawrin’. Jonas, one of the Cafè clerks came over and chatted with us from time-to-time.

NPR/PRI Stories

• I refer you, once again, to this, with a side order of this story.
• ‘The Matrix’ and ‘Monsters Inc.’: Mirror Movies?
  

  The science-fiction action film The Matrix and the animated Monsters Inc. may belong to different genres, but they have a striking similarity: both tell the story of an alternate universe fueled by the efforts of humans who are unaware that they are doing the fueling. NPR’s Bob Mondello offers his thoughts on the subject.

• A Concorde airliner flew into Dulles International Airport yesterday. The plane has been donated to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. (listen)

Song of the Day
Rock the House by Gorillaz

Stray Toasters

• I found this to be one of the coolest things that I have seen recently.
• Bored with the standard flight simulators on the market? Take notes: Build your own Boeing 737 simulator… complete with parts from an actual 737.
• “That’s not good.” ::: stare at DVD player :::
• In the race away from fossil fuels, hydrogen has been touted as a highly-viable alternative. Until recently. It seems as though it poses a few risks that of which we were previously unaware. Read this for more details.
• Lit up with anticipation, we arrive and the launching site… So begins the song Countdown, by Rush. It would appear that a launch date (18 Dec 2003) has been set.
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix arrives in stores in less than a week. Are you going to be one of those standing in line at midnight, waiting for it to hit the shelves? Will you wait a few days/weeks? Or, do you just not give a damn about it? I’m looking forward to it, but I can hold out for a while. A long while.
• I saw a Pontiac ad that made me smile: A man is driving his sons in the family car; two boys are in the back seat, playing handheld game devices (if I remember correctly, they were GameBoy Advance units). The scene cuts from the boys playing their games, to the father’s eyes in the rear-view mirror, to the steering wheel and driver’s controls, to the car as it turns and swerves… almost in time to the boys’ movements. At the end of the commercial, the car stops, the father looks back at the boys and says, triumphantly: “I win!” ::: fade to black :::
• AOL bought Mirabilis (the company that created ICQ) a couple of years ago. There haven’t been any (major) problems, to my knowledge. AOL has released an alpha version of ICQ that will allow people to exchange IMs between AIM and ICQ. To me, this bodes ill…
• The 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming History
• KVM switch GOOOD!!! ::: gesture :::
  Why is it “GOOOD?” Two computers, one mouse, one keyboard and one monitor.

• Going to and returning from lunch at one of the establishments across the street from the office is oddly reminiscent of playing Frogger®.

The eyelids are getting heavy. I’ll take that as a sign that sleep is on the short-term agenda.

Namaste.

I am listening to afternoon NPR for the first time in far too long. During All Things Considered, they were doing a segment about the Segway. You know… the “It” that was supposed to revolutionize modern transportation. Gyroscopically balanced to be virtually impossible to fall off of. Small. Convenient.

The reporter said that they had pictures of The Shrub on one.

…and falling off of it.

Naturally, I had to see them.
( See for yourself. )

I laughed. A lot.

Then, the emails were sent…

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape.
You don’t spit into the wind.
You don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger and
You don’t mess around with Jim.

Although, I wouldn’t mind seeing the person with enough stones to try and pull off the Lone Ranger’s mask…

Thursday
Today wasn’t bad. I couldn’t focus on my CF form today – too many things kept popping up. *shrug* I’ve been having a problem getting one of the functions to work properly. It’s been driving me up the wall for a couple of days now. I think that I have a handle on how to approach it…

After work, I headed to the comic shop and to Borders. Those stops put a smile on my face.

came over this evening. I cooked dinner for Jess, him and myself. We watched Oh, God while we ate. 1977… wow. I still contend that George Burns is/was one of my “Top 3 People Who Have played God in a Movie,” along with Morgan Freeman and Alanis Morrisette. We (minus Jess) played MechAssault and Halo. ::: bliss :::. It was quite fun.

NPR/PRI Stories
Talk of the Nation 2003 Summer Reading List

Song of the Day

• Rockit
• Cantaloop
• Future Shock

…all by Herbie Hancock

Stray Toasters

• Day 4 of the Official Praise-a-thon. She’s doing an amazing job. And, she hasn’t (overtly) threatened to kill anyone, either.
• “Goodbye,” to David Brinkley and Gregory Peck
• sent me this earlier.
• Profile of a Hard-Core Gamer
• Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?
• “Twenty-four thousand dollars?!”
• Monkeypox. I don’t really have anything to say about it… I just find th word amusing.
• How’d you like to swing on a star, carry moonbeams home in a jar…

Namaste.

Wednesday
For starters, I slept poorly last night due to the flapping of the blinds (because of the wind) and the cats (playing with the blinds). That didn’t make for a “happy” waking up. And the ass-monkey who decided to show off what a big man he was by excessively revving his motorcycle didn’t do much to help my mood.

Work.
Out with the every-other-Wednesday coffee/beer group.
Home.
BACK TO WORK (explained below)
Home.

Someone (an employee) tried to get into the office tonight. He’d forgotten his alarm code, so apparently all of the bells and whistles went off. I got a call from him a little after 12:30… followed shortly by a call from the alarm company. So, I got to go BACK to the office.

::: braincramp :::
By the time I arrived, a security guard was there and was filling out his preliminary report. I went inside to make sure that everything was still hunky-dory. It was. I stayed a little bit to try and suss out how to deal with aftermath in the morning. I’m still trying to figure it out. *sigh*

Song of the Day
911 Is a Joke by Public Enemy. What can I say? I find it amusing, in an ironic way.

Stray Toasters

• I had an epiphany (“Lightning has struck mah brain…”) as I was leaving work (the first time): It’s a little too late to start checking for your keys after you have set the alarm. Fortunately, I did have the keys. Damn the uncertainty, though!
• For no apparent reason, I had LL Cool J’s Going Back to Cali in my head for a while this evening.
• Standing ovation to for the way that she’s handled things over the past few days at work.
• The Matrix: Reloaded Gets Banned in Egypt
• Is it a bad sign that I’ve been changing the lyrics of Animaniacs’ The Monkey Song from
  

  I don’t know what to say
  The monkeys won’t do!
  (Don’t know what to say… The monkeys won’t do!)

  … to…

  I don’t know what to say
  Monkeypox on you!
  (Don’t know what to say… Monkeypox on you!)

• It’s been nearly a month since I tore one of my contact lenses. While I’m sure that the rest has been good for my eyes (I tend to wear my contacts almost all of my waking hours), I’ve had just about enough of wearing my glasses everyday. It’s time to ring up Ye Olde Optometrist, get my eyes examined and get back into contacts.
• I heard the new Jewel song on the radio this morning. ?!? It’s so… un-Jewel sounding. It took me until nearly the end of the song to recognize that it was her. In fact, if I hadn’t seen her on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, I would not have known that it was her.

Ugh. It’s definitely time to hit the rack.

Namaste.

Thanks, again, go out to for lending me her copy of Squee’s Wonderful Big Giant Book of Unspeakable Horrors. In one series, Squee (Todd) is invited over to his classmate Pepito’s house for dinner…

Pepito’s Mother: Hi! You must be Todd. Come on in! Pepito! Your little friend is here!!
Pepito (off-panel): Coming Mother.
Mother: Such a polite boy.
Pepito (hovering at the top of the stairs): Ah, Todd!! You’ve arrived. We’ve still a few minutes before dinner is ready. Let us play.
Mother: What have I told you about floating in the house young man? I don’t know where you pick this stuff up from.
Squee: Umm… outside I saw a lot of smoke coming from your fireplace.
Pepito: It is not from the fireplace. It’s from the basement. Come I will show you.
::: Opens door to basement ::: See?
::: Basement is a flaming pit of torture and doom :::
Pepito: That smoke was from the roasting souls of the damned. Father likes to take his work home with him. Unfortunately, we move so often, and we have to take all of this with us everytime. Father always makes me help. I hate it.
Pepito’s Father (Juan) (nattily dressed in business suit and tie): Honey!! I’m home!!
Pepito: Hello, Father.
Juan: Hello, Son. Would you take this suitcase to the basement for me?
Mother: Hi, Muffin! How was work?
Juan: Oh, the usual. The usual. Mmm. Smells good! Lemme just change before dinner.
::: transforms into a horned, skull-headed demon :::
Juan: Ahhh… that’s better.
Mother: Oh yoouu!! hee hee.
::: Pepito throws screaming suitcase into the basement :::
Juan: Ah, you must be little Todd Casil. My son has told me of you.
Squee: (thought) Help me, God.
Juan: Shall we dine?
Squee: NO! NOOO!! I don’t wanna eat the toasty souls of the damned!!
Pepito: I thought we were having Stove Top? I want none of this soul-toast.
Mother: Souls? What are they talking about? I didn’t cook any souls, Juan.
Juan: Ah, darling, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you. You see, I am Satan.
Mother: Hmmm… That explains the basement. But… I’ve always been such a good Christian woman.
Juan/Satan: Well… then let’s both be thankful for irony. So, Todd, my son tells me you wish to join my soulless army of darkness?
Squee: No, but once I wanted to be a giant monster.
Juan/Satan: What?!! Son, you have deceived me!! You know they must come willingly!! Honey, fill the bathtub with holy water.
Mother: Okee dokee!
Pepito: But, Father!! I’ve no one to play with in this infernal.. eh.. inferno!! Remedy this!!
Juan/Satan: Very well. Think of it, little Todd! All of the power, the influence you could have. I am there for you, faith in your heart or not. If the wider path be damned, then so be it!!! We’ve got nachos where they offer breadsticks!! I’ve got answers for what you lose sleep over!! No more confusion, fear or anything to make you question the value of it all!! All this for only a small registration fee!! WHAT DO YOU SAY, CHILD?!
Squee: Umm.. no thank you.
Juan/Satan: Well… that’s that.
::: They sit down to eat :::
::: Squee leaves after dinner :::
Mother: It’s been a pleasure! Bye-bye!!

Tuesday
I dream of rain….
I dream of gardens in the desert sand…

It rained today. It started off as a semi-overcast day – half of the sky was blue and half of it looked as if it couldn’t make up its mind as to what it wanted to do. When it finally decided, it convinced its fair-skied brother to join it for a cry.

The day was good, otherwise. “Otherwise” isn’t the right word. There was nothing wrong with the fact that it rained. The rain was needed. Let me then amend my previous statement: “The rest of the day was good, as well.”

Song of the Day

The Beautiful Blue Danube (…because it was in tonight’s ‘Bebop)
Der Rosenkavalier

…both by Richard Strauss

Stray Toasters

• “Accounting According to [name withheld]” Yet another reason that I think that is so damned cool.
• Ever wonder about whether or not cell phone use on airplanes was really as bad as everyone said that it was? Take a look at this.
• Thanks to for sending me this little distraction and the link to The CIA World Factbook.
• For those of you who may not have seen the MTV Movie Awards (that includes me), you should check out Gollum’s acceptance speech for Best Virtual Performance.
• Geeky fanboy goodness
• , as a follow-up to the AIM question: Was it a “good” or “bad” comment… and which one was it?
• Not getting enough of a jolt from your Xbox? Check this out.
• Sequels are something of a hit-or-miss thing. Some sequels are able to capture the magic of the movie that spawned them. Others… well, let’s just say that there are many sequels on theCool World-Long Kiss Goodnight Scale. NBC had a mini-series in the 80s called V. It spawned a television series which wasn’t a complete waste of celluloid. Well… twenty (20) years later, NBC has decided to do a sequel, V: The Second Generation. Whether it’s a good idea or bad idea, I don’t know, but you can read about it here.

Namaste.

Monday
Another day in the neighborhood:

• Work.
• Gamenight.
• Home.

Song of the Day
Digital Man by Rush, from “Signals”

Stray Toasters

• “Hi and welcome” to .
• This article on Slashdot recounts an article in the New York Times which says that 43 million Americans use peer-to-peer software.
• …then you turn to this article, which says that RIAA went after a 19-year-old college student who created a peer-to-peer site called ChewPlastic.com. The site was not a music file sharing program, it was a search engine… but, it seems as though it some were using it to search for music as well. What happened: RIAA sued the student. The settlement? His life’s savings.
• “Why Johnny Can’t Handwrite…” This is an interesting article about how the art/skill of handwriting has taken a decline with the rise in the use of computers and other new technololgies.
• In what I can see only as a move to preserve tradition, Great Britain has decided against using the Euro. I don’t grok.
• “A kiss is still a kiss … even if it breaks all the rules of primetime television” Bravo!
• I came across an article on Google News this afternoon about an outbreak of monkeypox in the North American midwest. The disease is related to smallpox, but is less infectious and less deadly. All of this information I understand. When I read that the outbreak… of monkeypox… was being spread by prairie dogs, I did a double-take.

That is all for now.

Namaste.

There are some mornings when there are just “cool things” in the news. In this instance, it is a story about something that has moved from the realm of science-fiction to science fact. What is it?

“[Slashdot reader] points out news of ‘a working force field, using plasma.’ “

Operative words: “working force field.” Yeah. That’s what I thought, too! For more on the story, click the following:

• Slashdot post
• American Institute of Physics article
• Brookhaven National Laboratory article

Sunday
I managed to sleep in this morning. All the way until a little after 10:00. Opening my eyes, I realized that there was someone with a hammer (I don’t think that it was Thor as there was no lightning or thunder associated with it) located somewhere behind my eyes. How he got there, I have no idea…. I started working on a few things and more-or-less “forgot” about the headache. I wound up “remembering” it when the hammer-wielder decided to pick up where he or she had left off.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon was rather uneventful. I did get to chat with Rana for a bit. She’s doing well and is about to embark on a brief trip and get more stamps on her passport.

Tonight’s movie was Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku no tobira, also known as Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door or just Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. Nothing like seeing ‘Bebop on the big screen. Well, it was a semi-big screen; we saw it at Tower Theater, one of the older (and independent!) theatres in the city. My only “complaint” was that they didn’t use Tank! or The Real Folk Blues (the series’ opening and closing themes) in the movie. It isn’t really a complaint because the music in the movie was good and it fit just as well. I received a phone call shortly before the movie ended. (No, I didn’t answer it nor did the phone “ring;” I keep it on vibrate and let calls go to voicemail during movies.) It was my father, but when I tried calling back after the movie, he didn’t answer. *shrug* After the movie, we went out for food. Aside from the large group of high schoolers a couple of tables over, it was good. Then, I received another call from Dad. Shortly after the call, we left the restaurant and…

I came home to play travel agent for the family again. I had been tangentially drawn into it earlier this morning, while talking to Rana: A friend of hers and my stepmother are going to Italy for a couple of weeks to visit her. Knowing that there tend to be “issues” in dealing with the Internet-related items, I told her to send me a copy of the planned itinerary. This was a wise move. The reservation that had been made expired one hour before they got back to me, post-movie.

::: braincramp :::
This was one of the (if not “THE”) longest times that I spent on the phone trying to process the necessary info and find the best fare/itinerary. That was mostly due to the fact that I was dealing with the non-Internet savvy side of the family. *sigh* But, I got things taken care of. Everyone seems happy with the arrangements. After I hung up, I had a Stoli Citrona. I had earned it.

And tomorrow is Monday.

Stray Toaster
I posted this in this afternoon. If you have any suggestions to add, please feel free to add them to that post’s comments.

Quote of the Day
At post-movie dinner, said, to no one in particular, “Get me a fire extinguisher” so that she could use it on the aforementioned high schoolers. , seeing one a few feet from the table, stood up to retrieve it. Suzie grabbed [‘Bear] by the arm and said:

Sit down! Unless I specifically say the words: “[Suzie] tells [‘Bear] to…” don’t do it!

We all got a good laugh from it.

And with that, it’s nearly time to call it a night.

Namaste.

Saturday
After too late a bedtime and too little sleep, I roused myself to face the day around 9:30 this morning.

I met for lunch and then we went to a friend’s house to play Halo on linked XBoxes. This lasted nearly five hours. However, as is often the case with things that you enjoy, it seemed like only a couple of hours. After that, and I came back here and played yet more Halo. (NOTE: Today was his first time playing the game.)

Dinner was prepared and eaten and then it was off to the bowling alley. joined us. We then had traditional post-bowling V.I. breakfast.

And now, it is nearly bedtime.

Stray Toaster
Yesterday, showed me a link to the Utah Baby Namer page. In the words of some of the Utahns that I know: “Oh my heck!” Brace yourselves… there are a lot of them. And, reading the list of names into makes for an interesting read.

But I am now rapidly approaching the “Sleep Needed NOW” phase, so I shall call it a night.

Namaste.