Random Access

Friday
End of the work week. And it was a good day, to boot. Things at work went rather smoothly – that’s always a good way to cap off the week. More CF work. I ended the day with a meeting with and a soon-to-be-introduced new co-worker. It lasted longer than expected, but it went well.

After work, it was off to Borders for a bit. I met the LJer occasionally known as and Jess. We chatted for a bit. I had mocha. I drew a little. All was good and right with the world. Following this came dinner at Sampan. I was a little disappointed: It wasn’t up to the usual standards.

John L. and John S. from our traditional Village Inn stopped by after their shifts ended. The reason: To bring me a pie. Not a slice or two… a whole Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup pie. (Note to : My super-power at work again.)

Song of the Day
Battle of Who Could Care Less by Ben Folds Five, from “Whatever and Ever, Amen”

Stray Toasters
I was speaking with a friend today and found out some rather interesting information about my former place of employment. Concerning me. Keep in mind that I have now been an “ex-employee” for exactly six months, as of today. And, there was also some good news about a couple of friends of mine.

That information that I learned was:

1. The identity of the person who “ran to tell Mommy and Daddy about the mean things I said about work/people at work” nearly two (2) years ago, in my journal.
2. Members of management made statements that they hid (HID) my Official Personnel Folder (OPF) from Jess while she was in charge of OPF filing and administration.

Definite signs of adult behavior, not to mention professionalism. I never really cared who it was that told management about the journal… but, I had a couple of people whom I suspected. It wasn’t them. However, the person was related to one of my prime suspects. (There’s a little “dynasty” that runs through that facility. Another word for it is “nepotism.” I won’t even mention the favoritism that runs rampant in there…)

Here’s a little primer: 1, 2, 3, 4.
The first one is from my last day as an employee of the USPS and the others are about the some of the things that led to my “fall from grace” as a supervisor there and/or my response to the fall.

I don’t think that I ever elaborated on why I stopped supervising: Someone at work told the senior managers that I had been saying some… unfavorable… things about the manner in which things were being handled there. It’s true. I did. I still think that a great number of things were done in an ass-backwards manner. But, that’s another story. Long story, short version: They looked at the journal. They held a meeting with all of the supervisors, as a group and individually. After my individual meetings (plural), they decided that I didn’t fit the dynamic of the team. *shrug* That was fine, because I had been very close to telling them that I wanted to get out of the program.

Another item – “good news” – was that some of my friends have quit the 204-B (Acting Supervisor) program. They finally tired of the rigamarole and the office politics. “Bravo” and best wishes to both of them.

I find the whole thing – the WHOLE thing – oddly amusing. The information is very worthwhile. And useful.

Namaste.

Thursday
Another good day at work.

After work, it was a quiet evening at home. With the exception of me bitching at my Linux rig. Okay, that wasn’t loud externally. Inside my head, I was back to calling it “Bastard Ass,” among other things… and rather loudly, at that. Thanks to for pointing out something that I had overlooked in the configuration.

Song of the Day

• Only You
• In My Room
• Midnight

…all by Yaz from “Upstairs at Eric’s”

Stray Toasters

• “An Army of One?” According to this article, that may be true very soon. Reading this reminded me (somewhat) of the powered armor from Starship Troopers, the book and the TV series (Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles). Without the power… but getting there.
• As I noted in a post from a few months back, “Blah” is the perfect lyric. It is apparently the perfect word, too. I less than a week, I’ve heard it used twice… almost exactly as I described it in that post: Sunday in Finding Nemo and tonight in a MasterCard ad.
• Martha Stewart. Charged with nine (9) counts of fraud.
• I watched CSI: Crime Scene Investigation tonight. There were a few interesting and somewhat unexpected twists in the plot.
• freshmeat: “…the world’s largest index of Unix and cross-platform software, themes and related “eye-candy”, and Palm OS software.”
• “Singapore plans rating system for toilets” No, you did not misread that.
• Are you a writer? Take a look at this. They have a rather cool classifieds section, too.
• As anti-American Idol as I am, this made me laugh.
• Spike Lee. Love him or hate him, he is a rather outspoken man and, in my opinion, (usually) a great filmmaker. This morning, I read that he is suing Viacom because they are changing the name of TNN (“The National Network” formerly known as “The Nashville Network”) to “Spike TV.” Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!?
• 90-year old lottery winner
• Are you a fan of The Simpsons? Here is a link to “a compilation of all the lyrics to every single song ever heard on [the show].”

Quote of the Day
Tonight’s QotD comes from tonight’s episode of 7Days. After it’s discovered that NNL Chief of Security Ramsey’s brother was responsible for a series of Unibomber-like attacks, the FBI attempts to arrest Ramsey outside the gates of NNL. After a brief scuffle, NNL Director Talmadge arrives to assess the situation.

Talmadge: You’d better believe that Director Shane and I will be having a little talk before I let you take my Chief of Security anywhere.
FBI Agent: Sir… You’re making a big mistake.
Talmadge: I’m a big man. ::: walks off :::

And with that… Good night.

Namaste.

Excerpted from last night’s IRC static…

[03:15] i hate moths!
[03:15] HATE!
[03:15] [MosDef] buy mothballs
[03:15] do they kill moths?
[03:16] [Brandon-] what do you think
[03:16] [MosDef] yes
[03:16] [Brandon-] there called mothballs for a reason
[03:16] [MosDef] and people too if you take in lots
[03:16] do cowballs kill cows, brandon?
[03:16] tool.
[03:17] [Brandon-] that was intelligent
[03:17] [WyvernLrd] So I can use a Baseball to destroy the enemy base?

Wednesday
Another day at work. A little more work with my form. Since I’ve been rambling about this one for about a week, I guess that I should ‘splain what it is: It’s a dynamic invoice/receipt form. We’ve been having to do manual receipts for the past… since we started, basically. This also meant that we had to write up two copies as, until recently, our copier has been less-than-great. When I’m finished with it, this form will generate invoices/receipts (as the customer is shopping), track the type of sale, who sold it, all of the pertinent date information and other minor bells and whistles. Aside from dealing with trying to remember the proper CF syntax, this has been a fun learning experience.

After work, I met and helped her choose a webcam. The adventure took a little longer than planned because of a minor misunderstanding of where we were supposed to meet. We got beyond that and on to the shopping. When I talked with her later, she said that she likes the camera. Mission: Accomplished.

Went to visit after that. She was in an accident this afternoon – she’s fine, but her car has moved beyond this mortal coil. She needed some company so Jess, Dan, Scott and I hung out with her. As posted in her journal this evening:

…if anybody sees any Z’s for sale, tell me. please. i’m looking for like maybe a 280Z, 75-78 or a 280ZX (nonturbo) 80-83, i guess.

Song of the Day
Blue Rondo a la Turk by Dave Brubek (…or the Al Jarreau version)

Stray Toasters

• Do you enjoy geocaching? You’d better get your fix while and where you can. According to this post, it seems as though some cities and counties are (considering) banning it.
• From came a link to “Socipranos”. Interesting.
• Sammy Sosa. Corked bat. There’s going to be some serious image-handling in the offing.
• I spent a little time investigating free magazine subscriptions today. If you look in the right places, you can get 1- and 2-year subscriptions without paying anything, not even the “processing fee” or handling fees. Just go to Google (or your favorite search engine) and look for free subscription, or free magazine or complimentary subscription… or permutations thereof.
• Palm is buying Handspring. I admit that I didn’t see this one coming, but it does seem to make an odd sort of sense.
• Death: The High Cost of Living. The Movie. It looks like it might (finally) be getting off the ground. (For those of you who don’t understand this, don’t worry. You will. When the time is right.)

Now, however, is the time to roam the lands far from The Waking World.

Namaste.

Tuesday
Not a bad day. More ColdFusion tinkering at work. I’ll probably be starting a new form tomorrow or Thursday.

I had a headache somewhere around 11:00 tonight. It may have had something to do with an issue that my computer was having. *shrug* I don’t know. I went out for a drive and by the time that I got home, the headache had faded away. Thankfully.

Song of the Day

• The Old Apartment by Barenaked Ladies
• My Home by Rockapella

Stray Toasters

• Chocolate Jell-O® pudding. (You may now feel jealous.)
• In this month’s issue of Maxim, someone asked: “What were the first two Reichs?” I’d never really considered this before; Hitler’s Third Reich gets all of the publicity. According to the answer: The First Reich was actually the Holy Roman Empire, founded in 800 A.D. by Charlemagne. The Second Reich began in 1871 when Germany was united under Otto von Bismarck and lasted until 1918… at the end of World War I.
• The Curse of the State Quarters
• An article about Trepia, a new IM client… with a peculiar twist.
• Got vinyl? LPs, that is. Ever tried to rip tracks off of them? This article may help you add your album tracks to your mp3 collection.
• If The Sims had a God, he would be Will Wright. Why? Probably because he created The Sims and their precursors (no pun intended). It seems that Mr. Wright has signed a development deal with Fox Broadcasting Company. You can read more about it here
• Big Brother Is Watching You. And, he’s apparently watching the games that you play, too…
• Raiders of the Lost Ark. I don’t know many people who have seen the movie who did not like it. And then there is this: A fan-made, shot-for-shot remake of the movie. Made by some Tenneessee teenagaers. Kids, today… I tell you.

I’ve nodded off a few times too many while writing this, which means that it’s time to call it a night.

Namaste.

Monday
Very good day at work. I started by working on getting my ColdFusion form. About 00:30 after I got there, we started moving furniture and fixtures… and changing the offices around. We took about four hours moving, reorienting and all-around shuffling things around. On the plus side of this: I am no longer relegated to the common inter-office/reception-ish area nor the warehouse. I now have an office. I can actually work in a space that is “mine,” so to speak.

It was Game Night after work. Our little “World of Darkness” campaign has taken an interesting turn…

And now, I’m tired.

Song of the Day
I’ll dedicate today’s song to the person with the remote control to the radio in my head. Again. And, I hope that she/he had fun with the selection that I had stuck in my head for a couple of hours this morning: Have a Holly Jolly Christmas, by the late Burl Ives.

Stray Toasters

• A sorcerer, a mage and a werewolf walk into a bar…
• forwarded this link to me. I’m not even sure where to begin…

  No, wait: The third paragraph (“I also support a ban on…“). That’s a good one. And the one on tattooing? , that one should be right up your alley. The so-called “Fag Facts” section? No comment. *sigh*

  But, for all of the things on this site with which I disagree, I once again stand by my statement from a few weeks ago where I supported peoples’ right to put whatever they want on their website.

• I want crab cakes from Philip’s Restaurant at Harborplace.

I’m fairly certain that there was more that I had to say, but at the moment, it eludes me. Rather than sit here and stare at the monitor until my eyelids get heavy, I shall go to bed.

Namaste.

Sunday
Today started off quietly. Shortly before 11:00, however, the reverie was broken: Maintenance was working on the roof again… Joy. I took this as an opportunity to get out of bed and get started with the day. I showered, dressed and sat around for a couple of hours while I decided what I wanted to do.

I headed to Borders to have a lovely caffeine-laden beverage, do some drawing and chat with Jonas, one of the Borders staff. Angela called me and asked if I was at -or planning to go to- Borders; I told her that I was, in fact on the way there. She met me there and we had a nice conversation.

After a few hours, I came home and did a lot of nothing. It was a “day off,” that’s what it’s for. Sending the email and LJ post about tonight’s movie was the highlight of my activity for this part of the day.

We saw Finding Nemo. “Cute” is about the only way to describe it. Imagine that: A cute Disney movie… Pixar’s animation keeps getting better – the way that this movie moved was amazing. I enjoyed the movie. What can I say: I’m still something of a Disney Kid. Ellen Degeneres provided a voice for the movie; I had known this fact, but had forgotten it over the past few months. I found that somewhat interesting given the way that ABC (owned by Disney) “handled” her show after she came out. *shrug*

After the movie, six of us went to a different V.I. than we usually go to. This was a mistake. Tara, our “waitress,” and I use that term loosely, was rather inattentive. And that’s being kind. When she (finally) came to take our drink order, she only got two of our drinks. TWO. Out of six. *sigh* She then attempted to take our orders; the conversation went something like this:

Tara: Can I take your orders?
Jess: We haven’t even ordered our drinks yet.
Tara: *blink blink*
::: brief pause :::
Tara: I thought that you just wanted water.
(Note: had said that she wanted water, but in NO WAY does her voice carry enough nor vary enough to be considered the same as four people talking.)
Jess: No, we didn’t get a chance to order.
Tara: *blink blink*
::: brief pause :::

…and then she took the rest of the group’s drink orders. *sigh* Aside from the company and the conversation, the rest of dinner was rather lackluster. See ‘s account of dinner for details.

Home again, home again. Jiggety-jig.

Song of the Day
Yes, it’s Sunday and there usually are not SotDs on Sundays, but I’m making an exception. (You can make exceptions to your journal, too… but this is mine, so deal with it.)

• The Girl from Ipanema
• Beyond the Sea, performed by Robbie Williams

…both found in the movie Finding Nemo, although Ipanema didn’t seem to make the soundtrack.

Stray Toasters

• I talked to the Maryland contingent of the family-unit today. All is well there… and in The Ukraine, according to their reports.
• After a lot of searching, I finally found a copy of War (the Edwin Starr song) as performed by Bone Thugs&Harmony (featuring Henry Rollins, Flesh-N-Bone and Flea). I’d found a BTNH version of the song last week, but it wasn’t this one. This was from the Small Soldiers soundtrack; a movie that I have not seen, but whose soundtrack produced this and a rather interesting remix of Rush’ Tom Sawyer. (And, no, that was not a typo: One need not add an “s” to an appositive if the word ends in “-sh.”)
• sent me a link to this picture. Not 100% sure “why” she did, but I did find the tagline amusing.
• Hang on, I feel a minor rant/diatribe coming on…

  (tirade)
  sent me this link today. The Catholic Church (hereafter referred to as “The Church”) refused to marry them. I was stunned. Let’s get a bit of background here:

  And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth. – Holy Bible, Genesis 1:22 (NKJV)

  So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over everything that moves on the earth. – Holy Bible, Genesis 1:27-28 (NKJV)

  Where to begin…? First should probably the disclaimer: I do not intend to disparage the Catholic Church with the following comments, but there are things here that seem quite odd to me as a non-member. And with that out of the way…

  It seems to me that there is something of a double standard here. There is a willingness/understanding (or whatever you choose to call it) to allow those who are unable to have children to marry within The Church. That I understand. The couple in the article were afraid of passing on a disorder (granted, it is non-genetic, but still…) to their offspring. Let’s take a look at it from a slightly different angle, though: What about couples who didn’t want to have biological offspring, but had considered adopting children? If the canon is based strictly on “Be fruitful and multiply…” then it seems that there would be no allowances for these people to get married, either.

  I don’t know where there is a “right” or a “wrong” to this. I just know that I find it a bit confusing. A man and a woman want to be married in the eyes of The Lord… but The Church says “no.” Should they “live in sin,” in the eyes of their congregation? Renounce their belief in The Church and seek one “more open” to their desire not to have children? I don’t have an answer… just more questions.
  (/tirade)

• For : Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Quote of the Day
Sheldan (a seahorse): I’m H₂O-intolerant. *sneeze*

And with that, good night.

Namaste.

Saturday
Today started off slowly. Since it was a day off, I didn’t mind that. I woke up a few times this morning, but managed to drift back through the veil into the lands of The Dreaming. I finally made my return to The Waking World somewhere around noon… although I do remember hearing footsteps on the roof a few times before waking up. Apparently, the maintenance staff was doing something up there. *shrug*

I proceeded to do very little with the bulk of the afternoon. Most of my time was spent watching TV, chatting on IRC and AIM, eating Honeycomb® cereal and playing with Sissy the Wonder Kitty. Somewhere around 4, I figured that it would be beneficial to start preparing for Ultimate. I left around 4:40 and headed to the park. No one was there. Apparently, Dave2 had left about :10 minutes before I got there… because no one else showed. Oh well, maybe next week. I called and met her at The Coffee Tree. It was a quaint little place; I had driven past it many times, but never tried it. I’ll definitely go back.

I returned home and made an attempt at fixing the (non-working) network issues. *sigh* It didn’t work… so, I decided to postpone any further attempts until after…

Bowling. and Young Miss Fiona joined us; it was Fiona’s first time bowling and she did rather well. She seemed rather proud of the job that she did and rightfully so! The people on the lane next to us were… hmm… no, let me tackle this from another direction: Some of the people on the lane next to us had no concept of “personal space,” let alone “lane courtesy.” dubbed one of them “Bootylicious,” because when that song came on, the young lady decided to demonstrate to everyone around just how fine and sexy (not to mention: “How good a dancer…”) she was. Oy. When I was later asked to explain what it was about that group that irritated me, the best example that I could think of was: “You know how alcohol makes some people ‘invulnerable,’ while it makes others do things that just make them look stupid? These people were not invulnerable.”

Post-bowling breakfast was also good. Kate (one of our favorite servers) was back at work after a couple of weeks off. , and a friend, and Brad met us at the restaurant. One of the tables in our section noted that we were getting shown a bit of favoritism by the front-end staff… Kate and Shelley (the manager) just said “Yes” and continued about their business. Have I mentioned that it’s really nice to be on good terms with the people there?

When we returned home, I decided to take another look at the network situation. *sigh* Option A: No go. Option B: Nope, that didn’t work either. Options C – H… let’s just say that they were similarly ineffective. A short while later, I had finally stumbled upon a solution that seems to be working rather well. I think that I will leave it alone (for now) and let it run like this until I have more time to look into more permanent solutions.

But, after the following, I’m going to bed.

Quote of the Day
: “My boob thinks it’s Godzilla!”

Namaste.

Friday
Another mixed day at work. I spent the first half getting my latest CF form to work… and it does. Not too bad for only having worked with CF for three weeks. The second half of the day was spent on another field trip to ‘s soon-to-be-former place of employment. We had to pick up some equipment for the office.

After work, came home and headed for the shower. After loading the trailer and taking the things back to work, I was hot, sweaty and I’m pretty sure that I must have been emitting an odor that would not be considered “socially acceptable.” After cleaning up and getting a bite to eat, Jess and I headed to Borders – browsing and reading for her, drawing for me. I didn’t really find much that struck my fancy, but I got a couple of things in the sketchbook. met us there and the three of us went to Applebee’s for a late dinner.

Tomorrow, I think that I am going to attempt to tackle the lack-of-hub issue again. I think that I have a couple of possible options… hopefully, one of them will work.

Song of the Day
More Human Than Human by White Zombie

Stray Toasters

• Sandman Sims, famed tap dancer and legendary Apollo Theater performer, died last week.
• Salmonella Fitzgerald. The name of a “malady” on a cartoon short that came on during Codename: Kids Next Door
• This link, forwarded to me by my friend Matt, presents an article about
  

  …a two-hour television movie to be broadcast this September… as close as you can get to an official White House account of its activities at the outset of the war on terrorism.

  Written and produced by a White House insider with the close co-operation of Mr. Bush and his top officials, the movie The Big Dance represents an unusually close merger of Washington’s ambitions with the Hollywood entertainment machinery.

  Heaven help us all.

• Robert sent me this URL. Very cool. Very cool, indeed.
• I had (another) complaint about Utah drivers, but I’m not sure that it would be restricted to drivers from Utah: On the way back to the office (after picking up the equipment), we stopped at a 7-11 to get something to drink.
  Dehydration BAAAD! ::: gesture :::
  We got back into the car and waited not only for traffic to die down a bit, but for someone with the common courtesy to let us get out of the parking lot and into the flow of traffic. It took a good three minutes (and two cycles of the traffic light) before someone was gracious enough to let us turn. *sigh*

• Naked molerats.
• Tonight must have been “The Night of 1000 Odd Conversations,” because we got earfuls of information that no one outside of said conversations should have had to hear. Unfortunately, the speakers apparently did not grasp the concept of “Inside Voice vs. Outside Voice.”
• I forgot to add this last night: I heard on the radio that Avril Lavigne’s song Sk8er Boi has been optioned to be made into a feature-length film.
  WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT?!?!?
  The song is only 3 minutes and change. Do we really need another 87 minutes of “character development?” Really. And, I know that this isn’t the first time that a song has been made into a movie. A couple of shining examples that came to mind when I first heard this were Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler and Coward of the County. *sigh* Please tell me that we haven’t sunk so low that all originality has been squeezed/drained/evaporated out of Hollywood…

• …and as if that wasn’t enough: Look at this. The MUSICAL. *shiver*

That’s all for now…

Namaste.

Thursday
Joe, Ty and Courtney left today. We met them for breakfast before work/their departure. Before they left, we made tentative plans to visit them in Tampa sometime in the next few months. I’m thinking that sometime around my birthday would be nice – Florida sun and warmth just as the snow is preparing to fall in the Land behind the Zion Curtain. Yeah, that would be good timing.

The rest of the day wasn’t too bad. I had a few things to deal with this morning… which kept me from finishing off the ColdFusion form that I am working on. Oh, well. These things had to be taken care of. Of course, this also included what turned into a two hour (yes, TWO HOUR) conversation with FedEx – I dealt with ’em for about 00:30 and Adrian took the rest of it. And… AND… the “solution” that they gave us was one that could have been dealt with in about 00:10. *sigh* I also got to go on a field trip and visited . After getting back to the office, I spent some time looking over the CF code that I had written yesterday and Adrian had tweaked for me.

Headed home and didn’t do much other than watch TV, eat dinner and take about a 00:30 nap. Seemed to do the trick. Around 12:00, I felt the need to get out, so I went for what turned into a nearly three-hour drive (a three-hour tour drive….) It wasn’t an “angry” drive, it was just a “change-of-pace” kind of thing. It felt good.

Song of the Day

• For Your Eyes Only
• Strut
• U Got the Look (with Prince)

…all by Sheena Easton. Yes, the same Sheena Easton who, until her character’s untimely death, had a recurring role as the wife of Officer Sonny Crockett on the 80s series Miami Vice.

Stray Toasters

• Bob Hope turned 100 years old today. I don’t have a joke here, I just think that it’s a rather remarkable milestone. Happy Birthday, Old Ski Nose.
• sent me a link to this article. Holy Thought Police, Batman! What in the Nine Hells is this all about!?!? “Political Correctness” is one thing; this is just asinine.
• Raja Jaja… an Indian (dot not feather)¹ Mojo Jojo “clone” from the PPG episode “Knock It Off”
• Looking for good summer read… with a sci-fi/geek edge to it? Take a look at some of these suggestions from readers on Slashdot.
• I watched an episode of Lupin the Third on Adult Swim tonight. That’s something that I haven’t done before. Something in the animation reminded me of Speed Racer… without the Mach 5. In one scene, Lupin, Jigen and Goemon and running away from “smart bombs” that look like remote control cars with shark faces painted on them. They climb a tree to attempt to elude the bombs… it doesn’t help. The dialogue, at this point, made me laugh:
  

  Jigen: Lupin, knock knock…
  Lupin: Who’s there?
  Jigen: Land Shark!

  You’ve got to love the Land Shark jokes.

• A new feature is coming soon to a credit card near you. Joe forwarded this link to me this morning. I found this one later in the day on Slashdot.
• Who says that you can’t get anything for free? Not this article.
• Browser Wars: Episode V – The MSEmpire Pays Back
• Spike Siegel. Bounty hunter.
• Department of Defense Gadget Show
• This made me laugh profusely. I found it particularly amusing because I have had many people ask me “Where can I find information on…” It seems to happen most often on IRC (or as has dubbed it: “Intellect Recall Center”)

That’s it. Time for bed.

Namaste.

¹ – as denoted by

Wednesday
The day started off well. Work wasn’t bad, even though the current phase of the form that I’m working on is giving me a problems. The day passed fairly quickly.

Then, it was off to Jitterbug Coffee Hop to hook up with the coffee group. We had a decent turn out… including a couple of people who don’t often make it to these get-togethers. Melissa threw a wadded-up napkin at me; I said “Ow.” Just because. And that lead to Matt and Melissa determining that napkins are my Kryptonite. THAT led to the discussion of how would other paper products would affect me and the effects higher- and lower-quality items.

I finally remembered to ask the coffee shop’s proprietor his name. I prefer to learn the names of people whose establishments I frequent, even the wait-staff of restaurants.

(sidebar)
I have something of a dislike for having to flag someone down by saying “Hey… you,” if I can avoid it. I think that it stems from the time that I spent working in retail when I was in college. I noticed that people, all too often, don’t pay attention to sales clerks/waiters/waitresses and often just “dismiss” them rather than be “bothered.” Actually, I found that amusing. I would walk up to people and say specific things… just to see how they would respond. You’d be amazed to find out how many people would say “No, thank you. I’m just looking” in response to “Hello” or “How are you doing today?” *sigh*
(/sidebar)

We closed the place down. Actually, we were there well after it was supposed to have closed; Bruce, the owner, said that he didn’t mind staying open. (Warning: Unsolicited plug) If you get a chance to stop in, do so. Try the “Milky Way,” it’s damn tasty. Tell him “Robert from the coffee group” said that you should stop by. It won’t get you a discount (at least, not that I am aware of), but you can get a good cup of coffee from a local merchant. And that’s not a bad thing. Not bad at all.

Post-coffee, I came home to find that there had been a power outtage. I was okay with that. What I was not okay with was the fact that said outtage seems to have burnt out my hub… and possibly one of my broadband routers. I spent the better part of an hour trying to test out different configurations for a work-around solution. I found one. It’s a stopgap measure, but it will suffice until I can dedicate more time to testing and troubleshooting all of the hardware configurations.

Song of the Day
Black Coffee by Bobby Darin

Stray Toasters

• “It’s amazing that some people would rather be “right” than be happy.
• Pilot cars. You have seen them, even if you didn’t know what they were called. They are the cars (and sometimes pickup trucks) that accompany trucks with large/oversized loads. You know… the cars with banners that say “Wide Load” or “Oversized Load.” As if you couldn’t figure it out on your own.
  

  Well, now, would you look’it that, Martha?
  What, Ed?
  That truck up there…. somethin’ ’bout it just ain’t right. I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s somethin’…
  Lands sake, Ed! You’re right! I wish I knew what it was. Maybe you should try’n go around it.

  I wonder whose brainstorm it was to have a car or truck “chase” the larger one down the highway… just so that the less-than-mentally acute among us would know that there was a “big truck” ahead.

• “Rectal craniotomy”
• Joan Osborne (and Jim Carrey) asked: “What if God was one of us?” Well, if that were the case would he really look like Morgan Freeman? Personally, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. More to the point: Would people put his number in their PDAs and cell phones? Some people who have seen Bruce Almighty seem to think so. One of MANY stories about it can be found here.
• Condoms in the orange juice. (part of tonight’s coffee conversation)
• Souped-up PS2 units are in the offing…
• My dislike for Windows XP has been chronicled here on more than one occasion. I found this article interesting… and mildly amusing.

I should really get to bed. But, I want a snack. I think that I’ll settle for a glass of milk. That sounds pretty good: A nice, cold glass of milk. (Milk, it does a body good. Pass it on!) Then, I’ll help myself to a heaping serving of get-my-ass-in-bed.

Namaste.

Tuesday
Just another day at the office… More work with ColdFusion – I’m working on a new form. Aside from some minor formatting and layout issues, it is coming along nicely. It should be finished around lunchtime tomorrow… assuming that there are no monkey wrenches thrown into the cogs.

Song of the Day

• War by the late Edwin Starr
• War by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony (feat. Henry Rollins)

Stray Toasters

• This article, from Slashdot, references an article in Adrenaline Vault that ponders whether or not there are any original ideas left in gaming.
• ::: this space for rent :::
• From the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle comes this story about PETA (the animal rights group, not the bread “pita”) and a fiberglass elephant.
• The last World War II holdout
• Nicholas D. Wolfwood and his portable confessional.

And, now… good night.

Namaste.

Monday
Memorial Day.
There is a cemetery about three miles north of here. The graves were covered with fresh flowers; it looked like an old-fashioned patchwork quilt. There were many people visiting the graves of friends and family. It was rather touching to see.

Slept in today. And it was good. I woke up when the phone rang; it was my sister calling (via Dad) to ask me to get order something online. I did. And, that was good, too.

The rest of the day was fairly low-key: We met Joe & company at my office, which allowed us to kill a few birds with one stone: Getting together at a relatively central location, letting them see the store and getting a chance for Joe and Adrian to talk. We went out to lunch and then to Nickelcade (arcade where all of the games -including air hockey- cost 5¢ to play). Courtney seemed to have a good time there. I have also determined that she meets no strangers – she met a couple of girls there and sat there talking with them like she’d known them for most of her rather young life. It was quite cute when she tried to drag them – both of them were at least 50% bigger than her – over to one of the rides.

Home for a bit and then out for a late night snack… and then home again.

Tomorrow starts the work week. After a three-day weekend, this will be akin to going back to school after summer vacation. On the bright side: It’s a short work week.

Stray Toasters

• While at Nickelcade, I put my self-respect and dignity on the shelf and tried my hand… um, feet… at Dance Dance Revolution 2000. “Tried” being the operative word. It was disastrous. Not “disastrous” in a Titanic or Hindenburg way. “Disastrous” in a… hmm… what’s the best way to describe it?
  ::: thinks :::
  If you are old enough to remember ABC’s Wide World of Sports, you might remember the opening “…from the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat…” and the video of the ski jumper completely biffing a downhill jump. For years, that video showed every Saturday. People started referring to the skier as “Mister Agony of Defeat.” Today, I was that guy. I can laugh about it (now), but it was bad. Very. Very. Bad. And, just like him… it was caught on video.

• Need another indicator that civilization is circling the drain in an ever shrinking downward spiral? Here it is.
• I found this rather amusing.
• I would never have suspected that Bruce Almighty would knock The Matrix: Reloaded out of the top spot so handily. In the words of Neo: “Whoa.”

Quote of the Day

Joe: The ceiling is littered with the corpses of those who didn’t remember…

And with that, I will call it a night.

Namaste.

Sunday
We spent the afternoon in Park City. It was the first time that we’d gone there since October, I believe. In all, there were… 17 of us. ::: recounts ::: Yes, 17. We did the usual brunch and Main Street walkabout. Considering Courtney (2½) and Fiona (5) were part of the group, it went pretty smoothly – especially with the amount of walking that we did.

(sidebar)
On the way up I-80, we saw someone on a motorcycle who looked like someone with whom I worked at the REC. It took another few seconds to get close enough for confirmation: The tattoo on the back of her head. Once we had determined that it was her, we pulled alongside her. She and I had a short conversation – the dynamics of which were interesting considering that we were moving at highway speeds. It was nice to see her.
(/sidebar)

One of the places that we visited was a museum about Park City’s history as a mining town and its old jail. Joe took a series of pictures in there; I’ll post some of them when I get them edited and resized. We also stopped in a few galleries. Some of the pictures inspired Joe and I to consider taking a photography vacation in the next year or two.

The end of the Park City trip was capped off by a trip to Cows. We had ice cream and drinks as we sat and talked. And, Courtney and Kayla (part of a late-arriving crew) played on the whatever-it-was-made-of cow in the store.

We came back to SLC and went to see Bruce Almighty; by this time, we had dwindled to nine (9) in the group. My original thoughts about this movie were: “Ehhh, it’s really not something that I have to see…” I found the movie to be rather amusing. Some of the situations were a little predictable, but there were parts where I got a good laugh out of it. Morgan Freeman as God… I can buy that. Pretty easily. He is definitely in the Top Three People Who Have Portrayed God List:

1. Morgan Freeman
2. George Burns
3. Alanis Morrisette

If that’s not enough, let’s look at the progression of his roles: He went from being a prisoner (The Shawshank Redemption) to being the President of the United States of America (Deep Impact) to being God. Not too shabby.

After the movie, we went to V.I. for late night snacks. And then, “Home again, home again. Jiggety-jig.” Now, it is time to return to the kingdom of Morpheus, once more to walk the lands of The Dreaming.

Namaste.

We interrupt your normal LiveJournal reading for this late-breaking news update…

We’re off to Park City!

We now return you to your normally scheduled LiveJournal reading…