Random Access

Friday
And, so, another work week is nearly over. On the whole, it’s been a good week. I got up a little before 07:30 this morning and hit the gym (Day 20); Steve was there when I got there. The workout was good. Now I’m home, I’ve performed the hygiene rituals and had a bowl of cereal. And I’m watching this week’s Smallville, “Heat.” They are doing an… interesting… take on the development of Clark’s heat vision. Interesting… and amusing. This is another show that I think is very well-written.

NPR/PRI Stories (Thursday)
Fresh Air
Talk of the Nation

What would you do if you discovered your child would be born with a disability? Thursday on Talk of the Nation, guest host Lynn Neary talks with one couple about their daughter, Naia, who was born with Down syndrome.

God and country — what do you do when allegiance to one seems like a conflict with allegiance to the other? Some Christian leaders are challenging the notion of a military conflict with Iraq. How do your religious beliefs shape your view on war? Join the show in its second hour for a discussion.

All Things Considered

: Check out TotN and The World, there are a few medical stories that you might be interested in.

Song of the Day: True Faith by New Order from the CD “Substance.”

Stray Toasters

• Cats are still funny.
• Five people shot and killed in Maryland. And the killer is still at-large. As far as I am aware, the victims were chosen randomly. *sigh* Have I mentioned that we seem to be circling the drain…?
• I am seriously considering writing an email to the producers of Talk of the Nation about one of their guest hosts. After listening to a few shows, I (and a few others) have noted that this host lacks… something… which is not a good thing for this format. More on this later.

And that’s it for now.

Peace.

Thursday
I don’t know why, but I was up a little after 07:30 this morning. *sigh* I laid in bed and juxtaposed the pros and cons of staying in bed vs. grabbing a handful of morning and starting my day. I decided to make a go of it. I got to the gym and worked out and was finished by the time that I am normally just getting done with the cardio portion of my workout. This put me about 0:45 ahead of the curve. Not bad. I may try (operative word: “try”) getting up a little earlier on a regular basis. Of course, that would also mean going to bed earlier…

A guy at the gym asked me about part of the routine (reverse fly) that I did today. He’d never seen anyone do them… nor had he even considered the prospect… so he asked what areas they worked. So I showed him. He said that he had never really thought much about working his back, but that he would have to try it. I also showed him a couple of other machines that would be useful. And then, I went on to the rest of my workout. I passed through that section of the gym a little later and he was doing the reverse flys. I asked him what he thought of them. He laughed and said that they were a little more of a workout than he had originally thought, but he liked them.

NPR/PRI Stories(from Wednesday)
The World
Talk of the Nation
All Things Considered

TotN had an hour on “The Book that Changed My Life.”
Check out the “Songs of the Criminal Life” segment on ATC. Bizarre… and oddly amusing.
: “Malaria Milestone” story on ATC. Bio-med stuff.
: Hurricane Lili story on ATC
Sorry, no new Northern Snakehead stories.

Song of the Day: The Heartbreak Kid (from the CD “Man of Colours”) by Icehouse. Yes, that Icehouse. No, not the beer. The Australian band who gained some popularity in the 80s for their songs Electric Blue and Crazy. And since it’s Triple Play Thursday, we’ll make Nothing Too Serious and My Obession the other two SotD.

Peace.

Wednesday
After what seemed like a decent night’s sleep (finally), I got up and headed to the gym. (Sissy, once again, was on the bed at 08:25 for her morning head/ear/back scratch.) After almost a month, I am able to bench my body weight. Slowly. And with a little difficulty towards the end of the sets. But, I’m doing it. The rest of the workout wasn’t bad, either. Not even the bike.

NPR/PRI Stories
Fresh Air: Joe Pantoliano (The Sopranos, The Matrix, et al.) interview AND Linguist Geoff Nunberg talks about presidents and language, and the pronunciation of nuclear as “nucular.”
Talk of the Nation
All Things Considered

Song of the Day: I Have Not Been to Oxford Town, by David Bowie (from the “Outside” CD). A version of this song was used in the movie Starship Troopers (at the graduation dance).

And now…. final stages of work prep.

Peace.

Tuesday
A special tip of the hat (and scratch behind the ears) to Sissy the Wonder Kitty this morning. She is my unofficial back-up alarm clock. I don’t remember turning off the alarm this morning, but I do remember lying in bed, not wanting to get up. Sissy walked over to my side of the bed and stared at me, as if to say:“I know that you’re awake. What I don’t get is why you aren’t paying attention to me.” She walked down the side of the bed, going around my legs, came back and stared at me again. I couldn’t resist; I scratched her head and back. She purred. Loudly, which is pretty normal for her. After that, I dragged myself out of bed… and off to the gym.

It’s cold, grey and rainy today. Whoopee. (Please observe all due sarcasm.)

I have to agree with : Watching Shannon Sharpe singing Eminem’s “Without Me” during the opening of Monday Night Football was funny. Riotously so. Why?

1. Because it was Shannon Sharpe…
2. He used to play for the Ravens… after 10 years in Denver (for whom he is once again playing).
3. He (and the Broncos cheerleaders) seemed to be enjoying themselves singing it.

NPR/PRI Stories (from Monday)
Fresh Air
Talk of the Nation
All Things Considered

Fresh Air had an interview with Christopher Reeve.
TotN talked about what Hispanic identity means in America today. (I’ll be coming back to this and their stories on other cultural identities in an upcoming post.)
ATC did a companion piece to TotN‘s story about “Ole Miss, 40 Years Later” and an interesting wireless application project being tested in Georgia.

Song of the Day: Who Wants to Live Forever by Queen. This song was from their “A Kind of Magic” CD… which I believe was the unofficial soundtrack to the movie Highlander. The good one. Not the crappy sequels.

Peace.

Monday (pt II)
Left work early. (“…and don’t it feel good!”) Went to dinner with Jess and then home for….. Monday Night Football! The Ravens vs. The Broncos. And the winner…

Hoo-AH!!!

They were simply amazing in the first half. And… the offense actually scored! They were up 31-3 at halftime! The second half was pretty lackluster, but all-in-all, it was a good game. Well worth slacking off work.

I also put a new NIC into the old PC… and now it is talking to the other PCs on the network. FINALLY! I had forgotten that the NIC that I had put into it was one that had given me problems before. But, as soon as I swapped it, it worked. Go figure. I still need to test the old card under Linux to see if it will be viable for use on the LAN when I use the old PC as a gateway… but that will keep for another day.

Welcome back to .

I’m feeling a wee bit peckish. I think that I’ll have a couple of Butterscotch Krimpets and a glass of milk before I head to bed. Maybe I’ll actually get to bed at a decent time tonight…

::: heads off to the kitchen :::

Peace.

Monday
Back in the proverbial saddle again. Gym (Day 16). Home. And soon… to work! I am definitely leaving early this afternoon.

Song of the Day: 19-2000 (Soulchild Remix) by Gorillaz. This is the version that you hear during the Icebreakers gum commercial. I like the original, but this one is a little more upbeat. And the video for the song is… odd. Go figure, it’s a Gorillaz video. Odd, but funny.

Off to Ye Olde Purveyor of Caffeinated Beverages for a cup of espresso-laden frozen mocha goodness. And then, off to that happy place known as “work.”

Peace.

Sunday
Lazy day. And that’s a pretty good thing. I was up late, yet again, last night/this morning… working on the “toy box” again. So, I slept in. WAY in. That, too, was good. (And, speaking of the new puter, I got the new vid card and have been watching TV through it. And test-recorded a couple things. I like!)

We were thinking of going to Wendover (Nevada) this afternoon. We couldn’t seem to work up the motivation to go. We may go next weekend, though. This also gives us a chance to see if anyone else would like to go with us. Instead, we went to lunch with Sandi and then off to B&N.

Both the Panthers and Dolphins lost today; the Ravens play tomorrow night… which means that I’m going to have to leave work a little early again tomorrow. *sigh* Oh, well. Some sacrifices just have to be made.

Peace.

Saturday
I did leave work early yesterday… at 16:00. This was a good thing. Not because there was anything bad/wrong with work. Quite the contrary. It was just nice to not be there all day on a Friday.

Stopped at Adrian’s for a bit and then went to one of the local computer shops and… well… shopped.

I finally upgraded/rebuilt my PC. It’s been 3 years since I built my system (even though there have been a number of minor upgrades), and it was about time to get some much-needed improved processing speed. When we redid Jess’ computer, last month, she wound up with a system that completely outpenised mine. Well, not completely: Mine has a DVD drive, but hers has a better CD burner. After last night (read: “…this morning around 05:30…”) and a lot of “Why in the Nine Hells isn’t this p.o.s. working?!?” bitching and moaning, the technical balance has shifted back.

I am keeping the old system more or less intact; it will be running as a Linux box, though. The new one will be the “Toy Box” as I am beginning to affectionately refer to it. Although, I am sure that when it starts to give me technical problems that I will most likely start referring to it as “Son of Bastard Ass.”¹ I said that the old one will be “more or less” intact. I am using some of the hardware from it in the new PC. I was planning on using a video card that I had lying around until I got ready to get this. It looks like the old card is shot, so there is a Best Buy/Circuit City trip in my immediate future. Oh, damn. *snaps fingers*

As I mentioned, I was up quite early/late working on this. It was a few minutes past 06:00 when I got into bed. Jess had to work at noon today… I remember her getting up and getting ready (and the kids outside the window stomping/running around and yelling), but it’s mostly a dull haze. After she left, I slid back into the quiet oblivion of sleep. My dad called around 11:30 or 11:45. I must have sounded pretty rough; he told me to go back to bed and that we’d talk later.

And so, here we are. It looks like a nice day out there. And I still have the Corvette. Time to find something to do and get out of here.

Peace.

¹ For those of you who may be (relatively) new to my journal, Jess’ computer and mine are known, in times of stress, as “Fuckwad” and “Bastard Ass.” This is usually only when I want them to do Process X, and they tell me “Sod off.” Maybe the late Douglas Adams was right about his whole Apple Macintosh idea after all…

Friday
Day 15. That’s right: Three weeks of gym-laden goodness.

Song of the Day: What Have I Done to Deserve This by the Pet Shop Boys (feat. Dusty Springfield). They were playing Opportunities, also by the Pet Shop Boys, at the gym this morning… it almost made it as SotD, but I’m a little more partial to What Have I Done…

NPR/PRI Stories
The World
Talk of the Nation – There was a great segment on Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball (and major league sports, in general) on this program.
All Things Considered

Friday. I am definitely leaving early today. But, first, I have to GO to work.

Peace.

Thursday
Just getting back from the gym. Waking up wasn’t so bad this morning… it was the “get your ass out of bed” factor that was the hard part. I did it in under :05 today; I was proud of myself. The workout wasn’t bad, either. Still, no Land in sight…

Song of the Day: Thursday. Three-fer Thursday, at that. Today’s selections come from Sting: Windmills of Your Mind (from The Thomas Crown Affair soundtrack), Shape of My Heart, and La Belle Dame Sans Regret.

Stray toasters…

• I had one of THE most random thoughts while on the way to the gym: If you were playing “Chicken” (with cars), which way would you turn? And, is there a correlation between someone who is right-handed (or left-handed) and the way that they would turn?
• A friend left this link in an IM for me this morning.
  

  [08:36] Sp4sm: I can think of no one more deserving of that car than you.
  [08:36] ShadoRunr: I’m almost afraid to ask “Why so…?”
  [08:37] Sp4sm: Because… You are the ‘keeper’ (referring to my title “Keeper of Useless Pop Culture Trivia Knowledge”)
  [08:37] ShadoRunr: Ah.
  [08:38] ShadoRunr: “Who….. who are you!?!?”
  [08:38] ShadoRunr: “I’m Blaqman!”
  [08:38] ShadoRunr: ::: swirls cape :::
  [08:39] Sp4sm: exactly.

• Cats are still funny. Xena has this habit of laying across Jess’ hip… no, I guess it’s more “down her side…” when she (Jess) is lying down. She will wait for Jess to lie down and turn on her side and then… ::: perch :::. She then proceeds to look around, like a queen being carried around, as if to say: “All of this is mine… I just allow you to be here in my presence.” It’s cute… in a cats-are-funny way.

And now… time to get ready for work.

Peace.

Wednesday (pt II)
I know that this may come as a shock, but I was listening to NPR & PRI at work today. I know: Such a radical departure for me. But, I did…

There was a segment of Talk of the Nation on Integration and Resegregation. It started with one of the lesser-known stories of the civil rights movement: The story of James Meredith and his struggle as the first African-American to enroll at Ole Miss (for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, “Ole Miss” is the nickname for the University of Mississippi). It was a very engaging (and thought-provoking) hour.

It was interesting to hear a story about which I was unaware. It had many things in common with other stories of desegregation/integration. What it didn’t have in common was the fact that then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy admitted that he mishandled the ordering of certain troops not to intervene. (NOTE: They spoke with Charles Schockley (Lieutenant, U.S. Army), one of the officers who lead a rifle platoon that was sent to Oxford, MS… and prevented from taking action.)

The segment moved forward to more recent times and a trend towards “resegregation.” This is something of a misnomer. It is more like… “a decline of integration;” this took into account people moving from Place A to Place B, wherein racial balances are different. This section also covered:

• Differences between private and public schools;
• Bussing (and how this differs from desegregation);
• “Suburbanization of minority students;”
• “Reverse racism;”
• Geographic differences in peoples’ attitudes and, in some cases, teachers’ behaviors.

I listened to this segment with a measure of… irritation. Not anger. Irritation. This was borne from the fact that I have lived in four different areas (Mid-Atlantic, South, Midwest, and West) and like to note peoples’ interactions with others. I don’t just mean their attitudes/reactions towards those who are “different” from them, but also how they treat others who are “the same” as them. Some of the cases have been nothing short of fascinating. Two of the oddest in my personal experience came when I was attending Purdue University:

1. One of the guys in our group was from a small town in rural Indiana (yes, that’s somewhat redundant, but bear with me… it has relevance). The two of us were talking one afternoon and he looked at me and said “I don’t know how to talk to you because you’re black. We didn’t have many black people in my town. So… *shrug*” I was flabbergasted. After I regained my composure, I explained to him that he could – and should – talk to me like he would talk to any of our other friends. It seemed to take a few moments for this to sink in, but I think that he got it. At least, we never had any other problems/issues after that.
2. Another guy in our group and I were watching MuchMusic, think “Canadian MTV,” when a Natalie Cole video came on. His first comment: “She’s pretty good-looking for a black woman.”
   ::: jawdrop :::
   I asked him to explain what he meant… before I snapped him off a little somethin’. He “explained” that while there is “variety” in white women (blonde, brunette, redheads, blue eyes, brown eyes, green eyes…), “…you only get dark hair and skin with black women.”
   ::: boggle :::
   I reminded him of a few other artists… and some people whom we knew on campus… and how different they looked from each other. And then I left the room. It was in both of our best interests that I did so. (I should also note that this person and I had another… run-in along even less-acceptable lines that nearly ended very poorly. Some peoples’ children just don’t, or can’t, learn. *sigh* Pity.)

We have come a long way in a relatively short period of time (especially when you consider the brief (225+ years) history of the country as a whole). There are still issues that we need to address, but I’m one of those optimistic types who likes to think that given enough time (and kicks in our mental asses), we can learn to recognize, understand and appreciate the ways in which we are different and the same as one another.

I am hereby officially recommending that everyone listen to this segment.

::: gets down from soapbox pulpit :::

Peace.

Wednesday
Elastica, in their song “Waking Up,” said: Waking up and getting up has never been easy… They knew what they were talking about. Of course, going to bed at a decent hour might make it a little easier.

But I woke up, thanks to the handy-dandy alarm clock on the nightstand. I even got up, got out of bed and made it to the gym. Day 13! I didn’t skip cardio (recumbent bike) this morning; I did have the “Why am I here” thought again a few minutes into it, though. I have (re)discovered that watching SportsCenter while riding helps the time go a bit faster. Land wasn’t there, so I worked out alone. The urge to write that as “No Land in sight…” was almost overwhelming. But I was able to curb the temptation to do so. For the most part.

Song of the Day: 8:45 (read: “Quarter to Nine”) by emmet swimming.
(Corollary: I did a piece based on the song last year on Renderosity. I should do something new on there… Anyway, feel free to check out the pic and to leave comments.)

Time to go and finish getting ready to go to Hell work.

Peace.

Tuesday (pt II)
Not a bad day on the whole: Gym. Work. Home. I made it the full 8 at work today. I even impressed myself with that one!

NPR/PRI Links
The World
Talk of the Nation
All Things Considered

You’re all big kids. I trust you to be able to find the interesting things by yourself. That… and I’m too lazy to hunt for them myself. Go figure.

And another thing…
From tonight’s chat with :

[23:26] : who exactly is the little girl on the cosby show
[23:26] : i know it’s raven simone
[23:26] : but how the hell did she end up on the show
[23:26] ShadoRunr: Denise’s step-daughter
[23:26] : some little kid just shows up?
[23:26] : lol didn’t know she was married
[23:26] : oops
[23:26] : OH wait wait
[23:26] : the navy guy
[23:26] : riiiiiiiiight
[23:26] ShadoRunr: him
[23:27] : ok, ok, the fog has lifted
[23:27] : i think cos got a little desperate towards the end there and just started to add characters like mad
[23:28] ShadoRunr: *cracks up*
[23:28] ShadoRunr: Could be.
[23:28] : ‘course i’m still trying to figure out the age old question
[23:29] : why are all his kids different colors
[23:29] : claire – black
[23:29] : cos – black
[23:29] : sandra – echru
[23:29] : denise – white
[23:29] : the rest – black
[23:29] ShadoRunr: ecru BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
[23:30] : lol s’better than “egg shell tan”
[00:10] ShadoRunr: Ecru.
[00:10] : lol
[00:10] ShadoRunr: *cracks up*
[00:10] : flashback?
[00:11] ShadoRunr: Yeah.

Peace.

Tuesday
Yet another day that I made it to the gym. I skipped cardio, because I was running a little late. I’ll make up for it tomorning. On the plus side, I am starting to increase the weight that I am using; it’s nice to see signs of progress… even if they are slow.

Song of the Day: Today’s selections are Changes and Changes by the Thin White Duke, himself: David Bowie. Why two songs? Because it’s Tuesday! And, not just “Tuesday,” but “Twin Spin Tuesday!” That’s right… you get two… TWO… TWO songs for the price of one!

Stray Toaster…
Last night, Jess and I went to one of the local B&N’s after work. I’m looking through a few books and this guy walks up and stands there… After a few moments, he looks over and says, “Excuse me, but I think that I know you from somewhere…” He doesn’t look at all familiar to me and I am usually very good at remembering faces. Great.

He proceeds to ask me if I’ve worked downtown (yes, during the Olympics) and what I do (work for the Postal Service) and other questions of that sort. I answered them… vaguely. It turns out that he is working with/for a startup company who is “looking to get into more technical things.” Joy. They are looking for people who might be able to “help them out” when they get ready to take the plunge. Have I said “Joy” yet? I did? Okay.

Then the other shoe drops and he whips out his calendar and asks when he can contact me again. I tell him, quite honestly, that we are gearing up for our busy season: Christmas. Then he asks “So… how about… January 6th?”

::: braincramp :::
I politely tell him – again, honestly – that we are usually still dealing with heavy mail volumes through mid-January, at least. I didn’t mention that right after that, we usually start getting into Valentine’s Day volume. Oh, well. Fortunately, I was able to escape without having to give any personal information (other than my first name) by asking him for a card and having him write on there to give him a call sometime in January. That seemed to appease him.

That’s not the first time that I’ve had something like that happen. I’m sure that it won’t be the last, either. But… it’s not the kind of thing that I really enjoy. *sigh* No rest for the weary wicked, I guess.

Almost work time… I’d better get moving!

Peace.

Monday
Made it to the gym again this morning. This is definitely becoming a habit. Again.

Being a train buff (and the fact that it was a very economical purchase), I bought a copy of Railroad Tycoon II last week. I finally got around to installing it last night. I played it while watching MacGuyver in Space Stargate SG-1. I’m still learning the ropes… um, rails… but it’s fun. It’s like having an electric train set without taking up any space in your bedroom or living room… which is pretty good, considering that you get to have the world as your playspace.

After a long hiatus, Jess () has returned to the land of the LiveJournalers. Hmm, the land of the LiveJournalers… I wonder if that was possibly a forgotten (or omitted) chapter of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. After all, we did get Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa and the land of the Houyhnhnms… maybe he just didn’t think that the world was quite ready for LJ-land. We may never know… Anyway, drop her a line and wish her a (belated) happy birthday! I’m sure that she’d get a kick out of it.

Song of the Day: As it is Monday and the start of most peoples’ workweek, Blue Collar Man by Styx is appropriate.

Work-prep time.

Peace.