Random Access

Sunday
Slept in. This is was most definitely a “good” thing. Got awakened by the phone, but since it was a little after 13:00, it was acceptable. More or less. Watched a little football: The Panthers and the Dolphins both won today; bye week for the Ravens.

Hola and welcome to .
Will we get to hear HRH stories here? Just wondering.

::: time delay :::

Went to Sandi and Jim’s. Had a nice cook-out dinner and homemade pies! And, just in case I neglected to mention it: Home. Made. Pies! Watched a little of Junkyard Wars and the Emmy® Awards.

I just finished watching tonight’s ep of Justice League. I still say that this is one of the most-consistently best-written shows on television today. Think that I might try to squeeze in tonight’s ep of Enterprise. Or not… apparently, the station that airs it on Sundays has moved it up an hour. Bastard-asses! So, it looks like I taped an early ep of the Sisko Show. Oh well, there’s always syndicated Stargate SG-1…. or “MacGuyver in Space,” as we call it.

Peace.

Saturday (continued)
Long. Busy. Active. These are the words that best sum up the day. I would have said more about it in my earlier post, but there were a few surprises that I needed to make sure that Jess wasn’t aware of. If I had commented on them and she had read this, they would have been non-surprises. One of which involved cars. Specifically: Corvettes. Jess had made a comment last weekend about wanting one (she saw one in the parking lot of the Village Inn after bowling). After the whole Humvee incident last May, I couldn’t let this one slide…

As I noted in my earlier post for today, it was Jess’ birthday. I think that I have also mentioned that I have the coolest girlfriend in the world. (I admit that this is a subjective statement, but it’s my journal… and I can be as subjective as I damn well please! Besides, she is the coolest. Period. Bar none.)

So, let’s take this from the top:

• Last night, I was up FAR later than I had intended. I was wrapping her small presents:
  • A 1:18 scale 1967 Corvette Coupe
  • 1:18 scale C5 Corvette
  • Two (2) Thomas Kincade puzzle sets (three puzzles, each)
• Got to bed for a too-short sleep.
• Woke up. Eventually went back to sleep.
• Woke up around 11:15, when Jess called to say when she’d be done with the orientation class that she was giving for fresh meat new employees. Didn’t move… fell asleep.
• Woke up around 12:15, when Adrian called.
• Got up, did the hygiene rituals, got out of the house and …
• Pick up a friend’s car. Specifically, his ’89 Corvette. I explained to him why I wanted it; he said “no problem.” So… I went and picked it up. Unfortunately, there were only fumes in the tank when I got it, so it stopped running about 100 yards from a service station.
  ::: braincramp :::After pushing the car out of the intersection in which it had chosen to go *kaput* and walking to the station for a gas can and some petrol and walking back to the car/putting the gas in and driving back to the station to fill the tank/return the can, I was back in the game!

• Went to work to get Jess. In the Corvette. Adrian met me there to: a) bring the (musical) keyboard that I got her, b) provide part of an alibi as to why her car wasn’t there, and c) take pictures of her reaction when I handed her the keys to the ‘vette. She was more than a little surprised. Quite a bit more, in fact.
• We drove to her folks’ so that she could show off the car (and take her nephews for a little ride in it). They were just as excited about riding in it as she was about driving it.
• Came home, changed and then…
• I took her out to dinner at Macaroni Grill. I told her that it would be just us at dinner since our scheds don’t always allow us to do that. Well… that wasn’t as true as it could have been: I had a few people (Sandi, Julie (Jess’ sister), Land and Catherine, Jim and Louise (co-workers), Adrian, Larry and Mycah) waiting there for us. Again, she was quite surprised. Happily! I was a little worried that someone might accidentally let Jess in on something about the dinner… but it went off without a hitch.
• After dinner, we ran back down to the inlaws’ for a bit, came home, got the bowling balls and headed to the bowling alley. Mary, Matt, Larry, Scott bowled, too. Jen (and Keith, long story) came along, as well.
• Traditional post-bowling eats at the V.I. and then home!

Like I said: It was a pretty full day. Jess said that in thinking back over all of her birthdays, that she thinks that this one was the best (at least, of the ones that she remembers). That made all of the planning and running around and lack of sleep worthwhile. Very worthwhile, indeed.

That’s a good cut-off point. Time to seek the gates of The Dreaming. Tomorning brings football! And dinner at Sandi and Jim’s… Sandi mentioned something about making a chocolate pie! Hoo-AH!

Peace.

Saturday
First and foremost: Happy birthday, Jess!

Additionally, happy birthday to .

There’s quite a bit to say… but very little time to say it. Tune in later.

Peace.

Friday
GymTrek 10: Gym-esis. That makes two weeks… in a row… every weekday morning. Not bad. Hmm. I suppose that if I was going to name the past two weeks’ gym activities in terms of Star Trek movies, they would be:

1. GymTrek: The Motion and Bitchin’
2. GymTrek II: The Back of Rob
3. GymTrek III: The Search for Muscle Tone
4. GymTrek IV: The Workout Alone
5. GymTrek V: The Final Grunt and Sneer
6. GymTrek VI: The Unrecovered Atrophy
7. GymTrek: Gym-erations
8. GymTrek: Wrist Bend-back
9. GymTrek: Gym-surrection
10. GymTrek: Gym-esis

Song of the Day: Weapon of Choice by Fatboy Slim (featuring Christopher Walken in the video).

Off to work!

Peace.

Thursday (Part II redux)
Severely edited repost after the server decided to eat my last entry…

I am tired. No, that’s an understatement. I am well past tired. I did not get that frozen mocha this morning. I was able to score a cafe mocha, though. It helped.

NPR/PRI Stories
Talk of the Nation
All Things Considered

Hmm… I really don’t feel like re-entering the entire last post. Maybe I’ll do it tomorning. Maybe not. We’ll see.

Peace.

Thursday
Day 9 of GymTrek: Muscle Fatigue 9. This is almost becoming a habit. Again.

Got to chat with Kristen (the other younger sister) for a few minutes this morning. She’s on the homecoming court and she’s Miss Gamma Phi for her sorority this year. She’s doing well.

It was another night of broken sleep. This means that it will be another day of espresso-laden frozen mocha goodness.

Song of the Day: Fool in the Rain by Led Zeppelin. And, since it’s Triple Play Thursday… here are two more: All of My Love and Kashmir.

Off to work!

Peace.

Wednesday (Episode II: Attack of the Zoned)
The workday wasn’t too bad. Zipped by, more or less. It’s amazing how quickly time flies after you’ve had 32 oz. of frozen mocha goodness… especially when there’s two shots of espresso kickin’ it in the proverbial ass.

NPR/PRI
Talk of the Nation: Hawks, Doves and In-Between (Opinions about War)
Talk of the Nation: American Delegation Goes to Iraq
Talk of the Nation: Leon Wynter / Changing the Face of American Media

What’s more American than starring in a commercial to pitch Coca Cola or Budweiser? From Mohammed Ali to Oprah Winfrey, writer Leon Wynter says using African Americans and Latinos as pitchmen has changed our perception of race. On Talk of the Nation, Neal Conan talks with Leon Wynter about how popular culture is blurring the color lines.

Talk of the Nation: Writer Michel Houellebecq’s Comments on Islam
All Things Considered: California Power Supply
All Things Considered: Maine School Vouchers
All Things Considered: Vocal Sampling (www.ciocanmusic.com)
All Things Considered: The Man Who Created the First Emoticon

NOTE: : Check out The World‘s article on Medical Interpreters

Stray Toasters

• I was going to have a little diatribe about the TotN segment with Leon Wynter, but I’ll put that on the back burner for now.
• What Marvel Comics has done with their dotCOMICS is a great idea: Take some of their books. Make the pages into static Flash® presentations. Put ’em online. For free. Sure, they’re a few issues behind the newsstands and comic shops, but this is an excellent way to take advantage of the Internet…and maybe pick up a few new readers of the hardcopy books, too. Maybe someone should clue the higher-ups at AOHellTimeWarner (the parent company of DC Comics) about this.
• Song of the Day #2 will have to be Sympathy for the Devil, also by the Rolling Stones. If turned the right way and looked at from a certain angle, it’s an interesting look at a few scenes from history, like Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire. Of course, Sympathy doesn’t have a line in it where no one remembers any of the lyrics except “….Marilyn Monroe!” But, it doesn’t need it, either.
• Cats are funny. (According to , monkeys are funny, too.)
• There is almost nothing to compare to tasty popped corns… well, maybe tasty iced creams, but that is another story altogether. I have come to realize that I seem to put popcorn in the Spider-Man promotional popcorn tub/bowl/whatever-the-Hell-you’d-call-it. Ironically, I got it at some movie that wasn’t Spider-Man; I think that I got it a week or two before that movie hit the silver screen. It holds roughly the exact amount of popped corn that are produced from one scoop of kernels that go into the popper. Synchronicity, indeed.

Bedtime. No, it’s well past bedtime. Oh, well.

Peace.

Wednesday
About :03 into the cardio part of my workout (recumbent bike), I was wondering “Why am I doing this…? I could stop now and just get on with the rest of my workout.” But I didn’t. I kept going. Actually, I kept waiting for the endorphins to kick in and carry me through it… but they were a little late showing up. By the time they got there, I was almost done with the bike. Oh, well. It’s good for me…

Song of the Day: Beast of Burden by the Rolling Stones… although, I suppose that the Bette Midler version will do in a pinch.

NPR/PRI Stories (Tuesday)
Talk of the Nation: Analysis of Iraq’s Allowing U.N. Inspectors to Return
Talk of the Nation: Changing Peoples’ Minds
All Things Considered: 100 Words College Students Should Know
All Things Considered: Santa Cruz Pot Giveaway
All Things Considered: Assisted Suicide in Switzerland
All Things Considered: Private Moon Mission

Stray Toaster
Every once in a while, you’ll come across a mailpiece with a fake address or a fake name. Imagine that: People really don’t want snail mail spam! Yesterday’s little nugget of joy was a name: “Allison Wonderland.”

And now… off to make sure that the worlds’ mail gets delivered in a timely manner!

Peace.

Tuesday
Day 7 of Gym Wars: Return of the Workout

It’s a little bit funny, this feeling inside….
No, that was Elton John. That’s not what I was after. Let’s try that again.

It’s funny how you can just strike up conversations with perfect strangers (And what is it about a “stranger” that makes them “perfect?”) at the gym… or how they can/will start one with you. Today, it happened twice. I’m not saying that this phenomenon (do DO do-do-do) is a “bad” thing. Far from it, in fact. I think that it is a very good thing.

Song of the Day:
Today, being Tuesday, we’re going to give you two (two, TWO) songs of the day. At no extra cost to you! Both of today’s songs come from Pink Floyd: Learning to Fly (not to be confused with the Tom Petty song of the same name) and Money.

What in the Nine Hells…!?!?
I was going through my email and came across the “New Movie Tuesday” email from Best Buy. So far so good. I opened it… and saw the second sign of the Apocalypse in the “DVD pre-order” section:

American Idol: The Search for a Superstar $14.99
available 10/15/02
Contains an exclusive bonus DVD with footage not shown on TV!

As someone who didn’t follow the show… no, that’s not emphatic enough. As someone who didn’t give a rat’s ass about the show when it aired: WHY would I want to add this to my DVD collection? From what I gathered from friends who watched it, it was pretty much “Star Search,” except that the judges didn’t just rate your performance; they were apt to be rude to you if they didn’t like it. Whoop-de-damn-doo. Yeah, this deserves DVD treatment. Circling the drain, I tell you…

Anyway, time to get ready for work.

Peace.

Monday
I got up and went to the gym (sixth day) this morning.

I don’t think that I’m going to take the day off, but I am tempted to leave a little early to watch football tonight. Of course, that may also depend on who is playing. Hmm. Eagles-Redskins. I might just stay at work.

Song of the Day: Dance with Me by 112

And now, off to finish pre-work prep and get out of here.

Peace.

Sunday
Football.
NO WORK.
Nothing on the agenda but relaxing.
At this rate, I’ll be tempted to take tomorrow off.

Song of the Day: Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne
I first became aware of this song thanks to a Nissan commercial. I didn’t know what it was at the time because they only played a few seconds from the beginning of the song. Eventually, I heard the whole song and discovered the title. Now, I’m hooked.

Stik ‘Em Up
I was going through my latest issue of Wizard, a comics and comics-related magazine, and came across (or as some people around here say: “acrossed”) an ad for Stikfas. Stikfas?! What in the Nine Hells…!? So, I took a look at the site. Interesting. I also took a peek at the “Stik ‘Em Up” Gallery of fan-pics. If you thought that people put a lot of time and effort into customizing Lego® figures, wait till you see some of these figures.

I think that a scouting trip to Toys ‘R’ Us may be in order.

Peace.

Saturday.
Nice, quiet, relaxing day off.
…and I’ll be watching a professional fisticuffs competition this evening at Dee’s.

Living Colour’s “Cult of Personality” came on the radio while I was driving around this afternoon. It’s not only a good song, but it’s a song that is good to turn up as loudly as your radio and/or eardrums can handle. Mercifully, I had the windows up so that I didn’t have to subject anyone around to my attempt to sing along with Corey Glover.

All that I need now is to find my (or go buy a new) lead pointer for my mechanical pencil and everything will be top notch.

Peace.

Friday
Tis the end of the work week once again. And work was “mostly harmless,” to use a Douglas Adams phrase. I listened to a little of The Salmon of Doubt tonight… because I had forgotten that it was still in the mp3 player. I think that I will buy a copy of the book.

I went to The Gateway (again) tonight, after work. I met (she’s nice and also quite easy to talk with… and witty, to boot); we had coffee drinks at Starbucks. We sat and talked for a bit – some of the stories she told me reminded me of my old retail job. I liked the job, but some of the people (customers and fellow employees)…? *shrug* After coffee, I headed to the B&N and did some browsing. I wasn’t really looking for anything in particular, but I figured “What the Hell” … and I wound up getting a magazine.

NPR/PRI
Talk of the Nation – Science Friday

• West Nile Virus
• “Should there be censorship of scientific information?”
• Imperfections in Cloning
• Hydrogen Fuel Cells

The World – Since they only keep a five day archive, I’ll just link to the main site and let you sort it out from there. You can download the mp3s of the articles. Of note from today’s program are: September 11th Films, Iraq History, Un-Islamic Dress Report and Earth’s New Moon.
All Things Considered: Fall TV Season
All Things Considered: Media Competition and Editorial Decisions
All Things Considered: Tibet – Dalai Lama
All Things Considered: Corruption at the Gates (Pt. 2)

Another Stray Toaster…
We have a couple of odd phenomena (do DO do-do-do) at work. One of the more… unusual ones involves the chairs in the mens’ room. We have two 70’s lime green swivel rockers in the “lounge-ish” area of the mens’ room. It is not uncommon to see someone sitting in one of these chairs during a break. (Not that we don’t have a fully-functional Break Room…) That, in itself, isn’t so bad. But it takes a left turn when you see someone sleeping in one of them. But wait, there’s more! We have one person who will sit in one of the chairs, turn it towards a wall or the corner, put on his Walkman® and just… stare blankly at the walls. This guy reminds me of “Pvt. Pyle” from Full Metal Jacket. Aside from the fact that this is in the restroom, if I ever hear him say “I *am*… in a world… of shit, “ I just pray that I can find adequate cover before the lead starts flying.

Peace.

If anyone feels the overwhelming urge to get me this, I wouldn’t mind.

It would make a nice companion piece to this, which I already have, and my Darkseid cel from Superman: the Animated Series.

Thursday
Pretty quiet day on the work front.

NPR/PRI
Both hours of Talk of the Nation dealt with President Bush’s speech to the United Nations Security Council. They also got analysis and reactions from various political, diplomatic and military officials.

All Things Considered: FCC Reviews Broadcast Outlet Ownership
All Things Considered: New “Newspaper” Format
All Things Considered: Corruption at the U.S.-Mexico Border

Stray Toasters

• Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was playing as background music for something on NPR this morning. There’s just “something” about that song. A good “something,” that is. If you’re not familiar with it, go buy a copy or download it or request it from your local jazz station. Disney didn’t do a bad job of presenting it as a vignette in Fantasia 2000, either.
• Douglas Adams extolled the virtues of Whiter Shade of Pale in The Salmon of Doubt, the collection of his last works. I was listening to random mp3s today at work and two versions of it (Procul Harem and Annie Lennox) played… one song apart. This is another good song. Same imperative applies here as it did with Rhapsody: Listen to it! (I recommend the original version, by Procul Harem, for beginners).
• A caller on Talk of the Nation made a comment about President Bush’s speech and how, while it was good, it didn’t “move” her as much as Martin Sheen’s post September 11th speech on “The West Wing” did. I believe that Neal Conan made a comment to the effect of “….well, Martin Sheen gets all the good lines.”
• They played clips of the President’s speech on TotN. One of the clips that they played was of him talking about Iraq possibly having “weapons of mass destruction,” as opposed to “conventional weapons.” (SIDENOTE: Aren’t “conventional weapons” weapons of “mass destruction,” too? I know what they mean by this, but I still find it amusing. ) Anyway… It seems that the Shrub has a *wee* bit of a problem pronouncing the word “nuclear.” It comes out sounding like “new-cue-lar”. Julia and I laughed every time he said it. Neal Conan added something here, too: It seems that President Jimmy Carter had the same speech impediment. Why is this funny? Jimmy Carter is/was a nuclear engineer.
• More musical oleo: Don Henley’s song Dirty Laundry has been getting a lot of play on one of the local stations. It’s amazing how that song so accurately reflects so much of what’s become of the news lately.
• There was a test of the “Emergency Alert System” on the radio today. The new alert sounds similar to a dial-up modem attempting to make a connection. I remember the old “Emergency Broadcast System,” which was a simple dual-tone beep. I wonder if it was that way because television stations used a similar tone at the end of their broadcast day (while the test pattern was on the screen)? I’ll have to look into that.

Okay… that’s enough randomness for tonight.

: If you are around a radio from 12:00 – 13:00, you might be interested in listening to tomorrow’s (today’s) Talk of the Nation – Science Friday.

Friday, September 13, 2002
Join Talk of the Nation: Science Friday for a roundup of recent science news, including the latest in cloning and West Nile virus. And we’ll discuss whether scientific information should be censored to protect national security.

Will we ever be driving cars with fuel cells? Join host Ira Flatow in the show’s second hour for a look at the promise and reality of using hydrogen as a fuel source.

And, that’s a wrap. Tune in tomorrow for more.

Peace.