Random Access

Relatively quiet day….

• Slept through gym-time, but Jess went.
• Lazed about the apartment for a while.
• Went to the inlaws’ to try and get the pics from the drag races burned to a CD… this time, it worked.
• Came back home because I left my Palm Pilot (no, I couldn’t have gone through the day without it. Linus had his security blanket, I have my Palm Pilot.)
• Went to work.
• Came home – talked to Jess, got something to eat, watched DS9.

And that’s about it. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Bedtime. I need to get a couple of hours of downtime before going to the gym.

Peace

Today had it’s moments:

• Woke up (miraculously) just in time to wake Jess up for work.
• Fell asleep after she left…. for almost another hour-and-a-half.
• Got up, made coffee, did the morning rituals, and then proceed to waste the next 2 hours.
• Realized that I had neither figured out what to wear to work nor what I was going to take for lunch… and started to remedy the situation.
  • NOTE:If you are going to cook rice (say…. 2/3 cup) and if you put the water on “High” to boil, make sure that you keep an eye on it. I didn’t. Boiled ALL of the water into a lovely vapor and had the pot sitting on the hot eye… *sigh*

  Lunch consisted of baked chicken breasts, mixed veggies, assorted sweets, and Gatorade – cause I want to be like Mike! I figure that being as tall as he is and playing ball like him aren’t in my future, but I have the shaved head, lived in North Carolina, and have been to Chicago… so I can drink the same thing as him and be happy with that.

• Went to work, which was relatively uneventful again.
• Came home, talked to Jess and watched DS9 with bowl o’ cereal in hand.

…and that’s how I spent my summer vacation.

Um… I didn’t say that “summer vacation” part aloud, did I?

I did?

Oh. Great.

Anyway, that’s about it. And remember today’s lesson, kids: If you’re cooking instant rice, either put LOTS of water in the pan or make sure that your cats come get you when the water starts to boil. This public service announcement was brought to you by the letters “H,” “O,” and the number “2.”

Peace.

On the whole, not a bad day:

• Woke up to a ringing phone… but Rule #2 wasn’t violated, so it was all right.
• Did the morning rituals.
• Went to the inlaws’ to keep Sandi from punting the digi-cam into the canal.
• WORK… which wasn’t too bad tonight.
• Came home, fixed a light bite to eat (Can you say “ramen,” boys and girls?) and watched DS9.

Not a whole lot happened, but I am a bit tired, so I think that I’ll call it a night.

Peace.

Ok, bonus entry for the night. I just took this “personality test” that has become so common on peoples’ LJs….

That’s really it, my disorders and I are going.

“No we aren’t!”
“Oh, YES we are!!!”
“Nuh-uh!”
“Come ON!!! Get over here!!!”
“No way!”
“Fine…. stay here then!”

Peace.

“Another Pleasant Valley Sunday” here in Salt Lake Valley land… and it was a good day, to boot!

Jess and I went down to the inlaws’ for a while; we watched “Cast Away” and cooked out for dinner. After that, we met Scott and Angie for “American Pie 2,” which was pretty good, but not great. They came back to our place and we watched the episode of “The Wayne Brady Show.”

Wayne Brady, for those of you who don’t know, is a talented improvisationalist/actor/singer/dancer. He can be seen on “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” on ABC on Thursday nights (check your local listings for times); he’s probably the biggest reason that I enjoy the show. “The Wayne Brady Show” is on Wednesday nights – it’s not just improv, it’s more of a variety show.

Scott and Ang left and now DS9 is on. It’s an ep that I’ve seen, “The Visitor,” but I like it quite a bit. If I hadn’t written something about heroes and the things that parents do for their children, this episode might have inspired them; it’s an uncharacteristically emotion-tugging episode.

Well, I think that will be it for tonight. Until next time…

Peace

Wow.

That’s about the only way that I can describe the drag racing that Jess and I saw today. For those of you who missed it, I’ll recap: “Wow.” And yes, Mom, I did say “drag racing.” Everybody on the same page? Good.

Simply put: It was amazing. We saw alcohol and top-fuel (nitro) racers today. The vehicles included:

• Modified stock cars – which were basically muscle cars (and a couple of El Caminos);
• Motorcycles;
• Funny cars; and
• Dragsters.

ALL of the vehicles were impressive. We got to the track a little after 6 PM. As we walked to the gate we could hear – and see the tops of – cars on the track. And it was loud. We got inside, looked for and found Bruce (our manager who had suggested that we check out the event) and his family and sat down. Another alcohol-fuel race started shortly after we sat. The noise, from outside, was NOTHING compared to the noise – and vibrations – that we felt inside. We watched the remaining qualifying heats for the alcohol-fuel racers and then the top-fuel qualifying started…

Watching and listening to the nitro cars race was like standing next to a jet as it took off! That is the ONLY thing that I can think of that could be close to the experience. It was unreal. You hear the engine rumble and roar to life as the drivers did their pre-race burn-outs – they floor the accelerator, smoke their tires, and get a short run to warm up their tires (for better traction)… not to mention just to show off for the spectators. It was VERRA LOUD. The drivers then drive in reverse to the starting line where they line up, wait for the starting lights (the “Christmas Tree”), and take off. And, “take off” is what they literally do! The sound that the engines make during the burn-outs is maybe 1/2 to 2/3 of what the actual race sounds like. And the air and ground vibrations are felt throughout your entire body!

After the qualifying, we went to the pit area and walked around. It turns out that Bruce used to be the neighbor of the crew members of one of the racing teams. We watched as the crew changed engine parts and replaced a still hot clutch…. “still hot” TWENTY MINUTES AFTER THE CAR’S LAST RACE!!! So hot, in fact, that the parts were removed by crewmen wearing fire-retardant gloves and using heavy-duty pliers.

We returned to the track for the races. I had taken some pictures during the qualifying rounds and wanted to get some of the night races. I discovered just how fast these cars were: I attempted to get shots of the cars as they left the starting line. I figured that if I watched the Christmas Tree, I could time it to catch the cars as they left the line. I tried three times, unsuccessfully – by the time the shutter closed and the picture was taken, the cars were at least 1/4 of the way down the track! Let me add that the longest race that we saw was just under eight (8) seconds long… and the shortest was 4.89 seconds! I did manage to get one shot of a car leaving the line with flame shooting out of its exhaust pipes. It was the last car in the last race of the night. But, I got it. I am going to download the pictures from the camera tomorrow and will hopefully have them posted on my website in the next day or two.

Now, it’s off to bed. I’m a bit tuckered out and it will be nice to get into bed before 3:30 am at least once this week.

And just in case I didn’t mention it before: Wow.

Peace.

After all of the thought that went into going to Mallday, I didn’t go. It was partly due to the fact that I slept in later than I had planned…. and partly due to the fact that I got a phone call as I was trying to get ready. Oh well, I’ll again next Friday.

Work was…. umm.. uhh….. oh, yeah: “work.” We had a problem with the Spokane, WA system.

:::phone rings:::
Spokane: “Yeah… we just wanted to make sure that everything was okay there. We are waiting on 16,000 results, but it doesn’t look like you have any keyers there.”
Us: “You’re right, we don’t. We don’t have anything from you.” ::: checks screens ::: “You have all of the images getting stuck before they get to us.”
Spokane:“Oh.”
BRAINCRAMP
This began an hour-and-a-half of phone-tag.
Spokane:“Are you getting anything now?”
Us:“No.”
Spokane:“Oh.”
Us:“Should we have our technicians talk to yours and help them out?”
Spokane:“Umm… no, they seem to know what’s going on.”

They didn’t. We finally just handed the phone over to one of our techs and let him try to talk the Spokane tech through the process. It didn’t help. Spokane wound up having to call the national help desk to get assistance. *sigh* If they had only: 1) paid attention to what our tech said to do, and 2) DONE what he said, they could have cut out a LOT of the hassle.

Fortunately, that was the only problem that we had; we didn’t even have to call overtime on anyone to process the backlog – 70,000 mailpieces by the time they got it cleared up.

The rest of the night was cake. I had some face time with a couple of my pay locations. I sent people hither and yon. I even had time to get a drink of water. TWICE!

Came home and talked to Jess for a little bit before she hit the rack (she has to work tomorning), cooked a tasty evening meal (okay, it was just ramen), and then it was time for the Sisko Show (complete with IRC MST3K’ing).

Tomorrow is an honest-to-goodness Saturday – complete with NO WORK!!! I may do a few things around here, but there’s always Sunday afternoon for that. There’s a rumor that Jess and I may go to Rocky Mountain Raceway to watch the “Nitro Nationals” drag races. I wonder if going would increase my redneck factor? Hmm…. you never hear of African-Americans being referred to as “redneck.” “Curiouser and curiouser,” said Little Alice. This could be interesting. If nothing else, going to the track should easily make up for any mullet sightings that I may have had at Mallday.

I should probably call it a night so that I don’t sleep the day away. I don’t feel that tired, but maybe that’s because haven’t tried going to bed, yet. Of course, it could be the day’s caffeine. Who knows. I’ll probably zone right out when I hit the pillow. No way to know until I try…

Peace.

Not a whole lot to report today.

Funny thing did happen this morning, though…

As I mentioned yesterday, Jess and Desiree were planning on going to the gym for a Step class. Going to the gym sounded like a good idea to me. Of course, that was before I got into bed…. at 5 am. I have a vague recollection of:
• Jess trying to wake me up.
• Muttering some unintelligible gibberish.
• Jess saying that she was about to leave for work.
~BOGGLE~
That part was a little disconcerting at first because I didn’t remember going back to sleep for the two-and-a-half hour gap between gym time and work time. It was like zero time lapse. *shrug*

After that… and lazing around the apartment for a couple of hours, I:

• Showered, shaved, and dressed.
• Went to the inlaws’.
• Installed the new battery for my car. This was something of a task as I couldn’t just open the hood, pull out the old battery and drop in the new one. That would have been TOO easy. The designers and engineers at Dodge, in creating their award-winning “cab forward design,” moved the battery out of the engine compartment… and into the front driver’s-side wheel well. BRAINCRAMP I got the splash guard off with no problem. The tricky part came with attempting to get the battery restraining bracket unscrewed and removed – let’s just say that it wasn’t in an ergonomically friendly position. I got the old battery out, attempted to put the new one in… and dropped it. Upside down. BRAINCRAMP I managed to get it in place on the next attempt and replaced the bracket and the splash guard.
• Took Shower (version 2.0).
• Went to work… nothing special here.
• Came home.

DS9 just went off, so I guess that I should hit the rack. Mallday is tomorrow, but I don’t know when/where yet. I’m not sure if I’m going… assuming that there *is* a Mallday, but Movienight is definitely out. Oh well… there’s always the weekend.

Anyway, that’s it for now.

Peace.

It was a day like any other, but like none before.

Ok… I don’t know exactly “where” that came from, but it did. It sprang forth, as a wellspring flows from the mountainside… moving onward – forward, ever forward – in a tidal surge. It sought release and, finding an opening, rushed forward, one impulse driving it on: “Escape!”

Ok, this is starting to get a little bizarre… …he thought as he watched It wind in and over upon itself. Escher would be hard pressed to create a visual conundrum as complex. It was as simple as a “figure eight” but as infinite as a mobius strip.

I must be getting tired if I’m rambling on like this. The words, alone, made no sense. But, together, their meaning was undeniable. Their force and presence almost tangible in the otherwise silent æther.

Yep, that HAS to be it: I’m tired. Yet, somehow, in the deep recesses of consciousness, he knew that the sleep he sought would be as elusive to attain as if he had tried catching smoke. It would lay before him, just beyond his reach. No matter how he tried to ensnare it, it would shift and dance out of the way as though carried on gossamer wings.

No, I’ve gone past “tired” and straight on to “right ’round the bend.” He turned the corner, but his prey was nowhere in sight. There was no trace of its scent. His hearing, attuned to wavelengths that few others could detect, heard naught save for the empty silence around him. A silence that surrounded him. Engulfing him in waves of nothingness. It flowed around him. It dragged him down in it’s wake and threatened to drown him in solitude.

…and that is how I shall leave this ‘story.’

::: DISCLAIMER :::
That was not what I’d planned to write. I didn’t really have anything in particular to write about. I wrote the first line and honestly do NOT know where it came from. (Sorry, Mom… I know that you aren’t supposed to end a sentence with a preposition, but some things can’t be helped.) Everything after that was whatever came up. I don’t think that I have written anything in that kind of free-associative vein in a long time. I must say: It was fun. Of course, that means that I may well wind up spouting off more nonsensical drivel like that in the not-too-distant future.

Thanks for stopping by.

Peace.

***REPOST*** The server didn’t seem to like it the first time

Today wasn’t bad. Not bad at all. It had a fairly standard start, standard middle, and it’s ending with DS9 and spaghetti. Who could ask for more?! And, as an added bonus, I tinkered around with one of my new old-Macs; they are what I had to get from the train station yestermorn. I haven’t used a Mac in…. hmm… the last time that I can really remember using one was in ’82 at the summer camp I went to.

It was a computer camp in Connecticut. ::: watches as the Geek-o-Meter redlines ::: Of course, it was also at this camp that I had the opportunity to learn trapeze work; the camp had a 28 foot tall flying trapeze. ::: watches as the Geek-o-Meter drops down a few notches ::: If you ever get the chance to do trapeze work, DO IT! Short of skydiving – or becoming an astronaut – it’s probably the closest feeling to flight that you’ll ever get.

Playing with the Mac was fun, but I don’t have much software for it, so I think that I will have to go on a quest to remedy that in the near future.

Anyway, on to tonight’s digression…

John and I started talking about movies while things were a little slow. We got onto the James Bond series and I asked him who, from favorite to least favorite, his favorite Bond actors were. His answers:

• Sean Connery.
• Pierce Brosnan.
• “The other guys.”

Gotta admit: I wasn’t expecting Answer #3 in quite those terms. We both got a good laugh out of it. He asked me who my favorites were:

• Sean Connery – In the words of Carly Simon, “Nobody Does It Better.”
• Pierce Brosnan – A fine successor to the 007 mantle.
• Roger Moore – Call his Bond “hokey,” if you will, his was the Bond that I grew up watching and, while he may have been a little campy, he was a good Bond for my money.
• Timothy Dalton – Only saw him in “License to Kill,” and I think that he did a good job, but he doesn’t make the top cut.
• George Lazenby – The only actor to make only ONE Bond film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

Any comments or criticisms of these lists are welcome… as long as you agree with my “Who’s the Best Bond” order. If you don’t agree, you could be forced to sit through hours of A View to a Kill, the movie not the song/video.

We also talked about what would certain movies be like if the stories were set in today’s world and they did not use their given mythologies. For example:

• Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope would tell the story of Luke, a high school sophomore, who wants nothing more than to get off the family farm and spend time with his friends. He becomes friends with the high school rebel (sorry, it’s the only word that I could think of that really works there), a kid from the wrong side of the tracks with the cool car and who doesn’t take shit from anyone. After a series of high school teenage antics, Luke’s deadbeat dad – who left the family before Luke was born – comes back to town to ask Luke to come to work for him. In a company that is opposed to everything that Luke was taught to believe.
• Superman: The Movie and Superman II would become the story of a young orphan, abandoned on the doorstep of a couple who had no children of their own. They raise the boy, whom they name “Clark,” to be a fine, upstanding youth and teach him what it means to be a decent person. Clark grows up and learns that he is the sole heir of a wealthy businessman, but finds that in living the “Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous,” he misses “something” in his life, so he creates a nebbish alter-ego… and meets the girl of his dreams, Lois. Lois wants nothing to do with nerdy-Clark, but thinks that rich-Clark is “all that.” When Clark finally decides to let Lois in on his secret, he discovers a loophole in his birth-parents’ will that says that he must give up his wealth in order to be with Lois… which he does. Of course, after that, three former “business associates” of Clark’s birth-father make headline news with a new invention that will “change the way that people live!” But, unknown to the general populace, this invention poses a great threat to the world at large. Clark has to make a decision: To live in quiet peace with Lois – at the cost of his conscience – or to give up his chance at happiness with Lois to reclaim his fortune and fight back against the three unscrupulous business tycoons.

Looking at these, I think that I either have WAY too much free time on my hands or that I am in the wrong line of work. Or both. Or neither. Maybe I’m just a few fries short of a combo meal. Nah…. that can’t be it. If anyone can think of any other changes to popular movies, I’d be interested to see what you come up with.

I think that this is where I’ll call it a night. Need to get some rest… I may actually go to the gym tomorning!!! Pick yourself up from the floor. Yes, I did say “may actually go to the gym.” I know… I know… it’s been a while, but I think that getting back into a regular exercise regimen will be good.

Until next time.

Peace.