Random Access

Tuesday – 22 June 2010
It’s Day 2 of “Missa K. Week” here at Random Access:

Belated Happy Hatching Day (twice removed), Missa!

(See that blur where her left had should be?  Yeah.  She’s THAT fast.)

Last night, SaraRules and I went to the gym. That’s right… the gym.  We did a light “getting back into the swing of things” workout:

• Elliptical: 5 min/5 MPH (avg.)
• Leg Raises (Roman Chair, full leg extension): 3 sets/15 reps
• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 135 lbs.
• Lat Pulldowns: 3 sets/10 reps, 100 lbs
• Shoulder Press (seated, dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
• Curls (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 25 lbs
• Tricep Kickbacks (dumbbells): 3 sets/10 reps, 15 lbs

Yesterday’s step count: 7,168 (as of 23:00)

Post-workout weight: 182.9 lbs.

Stray Toasters

• I knew that I had meetings today, but they somehow managed to fade into distant corners of my mind… until the guy we’re meeting with showed up this morning. This is an obvious sign that I have far too much blood in my caffeinestream.
• Sub Makes Unexpected Find Under Floating Ice Shelf
• Not for Public Display: Backstage at the American Museum of Natural History
• 
• Diamond Find Could Aid Zimbabwe, and Mugabe
• New Air Conditioner Process Cuts Energy Use 50-90%
• Chris and I are getting together with Jeremiah and Sinister for a little mid-week ‘Clix gaming tonight. I’m sorely tempted to use an all-Legion team if Chris uses a Batman-themed team… just to have a bunch of flying, invisible-when-behind-cover superpowered teenagers on the field. (As “wild card” pieces, the Legion would be able to use the Batman team ability, which would give them Stealth when in or behind cover.)
• See ya all in Persia
  Or maybe France
  We could be India
  Or perchance
  Be with us in Bangkok
  Make no difference
  Everywhere the actions at
  We’re involved with this or that
  • …and for those who didn’t grok that, see if this helps:
    
• Donny Hathaway: Neglected Heart of Soul
• My affinity for Top Gear is fairly well-known. I wasn’t watching it last night, but SaraRules was. I happened into the room when the following aired… and laughed heartily at it:
• And, for Ms. Amy…



• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Motel 6 comments on 28 cats, mess discovered in hotel room

Time to get on with the gettin’ on.

Namaste.

Monday – 21 June 2010
Today is the Summer Solstice.

It seems that I have been remiss with something. And I’d like to take a moment to address the issue:

I usually post some sort of greeting to friends and family in here for their birthdays. It appears that I have neglected to include my sister-in-law’s birthday last week.

In fact, she had apparently been expecting to see… some acknowledgement here… but, well… she got bupkis. And was “a little” shocked by it.

Yeah, I know! Well, at least, now I know now. (She mentioned it to SaraRules on Friday and she also mentioned it to my in-laws… who told me yesterday.) This isn’t to say that I forgot her birthday. I didn’t — I was one of the first people to post a birthday greeting on her Facebook page. (Hey, I may be an occasionally forgetful brother-in-law, but I’m not a complete jerk.)  Besides, it’s not a good idea to tick off the family member who knows how to fight with swords and tomahawks, especially when you’re going to be spending a week in the middle of nowhere camping with them soon. Just saying.  It’s just that I… neglected… to say anything about it in my most public forum.

And with that in mind, I hereby declare this week: “Missa K. Week.”  That’s right. All Missa. All week.
(What?! Me?  Overkill?! Never.)

Happy Belated Birthday, M!  🙂
I hope that you had fun playing pirate this weekend!

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled blog entry, already in progress…

Yesterday was good. We did go to The Garden of Sweden. We picked up a couple of lamps and a few other assorted items… and spent more money than we had originally intended. But, they were necessary items. After IKEA, we headed to Home Depot. And, with those two stops, our living room and dining rooms are now finished.

We wrapped up Father’s day with dinner at the in-laws’. And there was bocce. And brownies. And mojitos. Amen.

Workout
Yesterday’s step count: 5,143

Stray Toasters

• I’m going to be a bachelor again, for a few hours tonight. I know that I should do some cleaning/straightening, since there’s a good chance that I’ll be gaming with friends tomorrow night… but I just am not feeling it at this point.
• The Utah Arts Festival kicks off this Thursday.
• Google Should Give Bluetooth-Controlled Robots Away with Every Android Purchase
• From the “Tear the Roof Off the Mother” file: Tornado tears roof from arena in Billings, Montana
• ALT/1977: We Are Not Time Travelers
• Wait… Tyroc‘s back in the Legion?!  And with a better-looking costume (than this), finally?!? Whoa.
• 
• Should restaurants make health inspection grades visible?
  Um… yes. In fact, when I moved to Utah, I was surprised to see that eating establishments didn’t post their inspection grades, as I had been used to seeing them back home.
• Evo + Nesoid emulator + Burger Time = Fun
• Your Next Read

On to it…

Namaste.

Sunday – 20 June 2010
It’s Father’s Day. With that in mind, I’d like to wish a very Happy Father’s Day to the fathers in my family:

Today’s “Human of the Day” award goes out to these guys.

Yesterday was a good day.  It started with a trip to the Downtown Farmer’s Market with SaraRules and the in-laws. They’ve expanded the market a bit, so that it now takes over all of Pioneer Park. Of course, that moved the “fringe” artisans from the area at the south end of the park to the adjacent corners and streets.

Next, I headed up to Dr. Volt’s to run another HeroClix tournament. The format was the “HeroClix Wrestling Federation,” in which players had six figures, up to specific point values, and played them tag-team style against another player’s six-figures — when a figure took damage, the player rolled a six-sided die to see which other figure “tagged in.” It is always a fun format to play, and is pretty well-received by the players. I even got a chance to play — the bye rounds, but still… I got to play.  I went with a Sinestro Corps-themed team:

• Yellow Lantern

  (gallery aa-figure-044)

• Scarecrow

  (gallery bn-figure-003)

• Sinestro

  (gallery cr-figure-055)

• Sinestro Corps Batman

  (gallery aa-figure-100)

• Parallax

  (gallery cd-figure-219)

• Superman Prime

  (gallery aa-figure-060)

After the tourney, SaraRules and I went out for a bite to eat and then headed downtown to check out the 2010 Utah Foster Care Chalk Art Festival.  We arrived too late to see Team Chalkolicous in action, but we still strolled through and took a look at all of the pieces that people did over the course of the event: Pictures here.

Later in the evening, we finally got around to seeing Kick-Ass. It was quite fun and, as I recall, it adapted the source material fairly well… with a couple of changes.

This morning, I woke up and strolled up to Pin-Up Girl Espresso.  Christy fixed me an Iced Caramel Silk, which was quite good. Shortly after I got back home, the in-laws dropped by to chat for a bit while out running errands. Then, breakfast — Blueberry muffins FTW!!!!

Next on the agenda: A trip to The Garden of Sweden and maybe even a home improvement store or two.  Win-Win!

Workout
Yesterday’s step count: 6,517

Stray Toasters

• Top 10 Dads in Science Fiction and Fantasy
  (…and just look at who made Dad #2 on the list.  Boo-yah!)
• Pulling Museum Mile Uptown
• From the “Duh…!” file: BP CEO’s yacht outing infuriates Gulf residents
• Baghdad Nights Glitter, Behind Shatterproof Glass
• Students with Autism Learn How to Succeed at Work
• Reflections in the Facebook Mirror
• Were Botticelli’s Venus and Mars Stoned?

Namaste.

Thursday – 17 June 2010
So… it seems as though today is actually my mother’s last day of work.  She had told us “the 16th” when we visited last month, so that’s what I went with. *shrug* Whether it was yesterday, today (or even tomorrow), she’s put in nearly 40 years in the public education system, which is a long time to work in any one job.

I’m also hoping that today actually is an NBN Thursday. I think that last week’s deviation from the norm has affected this week… at least, that’s what I’m attributing the week’s problems to. Last night, SaraRules and I came home from work to find water in the basement. On the floor.

*braincramp*

It wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been.  It appeared that the feed tube for the swamp cooler disconnected from the pipe that goes to the roof and sprayed over the floor in the unfinished portion of the basement. Fortunately, most of it stayed in the area where there’s a floor drain. Thank God.  The rest of the water flowed onto another part of the floor that goes under the stairs that lead to the main floor (concrete slab) and a little got onto the landing at the bottom of the stairs — about ten or so square feet of carpet.

*grblsnrkx*

I headed back to work to get the ShopVac that I had borrowed from my father-in-law, while SaraRules headed to Target to get a couple of fans. We vacuumed water out of the carpet and padding. Twice. Then, we set up the fans to dry things out. We’ll see how much – if any – vacuuming we need to do tonight.

All things being equal, I consider it no small blessing that the water was confined to a couple of areas and that the “damage” was not nearly as bad as it could have been.

Workout
Yesterday’s step count: 5,937

Human of the Day
My mother.

Stray Toasters

• This morning’s musical selection was co-selected by SaraRules:
• Oh, snap!
• By way of SaraRules: Redoing those ’80s ‘Dos
• ‘The Golden Ticket’ Is Finally Unwrapped
• The newest addition to my Green Lantern Corps arrived yesterday: Kilowog
  

  

• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: B.C. school yearbooks to be reprinted after teacher cut out student’s photo
• Poster for a notional ‘Left 4 Dead’ movie
• 
• CD on one side, vinyl record on the other
• The Bell Tolls: Injuries, money factor in expanded NFL season

Namaste.

Wednesday – 16 June 2010
Today is not only (Sushi and) Comics Wednesday.
Nor is it just my mother and stepfather’s anniversary.
Today also marks my mother’s last-day-EVER of teaching.

I hereby declare today “Triple-Win Wednesday”.
I also declare my mother today’s Human of the Day.  (Yes, I’m biased. But, it’s my blog; I’m allowed to be.)
And for today’s musical fare: Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine:

Last night, SaraRules and I had dinner with the in-laws, including the brothers-in-law and Swiz. Grilled Salmon. Salad. Asparagus. Homemade rice pilaf. Mojitos. It was a good dinner, all around. And, for dessert, Logan and Swiz made mini-pecan tarts, which were very tasty.

Back at home, SaraRules and I enjoyed a quiet (read: “uneventful”) evening. After the headaches of Monday evening, it was a very welcome change of pace. We wound down the night with last Thursday’s episode of Burn Notice.

Workout
Yesterday’s step count: 3,987

Stray Toasters

• There were numerous articles in the news yesterday about lightning striking the statue of Jesus near I-75 in Cincinnati yesterday. That reminded me of two things:
  1. Captain Marvel Jesus
  2. Big Butter Jesus
• I saw an ad on Facebook for Pretzel M&M’s which somehow led me to the thought “Pretzelcoatl.”
• ‘Godfather of the Dead’ George A. Romero Talks Zombies
• The new “Hope” trailer for the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic has been released/leaked.
• Miniature sit-com sets
• After talking with the service techs who came to the house to work on the swamp cooler, I feel quite justified in my opinion that our home’s previous owners were perfectly satisfied to half-ass their way through a home “improvement” projects.
• Sperm whale feces ‘helps oceans absorb CO₂‘
• 
  
• Shortest-possible Monopoly game
• New FDA website lets public find drug safety info

Namaste.

Monday – 14 June 2010
Today is Flag Day.

What?!  There’s a flag in the picture!  Yes, it is a CoH picture. That’s more of a “Win-Win,” if you ask me.

It’s also my friend, Keith’s, birthday.

And, as it’s Monday morning, let’s have a little somethin’ to kick off the day with a groove. Today’s offering is Maxwell’s Gotta Get: Closer

To paraphrase Ice Cube, yesterday was a good day:

• SaraRules got back from the City of Lost Angels.
• I finished the painting of the family room; we still need to figure out what we want to use for a trim color, but the main job is ovah!
• We saw The A-Team.
  
• We had dinner with Jana, OnlyAly and .

Workout
Saturday’s step count: 4443 steps
Sunday’s count: 1332 steps (official count… because I didn’t put on the pedometer until 4 PM)

The Best: Closer vs. Gotta Get: Closer
Nine Inch Nails vs. Maxwell

Given this morning’s bit of musical oleo, I was reminded that I like both versions of the song. That, in turn, made me think that I should do a juxtaposition and see which version edges out the other for the title “The Best.”

• Nine Inch Nails:

  Let’s just call a spade “a spade:” This song is just straight-up sex. There’s no question about what’s on Trent’s mind. In fact, he tells you. Bluntly. More than once. Let it never be said that the man doesn’t know how to convey what he’s thinking.

• Maxwell:
  (see video at top of post)

  What I like about this version is that Maxwell took the song and put his on spin on it. Yes, I can hear purists saying: “But, it’s not the same!”  No, it’s not. To me, that’s the essence of what makes an artist’s cover of a song a “good” cover: Being able to put their own unique stamp on it. Where NIN’s version is blatant and raw, Maxwell’s version is more… seductive, with a groove to it. To put it another way: Nine Inch Nails’ take is raw and rough sex, whereas Maxwell wants to take his time and enjoy the mood and the moment.

  • A similar example of “same brand, different flavor” along these lines can be found in another pair of songs that were released around the same time: Color Me Badd’s I Wanna Sex You Up and Extreme’s More than Words.

So, which version is “The Best?”

For me, it’s a tie. Why? Because each song holds its own for the mood that the artist is trying to convey. It’s a “Neither is ‘wrong’ and everybody wins” kind of situation.

Stray Toasters

• Who has the best corned beef sandwich in the greater SLC metro area?
• 23 Things Not to Write in an Email
• 100,000 LEGO Bricks Build One Hell of a Robotic Chess Set
• 
• Add It Up: Pricing Out a Visit to TV’s ‘Dr. House’
• Steampunk-Inspired, Hand-crafted Arduino Wristwatch Runs ‘Breakout’
• “Nude is the new Black”
  • That article reminded me of this card: 1, 2
• Pilot Kisses Death on the Lips and Flies Away
• Military Still Failing to Diagnose, Treat Brain Injuries

And with that… on to the rest of the day.

Namaste.

Thursday – 10 June 2010
Happy birthday to my kid sister, Kristen!

I say “kid sister,” as opposed to “little sister,” because she’s about 4″ taller than me. Because of our age difference, there was a LOT of friction between us when she was a toddler. (Most of which was due to me not wanting to have to deal with a younger sister… but some of which was due to her being a holy terror.) She has, however, grown up to become a lovely young woman and one I’m very happy and proud to have as my sister.

As for NBN Thursday, this one has been shot. Apparently, it was shot somewhere around 0600 this morning… but I didn’t realize it until almost 0830. We had a fairly major hardware issue at work. Thus, did the scramble begin for rectifying the situation. (Not to be confused with Situation.) At this point the recovery process is under way and things should hopefully be back to “normal” in fairly short order.

After work last night, I mowed the lawn as part of “Bachelor Night #2.” As I was finishing up the front lawn, my father-in-law stopped by. He was coming to offer some advice/insight for handling a couple of projects in the basement. After he left, I went back to mowing, racing an impending thunderstorm. I managed to finish both the front and back yards without getting electrocuted. After that, I realized that I was hungry… but wasn’t sure what I wanted to eat. I wound up making spaghetti. Hey… comfort food, go figure. After a rather late dinner, I set about painting a wall in the family room. I went with one of the short walls — it had the least amount of obstruction and pre-painting prep work to do. I checked it this morning; it looks pretty good.

Workout
Yesterday’s step count: 6303

…and I’m fairly sure that there’s some calories burned in mowing the lawn, too.

Stray Toasters

• The day has gone from overcast (with scattered drizzle) to partly cloudy/sunny. Hopefully, it’s not too naive to hope that the weather is a good augury for the rest of not-NBN Thursday.
• Blackhawks foil Flyers in OT to win first Stanley Cup since 1961
• Maybe it’s just me, but this sounds like an excellent marriage compromise:

  

• I had a random idea yesterday: Why not see what comics were out in my birth month. More specifically: See what titles that I currently read had issues out at that time, buy a copy and frame it. I checked The Comic Book Database and noticed that they had a “Search by Cover Date” option. I put in my birthdate and let the CBDB go to work. It found a number of issues, but I found one that caught my attention: An issue of Green Lantern. Next stop, eBay. I found a number of sellers who had the issue… many of whom had it for a rather reasonable price. So, I bought one. Now, I just need to figure out where it’s going to go.
• Stop-motion paper Super Mario Brothers
• AT&T Discloses iPad Security Breach
• I need to remember to make a flier for next weekend’s ‘Clix tourney…
• The Vader Project
  • …and in a related note: Darth, Interrupted: Does Vader have Borderline Personality Disorder?
• MAME (not Mame)… on my Evo?  Really?  Hm…
• That reminded me of Was (not Was):
• By way of and the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: US sex-for-tickets woman sentenced to year’s probation
  My question: Had she done this in Nevada, would it have been legal? (Short answer: “No.”)
• NuPenny Toy Store in Portland, Maine

Namaste.

Wednesday – 09 June 2010
Mid-week is upon us.
That means that it’s Comics and Sushi Wednesday, as well.

SaraRules flew out to L.A. last night. For the next five four days, I’m a bachelor. (Hopefully, I won’t destroy the house or turn it into an unrecognizable mess.) After dropping her off, I stopped in to say “Hi” to Perry, Kate and the kids. And, despite being near Hobby Lobby, I refrained from going in. But, I did go to the Lowe’s next door. I figured that I needed paint and (in theory) they had the color I was looking for.

Theory: 1
Practical Application: 0

I couldn’t find the paint card for Swiss Coffee… which apparently meant that I was S.O.L. for getting paint — the paint mixing system could identify the color, but couldn’t “reverse engineer” it without the barcode from the back of the paint card. FAIL. So, I wound up driving to another Lowe’s. I had to hunt for the color card, but they had it. And, a few minutes later, I was on the way out the door with two gallons o’ paint.

Workout
Yesterday’s step count: 4051

Stray Toasters

• The Blackest Night HeroClix Starter Set (FINALLY) gets released today.
• Our new living room set arrived yesterday; it goes quite well with the color we chose for the room.
• Packing tape spiderweb
  • More information about the installation can be found here; click “Enter” and look under “Projects.”
• Sculptures made out of Rolodex cards
• 
• Play honors life of early African-American Latter-Day Saint, courtesy of
• Polish inmates help restore Jewish legacy
• Here’s a little something to get your Wednesday moving…

• Border Agent Shoots, Kills Mexican Boy at Bridge
• Top Gear Season 15 Returns June 27th
• Robert Schumann: A Romantic Hero
• Digitizing the past and present at the Library of Congress

Namaste.

Tuesday – 08 June 2010
I apparently know a lot of people with birthdays today. With that in mind, I’d like to say “Happy Birthday” to:

• Julie
• Kenneth
• Landon
• Nolan and
• Serena

*whew*

Last night, SaraRules and I went to the Junior League Annual Dinner. During this event, provisional members (like SaraRules) advanced to become active members. There was also the “changing of the guard” with respect to the leadership and board. The event was held at The Alta Club. Out of roughly one hundred people, I was one of three (3) men in attendance… and the other two guys looked as though they would have rather been just about any place else. They looked really uncomfortable and generally unhappy about escorting their significant others to the event. And I have no idea “why.”  The dinner was good, the company was pleasant and there was no Waiting to Exhale-like man-bashing. Sounds like a “Triple Win” to me. All-in-all, I found it to be a nice way to spend the evening.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules is leaving on a jet plane this evening. She’s heading to L.A. for an opera conference. I, on the other hand, will be at home being a bachelor for the next five days. Hopefully, I won’t have “too much” of a disaster area to clean up before she gets back home.
• Our sitting room furniture is being delivered today… sometime between 0930 and 1330.
• Red Carpet Report: Fashion’s Oscar-caliber night
• Huge seas ‘once existed on Mars’
• I watched/read the Ars Technica coverage of yesterday’s WWDC. They’ve made some nice advances with the iPhone 4… but I didn’t see anything that made me feel like I made a bad choice by going with the Evo.
  • iPhone 4 – Droid Incredible – Evo 4G – Nexus One Comparative Chart
  • iOS 4 Jailbroken Within a Day of First Release
• Janis Joplin: The Queen of Rock
• 
• Announcing Star Trek-based Games from WizKids
• DIY Sci-Fi Trailer Draws Avatar Producer to Technotise
• Brooklyn Bridge getting a $500 million makeover
• Meetings!

Namaste.

Monday – 07 June 2010
It’s my mother’s birthday.

As my friend, Melody M., noted about it being a Monday: “Here we go…”
Which, in turn, reminded me of Here It Goes Again:

OK Go – Here It Goes Again from OK Go on Vimeo.

Yesterday afternoon, SaraRules and I headed up to Park City… okay, “Kimball Junction”… to do a little shopping at the outlets. It was a beautiful day, with lots of sun and blue sky. The shopping wasn’t so bad, either. On the way home, we detoured through Emigration Canyon. After some down time at home, we went back to the in-laws’ place for cake presents, as the second part of ‘s pre-birthday:

After we got home for the evening, SaraRules put Doomsday in the 360 and we watched that before calling it a night.

Stray Toasters

• Once again proving that too much free time on my hands is not necessarily a “good” thing, I took this picture because it made me laugh:



• 3 Campaign Ads That Aren’t True; 1 That’s Amazing
• Apollo 12 art caper: Does the moon harbor a tiny museum?
• Thanks to SaraRules for pointing this out: Cake Wrecks author coming to Utah
• Apple and Google square off over smartphone supremacy
• 
• Historic Route 66 bowling alley shuts down
• I just pre-ordered LEGO Universe.
• Adobe acknowledges critical security flaw in software
• 
  Of course, this comic doesn’t help with the indecision I’ve been feeling over starting a new Shadowrun campaign…
• How Times Have Changed, Ex-Playboy Bunnies Say
• Obamas attend Ford’s Theatre gala

Namaste.

Saturday – 05 June 2010
So far, it’s been a good day… and it’s not even half-over yet.

SaraRules and I got up and walked down to the local Ward House for a pancake breakfast, put on by that Ward’s Boy Scout troop. Hey, money that goes to help kids or a youth activity…? I’m down. The food was pretty good. There were also some classic and exotic cars there, too. Win-Win.

Back home, so that SaraRules could get ready for Quilt Club and so I could prep for today’s HeroClix tournament. (I still need to come up with a team, in case I have to play a bye round.) Also, it looks as though I’ll be running a ‘Clix tournament at next month’s GEEX, at the South Town Expo Center.

Workout
Yesterday’s step count: 2937

Stray Toasters

• Wooden stood as man of constancy
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file:
  • Hallmark recalls “Black Holes” birthday card after racism claim
  • South Carolina Totally Loses Its Mind
• By way of my mother:
  



• Don’t Call the Guatemala Sinkhole a Sinkhole
• What do you get when you mix Snoop Dogg, David Beckham, Han Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi and a couple of droids? Something like this:

• Beachcomber stumbles upon historical shipwreck
• Stormtroopers 365
• Hints of Life Found on Saturn’s Moon Titan
  Well, duh!  Where do they think that all/most 31st Century telepaths are from?
• Get Rich Slowly
• Tetris Tetris Everywhere

Time to finish getting ready.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 02 June 2010
Midweek and all’s well.
Today is NOT Comics and Sushi Wednesday, however. There may be sushi, but comics will not arrive in stores until tomorning. Of course, that just means that NBN Thursday will be that much better.

Last night, I spent some time at the local B&N, doing some drawing. I’m not sure how soon it will be done, but I am rather happy with the direction this piece is taking. While at the store, I indulged in a Mocha Frappuchino…

…which may have contributed to my staying up later than planned — I was up until 0100 this morning. Granted, I wound up watching my first Doctor Who episode in more than fifteen years, but still… I hadn’t planned on being up quite so late. Serendipitously, I managed to catch “The Eleventh Hour,” the first episode of the newest Doctor’s incarnation, Matt Smith. It was… fun. My friend Dana has been telling me that I should watch the show for months now. I might just have to add it to the DVR’s queue.

After getting to bed somewhere around 0120 or 0130, I woke up this morning at 0543. *sigh* When I woke up around that time yesterday morning, I told myself that if I was up again that early this morning, I would go to the gym. The decision to actually get out of bed and do something was much harder to make this morning, though. But, I persevered and went to the gym.

Workout

• Elliptical: 5 min, avg speed 5.5 MPH
• Sit-ups (incline): 3 sets/20 reps
• Bench Press (decline): 3 sets/10 reps, 135 lbs
• Compound Row: 3 sets/10 reps, 125 lbs
• Curls (dumbbell, with shoulder press): 3 sets/10 reps, 25 lbs

For the second trip to the gym in a row, I couldn’t get on the fly machine that I like… and I didn’t feel like trying dumbbell/bench flies. Maybe next time…

Yesterday’s step count: 3250 steps.
I already have nearly 2000 steps logged today.

Stray Toasters

• I assembled my new desk/drawing table (except it’s the birch finish) last night. Now, I need to decide where I want it to go…
• Honey-Nut Cheerios.  Win!
• I still covet this… but I really don’t feel like paying what people are asking for them on eBay.
• Bill Nye Reviews Ideas for Solving Gulf Coast Oil Spill
• By way of Nyx: Premakes – The Empire Strikes Back
• LEGO Printer: I Made This!
• The iPad and Dolphins (for real)
• At NYC science fest, physicists ask ‘What if we’re holograms?’
  My opinion: That would be Truly Outrageous.  (Yeah, I went there.  Deal with it.)
• For Ms. Melodywise:  Shingles!

  

• As part of the marketing for Issue 17: Dark Mirror, City of Heroes opened a “Declare Your Loyalty” contest. The winning entries can be viewed here.
• 0543… what was I thinking?!
• LEGO ship in a bottle!

Namaste.

01 June 2010
Welcome, June.
May is now in the rearview mirror.
Let’s hope that it takes the wintry weather with it…

Yesterday, while relaxing was also productive: The lawn was mowed. The garden was worked on. The trim in the sitting room was cleaned up (No more red paint!). And, my office was painted. Not only that, our excursion to The Garden of Sweden netted me a new desk/drawing table.

We also had dinner with the in-laws yesterday. Grilled steaks with sweet potatoes and yams, salad and fresh corn-on-the-cob. Dessert was brownies with ice cream.

All-in-all, it was a good day.

Workout
Yesterday’s step count: 2948 steps
Of course, I neglected to wear the pedometer while I was mowing the lawn yesterday.  *sigh*

Stray Toasters

• Official Synopsis Revealed for Green Lantern movie
• Now that my office is coming along, I’m looking forward to finishing the rest of the basement… and finding room for a model railroad layout! I want to do O-Scale, but I believe that it will probably include some HO-Scale as well. I’m not sure exactly where I’ll put the LEGO train and/or the Rokenbok monorail, though.
• 44 million stolen gaming credentials discovered
• 
• ‘How Sweet It Was’: The Cultural Impact of Gospel
• Massive sinkhole swallows building in Guatemala City in wake of Tropical Storm Agatha
• The Theme from S.W.A.T., which I contend is still one of TV’s coolest TV theme songs. Ever.
• A Love Craft: Art Inspired by Monsters, Madness and Mythos
• Adventure Comics #12 preview
• I restarted  American Psycho again last night. I got distracted from it by… well, a lot of things. This time, I should be able to plow through it.
• US sculptor Louise Bourgeois dies aged 98
  • No Doubt: Spiderwebs
    
• From Elvis to Lady Gaga: Playing with Shock Value in Music
• Why Science Needs to Step Up Its PR Game

Attack the day
Like birds of prey…

Namaste.

Monday – 31 May 2010
Today is Memorial Day.

Please remember that today is not about sales or barbecues; take some time to remember those who have fallen in the line of duty to protect the freedoms that we hold dear.

This weekend has been good. I didn’t make it to Dr. Volt’s on Saturday, but I did fire up City of Heroes and spend some time in Paragon City. I should do that more often. We then headed to Sugar House to try a New York Style pizzeria called Este. Holy cow! Good stuff! Highly recommended. The evening’s symphony was quite nice. Before the performance, I attended a short lecture, given by guest conductor Carlo Rizzi. The Mozart was good, but I found that I enjoyed the Mahler piece, Symphony No. 1 in D Major (“Titan”), more.

After the symphony, we came home and watched Surveillance, a movie that I had requested from Netflix. We both disliked the movie. On many levels.

If you have a chance to see this movie or do just about anything else, go with Option B. We took the bullet for you on this one.

Sunday started off with a stroll to Pin-up Girl Espresso. After that, SaraRules and I spent a couple of hours installing a chair rail in the dining room. I must say that it looks pretty good. It will get sanded and painted either today or tomorrow. After that, Chris came over and we played HALO 3: ODST for a few hours. Following the Covenant eradication, I fired up the grill and we cooked chicken and some fresh vegetables. We stopped by to visit the in-laws and wound down the evening with The Road, based on the book of the same name, by Cormac McCarthy. I had literally just finished reading the book before we watched the movie. The adaptation was good, and kept the feel and pacing of the story without feeling like it meandered and/or got lost.

Today, there will be things… and stuff… I’m just not sure exactly “what.” One of the options is to paint my office. I found an off-white (barely off-white, though) color that I like called “Swiss Coffee.” Go figure. Once the painting is done, I finally do things like buy a desk and start unpacking/setting up my office. Amen.

Stray Toasters

• I’m trying to come up with ideas for this Saturday’s HeroClix tournament. So far, nothing has struck me as “awesome.”
• Clickjacking Worm Exploits Facebook “Like” Feature
• I should probably mow the lawn today.
• Celebrating 35 Years of ILM Magic
• 
• In graphics: Supercomputing superpowers
• It’s coming up on arts festival season in the area. I’m looking forward to this year’s events.
• Acupuncture May Trigger Natural Painkiller

Time to find something to do…

Namaste.

Saturday – 29 May 2010
It’s a grey and overcast morning. It’s also supposed to be a bit cooler today, on the order of 10-15F cooler. (And, naturally, as I type that, the sun decides to put in an appearance…)

iHurt. That is my explanation/definition for how I feel after yesterday’s workout. It’s aftermath of that whole “take a month or two off before going back to the gym” thing. I believe that a pair of ibuprofen caplets are in my future.

Yesterday’s excursion to Hobby Lobby was decent. I bought a couple of things, but nothing major. However, the store was a-flurry with associates adding merchandise to the shelves and reworking items according to new planograms. To be honest, it was nice to see “more stuff” on the shelves, as the store looked a little… threadbare… in some spots when it opened.

After the HL excursion, I also went to The Train Shoppe. It seems as though it is becoming a traditional 9/80 day off stop. I picked up a couple of books, two pieces of track to display the old C&O steam engine and tender I bought a few months back, and I ordered a new toy: Chessie System Merger Special. It should arrive in late-July.  Hopefully, I’ll have figured out a place for it to go by then…

Clitorati was good last night. I got to the bookstore a little early, so I could do a bit of drawing — I had an idea for a new song lyric-to-drawing and wanted to get started on it. Marci (a coworker) joined us for the first time in many moons; and we even had a newcomer, Monica. Hopefully, we didn’t scare either of them away permanently or scar them too deeply.

Today, I’m not sure what’s on the docket. I may head over to Dr. Volt’s and see if anyone’s up for a pick-up game of HeroClix this afternoon. This evening, SaraRules and I are going to the symphony for the final concert of the season; tonight’s program includes Mahler and Mozart.

Stray Toasters

• I fired up City of Heroes and downloaded the new patches yesterday. I may spend a little time in Paragon City this afternoon or tomorrow.
• ‘Human remains’ found as police probe ‘Crossbow Cannibal’ case
• “I ain’t no hiya back girl…”
• You Built What?! A Real Iron Man Suit
  (Technically, it’s a War Machine suit… but why quibble?)
• BrikThulhu Rising (from BrikWars), by Mike Rayhawk



• Terps beat Orange, will play for title
  • Maryland’s Official State Team Sport: Lacrosse
  • Maryland’s Official State Sport: Jousting
• A Century of Aviation, from the Wright Brothers to Stealth

Breakfast is just about ready.  I should clear off the table.

Namaste.