Random Access

Tuesday – 21 July 2009
Apparently, the seventeenth fourth time is the charm. The water pump is in and things seem to be as expected.

After getting the car, SaraRules and I went out to Hobby Lobby and IKEA. Our trip to the Garden of Sweden came after learning that a sofa we were considering, Varnamo,  had been discontinued; we went in search of a suitable alternative. We think that we found it in the KARLSTAD series.

Back at home, I finished up the first floor of my ‘Clix house… only to discover that the plan we’d come up with for the second floor wasn’t going to work. *sigh* Back to the literal drawing board. After moving a staircase here and a wall there, I think that things will pan out pretty well.

Stray Toasters

• The Park City Kimball Arts Festival is a week-and-a-half away.  Who’s up for a Sunday excursion?
• Rachel’s coming to town Friday and has requested that I make S’mores Brownies.
• Magazine Writes New Rules for Polite Digital Society
• The 10 Worst Evolutionary Designs
• Barnes and Noble to Create an E-book Megacenter
• From last night’s The Late Late Show: Fireball XL-5

• Deal reached to close California’s $26B Budget Gap
• I just had an apostrophe epiphany. Julie and I were discussing shows we watched while growing up and (for whatever reason) Gilligan’s Island came up. We were talking about it for a minute or two when I realized: Gilligan’s Island was the Lost of the 1960s.
• …and, somehow, remembering that reminded me of Gilligan’s Planet. *shiver*
• sent me a link to: Palin’s Resignation: The Edited Version
• My name is Prince
  And I am funky
  When it comes to funk
  I am a junkie
• Glasgow steampunk fair at the world’s oldest music hall, the Panopticon

Namaste.

Monday – 20 July 2009
I was up far later than I should have been last night. Hopefully, the caffeine will save me. On the other hand, I managed to modify a few interior wall textures for my ‘Clix city that will give me a little more variety in my buildings.

Last night, Logan came over for dinner; SaraRules fixed chicken mole – it was good with a bit of a spicy kick. After dinner, we walked over to Target to find some updated cards for Trivial Pursuit. There were none to be found, but they had the “25^th Anniversary Edition” for $30. We decided to walk to the Wal-Mart to see what they had to offer; if nothing else, we had to walk back past Target to get home, so we could always pick it up on the way back. While the Wal-Mart didn’t have 25AE, they did have the “Best of Genus” edition. And it was only $20. Win. We headed back home and played – I won, SaraRules came in 2^nd, and Logan brought up the rear.

So far, the morning has been pretty quiet. Let’s hope the rest of the day follows suit.

Stray Toasters

• Learning makes your brain happy
• Aldrin Reflects on Life After Moon Mission
  • Apollo 11: Untold Stories of the Moon Race
• Best-selling author McCourt dies
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Teenager with Asperger’s hoaxes UK aviation industry with fake airline
• Designer axes (unfortunately, this does not mean “guitars”)
• 
• Ink Calendar: paper uses capillary action to fill in one day’s number at a time
• 10 Weirdest Pet Accessories
• Shanahan wants another head-coaching job, possibly as soon as 2010
• 
• Singer Marc Anthony will be part of ‘major’ announcement with Dolphins
• My calves hurt from yesterday’s workout.
• This makes me laugh:

  

Namaste.

Tuesday – 14 July 2009
If you couldn’t guess by today’s title, it’s Bastille Day.

Yesterday, SaraRules went to have her bridal portraits taken. From the stories she related when she got home, it was an experience. A fun one, but an experience, nevertheless. While she was off playing supermodel, I hung out with her grandparents, who are in town for a few days. Sitting with them and trading stories was a nice way to spend the evening.

Stray Toasters

• I got two walls of the kitchen added to my new model last night. I also rediscovered why you should always “Measure twice, cut once” when constructing (or even destroying) something: I have a wall section that looks like it’s going to be about ” shorter than I had planned. It’s a small enough difference that I could let it go, but I will most likely recut one wall.
• From the “Is There Life On Mars” file: Men emerge from Mars experiment
• Infernocrusher fiction: dinos, guns and motocross
• If you need a good reason not to have a bouquet toss at your wedding, take a look at this.
• Paul just came over and showed me: My Favorite Movie
  See more funny videos and Entertainment Videos at Today’s Big Thing.
• Ravens’ Derrick Mason tells JockLife.com he’s retiring
• Phones confiscated at preview screenings: Whose hypothetical risk is greater?
• The Evolution of Multiplayer Games and Online Play
• Want to know how to handle all of these? – Speechwriting tricks you can use in everyday life

Namaste.

Friday – 10 July 2009
It’s finally the weekend; thank Heaven for 9/80 Fridays.

The second half of yesterday’s workday was slow, which wasn’t necessarily “bad.” I was able to clear a few things off my task list and there weren’t any large fires to dowse. And, we once again had ice cream! Nevertheless, I was glad when quittin’ time rolled around.

Last night, SaraRules and I headed to the gym. For a change of pace, we stayed in the free weight room for our entire workout:

• Lateral Raises (with forward rotation): 3 sets/10 reps, 15 lbs
• Shrugs (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
• Reverse Punches (with dumbbells): 2 sets/20 reps, 10 lbs
• Curls (barbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 50 lbs
• Curls (dumbbell, hammer grip): 3 sets/10 reps, 25 lbs
• Overhead Tricep Extensions: 3 sets/15 reps, 45 lbs
• Decline Sit-ups: 3 sets/15 reps
• Side Bends: 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
• Bench Dips: 3 sets/10 reps – w/ 25lb plate on sets 2 and 3)

Later in the evening (read: “In the wee hours of morning…”), I played City of Heroes. I wasn’t able to find a team to join, but I was able to solo a couple of story arc missions that I had pending.

Stray Toasters

• While I was preparing to play CoH, I left the TV on. Oprah follows The Late Late Show. Last night’s show was about Dani Lierow and her family. All that I can say is: “Wow.” Major kudos to the Lierows for the love, time and patience that they’ve had to give to a little girl who had been dealt a bad hand. They get half of today’s nod as my Humans of the Day…
• …the other half of the honor goes to my friend Joe, who’s shipping out today to provide IT support in Iraq. For a year. He is chronicling his adventures at: On the Rear Lines.
• Item Not As Described
• pointed out: ‘City of Heroes’ character ‘Twixt’ becomes game’s most hated outcast courtesy of Loyola professor. The article tells the story of David Myers and the “social experiments” that he conducted via the online game. I hadn’t heard about this before and did a little digging; I discovered that he did not play on the same servers that I do.
• 
• From NPR: The Trick to Teaching Is Sometimes Magic
• Lawyer asks judge to force rival to wear nicer shoes
• MarknTyme sent a link to The Absolute Greatest Gaming Table Ever
• New ‘Burger Time’ serves up a good time
• Artists live high on outside wall
• Most epically bad food movies

Namaste.

Thursday – 09 July 2009
It’s supposed to be an NBN Thursday and my technical Friday… but this morning, it was pushing the envelope.  That’s not entirely true: GoogleTalk was a righteous pain in the keister this morning. For some reason, it decided to tell iChat and Adium to “Sod off!” It’s working now. So, all things considered, it’s still a good day.

Last night, while SaraRules went off to a Zumba class, I fired up City of Heroes and patrolled Paragon City with a pick-up team. The mission level was “a little high” on the first mission we ran, but the others went well. By the time it was all said and done, I had tacked a couple more levels onto Khnurn.

This morning, someone came over and commented about how large my monitor (the 42″ TV) is. I retorted that it is, in fact, large. He asked if it was for a project; I told him that it “kind of” was. He asked if it was for work or personal. At this point, I had a very quick internal monologue… that somehow managed to stay internal:

“Is this for a personal project?”

Come on.  Rub two – JUST TWO – brain cells together and get a synapse or two to fire.  If this was for a personal project, don’t you think that someone (ANYONE!) – from my manager all the way up to one of the execs – would have said something and/or repossessed it long before now? Idiotstick.

It didn’t help that this was one of my “not-as-favored-as-others” coworkers. *sigh* Monkeys.

Then I had a presentation to give in today’s staff meeting. That went well. At least, I think it went well. And really, that’s all I am concerned with right now.

Stray Toasters

• US federal security lapses found
• Hardware makers support Google OS
• Rupert Murdoch reporters in the UK illegally hacked thousands of peoples’ data
• Man, our President is cool
  

  

• Marvel’s Marko Djurdjevic Injects Soul into Comic Art
• Creative Commons licensed secret society for promoting girls’ literacy
• Hot and Bothering: Media Treatment of Sarah Palin

  
  “Debate” © Zina Saunders
  (For more art by Zina Saunders, click the image.)

• Sci-fi couture on the runway
• 3 Smart Things about Beer Marketing
• From the “Wait… WHAT did you just say?!” file: US worker dies in chocolate vat

I should eat something now, for I hunger.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 08 July 2009
The work week is half over. Selah.

Tonight is Corps Encore in Ogden; I don’t think that I’ll be attending this year.

Stray Toasters

• I have a couple of new building designs in mind for ‘Clix.
• SaraRules posted a couple of interesting links:
  • ViewMaster Wedding Invitations
  • Nothing will stop… THE WEDDING
• 
• By way of Eric: Quote of the Day: Walter Williams on Slavery
  Don’t forget to click on the “Click here” link at the end of the post – it’s worth it.
• Interracial Roommates Can Reduce Prejudice
• From comes: Why Just 2 Seconds of Transformers 2 Took 3 Months to Complete
• Casting Caution Aside as Violetta
• Senator Hatch suggests Justice Department look at BCS
• Monkeys recognize ‘bad grammar’, not to be confused with Nelly’s Country Grammar

• From NPR Music: Summer Road Trip: Songs for Speed and Spirit
• Guerilla swimming pools made from dumpsters
• Five Things Google’s Chrome OS Will Do for Your Netbook

Namaste.

Tuesday – 07 July 2009
Waking up this morning wasn’t exactly “the easiest” thing to do. I delayed it a bit, but still managed to be at work by 8:00. George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic provided the soundtrack to the morning commute.

I talked with Rana for a bit last night; she’s about seven weeks from giving us Niece or Nephew #2; Adam and Chelsea provided Nephew #1 last year. A little later, SaraRules and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. By the time it was all said and done, we had put in a little under 1.75 miles. It was a nice change of pace.

Stray Toasters

• July 7, 1752: Jacquard’s Loom Will Weave a Durable Web
• Clock will strike 04:05:06 07/08/09 tomorrow
• The Craziest Costume Changes in Comics
• What do you get when you mix comics and alcohol: Reno Superhero Crawl

  

• Classic Arcade Games Recreated Using Stop-Motion Animation of LEGO bricks
• Straight out of the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Shmucks of the Week: The threesome from Hell
• Some iPhone owners crave freedom to unlock from AT&T
• 
• By way of comes 11 Yearbook Photos that Musicians Wish We’d Never Seen
  Having seen this, I was compelled to click on the following links:
  • 11 Most Ridiculous DMX Moments
  • 11 Songs About Different Lengths of Time
• Pez Candy Inc sues Museum of Pez Memorabilia for copyright infringement
• U.S. Hospitals offer $155 billion for health reform: report

Namaste.

Sunday – 05 July 2009
Yesterday was another mostly lazy day in the valley. I slept in (a little) and then made my way into the living room, where I started reading American Psycho. I’m only 20 or so pages in, but I’m enjoying it so far. After SaraRules woke up, we had breakfast and headed to the gym:

• Leg Extensions: 3 sets/10 reps, 60 lbs
• Leg Raises: 3 sets/10 reps, 60 lbs
• Glutes (Kick-backs): 3 sets/10 reps, 70 lbs
• Flys: 3 sets/10 reps, 110 lbs
• Lower Back Extensions: 3 sets/15 reps, 160 lbs
• Lat Pull-downs: 3 sets/10 reps, 110 lbs
• Forward Lat Raises (w/ rotation to the side): 3 sets/10 reps, 15 lbs
• Curls (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
• Sit-ups (decline): 3 sets/15 reps

On the way home, we stopped at SaraRules’ parents’ so that she could get a recipe for coffee cake. (More on this below.) We had a lazy aftenoon. For dinner, we headed to Outback Steakhouse – I had been craving Aussie Cheese Fries and decided to fulfill that desire. They – and the rest of dinner (prime rib, salad, baked potato) – were just what the doctor ordered.

We headed up to Eastwood Elementary School to watch the Sugar House Park fireworks display. When we returned home, SaraRules put in Clash by Night, featuring a pre-The Big Valley Barbara Stanwyck as well as Marilyn Monroe.  I was distracted/put off by some of the storyline, but it was a decent movie.

I’m not sure what I want to do today. I have an option on playing ‘Clix with Chris and , but I’m not sure that I’m in the mood for it. (I know…!) I wouldn’t mind playing a little City, either. Or even Marvel Ultimate Alliance. And there are a couple of new ‘Clix building designs running through my head that I need to get onto paper, too.

The Best: The Man Who Sold the World
David Bowie vs. Nirvana vs. Lulu

David Bowie released this song in 1970. And it was good.
Lulu, possibly best known in the States for To Sir, With Love, did a cover in 1974.
Nirvana, a band I’ve never really been a fan of, covered the song in 1993.

I’ve liked the Bowie version since I first heard it, many moons ago.
I thought that the Nirvana cover was… decent, but didn’t really do anything “different” to put their own spin on it.
I heard the Lulu version yesterday, for the first time.

My rankings for the versions:

1. David Bowie
2. Nirvana (I know, this surprises me, too.)
3. Lulu

Stray Toasters

• Former NFL QB Steve McNair found shot to death
  • Baltimore Ravens respond to the news
  • Titans Coach, Jeff Fisher, comments
    
• Getting a summer job: Entrepreneurship for teens
• Fritz Lang directed Clash by Night. He also directed Metropolis, which I own and still need to watch the last forty or so minutes of.
• Personal details of new UK spy chief on Facebook
• It’s snake-eyes for Atlantic City for time being
• I am three weeks behind on Four-Color Coverage.
  This is both an observation… and a warning.
• Disney World monorail crash kills driver
• Michael Jackson book a headache for Jackie O
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Insane Sarah Palin, Late at Night on July 4, Threatens to Sue Entire Internet

Namaste.

Friday – 03 July 2009
Last night, we went out to dinner with SaraRules’ family, to celebrate her mother’s birthday. Post-dinner, we headed to her parents’ house for a birthday cake pie – a rich, multi-layered chocolate affair that SaraRules made from scratch, including a crust made from crushed nuts. It was very good and VERY rich.

Back at home, we vegged. After watching a bit of TV… and having the TV watch me, as I nodded off on the couch… I finished up my new ‘Clix building.

Sleep was intermittent; it felt like I woke up eleventy billion times during the night.

Stray Toasters

• One of the designers from WorldWorks Games is a Transformers fan. He still is, even after seeing the new movie; but he wrote a review that made me smile.
• NAACP comic from early 1960s
• WHO warns swine flu ‘unstoppable’
• Opus Dei: Separating fact from fiction
• 
• Tower of Power and Spyro Gyra will be here next weekend for the Salt Lake City International Jazz Festival
• Statue of Liberty photoshopping contest
• How to Perform a Trebuchet with a Butterfly Knife
• Ript: The dude equivalent of a padded bra

Right on to the…
…well, it’s a day off, so I don’t anticipate a lot of friction.

Namaste.

Thursday – 02 July 2009
Today has been… a day. It hasn’t really been “hellish,” so to speak, but there has been a lot going on. However, there is a plus side to the day: IT is having “Team Jersey/T-shirt Day” and we’re having ice cream (with cookies and toppings and waffle bowls).

Last night, I got the roof on the lobby of the new ‘Clix building and the water feature in front of the building. It required buying a new set, Seaworks: Atlantis, but I realized that I can now make the “Great Arena” Map in 3D using parts from the Atlantis kit.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules and I went for a walk yesterday evening. While out, we stopped at Red Mango; I had a yen for a Green Tea Yogurt. I discovered something… horrible: Red Mango no longer makes/carries the Green Tea Yogurt.
• Neverland could rival Graceland as tour attraction
• , with a generous donation from the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file, sent a link to this: Universal Lands Rights to Asteroids Movie
• LEGO’s Temple of Adorable Doom
• 
• An exciting stats website? Believe it
• It’s raining again.
• Speaking of which, SaraRules noted that Salt Lake City had 17 days of rain in June.
• SurvivalStraps Survival Bracelet

Namaste.

Wednesday – 01 July 2009
A new month begins… with a brief rain shower.

Yesterday, SaraRules, Marci, Wes and I hit the gym at lunchtime for a short workout:

• Sit-ups: 3 sets – 20/10/10
• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 205 lbs
• Incline Chest Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 80 lbs
• Reverse Flys: 3 sets/110 lbs
• Curls (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs

Post-workout weight: 185.4 lbs

Last night, SaraRules and I watched Vantage Point, by way of Netflix’ “Instant Queue” on the 360. Streaming movies on a game console… over the Interwebs.  Who knew?! The movie depicts the attempted assassination of an American President from eight points of view. It was an interesting concept and it was pulled off fairly well. We realized, after the movie was done, that this was the second consecutive movie that we’ve seen with Forest Whitaker in it wherein his character’s life intertwines with other characters’ lives in an unusual synchronicity, the first being The Air I Breathe.

After the movie, I did a little more work on my ‘Clix building. All of the walls are up, now I just need to put the main roof and the lobby roof on and add a few tiles of water and it will be complete.

This morning, I really didn’t want to get out of bed when the alarm went off. But, I did. And took care of the morning hygiene rituals. And, as I was finishing with the work-prep, I turned on the TV… and Breakin’ was on. And, yes, I did stop and watch a bit of it.

Stray Toasters

• sent me a link to Star Trek Look-Alikes Open Restaurant
• Greek mental care failures exposed
• From NPR Music:
  • A Mix for America
  • What the Heck Is That? Odd Instruments in Jazz
  • Jay Smooth: On Hip-Hop, Blogs and Race
• By way of Rachel:

  
  (click image for larger version)

• There’s a good article on ToyChop called “Good Fences,” about house rules for barriers in HeroClix.
• By way of and the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: “I was not prepared to see a… woodland creature… in the interview room.”
• 

• Tables turned on Russian gamblers
• dot.life: Listening to Mr. iPhone
• Also from Nyx… and the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: GOP Rep. to Environmentalists: Jesus Already Saved the Planet

Namaste.

Tuesday – 30 June 2009
It’s the last day of June. I’m sure that this is important – or at least “notable” – for many reasons, but prime among them is the fact that the new IKEA bible catalog will be out soon.

Last night, we had a tasty dinner with SaraRules’ family. After dinner, and some errand-running, we headed home for some downtime. I started putting together walls for my new ‘Clix building. Of the eight main walls, I have five complete; the last three should go much faster. Then I can start in on the “lobby” section, which should go quite quickly. I’m looking forward to getting it completed.

This morning, I was at work at 0700. One of our teams has a couple of days’ worth of meetings and we had to get some networking ready for it. So, loonybin88 and I were in here – neither bright-eyed nor bushy-tailed – to get it taken care of.  Naturally, while we were wrapping up the setup, there was a pushy monkey who wanted to have something done his way; little did he know that he was mere moments away from having the closest live power cord plugged into a place neither God, Mother Nature nor Darwin ever intended for it to go. *sigh* Monkeys, go figure.

Stray Tourists Toasters

• June 30, 1953: Corvette Adds Some Fiber, Flair to American Road
• I have frozen mocha goodness!  And a bagel!
• L.A.’s vegan restaurants are full of egg
• Tourist Remover photoshops stray tourists out of your snaps
• Great Geek Debates: Kirk vs. Picard
• Did I mention “monkeys?”
• Jackson’s Death Puts Lucrative Beatles Copyrights In Play
  The man may have been… “odd,” to say the least, but he was a great entertainer. I had forgotten that he had a major share of the rights to many/most of the Beatles’ music catalog. I was also unaware of this performance of Come Together until yesterday:

• U.S. ‘concerned’ over cyber threat
• Force of Nature: Artist Puts Petal to the Metal for Electrifying Images
• Lord of the Rings considered as a D&D game (webcomic)
• Super Small, Super Powerful Quantum Processor Can Solve Multiple Problems at Once
  (Repeat after me: “SkyNet is now online…”)

Right on to the friction of the day…

Namaste.

Monday – 29 June 2009
We opted not to go back to the Utah Arts Festival yesterday and enjoyed a lazy day at home.  It was rather nice. When SaraRules asked me what I wanted for dinner, I had an idea: Grilling some steak and/or chicken. The more I thought about it, the better it sounded. And that’s what I did: Steak, chicken, corn on the cob, zucchini, mushrooms and red peppers. They turned out well.

Logan came over and joined us for dinner; we watched Aliens while we ate. After that, the three of us played Trivial Pursuit. (I really need to get some updated cards for the game…) When we played, we kept our wedges in our respective corners and used HeroClix figures as our playing pieces:

• SaraRules used Wonder Woman,
• Logan used The Riddler and
• I used the custom GL John Stewart figure that Perry made for me a while back.

The “Literature” category of the Genus Edition often kicks my trash; last night, the universe threw me a bone, almost literally, when I was going for the brown wedge:

What is the name of Superman’s dog?

I couldn’t believe it when Logan asked the question; I thought he was kidding. Then he reread the question. It gave me a good laugh when I answered: “Krypto.” I was so amused by the question that I switched my game piece to my Krypto ‘Clix, because I could… and because it amused me to do so.

After the game, Logan and I played through a board of HALO3. After seeing the amount of crap that we had to wade through, I was happy to have the help.

After Logan left, I started working on a new building for HeroClix City, based on a design that I came up with on Friday. I knew that I was going to have to adapt the building faces to fit the design, but I thought that three of them would be the same. Nope. Two of them are, the third one was much easier to work with. I’m also going to have to work out the details of five other faces. We’ll see how it shapes up.

So far, today’s been a good – and relatively quiet – day. There haven’t been any major fires to put out. There haven’t been any monkeys to beat down. Not a bad way to kick off a Monday and a holiday week.

Stray Toasters

• Yesterday was the first time I’ve fired up my grill in two years, I think. The igniter on the grill wasn’t working, so I had to use a camp stove lighter to kick things off. Great theory and nominally good application… aside from the fact that I had turned up the gas “a bit” too high and wound up creating a small fireball that singed the hair off the back of two of my fingers.
• In a related note: I went online to look for the manual for the grill – I need to know how to repair or replace the igniter. Sears has 119 of them posted. I looked at all of them, but only found two (2) that look close to my grill. I’ll have to compare and contrast them when I get home.
• 13 year old kid reviews 30 year old Walkman
• showed us the trailer for the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG.
• Google Mistook Jackson Searches for Net Attack

That’s good for now.

Namaste.

Sunday – 28 June 2009
Last night, I came home from poker night at OnlyAly and ‘s to find that I was far more tired than I had realized – I was starting to nod off a little after midnight. I called it a relatively early night.

I woke up a little after 0900. So far, I haven’t done much other than surf and watch Boneyard on The History Channel. This episode is entitled “Railroads,” so it’s pretty much held my attention for the past forty-five minutes.

Today, we don’t have much on tap. We’re considering heading back to the Utah Arts Festival later this afternoon. Before that, I may try to assemble a new building that I designed for my ‘Clix city… and/or play some HALO3. I realized something last night – I never finished HALO2, so I have that to look forward to when I’m done with H3.

Namaste.

Saturday – 27 June 2009
This morning, SaraRules and I got up and headed to the Downtown Farmer’s Market. We’ve wanted to go for the past couple of weeks, but hadn’t managed to do so. Today, we made it. It was interesting to juxtapose the number of exhibitors there today with the number there when we went in October – far more now than then.

On the way home, we stopped in to say “Hi” to SaraRules’ parents. Back at home, I took a little time to play HALO3… and to remember to “Save and Quit.”  Although, when I went to verify that it saved at the proper point, I found that it was putting me back at the beginning of this mission, rather than three segments into it. *sigh* Fine. Whatever. I remember a few things that should serve me well in getting through these sections – again – and on to where I need to be.

Next on the docket: Heading out to watch Transformers Giant Robots Blowing Shit Up with some of the usual suspects.

Namaste.