Random Access

Tuesday – 09 December 2008
Happy Birthday to MarknTyme:

It’s a little after 7:00 (or it was when I started this), and I’m already at work. We have some work being done around the office and we needed to be sure that someone would be here to let the electricians in. I volunteered. On the plus side, I’ll be done at 3:00 or 4:00, depending on whether Wes and/or Marci and I hit the gym.

Football Update

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Carolina Panthers
23 – 38
This game was the battle of two 9-3 NFC South teams, as the Bucs rolled into Charlotte to take on the Panthers before a capacity crowd and the Monday Night Armchair Quarterback Football crowd. The game showcased a lot of defensive talent on both teams, but the game pretty much belonged to the Panthers from the get-go. They didn’t put many balls in the air – Jake DelHomme threw two INTs, although he did throw for 178 yards and one TD – but the running game was stellar: RBs De’Angelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, who both ran in two TDs, ran for a combined 301 yards. The Buccaneers looked…unbalanced. They would have a couple of good series, but couldn’t seal the deal when it came down to it. There were also times when veteran QB Jeff Garcia just looked lost in the pocket. Literally. More than once, as the pocket started to collapse, he just looked scared and unsure of what to do. With this win, the Panthers go to 10-3, atop the NFC South. As the commentators said last night, Carolina has its season and playoff picture in its own hands – their next three games are against the Broncos, Giants and the Saints. But, if they continue to play the way they did last night, they could be a serious contender for the playoffs… and maybe, just maybe, even the Super Bowl.

Stray Toasters

• I’m a fairly unabashed fan of both The Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Last night, The Late Late Show returned from hiatus; it turns out that Craig Ferguson’s mother passed away last week. Rather than his usual joke-laden opening, he began the show with a very personal monologue, in which he talked about his mother – not so much about her death, but about her life. I’ve heard that his monologue following his father’s death was similarly personal.
• By way of (whom I had originally thought was) SaraRules (but wasn’t): Our Daily Bleg: Holy Comic Quotations, Batman!
• The mouse hits 40-year milestone and 40 Years of Mighty Mice
• 
• Inside a US sex addiction clinic
• By way of : “Is this for real?”
  (, you need to share this with Mrs. .)
• Sony to cut plants and 8,000 jobs

Back to it.

Namaste.

So… I went to the tournament. I discovered that it was “restricted” after I got there, which meant that all of the older figures I had gone to the trouble of locating were unusable for this event. Great. Fortunately, I still had plenty of options from the recent releases to use. I went with:

• Black Canary
• Captain Gordon
• Marvel Girl
• Moon Knight
• Nightshade and
• Spider-Man

I wound up going 0-3, but I got the “Fellowship” prize: Crispus Allen. Besides the Grodd LE, this was one I’d really hoped to get. Mission: Accomplished.

I met up with SaraRules and Logan and we headed off to see Punisher: War Zone.

We knew beforehand that it was going to be bad. We just didn’t know “how” bad.
Holy.
Cow.
This was a horrible movie.
The low end of the “Cool World-Long Kiss Goodnight” Scale bad:

• Cinematography: BAD.
• Direction (such as it was): BAD
• Acting: Three guesses, first two don’t count. (Hint: BAD)
• Dialogue: Laughably BAD

The action scenes were… *consults with SaraRules*… good, but VERY over-the-top in a hyper-realized comic book way.

We wound up MST3K-ing this movie about halfway through it. And that didn’t even help. I think that the only thing that might – and even this may be a stretch – help this movie would be either:

1. Making a drinking game out of the movie
2. Being drunk before seeing the movie

We took a bullet for you guys by seeing this. You should be thanking us. Profusely.

After the movie, SaraRules and I went to Cafe Med for dinner. As usual, the food was delicious. There was a young lady on the far side of the restaurant who apparently found a great many things in her dinner conversation amusing, as she laughed a lot. A whole lot. Loudly. No… “boisterously” would be a much better way of putting it.

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

Saturday – 06 December 2008
Last night, SaraRules and I went over to Logan’s to play Left4Dead. Holy crap. Valve has done an excellent job of capturing the feel of putting players in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. It was fun… and rather intense. I also found it amusing that the characters in the game (somewhat) mirrored those of us playing: Two white males, a white female… and a bald black guy. If you like zombies and first-person shooters (and have an XBox 360), this is a game that you’ll want to take a look at.

After zombie killin’, SaraRules and I headed to meet up with the Clitorati gang for coffee… or, in my case, hot chocolate. And then, we headed over to Cheers: North for a bite to eat.

I have a ‘Clix tourney this afternoon: 300 points, no single figure over 50 points.
This should be interesting, to say the least.

Stray Toasters

• Man sees water tower, man wants to reside in water tower, man turns water tower into fly crib
• The 6 most problematic Barbie situations in history
• …aside from the Bratz lawsuit
• 5 Lame Things in Star Wars Canon

Up out.

Friday – 05 December 2008
Happy Hatching Day to Derek:

Another work week draws to a close; hopefully, the day won’t be too bad.

Last night, I headed over to play ‘Clix with Perry. I asked him how many points he wanted to go with – he opted for 300. We picked our teams and had at it. I went with Ms. Marvel (Skrull) and Susan Richards (Skrull), while he brought Invisible Woman, Human Torch and The Thing. Then it was on…

• Both of my figures had Outwit.
• Since my figures were Skrulls, I got to roll to see if he could hit me before each attack.
• Ms. Marvel has the Indomitable trait – meaning she can act on two successive rounds without taking pushing damage.
• Ms. Marvel’s first movement power, Exfiltrate, allows her to use Stealth, thus she couldn’t be attacked using ranged combat, as long as she was in hindering terrain… which I pretty much made sure that she stayed in.

It was a (fairly) short game.
And a little one-sided.
I told him that the next time we played, I would try to play a more balanced team against him.

SaraRules showed up while Perry and I were playing. After the game, she and I headed to the Festival of Trees, at South Towne Expo Center. TONS of trees. And wreaths. And gingerbread houses. And people. Some of the trees were amazingly well-decorated… but there were also (more than) a few duds. And all proceeds go to benefit Primary Children’s Medical Center. So, it’s a win-win situation. If you’re in the SLC Metro area and looking for something to do – and something that benefits a good cause – go check it out.

Stray Toasters

• I have a new holiday-themed icon.
• How to Survive the 17 worst Mac Disasters
• From NPR: Little Support for Trafficked Women in Russia
  
• 
• First International Body Music Festival
• “It’s true!”
• Bill Cosby + Cowboy Bebop = Cosby Bebop (Thanks to for the link.)
• Sucked into the Tunnels Beneath Las Vegas

Attack the day…

Namaste.

Wes and I hit the gym again at lunch. We did a variation of Tuesday’s workout:

• Dips: 3 sets/10 reps
• Bench press: 3 sets/15 reps, 155 lbs
• Curls (dumbell, concentration): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
• Bent-over Rows: 3 sets/12 reps, 30 lbs
• Lateral raises (with forward rotation): 3 sets/10 reps, 10 lbs
• Reverse Punches: 3 sets/10 reps, 10 lbs
• Tricep Extensions (dumbbell, overhead): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs

Post-workout weight: 180.9 lbs.

Not a bad workout, overall.  The extra reps on bench, even at the lower weight, made my arms quite tired. And, from the way that I was dragging on lateral raises, I can tell I need to do them more often, too.

Stray Toasters

• From BBC News: Congresswoman hangs up on Obama
• Santa hat pasties
• Edible Electronics Monitor Drugs in Your Body
• I have a ‘Clix tourney on Saturday. This one’s going to be interesting: 300 points, but no single figure can be more than 50 points. I’ve been looking at who that leaves as eligible. Part of me is thinking of doing a team and calling it “Prisoner Transfer” and filling it with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and/or police officers and thugs/henchmen – no one with superpowers.  I do have a couple of other ideas that I’m mulling over, but the “Prisoner Transfer” idea just makes me laugh.
• Prince rewards spendy fans with DRM-crippled downloads

Namaste.

Tuesday – 02 December 2008
Another day, another dollar seventy cents (or something like that, after taxes).

Stray Toasters

• I talked with Adam again last night. All’s (still) well in the northern hinterlands. Our parents are headed out there tomorrow; Chelsea’s folks are already there. I can’t wait for the stories.
• Grace has learned a new word: “Bobo,” a character from one of the books that Bot and read to her. Still no “Mama,” yet, though… much to Bot’s chagrin.
• By way of SaraRules and the “Welcome to the Land Behind the Zion Curtain” file: Buttars takes aim at stores waging ‘war on Christmas’
• Rachel sent me an item that I hadn’t seen before: Physics doesn’t exist, it’s all about Gnomes
• I don’t mean to downplay this, but doesn’t this come under the heading of “Duh…” – Chances of WMD attack in big city greater: report
• Every time I drive past an Arby’s or especially when I see one of their commercials with this logo…

  

  …I laugh. Not because “I’m thinking Arby’s” is funny. Rather, the image looks more like “I’m thinking giant penis.” (Someone pulled a fast one over on the guys in the marketing department.) Seriously… look at the young lady and the guy on the right and the looks on their faces – they aren’t thinking about curly fries or a “Five for $5” roast beef sandwich combo.

• Disgruntled 8-year-old boy crashes teacher’s car
  …which, after I shared the link, was followed by:

  : Next article: German churches find ‘chocolate Jesus’ tasteless”
  : Clearly someone used poor quality chocolate in their chocolate jesei

• With the apparent demise – or at least long-term coma – of WizKids and HeroClix, I decided to scrape the site for as many of the character cards from the last eleven sets as I could get.
• Steampunk sewing machine

…right on to the friction of the day.

Namaste.

Monday – 01 December 2008
And so, another work week – and another month – begin.

I was lucky enough to get to spend a portion of my morning on the phone with HP Tech Support explaining why they needed to ship me a replacement for a replacement part they sent last week. Short answer: They sent the wrong part. *sigh* This time, I sent to an email to the rep, so that he could see the differences bewteen Part A (the part I need to have replaced) and Part B (the part they sent). I should have the new – and hopefully correct – replacement part tomorrow.

Stray Toasters

• As I mentioned last week, there’s a new member of the family – now complete with pictures.
• By way of SaraRules:
  • As Taboos Ease, Saudi Girl Group Dares to Rock
  • Atlantic Records Says Digital Sales Surpass CDs
  • Kanab Orchestra Thrives Under Long-Time Maestro
    
• By way of comes an interesting read about comic book cancellations and why the Big Two keep churning out mega-crossovers: “Why you feelin’ sorry for him? He asked for it…”
• How Dan Kaminsky broke and fixed DNS
• I just discovered that a coworker used to play Star Fleet Battles, many moons ago.
• I read a news article title from Wired.com – Genetically Modified Peanuts Could Save Lives – and my first thought was of Charles Schulz’ comic strip… new and improved! Finally, Charlie Brown can kick that football! lj user=”everydave” pointed out the following:
  

  “sure..but the mutation would be across the board…so while CB might be able to finally kick the ball..the ball, now sentient, is going to come back and reign down hell on ol’ chuck in retaliation…”

• Best Book Covers of 2008
• Yiddish in Jazz
• Meetings. YAY!

Namaste.

It’s been a pretty decent day… even for a Monday.

Stray Toasters

• Before the collapse of WizKids, Jake Theis – former Brand and Product Development manager – wrote a series of blogs on “Brand Development and Philosophy.” They were good. Very good. It was supposed to be a ten-part series, but he only got five of them into print before Topps decided to fold the WizKids line. This afternoon, I finally jotted an email to him about my thoughts on the series and whether the rest of it would see print. A short while later, I received a reply. And, it looks as though Parts Six through Ten may see print.
• Jonathan Glancey on why LEGO is the best brick on the block
• Burj Tower: the world’s largest cloud buster
• Because it’s always good for a laugh or twenty-seven: Best of Craigslist
• Despite the fact that you weren’t born to millionaire/billionaire parents AND the fact that you haven’t traveled the world to study martial arts AND the fact that you don’t have the limitless resources of a multinational company at your disposal, have you ever wanted to be Batman? Well, maybe these will help you get one step closer.
• Speaking of billionaire industrialists: Iron Man Children’s Costume Modded to Be Deadly-Cute
• By way of : Mega Man “trailer”

Today’s Challenge
I’m in search of a Mäkta Decorative Sphere, specifically the amber/yellow one. Unfortunately the local IKEA does not seem to have any in stock.

So, my challenge to those of you who live near a Garden of Sweden: Find one.
If you should happen to find one, please let me know in which location you found it.

Namaste.

Sunday – 23 November 2008
Today’s been good on a number of fronts:

• I got to sleep in (a bit).
• I watched football.
• I watched the stats tracking of the Eagles-Ravens game.
• I went to the Garden of Sweden with SaraRules.
• I played City of Heroes. (I know…!)
• I hung out with SaraRules’ family and watched more football.

Pretty much any way you look at it, that’s a day full of goodness and win.

Saturday – 22 November 2008
This morning started off quietly. There was sleeping in and breakfast before the day kicked off.

After all of that, I gathered up my things, picked up Chris and we headed to Far West Comics for a 2000 point HeroClix tournament. Unrestricted. And we had the option of using one (1) colossal figure. I went with:

• Batman (Sinestro Corps)
• Dark Phoenix
• Parallax
• Psycho-Pirate
• Superman (Earth-2)
• Wonder Woman

There were a couple of other guys who brought Dark Phoenix figures, too. I wound up going 1-2 for the day: I lost the first round on points, lost the second round in a pure beatdown and won the third round handily. But, I really didn’t go into the tourney to win; I just wanted to play around with figures that I haven’t had a chance to field test yet: E-2 Supes and Dark Phoenix. And they were fun to play. (Too bad they don’t fit in standard 300 point games.)

After that, I met up with SaraRules. We picked up dinner and headed back to my place.

Tonight, we’re off to the symphony to hear Shostakovich‘ 5th Symphony.

And that’s a wrap.

Friday – 21 November 2008
It’s the end of the week. Finally. Amen.
I seem to be on the downhill slope of this cold. Finally. Amen.

Today hasn’t been bad. I didn’t rush in getting ready this morning, including a thirty-minute Interweb surfing session before heading out the door. I can’t really complain about the workday, so far, either. Or maybe that’s just Friday apathy talking. Who knows?

Stray Toasters

• You’d think that if a vendor/manufacturer sent you a multi-thousand dollar server, they’d include a power cord or two with it.
• I don’t know how long ago they implimented it, but I just discovered that you an schedule your auction start times on eBay. The last that I was aware, you had to buy auction management software to schedule them for you. I like this option much better… even if there is a $0.10 fee for doing it.
• For reasons that I have yet to explain, I had the theme from My Mother, the Car running through my head while I was getting ready for work this morning.
• Cranky Colbert warms up for a heartwarming holiday show
• Ginger snaps. The cookies, not the movie.
• 2000-point unrestricted ‘Clix bash tomorrow. I should really put some thought into who I want to use.
• Guitar Hero as training for bionic arms

Almost… done…

Namaste.

Wednesday – 19 November 2008
After work – and after taking SaraRules to pick up her car – we headed to Best Buy. I picked up Wall·E, Season 1 of Smallville and The Illusionist. With my goodies in hand, we headed back to my place, where SaraRules made a rather tasty chicken and spinach gumbo.

Later this morning, I get to make the trek over Point of the Mountain and go to Happy Valley for a bit. Yay. Hopefully, I’ll be back in SLC by or shortly after lunch.

Stray Toasters

• I have to thank Sib-3 for pointing me in the direction of Fringe.
• Speaking of Sib-3, he and my sister-in-law are expecting their first little bundle of joy in a few weeks – it’s a boy.
• It’s fairly common knowledge that if I get to choose how God appears to me, I want him to look like Morgan Freeman. However… last night, I was poking around Amazon.com for Christmas presents and stumbled across The King James Bible, read by James Earl Jones and thought: “That’s awesome!” I mean, how cool would it be to have an audio version of The Bible narrated by Darth Vader… Mufasa… King Jaffe Joffer… Admiral Greer… I mean James Earl Jones?!
• These comics, from Invisible Spiders, amused me: One and Two
• And, on the topic of zombies: 4 Things to Keep in Mind While Killing Zombies in Left 4 Dead

I should probably start getting ready to head to the southlands.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 18 November 2008
Today, while relatively uneventful, has been good. Discounting the road monkeys that I had to deal with on the way to work being the main exception.

Marci, Mark, Wes and I hit the gym for a back and triceps workout today:

• Lat Pull-downs: 3 sets/10 reps, 100 lbs
• Reverse Flys: 3 sets/10 reps, 70 lbs
• Row (machine): 3 sets/10 reps, 80 lbs
• Dips (unassisted): 3 sets/10 reps
• Tricep Press (t-bar): 3 sets/10 reps, 45 lbs
• Tricep Extension (rope): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
• Push-ups: 3 sets, 15-15-10

It was a good, focused workout and everyone seemed to like it… despite the pain/tense muscles.

Post-workout weight: 182.4 lbs.

Stray Toasters

• I have a tasty birch beer to go with my lunch!
• The LJ server upgrades must (finally) be complete – I can access WP again. Apparently, the LJ Crossposter plugin has to check in with LJ on every page load.  Fortunately, someone posted an easy workaround for the “transport error” problem that occurs when LJ is unavailable.
• By way of Drew: NASA Dryden Research Aircraft Photo Collection
• I got some ‘Clix auctions posted last night. A couple of them already have watchers.  That’s a good sign.
• Today’s Questionable Content is amusing.
• Will President Clinton provide a major obstacle to Senator Clinton’s becoming “Secretary Clinton?” We shall see.
• Arkham Asylum, by the numbers

Back to lunch and then back to the grind.

Namaste.

Monday – 17 November 2008
This past weekend was… something of an adventure.

SaraRules wanted to head to Cedar City for the dual purpose of seeing the SUU production of Facing East and to get a few things from her storage unit down there. I’m almost always up for a road trip… or a play… or seeing the other MFAs, so this sounded like a good idea to me. Saturday morning, we got up and under way. We hit the road around 10:00 AM. We neared Scipio around noon.

And that’s when the fun started: Dropping into the valley that Scipio is in (about 2 hours south of SLC), the engine started revving and the RPMs jumped by roughly 2000.  Oh, and there was no acceleration.

Great.

We pulled over to take a look under the hood.
Nothing leaking.
Nothing spewing.
Nothing smoking.

We got back in and started up again.
First gear… good.
Second gear… good.
Third gear… third gear…? Bueller?  Bueller?

So, we dropped it into second gear and rode the shoulder into Scipio. We stopped and the Eagle Landing gas station. There were a couple of tire guys there – we hoped that they’d be able to offer a little insight. Not really. Their best suggestion was to head over to Richfield (40 miles away) and wait for something to open up on Monday. *blink blink* There were a couple of other gas stations on the other side of the freeway; we decided to go for a second opinion.

As we got to the other side of I-15, we noted that the other stations’ garages were closed. But, there was a sign for the Scipio Garage, which was just down the street. And, away we went. We got there and the garage door was open. This was a good sign! We stopped the car and walked into the mini-store that was connected to it.

*cue the theme from Deliverance*

Once the owner decided that neither SaraRules nor I had two heads on our shoulders – and that we really did intend for him to get out of his chair to take a look at the car – he went outside to see what I could discern about our problem. He looked under the hood and found the transmission fluid dipstick. He pulled it out, looked at it and put it back in.

Then he did it again.
And a third time.
And a fourth time.
And, yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus was a fifth time. But this time, he smelled the stick, too.

He said that the transmission fluid didn’t smell burned, but that it was possible that there was air in the pump. His suggestions included getting the car towed or trying to get back to Provo or SLC.

We went with Option #1: Get back to Provo or Salt Lake City.

For those of you who’ve never had to do it, let me just say that driving 30-40 MPH on the shoulder of a nominally busy freeway is not the most fun way to travel. Rumble strips. Road kill. Blow-out debris. But, you do what you have to do. We got to Nephi (formerly home of the Motel 8 “NEHPI” sign) about an hour later. We pulled off the freeway and decided to drive frontage roads/state routes back to the Provo/Orem area.

Scenic, yes.
Slow, yes.
But we made it.
And, we even discovered a Dairy Queen knock-off in Santaquin called… Santa Queen.  (Yes, we had the same images pop into our heads, too.)

We got back to Salt Lake around 4:00 PM. After a quick stop at my apartment for a bite to eat and use of the water closet, we moved the bags into my car and attempted the southern trek once more. We were more successful this time… although we didn’t get to Cedar City until after 8:00, which meant that we missed the play. We did get to go into the theatre for the post-performance talkback, though. We had dinner with the MFAs. And we crashed at Rachel’s.

Yesterday morning, we got up, got ready and headed over to the storage unit. We found the items that SaraRules wanted to bring back, loaded them in the car and got back on the road. We were back in SLC around 2:30 PM. I dropped SaraRules – and her stuff – at her parents’ and headed to go play ‘Clix with Chris and Perry. Chris (of course) schooled us; I came in second and Perry got a nice box of Rice-A-Roni.

This morning, we took SaraRules’ car to the shop. Let the pros figure it out, we figure.

And that’s how I spent my summer vacation weekend.

Stray Toasters

• Since posted this the other day, I figured I’d try it, too:

  39.5 miles per gallon

  Created by The Car Connection

• ‘s stepfather sent me a link to a neat PowerPoint presentation about the SR-71
• By way of and the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Man tries to pay bill with spider drawing
• What do you get when you cross the 44th President-Elect with a videogame? Super Obama World
• For those who haven’t seen it yet: The new Star Trek trailer

Back to it.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 12 November 2008
It’s a grey, rainy morning in the Salt Lake valley. It’s a little foggy to the north; I can’t even see the north end of the valley. I can barely make out the outline of the Oquirrhs, to the west.

Last night, SaraRules and I watched August Rush. There were a few cheesy moments in the film, but overall, it wasn’t bad. And it had some great music in it, as well. The main… um… I guess “theme” is as good a word as any… of the movie was how music can connect people, no matter what the distance or differences. On the whole, I’d give the movie a thumbs-up. One odd note (sorry… bad pun): The “Deleted Scenes” feature doesn’t allow viewers to choose which of the scenes to watch – you get to watch them all, sequentially. There are only six or seven of them – and most of them are decent – but the last one…? Man. They seriously made the right decision by leaving that on the cutting room floor.

Workout
Wes, Marci and I made it to the gym again yesterday:

• Bench press: 3 sets/10 reps, 185 lbs
• Reverse Fly (machine): 3 sets/10 reps, 70 lbs
• Row (machine): 3 sets/10 reps, 70 lbs
• Lateral Raises (with forward fly): 3 sets/10 reps, 10 lbs
• Side bends: 3 sets/10 reps per side, 25 lbs
• Tricep extensions (rope): 3 sets/10 reps, 45 lbs
• Core (plank): 3 sets, 30 sec

Post-workout weight: 181.4 lbs

Wes mentioned that he wants to start working on specific areas. I asked if he wanted to do more focused/targeted workouts; he said yes. So, tomorrow, we’ll start focusing on chest and upper body, I do believe…

Stray Toasters

• I’m still a bit surprised by the whole Topps/WizKids thing.
• …and now: Richard Garriott quits NCSoft
• sent me a link to a post about a steam-powered car. As with most things that she sends, I clicked the link. Upon looking at it, I quipped back to her:
  

  That’s not quite “steampunk.” It’s more… “steamfunk.”

• What could/would George Clinton do with Steamfunk?
• Or, since he already has a song called Steam, would Peter Gabriel be a better choice?
• How about a collaborative effort?
• The premise of the movie Slumdog Millionaire sounds… interesting:
  

  Directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting), Slumdog Millionaire is the story of Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is just one question away from winning 20 million rupees on India’s “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating. Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together, and of the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show’s questions.

• While looking for a couple other videos, I stumbled across this: Lady Marmalade (from Moulin Rouge)
  Christina Aguilera |MTV Music
• …and I eventually found one of my favorite David Bowie songs, Absolute Beginners:
  David Bowie |MTV Music
• Bush: ‘I regret saying some things I shouldn’t have said’

Namaste.