Random Access

Saturday – 11 Oct 2008
Last night’s Clitorati was good and we had a rather decent turnout. Rachel fit in nicely with the usual suspects, also.

This morning, SaraRules, Rachel and I went to the Downtown Farmers’ Market.

It. Was. Cold.

We were (and for the most part, still are) on the leading edge of a stormfront. There is talk of snow, anywhere from ½” to 6″, depending on the path the storm takes. Yay.

After the market, we headed back to my place for a bit. SaraRules and Rachel went shopping, I had a ‘Clix tournament. I said my goodbyes to Rachel before they headed to the mall. I had considered what team I wanted to use last night, so all I had to do this morning was make sure that the correct figures were in my case this morning. I went with the theme of “Spies ‘R’ Us,” which included:

• Dum-Dum Dugan (Human)
• Elektra (Skrull)
• Iron Widow
• Nick Fury and
• Susan Richards (Skrull)

I went 2-1 for the day, which was a nice turnaround from last week’s 1-2. My first game was against a kid named Kasey. Literally, a kid – he couldn’t have been more than 12. He was the nephew of Duane, one of the semi-regular tourney contestants. He fielded:

• Green Scar (Hulk)
• Iron Man
• Spider-Girl

I had planned on taking out Spider-Girl first… until Mr. Banner decided to close ranks. For some reason, taking him out became “Priority: One.” Go figure. After taking him down, it was Ms. Parker’s turn. And finally, Iron Man was sent to the scrap yard. To his credit, he was able to take down my somewhat early in the game. I don’t know what Duane’s been teaching him as far as playing HeroClix goes, but whatever it is, Kasey has been paying attention – with a little more strategy in his gameplay, he will be/become a formidable player.

Next, I fought Duane. I don’t remember who he fielded other than Spider-Girl and a Moloid. And I only remember those because they were the pieces that I KOed. I won that match on points.

Next up: Jerry. His team was a bit eclectic:

• Captain America
• Dr. Doom
• Doctor Strange
• Marvel Girl
• Skrull Infiltrator and
• Spider-Girl

We danced around the map for a bit before the real engagements began. And then, we kept having issues getting the dice rolls we needed. Finally, Jerry started hitting his target numbers. And one-by-one, my team fell by the wayside, until there were none standing. Jerry went 3-0 for the day.

I headed home to meet SaraRules and we went to a quilt show in Holladay. There were a few interesting quilts, but on the whole, I didn’t see much that interested me. We did, however, run into Beth and Jer and their mothers.

And later this evening: Canadian Thanksgiving at Marilyn and Dean’s.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 07 Oct 2008
Happy Birthday to :

Last night, I hung out with SaraRules and her family and watched the rollercoaster (of love… say WHAT!?!) of a game that was Minnesota vs. New Orleans. Wow. There were a LOT of impressive plays in the game:

• Saints QB Drew Brees threw for 330 yards.
• Vikings QB Gus Frerotte threw for 222 yards and engineered a couple of impressive drives, despite taking a beating from the Saints’ defense.
• Saints’ RB Reggie Bush ran for a combined 176 yards, including two (2) punt returns for touchdowns.
• Vikes’ RB Chester Taylor (former Ravens RB) threw a touchdown pass
• And where did Vikings’ CB Antoine Winfield come from?!  He was everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Special teams?  POW!  Defensive line?  BAM!  In the Saints’ backfield?  Yep. He was there, too.

Of course, there were some miscues, too:

• Martin Gramatica’s off-the-mark field goals.
• The Saints’ problems with holding on to the ball.
• Drew Brees’ interceptions.

I just noticed that this week’s NFL passing leaders are Kyle Orton (CHI) with 334 yards and Drew Brees (NO) with 330 yards. Both of them were Boilermakers.

This morning, the alarm went off at 6:20. I did my level best to ignore it. That didn’t work, so I turned off the alarm and laid in bed, pondering the prospect of starting the day.

Somewhere between “pondering” and “starting the day,” I nodded off again.

This is why I have a secondary alarm. It went off. I got up. Yay.

Stray Toasters

• LEGO Eggo waffles.
• WizKids has posted the new Batgirl figure on the Arkham Asylum page, but there’s nothing about it in their news headlines.



• In a rather geeky moment, I realized that 2’x3′ Heroclix maps will fit under the glass top of my living room table.
• 10 IT Power-Saving Myths Debunked
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Monkey waiters at restaurant
• Farewell, Opus; Hello, Pete, the Perfectly Practical Pig

Quote of the Day
Today’s nugget of joy comes from an IRC conversation:

(08:54:52) Ahpuc: When you are sitting on an airplane next to someone who is too chatty, what’s your favorite way to end the conversation?
(09:21:36) : Headphones.
(09:21:55) Xeen: falcon punch
(09:22:37) : Or open up manuals on taxidermy… and tell them you’re looking for test subjects.
(09:25:53) *** scratches their head and goes “hmmm!”.
(09:49:27) Ahpuc: A friend of mine was near a chatty 65-70 year odl woman, she was going around to everyone near here, asking what they did, etc…Like meet-me-get-to-know-me day on the damned airplane.
(09:49:55) Ahpuc: When she got to him and asked what he did he said he ran a porn site, and that they were looking for models for some of the sennior citizen porn.
(09:50:03) Ahpuc: She shut up for the whole flight at that point. 🙂
(09:50:10) : nice. 🙂
(09:50:34) : porn’s a good choice for that. It’s enough to shut people up, but not likely to get you thrown off the plane/mobbed like the other likely answers to those questions.
(09:50:37) : Win.
(09:52:50) Ahpuc: I was thinking of riffing off Fight Club: “Insurance Adjuster for the airlines. Do you know how many of these planes actually crash every year, due to poor maintenance? I mean, if it’s not near a big city, they just cover it up, it never sees the press…This airline in particular is notorious for painting over holes in the cabin. Hmm…Does it feel drafty in here to you?”
(09:54:38) : “No english. Arabic?” *fiddles with a box cutter*
(09:54:50) : CHOSEN WEAPON OF MY PEOPLE, BITCH.
(09:54:52) *** has more coffee.
(09:55:45) ***Ahpuc kicks off the airplane.
(09:56:11) : at 30,000 feet? that’s harsh.
(09:56:24) : That was my other thought – just reply only in Arabic.
(09:57:38) : or Esperanto.
(09:57:49) : or swedish chef?
(09:57:53) : klingon.
(09:58:06) : or KKKKKKKKHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAANNNNN!
(09:58:24) : You could just stare at her. Really up close in her face. Wide eyes. don’t say anything.
(09:58:34) : only reply with direct quotes from Airplane!. “looks like i picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.”
(09:58:49) Ahpuc: Or reply only with Biblical quotations, carefully chosen for effect.
(09:59:13) : naa. just quote ricardo montalban at ’em.
(09:59:48) Ahpuc: Matthew 10:34 – Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

Namaste.

Today is also ‘s birthday:

Stray Toasters

• This morning tried to turn into a full-blown “Monday.” Fortunately, it didn’t.
• I brought waffles this morning. I didn’t get to eat them.
• By way of : The Unspeakable Odyssey of the Motionless Boy
• WikiHow offered the following links today:
  • How to Spot a Gold-digger
  • How to Be a Gold-digger
• One of the Grodd ‘Clix, from the upcoming Arkham Asylum set, is a member of the Sinestro Corps.
• Who is “essential” during a pandemic?

Back to it.

Sunday – 05 Oct 2008
Yesterday morning, I slept in… a little. Until about 8:30. I woke up when SaraRules got ready to head to her quilting club. I needed to get up then because I needed to get a team or two together for a ‘Clix tournament. I came up with a couple of ideas… none of which I wound up using. Instead I went with:

• Batman
• Captain America
• Elektra (Skrull)
• Merlyn
• Psycho-Pirate and
• Susan Richards (Skrull)

It was a good team, but I wound up going 1-2. One guy (not Chris, who had to work yesterday) went 3-0; I think that there was one 2-1 and three of us went 1-2. I liked the overall balance of the team and wound up loosing both matches on points. I also reaffirmed that I am not fond of the prison map – I am getting better need to play on it, but I need more practice with it.

I got home to find that my Kilowog figure had arrived. If it had gotten there earlier, I might have tried an even different team. Who knows? The Shadow knows…

After lunch at Hopper’s, SaraRules and I headed to visit Perry and the kids; Kate was at work. Back home for a bit and then off to breakfast. We tried a new location this week and it was a nice change of pace.

Today started off slowly. I actually managed to sleep in until a little after 9:00. Then it was time for breakfast and coffee… and EPSN’s football pregame show. And then… football. It was a good (2 for 3) day:

• The Ravens lost to the (then) 4-0 Titans.
• The Dolphins won over Sandy Eggo… and looked good doing it, too!
• The Panthers beat the KC Chiefs.

Tonight, after dinner, we’re heading over to Chris and Mary’s for horror movie night.

Stray Toasters

• Who would win: An Imperial Star Destroyer or the USS Enterprise?
• The OS that wouldn’t die: Windows XP Gets Another Six Months to Live
• Huh. I guess that’s it for the ‘Toasters.

Namaste.

Friday – 03 October 2008
SaraRules came over last night and we watched Governor Sarah “Caribou Barbie” Palin take on Senator Joe “Night Train” Biden in the Vice-Presidential Debate (transcript). Let me say that I was expecting it to be much more… entertaining… than it was – Biden is known for running off on long-winded (and not always on the point) diatribes and Gov. Palin… well, we’ve all seen the interviews on the news and YouTube. Both candidates reined in their idiosyncracies and managed to present themselves as rather well-spoken and intelligent. According to a CNN poll:

• 89% thought that Governor Palin did better than expected.
• 64% thought that Senator Biden did better than expected.

That said…

I think that some of my favorite moments came when Gov. Palin was faced with a question that she could not – or did not want to – answer. She seemed to fall back on “John McCain is a maverick… and so am I” far too often. She came off sounding like a cheerleader to me; SaraRules commented that, thanks to Gov. Palin, she was sick of hearing the word “maverick.” I asked if that included times when it was referring to Mel Gibson or James Garner; she said that it didn’t.

I appreciated that there was a question about gay marriage and the rights of same-sex couples. Senator Biden, explained that while he didn’t want to redefine “marriage” but did want same-sex couples to enjoy the same benefits as their heterosexual counterparts. Governor Palin, saying that she was “tolerant” of same-sex couples, came off as condescending to me.

Another curious moment came when Gwen Ifill, PBS news commentator and moderator of the debate, asked the candidates “What do you think your Achilles’ Heel is?” Governor Palin, in an NFL-worthy juke, didn’t come close to answering the question, choosing to talk up her strengths and accomplishments. Senator Biden, on the other hand, drew a little laughter with his response of: “You’re very kind suggesting my only Achilles Heel is my lack of discipline.”

And the closing question of “Can you think of a single issue — and this is to cast light for people who are just trying to get to know you in your final debate, your only debate of this year — can you think of a single issue, policy issue, in which you were forced to change a long-held view in order to accommodate changed circumstances?” Senator Biden drew on an experience fairly early in his career that made him reassess how he voted, his fellow Congressmen and how he formed opinions about their votes. Governor Palin just came off sounding as if she was saying,”I’ve never had to change my opinion.”

On the whole, I’d have to give the debate to Senator Biden, on points, but there was not a clear KO or even a TKO. And, I will once again admit that Governor Palin came off much better than I expected. (Congratulations to her coaches at debate camp this week!)

After the debate – and a stroll to Red Mango for yogurt – we watched Iron Man. It was (at least) my third time seeing it. It’s just… fun. After the movie and after SaraRules went home, I hopped on the nerd and surfed the Interwebs for a bit, while watching The Late Late Show. Lauren Graham, formerly of The Golden Gilmore Girls, was on. She was quite entertaining.

Stray Toasters

• While at the grocery store a few days ago, SaraRules found this card (1, 2). We must have laughed for a minute straight. We knew that it was referring to baptism – and the white garments worn, rather than the skin color – but still… only in Utah.
• Earlier this week, we heard that Citi was moving to buy Wachovia.
  Today, I hear that Wells Fargo is offering to buy them; stockholders seem to prefer the $15 billion (USD) Wells Fargo buyout, as there is no government money/help involved.
• Library celebrates Banned Books Week with window-display featuring volunteers reading banned books



• I enjoyed this photo post from ‘ journal.
• The world is not enough
  But it is such a perfect place to start, my love…
• Hand over controller, girl gamers say
  
• 
• Purdue takes on Penn State tomorrow. I may have to tune in to see how it goes.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 01 Oct 2008
Last night was rather quiet, which was a decidedly pleasant change of pace from the way the day started. After getting home and winding down a bit, I headed back out to pick up my copy of Iron Man. While at Best Buy, I noticed that they had a few DVDs that I was interested in marked down, so I picked them up.

We didn’t have our Scion game so after returning home, I logged into City of Heroes for a bit. I was asked to join a mid-30s level group as a sidekick and we took on the Circle of Thorns. I cut my gaming a little short, as SaraRules stopped by for a while. After she left, I logged back in and ran a couple of Ouroboros missions. After that, I read Watchmen until I fell asleep.

Stray Toasters

• Rush has a song called Nobody’s Hero. If you “mis-listen” to the song, it almost sounds like they are singing “Nobody Zero,” which strikes me as a great name for a street-level, Batman-like hero. Well, maybe more like Kick-Ass or Twilight Guardian or some other non-powered, average Joe who decides to fight evil. But, it’s also got me wondering: What other song lyrics lend themselves to being turned into possible superhero names?
• On last night’s Late Show with David Letterman, Josette Sheeran was one of the guests.  She is the Executive Director of the United Nations’ World Food Programme. After discussing the WFP’s mission, Dave posted a URI for donations: http://www.wfp.org/lateshow/
• While watching for SaraRules to drive past – and watching the traffic along this section of 215 – three parts of the media-cloud in my head all came together:

1. Ants Marching, by The Dave Matthews Band
   

   Driving along this highway
   All these cars and up on the sidewalk
   People in every direction
   No words exchanged,
   No time to exchange when
   All the little ants are marching
   Red and black antennae waving

2. Synchronicity II, by The Police
   

   Packed like lemmings into shiny metal boxes
   Contestants in a suicidal race

3. The theme from Speed Racer (the 60’s cartoon, not the recent movie)
   

   He’s off and flying as he guns the car around the track
   He’s jamming down the pedal like he’s never coming back
   Adventure’s waiting just aheeeeeeeeaaaaad

• And since this is now stuck in my head, I’m going to inflict this on share this with you:

• From NPR Music: Mambo! Afro-Cuban Takes on Jazz Classics
• Do you has?!

Back to it.

Namaste.

After this morning’s madness, things have calmed down significantly. My personal threat Level has moved down to “Guarded” from “Severe.”

It was nice to get through the rest of the day without wanting to dismember service techs. Or coworkers. Or random strangers.  I skipped lunch, but that just meant that I got to go home earlier. And, as I have food in the fridge: !TANSTAAFL.

Stray Toasters

• I’m picking up a pair of Billy bookcases (Billys? Billies?) from and OnlyAly in a bit. I guess that means I’ll have to prepare for less “theory” and more “practical application” of where to put them.
• By way of Stephanie: Kimono’s Townhouse



• Game Review: LEGO Batman
• My copy of Iron Man is waiting for me at the local Best Buy.
  Online ordering + In-Store Pickup = Win.
• Moo!
• And, as it (somewhat) follows the theme of the ‘Toaster above: Guitar Heifer
• Spicy chili kills amateur chef

And tonight: Scion.

*voop*

Monday – 29 Sep 2008
Another work week begins. I think that I’m settling in to getting up around 6:20… I just wish that I’d stop waking up at 5:20. *shrug* Oh, well. At least I’m able to get back to sleep.

Today’s another fun day in the mines, but tonight’s MNF match-up has the Ravens taking on the Steelers in Pittsburgh. One way or the other, I’m going to get (at least) two phone calls about the game.

vs.

Speaking of football, what was the deal with the Eagles-Bears game last night? I expected a decent game, but I wasn’t expecting The Turnover Bowl.

Stray Toasters

• Goodbye, Columbus Wachovia.
• From both the gaming and the Covet List categories: Arkillo and Amon Sur
  
• Why We’re Here (.pdf)



• Music Box Dancer
• Comics Reporter: The 50 Things That Every Comics Collection Truly Needs
• 
• She’s chocolate in my pocket
  She’s gum in my hair
  She’s the kind of girl that drives you crazy
  But I don’t really care
  She’s a superstar on my stage
  She the sunlight in my shade
  She’s the sweetest scent that fills the air
  You will always find her there
• Kenneth Branagh… wants to direct… the movie adaptation of Marvel Comics’ Thor?! WHAT?!?!

Bang Zoom.

Namaste.

Saturday – 26 Sep 2008
Yesterday, after work, I went to Far West and played Matt in a friendly game of Heroclix. He won. My dice hated me, especially in the middle of the game. They proved this by missing any target number I needed by 1. Almost consistently. But, it was a fun game.

Post-game, I came home and watched part of the Presidential debate with SaraRules. I’m still curious about CNN’s real-time stat tracker, used to get the mood/opinion of Democratic, Independent and Republican voters. I’ll have to look up information on how it was gathered/tallied.

Clitorati was up next.  Coffee, dinner and the conversations were all good. I still need to finish the crossword puzzle I started, though.

This morning, “sleeping in” was over a little after 8:00 AM. I think that I’ve figured out “why” I’ve been getting up so early on the weekends: I have been pushing my weekday wake-up time forward (I’m close to 6:15 at the moment), so my body feels that 7:30 – 8:00 IS sleeping in. Oh, well. SaraRules fixed omelettes and hash browns for breakfast. They were a nice change of pace. Then we got ready for the day.

Today was “Company Party Day,” as both of our companies held their end-of-summer get-togethers today. SaraRules’ was up first; it was at Boondocks. We played mini-golf and arcade games (including Galaga and skeeball) and just hung out for a couple of hours. Next was my party; it was at Lone Peak Park. As this party is our “family-friendly” gathering, they had an inflatable balloon-house where the kids could jump around, a climbing wall, games and cotton candy. It was fun. SaraRules and I ate with Dwim and his wife. We talked about comics and politics and other assorted and sundry things.

We stopped in to say “Hi” to SaraRules’ family on the way back to my place.  They were watching Doom (not to be confused with Dhoom). “Somehow,” I’d managed to miss that movie when it was in theatrical release; seeing it with the family-unit, however, allowed for some prime MST3K-ing.

Friday – 26 Sep 2008
Friday. ‘Nuff said.

Happy Birthday to Josh:

Stray Toasters

• Goodbye, Washington Mutual.
  Hello, Chase Bank.
  You say “Goodbye” and I say “Hello, hello, hello”.
  I don’t know why you say “Goodbye”, I say “Hello, hello, hello”.
• LEGO Mac Pro
• After the L.A. mass transit administration banned personal communications devices for drivers (while driving/operating a vehicle), it seems that Honolulu has had to follow suit… after a fashion: Playing Your PSP at Work Is a Bad Idea, Especially When You Drive a City Bus
• ULUG: Utah LEGO Users’ Group
• Man flies personal jet wing across English Channel
• How close were the US Presidential Elections?

*zoom*

Namaste

Tuesday – 23 Sep 2008
Guess who’s having Eggo LEGO waffles for breakfast.
Mm-hmm, that’s right.
I am.

Last night’s tourney was a wash: Only Chris and I showed. So, Keith basically rolled the dice: I “won,” Chris got Fellowship. The prizes were a Johnny Storm LE ‘Clix. With the “formalities” over, Chris, Keith, Nano and I played a four-way free-for-all. Since it was a just a fun game to kill some time, I tried a random team:

• Batman
• Captain America (Ultimates)
• Deathstroke and
• Psycho-Pirate

Chris rolled with his usual Batman team, with a special guest star:

• Batman
• The Flash
• Green Arrow and
• Johnny Storm LE

Nano played with:

• Batman and Robin (dual figure)
• Big Barda and Mister Miracle (Green Lantern)
• Green Arrow

Keith brought the Fantastic Four (starter set), including the Sue Storm and Johnny Storm LE figures. I have two things to say about this team:

1. Watching someone play the FF as a team – and play them well – is a thing of beauty.
2. Getting beat down by that same someone/team is a bittersweet pill… though still fun.

I think that my dice thought that we were playing a game of “Suicide ‘Clix,” because I couldn’t hit my target numbers half the time. I wore down a couple members of the FF, but Keith wound up taking me out. Chris and Nano duked it out on the far side of the board, with Chris winning that fight. Then it came down to Chris and Keith. They danced around the playing field a bit, but Keith finally wound up taking Chris out.

After the game, I headed over to SaraRules’ to hang out with her and her family and watch Monday Night Football. (Four shots at a two-point conversion – FOUR – and you THROW it?! ALL FOUR TIMES?!?) Her parents just returned from a ten-day Oregon excursion and it sounded like they had a lot of fun. And, as an unexpected bonus, they brought back some smoked Brie.

Back home. Chilled on the couch… started nodding off on the couch… called it a night. However, before I hit the rack, I watched a little of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. One of his guests was Marianne Jean-Baptiste, from Without a Trace. I don’t think that I’d ever heard her speak out of character, so I was “a little” surprised to hear a British accent.

This morning, I saw SaraRules drive by as she headed to work.
In a rare occurrence, she apparently saw me – and Jeff, a coworker with whom I was talkin – as well.

Stray Toasters

• Bit is speaking!
  Her first word: “Dada”
  Bot is not so amused.
  From last night’s conversation with :

  11:00 hahaha bot is ragingly annoyed
  11:00 and thusly i am ragingly amused
  11:00 bit’s first word today
  11:00 or in the words of rana
  11:00 I SPEND ALL DAY WITH THIS CHILD
  11:00 I CHANGE HER DIAPERS
  11:00 I FEED HER
  11:00 EVERY
  11:00 DAY
  11:00 EVERY NIGHT
  11:01 AND WHAT’S HER FIRST WORD?!!?
  11:01 DADA!!!
  11:01 lol life is good

• A new trailer for Quantum is Solace is out.
• SaraRules pointed out a video that I neglected to check out from yesterday’s Muppet ‘Toaster:

  Watch it all the way to the end…

• Some 640,000 Texans still without power
• Did Howard Mackie and John Byrne plan on pulling a “One More Day/Brand New Day” kind of stunt in the 90s? You bet they did. Details here.
• 15 train robbers killed by poison gas
• MarknTyme: You’ll have to check this out when you get home: Habenera

And that’s that… for now.

Namaste.

Stray Toasters

• I’ve been playing HeroClix for a couple of years now. It’s taken me this long to realize something about two teams’ abilities that bears out some testing. While it won’t make me unstoppable/unbeatable, it will change a couple things about the way I play the game… and who I consider for team builds.
• Salt Lake City named eighth most-stressful city to live
• Holy Rocket-propelled Monkeys!



• Rebel attack – an all-out LEGO Star Wars battle in micro-scale
• , click here.
• Disney Prepares to Use Its Marketing Magic to Bring Back the Muppets

Up out.

Monday – 22 Sep 2008
Another work week begins.
And it’s a grey, wet morning.

Yesterday was a 2/3 good day, in terms of football:

• The Ravens beat the Browns 2.0, in Baltimore.
  28 – 10, and Ed Reed had yet another INT for a TD.
• The Dolphins beat down the Patriots, 38 – 13.
  Yes, those Dolphins and those Patriots; Ronnie Brown was a machine yesterday.
• The Panthers, however, took one on the chin from the Gus Frerotte-led Vikings.

There was a lot of good football yesterday, but I don’t think that anything amused/pleased me as much as seeing “Big Ben” Roethlisberger and the Steelers drop a game to the Eagles. Of course, ANY Steelers loss makes me smile, but the Steelers never found the end zone and were held to two field goals. We’ll see if they’re still playing this “well” next week, when the Ravens make a trip to Steeltown and face them.

SaraRules and I finished The Orphanage last night. Good movie, but not quite what we were expecting. Given the Guillermo Del Toro name, I think that we were expecting a little more “horror.” There were definite horror elements, but I wouldn’t call it a “horror movie.” I’m sure that Tyranist would disagree with me, though.

Stray Toasters

• Math is hard. Let’s go shopping!
• Kate Perry != Jill Sobule
• Sexist pigs earn more than normal men
• I’ve read some complaints about the “I’m a PC” commercials that MicroSquish is now running. Personally, I find them amusing… and far more palatable than the Bill & Jerry commercials. What I would really love to see would be a new wave of Apple “Mac vs. PC” commercials where they start off:
  

  PC: I’m a PC.
  Mac: I’m a PC, too… but I’m running Mac OS X.
  PC: *sputter* What?!
  Mac: Yeah, I’m a PC. I just happen to run a different OS. But, when you really look at it, our hardware isn’t really that different.
  PC: But, that’s just going to confuse people. Just say you’re a Mac and be done with it. People don’t want to have to think.
  Mac: *stares at PC* Are you saying to just keep the sheep quiet and happy…?
  PC: *deer in headlights look* No… no! I’m not saying that. I’m saying that you’re just going to… confuse them.
  Mac: So… they’re too slow to understand the difference between hardware and software?
  PC: I…. You…. oh, forget it! *throws hands up in the air* There’s just no talking to you!
  Mac: Actually, there are lots of ways! Wireless networking. Wired. Even good, old-fashioned SneakerNet.
  PC: *rolls eyes and walks off-camera*

• SaraRules just pointed out the following: Microsoft is pushing Seinfeld away too soon
• 
• Feds Tighten DNS Security on .gov

Today: Work… work… work…
Tonight: ‘Clix tourney.

Back to it.

Namaste.

Saturday – 20 Sep 2008
Yesterday after work, I stopped by to see Code Monkey BB and shoot the bull for a few minutes.  He is doing well and is enjoying his not-as-new-as-it-used-to-be job.

After that, I headed over to Far West to play a pick-up game of ‘Clix with Matt. We decided on a 400-point game. I went with:

• Deathstroke
• Green Lantern (Guy Gardner)
• Marvel Girl and
• Psycho-Pirate

Matt used:

• Bronze Tiger
• The Flash (John Fox)
• Mary Marvel
• The Thing

We played an indoor map – I’m typically a fan of outdoor maps, as I like to use fliers, so I figured that an indoor would add to the challenge for me. Another challenge of the game is not thinking of certain pieces as playing like other pieces. For example, Guy Gardner is a Green Lantern, but he’s not a blaster, he’s a scrapper – he works best when he can get into close quarters and go mano-a-mano with an opponent. I remembered that when playing yesterday and it worked well. For a while. Getting him in close to Mary Marvel and The Thing wasn’t what killed him – it was The Flash. Damned Hypersonic Speed. But he was my only casualty. I managed to eventually mill through Matt’s force. Yes, a good portion of that was due to the Psycho-Pirate’s special Perplex ability (reduce one ability of an opponent by two), but I will gladly admit that I like having him on my teams because of that ability.

After that, I came home for a bit before heading out to meet up with the Clitorati group. Coffee and dinner were both good. I have apparently picked up a head cold in the past few days. By the time dinner was done, I was feeling a bit run down. So, I decided that a hot soak was in order. It fit the bill nicely. And, I called it a fairly early night. That’s not necessarily a “bad” thing…

…but I was awake this morning at 7:40. O,o

I watched Heavy Metal – The F-15 on The History Channel. It discussed the history of the airplane and its effectiveness in modern air warfare. It was very interesting. SaraRules woke up a little later. She fixed breakfast; I fixed coffee and then we watched Rocky, which happens to be SaraRules’ favorite movie.

• Pop Quiz: How many of you knew that Rocky won the Best Picture Oscar for 1977?
• Daily Double: How many other Oscars did it win?
• Triple-Play: How many Oscar nominations did it have?

I haven’t seen Rocky in many, many years. It’s been long enough that I didn’t remember some of the details of the movie. But, I have to say that it remains a good film. I’d even go so far as to say that it’s “an enduring film.”

After the movie, we dived into some… cleaning. Yep, cleaning. I have a living room again… and about 75% of my dining room, too. A few weeks ago, I knocked over some of the ‘Clix lots that I’ve been wanting to put on eBay. And I haven’t had the motivation to resort them. Until today. I daresay that we were productive today and there’s still a good portion of the day left.

Speaking of which, it’s about time to get on with the rest of the day.

Namaste.

Friday – 19 Sep 2008
I woke up with this song running through my head:

It stayed there for a while, too. Good thing I like the song.

I slept poorly again last night; I kept waking up. Oddly, it made getting out of bed this morning much easier – I think that by the time the alarm went I was annoyed at having been awake so much during the night and just decided to get on with the day.

Stray Toasters

• Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day and, with that in mind: Free Pirate Fic.
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Wank your way to nasal clarity
• Barack Obama bumper stickers… for every state
  
  • … for the Free State
  • …for the Beehive State
• New York’s top restaurants plagued by tip trouble
• Wall Street havoc deals blow to mobile phone makers
  
• 
• Guitar Hero lines up new acts

Zoom.