Random Access

Tuesday – 28 August 2007
Waking up wasn’t quite as hellish as I had expected, especially considering the time that I finally wound down enough to attempt sleeping. It was “You-should-have-been-in-bed-long-ago o’clock” when I hit the rack.

It was raining on the way to Happy Valley this morning. It started at Point of the Mountain and wrapped up by the time I passed the first Lehi exit. That’s about… six-and-a-half miles. In that span, it went from drizzle to nearly-torrential downpour to “What rain?” Traffic slowed to a crawl. To be honest, I was surprised to see that – it’s not often that the road monkeys figure out: “Hmm… these may be less than ideal driving conditions; maybe I should slow down.” I wanted to give them all cookies. Then I had a couple of lyrics run through my head:

The first was Sting’s Desert Rose:

I dream of rain
I dream of gardens in the desert sand

The other was Everything but the Girl’s Missing:

And I miss you
(Like the deserts miss the rain)

The former was amusing because it came to mind as I was passing Thanksgiving Point… which has a rather large and elaborate garden… in the middle of the desert. The latter always strikes me as funny because I never really think of deserts “missing” rain.

Today’s workout was good. I discovered something: 300 pounds is heavy. VERY heavy. Eric and I decided to give it a shot… just to see if we could; Eric did it once back in February. We couldn’t today. But, we did get 275 again. I was good with that. I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to press 300, but I wanted to try. I was able to lower it slowly and get it (just barely) off my chest; I couldn’t make the transition from there, though. Oh, well. That just gives me something to work up to.

City of Heroes/Villains
The Hand of Nefer-Tem.
Security Level 34.
Boo-yah.

Stray Toasters

• I completely forgot about last night’s eclipse.
• Doesn’t this look like an out-take from Dragon’s Lair? It’s not. It’s a picture of DC Comics’ Shining Knight.
• Psychology of risk-taking
• 
• Chaos Computer Club Congress goes steampunk
• Although not necessarily “dystopian,” would the upcoming Bionic Woman series be considered cyberpunk?
• It’s gonna be the future soon
  I won’t always be this way
  When the things that make me weak and strange
  Get engineered away
• At the risk of losing a lot of cool points: I like the music of Jim Croce and Gordon Lightfoot.  Both men do/did some very nice guitar work… even though Mr. Lightfoot wrote what I consider one of the most depressing songs ever: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
• 
• I want to build… something… out of LEGO. I might even break out the Rokenbok, too.
• Tyranist, I need some feedback on this: Gore Is Less – Videogames Bake Better Horror Than Hollywood
• A little while ago, our Director of Operations and the Operations Manager asked me if I’m getting bigger (bulking up)… separately, but within five to ten minutes of each other.  I’m not working out for others’ recognition, but it’s nice that it’s noticeable.  It was amusing to see their expressions when they asked if I was taking any supplements or doing anything else to aid in the development and I told them “No.”

Namaste.

Sunday – 26 August 2007
Yesterday was good. I mean… come on… the day started with coffee and IKEA and ended in Park City watching India.Arie. How could that not be a good day?! I’ve listened to some of her music before, but seeing her live was very cool. She had great stage presence and just seemed to be having a good time. The crowd really seemed to enjoy her performance, as well.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
At last night’s concert, India.Arie played/sang bits of many different songs – songs made popular by other artists, including a really good cover of Rufus and Chaka Khan’s Tell Me Something Good. But, she put her own twists on them and changed the way they came off… and, in that way, made them her own.

That made me consider something that I wrote a couple of years ago:

I’m having a bit of a John Stewart moment, not to be confused with a Jon Stewart moment.

When I say that I’m having a John Stewart moment, I don’t mean that I’m dressing up in a black and green outfit (I did that last Hallowe’en) and saving the world (I do that in City of Heroes). What I do mean is that I think that I am in the middle of rediscovering/redefining what makes me tick.

I used to use a lot of quotes when I was young. To make me sound mature. To make me sound serious. To make me feel like I wasn’t the second-class entity I’d always thought I was.

But the courage to use your own voice, that’s the test of maturity. That’s the proof of seriousness. Maybe that’s my mission here.

To find my own voice.

To find a voice for all these creatures and let them speak in harmony.

Yeah. Maybe. But in the meantime… there’s business.

I don’t think that I have changed that much since I started writing in this. Maybe I have. Maybe I’m “too close” to it to see. I do know that this journal has changed – it has a flavor that is distinctly mine, but does it speak with the full timbre of my voice? Or the voices in my head – past, present and future? I don’t know. Quite possibly so. But, there are still questions to be asked. And voices that need to be heard.

I should find that voice. My voice. And then, I can find the voice for this journal. Will it change the way that I write in here? Possibly. It’s hard to say until I undertake the process. Maybe it will metamorphose into something new. Perhaps it will revert to something like it was before. We’ll see how it goes.

One of the things that I had been worried about was using others’ quotes to express my thoughts, feelings and/or opinions. Listening to the way the India.Arie used other artists’ songs and wove them into and through her own pieces made me realize something: The things that I listen to and read have become a part of my voice.

They are things that have found an anchor and resonated within me. They’ve made a connection. Brought life to some spark. And, eventually, provide a pathway that I can use to relate/convey what I’m thinking or feeling. Even better, they aren’t the only weapons in my arsenal. They are handy, sometimes even convenient, but I have a versatile array of tools at my disposal. No matter which one I choose, it is mine to use.

That’s something that I think I have known – at some level – for a while. But, sometimes, it takes a different lens to help bring things into focus.

And I like the view.

Stray Toasters

• I have Honeycomb cereal. Before this last grocery run, I don’t think that I could tell you when the last time I had bought Honeycomb was.
• As promised: Pat, here is your mention in my blog.
• The War(s) They Fought
• By way of comes “proof” that I’m Chinese. (Which isn’t really true… I’m Negro-Saxon.)
• From NPR: My Cancer
• Tori Amos is apparently coming to SLC in November.
• 
• If they were to make a Sandman movie, I think that Tori Amos would make an interesting Delirium. Or maybe Evanna Lynch, the young lady who played Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
• 
• I need to hang my banner. Of course, that means cutting it and prepping it for hanging. And that requires effort.
• In this picture, we see U.S.Agent (at one point chosen to be Captain America’s successor) getting ready to tear into… someone. (I don’t read Omega Flight, so I’m not sure who that is.) But, that’s not what struck me. ‘Agent’s costume is based on Cap’s. I thought that I had read somewhere… somewhen… that Cap’s tunic was chainmail. That picture looks more like scale mail. And, according to the Wikipedia entry I just found, apparently it is supposed to be scale mail. Now I want to see if I can track down the source that made me think it was chain.
• I am craving a frozen mocha. But that requires a bit of effort, too.
• 
• Great. Just found an item that said Cap’s tunic is chainmail.
• Speaking of which: I remember playing Chainmail many moons past at The Armory.
• The Armory used to make the best miniatures paints, too…
• I need to get some paints: I am going to do custom ‘Clix for Hand of Nefer-Tem and Corvus Nox. Because I’m a geek like that. To date, the miniature paint job of which I am most proud was the tattoo I did on Alias‘ arm. I wish I still had the miniature, but I think that it fell prey to one of Mom’s cleaning sprees many years ago.

Time to do… something.

Namaste.

Friday – 24 August 2007
Last night’s “What should I have for dinner” conundrum was solved thanks to the timely intervention of lj user=”khayla”. She suggested sushi (Ika! Ika! Ika!). I agreed and we were off to the races, as the saying goes. We went to Tepanyaki; our chef, Don, was good. Not just that he was a good cook, but he also had personality. (“Personality goes a long way….”)

City of Heroes/Villains: View from the Aerie
After dinner, I took Corvus Nox back to Paragon City to get the last few thousand points he needed to hit Security Level 17. I joined a pretty good team and got the points needed… and moved a decent way towards getting to Level 18.

As I was preparing to log out, I stopped outside the Talos Island train station to try and resurrect a player who had been ambushed. The attempt was successful… to a degree. There were two problems, minor things really…

• The person would have rezzed fine… had they been paying attention. But, they weren’t so they just continued to lie there.
• The type of power that I was using requires me to drain life from nearby enemy characters – to redirect their energy into the body of the fallen hero. That part worked, but as soon as I did that, they started attacking me. And they were WELL above my level. So, I wound up dying. With the quickness. *sigh*

Stray Toasters

• I introduced a couple coworkers to Avenue Q, by way of the The Internet is for Porn machinima and the Avenue Q Wikipedia entry.
• It’s a good thing that it’s Friday: I just scrolled up to edit something in the top paragraph, saw the “Ika! Ika! Ika!” comment… and immediately started trying to reparse it to fit Iko Iko. Yeah… I need a weekend.
• Coworker Susan sent me a link to Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. (As if I needed yet another distraction…) I countered with Instructables.
• forwarded this to me. It made me laugh.

  

• Wife of Police Chief Arrested on Drug Charges.
  “Wife of Police Chief.”
  “Drug Charges.”
  *facepalm*
• Tag: The Ring meets zombies
• Liz sent me this; I should print it and put a copy of it on my cube wall…

  

• Grindhouse breakfast cereal photoshopping contest
• Here’s another way I can tell that I need it to be Friday:
  • I was looking at the cover art to Tag (from the ‘Toaster posted above)
  • It reminded me of the artwork for Chess
  • Chess reminded me of Deep Blue
  • Deep Blue kicked off a tangent about “…the Devil and the deep blue sea”
  • …which morphed in my head to “Devil and the Deep Blue C,” as in the programming language (naturally, I had to look up what language Deep Blue was programmed in – it was C)
  • …which somehow triggered a thought about Crystal Blue Persuasion.

  At that point, I forced myself to stop thinking about tangents. Yeah, I need a weekend.

• By way of boingboing.net: someecards – When you care enough to hit send.

Namaste.

Wednesday (coda)

Stray Toasters

• I pretty much positioned myself as the de-facto Office Manager of our Utah County office; we don’t have an Admin in that office and since I handle the equipment requests (I’m the IT guy… go figure), I thought: “I might as well do the general supplies, too.” Today, our Controller brought in some replacement pull-chains for the blinds in some of the offices and asked me to find a home for them. As I was taking them back to my desk, I had an epiphany…
  

  I walked over to one of the programmers areas and stood there for a second, chains hanging from my clenched fist. I looked at one of the programmers, held up the chains, and said: “Your name is Toby!”

  He stared at me, blankly… absolutely no recognition of what I was doing on his face.

  So, I repeated myself.

  Another programmer, across the aisle, spoke up: “Kunta Kente!”

  I looked at him and laughed and said,”See… [He] knew the reference!”

  A third guy looked up and said,”No. He was just the only one not afraid to say anything.”

  It made me smile.

• Jason sent me a copy of Coupling (Season 1, episode 4: “Inferno”). Nine Hells… it was funny. Tyranist had loaned me the first season on DVD, but I haven’t had the opportunity to watch it. Or I haven’t made the time to watch it. One or the other. Or both. Or something like that. I will have to make the time to watch it… from the beginning.
• A friend sent me a link to If My Nose Was Running Money, kind of a… country version of If I Had $1000000. Kind of.
• Applegeeks Blog: Mr. Grenade
• The night I baked brownies, I sent a quick email to my mother. It simply said: “How domestic am I? I just baked brownies.” She sent this back, in reply:
  

  JUST HOW DOMESTIC? Obviously, far-r-r-r-r-r-r-r more than your Mother and your Baby
  Sister…if you BAKED brownies! CONGRATS! Were they good? Edible? 🙂
  MOM

  “Edible?”
  She cracks me up.
  (And, yes, they were – and continue to be – edible.)

• 
• Virtual Recruiting for Real-World Jobs
• Ted (sixth one on the page) obviously thinks:
  

  1. That it is 2750 (or after).
  2. That he has jump jets.
  3. That he can pull off “Death From Above.”

  Click here to see why.
  Click here and here and here for explanation of the above points (if you don’t already get it, that is).

• 
• Earth, Space, Hendrix: The Most Significant Album Ever

Okay, enough of this. Time to fight crime… or something to that effect.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 22 August 2007
It’s not Tuesday.
This isn’t Belgium.
But I am in Amurric’n Fark today. Unexpected trip to the south forty, but work is work. So, I can’t complain.

Last night’s game went… well. Translation: “We didn’t get our asses handed to us. Much.” Sure, we took some damage. But the Luck Lords of Ventura smiled upon us (along with a bit of goodwill from lj user=”nox_aeternus”) and we survived. Thus, our characters live to adventure another day.

Stray Toasters

• I need to make or find a Master Chief icon.
• Tyranist brought in his copy of Black Seas of Infinity, a collection of H.P. Lovecraft stories. So much for catching up on other reading…
• “I’m sorry… I don’t speak Blonde.”
• From the “How NOT to Use The Internets” file: An IM Infatuation Turned to Romance, Then the Truth Came Out
• One day I feel I’m on top of the world
  And the next it’s falling in on me
  I can get back on
  I can get back on
  One day I feel I’m ahead of the wheel
  And the next it’s rolling over me
  I can get back on
  I can get back on
• sent me a link to this; I shall have to print a copy of it and put it on my cubicle wall.
  
• Most Dangerous Object in the Office This Month: $2 Pocket Shots
• From the “Almost Too Absurd to Be True” file: China to Tibetan Buddhist monks: no reincarnating without our ok
• Cheesecake from The Fresh Market (GSO) would be very good right now.
• Halo 3: How Microsoft Labs Invented a New Science of Play
• Sweet Mary, mother of Jesus… A friend has a couple of kids who will be going to this school. Brand-spankin’ new school. State of the art. Green. Check out the information brochure (.pdf) on it.
• NMKY (Finnish cover of YMCA)

Quote of the Day

: Wow. You could teach the Japanese something about polite rudeness.
Me: *bow* I’m going to take that as something of a compliment.
: You should.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 21 August 2007
Waking up this morning was something of a chore. And one that I didn’t really want to do. But, who really enjoys chores? But, I mustered up some go-get-’em and did it anyway.

I don’t know what happened, but about 2/3 of the way through the commute, it seems as though a couple of road monkeys decided to have a meeting. Physics was involved. And I’m sure that there was a measure of deceleration trauma involved as well. There had to be…

…because that’s the only rational explanation that I can devise for the two-mile backup on I-15. Rather than try to navigate an alternate route, I rolled down the windows, fired up the iPod and crept down the road.

The rest of the day went well, comparatively. Including the lunch workout. I’m getting more comfortable with my sets of 205; I was able to do all three sets without having to break up the third set or having to decrease the weight.

On the way home, there was another accident on I-15.  Northbound.  Around 80th South.  There was a notification of the accident around the time that I crossed the county line, which was around… 150th South.  Traffic stopped around 120th South.  And it took about :20 minutes to go five miles.  Good thing I had the iPod.  Again.

Tonight is D&D Night.   The highlight of the game: We had to figure out how to get into the lower levels of a fortified pyramid.   Which was a bit of a problem since the hunger god’s follower’s had set spiked walls of doom at the bottom of the “chimney” that we were planning to use as an entrance.

Our solution was to pour pitch and Greek fire into the hole… and send a dragon down to light it on fire.

…and hilarity ensued.

City of Heroes/Villains: View from the Aerie
Last night, for the first time in a while, I took Corvus Nox to Paragon City. I was invited to join a team shortly after logging on. Unfortunately, they grabbed me because I am a Defender. Defenders are most often the class of healers. I’m more of a…. field medic. At best. And, I warned them of this right off the bat. The invitation stood. But, they apparently didn’t take me seriously. For which a few of us died. A few times. But, we did manage to make it through that mission. And, eventually, we found another healer… with roughly the same Health set as mine, but working in tandem seemed to work well for us. And there were a lot fewer deaths.

By the end of the evening, I had tacked two-and-a-half levels on to Nox.

Stray Toasters
No Toasters, especially since I:

• …have been working on this post (thank God for “Save” and “continue editing”) for hours.
• …am in the middle of figuring out what to do now that our characters have made it into the hunger god’s pyramid… and we don’t want to die.

Namaste.

Sunday – 19 August 2007
So far, today has been extraordinarily lazy. I’m not saying that it is a “good” or “bad” thing; it simply… is. The most productive things I’ve done so far are:

• Got out of bed.
• Dealt with some of the hygiene rituals.
• Installed Empire Earth, Locomotion and Railroad Tycoon II on ‘Nine.
• Finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I’m still in need of food and coffee. And a shave. And did I mention coffee? I did? Okay, good.

My company’s summer party was yesterday. It was a decent affair, but there wasn’t as much… punch… to it as last year’s event. I still had a bit of fun and it was a decent way to spend a couple of hours. And I still have two bags of cotton candy to show for it!

Four-Color Coverage
I was watching one of my favorite parts of Superman: Last Son of Krypton (the three-part beginning of Superman: The Animated Series) a few days ago and realized something: All of the modern (since 1978) major introductions of the character have involved a sequence involving the saving of an airplane/space shuttle:

• Superman: the Movie (movie, 1978)- Air Force One is struck by lightning, losing an engine and part of the port wing.
• The Man of Steel (comic, 1986) – The Space Shuttle Constitution experiences a system failure and is about to crash-land in Metropolis.
• Superman: The Animated Series (television, 1996) – A commercial airliner is struck by an errant missile while Superman is attempting to apprehend four criminals who have hijacked an experimental LexCorp aircraft.
• Superman Returns (movie, 2006) – The launch of an experimental space shuttle, being piggy-backed on a Boeing 777, proves nearly disastrous after Lex Luthor conducts an experiment with Krpytonian crystal shards. The shuttle’s engines engage – while it is still docked to the jet – melting off the tail.

My theory on this is: You’re dealing with a character “…with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men,” one of which is flight. Sure, you could have him stopping a runaway bus (just think of how much shorter Speed would have been…) or stopping a train, but an airplane? It just seems… more natural. For, you know… a… flying guy.

Something that I really like about the saves from S:TAS and Returns is that Superman doesn’t always come up with the “right answer” right off the bat. In fact, in both cases, his first attempt seems to do more harm than good. Thus, he has to deduce a better method for saving the passengers and bystanders… in a hurry. And since we’re talking about Superman…

They say that Superman is one bad…
Shut yo’ mouth!
I’m just talkin’ about Superman.
We can dig it.

…you know that he’ll figure something out.

Stray Toasters

• I found a very simple recipe for Jambalaya a little while ago. I might have to try it this week.
• The Ravens have a preseason game tonight. I believe that I shall have to watch it.
• Girls at risk amid India’s prosperity
• The DCAU
• 
• Lethal blaze at Twin Towers site
• From boingboing.net (and the “Too Much Free Time” file): Alien made of vegetables
• Missile dumped at US gun amnesty
• 
• From BBC News and the “Too Strange to Make Up” file: Beijing’s penis emporium
• Sony plans to recycle electronics for free

“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”

Namaste.

Friday – 17 August 2007
Yesterday morning’s monkeydom was punctuated nicely by more simian antics on the way home. As much as I wish that I could say that they ended at the county line… I can’t. They carried on all the way until I got to 90th South. So many monkeys, so little ammunition.

I stopped in to see Perry and the kids for a bit. And rifle through his plastic crack collection. And stuff.

Reeling by on Celluloid: Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead
Satire.

Pronunciation:

\ˈsa-ˌtī(-ə)r\

Function:

noun

Etymology:

Middle French or Latin; Middle French, from Latin satura, satira, perhaps from (lanx) satura dish of mixed ingredients, from feminine of satur well-fed; akin to Latin satis enough — more at sad

Date:

1501

1 : a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn
2 : trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly

synonyms see: wit

I took an elective English class on Satire in 10th Grade, from a teacher of whom I was not fond. (Some of you may have heard the “mastication” story. Yeah, that guy.) In fact, I didn’t think that he was all that great of a teacher, but what do I know…? I mean, it’s not like I have any teachers in the family or anything. </sarcasm> If he spent as much time on curriculum as he spent on trying to look or “be” cool, he could have actually been a decent educator. But, we learn different things from all experiences.

Unfortunately, I didn’t learn much about satire from him.

But, I’m not here to talk about him.

Instead, I am going to talk about a couple of movies that I watched at the behest of Tyranist: Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright “get” satire. They also know where the fine line between “funny” and “absurdity” is… and they trample on it mercilessly.

Hot Fuzz tells the story of Nicholas Angel, a London police officer who was good at his job. Very good. Too good. And, as a reward for his performance, he was shipped off to a sleepy little town in the English countryside. Quaint. Quiet. Peaceful. And that’s when the real fun begins. On the surface, the movie seems little more than a funny buddy cop movie. To be honest, when I saw trailers for it, that’s exactly what I had taken for granted… and what eventually made me decide not to see it. I had decided that if I wanted a funny buddy cop movie, I would watch Beverly Hills Cop or Rush Hour. I did the movie a horrible disservice in brushing it aside in such a cavalier manner. It was funny, surprising and very well-written.

Shaun of the Dead is… well… a zombie movie. Whoops, I just said the “zed word.” Sorry. But, let’s face it: That’s what it is. And it’s funny. Beyond that, it is a buddy movie. And a movie about family – the one you’re born into and the one(s) you choose. And, it’s a movie about the sometimes too grey world in which we live – the one that we trudge through, day after day, moving forward as simple creatures of habit. And what happens when we wake up one morning to find that things have changed. Again, I was surprised to discover how sharp a movie it was. (Yeah, yeah… three years after pretty much everyone else figured it out, but I got there. Finally.)

I also made a comment to Tyranist about how Simon Pegg and Nick Frost – the male leads in both movies – in their own ways reminded me of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Not so much in their acting styles, but in the way that you can tell through the on-screen chemistry that you’re watching a couple of friends having a good time hanging out with each other… while there happens to be a camera recording the whole thing.

These movies may not necessarily be considered “family fare,” and they may not be everyone’s cup of tea (U.K. films… tea… Oh, Hell, if I have to do all the work for you, what’s the point?!) , but they are good pieces of entertainment. And, thanks to these movies, I will never listen to Queen or the phrase “By the power of Greyskull…” in the same way. Ever again.

I give both movies enthusiastic “thumbs up with an okay.”

Stray Toasters

• I’m still a bit jazzed about yesterday’s 275.
• : You need to click here.
• I still love this:
  
  … and there’s a (not small) part of me that thinks that it would be fun to actually do!
• Dungeons & Dragons 4^th Edition Announced
• Three words (well, one of them is a compound word): Black Cherry Kool-Aid.
• I’m not a fan of so-called “reality television.” That said, I watched Who Wants to Be a Superhero? while hanging out with Perry. Amusing, a little hokey, but… I have to admit it was fairly entertaining. And it had Stan Lee.
• Plain soap as effective as antibacterial but without the risk
• Tom Cruise… as Capt. Christopher Pike? *shudder*
• When I look at the first and fourth panels of this picture (possibly NSFW), I think that Pam Anderson might make an interesting Power Girl. (I dont know who Alex Ross uses as his model for P.G.)
• NASA has opted not to repair Endeavour‘s heat shield tiles. I hope this doesn’t turn into a total cock-up and come back to bite them in the ass.
• UCF physicist says Hollywood movies hurt students’ understanding of science

And off to work!

Namaste.

Thursday – 16 August 2007
Another day of bliss in Happy Valley.

Today’s big news: I tried a new max weight on bench press – 275 pounds.

I managed to do two reps at that weight. The first one was slow, but steady… the second one was wobbly. I tried 300 pounds. The operative word in that sentence is “tried.” The bar just hovered (BARELY) a couple of inches above my chest. I’ll get there someday.

But, I got the 275.
1.71 times my body weight.
And that is chock full of awesomeness.

That even makes up for the plethora of road monkeys that I had to deal with this morning.

The Best: Hungry Like the Wolf
Duran Duran (video) vs. Bruce Campbell (video)

Bruce Campbell. No contest.

The Scales of Justice
Last night found the Hand of Nefer-Tem in Paragon City, once again. I teamed up with members of my supergroup… kind of. Two of them were running characters who had “aged out” of the primary group and have since been moved to the senior group – kind of like graduating from the Teen Titans to the Justice League… or from the New Mutants to the X-Men. We were up against The Carnival of Shadows. There was much dying and resurrecting and/or hospital-going. But the experience, even despite the XP debt, was good; I’m roughly 60% of the way through Security Level 32.

Stray Toasters

• sent me a link to this. *blink blink* How she found it, I don’t know. WHY she found it, I do not know. What possessed someone to try this in the first place…? Let’s go for the hat trick: I don’t know that, either.
• TV’s Uhura joining Heroes
• Dolores O’Riodan: Life After The Cranberries
• 
• US schools ask 14-year-olds to declare a major
• Turtle cheesecake.
• Action Figure Modders
• From NPR: It’s Easy to Miss the Memo on Recalled Products
• SR-71. No, not this one (this time)… this one.
  

Namaste.

Stray Toasters

• The car looks great. was right about this place: They do good work. I dropped it off at 9:30 and it was done around 3:00. When I went to pick it up, Brian – the guy who worked on it – came out to say that he was “done,” but asked if I could possibly wait a bit because he wanted to try and remove some residue. I told him that was fine… and ten minutes later, I was on my way.
• We went on an away mission before lunch today.
  And I found a new toy/hobby shop.
  All in one stop.
• I talked with for a few minutes this afternoon. She seems well. Busy, but well.
• Too bad dark languages rarely survive.
• Steampunk monocycle on eBay
• And out of nowhere comes a craving for sushi.
• Covet!
• I’ve got the acumen of a seasoned pro
  I’ve got the legacy of a billion souls
• Wearing your anatomy on your skin: The Anatomy Tattoo Gallery
• 
  I’ve made no bones about how much I enjoy the Evil Inc. webcomic. I’ve suggested that many of you – okay… all of you – read it, too. A year-long story arc just wrapped and Brad Guigar, the webcomic’s is about to give new readers a jump-in point. From his blog:

  In a story arc that started the day Evil Atom was forced out of the company he single-handedly created, the new CEO of Evil Inc — a superHERO — has had to grapple with making the company profitable.
  
  Failure would cause the demise of the Legion of Justice — which invested heavily in Evil Inc.But success would, of course, mean aiding and abetting super-criminals.

  Last week ended with a mysterious explosion and this week began with an equally mysterious memorial service. The next nine days are not to be missed.

  If you’re not a regular reader of “Evil Inc,” there’s no better time to start. Jump in here — and buckle your seat belts.

• Atomic Madhouse (t-shirts)

Namaste.

Wednesday – 15 August 2007
Two down, three to go.

Last night, I met the group (formerly ?) known as Black & Tan for coffee with Sara, who’s in town for a few days. She’s, in her own words, “Fabulous.” And, it was nice to spend a few hours with the former Monday night (ir)regulars. Cocoa Caffe had been chosen as the venue, but their “summer hours” have them closing at 8:00 PM. Right. Instead, we wound up at Salt Lake Roasting Company. It was a good alternative.

Hours later, I came home and decided to go adventuring in Paragon City. I was invited to join a team that included at least three people with whom I’ve been on a team in the past few days. As I joined the team, I caught the very tail end of a conversation wherein someone was complaining that I teleport team members “too often without warning/asking.” Um… no. She was just “a bit” touchy because there was a bit of miscommunication between us – two days ago – on the one time that I ‘ported her before she was done selling items. Did I mention that this is a game?! No? Well, I’m Ivory Soap sure that you were pretty much able to deduce that on your own. *shrug* The sticks in some peoples’ asses…

Stray Toasters

• I found the rules to the ST:TNG Drinking Game while looking for some files last night. It amused me.
• Pasties and tassels and hammocks… Oh, my!
• I started watching Hot Fuzz, but I didn’t finish it. I will most likely do so this evening. Funny movie.
• They have remade 3:10 to Yuma. Hm.
• 
• Phil Rizzuto, Yankee Shortstop, Dies at 89 – Mr. Rizzuto had stopped playing ball LONG before I was born; but I think that I played a few games of Earl Weaver Baseball on my college roommate’s Amiga with “him” in the game. I do remember him as the pitch man for The Money Store, though.
• 
• I’ve exchanged a few emails with Matt Silady, the writer of The Homeless Channel. He seems rather personable. I will have to try to pick up the book this weekend.
• 3

Attack the day, like birds of prey…
(I just like the sound of that, in the sense of “Carpe Diem!”)

Namaste.

Tuesday – 14 August 2007
Last night, I had dinner with and Vikki at David’s Kitchen. Potstickers and Beef Lo Mein. Beef Lo Mein which I meant to bring to work today for lunch… but just realized that I left it in the fridge. *sigh* At least I know what I’m having for dinner.

This morning has seen an odd assortment of weird music-related items running through my head:

• I’ve had Tom Jones’ It’s Not Unusual randomly running through my head for a little while. Just the chorus, though.
• I was listening to 2112: Overture and Temples of Syrinx on the morning commute. I was, for some reason, reminded of how much I despised it the first time(s) that I heard it – 8th Grade carpool. First thing in the morning. VERY loud. Had I been using the term *grblsnrkx* back then, it would have been applied often. In fact, I couldn’t stand Rush from 1982 until late 1987, when a friend in my dorm actually asked me to sit down and actually listen to… of all things… 2112. *twitch* I agreed to do so. It took a few tries, but I got past my grade school loathing of the song and the band. The rest is history, as they say.
• I’ve been thinking about songs that are usually played back-to-back and just don’t sound “right” when not played together:
  • 2112: Overture and Temples of Syrinx
  • We Will Rock You / We Are the Champions
  • Eye Would Die 4 U / Baby, I’m a Star

  I’m sure that there are others, but these are the ones that keep sticking out in my mind.

• Puttin’ on the Ritz just popped into my head. The version by Taco… although when the chorus came up again, it was the one from Young Frankenstein.
• And now, something from a video game – which one I can’t seem to remember – just passed through.
• While playing CoH last night, I was on a bit of a Jim Croce kick. YouTube helped me get my fix, as I had, in a masterful stroke, left my iPod at work.

Other than that, it’s been a good day… not that I consider the aforementioned to be “bad” things.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
Life is an ongoing series of checks and balances:

• Check: My coworker who was diagnosed with the tumor has undergone surgery and is in recovery. He seems to be doing well… but will have to learn to walk again.
• Balance: I got a phone call yesterday saying that there’s been a death in my extended family. It was not entirely unexpected, but still something of a shock.

The Scales of Justice
The Hand of Nefer-Tem dispensed some justice in Brickstown last night. I joined a team for a few missions against The Council. Level 36 Council. Oh, boy. The team had a good balance and did pretty well. By the time the team disbanded, I was (only) 5,000 points from Security Level 32. Oh, so close…. so close….

I was preparing to log out when I was invited to join another team. The desire to level was strong, so I did. This was a smaller team, but it was well-constructed and we managed to run through a couple of missions with a fair amount of ease.

And, by the time I left that team, I had made it to Level 32 and a new power: Resuscitate.

Stray Toasters

• I cleaned up the links page on Random Access last night. While there may not be rhyme nor reason, there is order.
• The Subtle Pleasures of Building a Dungeon
• doot doot doot
• Time in a Bottle (video)
• For those of you who’ve been to Paris, does this hold true?
  
• Miniot’s Hand-Crafted iWood Cases
• By way of… I don’t remember whom: Mind-blowing magic
• A Softer World Laundry Day (t-shirts!)
• 
• 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Karl Rove

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Monday – 13 August 2007
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

This morning’s good intention was to get up (relatively) early and get a jump on the day. I reconsidered, however, when the alarm and iPod went off. Three-and-a-half hours of sleep is usually not bad… but having capped the night off with a tall glass of Merlot (and a Sam’s Summer Ale) made an extended stay in The Dreaming a very pleasant thing, indeed. And, I was still in the office at a decent time, so I’m good with having caught a few extra ZZZs this morning.

Last night, post-movie, I stopped by to see Kate, Perry and the kids. The kids crack me up. Pure, straight-up comedy.

Scales of Justice
When I got home, I decided to take a side-trip to Paragon City. As soon as I logged in, I was invited to join a team. No waiting. No muss, no fuss. I accepted.

Then, I noticed who was on the team: The same tank who got us killed (repeatedly) on Saturday. *grblsnrkx*

And, guess what…

The team mortality rate was fairly high. Until he quit the team. After that, no problems. Go figure.

And now, The Hand of Nefer-Tem is knocking on the door of Security Level 32.

Stray Toasters

• I had a corned beef sandwich for lunch. And you didn’t.
• Mike Wieringo Passes Away
• Merv Griffin dead at 82
  • It’s pretty well-known that Mr. Griffin created Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! What’s not quite as well-known is that he wrote the theme for Jeopardy!, the music that they play when contestants are considering their answers for “Final Jeopardy.” Most people refer to the song as “The Jeopardy! Theme” or even “Think Music;” but he originally wrote that song as a lullaby for his son, Anthony, and it was originally named “Time for Tony.”
• Beheaded snake sends man to hospital
• I received a friendly, neighborhood reminder about registering my copy of Eudora a few days ago. It actually made me laugh:
  

  Please register your copy of Eudora.

  Registration will enable us to provide you better service when you contact us for technical support and it comes with these benefits.

  — list of benefits —

  We’ll also erect a giant statue in your image on the front lawn of our corporate headquarters.* How cool is that? C’mon, register! It’s easy and it’ll stop this stupid box from popping up!

  *Giant statue offer void to Eudora users living on the planet.

• From the “Holy crap! Who’d’ve thought it was possible” file: Girl overdoses on espresso
• 
• There are a couple of articles floating around the Interweb that basically say “NASA considering repairs to gouge in shuttle heat shield.” *blink blink* Let’s look at the basic math and physics behind this:
  • The shuttle orbits Earth at a little over 17,000 mph (nearly 28,000 kph)
  • It re-enters the atmosphere at roughly Mach 25 (~ 5.3 miles per second or almost 9 kilometers per second).
  • The heat shield endures temperatures over 2700° F (1500° C).
  • The gouge in the heat shield is 3½” long and goes ALL THE WAY THROUGH the thermal shielding.

  “Considering?” Hi. I’m sorry… I’m thinking that Mr. Goodwrench better be well past the “considering” stage and on his way – tools in hand – to get the job done.

• I read this Real Life Comics strip… and immediately was reminded of this movie clip.
• Steampunk cloque

Namaste.

*EDIT:  Went back to correct the math on the re-entry speed.  It’s MUCH faster than I had originally posted.

Sunday – 12 August 2007
Quiet day around the ranch, so far. I should do some cleaning, but I’m just not feeling it. Which is all the more reason to just do it and get it over with. There’s not really that much that needs to be done. So, it’s not like it’s some daunting task. I do believe that this comes under the heading of: “I have caught a case of the Lazies.”

The Scales of Justice
Last night, I decided to do my part to fight crime in Paragon City. I logged on and discovered that most of the members of my supergroup were on, but were in the middle of a task force – a series of missions that usually take a few hours to run. The drawbacks to TFs are:

• You can’t “save” a TF – once you start it… you’re pretty much in it until it’s done.
• Once it has started, others can’t join the group.
• If you quit a TF, you don’t get credit for the portion you’ve run. That’s right: You get to do it ALL over again.

On the “plus” side, however, you typically earn a few goodies for the investment of time and effort.

However, I wanted to get in and play, so I looked for a team. I wound up having to start one. We were small, and ragtag, but we seemed like we had a good build.

If only that was true.

Our Tanker, the one who was supposed to keep the bad guys occupied so that we could beat on them from a relatively safe distance, embodied the philosophy of “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” I believe that he, singlehandedly, caused our party to die at least twice. *sigh* He quit shortly. Selah. I rebuilt the team.

Better.
Stronger.
Faster at kicking ass.

I got lucky and found one Hell of a good Defender for our healer; she stayed right on top of things and didn’t miss a beat. We also picked up a Scrapper, Blaster, and another (BETTER) Tanker. And we went through three missions like a hot knife through butter.

Stray Toasters

• There are about seventy-leven reasons that is one of my favorite people, but among the top reasons is because he sent me this little gem: Eddie Izzard – Death Star Canteen… in LEGO!
• “With a name like ‘Smuckers,’ it has to be good!”
• Impossible Mission. Ah, nostalgia.
• Prophet 60091…
• I found this design, from 2Warped.com, to be rather amusing:
  
• Jackie Cane
• , what do you make of this? v6?
• From Wizard World Chicago: Toys! Toys! Toys! (I still want one’a those John Stewart GLs from the DC Super Friends collection.)

Looks like has come up with a viable option for the afternoon: Catching a movie. Now, I just have to choose between The Bourne Ultimatum or Stardust.

Namaste.

Saturday – 11 August 2007
So far, it’s been a good day. Blue skies. High clouds. Temps in the upper 90s.

The day started with me hanging out with Perry and Max. Coffee. Cinnamon rolls. Dolls. Mini-figures. We hung out and chatted/geeked out for a couple hours; as Max started getting a bit restless, I remembered that I had my GameBoy in my backpack and further cemented my role as “best adopted uncle ever.”

After they headed home, I put in a few hours with pencil and paper. I finished off She Talks to Angels. I’m happy with the way it turned out. I also decided on a couple of changes to Ed’s Song. And, I’m now toying with the idea of redoing 8:45 as a drawing; I would probably use the same basic “content” that I did in the Poser/Bryce one, more or less. Or maybe not. We’ll see…

Stray Toasters

• I’m still craving chocolate milk like a fiend.
• Report: Gamers largely clueless about next-gen console media capabilities.
• Slowly, but surely, I’m making my way towards the end of Deathly Hallows.
• WizKids is starting to release images and info for the upcoming Justice League set.
  • Is it just me or does this figure scream, “Hey, look! I have a crotch! Wanna see it?!
  • , you will want to see this figure.
• This is Ethan van Sciver, probably best know as the artist behind Green Lantern: Rebirth and Green Lantern Corps: Recharge and Sinestro Corps Special #1. This image, taken at Wizard World Chicago (a great-huge comic convention), amuses me greatly on many levels:
  • Ethan is LDS (That’s “Mormon,” for those of you outside the Zion Curtain).
  • His t-shirt says: “I’ve tried polygamy!” (That in itself is amusing enough.)
  • The shirt – and slogan – are for Wasatch Brewery’s Polygamy Porter.

Whether or not Ethan has actually sampled the beverage (which is unlikely, given his religious beliefs…) I don’t know, but I admire and applaud his sense of humor.

• 
• For Acolyte Derek: Stephen Colbert portrait in 768 mini Rubik’s Cubes
• U.S. Gov’t plans changes in air passenger screening
• LIEFELD!
• Coworker Tommy shall henceforth be referred to as “Code Monkey Build Bitch” or “Code Monkey BB.” Thus it is written, thus shall it be!
  Code Monkey BB sent me the following message yesterday, it amused the geek/gamer in me:

  [16:11] Tommy: graffiti seen (among many others) on the granite walls of a pit-fall
  [16:11] Tommy: In Dwarven: “Durembar Ironshanks was here and killed more orcs than he could count.”
  [16:11] Tommy: In Elven (below the preceding): “That means eleven.”

• Tyranist: At least it’s not a “space maggot.”
  
• The Great Data Migration proceeds apace.
• So… is this guy the new Phoenix?
  If so, does Jean know? Cause we all know that Scotty Doesn’t Know.
• Damn you, Tyranist. *shakes fist*
• Wow… they’re recruiting ’em young these days.

Time to go save the world. Or something.

Namaste.