Random Access

Saturday (coda)
The derby match was fun. And full of crashes. And a couple of fights. And two pretty big (though not life-endangering) injuries. The TVRgirls lost to the Salt City Shakers, but it was a good match.

Post-derby, we went to breakfast at Cheers: South. They have a new manager there: Patrick… who looked familiar to me, but I couldn’t figure out why. He put the last piece together: He used to manage the Bad Ass Coffee Co. location where Perry and I often go for coffee.

and Dina are crashing here again tonight. When they got in from their post-bout party, we talked about the bout and the skaters a bit before they turned in for the night.

Tomorning: Brunch.

Namaste.

Friday (coda)
Post-work, I did some straightening (and even threw in a little cleaning, for good measure). I played with the cats in between bouts of “I don’t feel like dealing with [insert cleaning task] just yet.” Then, a shower and out the door fo Clitorati.

Tonight’s gathering was smallish, but good. , and two of her teammates, arrived a little after 9:00 PM. After introductions were bandied about, we sat, chatted and drank our beverages of choice. Then, it was on to dinner.

Tomorrow is Derby Day. In light of that, here is a simple list of the positions and rules (1, 2) for the bout. And it seems as though more people than I thought are interested in sitting in the “Suicide Seats.” It should be fun.

Stray Toasters

• “Common sense, unfortunately, isn’t.” I came up with this a few months ago. When I look at the number of times/cases when it’s been applicable, I almost get the urge to trademark it.
• For …
  “Did you see the new Batman costume for The Dark Knight?”
  
• What do you get when you mix math and rock music? Questionable Content has the answer.
• loves me (or at least tolerates me). How do I know? She sent me a link to this and this.
• sent me a link to this story yesterday.
• By way of comes a link to this t-shirt.

Namaste.

Thursday – 21 June 2007
I spent a quiet evening with the kids, after work.

Then… I played City.

I logged on first as Corvus Nox. I ran with a team comprised mostly of my supergroup, which was fun (and a little rare for me). We took on Council of Thorns and Tsoo. There were some deaths involved… on our side. But we managed to get through the missions. And ‘Nox got to Security Level 14. Which means that I get to ditch the second most-stupid superpower (Hover) in lieu of it’s beefier upgraded version: Flight. Selah.

I logged out, with the intention of going to bed.
(Please see entries on: “Road to Hell” and “Paving”)

Then, I remembered that I had gotten the Hand of Nefer-Tem up to Security Level 30… and neglected to pick out a new costume. I also remembered that new costumes are “earned” by taking on missions for the tailors at iCON. I had not yet completed my costume mission. *grblsnrkx* I had to defeat 30 Crey agents. Fair enough. At least I had started the mission before logging out last time. I headed to Brickstown to find some low-level (30 – 32) Crey. I found them. They, for some reason, shot… back. Ô.õ What was that all about?! Not only did they shoot back, they killed me a couple of times. The bastards.

I got through all thirty of them and returned to the iCON in Independence Port to see Lauren, one of the tailors. A nip here, a tuck there and a few adjustments later, I had a new, “formal” costume:

The kilt was the closest thing that I could find to a shenti, so I went with that. I’m happy with the overall look, too.

Stray Toasters

• I had a meeting with the Captain and his First Mate, Coca-Cola, this evening. Unfortunately, his Second Officer, Juice d’Orange, was unavailable. We were, however, able to come to an accord.
• Dwim pointed out this stop-motion film of a young man putting together a Millenium Falcon… out of LEGO bricks. Around 1:30 into it, keep an eye on the “exploding” red tile (lower left corner of the screen).
• NCSoft has finally added new flying poses to City of Heroes/Villains. I still want the ability to do loops and barrel rolls.
• likes to kill zombies.
• I’m still torn: Hopen or Malm. Decisions, decisions…

Next on the agenda: Acquire caffeination and ease on down the road.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 20 June 2007
This morning has gotten off to a slow start. I apparently didn’t sleep well last night. When I got up this morning to turn off Nomad (I use it as a secondary alarm), I stretched out on the couch… for an hour. I felt a bit better after that, so I figured that it was about time to get the day started. I also have a frozen mocha, so hopefully that will thin out the blood in my caffeinestream.

The work day hasn’t been bad. A little work in the server room. Some research. Rush in Rio. And a nice constitutional… with a discussion about guns.

Stray Toasters

• I was listening to Piccadilly Collection, by Squeeze, last night. One of my particular favorite songs of theirs is Hourglass – a song that makes NO sense (as far as I can tell) and whose video makes even less sense… but is a fun, bounce-around-like-an-idiot tune.
• comes: Endless Zombie Rampage
• …and while we’re on the subject of zombies: Monster by Mail
• From Coworker Dave W. (I swear… I’m going to have to start numbering the Daves at this rate): Overheard in New York
• So you wanted to meet the wizard?
  Let me tell you that you’ve come to the right place!
  Shall I make you a frog or a lizard?
  You should see the strained expression on your face
  If the way I come on is fright’ning
  That’s the way I felt like coming on today
  Have you ever been kissed by lightning?
  Let me tell you, that will make you go away
• Star Wars AT-AT stroller mod
• Titanic lamp (the only thing missing is the guy bouncing off the propeller)
• Computer programs… hidden on your old LPs? Yep.
• 

Namaste.

Monday – 18 June 2007
Another week begins.

So far, the day has been rather quiet and uneventful. This morning’s excursion to Ye Olde Shoppe of Coffee yielded an improper elixir. I didn’t really notice it until after I had gotten into the car and was preparing to leave – apparently, the machine that makes the “frozen” part of the “frozen mocha” was not working properly. It just gave out mocha-colored liquid, far from frozen. You would think that I would have noticed that the triple-shot of espresso just… sank to the bottom of the cup beforehand. Nope. Ok, well. I went back in, asked about it and Niki went about fixing a new – frozen – drink from another dispenser.

Yesterday, post-pilgrimage to the Garden of Sweden, I went home and hung out with the kids for a few hours… after which, I decided that I wanted to get out for a bit. I headed up Fort Union Boulevard and towards Wasatch Drive. Then, I noticed that I was getting hungry. Not ravenously so, but enough to allocate a couple of brain cells to the task of figuring out what I wanted and where to get it. I called Angela, with whom I haven’t spoken since God was a boy, to see what she was up to. Not much, it turned out… and she hadn’t eaten, either. We opted for Redrock Brewing Co. They have a very smooth Oatmeal Stout. And calamari. And “Maryland Crab Cakes.” The calamari was good, as always. The crab cakes were alright… but I’m pretty picky about anything claiming to be “Maryland Crab Cakes” or “Maryland-Style Crab Cakes.” After dinner, we headed over to The Gateway to check out the remnants of the Chalk Art Festival. Most of the drawings along the south end of The Gateway had been removed, but the north end was still cordoned off and the drawings were mostly intact. Mostly. There were footprints in a lot of the drawings and – this was irritating – people were taking the beadwork off of the picture (based on this piece) drawn by Gina Jrel. Some peoples’ children…

The Scales of Justice
After I got back home, I decided to see what was going on in Paragon City. I’d already missed (most of) Double XP Weekend, but I had finally worked up the desire to play. I started the CoH loader and was greeted with a notice about Issue 10: Invasion. Wait… Issue 10?!?! We just barely got Issue 9 and they are already talking about Issue 10!? Sweet! Looks as though the Rikti are back… and they’re not happy about having been repelled.

I was invited to a team shortly after logging in. I played for a couple of hours and managed to get two levels under my belt before logging off. That’s right: Security Level 30. Which also means a new costume slot. Which also means that I have to figure out what I want to do for the new costume.

Stray Toasters

• I finally finished the picture of :
  

  

• CNet Top 5 Worst Things About the iPhone
• Cover to Cover: Deja vu All Over Again – A Crisis of Infinite Homage Covers
• For <lj user=”trellos”> and Carmen: Nepali “Living Goddess” is rather into gadgets
• Starfish and coffee
  Maple syrup and jam
  A butterscotch cloud
  A tangerine
  And a side order of ham
  
• What Steampunk Means
• By way of Wired: Steampunk gallery
• 1408 opens this weekend…
• …as does the Utah Arts Festival

Namaste.

Sunday – 17 June 2007
Again: Happy Father’s Day to the dads out there.

So far this morning I have:

• Fed the kids
• Observed the hygiene rituals
• Worshipped at the Temple of Sweden with and … for three hours!
• Talked with the paternal parental units.

…and it’s just a little after 2:00 PM. Still plenty of time to find some trouble to get into!

Yesterday was good. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer was fun. They did a good job of retelling/retooling the origin of the Silver Surfer and making it mesh with the movie version of the FF. The characterizations were good… although, I felt that Julian McMahon’s Doctor Doom was a little “too” over-the-top in a couple of spots. But, he’s a classic character and there have been more than “a few” times when he’s been over-the-top in the comics. So, I can let it slide. While this movie was not on the same level as Gladiator or The Shawshank Redemption, in my opinion it did what it wanted/needed to do: Put a comic book on the screen in as believeable a manner as possible. And, as I said: It was fun. I give the movie a big ol’ thumbs-up with an okay.

I also went to The Gateway to check out…

I missed and the rest of Team Chalk-o-Licious – thanks to dealing with Sprint (more on that later), but I did get a photo of their piece and some of the other works.

I need to finish resizing the rest of the pictures; they should be up in the next few days.

Sprint. *sigh* I have just about had enough of them. Until roughly 10:00 PM last night, I did not have access to the Power Vision service (Sprint/Nextel’s internet). I kept getting an error message whenever I tried to connect. I have probably talked with more people at Sprint/Nextel in the past two days than more people talk with over the course of their entire service contract. For the longest time, no one could figure out what the problem was. Someone was finally able to tell me something late Friday evening: The two companies use different billing systems and they are in the process of merging them – My bill showed up as paid and up-to-date in one system, while it didn’t in the other. That system being the one that the Power Vision service is apparently tied to. Okay, great! Problem identified. Now, to solve it. Right… More time on the phone AND a trip to one of the local Sprint Stores. *grblsnrkx* Sidebar: Jennie, the Sprint rep who helped me in the store, did everything that she could to try and get through to someone to get the problem straightened out. And, I could tell that she wasn’t happy with the answers that she was getting from the people on the other side of the phone. AND, she maintained a pleasant disposition throughout the whole ordeal. I appreciate good customer service and she deserves recognition – I have NO complaints about her customer service skills and will go back to the store this week to make sure that her manager is aware of this. It still took me another… hour-and-a-half to two hours on the phone AGAIN to finally get someone to push whatever button needed to be pushed to get things up and running again.

After that, breakfast was a welcome respite. And, Patryck put in an appearance, too. That was a nice surprise.

Four-Color Coverage
This is just a (fairly) quick hit. I’m still enjoying “The Lightning Saga,” the crossover storyline in JLA and JSA. In Justice Society of America #6, they keep it coming. In this issue they throw in a bit of Legion trivia of which I wasn’t aware:

Timber Wolf: Thom’s still a couple planets short of a system. Is it the safety blocks?
Dream Girl: I’m afraid not, Brin. The medicine of this time period is unbelievably primitive. They still use pills to help schizophrenia.
Starman: I took my pills today.
Timber Wolf: I didn’t know he was schizophrenic.
Wildfire: He told me about it once. He said he spent years in a hospital after his gravity powers popped up.
Dawnstar: Brainiac 5 didn’t give him medical clearance to travel. That’s why Thom tricked Colossal Boy and took his place. Since the time beam wasn’t calibrated for him, something went wrong. I can only belive his unanticipated path to the past worsened his health problems.
Karate Kid: What unanticipated path was that?
Dawnstar: I can see it on him, Val. The mark of the multiverse.
Starman: Hi, Swamp Thing. (to a snake coiled around a tree limb)
Timber Wolf: The multiverse?
Dawnstar: Before he came to this time period, he was accidentally shunted to a parallel Earth.
Starman: Earth-22? Meh.
*cut to scenes from the Kingdom Come miniseries*
Starman: No one liked each other there very much!
Wildfire: Thom always did call himself the “unluckiest” Legionnaire.
Dream Girl: I should have seen this coming.
Karate Kid: You can’t dream up every event that’s going to happen, Nura.
Dream Girl: I’m not talking about my precognitive abilities. I know Thom better than anyone. Health problems or not, he would never hesitate to risk his life to help his friends.
Starman: You’re my dream girl. I did it because I love you.
Dream Girl: I love you, too.

Wait. Star Boy/Starman…? Schizophrenic?! Huh. Who knew? This is followed up with a great scene of the new Liberty Belle (formerly Jesse Quick) trying to play matchmaker for Wonder Woman…

Liberty Belle: You’ve never thought about marriage?
Wonder Woman: Marriage isn’t a concept I grew up around, Jesse.
Liberty Belle: What about Superman? You two were made for each other.
Wonder Woman: He’s unavailable.
Liberty Belle: How about Dr. Mid-Nite?
Wonder Woman: A little too quiet for me.
Liberty Belle: Wait! I got it! We just heard about him the other day. He’s cute, vigilant and your costumes would look so great together. *sly grin* Have you met the new Mr. America yet?

This is good stuff. And we learn the identity of the seventh Legionnaire. The storyline concludes in Justice League of America #10. Can’t wait.

Stray Toasters

• I am getting hungry… but I’m not sure what I want for dinner.
• Ten days to the new Legion ‘Clix set.
• Don, we may need to rename the scale…
• As much as I love playing City – and despite the fact that it’s Double XP Weekend – I am not motivated to play right now.
• I was just looking at JSA #6 again. I have an idea of who’s going to die. I think. I just noticed something about the group of Legionnaires that makes one of them a… “better candidate”… than the others to be sacrificed.
• 9% of cell phone users want the iPhone
  (I just want a cell provider whose system actually works the way it’s supposed to!)

• 

Namaste.

Friday – 15 June 2007
So far, it’s been a pretty good day. Of course, any day that starts “Fri-” us usually pretty good.

Unless it’s 1929.
And October.
And the last Friday of the month.

But, it’s not. So we’re good.

I’m working in the Salt Lake office today and that’s a good thing because a semi driver decided to play chicken with an overpass – the one at the exit I take to get to the A.F. office – and lost. Big time. He was hauling a pre-fab home. I guess that he technically is still hauling it… but it now has one hell of a sunroof:

Picture courtesy of Acolyte Derek

Yeah. Not so good there.

Last night, I went to a taping of Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! with KHAYLA. I had a ball! I was expecting it to be fun, but nowhere near as much as it was. The whole taping took about two hours… of which only forty minutes or so will make it on the air. That’s a shame, because I’m willing to bet that some of the really funny stuff is going to be edited out. Your loss. The panel was Paula Poundstone, Mo Rocca and Tom Bodett and their celebrity guest for “Not My Job” was Donny Osmond (by phone from L.A.). I have never been the biggest Donny Osmond fan, but I have nothing against him, either… and he was quite funny. DANGERMOUSE_UT: You were right – Peter Sagal is not a very tall man. But, he knows how to work a crowd, has good comedic timing AND he knows when to just let the panel – and Carl Kassel – just go off on their riffs. Last night’s taping will air on Saturday, 16 June 2007, check your local NPR station for the time.

Stray Toasters

• I lost the original version of this post this morning. *sigh*
• I’m getting the urge for prime rib from Outback. Maybe I’ll satiate that desire sometime this weekend.
• Jan, yet another coworker, has introduced me to KLOV – Killer List of Video Games… like I needed another distraction.
• Giant snake terrorizing Pennsylvania – Okay… are we sure that this isn’t just an American chupacabra story? TIPHASAURUS, would you look into this?

• 

• Wooden robot toys!
• Getting an iPhone, but not an iTunes Music Store fan? Better rethink that.

Tonight: Clitorati
Tomorrow: Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer with Perry and Max and the Chalk Art Festival… and, at some point, a trip to IKEA.

Namaste.

Thursday – 14 June 2007
Today is Flag Day.

Yesterday was Blog Like It’s the End of the World Day.

My last four posts – and ‘s comments and posts – were part of that. Salt Lake City has not succombed to “mass hysteria, dogs and cats living together” …. or even the zombie apocalypse. This time. C’mon, we’re talking about the Land Behind the Zion Curtain, after all. Do you think something like a zombie uprising is going to stop the faithful?

*ponders a missionary vs. zombie cage match*

As a result of yesterday’s little exercise, I recieved:

• Three comments
• Two IMs and
• One phone call

…to make sure that everything here was alright. That made my inner writer feel good. “Better than James Brown” good. And I didn’t want to come right out and say “Hey, look! Zombies!” I thought it better to slowly build up some suspense and tension – I hate it when they give everything away in a story or movie right after it starts. Where’s the reason to keep going, if you already know what’s up from the get-go?!

If you’re interested in seeing what others who participated wrote, click the link at the top of the page. Or click here. Or don’t. It’s your call.

Stray Toasters

• Last night, I went to a test/preview screening of Day Watch with Liz, Tyranist, Rish (the other contributer to the Horror Film Compendium), and . Interesting movie. This morning, Tyranist asked me what I thought, as I have not yet seen Night Watch. I told him that liked it and that it had enough “what came before” flavor to help fill in some of the gaps. One thing that was very cool about it: The subtitles were not just “static.” They did some rather interesting things with them that went along with what was happening on-screen. I would like to see both Night Watch and Day Watch, together, to see how the story flows as a more-or-less complete piece (there’s supposed to be a third movie, at some point).
• Screensaver of Old Comic Book Ads
• From Dwim: FlÅ“jte Hero
• Etched in Time
• 
• Steampunk Computing

Tonight: Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me… the taping!

Namaste.

I was playing with the cats – fun with a laser pointer – and came to a realization:

If I ever wind up in an air hockey tournament, I want one of them as my partner.

Seriously. The way they they track the laser dot? They’re all over it. With the quickness. And, let’s be honest: If I wasn’t constantly moving it away from them – AND if it wasn’t just a dot of light – they would catch it. Compared to that, a hockey puck would be a piece of cake. Hell, they could probably even play blindfolded.

The only question is: Which cat would I choose…?

Tuesday – 12 June 2007
I must have been “a little” tired last night – I fell asleep reading Vision of the Future. But, I did it in my comfy chair – thank you, Cardinal Fang – so it was alright.

This morning is proceeding apace. Up, equipped and on the road. Traffic was a little heavier than usual, but not horribly so. As I was passing out of Sandy and into Draper, Drowning Pools’ Bodies found its way into the drivetime musical oleo. I found myself reparsing the lyrics to “Let the monkeys hit the floor!” It amused me. Now that I think about it, though, it probably should have been something along the lines of “Throw the monkeys out the door!” I would also like to say that I Would Die 4 U/Baby I’m a Star make for some fine traveling music.

I’ve been toying with the WordPress portion of my site. I’m considering moving most/all/some (who knows?!) content into it and unifying the overall look of the site. Of the parts that I have played with, I like the way it looks.

Stray Toasters

• I just had a toaster pastry… from a not-so-stray toaster.
• Let me see if I got this right: First, we have a wooden marionette that wanted to be a real boy. Now we have a bicycle made of wood?
• just sent a link to this story. Words fail me.
• ATI or nVidia? What’s your weapon of choice and why?
• Superhero Celebrity Poker
• Conversations with often take amusing – if not very odd – turns:

[06:59] evangelinaarion: wow if you cross the two pics you sent me, you get the pic i sent you
[07:02] shadorunr: Yep.
[07:02] shadorunr: Like a… digital Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.
[07:03] shadorunr: “You got your Catwoman in my Strawberry Shortcake!”
[07:03] shadorunr: “You got your Strawberry Shortcake on my Catwoman!”
[07:03] shadorunr: Mmmmm.

• Is the Xbox 360 Core System about to undergo a price drop?
• Papurika (Paprika) is coming to the Broadway in a couple weeks. It looks like it could be as weird as Perfect Blue. I shall have to go and see it.

  

• Oh, YEAH!
• Quentin Tarantino’s Penny Dreadful: Steampulp Fiction

Namaste.

Thursday (coda)
Despite a traffic back-up (from 126th South up to 114th South… because of an accident off to the side of the road), the evening hasn’t been bad. I’ve been playing with the cats and watching Game 1 of the NBA Finals. At one point, Lightning jumped up on the couch and curled up in my lap and watched part of the 4th Quarter. I have the fur all over my shirt to prove it.
I think that I might try to find some trouble to break up in Paragon City in a little bit. Or play some poker.

Four-Color Coverage
I haven’t picked up this week’s four-color goodness (or some of last week’s), but I saw a preview of Justice Society of America #6, the latest installment of “The Lightning Saga,” and it made me smile:

The JSA and JLA are trying to figure out where the six Legionnaires have gone. Their only clue is a duralim rod, from Wildfire’s belt. Superman explains…

Wildcat: Ya act like you’ve seen that thing before.
Superman: I have, Ted.
Wildcat II: What is it?
Superman: It’s a lightning rod.
Black Canary: A handheld lightning rod?
Superman: It’s 31st Century science, Canary, way beyond anything I could explain. Even Kryptonian science. Mr. Terrific’s trying to identify how it works, but…
Flash: You already know.
Superman: I know what it’s used for. One of the founding members of the Legion, Lightning Lad, was killed stopping an alien invasion. We searched the universe for a way to bring him back. We found one — but it was a bizarre game of Russian Roulette. By activating the rods with lightning, we could sacrifice one of our lives and give it to Lightning Lad. We all volunteered. We raised the rods around him. And we waited for lightning to strike one of us. In the end, Chameleon Boy’s shape-shifting pet, Proty, secretly took Saturn Girl’s place and gave its life for Lightning Lad’s.
Geo-Force: That is not only ridiculous, Superman, it is insane.
Superman: Our devotion to each other was unexplainable.
Batman: You were kids.
Superman: No, Batman. We were Legion.

The next two-page spread shows the missing Legionnaires flying through the night…

Dawnstar: We agreed before we left that we would complete our mission here in the past and return home. Superman and his teammates were never supposed to get involved… we’ll find the last Legionnaire this way.
Timber Wolf: If they hadn’t gotten involved, I’d still be racing dinosaurs with a bunch of talking gorillas.
Wildfire: I’m surprised you didn’t find a girlfriend, Brin.
Timber Wolf: ‘Least I didn’t think I was a statue. ‘Course, I like you better that way.

That’s just good stuff. And, the panel of the Legionnaires at Lightning Lad’s coffin was done in the style of the original story, way back in Adventure Comics #312. I need to ease on down the road and head to Dr. Volt’s and pick this up.

Stray Toasters

• I chatted with the rare and elusive this evening.  She is well.
• As usual, cracks me up. Today, he proved his mastery of the “Two birds, one stone” concept.
• Tom DeSanto Looking to Adapt City of Heroes
• : Legion Animated Ferro Lad from the Comics2Film DCG
• The kids are silly. Most cats like using scratching posts. Not these three. Instead, they love using my 12″x12″ LEGO base plates as scratching mats. I’m pretty sure that it has to do with the studs on the plates feel against the pads on their paws, but it’s still damned amusing to watch.
• 
• Secrets of Contrails
• Hmm… Ben & Jerry’s or ice cream sandwiches?  Decisions, decisions…
• UK physics teacher says British physics sucks
• I haven’t read Daredevil in a few years. But, I just read this article – Will Daredevil’s Wife Survive? – and it made me wonder exactly what in the Nine Hells is going on at the so-called “House of Ideas?”

  I know that Joe Quesada has never liked the fact that Peter Parker’s life got “easy” (steady job, supermodel wife), but come on, as the saying goes: “Every dog has his day.” Or, as I prefer to put it: “The sun shines on a dog’s ass, too.” Sure, in the time-altering “House of M,” Peter wasn’t just “a guy,” he was a superstar. And a publicly known one, at that. But when the House of M ended, so did that life for Peter. But the worst part: He remembered it. All of it. And starting with “Civil Bore,” Marvel proceeded to turn Peter’s life upside-down. Again.

  Now, it seems as if they are about to pull the rug out from Matt Murdock. Again. *sigh* “Everything old is new again.” But, they didn’t bother to dust it off or polish it or anything. I would like to be surprised and find out that they are actually giving someone in the Marvel Universe a break. Anyone. Hell, at this point, I’d be happy if it’s anyone but Tony Stark. Even Power Pack. Or the Great Lakes Avengers.

• This was so bad that I was compelled to include it:
  
  (from xkcd.com)
• “How do you circumcise an orange brick?”  (Bet that got your attention, didn’t it?)
• : I saw this and it reminded me of you.
  
• Nintendo creates new disease… “Wiiitis”

Namaste.

Thursday – 07 June 2007
Day Two of the “Great Salt Lake Temperature Drop.” This just ain’t right.

I finished Specter of the Past last night. It ended on an interesting note; I’m looking forward to seeing how the story advances in the next book.

The kids are doing well. Sissy is still trying to be the alpha… but only at certain times. When I had the laser pointer out, she actually played with the twins, without too much fuss. Speaking of which, I took what I think is, to date, the best picture of all three cats:

(click picture for larger view)

…and it shows their affinity for IKEA, to boot! I have seen both Sissy and Presto sit/lie/stretch out in the chair many times over the past few days. (One thing that doesn’t show in the picture: How much fur Sissy has shed over the cushion. Oh, well, that’s what lint rollers and vacuum cleaners are for.)

The Scales of Justice
I took Hand of Nefer-Tem out on patrol last night… but couldn’t get into soloing. Nor could I find a team. So, I decided to let Paragon City’s other defenders of justice handle the crimefighting for the night.

Stray Toasters

• I called Mom this morning (something about it being her birthday or some such thing). All’s well; she has her first post-op checkup later today. (I forgot to call her “Lady Deathstrike” while she was on the phone.) Assuming that her doctor clears her, she and my uncle are heading “down to the hills,” as Dad would say, to get some things out of the old house.
• Scott: Uh-oh…
  Jamie: What?!
  Scott: Big tunnel.
• – 25 Trends that changed the way we live
  USA Today is running lists of “25 things that…” in celebration of their upcoming 25th anniversary. Some of the lists – and the selections therein – are rather interesting.
• To quote and : “People suck.”
• Last week, I saw that someone had created a MySpace page for their City of Heroes character. I thought that it was a bit odd. Granted, I have CoH and CoV links on my site, but I haven’t gone so far as to create MySpace pages for any of my characters. When I logged into City last night, there was a notice on the front page for this.
• “Did I win?!”
  
• Smoke Camels, be a better sniper
• and everyone will say “I told you so”
  yeah they’ll all just nod and sigh
  but I’ll make a run at something real
  and they’ll never even try
  and everyone will say “I told you so”
  yeah they’ll all just nod and sigh
  as I go down in a ball of flames
  they’ll just watch, i wonder why
• Internal workings of a mechanical watch video
• : 27 June 2007 (1, 2, 3)
• Steampunk Monitor from the Steampunk Workshop
• By way of ZDNet: Why DRM won’t ever work
• “More Parachute! RAAWR!!!” –

Namaste.

Wednesday – 06 June 2007
It’s the middle of the week.
It’s the first week of June.
And I’m actually wearing a turtleneck.

Because someone decided to turn down Utah’s thermostat again. By at least 30°. It’s raining here in the valley and there is some fresh snow on the mountain tops.

Did I mention that it’s June? I did? Well, I don’t think that I mentioned that I’m not in the Southern Hemisphere, because that does make a bit of a difference.

Aside from that – and the fact that I called the ‘rents to tell them the same – things are going well.

Last night was a game night: All Flesh Must Be Eaten. We attacked a cathedral. Well, not really the cathedral, per se; we attacked the people inside. For some reason, they weren’t exactly happy to see us… and they shot back. How rude. In the end, we took some bumps and bruises (and a couple of laser burns), but we kicked their collective recta. So far. We still have some places to explore and there is still the slight problem of having to find and rescue some hostages. “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,” as the saying goes.

Stray Toasters

• Did I mention “turtleneck” and “June” before?
• At Tyranist’s behest – and because I can’t seem to get Scotty Doesn’t Know out of my head – I watched EuroTrip.    I had summarily dismissed it as “too stupid for the Cool World – Long Kiss Goodnight Scale” when it was released.  I was wrong.  VERY wrong.  I may actually have to buy this movie.

  I kept looking at the guy who played Scotty and trying to figure out why he was so familiar.  It didn’t come to me until I looked at IMDb and saw that he was the lead in this movie.  *duhr*

• Dwim pointed me in the direction of this, which included this picture:
  
• Script review: Wonder Woman
• “Just some oak and some pine and a handful of Norsemen…”
• By way of PC Magazine: 10 Wicked Awesome Webcomics
• 
• Interview with Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer director Tim Story

Namaste.

Monday – 04 June 2007
One down, four to go.

Today was good. Quiet. No fires. And, I got to start the day in the Salt Lake office. And, I get to do it again tomorning. This evening has been a relaxing night at home with the kids. I ran a recovery mission in Talos Island with Nefer-Tem. And, I did some reading – I now have about sixty pages left in Specter of the Past. Thanks to Eric, I can move right on to the next book, Vision of the Future, when I finish. And, at some point, I need to get back into Pattern Recognition.
Stray Toasters

• Force fields, Underoos^® and datajacks.
• World of Warcraft Language Translations
  
• Dr. Steel
• Tyranist and I were discussing “the Uncanny Valley” today, because of these articles: 1, 2.
• Same Actor, Different Role 2 – A Worth 1000 contest (image heavy)
• Scotty Doesn’t Know (Damn you, Tyranist!)
  
  Okay, okay…. fine. Here’s the actual video for the song. (Can you spot Matt Damon in the video?)
• The 2012 Olympics + London + goatse = something that probably looks like this.
• Anti-DRM t-shirt design contest
• 
• Do the Right Thing recreated with Sesame Street toys

Namaste.

Sunday (coda)
I wound up heading to Jitterbug for a late lunch/early and light dinner and to get some more time with a pencil in my hand. I was successful at both. I didn’t finish the picture because I didn’t have a reference book handy, but I got a lot of other work in on it. I’m probably less than thirty minutes from completing it.

After that, I decided to take a drive. I didn’t want to simply loop the SLC Valley, my usual Parley’s/Emigration run didn’t sound appealing and I didn’t feel like going to Park City. So, I headed north. My thought: I’ll head north until I don’t want to go any farther and turn around and come back. Sounded good in theory, the practical application was a little different: I wound up going to Ogden. And, since I was in Ogden, I decided to stop in and see Dee, Kim and the boys. I’m glad that I did – it was fun to hang out with them for a while.

I headed home. After checking on the cats (they were fine) and determining that I didn’t feel like sitting at home, I decided to take in 28 Weeks Later. Not bad. Not bad at all. It did raise a couple questions that I will throw to and Tyranist, however:

Are all zombie movies inherently apocalyptic/nihilist? Or has there been a movie – other than *ack-thbppt*Undead – where the zombie hordes are defeated/eliminated and the world goes on more or less as it was?

Shortly after it started, 28WL made me think of a question and a similar one popped up about two-thirds of the way through the movie:

1. Could you make the choice to leave a loved one behind in the face of overwhelming odds or would you stick with them and take your chances?
2. Could you make the call to wipe out everyone and everything (and I do mean “everyone and everything”) in order to eliminate an otherwise unstoppable threat?

I enjoyed the movie… even though I noticed, as with Spider-day Night Fever, there were some contrivances/coincidences that without which the movie would have fallen apart. And… it reminded me of Aliens in a number of ways. But, it was a nice way to cap off the weekend.

Stray Toasters

• Is it bad that I want one of these for my desk at work? (At least for the south office.)
• …and one of these wouldn’t be bad, either.
• Heaven help me for the way that I am
  Save me from these evil deeds
  Before I get them done…
  
• Sissy’s taken to growling at the twins again. *sigh*
• While I don’t really need anything from here, my inner LEGO Maniac wouldn’t mind having the Ice Brick Tray, Coaster Set… and even the Plate and Tumbler Sets. Particularly the Ice Brick Tray, though.
• Amazing 3D Scanner Made with LEGO and Milk
• At some point today, I heard John Sugar Melonhead’s Jack and Diane. It got to the refrain, “Oh, yeah, life goes on… Long after the thrill of living is gone” and I almost immediately started laughing: I had a picture of Nefer-Tem fighting a villain and getting blasted/pummelled/whatever to the point of near-death. (Which, since he is technically a mummy, is merely a minor setback.) He gets up, casually tosses out that line… and proceeds to wail the tar out of his opponent.
• iPhone Release Date Confirmed as June 29
• While I’m on the subject of cell phones: Cell phone ‘CSI’
• Have you heard Tori Amos’ cover of Bruce Springsteen’s I’m on Fire? Check it out here, even though this is not the version I was looking for.

I should give more than “a little thought” to calling it a night…

Namaste.