Random Access

The geek factor is on “High” today:

1. I set up a new Linux machine to play with… I mean… um.. “for testing.”  Yeah, that’s what it is.  “Testing.”  As it was going through the install, it asked for a name for the computer.  I drew a blank.  My Windows test machine is named “Valkyrie,” so I figured that I would choose something that would work well, thematically, with it.  Still drew a blank.

   Then a name popped into my head:  “Serra.”

   As in Angel.
   As in Magic: the Gathering.

   I winced, just a little, as I entered the name into the dialog box.

2. I’ve had a recurring image/scene go through my head for the past few days.  It’s a little disturbing, but it also makes me chuckle when I think about it.

   In it, there I see Leonidas, king of the Spartans from 300, standing on the shores of Thermopylae.  Before him, Xerxes and the combined armies of the Persian Empire stand ready to attack.

   As the image widens out, there are no loincloth and cape-wearing Spartans, standing behind him.

   Instead, there are 300 Master Chiefs, from HALO.

   For those of you who don’t get the reference, the Master Chief is a cyborg.  More specifically, he’s a Spartan-II Super Soldier.

   Having seen what just one Master Chief did to the Covenant, I’m Ivory Soap sure that 300 of them could easily handle the Persian army.

Wednesday – 28 March 2007
Two-and-a-half down…
Two-and-a-half to go.
The back half of yesterday’s work day was decent. Post-work, I stopped off for coffee and drawing time; the new drawing is coming along… slowly, but there is progress being made.    called and asked if I had any plans for dinner; I didn’t. She suggested Macaroni Grill. How could I refuse? I mean, after all, it’s a restaurant where you can draw on the tables! I was in. Dinner was good and I had enough leftovers to constitute a decent lunch. Unfortunately, they are still in my refrigerator. *facepalm* Oh, well… if nothing else, I can have them for a tasty dinner tonight. Finished off the last two episodes of The West Wing‘s first season, last night, too. I need to find Season 2. And 3. And… well, you get the idea. But, I don’t really want to kick out $300 for the seven-season box set.

This morning, I woke to snow. Yay. Fortunately, it wasn’t cold enough for it to stick to the roads… but that didn’t stop the road monkeys from driving as though it was a natural disaster.  (Packed like lemmings into shiny, metal boxes…)  At one point, there was a lady driving down I-15 with a LOT of traffic stacked up behind her: because she was going about 50 down the center lane. The road was wet. Barely. And she was doing 50. And white-knuckling the steering wheel. I simply listened to Carnival (*shakes fist at ) and then to the first half of Hold Your Fire and cruised into the office.

The work day hasn’t been bad. So far. I’ve had a couple of brushfires to deal with, but n-n-n-nothing too serious. (Lookit that: I snuck in an Icehouse reference. Go me. I rock.) And, I should be able to ease on down the road around 4:30, God willing and the creek don’t rise.

Stray Toasters

• I still crave Krimpets of Butterscotch.  And Phillip’s crab cakes.
• Nyx and m3lodywise:  Check out this tattoo.
• If you’re very very quiet
  And you do not make a sound
  I’ll share a little secret
  That seems a bit profound
  Each thought that is imagined
  Gains a life its own
  And drifts into reality
  Looking for its home
• Snow.  *shakes head*
• Micro$quat has announced the Xbox 360 Elite.  Does this mean that somewhere down the road we’re going to see the Xbox 360 Grunt, Xbox 360 Hunter, Xbox 360 Jackal (They called him ‘The Jackal’…) and Xbox 360 Flood?
• It’s a great big universe
  And we’re all really puny…
  But these things are smaller still.
• Dr. Blair and the 10¢ plan.
• Synchronicity II
• Mr. Murdock looks like he’s about to whoop some ass.
• I don’t have anything to add here, so come up with your own punchline: Hotmail users deemed too dumb for employment at firm.
• Great monkey-squeezin’ Jesus… I haven’t seen this video in YEARS!
• Which Philip K. Dick story are we living in today?

Quote of the Day

[13:14] Sarah: have you seen the new Trix?
[13:14] ShadorunrWORK: Nuh-uh.
[13:14] Sarah: they are…. wait for it
[13:14] Sarah: NEW SHAPE:  ROUND
[13:14] Sarah: …
[13:14] ShadorunrWORK: Wait…
[13:14] Sarah: uh huh
[13:14] ShadorunrWORK: Weren’t Trix round when we were kids?
[13:14] Sarah: yup
[13:14] ShadorunrWORK: >.< [13:14] ShadorunrWORK: So "new hotness" Trix is really "old busted" Trix? [13:15] Sarah: and then they went all weird and made them "fruit shaped"... a lot like runts... and now...WOW!  ROUND!  UGH!

“That’s the thing about birthdays and Quik (and, apparently, lunch hours…), they go by so fast.”

Namaste.

Wednesday – 21 March 2007
Middle of the week and all is.

Last night, joined us for Shadowrun; she played one of the player group’s NPCs. The group, at the behest of their fixer, tracked down the team of runners who caused a good deal of strife for the fixer. That led to gunplay, spellslinging… and a clumsy troll. The players were outnumbered, 6 to 4… which made it roughly even odds. Unfortunately (depending on your point of view), the troll – who wasn’t the brainest member of the opposing group – had the brainstorm that throwing a table at the players was a good idea. This is where “theory vs. practical application” came into play. The theory was sound: Trolls are strong, tables are heavy… and there was a good chance that he could damage more than one player with the move. The practical application went something like this, however:

• Troll sees table.
• Troll picks up table.
• Troll throws table.
• *dice roll*
• The dice roll says that the troll not only failed to hit, but that hit completely botched the throw.
• *dice roll*
• The table found a new target: one of the troll’s teammates. It effectively decapitated him… and hit with enough force to carry the body to the far side of the room.

Why is it that the pretty ones are never very smart? Wait… he was a troll; he was neither smart nor pretty. *sigh*
I don’t know if Nyx will be a regular or intermittent member of the game – or if she’ll decide that it’s not her thing – but it was fun having her play.

Stray Toasters

• I’ve listened to Far Cry, the new release from the upcoming Rush CD Snakes and Arrows, a few times. I like it. But, then again, I’m biased.
• One of our senior managers was standing at a cube wall a little while ago, with his fingers and the top of his head sticking over the wall – it looked like the quintessential “Kilroy Was Here” picture. So, I said called him Kilroy. He asked if I knew the origin of it. I told him that all I knew was that it was used in World War II. He then proceeded to tell me how it came to be used: When Allied forces would recon houses and other buildings – clearing traps and clearing out civilians – they would draw that on the wall as a sign to later squads that the houses have been gone though. I did a little more digging and found a little more information about its history on Wikipedia.
• Yahoo! Movies has a trailer for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.
• Forget the film, watch the titles.
• Jigsaw puzzles with missing pieces.
• I live with it everyday…
  
• Draw Supergirl.
• I love it when someone asks you a question (“Where is [item a]? I just looked in [location x] and didn’t see any.”)
  …and you answer them (“There aren’t any in there.”)
  …and their immediate follow-up is a question (“Are they [shelf y] or [shelf z]?”)
  …that you had just rendered moot by saying “There aren’t any in there,” which I told him again.His reaction: “Oh.” *quizzical stare*
  Welcome to Wednesday.
• Technopathy.
• If you find the courage within you
  To face the path ahead
  It matters not the outcome
  If what you will gain instead
  Is a heart deepened in the knowing
  That experience carves the soul
  And the very thing that empties you
  Shall surely make you whole
• In talking with this weekend, he mentioned a fun “project” that he and Nyx did a couple of years ago: They would take a random lyric and draw a picture based on it. If I remember correctly, that’s where her Rocket Mouse picture series started. Doing something like that sounds fun.
• “How very Mary Tyler Moore of you.”
• – Tigger socks land girl in detention, school in court

Time to finish eating and get back to the grind.

Namaste.

Sunday – 18 March 2007
This had the potential to be a serious post.

The potential.

Instead, it’s going to be an “I found some of these to be amusing” post. Deal with it. You’re big kids.

MMORPG Motivational Posters

• City of Motivation – There are some decent ones in the comments, too.
• World of Warcraft Motivational Posters
  
• LLBBL.com – 272 posters of game-related geekery
• Aggro Me Forums
• Relic Entertainment Forums

And… because it amuses me:

It looks like a nice day out. Time to go play.

Namaste.

Thursday – 15 March 2007
The Ides of March are upon us.

I haven’t slept incredibly well the past few nights, so I slept in this morning. It was nice. I got out of bed, dealt with the necessary hygiene obesiences, dressed and headed out. I wore my Mickey Mouse tie today. Just because. I even got a few compliments on it.

I stopped at B&B for a cup of frozen mocha goodness. Selah. Next stop, the SLC office and then I was on the way south. The road monkeys were fairly well-behaved and the drive was leisurely. Work was okay… it wasn’t enough to knock it out of NBN territory, which was good. I dealt with a few issues, right out of the gate. Wound up having to do a workaround on one of them… but it sufficed. And it will do until tomorrow. Or Monday. However, dealing with that issue made me miss today’s workout; I’ll make it up tomorrow.
Post work, I picked up my four-color shwag. I also treated myself to four pieces of plastic crack from the new Origins set:

• Animal Man
• Cyborg Superman and Steel, from DC’s Reign of the Supermen storyline
• Mon-El, from the Legion (Yes, my little plastic LSH continues to grow.)

Then, I came home. I had planned on watching CSI:, but that was supplanted by the Xavier – BYU game… in which I had less than “no” interest. So, I read this week’s haul.

Stray Toasters

• I talked with the ‘rents today. Both are well.
• This is pretty cool: Toys ‘R’ Us: Autism Awareness Month
• Human Beatboxes. Check out the link for the French Idol show – that one was rather impressive.
• 
• Cap’s been dead a week. Or is he (1, 2)? Wizard posits the question: What would it be like if Captain America existed in the real world?
• …speaking of which, John Mayer and matchbox 20 seem to have differing opinions on “the real world.”
• 301 – 919 – 910
• I’m craving cotton candy. But, only slightly.
• 
• I came across an ad for Sumo Urban Lounge Gear yesterday. I think it looks pretty neat; I wouldn’t mind having a couple pieces.
• 
• It seems that HALO 3 should be out in September. *genuflect*
• Pierre Matter’s biomech-steampunk sculptures
• Your Baby Is a Level 1 Nerd, by way of Matt

Namaste.

Monday
It was cold and rather dreary. It was also Errand Day. and I had lunch with at Noodles & Co. On the way out of that complex, we stopped in the Thomasville Furniture store. It was something of a compulsion: I grew up about 25 miles from their headquarters. One of the sales associates approached us and asked if we, and I quote: “…had a project.” I told her that we did, inasmuch as we have a house. Then I informed her that I had lived in NC and she looked at me and said: “You don’t sound like you’re from North Carolina.” That made me happy; not picking up a southern accent was one of the things that I worked hard at when we moved to NC. Nice to know that all the effort paid off.

I made another few changes in the HCC. I moved my DSS receiver to the top of my monitor. I figured that when I watch TV, it’s usually on the PC, so it made sense to move the receiver and not have to do all manner of inhuman contortions when I wanted to change the channel. Logic, who knew!? Thanks to a couple of PS/2 extension cables, I was able to move Enterprise. I think that it was a printer cable constraint that kept me from moving DS9, but now that we have the new printer, it may be relocated as well.

>> fast forward >>

Poker night. There were only five of us: , , Matt, Dave and me. Tonight’s standings:

2. me
3. Dave

To say that she kicked our asses would be a horrible understatement. Even saying that she mopped the floor with us wouldn’t be enough. She was the modern-day Spanish Inquisition (Nooo one expects the Spanish Inquisition!!!) And I do mean “no one.” She just eliminated us one-by-one and her chip stack kept growing.

Venit. Vidit. Vicit.
“She came. She saw. She royally kicked our asses… and laughed.”

News
Morning Edition: Agribuisness Boom Brings Change to the Amazon
Morning Edition: Web Site Publisher Prepares to Defend Against Apple Suit
Morning Edition: San Francisco Fights Paper and Plastic
Day to Day: The ‘Spiral Jetty’ Re-Emerges from Great Salt Lake
All Things Considered: Ohio Universities Continue Domestic Partner Benefits, Despite Referendum
All Things Considered: Supreme Court Declines to Intervene in Schiavo Case

BBC News: World ‘must learn from Holocaust’
BBC News: Why didn’t the Allies bomb Auschwitz?

Stray Toasters

• It turns out that I will not be going to Moab on Wednesday, after all.
• I’m glad to be able to use Semagic again, rather than the web interface. ‘Nine is up and running again. I haven’t installed everything yet, but that will come over the next couple of days. One change that I did make: I switched from the Mozilla suite to just Firefox and I have gone back to using Eudora for my mail client. Now I need to remember how to use Eudora again…
• Just when everything in the world seems topsy-turvy, something comes along that restores my faith that there is a God.
• The next two Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers DVDs will be released in April. *covet*
• By way of comes this: Screen Clean
• For writers: 50 Strategies for Making Yourself Work
• and I often send each other… “odd” links. I sent her this video clip; in return, she sent this one. We probably shouldn’t be allowed to play on the Interweb without supervision.
• “So how does making crop circles help with invading Earth?” –
• Let Them Sing It for You
  Insert the lyrics to your favorite song and enjoy. And laugh. A lot.
• I have a few friends in the food service industry. One of their common complaints is that people often don’t consider how much they leave for a tip… IF they leave one. In light of that, I present: How Tipping Works. When talking with a friend’s father-in-law, I found out that tipping isn’t “expected” in Australia. One major difference is that wait staff is paid a “maximum wage,” I believe he called it. In other words, waiters in Oz are making something on the order of $8.00 (AUS) an hour, instead of the $2.13/hr that their U.S. counterparts make.
• “Bobby, so help me, if you don’t knock this crap off right now, I’m going to string you up the flagpole by your weiner and play pinata!”
  
• Real-snow versions of Calvin and Hobbes’ gory snowmen

Namaste.

Monday
This morning, I woke up from the singularly most bizarre dream that I can remember in a very long time. I was in a Buffy-like setting (even more weird since I wasn’t a fan of the show) and running from… something. Apparently, someone had cast a curse and I was caught in the effect. It was Medusa-like spell. Except that instead of the snakes growing from my head, they kept coming out of my right arm, either from the inside of my wrist or the palm of my hand (similar to the way that Ron Weasley kept spitting up slugs in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets). And they kept coming. And coming. And coming. It was very disconcerting. What woke me up was when I tried to stop more snakes from exiting and one slithered up my arm, towards my face. I woke with a jump and a bit of a yell, I think. In the words of Dr. Henry Jones, Jr. (better known to his associates as “Indy”): Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?

The rest of the day was mercifully less stressful. It included calls from Bret, Adam and my father. It will be good to see them next week.

And tonight: Poker!

::: fast- forward :::

, and came over for poker. had to bail early. brought electronic crack HALO 2. *covet* It’s another definite “buy” for me. Tonight’s poker rankings:

1. Me.

Stray Toasters

• Many of you are familiar with the Penny Arcade webcomic. Last year, the strip’s creators came up with the idea for Child’s Play, a charity that donated $250,000 in toys and money to Seattle Children’s Hospital. This year, they are expanding to Children’s Hospitals across the country. Check it out and pass it on.
• I was chatting with my brother-in-law-to-be, , this afternoon when he forwarded the URL to “MoveThemOn.org – Real Democracy in Action.” It made me laugh.
• From an IRC conversation: Rate My Network Diagram
• John Schneider was being interviewed about Smallville the changes in this season’s storyline following the death of Christopher Reeve. He was also asked if he had been approached for a role in the upcoming Superman movie. (He hasn’t.) Then, the interviewer asked if he would be appearing in the upcoming The Dukes of Hazzard movie. He laughed and responded: “I wouldn’t drive in that movie in your car.”
• Harry Lampert, co-creator of The Flash, died Saturday. Even though he retired in 1980, he still made appearances at comics conventions.
• Nat King Cole. Unforgettable. *nod*
• “Do you think that Sims feel pain?”
  
• : Guess who’s on the cover of the third issue of the new LSH. And, as an added bonus: This.
• By way of Slashdot: Atlantis found. Again.
• On Wookiees and nudity taboos…
• Firestorm vs… Firestorm? But, isn’t he supposed to be dead. Firestorm, I mean. Well, that Firestorm.
• Biz Markie’s Just a Friend just rolled around on the Winamp’s random play. The first thing that popped into my head was last year’s Pepsi commercial that used it.
• : For you
• “Hi! I’d like some meatloaf!”
  
• : Click here.

Namaste.