Random Access

Friday – 08 April 2011
It’s another 9/80 “on” Friday… and this one came complete with snow!

Yep, “Welcome to Utah.” I’m still expecting at least one more snowfall this month (and maybe a dusting in May).

Last night was a lazy night around the homestead. SaraRules! had cancelled her evening plans and stayed in, so we spent the evening watching the teevee. We caught up on a NCIS episodes, as well as an episode of CSI: (which we haven’t watched in at least a year). And when did Lady Heather, sorry… Dr. Kessler become “Dr. Kessler” and not “Lady Heather,” anymore?! We also watched Beef on Fuse, about the feuds in rap and hip-hop from the 80s to the early 2000s.

And here’s a little 3T to help your Friday groove along:

…and…

Stray Toasters

• No Accord in Budget Talks as Policy Fights Hamper Deals
  • Q & A: What could happen during a government shutdown?
  • It May Be a ‘Budget Battle,’ but Some Skirmishes Have Little to Do With Money
• For SaraRules!: FBI releases files on Biggie Smalls murder; still no killer named
• 
• Cars, Houses, Human Remains: Debris from Japan Is Headed Toward U.S.
• Jean Bartik, Software Pioneer, Dies at 86
• Class action suit over EA football games charges forward
• 
• Brass Goggles: The Lighter Side of Steampunk
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Chinese censors ban time travel TV shows

Namaste.

Thursday – 07 April 2011
It’s a new “No Bad News” Thursday in the valley. And this one comes to us complete with grey skies and impending storms. S’okay though, we’re still one day closer to the weekend.

Last night, SaraRules! fixed Pad Thai for dinner. To my understanding, it was her first time making it… and it was good. After dinner, I hit Pin-up Girl Espresso for a cup of game night go-juice and then it was off to Hastur Hobbies to meet up with and the gang for our D&D game. It went well, especially when you consider that we ignored the last item from the following “suggestion” from Shadowrun:

“Watch your back, shoot straight, conserve ammo, and never, ever, cut a deal with a dragon.”

Nevertheless, we walked away with our lives and the item we were searching for… without having to (try and) kill the dragon. Which was good for us.

Back at home, SaraRules! and I watched The Thomas Crown Affair. The original. With Steve McQueen. And Faye Dunaway. It was good. I kept juxtaposing it with the 1999 version (Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo), although they were different movies to some degree. Both were heist movies, but the original featured a bank heist, where the more recent one had an art heist. Both SaraRules! and I agreed that both movies were good and were representative of their respective times, but we appreciated some of the nuances and subtleties of the older movie just a bit more. For example:

• 1968: Faye Dunaway’s Vicki Anderson quietly – and quite effectively – seduces McQueen’s Crown over a game of chess, while investigating him in relation to a recent bank heist
• 1999: Rene Russo’s Catherine Banning shows up at an event at which Brosnan’s Crown is a patron, wearing a sheer (read: “pretty much totally see-through/non-existent”) dress, and rather overtly flings herself at flirts with him during a spicy tango… while investigating his involvement with a robbery at an art gallery

I first saw the 1999 version of the movie about… eight or so years ago; last night was the first time I’ve seen the original. There were similar elements in both movies, but there were enough differences to keep them distinct and fresh. But, one of my favorite similarities – and best surprises – was that the original movie also featured Windmills of Your Mind, which I count as a favorite song (although, I prefer the version by Sting to the Noel Harrison one).

Stray Toasters

• At California Mental Hospitals, Fear Is Part of the Job
• A Fixture of Hollywood’s Past, Now Tarnished by Strife
• Swords and battle-axes pushpins
• A slew of banks, retailers affected by Epsilon email breach
• 
• Spring 2011 Trends Without the Fuss
• The Disney Princesses: If They’d Had Mothers
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Adzookie will pay your mortgage in return for daubing your house with ads
  I suppose that I shouldn’t be so surprised by this, as I’ve heard of the same thing being done with automobiles…
• 
• Woman single-handedly cuts off two countries from Internet
• Police Lesson: Social Network Tools Have 2 Edges
• NASA Telescopes Join Forces to Observe Unprecedented Explosion
• 
• By way of Corey (and Tosh.0): Big Black Dudes Are So Polite…
• Maine ranked ‘most peaceful state’; Louisiana the least
• Tesla fires back at boss of BBC’s ‘Top Gear’
• From the “Well… DUH!” file: IKEA Is Designed Like a Maze So You’ll Buy More Stuff.

And for my next amazing feat: Three meetings in a row!

Namaste.

Wednesday – 06 April 2011
It’s mid-week again, which also means that it’s new comics day and D&D 4.0 night. I’m good with all of those.

Yesterday’s Utah County excursion wasn’t too bad. The monkeys were fairly quiet; I did, however, get a little tired of people asking me when someone else was going to be in that office. After the third time, it got harder and harder to retort with a smart-assed answer. *sigh* On the plus side, I managed to squeeze in a trip to The Hobby Stop during lunch. Hey… it’s train stuff. Go figure.  🙂

I got home a little later than I had planned, had dinner and was back on the road again. Last night was D&D 3.5 night with and company. We accomplished a few things which were good/necessary and have nominal plans for the next part of our adventure.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Personal Hygiene
When a person is getting ready for work in the morning – or even the night before – isn’t that the “ideal” time for them to take care of things like clipping their nails?

As opposed to, say, waiting until they get into the office…?!

There are a few possible exceptions to this:

• Salon workers
• Spa workers
• Veterinarians

I’m not someone who gets squidgy at the sound of someone clipping their nails, but it just seems that it is something best done at home. With that in mind, there are times when I think a quick trim/cut are acceptable, the prime example being when someone chips, cracks or tears a nail and needs to trim it down. But that’s (usually) just one nail. Not all ten.

I suppose that I should just happy that I have neither seen nor heard (that I know 0f) anyone clipping their toe nails on the clock.

Stray Toasters

• I’ve been really enjoying the Tony Toni Tone’ CD that I picked up earlier in the week.
• 57 Spectacular LEGO Scenes
• Bored with World of Warcraft? Make Your Own Fun
• 
• More Pupils Are Learning Online, Fueling Debate on Quality
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file:
  • Giants fan beaten at Dodgers’ Stadium appears to have brain damage
  • Girl Trains Cow as a Show Horse
  • Michigan couple to walk some 2,500 miles for wedding
  • 
• Firefox 4 is taking a little getting used to…
• CWA: Why should you care about species extinction?
• Queen Guitarist Shares Love for Astronomy Through Stereoscope
• 
• An Artist Takes Role of China’s Conscience
• Grand Jury Investigates Whether Apps Like Pandora Are Stealing Your Info
• Lawmakers tell Google to do more on antipiracy

Namaste.

Sunday – 03 April 2011
It’s snowing.

I figured I’d get that one out of the way, right off the bat. It started last night, before I went to bed, so I’m estimating that we have three to six inches of the stuff on the ground. I’ll do a measurement later, when I go out to shovel the driveway.

It’s been a good weekend. Friday, I had brunch with at The Park Cafe. The food and the atmosphere were both good. From there, I stopped at The Train Shoppe for a minute; I needed to inquire about a problem that I am having with the couplers on one of my locomotives. Randy told me that it was a pretty fast and easy fix. Armed with that knowledge, I headed out. I took Defiant back to Expercom. They installed the new PRAM battery and the new top case… and it was less expensive than they’d originally quoted me. So, I once again have a fully-operational Death Star BlacBook. Later in the evening, SaraRules! and I skipped meeting the usual suspects for Clitorati and, instead, went to a Utah Grizzlies hockey game. The game was good, although the Grizzlies lost. (My guess is that since they’d already locked up a playoff berth, they: A) didn’t have anything to prove and B) didn’t want their players to get injured.)

Saturday, I met Chris for breakfast and then we headed up to Dr. Volt’s for this weekend’s HeroClix tournament. There was a decent turn-out — nine players, so I played the bye rounds. Dr. Volt’s also hosted a book signing with Valerie Finnigan, one of the authors of Untold Stories from Iraq and Afghanistan. After our tournament was over, I had the opportunity to speak with Valerie for a bit. She was a charming woman with a few interesting story to tell. (Jeremiah also did an interview with her.) I got back home and tried to figure out what I wanted for dinner. SaraRules! to the rescue! She suggested Famous Dave’s Barbecue. So was it done. And it, too, was good. And very filling. After that, we came home and assembled a LEGO airplane that I got for Christmas. (Hey, some people do puzzles together; we assemble LEGO toys.)

Pictured here, with LEGO Universe Astronaut

Next, we watched (500) Days of Summer. Good movie. Not quite what I expected, but it was rather enjoyable… and a bit quirky.

Stray Toasters

• According to Google, today marks the “119th Anniversary of the First Recorded Ice Cream Sundae”

  

• Plane makes emergency landing with hole in cabin
  • Southwest Airlines grounds jets over mid-air hole scare
• This is one way to get down stairs, I guess…
• By way of Christopher M.: Wall of Sound: The iPod has changed the way we listen to music. And the way we respond to it.
• 
• Lynda Carter Reveals Opinion on New ‘Wonder Woman’ Costume
• Hands-Free Faucets Not Germ-Free, Study Finds

Today is a good day for getting in some DCUO or LEGO Universe… or both!

Namaste.

Friday – 01 April 2011
Hello, 9/80 Friday off!

Oh, yeah… and today is April Fool’s Day, too.

Last night, SaraRules and I decided to enjoy get a bit of exercise, while enjoying the sunny and warm Spring evening. After a bite to eat at Noodles & Company, we went for a leisurely walk through and around Wheeler Historic Farm. It seemed as though many other people had the same idea, as we passed many other walkers during our trek. Back at home, we watched some programs that we’d recorded, along with an encore presentation of a Top Gear show from 2008, in which the hosts traveled the length of Vietnam – over the course of eight days – on motorcycles… which had to be one of the most non-intentionally funny trips ever recorded.

Today, I need to take Defiant back down to Expercom so that it can have its PRAM battery replaced and also be refitted from being a TuxedoBook back to a BlacBook. (Although, it’s gotten some interesting looks and lead to some amusing questions about “why” it has a white keyboard…)

Stray Toasters

• The O’s take the field today against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
• I’m taking another stab at reading Black Seas of Infinity: The Best of H.P. Lovecraft and making better progress this time.
• Comically Vintage: Paleocomicologists with a Sense of Humor
  • “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover. Frozen North Edition”

    

• Thanks to for pointing out: Utah LEGO League Group Headed to World Festival
• It seems as though Maddox has given up “The Best Page in the Universe,” in lieu of a new site.
• Brad Guigar, who does Evil, Inc., also does a webcomic called Courting Disaster, “the weekly sex comic and sex-advice web site.”  Today’s post and poll– and the responses – are pretty good:

  

• ‘Tree of Hope’ Stands as Poignant Symbol in Japan
• Asking Kidney Patients to Forgo a Free Lifeline
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file:
  • Ryanair to Make Child-Free Flights a Reality?
  • 3-Year-Old Killed by Mother for Throwing Away Game Console
• 

• Modern Marvel
• Lion Capital board members bolt from American Apparel

And now, off for brunch with.

Namaste.

Thursday – 31 March 2011
It’s a blue sky NBN “Technical Friday.” And I’m good with that.

Last night was supposed to be D&D 4.0 night. So, after dinner, I ran a couple of errands and headed over to Hastur Hobbies to partake in hack-and-slash goodness. I arrived to find no one from my group there.

*headscratch*

I went back through my messages to see if I had missed something. I had. had called the game earlier in the afternoon… but, that message was basically attached to another thread of messages, so I didn’t catch it when I skimmed over them.

*D’oh!*

That just meant that my evening freed up for me to go and hang out with the missus. Which I did. For the most part…

…until I decided that the best thing for me and my newfound head cold was a nice relaxing soak while reading the day’s new comics haul. And I was right – it was good.

A little later, SaraRules! and I finished off the last DVD of Mad Men that we got from Netflix. I now understand what and meant by “the lawnmower episode,” and why they both agreed that I’d “get” it as soon as I saw it.

This morning, I woke up with this song running through my head…

…and I was okay with that.

Stray Toasters

• Shannon Tavarez, Nala in “Lion King,” Dies at 11
  I can’t recall if she was the performer I saw when The Lion King was here last year.
• Phishing scam poses as Adobe upgrade
• Possible Safety Risks Put Met Opera Tour to Japan “in Jeopardy”
• Today is opening day for most of the MLB.
  The O’s open tomorrow night against the Devil Rays, in Tampa.

  

• Stanley Chow Does ‘Dr. Who,’ He-Man, Super Jon Hamm and More
• Fat Stigma Spreads Around Globe
• Lawmakers try to stall law on cutting debit card fees
• Spring Trends for Men, According to Women
• 
• BP “leaks” data of 13,000 Gulf oil spill victims
• Antitrust Cry from Microsoft

Namaste.

Tuesday – 29 March 2011
It’s (so far) a bright and sunny day in the valley. I’m good with that.

Last night, SaraRules! and I opted for a quiet evening in. We ordered pizza and caught up on episodes of  NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles. After that, I played DC Universe Online ; I ran a couple of missions and felt super-heroic for an hour or so. I finally remembered to take a picture in front of the Bat-Signal, as well:

After that, we watched a bit of Top Gear, before calling it a night.

Tonight, I’m heading out with a few of the guys for a pre-moving send-off for Perry. It should be good.

Stray Toasters

• My Tuesday was meeting-free… until I had to call a meeting. *sigh*
• Gender and the Supreme Court’s Wal-Mart Case
• Michigan Cuts Jobless Benefit by Six Weeks
• Discovery heads into retirement
• iZombie: snappy, sassy supernatural comic
  I have been reading – and enjoying – this book since it began last year. This compilation makes an excellent jumping-on point for new readers.
• Players claim ‘irreparable harm now’ from NFL in court filing
• 
  …and, in a somewhat related note:

  

• Amber Waves to Ivory Bolls
• Oracle’s MySQL.com hacked via SQL injection
• 3-Month Nightmare Emerges in Rape Inquiry
• Mario Brothers 2 – Kong Country (another “Serious Mario Movie Trailer”)
• Fires could be extinguished using beams of electricity

Namaste.

Monday – 28 March 2011
Another work week begins. And this one comes complete with snow! (Well, flurries, but still…)

Yesterday was good. It was a mostly low-key day. I did head over to West Valley Hobbies for a bit, but didn’t buy anything. I also stopped at Dr. Volt’s, to pick up the Apocalypse ‘Clix that they had on display. SaraRules! and I had dinner with her family and, after dinner, we watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which I hadn’t seen in a while. Back at home, we watched last week’s episode of Fringe before calling it a night.

Today, we’re having issues in the office. And there have been many “Why” and “How” and “When” questions asked. We’re handling it as best we can. (Which, surprisingly, doesn’t include punching monkeys.)

Stray Toasters

• How to Raise the Status of Teachers
• World’s largest LEGOLand taking shape in Florida
• Mobile phones may rot your bones
• A couple of Star Wars-related items:
  • Distracted by Star Wars
  • Homages, Ripoffs and Coincidences: Star Wars
• 
  
• When test scores soared in D.C., were the gains real?
• Paul Baran, Internet Pioneer, Dies at 84
• Thanks to for posting a link to this video, which shows the pre-launch preparations for Discovery‘s last flight:

• The Nintendo They’ve Tried to Forget
• 12-Year-Old Rewrites Einstein’s Theory of Relativity

On to the rest of Monday…

Namaste.

Sunday – 27 March 2011
Yesterday was a good day.

I went to visit with Perry and Kate for a bit. They were doing some pre-sale house work, so I didn’t stay terribly long. I next went to MRS Hobbies… from which I exited empty-handed.

Next, I took Defiant (my BlacBook) to Expercom — I’ve been having a bothersome problem with its PRAM battery and figured that I’d get it looked at and/or fixed while I had some free time. Mike, the tech on-duty, had never had to replace that battery in my model of MacBook, so it was something of a learning experience for both of us. While disassembling the laptop, he noticed that my case had cracks in the front of it. He said that he’d order a new top case and replace my old busted one with new Apple hotness. When we determined that there was A LOT more work involved in getting to the battery – and that they didn’t have one in stock – I decided to bring my MacBook back next week and kill two birds with one stone. Thus began the reassembly process. Everything was going hunky-dory, until Mike tried to replace my keyboard. It seemed that something in the pin connector was… off. So, he replaced it.

That’s right, my black MacBook has a white keyboard… at least for the next few days. There are a few not-so-minor differences in key-mappings (volume, built-in calculator keys, screen brightness, Spaces/Expose), but I’m getting used to them. Slowly.

I headed home and met SaraRules!, so we could decide what to do with the afternoon and evening. We decided to go see Sucker Punch.

I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from the movie… but it wasn’t the movie I expected, if that makes sense. The movie’s tagline, “You Will Be Unprepared,” was spot on.  Let me rephrase that a bit: It was a good movie and we both enjoyed it. But it was more than just visually appealing; it told an interesting story… and it wasn’t the story that I expected. There were also a few surprising faces in the movie, as an added bonus. Also, I will be tracking down the soundtrack — it was eclectic and suited the different styles of the movie very well. I have to admit: As this movie gives yet another indication of just what Zach Snyder is capable of, I’m less leery and more curious to see next year’s take on the Man of Steel, under his direction.

After the movie, we stopped at the nearby Hobby Lobby. I picked up two more tank cars for my train. The only “problem” is that all three of my Norfolk Southern tank cars have the same road number. (I’m easily able to overlook this.) With their addition, I am now able to run three types of unit trains:

• All boxcars,
• All coal hoppers, and
• All tank cars.

After we got back home, I headed to the train room, hooked everything up to the N&W Bantam J and ran a 23-car consist. It made me smile.

And, sometime overnight… it snowed.

Stray Toasters

• Former U.S. Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro passed away yesterday.
  • The Pioneer: Geraldine Ferraro (1935 – 2011)
  • Ferraro was a trailblazer for women
• How D.C.’s Cherry Blossoms Almost Didn’t Bloom
• A Girl’s Nude Photo, And Altered Lives
• 
• No Flying Car, But How About an Invisibility Cloak?
• A Comic Book Lover’s Guide to Going Digital
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…!?” file: Time Warner charges Wright-Patt engineer $16.4 million for cable
• Snap Judgment
• 
• On the Clothes Watch at SXSW
• Royally ridiculous Royal Wedding packages
• Microsoft Disables HTTPS for Hotmail Users in Iran, Sudan (and More)

Namaste.

Friday – 25 March 2011
It’s Friday.  The end of the week. And for this, I am grateful. It’s my 9/80 “on” Friday, which is typically a quiet and low-key kind of day.

So, why is my blood pressure – and my annoyance level – through the roof?

Maybe it could be due – in some small, almost insignificant part – to the fact that I spent part of my morning elbow up in trash looking for a piece of equipment. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

The day started nicely enough. Got up, got ready for work, stopped at Pin-up Girl for a cup of morning go-juice. So far, so good. Got to work, ready to tackle the items on my day’s agenda. And shortly after that is when I discovered that all was not well in Mudville:

We had scheduled technicians to come in and deal with a problem with one of our cooling units. This service has been on the docket for three weeks now, as the part needed had to be special ordered and fabricated. Okay, fine. That’s the cost of doing business. Because of the nature of the work, we had to schedule a time for a tech from our fire control system vendor to turn off our fire suppression system. So, three weeks… all leading up to this morning. Call it “confluence.” Call it “convergence.” Call it what you will.

The fire control tech showed up and did his thing. No problem. The HVAC guys showed up to do their thing… and that’s when we noticed that something was wrong: The part that we had ordered – and that had been sitting on a table, awaiting installation – was nowhere to be found.

* braincramp *

So, the hunt began. In the server room. In the storage rooms. In the labs. Nothing. That’s when I started making calls. No one knew where it was.

* severe braincramp *

I put a call in to our cleaning crew, to see if they possibly tossed out the box last night, not seeing the part inside. They didn’t think so, but the boxes they did throw away went into a recycling dumpster. *sigh* Great. Next stop: The dumpster. Brian, one of the HVAC techs jumped in. No luck finding the box or the part.

*grblsnrkx*

Just after I got back to my desk, the cleaning company called back: One of the cleaners remembered throwing away a few boxes… in the trash dumpster.

So… back downstairs we went. Brian and I hopped into the front of the dumpster, but didn’t go too far in for a couple of reasons, the BIGGEST one being: It was a trash compactor. I’ve seen Star Wars: A New Hope. More than once. I know what happens to people in trash compactors. I also don’t happen to own either a protocol droid or an Astromech droid, so there was NO way I was wading in. (Besides, I didn’t know if there was a monster lurking below the surface, just waiting to drag me under.)

NOTE: At this point, I almost defy anyone to claim to have had a worse morning than I had, based solely on the fact that I was in a dumpster, looking for a part that obviously didn’t want to be found.

We didn’t find the part. Which means that we have to order another one. And schedule a time for the fire control and HVAC guys to come back in. Which means that we’re looking at – bare minimum – two to three weeks from now before this problem is fixed.

The odds against this confluence of nearly impossible events coming together, in just this way, to bring us to this improbable outcome is mind-boggling.

And, it’s snowing.

How’s your Friday?

Stray Toasters

• Today, I would definitely be more of a Red Lantern than a Green Lantern: I’m ready to punch monkeys in the throat right now. Repeatedly. And hard.

  

• Will Work for Food: Curatorial Position and Cake Preferred
• Many U.S. Blacks Moving to South, Reversing Trend
• Tilting at Windmills: Lessons Learned from Comic Relief and Borders
• 
• Census Data Presents Rise in Multiracial Population of Youths
• Buck Showalter rips Derek Jeter, Theo Epstein in magazine
• Brickwork: ‘M.A.S.K.’ Returns as a Fan-Made LEGO Set
• The art of Jordan Witt

  

• Missionary Men with Confidence in Sunshine
• Ford to dealers: No more black, red paint due to Japan crisis
• World’s Best Ruins

Namaste.

Thursday – 24 March 2011
It’s a grey, rainy No Bad News Thursday in the Land Behind the Zion Curtain. WHEEE!

Last night was the first D&D 4.0 game that I’ve been able to attend in the past… three, I think… weeks. And when I arrived, it was without my character. This was a fact that I didn’t recognize until I’d walked in the door and thought “Shouldn’t I have something else?”

*grblsnrkx*

Yep. Genius move on my part. So, I got to play the part of one of the NPCs. An evil NPC, at that. I believe that it was the first time in all the years I’ve played D&D that I’ve actually played a character with an evil alignment. And, it was fun. I think that I caught a couple of my party member when I… kind of… started a fight with a bunch of guys because my character didn’t like his attitude. (We won the fight, though.) Partway through the game, I had an apostrophe epiphany: My character might actually be in my car, not at home… so I went and checked. Lo and behold, there it was.

::: facepalm :::

So, I went and got it. I played both characters for a few turns, until the NPC left the game. (His story arc was done, I didn’t get him killed.) It was a good game session.

Stray Toasters

• I’m contemplating running walking a 5K this weekend: Running of the Leopards. The two mitigating factors for me are:
  1. Weather
  2. If I can find a walking partner.
• Smithsonian. Historically Hardcore.
• Long-lost Frederic Chopin letters recovered by museum
• Bearing Witness Beyond the Witnesses
• 
• I’ve had four, count ’em… FOUR… meetings today. Before lunch.
• Gadgets You Should Get Rid Of (or Not)
• Posting “not-so-great” news about this guy might not win me any fans among the BYU crowd, considering how… revered… he is in this neck of the woods. Oh, well, here it is anyway: N.B.A. Scouting Report on Fredette: Good but Not Great
• The new – full – trailer for the upcoming Captain America movie has finally been released:

• Inside Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server: Apple replaces Samba for Windows networking services
• Germany Steps Away from European Unity
• David E. Kelley Talks Wonder Woman
• 
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file:
  • Airport tower silent as planes land
  • Woman suing Carnival: Ship sailed too fast, made me sick
• How Western Diets Are Making the World Sick

Namaste.

Wednesday – 23 March 2011
New comics day + D&D (4.0) game night = A good combination.

Last night, Chris came over and – after a lot of shooting the bull – we played dolls. We did a Teen Titans (Chris) vs. the X-Men game. And he cleaned my clock. Six ways from Sunday. It started off as a good game, but my dice decided to play jokes early on. That wasn’t insurmountable. The problems began when Chris moved a couple of his pieces into positions I wasn’t expecting and then made like LL Cool J and knocked a couple of my key pieces out… and then picked apart the rest of my team. One bright spot in the game: Having my Wolverine eviscerate Robin. All-in-all, it was a good game. But, I need to plan some revenge for the game where I run the Titans.

Stray Toasters

• Elizabeth Taylor dead at 79
  • Hollywood Icon Elizabeth Taylor Dies at 79

  

• Japanese Vegetables and Milk Banned from Import to US
• NFL moves kickoff line from 30-yard line to 35; no change on touchbacks
• A Queens Guy Toughs It Out in Hollywood
• Android: Sued by Microsoft, Not Linux
• 
• Are We There Yet?: new art installation at SF Contemporary Jewish Museum
  It turns out that a high school classmate of mine is the Deputy Director of Development at the museum.
• Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Being Adapted to Crime-of-the-Week Mystery TV Series
• 
• Weimar Rail-Zeppelin: streamlined white-elephant
• ‘Spider-Man’ Broadway musical shaken by another injury
• Detroit Census Confirms a Desertion Like No Other
  • Motor City population declines 25%
• 
• DCU Online Gets Lucky with Two-Face, Mxyzptlk in March
• Race Issues Rise for Miami Police
• But I be done seen ’bout ev’rything
  When I see an elephant fly Wonder Woman, Amazon Baby Sitter!
• For Consumers, Little to Cheer in AT&T Deal

Quote of the Day
Something that I enjoy (and look forward to) is the occasional instant message from my brother-in-law, recounting something – usually highly entertaining – that either my niece or my sister has said or done. This morning, I found this gem, which he sent last night:

your niece.
today two verbal gaffes that made Rana inform me i’m doing harm to my children
playing Mario Kart
she [Bit] first asks to play the character “honky kong”
then when we unlock a new character, “funky kong”
of course…now she’s informing Rana she wants to play “fucky kong”
i give up.

That made me laugh. A lot.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 22 March 2011
March winds
And April showers
Bring forth May flowers.

That’s the way I was taught.

I’m good with the “March winds.”
“April showers” are good too.
And, “May flowers?” Yep, I’m fine with them, as well.
It’s the whole “March intermittent rain and snow showers” thing that I’m taking issue with today.

On the other hand, today is William Shatner‘s 80th birthday, so it can’t be all bad.

Last night was quiet and uneventful. I think that the highlights were sorting ‘Clix, making hamantaschen and watching Top Gear with SaraRules! and having a bowl of ice cream for an evening snack… not necessarily in that order.

Tonight, Chris is supposed to come over to play dolls. We’re doing an updated match of the X-Men vs. the Teen Titans. I should probably start considering who I’m going to use…

Stray Toasters

• BAMF!
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Competitive Chess Boxing: Brain Meets Pain in Iceland
• Stop the presses: Teenagers actually like, gasp, symphony concerts
• Pakistani actress Veena Malik schools a mullah about Islam
• How about a little Raphael Saddiq: Tiny Desk Concert to get your Tuesday moving?
  • Bonus track: Get Involved
• 
• As lockout lingers, NFL and players continue to trade barbs
• If you haven’t taken a look at the artwork of Colleen Coover, you should.
• Adjusted U.S. figures paint a rosier jobs picture
• Zach Snyder won’t look back: ‘There’s been no other Superman movies’
  • Zach Snyder looks to ‘Batman Begins’ for his inspiration
• Ever have one of these days?

  

• How to make a hamantaschen Sierpinksi triangle
• Goldman Sachs programmer sentenced for code theft

Namaste.

Monday – 21 March 2011
It’s the second day of Spring. Here behind the Zion Curtain, it’s grey and drab… although the sun appears to be making some efforts at breaking through the clouds.

This past weekend was rather low-key, which wasn’t a bad thing. Saturday, I had breakfast with Chris before heading over to Dr. Volt’s, where I judged a HeroClix tournament. There was a good turnout, with nine players. As there was overlap between the last DC 75th event and the new Giant-Size X-Men release, I just combined the prize support for the winners. That seemed to go over fairly well. Saturday evening, SaraRules!’ parents and grandmother came over to visit for a bit. We capped off the evening watching Demolition Man; it had been many years since I had last seen it.

Sunday was another quiet day… or, at least, it started that way. Perry called in the late morning to elicit my help in moving some of his martial arts practice equipment. We headed over and chatted with Kate and him for a bit; then he and I set about the heavy lifting. After that, SaraRules! and I caught a matinee of Battle: Los Angeles. This movie’s been getting knocked around in the reviews, but it wasn’t all bad. In fact, it was decent.  About halfway through the movie, I realized what it reminded me of: Independence Day. The only things missing were The Fresh Prince, The Fly and a virus-uploading MacBook. It was still a decent popcorn flick.

After the movie, we headed over to the in-laws’ for a belated St. Patrick’s Day dinner of corned beef and cabbage. SaraRules’ grandmother was in town, so we hung out with the family for a bit after dinner. Then it was back home for relaxing with DC Universe Online and a couple of episodes of Mad Men.

Stray Toasters

• Smithsonian to keep meteorite that fell in Virginia
• 
• Diamond Comics’ Previews offered up this item: Adrianne Palicki Debuts as the New Wonder Woman
  • Dear NBC, I Fixed It For You, by way of Derek H.
• Gains, and Drawbacks, for Female Professors
• Abortion Foes Target Family Planning Program
• 
• Spectacular LEGO Reenactments of March Madness Classics
  • And now, a moment of silence for the Boilermakers, who were knocked out of this year’s March Madness by VCU.
• AAP: Toddlers in rear-facing seat until 2
• Where the Music Still Roils in a Critical Mass
• 
  • Also from xkcd: Radiation Dose Chart, which is rather informative… and BIG!
• The Tragic Story of the Russian Cosmonaut Who Was Sent into Space Knowing He Would Die
  • Cosmonaut Crashed to Earth ‘Crying in Rage’
  • It’s kind of odd, but if you consider the first two paragraphs of the NPR account, you can find a similarity to the story told in David Bowie’s Space Oddity, though as pointed out: In Space Oddity, the pilot – not the ship – was “broken.”
• AT&T to Buy T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
• The sun appears to have given up on trying to break through the clouds.

And that, I think, is a wrap.

Friday – 18 March 2011
It’s my 9/80 “off” Friday. So far, I’ve celebrated by sleeping in, having coffee with Perry and saying “Hi” to and . That’s not a bad way to start a day off.

I’ve also painted the last “new” piece of foamboard that I have for my railroad; I might just extend the city section a little this afternoon/evening.  Also, the newest addition to my fleet o’ vans showed up today… so I might have to look at reworking the roadways through my layout.  Just saying.

Stray Toasters

• For those of you who (still, for whatever reason) don’t know what a “Fastball Special” is, here’s a graphic representation:

  

• sent me this link: Satellite Photos of Japan, Before and After the Quake and Tsunami
  Use the slider to see an amazing “before and after” view of the Fukushimi Daiichi reactor destruction.
• What it’s like to be a black comics writer, a video interview with the late Dwayne McDuffie
• DC Comics’ “The Source” blog has posted the first picture of Adrianne Palicki in her costume for the upcoming Wonder Woman television series:

  

  It appears to be a melding of the traditional costume with the new comics version, as designed by Jim Lee. On the whole, I’m okay with it. I will agree with some commenters that the color palette for the pants may be a little “bright.”  But, it’s also a studio shot; it could look entirely different by the time the show hits the air.

• Thanks to MarknTyme for sending me the link to Marble Machine Chronicle.  Check it out.
• Trunk Club Men’s Outfitters: Hand-Selected Outfits Shipped to Your Door
• Thanks to , for remembering my affinity for Rush when he posted this picture:

  

• I have added these LED address lights to The Covet List.
• MESSENGER Enters Orbit Around Mercury

Time to find some more trouble to get into.
Or maybe even find some late lunch.

Namaste.