Random Access

Thursday – 17 July 2008
4th and 1, so to speak.
I’m good with that.
AND… it’s NBN Sushi Thursday.
Bang.

Last night, I picked up an anemic number of books from Dr. Volt’s. I supplemented it by picking up one box, each, of Justice League and Avengers HeroClix. The JL box was nothing but duplicates; the Avengers box had a Rare Bucky figure.

I stopped in to hang with SaraRules’ family for a bit before heading home. When I got home I plopped down on the couch, unpacked Defiant, turned on the TV… and proceeded to nod off. I’m still not sure exactly how long I was out, but it was a little odd to awaken and not be really sure “what just happened…?”

I got up, got mobile and fixed a bite to eat. Then, it was time to hit the mean streets of Paragon City. I logged in and was invited to join a team almost immediately. I did. We fought The Freakshow. Level 30+…. which meant that I got sidekicked up to 29. And the XP started rolling in. By the time I logged off, I had tacked on a level-and-a-half. As an added bonus, an old server-mate from when I first started playing logged on and joined the team.

And I got to watch The Sisko Show and Seven Days, to boot!

I had a few (more) odd dreams this morning…

…and woke up with Here He Comes, by Will Smith, running through my head.

Workout
Mark, Wes and I hit the gym at lunch yesterday. Wes wanted to do some triceps exercises, so we worked back and triceps:

• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps – 205 lbs
• Pull-downs: 3 sets/10 reps – 120 lbs
• Reverse Deltoid Flys: 3 sets/10 reps – 1 set @ 60 lbs, 2 sets @ 70 lbs
• Tricep Press (rotating flat bar): 3 sets/10 reps – 80 lbs
• Tricep Press (rope extensions): 3 sets/10 reps – 60 lbs
• Push-ups (diamond): 1 set/15 reps

It was a good workout… and tiring. My shoulders are a little stiff/sore this morning, but I’m otherwise rather pain-free. But, I forgot to check my post-workout weight. Bah.

Stray Toasters

• Happy Anniversary to OnlyAly and !



• Ravens agree to deal with first-round QB Joe Flacco
• From the “Can’t Win for Losing” file: Rev. Jackson allegedly used ‘n-word’ on Fox News
• 
• Gaping hole in Gmail privacy
• Raspberry or not-Raspberry? You make the call.
• “Okay, son… we’ll go camping right after I stop at the bank.”

• The Bicknell International Film Festival
• I [heart] CoH/CoV… but I may have to give this some consideration:

• Sega Says the iPhone Is As powerful As the Dreamcast

Namaste.

I don’t know how I missed out on this before, but… here it is:

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

It comes from Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Astonishing X-Men) and features Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser, M.D., How I Met Your Mother) and Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Serenity).

Enjoy!

Wednesday – 16 July 2008
Last night’s Scion game was good. We met a sphinx… were asked a riddle… and didn’t die. Helluva combination. We wrapped up the adventure that we’ve been on for the past couple of months and will start in on something new next week.

I had a couple of errands to run after the game, which took me in the opposite direction of the gym, so I went home without working out. I must have been far more tired than I thought, because shortly after talking with SaraRules, I nodded off while surfing the ‘tubes. When I regained nominal coherence, I decided that calling it a night was a good decision. I wish I knew what triggered them, but I had some BIZARRE dreams. I woke up from a couple of them trying to piece together what was real from what was heard/seen while dreaming.

I may be picking up a new (to me) iMac from SaraRules’ father this evening. At SaraRules’ suggestion, I’m getting the Graphite colored one. The reason behind that choice of color:

Hmmm. I have a pink macbook and a pink iMac. Since Rob has a black macbook I humbly request the graphite iMac for him. Just so that we can continue to match. 🙂

Works for me. I think that it may replace ‘Nine as my desktop/server, as it has never really recovered from its last OS installation.

I haven’t decided whether or not I want to pick up comics today or wait until tomorrow…

Stray Toasters

• By way of and CNN: Black in America
• July 16, 1945: Trinity Blast Opens Atomic Age
  
• Take the last train to Clarksville
  And I’ll meet you at the station
• Natalie Cole say she has hepatitis C
  When I read this, it reminded me of a story from either freshman or sophomore year at Purdue:

Jim, one of the guys in our group of then-usual suspects, was from a small town in Indiana. One Saturday, while some of the other guys were working on a project, we were hanging out watching MuchMusic (think “Canadian MTV”) when a Natalie Cole video came on. We watched it for a couple of minutes before Jim blurted out the following gem: “She’s pretty good looking for a black woman.”

I couldn’t have heard what I thought I heard: “What..?!”

“Natalie Cole. She’s pretty good looking… for a black woman.”

I now had confirmation that he had just said what I thought he said. *sigh* Jim, while rather intelligent, wasn’t the smartest guy. Had he been, he would have (possibly) remembered that it had taken Herculean self-control (and three of our friends) to keep me from trying to cave his head in a few months before when he had carelessly tossed a “less than socially acceptable” racial epithet in my direction. Before choosing to belatedly follow-up on that instinct, I decided that it might be prudent to find out what he meant with this new nugget of wisdom. So, I asked him.

His response: “Well, with white women, you get blue eyes, green eyes, brown eyes…. blonde hair or brunette… or red. With black women, you just get dark hair and dark eyes.”

In his mind, his logic was flawless.
In my mind, I was trying to figure out places where I could hide his body that would take campus police weeks, if not months, to find.

Instead, I just got up and walked out of the room.
We never really talked much after that… for some reason.

• , if you happen to have a spare $25k lying around: Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s typewriter for sale
• Pope Benedict. Koalas. Eco-Disco.
  We shall not speak of these things, in conjuction, again.
• Hall and Oates. Yep, I like ’em.
• The art blog of Lauren Montgomery

Namaste.

I had to survey 15 servers today. For the most part it went without any hitches… aside from taking down two servers out from people who were working on them: I felt bad about one of them; the other was Chimpy.

Human of the Day
Today’s Human is for the reasons posted below.

Stray Toasters

• had to help me recall the proper syntax for using Web Sharing to find something on Defiant. I felt like a complete n00b when I finally remembered it. To make me feel better, showed this to me:

  

  …and all was better with the world.

• For : Wizard Magazine’s Greatest Bond Villain Poll
• How would you pronounce “ghoti?” (Answer below)
• In the words of Jude: Rick James was the original Superfreak.
• Thanks to for pointing this out:

  

• By way of Drew: Pickens Plan – Boone Pickens’ idea for weaning ourselves of our dependence on foreign oil.
• Science of becoming Batman

And the answer to “How do you pronounce ‘ghoti'” is “fish.”

::: vapor trail :::

Tuesday – 15 July 2008
“Sleeping in” is what occurs when one decides to ignore alarms in order to spend more time in The Dreaming
“Oversleeping” is what occurs when one fails to awaken at or by a certain time to begin the day.

Three guesses as to which one I did this morning.
Hint: I was up until 2:00 this morning watching The Middleman and stumble-dragged myself into bed when it was over and alarms were deemed “evil” in my sleep-addled brain.

After work yesterday, I headed home changed clothes and waited for Chris to show up… and then we headed over to play HeroClix with Perry. We played a 2-on-1 game – Chris versus Perry and me; 300 points, unrestricted. I played with the team I used in Saturday’s tourney and Perry used the Abomination and the Super-Adaptoid. Chris used Magneto and an assortment of mutants (with a couple of human Paramedics). And, as an added bonus: We played on a map that I have learned to hate. With a passion. And Chris beat us down. Soundly. We did manage to take out Wolverine… and nearly defeated Cyclops. But, it was fun.

Stray Toasters

• I have to keep reminding myself that today is “Tuesday” and not “Wednesday.”
• Cyberbullying grows bigger and meaner with photos, video
• I think I’m going to get a Rikti Monkey for my Veteran Rewards pet:



• By way of ThinkGeek: Under Construction t-shirt
• Chicago is seeing the dearth of the blues
• 
• From the “Grace Under Pressure” file: ‘It was like I was on rollerblades,’ says Miss USA
• From ‘untouchable’ to role model
• Vegan Zombie t-shirt



• Server room: Day 2
• Wes just bowed out of today’s workout. *sigh* Maybe I’ll hit the gym on the way home from tonight’s Scion game.
• I need to pare down some of the music in my iTunes. I have far too many duplicate entries…

Ka-POW!

Monday – 14 July 2008
It’s Bastille Day.

I don’t remember “what” they were, but I recall having a couple of odd dreams last night.

It’s 7:30 and I’m not exactly feeling rushed about getting to work. I should still be there between 8:00 and 8:30, but I’m really not pressed about it.

Stray Toasters

• Add something new to the Covet List: Aluminum LEGO brick keychains.
• For your Monday morning amusement, from In Living Color: The Wrath of Farrakhan:

• SciFi has information about 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails
• ‘Drunk’ referee shown red card
• The trailer for the upcoming NickToons Iron Man: Armored Adventures is online

Up, up and away!

Saturday – 12 July 2008 (and coda)
Wow.
It’s been a long day. And I have been on-the-go for most of it.

I woke up this morning around 8:30… with a raging headache. I just wish that I had done something worthy of such a beast. But, I didn’t stay out late last night. I didn’t even have anything to drink. So, I’m not sure what would have triggered it.

I picked up Chris and we went to the Taylorsvile V.I. for breakfast. After that, we headed to Far West for today’s ‘Clix tournament. I constructed my team Friday night (I know…! I actually did it in advance!) My original plan was to try a themed team based on something I read earlier in the week: Archers. I would have had a lot of them, too! As I was putting that team together I noticed something else: Three of the figures were related:

• Green Arrow
• Red Arrow (Roy Harper, former ward and sidekick of Green Arrow)
• Green Arrow (Connor Hawke, son of Green Arrow)

With that in mind, I decided to take a slightly different approach to the team and, rather than “Archers,” go with a “Green Arrow family” themed team. The only piece that I had to add was Black Canary. And, I did. And, I just realized that – if we had been playing for higher points – I could have added the new Speedy (new sidekick to the older Green Arrow) to the mix.

And the team did well for me. I went 2-0 for the first two rounds. And then it happened: I had to play Chris in the third round. He was 2-0, as well. He was planning on playing a “new” team but, because of the rules under which the tournament was run, at least one of his figures wasn’t legal. So, he wound up pulling out his old standby team:

• Batman
• Green Arrow
• The Flash

So it was my ranged team versus Chris’ stealth (and speed) team. The problem being: Characters with stealth can’t be seen from a distance. *sigh* And so, Chris proceeded to pick me apart, systematically. And, thus he went 3-0 and I went 2-1. But, I came in 2nd Place for the day.

After the game, I dropped Chris off at home, came back to my place for a bit and then headed downtown to catch Hellboy II: The Golden Army with Mr. and Mrs. . The movie was fun.

When the movie was done, I hopped on I-15 and headed to the Sandy Amphitheater to see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. I got to the venue and stood in line behind a guy looking for something in the seated section. The ticket attendant told him that she could get him one seat, but that everything else was sold out. He opted to sit on the lawn. When I got to the booth, I asked the attendant about the lone seat; she showed me where it was: 5th row, stage left. I bought the ticket and headed inside.

The opening act was a young man named Parker. He was a one-man band, using a laptop and digital looping to do the other tracks of the songs he sang. His main instrument was a guitar… which he used to do “drum” tracks (hitting the body of the guitar), bass lines, rhythm and lead parts. He played four songs, the first of which was The Jackson 5’s I Want You Back, which he nicely segued into a little bit of ABC. He started with the percussion and laid down a couple of other tracks on top of it. When he started the bass line, I knew what the song was going to be. And it he did a good job of it. You could tell that he was having fun, too. He said that this was the largest crowd he had performed in front of and took a Polaroid snapshot of the crowd to commemorate it.

Shortly after he was done, BBVD took the stage. I missed out on seeing them in Vegas last year and I waffled between seeing them tonight or heading to the Salt Lake Jazz Festival to see Sheila E. and the E Family. I think that I made the right choice in going to the BBVD show. They played for an hour-and-a-half and covered songs from their first CD up to their upcoming Cab Calloway tribute CD. And it was great time. During one of the featured musician spotlights, Dirk (the upright bass player) broke into the theme from The Munsters – I wonder how many people knew what it actually was and/or why so many people started chuckling/laughing at it. Once again, when they closed the show with So Long, Farewell, Goodbye, they broke into a few lines from Sweet Home Alabama… and, once again, the crowd ate it up. Yep, I definitely made the right decision.

After the concert, it was on to breakfast with the usual suspects and, after calling it a somewhat early night, I came home. Jiggety-jig.

I need to move from the “theory” of going to bed to the “practical application.”

Namaste.

Stray Toasters

• It’s 7-11 Day. Get your free Slurpee!



• While I doubt that they had ‘s affinity for cow-themed things in mind, it is apparently Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A, too.
• does this seem at all familiar?



• It looks like I’ll be working for a few hours on Sunday. All things considered, this isn’t a “bad” thing, as it will be in the middle of the day, when I’d otherwise probably just be doing my couch potato impression. And, as an added bonus, that cuts down the hours that I’ll have to be here on Friday… possibly even eliminating the need to be here on Friday. Win-Win.
• Rob Worley, from Comics2Film, has discovered a link (of sorts) between The Middleman and a certain Michael J. Fox movie
• For the WoW gamers out there:



• Mandelbrot Set you’re a Rorschach Test on fire
  You’re a day-glo pterodactyl
  You’re a heart-shaped box of springs and wire
  You’re one badass fucking fractal
  And you’re just in time to save the day
  Sweeping all our fears away
  You can change the world in a tiny way
• 

Thursday – 10 July 2008
Last night, Dr. Z brought my XBox from the AF office up to SLC. Along with it, came the six games I had stored in the carrying case, including X-Men: Legends. Win-Win. I took them home and put Legends in the 360 and sat down to enjoy some comics-based gaming.

I had, however, neglected one very important factor into account: The 360’s poor backwards compatibility.

After some research, I found that I needed to download an emulator – to trick the 360 into thinking that it was an O.G. XBox.¹ (Yes, calling it “O.G.” just made me laugh.) And, even then, there’s no guarantee that the emulator will play Legends properly. *sigh* As the home network is mostly wireless, I looked to see if I had a long enough Cat-5 cable to run from the living room to the office. Nope. Next, I considered trying to cascade wireless routers, since I have SaraRules’ router for the time being. Then I decided that was more effort than I really felt like putting into it last night.

So, I opted for playing City of Heroes.

Which had a new patch release. So, I waited for it to download and then clicked to apply it. I was apparently so wiped from the poor sleep Tuesday night – possibly aided by the Shiraz I had with dinner – that I nodded off before the patch finished applying.

So I called it an early evening, relatively speaking.

This morning, I was up and ready to roll in just over 40 minutes, including the time it took to iron today’s outfit. Not too shabby. It would have been even better if I had remembered my cell phone before leaving the complex. *sigh* At least I have frozen mocha goodness to see me through the morning.

And it’s Comics and Sushi ‘Wednesday.’

Stray Toasters

• Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Sheila E. are performing Saturday. I’m a little torn about which show I’d rather go to… but leaning towards BBVD.
• The new season of Burn Notice starts tonight.
• The HeroClix Fantastic Four Starter Set should be in stores today.
• As bad as I’ve (re)discovered that Super Friends can be, this sounds like an interesting compliation.
• I haven’t played Second Life in probably a year. This is almost enough to get me to check it out again: New Babbage – A Steampunk City in Second Life:

• iPhone 3G meets the masses tomorrow.
• It looks as though the right reverend Jesse Jackson could use a good talking-to.
  But, he’s still my top choice for reading Green Eggs and Ham:

• I just introduced DaveW to Christopher Titus Apologizes. In return, he sent me back to my desk with a video from Lisa Lampenelli: Take It Like a Man

Namaste.

¹ – O.G. XBox – A conversation between a classic XBox and an XBox 360:

XBox 360: So what are you supposed to be?
XBox: Me? I’m O.G.
XBox 360: “O.G.?” Shit… you ain’t gangsta.
XBox: Gangsta? Naw, man… not gangsta. O.G. “Original Gamer.” Word.

Wednesday – 09 July 2008
Today, after two weeks, I get to relinquish the Leash.
Not only that, but I don’t have to deal with it again for eight weeks, if my math is correct.

Last night, I got my hero on… big time. I had an urge to play X-Men: Legends. Only after I started looking for it did I remember that it is in my XBox carrying case…

…with my XBox…

…in American Fork.

So, I decided to devote more time to Marvel Ultimate Alliance. That was fun. I used the Fantastic Four and the X-Men to run missions. One thing I need to work on is keeping my tanks from dying when going up against bosses: I got Colossus killed the last time I played and got The Thing killed (only briefly!) while fighting M.O.D.O.K. last night. But, it was fun.

Next, I headed to Paragon City and joined a team for a couple of missions. On the whole, it was a decent team, in terms of powers/abilities. In terms of team dynamics, however… they left a little something to be desired. There were more than “a few” team deaths involved. Still, I put on about a half-level before logging out.

Before heading to bed, I toyed with the idea of getting up early and heading to the gym. If I hadn’t kept waking up every hour-and-a-half or so, I might have actually followed through with it. *grblsnrkx*

Still, it’s Wednesday.
And that ain’t bad at all.

Stray Toasters

• On the way to work, Nomad slipped Kool Moe Dee’s I Go to Work into the mix. That made me chuckle.
• sent a few new pics of Bit. This one is adorable:

  

• Ten codes
• Thanks to for pointing this out:



• The artwork of Rob Ullman
• I was talking with loonybin88 about his weekend and, in the course of conversation, he mentioned that one of his sons is taken with one of the girls in the neighborhood. I told him that he might want to start getting the fatherly advice ready… but not like this:

• RedEye’s “Best Superhero” Tourney

Namaste.

Reason #873945224 of “Why I Love SaraRules”
While talking with her a little while ago, I noted that I’ve been playing City of Heroes for almost three years:

Me: Wow.
Me: I’m 13 days from having played CoH for three years.
Me: O.o
SaraRules: And how do you feel about that, dearest?
Me: AWESOME!
SaraRules: Well, at least you don’t regret it.  *kisses* Long time for a game.
Me: And, in three weeks…. I get a pet!
SaraRules: A pet. Interesting.
Me: Come on…
Me: Superman has Krypto.
Me: Supergirl has Streaky.
Me: Batman even has Ace.
Me: Why shouldn’t I?
SaraRules: Hm. I know not this Streaky, nor this Ace.  But I’m sure a pet will come in very handy.
Me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_the_Bat-Hound
Me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaky
SaraRules: Pshaw. Just silly. I can only imagine running after a criminal and tripping over the damn cat.

Yep… I’m naming her today’s Human of the Day.

…and, um, apologies to John Steinbeck.

Grandpa’s Wake:

Lunch time.  I should be going to the gym, but neither Wes nor Mark are in this office and I really dislike working out alone.

Stray Toasters

• Interviews with Matt Keeslar, The Middleman in… The Middleman
  • A Slice of Sci-Fi
  • iFMagazine
  • TV Guide
• The best video games of the year — so far
• Tyranist: You should click here.
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!?” file: Teenager finds baby bat in her bra
• … and in a semi-related note: Die off of bats mystifies experts
• First Look: Wonder Woman DVD Movie
• NASA sets date for final shuttle mission in 2010
• Another from the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!” file: The World’s Weirdest Health Mascots
• MK vs. DCU screen shots: Now with more Catwoman

I should eat something.

Tuesday – 08 July 2008
Last night, after having a bite to eat and watching a little TV, I decided to head to Borders to do some drawing. I took a few ‘Clix figures with me – it’s been a while since I’ve drawn anything, so I thought it best to work on simple figure studies. Did I say “a while?” I meant to say that I’ve pretty much forgotten how to do everything beyond the point of “hold the pencil.” *sigh* As the song says: It’s a long, dark road out of Hell. But, I’ll eventually get back to where I was.

Back home in time for The Middleman. Apparently, we’re on the West Coast feed of ABC Family – the show comes on at 11:00 here. Not a major hassle, but I wouldn’t mind catching it at 9 or 10. I read something… last week, I think… that says that Kevin Sorbo (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Andromeda) will be guest starring on an episode. He will be playing a Middleman who’s been in suspended animation. That should prove amusing.

I flipped channels for a bit after The Middleman. I started with Deep Space Nine, but wound up spending a bit of time watching The Late Late Show… before winding up back on DS9. I was mostly killing time until Burn Notice came on. Which I did. And then only made it through twenty (20) minutes of the show before realizing that I needed to call it a night.

Stray Toasters

• I made corn muffins this morning. They’re a nice change of pace to my sporadic breakfast routine.
• Ten
• Classic Nick Fury is back in comics… and has a new ‘Clix figure, to boot.



• For SaraRules and Tyranist: Zombie lawn sculpture
• Stephen Colbert is running for President of the United States… in the Marvel Universe.

(click image for more information)

• Balloon animals from trash bags: Joshua Allen Harris
• It’s a definite sign of the times when even LEGO minifigs are riding scooters.
• Builder discovers ‘priceless’ Tolkien postcard

Namaste.

I am apparently in need of a gaming session. I just went to look up part the lyrics to Manic Monday… but typed “Manic Monkday” instead. *blink blink*

Project: Rooftop has released their list of finalists from the “Superman: Man of Style” contest. I’m partial to entries #2 and #12.

Check out the DeviantArt gallery of Cat Stagg.
(, you’ll want to check out the middle of the right column on Page 5)

Doll on a Music Box/Truly Scrumptious

When did the term “jet lag” come into use?

Subnetting/Supernetting == *bleargh*