Random Access

Monday – 07 July 2008
I hope that the holiday weekend was safe for everyone. As yet, I’ve heard no reports of anyone having to be
rushed to their local medical facility to have fireworks-related injuries treated. I take that as a good thing.

Aside from being slow on the uptake in figuring out that SaraRules had gotten into town early and Friday morning Leash doom, it was a rather good – and relaxing – weekend.

After SaraRules left for Aspen, I headed down to Kate and Perry’s to do a little tech support and to hang with the family. It also turns out that their youngest added +1 to his Crawl skill while they were on vacation. It also seems like he added +1 to his Stand (with support) skill, too.

When I got back home, I planted myself on the couch and watched a couple of episodes of Law & Order: SVU. I flipped over to watch a little bit of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi before deciding to play City of Heroes. I was invited to join a team fairly quickly; we ran a few missions against The Council and Tsoo… and a bank mission. Despite a few inglorious deaths, I was able to put on a couple of levels.

All-in-all, it was a good end to a good weekend.

Stray Toasters

• I am having Butterscotch Krimpets and coffee for breakfast. Not quite the so-called “Breakfast of Champions,” but good, nonetheless.
• July 7, 1936: Get a Grip – Phillips Screws Up the Toolbox
• Hulk vs. Wolverine

• The manual I’m reading just made an analogy between IP addresses and USPS addresses, that impressed me:
  

  “In the same way that a house address has two parts – a street address and a ZIP code (the city and state are not really used anymore – an IP address also has two parts…”

  The impressive part is that not many people outside the USPS really know (or at least think about the fact) that the City and State parts of an address are somewhat superfluous. As a rather high percentage of the mailstream is routed by automated systems, they can usually determine exactly where a mailpiece goes from just the ZIP Code and the street address.

• I’m going to a DCI show in Ogden on Thursday. I haven’t been to a drum corps show in… at least… 10 or 11 years. That should be fun.
• By way of the “You Can’t Do That on Television” file: Porn appears on rugby programme
  (The expression of the guy in the accompanying picture makes the whole thing for me)
• I am amused that this xkcd comic has had the following effect on the Wikipedia entry for “wood”

And… back to it.

Namaste.

Saturday – 05 July 2008
Yesterday was good and it was eventful – in a good way – too.

I didn’t wind up playing Ultimate Alliance, but that was cool.  We headed to SaraRules’ parents’ and hung out with her family for a while. Meliko and I talked comics again; I brought over House of M, because she had asked about it on Thursday. The lot of us then headed to Porcupine Pub for dinner. We came back to the house to watch Eddie Izzard: Definite Article. Until it started watching me and SaraRules.

We headed back to my place for a pre-fireworks nap… and almost slept through seeing them at all. We got up and headed up to Wasatch Boulevard, affording us a view of most of the fireworks displays across the valley. We wound up parking in Sugar House and watching their display.

Back home for some ice cream and unwinding… and then I found Blazing Saddles on TV Land! I watched about half of it before calling it a night.

Up early again this morning to head to the Downtown Farmer’s Market. I wasn’t expecting to run into anyone I know, but I did: Josh, from work. Not only did I see him, but we kept passing each other as we wandered through the park.

We’re going to see Hancock in a little while. After that… who knows?

*voop*

Friday – 04 July 2008
Happy Independence Day

Yesterday, I got off work a little after noon. I headed to Oh Sushi! to see if the lunchtime group was still there. They were. And, they were getting ready to leave. I picked up an order of Ebi and a California Roll to go.

I stopped at SaraRules’ parents’ house to see if Meliko was there; she had gotten into town Wednesday evening. She was. We hung out and talked books, movies and comics until her folks got in. I hung out with the family for a bit and then headed home.

I dropped off a few things, picked up my Pivot Driver and headed to ‘s to help with the assembly of Vikki’s bed. That went fairly quickly. I also helped troubleshoot a problem that was having with her email. And, as an added bonus: I played with the kids for a bit; I didn’t get any new pictures, though.

Next stop, Borders for a rare Thursday night Clitorati. , , OnlyAly and showed up to hang out. The people-watching was pretty choice, too. When we’d had our fill of the people there, we headed to Applebee’s to get something to eat. Land met up with us a little later.

I got a couple of text messages from SaraRules as we were finishing up dinner. She mentioned that she was having a quiet relaxing evening. I figured that she was due, given all of the running around that she’s been doing for her internship. About thirty minutes after the last message, she called. I figured that it was just our usual pre-bed, “How was your day?” call. Nope. She was calling to find out when I would be home.

*blink blink*
What?

I basically said that I should be home soon… to which she replied that she would just go to bed then and see me later.

*blink blink*
WHAT?!

And that’s when I finally managed to find two brain cells to rub together to come up with “a clue” – She had come to town a day early. My “goodbyes” and “good nights” to the dinner crew were quick. And I may have set a new personal land speed record in getting home.

Best pre-Fourth of July surprise ever.

All was fine until this morning at 8:00, when the Leash started going off about a problem in the office. I gave it a couple of minutes, to see if it would correct itself. It didn’t. I logged into the system to see what I could suss out at a glance. Problems. Yay. I called to see if he knew what was up. He didn’t, at the time, but he surmised the problem – and the solution – rather quickly. And neither of us had to actually go into the office to take care of it. Selah.

SaraRules and I ran out this morning to run a few errands and to pick up some breakfast. She is working on an article for the AMFS and I’m going to squeeze in a little time playing Ultimate Alliance, until she finishes. Then, I believe that we’re spending the afternoon and evening hanging out with her folks. Not a bad way to spend the holiday.

Stray Toasters

• I realized – and remarked to – yesterday that it must sound odd to have someone say they spent an afternoon just hanging out with their girlfriend’s sister, their ex-girlfriend and doing a favor for their ex’s sister. She laughed and said that while it wasn’t odd to her, she could see where it might sound odd to others.
• North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms passed away. He was 86.
• The emmet swimming song Hey, Jesse was about Senator Helms.
• Top 10 Famous Hotel Rooms
• Thanks to for linking me to this video:

  
  Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

• New Hunter S. Thompson film focuses on writings

Quotes of the Day
All of these were gleaned from last night’s dinner conversation:

• : The rubbing makes it sensitive, the sweat makes it sting.
• : What’s an “Olympic Queen?”
  Me: East German
• “So, do we need to get you some landing lights?”
• “Does he fly First Class?”
• “Crisco… the natural lube.”

Have a safe and fun holiday and/or holiday weekend.

Namaste.

Thursday – 03 July 2008
Last day of the work week… sort of. I am keeping the Leash for an extra week, so a coworker can go camping with his family. The up side to this: I’m of pager duty for the next… 8 weeks, I think. That’s not a bad deal.

Last night, I watched Star Wars: A New Hope on Spike. Sure, it was the 90s remixed edition (you know… the one where Han doesn’t shoot first), but I was able to overlook that. For the most part.

I seem to recall Luke Skywalker being known as “the last survivor of the Death Star battle.” ( I just checked with , he remembers that, too.) I also remember this being somewhat retconned:

• Han Solo (and, ostensibly, Chewbacca) was there – he afforded Luke the opportunity to make the shot.
• Wedge Antilles survived – his X-Wing was damaged in the final run on the trench and Luke told him to wave off.

So, we have three (or four) survivors there. I realized something last night and I am not sure if it’s endemic to the updated version only or not: There is a Y-Wing bomber that also flies away from the exploding Death Star:

Let’s examine that picture…

• Millenium Falcon? Check.
• Red Two (Wedge’s X-Wing)? Check.
• Red Five (Luke’s X-Wing)? Check.
• Y-Wing bombe…. wait…. Y-Wing?! What’s that doing here?!

And so, my question is: Who was the mystery pilot?

I also spent some time in Paragon City. I got Kurigari to Security Level 20 a couple of nights ago, but didn’t feel like running his costume mission then. So, I did it last night. I had another character in Icon offer to help me out. Far be it from me to turn down a helping hand. A few minutes later, I was back in the tailor shop, getting hooked up with new threads. (And I STILL need to get a picture of this character…)

Four-Color Coverage
I picked up three (that’s right, “three”) books yesterday. It made for quick, but entertaining, reading:

• Astonishing X-Men #25 – Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi’s debut issue hits the stands. And, it’s good. The take seems to be a bit of The X-Men meets The X-Files – there is a definite sci-fi edge to the story, so far. The X-Men seem to be settling in to their new locale fairly well. They’re even on good terms with the local government. YeahbuhWHAT?! There’s even a visit from a certain wind-riding Queen of Wakanda. I must give Mr. Ellis a bit of credit for the way he handled the interaction between Ororo and Emma when Ororo asked about joining the team. If I have a problem with the book, it would be with Bianchi’s artwork… but, not for the reasons you might suspect. The art looks amazing, to be honest, but in a few cases it looks like he’s trying “too hard.” Yes, we know that the X-Men’s world is fantastic (wait, no, that’s the Four)… um… Uncanny? Extreme? New? Ultimate? Well, whatever the word is that you want to use, Bianchi seems to want to make it abundantly clear through the art. Their “car” looks like something that NASA could use for a shuttlecraft. The new X-Jet doesn’t look bad, though. Maybe his style just has to grow on me. Regardless, it was a good read and I look forward to seeing in what direction(s) Mr. Ellis takes the book.
• Legion of Super-Heroes #43 – The Legion is still facing lots of political red tape from the UP… even as they send a team to go save the newly-minted, UP-sponsored team of heroes that just had their collective recta handed to them. No rest for the weary, it seems. And who’s the kid talking with Brainiac 5 and what is his angle?
• Trinity #4 – This is DC’s latest weekly title, featuring “The Big Three,” Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman. The book is divided into two parts – the first, featuring the aforementioned trinity; the second focusing on subplots, occasionally featuring the heroes’ antagonists. Kurt Busiek presents a good take on the characters, but unless something picks up or changes in the next few issues, I may be dropping this one.

Stray Toasters

• Thank God, the angels and the Heavenly host for short work weeks.
• 33-ish
• How can you not love a webcomic that does things like this:
  • 
  • 
• Frozen mocha goodness!
• Google must divulge YouTube log
• Despite (or because of) that, I give you:

• Iron Sky. Check out the trailer.
• Inka dinka doo.

Apparently, my technopathic link extends to Defiant, as well as Nomad. After noting in the last post that I wasn’t listening to any music, I fired up iTunes. Out of the gate, I got:

• Eric Clapton – Layla (the plugged, Derek and the Dominoes version)
• The Cure – Just Like Heaven
  (…which made me wonder what a cover by the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain would sound like)
• Rockapella – Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
  (…which, reparsed in my head as “Cartman Sandiego” – don’t picture it; no good can come of it)
• DMX – What’s My Name?
• Bob Dorough – Elementary, My Dear (from Schoolhouse Rock!)
• Janet Jackson – Nasty
  (…which made me wonder how a cover of this by Morris Day and The Time would sound)

I can’t really complain about those selections.

Stray Toasters

• Thanks to for passing along these videos
  • William Shatner for President
  • Whose Line Is It Anyway? – Prison
• For the gamer (and sugar addict) on their birthday: Pac-Man cake
• Wii Wheeton
• Mavis Staples is going to be performing in Snowmass. This weekend. Verdammt.
• And… I finished off another HeroClix card last night. This was a request from someone in the LJ HeroClix community:

Back to the grind.

Wednesday – 02 June 2008

I started to wind down a little after 1:00 last night/this morning… and it wasn’t a gradual decline, either.  It was more like a shelf edge. Seeing the signs, I got up and promptly started the end-of-the-day rituals.  I attempted to read a few pages of Snow Crash before calling it a night.  I think I read a paragraph (maybe two!) before the text degraded into indecipherable gibberish. I put the book down and went to sleep.

I vaguely remember turning off Alarm 1 this morning.  I distinctly remember turning off Alarm 2… and sprawling across the bed for what I swore would be “just a minute.” The next thing I know, there were landscapers outside my window. I checked the clock – it was well past time for me to be under way.  I was done – including a shower, brewing coffee and  a rousing game of “What Am I Going to Wear Today?!” – in just over 30 minutes. For those of you who are unfamiliar with WAIGtWT, the rules are very simple:

1. Got to your clothes closet
2. Open the door
3. Stare blankly at the clothes
4. Wait for something to magically leap off the rack and into your hand.
   (If nothing happens at Step 4, you’re doing something wrong.)
5. Walk away, to attend to some other aspect of getting ready.
6. Return to closet, to see if anything has thrown itself on the floor (or bed, if close enough).
7. Swear.  A lot.
8. Repeat Steps 4 through 7, as necessary.

So far the day looks good. I keep having the nagging suspicion that there’s something that I had tentatively scheduled for this evening… but I can’t put my finger on what it was.

Oh, well… the show must go on.

Namaste.

Until last night, I had forgotten that this is a short work week.  I apparently forgot it again this morning… until I started thinking about how I wanted to spread out my work hours – I was planning on working a bunch of 9- and 10-hour days and taking off early on Friday again, when it dawned on me that Friday is a freebie.  Had gone with my original plan of pulling 10-9-10, I would only have two hours of work on Thursday.  I may still do that.

Stray Toasters

• Michael Turner, artist and President of Aspen Comics, passed away Friday night.  He was 37.
• Wizard has a 6-page preview of Astonishing X-Men #25, Warren Ellis’ first issue on the title.  Page Four alone is reason enough to buy the book.
• Walk Score
• In the same vein as someecards comes WrongCards.  They even have an “In event of zombies” section.
• There are rumblings of Frank Miller working on some sort of sequel to 300.  I feel about this the way that I feel about The Dark Knight Strikes Again, his follow-up to The Dark Knight Returns:  You captured lighting in a bottle the first time around.  Don’t force it.  And, more importantly, why screw up a good thing?!
• Wizard, in their “Corps Curriculum” column, posted this picture… with the caption: “Yoda couldn’t have done it better.”  The funny thing is, you could actually overwrite Luke and Yoda’s X-Wing raising dialogue from SW:TESB on this page… and have it fit perfectly.

All that and a new episode of The Middleman tonight.

Huzzah!

and company are talking about World of Warcraft. Apparently, they had a bad run-in during one of their runs. used the word “debacle”…

…which immediately reparsed in my head to “Debacles” (DEB-uh-kleez)

…which I immediately envisioned as a Greek god: Debacles, the god of disaster and mayhem.

Shoot me now.

Monday – 30 June 2008
6:30 came far too soon.
So I ignored it, in favor of 7:00.
That worked out much better, as far as I was concerned. 45 minutes later, I was on the way to work.

An hour later, I was at work, with a frozen mocha and a bagel sandwich.

Booyah.

Stray Toasters

• You know, a morning that kicks off, musically, with Stevie Wonder and The Jackson 5 can’t be all bad.
  • The Jackson 5 – ABC
  • Stevie Wonder – I Wish
• This is cheesy, but you have to watch it until the third group comes on:

• For the kid and/or gamer looking to turn his or her room into a life-sized video game: Mario Vinyl Wall Decals
• If you haven’t yet, see this movie:



• Safeguarding the World’s Chocolate Supply
  (Yet, they say that bananas will possibly die out in the next 15 – 20 years…)

Attack the day…

Namaste.

Sunday: Coda
Well… after I managed to pry myself from the sofa and actually get moving, I had a fun evening.

I headed downtown to check out the Utah Arts Festival, as I mentioned earlier. I went with a little trepidation: Last year’s festival seemed dull and unexciting, with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band providing the event’s only saving grace. OnlyAly, and went Saturday afternoon and said that it was good, but still…

I got to Library Square a little after 6:00. There seemed to be a good mix of exhibitors in the area between the library and The Leonardo. That was a hopeful sign. I browsed through a number of the booths. I next checked out the ones on the southeast side of the City and County Building. Again, good selections. Checking the time, I found that I still had time to spare before Desert Gypsy went on…. so, I wandered through some of the booths set up along 2nd East. Some of the artists whose work caught my eye included:

• Kenny Tong
• Greg Gawlowski
• Julie Stutznegger
• Penelope Moore
• Brett Varney
• Daniel Ng
• Mason Fetze
• J.P. Jespersen
• Whit Bronaugh and
• Bruce Reinfeld

I headed back over to the City and County Building to watch Desert Gypsy; my friend, Georgia, dances in one of their troupes and I told her that I would come down and check out her performance. It was fun. You could tell that the dancers – and the audience – were enjoying themselves. When they were finished, I hung around for a few minutes to talk with Georgia before she went to get changed.

Next up, I checked out the Salt Lake Alternative Jazz Orchestra. They were fun. I missed out on seeing them last year. I’ll be on the lookout for them from now on, though. When they were done, I headed back over to Library Square, with the intent on checking out Samba Fogo. Unfortunately, the best spots had already been taken. So, I headed up to the walkway that overlooked the square. Not much better; I could only see the tops of the dancers’ heads. But, I was in a good spot to watch MASS Ensemble‘s performance… with their 700’-long “Earth Harp” – stretched between the library and the Amphitheatre Stage.

There is a marked difference between “watching” a performance and “hearing” it. Let me narrow that down a bit: I saw and heard Mass Ensemble; what I did not hear was the harp. Hopefully people who were sitting/standing directly under the strings could hear them. I did enjoy Mass Ensemble’s performance otherwise.

Another band kicked off at 10:00 on the Park Stage, so I wandered over that way. The band was Way Way East Bay, a funk band (with horns!) from Logan, UT. That’s right, I used the words “funk band” and “Logan” and “Utah” in the same sentence. They were pretty good. They did some covers (including Tower of Power’s Dont Change Horses (in the Middle of the Stream) and Delbert McClinton’s Standing on Shaky Ground) as well as some original songs. They were having a good time and they sounded good, too. The crowd wasn’t large (most were still watching the MASS Ensemble performance), but it was of a decent size and they seemed to enjoy the music.

Around 10:30, I’d had my fill of the festival and decided to call it a night. But, the overall experience far exceeded last year’s disappointment.

On the way home, I dropped in and chatted with for a bit.

Stray Toasters

• Ten months
• , I was sorry to hear about the fire/water damage, but glad to hear that you and the Mrs. are okay.
• This still makes me grin:



• , I think that you’ll like this. (Let me know if the link doesn’t work for you…)
• I need to allocate some time for watching Space: Above and Beyond.
• Earth-D
• Eridani Light Horse

Methinks, that’s good for now.

Saturday – 28 June 2008
I had some odd dreams this morning. The topper was one where, in an otherwise “normal” situation, I ran into – and was subsequently chased by – the JLApe. Madness. Even worse: I woke up thinking that it was Sunday. It took a few minutes for it to sink in that it really was Saturday. O.o

Otherwise, today has been great:

• I went to see WALL*E with and . It was great. Much better than I had expected. And it was a lot of fun. There were a lot of tech in-jokes, too – they caused and me to laugh a lot. And, the Pixar short before the movie, Presto, may have just supplanted Boundin’ as my favorite Pixar short. I heartily recommend this movie to everyone.
• Next on tap: A trip to the Garden of Sweden. They’re having their summer sale. I picked up a few more storage containers and picture frames.
• While in IKEA, I ran into . We noticed each other walking towards the checkout. After a couple of moments, he shouted (okay, it was really just a slightly notched-up “indoor voice”),”I know you…”
  Me: *blink blink*
  : From… LiveJournal!
  That kicked a few relational databases into gear… and I realized that we did, in fact, know each other. It was odd – in a far-from-bad way – to be recognized like that from someone I haven’t seen in at least… three years.

Now: I’m grabbing a bite to eat.
Next: Heading to Chris’ to play dolls HeroClix.
Later: Breakfast.

Namaste.

Being done with the work week is a nice thing.
Lunch at Jitterbug == good

Stray Toasters

• By way of Indexed: “On roads and online forums”



• Thanks to for pointing out Giant LEGO Storage Buildings: 65-foot-high LEGO Cathedrals Store 19 Billion Pieces a Year
• I caught myself whistling You’re the One That I Want, from Grease, a little while ago. I was about ready to shoot myself when I realized it.
• Happy 90th Birthday to Nelson Mandela



• Mandela != Madonna
• 
• Two cards down, two to go.

Pow!

Someone (and I wish I could remember “who”) posted this yesterday or Wednesday… but I didn’t get a chance to watch it until this morning. That’s a shame because it’s chock full of funny, especially if you’ve ever been in IT.

The Website Is Down

(Some of the audio is NSFW… and one image, about 7 or so minutes in)

Today’s sushi was good. Tony even threw in a couple of extra nigiri for us to try; I had albacore. Not bad.

Before lunch, I finally picked up my guitar from Acoustic Music. I’m a bit anxious to play. And, speaking of play, I’ve realized something: I want to play some of my older XBox games. Just because. Like X-Men: Legends and X-Men: The Next Dimension… and even X2: Wolverine’s Revenge and Spider-Man.

Stray Toasters

• For Derek:



• Pop culture + bukkake + macaques = ???
  (And I’m not really sure that we really want to know, either.)
• What Would Barack Obama Do Listen To? Wired took a few guesses… check out how they did.
• The Artist Formerly Known As The Fresh Prince (not to be confused with “just” Prince) backs Barack, too. BBC News has the skinny. Will Smith has been on The Late Show and The Colbert Report over the past couple of days, both interviews were entertaining.
• Mayor Mick’s bike returned
  (Did this kind of thing ever happen to Rocky Anderson? Richard Daley? Ed Koch?)
• 
• Orwell’s 1984 as a pulp novel

*voop*

Thursday – 26 June 2008
Last night was a relaxed night. After work, I headed to Dr. Volt’s to pick up this week’s comics. Home. Dinner. City of Heroes. I was invited to join a team for some Tsoo missions and nearly tacked on two levels before logging off. And, in an unusual turn, I felt tired fairly early – so early that I was showered and in bed a little after 12:30.

When the alarm went off this morning, I wasn’t quite ready to roll out of bed and face the morning, so I laid in bed for a few minutes… which turned into me falling asleep again. I woke up when alarm 2.0 went off. After staring at the ceiling and walls for a few, I got up, got ready and got under way.

Of course, I didn’t notice that I had left The Leash at home until I got to the office. Fortunately, the monitoring/notification software that sends alerts to the pager has a web interface. So, really, I’m just cutting out the middle man, not to be confused with The Middleman.

I need to decide whether today is a sushi day or a workout day. Bah.

Stray Toasters

• I got another package from my father yesterday: The 47 currently released state quarters.
• SaraRules has updated the Aspen section of her site with a couple of recent goings-on.
• Dave Koz: You Make Me Smile

• MarknTyme: Fix your GoogleTalk settings – you keep bouncing on/off.
• By way of : Christopher Titus Apologizes

• The 10 Best Fan-Made Hip-Hop Videos with The Sims
• DNS & BIND == *bleh*
• Brothel bus makes last stop in Miami Beach
• 

It’s a sushi day.
Decision: Rendered.

Namaste.