Random Access

The day has been pretty good. The highlight (at least so far) was heading to ‘s house with looneybin88 and JG to play a few games of Twilight Zone pinball at lunch. Other than that, it’s been a rather run-of-the-mill day in the neighborhood.
(…in the neighborhood…)
(…in the neigh-bor-hood.)

Not sure what trouble I plan on getting into this evening. Maybe a trip to Paragon City… or *gasp* even The Rogue Isles.

Stray Toasters

• 10 Awesome Shirts for Geeks
• From the world of golf: After 19 Extra Holes, Woods Captures His Third U.S. Open
• Stan Winston Dies
• By way of : Death of Spock Mash-up

• …which led me to: William Shatner or…

• Hulk vs. The Universe
• I’ve rediscovered Exiern



• How to improve your home wi-fi network
• was on a roll today: He told us about a video of a teenager kicking a cement wall… and the aftermath. As neither looneybin88 nor I had heard of this, let alone seen the video, he sent us a link to it. (Disclaimer: If you’re squeamish, you may just want to skip this one. Seriously.)

• Top Ten: Comics’ Bad Dads
• Wizard World Chicago…
• Wait… wait… wait. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2? And it may be a Civil Bore War storyline? Not sure how I feel about that.

Quotes of the Day
Today’s gems both came at lunchtime and qualify as “Unintentional Porn Overheard While Playing Pinball”

1. looneybin88 was on the machine… and doing quite well. He made a play that resulted in playing with three pinballs on the table. (You have no idea how many permutations that last sentence went through before I came up with something that wasn’t porn-tastic.) Someone commented on his making a good play and the rest of the conversation went down the proverbial chute:
   

   Me: Sun. Dog. Ass. (My usual ‘shorthand’ for “The sun shines on a dog’s ass, too…”)
   looneybin88: What can I say? I got skills!
   : You have skills… with a dog’s ass? I’m calling animal control.

   At that point, all three balls left the field of play as looneybin88 doubled-over, red-faced and laughing.

2. All of us had a horrible third game… except JG. When he was coming to the table to play his second ball, he looked at our scores and said:
   

   Huh, all I have to do is beat myself.

   The rest of us looked at each other… and broke out in raucous laughter. JG, to his credit, stoically kept playing.

And now, to find some trouble to get into.

Namaste.

Managing and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Environment wasn’t really hitting on anything today.
Instead, I returned to DNS & BIND. And by “return,” I mean “started reading anew.” It’s been a while.
That worked out better.

Even though I’ve never been to the Aspen area, I wasn’t inclined to go out gallivanting today… for two reasons:

1. SaraRules is at work… and, thus, not around to hang out
2. I was “on the clock” and had work to do. (I have a work ethic, sue me.)

Today’s reading locations have included:

• The dining room table… under the lamp of antlers.
• The window nook
• The front porch
• The back porch
• The kitchen counter

The view from the front porch isn’t awesome, but I wouldn’t mind catching a sunrise over it… if the sunrise wasn’t 5:41 AM. The back porch looks up the mountainside. It’s green and has a few trees. And, by the time I moved out there, it had the sun. Oh, the warm, joyous sun. (Not to be confused with the angry sun.) Aside from a butterfly, some birds and a few other assorted insects, I haven’t seen any of the local fauna.

Speaking of fauna: I saw some deer or antelope (hard to tell in traffic at 80 MPH) on the… dunes?… outside Green River yesterday. And, I saw my favorite not-sheep along Route 6, too.

Stray Toasters

• The local wireless connection doesn’t like iChat, it seems. Other programs do just fine, but iChat craps out at random. I’ll have to test it with City later.
• The Food & Wine Classic in Aspen starts today. Check out the ticket prices. Somehow, I think we’re going to skip this.
• “Unboop”
• I had iTunes on random and Rocket Man came on.
  Not Elton John.
  Nor Kate Bush.
  Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Interesting version. I checked All Music Guide and it seems as though it’s been on a LOT of albums/CDs.
• Robert Cray’s Smoking Gun is still a great song.
• So is Diamond in the Rough, by Shawn Colvin.
• Thanks to for making sure that I saw Classics in LEGO
  …which, in turn, led me to this…
  



• She bop -he bop – a we bop
  I bop -you bop – a-they bop
  Be bop – be bop – a-lu-bop,
  (I hope He will understand)
  She bop -he bop – a we bop
  I bop -you bop – a-they bop
  Be bop – be bop – a-lu-she bop

And that’s all for now.

Derek read the article in my earlier post about teens sending naked pics of themselves via their cellphones and had this to say:

(3:07) cell phone porn…. wtf did you expect people
(3:07) the phone has a camera on it
(3:07) not to mention the internet

(3:09) and if the kids were smart, they would do it on their nintendo wii, because they only need 1 hand to operate that 🙂

I don’t think that there’s anything that I could even attempt to add to that… other than to say “Quote of the Day.”

Happy Hatching Day to:

…and…

Today’s workout was good; it was a rehash of Tuesday’s routine, with a change in some of the weights:

• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps – 1 set each at: 225 lbs, 205 lbs and 185 lbs
• Flys (Nautilus, high-to-low): 3 sets/10 reps, 110 lbs
• Bent-over Rows (barbell): 3 sets/12 reps – 1 set @ 95 lbs, 2 sets at 105 lbs
• Bench Dips: 3 sets/15 reps with 45 lb plate
• Lateral Raises (with forward extensions x3): 3 sets/4 reps, 12 lbs
• Push-ups: 1 set/10 reps

Pre-workout weight: 174.6 lbs.

Hopefully, I won’t be as sore on tomorrow or Saturday as I was yesterday and earlier today.

I also noticed something today that was rather geeky/amusing: When I was working up to my 300-pound bench press, I would internally emphasize that moving the weight was a matter of willpower. Which, all things considered, it is: Push the body, push the weight. “Mind over matter.” Pretty basic. It’s still in the back of my head when I’m working out, more often than not.

Today, I noticed something else: I was reciting the Green Lantern oath (the second one, “In brightest day…”) in my head as I was doing some of the exercises… especially the ones that “hurt” or that I didn’t want to do. To be honest, the cadence of the oath even fit the pace of the exercises. And GLs are all about willpower… so, it fit.

Geeky, yes.
But that’s just the way I’m wired, I guess.

Thursday – 12 June 2008
So far the day goes well. That’s always a good thing.

<< Rewind <<
Last night, I was unbelievably lazy. I’d planned to do some straightening around the apartment. Nope. Didn’t happen. I think that the closest I came was putting the Sentinel in the case behind Phoenix… and then deciding that I liked the way Phoenix looked alone on the shelf better.

I did play City of Heroes, though. Not only did I play, I tacked two-and-a-half levels onto Kurigari. I hooked up with a good team and we ran through a few missions in The Hollows. It’s still a crappy zone for ground-pounders, but at least I’m less than two levels away from Superspeed. (Hover and Flight just don’t fit this character, so I’m not using them.)

I also watched Justice League Unlimited and ST: DS9, along with a couple of episodes of L&O: SVU. Decent episodes of each show: “Chaos at Earth’s Core,” “Emissary, Part II” and… I don’t remember which SVU episodes.

One thing that’s not a win: I’m remembering why I don’t watch G4’s Attack of the Show with any regularity. I keep comparing it – unfavorably – to The Screen Savers. TSS was a good show, you got tech news and info… with a little levity thrown in on the side. But the humour was smart and witty. AotS… just seems to go for the quick/cheap laugh or thrill and throw in something technical for fun or as an afterthought. Or maybe I’m no longer part of their core demographic.

> Play >
Coffee is a wonderful thing.
Coffee cake would be a nice addition… but I don’t have any.

Stray Toasters

• I have a doughnut. It’s not coffee cake, but beggars should not choosers be.
• Dinosaur
• By way of Indexed:



• Thanks to for pointing out Religulous. I’m interested in seeing this.
• Teens sending nekkid pics of themselves on cell phones! Oh, my! We never saw this coming, did we? Not in a million years. Apparently, Utah news sources are jumping on the bandwagon. Let’s hope that this doesn’t go over the same way as “the emo epidemic” did.
• …of course, then there’s this: Health group denounces Incredible Hulk for smoking
  Because, Heaven knows that kids would never see anyone smoking out on the street or anywhere else in everyday life. Flaming idiotsticks.
• 
• I’m spoiled. I had to change out a workstation’s power supply… with a manual screwdriver rather than a drill/driver.
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Man in court over comedy TV show
• Trial halted over judge’s website

The show must go on.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 11 June 2008

That’s representative of today’s weather in Salt Lake City. The forecast says that we should even break 60°F. Considering that Monday’s high was 80°F, I’m not overly enthused. I shouldn’t complain too much: SaraRules said that there was snow in Aspen this morning.

The morning has been relatively uneventful. So far.

Last night’s Scion game was fun. No one died. Correction: “No one from our group died.” A few otherwise-innocent bystanders? Well… um… oops.

Stray Toasters

• called me this morning to relate the following story: She heard someone (on the radio, I believe) singing a song called If You Could Hie to Kolob…to the tune of the theme from The Beverly Hillbillies. I was intrigued by this. I looked up the lyrics and hummed the theme to myself. It worked. Beautifully, at that.
• If you’re unfamiliar with “Kolob,” click here for more information.
• Thanks to for pointing out the following t-shirt/bumper sticker:

  

• I took some… creative license… with a couple of HALO 3 screenshots a few months ago, but neglected to post them:

  
  (click images for larger size)

• Time travel back to 1000 A.D. : Survival Tips
• Loonybin88 sent me a link to this:

• My friend Jonni has posted a new song on his MySpace page: End of Alone. Check it out.

Namaste.

Today is Kris’ birthday. I called her this morning… but didn’t get an answer. I tried again this afternoon with much better success.

After work, I headed home to change clothes and have a bite to eat.

Next up: Scion… for the first time in nearly two months.

Workout
Today’s workout wasn’t too bad… considering that it’s been a week since I was last in the gym.

• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 185 lbs
• Flys (Nautilus, high-to-low): 3 sets/12 reps – 1 set @ 95 lbs, 2 sets @ 110 lbs
• Bent-over Rows (barbell): 3 sets/12 reps – 1 set @ 55 lbs, 2 sets at 70 lbs
• Bench Dips: 3 sets/15 reps – 1 set with 40 lb dumbbell, 1 set with 45 lb plate
• Lateral Raises (with forward extensions x3): 3 sets/4 reps – 2 sets @ 15 lbs, 1 set @ 8 lbs
• Push-ups: 1 set/10 reps

Post-workout weight: 175.6 lbs

Stray Toasters

• Terence Stamp talks Valkyrie and Superman II
• …which reminds me: General Zod – 2008 Presidential Candidate

  

• Best and Worst-Dressed in Sci-Fi
• “Genuine Leather”



• How… HOW… in the Nine Hells do you manage to hit yourself in the head with a nail gun?!
• Edo Period-style Pac-Man fan art
• Giger-esque furniture from old motorbikes

Namaste.

The meeting was… a meeting.

• Strategy.
• Vision.
• “You’re doing a great job.”
• Blah Blah Blah

After the meeting, Coworkers Mike and Tyranist came over to my desk to shoot the bull. In the course of conversation, Tyranist asked Mike about his new baby. Mike, not missing a beat, quipped back:

“Oh, she’s fine. Healthiest of all our children, at that age. But, you know… since she was an artificial insemination baby, we were kind of hoping for a fun, ethnic child.”

Tyranist and I both laughed – quite a bit – over this. After I regained enough composure to speak I had to ask if the kid was either half-his or half-his wife’s. He confirmed, “Oh, no. It was her eggs and my guys, but you never know. *shrug* That’s why we were kind of hoping.”

A few minutes later, and I wish I could remember exactly what led up to it, we were talking and Mike held up his right hand, clenched in a fist, and said: “Power to The Man!” Again, Tyranist and I found this amusing. And to that, I say to Mike:

All this fun and it isn’t even lunchtime, yet.

Namaste.

Not that I needed any more/other reasons to love her, but SaraRules just clinched Quote of the Day with this:

SaraRules: So, it wasn’t the best idea to read what white people like, and then go to a birthday celebration of nothing but white people.
Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
SaraRules: I’m serious. It was weird. People didn’t know who Usher was. And just curious, is it appropriate to refer to part of Michael Jackson’s career as the “when he was still black” era?
Me: Politically correct, probably not.
Me: Appropriate, yes.
SaraRules: Yeah. Plus the site spends so much time going off about organic food, and Priuses, and people in outdoor clothing and stuff. And that’s totally where I am.
Me: *snicker*
SaraRules: I’m in white yuppie granola purgatory. It’s not hell yet, but you never know what the summer may hold.
Me: {{{ hug }}}
Me: Stay Black, love. Stay Black.
SaraRules: hahahahhahaha!
SaraRules: Damn.
SaraRules: That was funny.
SaraRules: Yeah, you win.

What more could I possibly ask for?

just sent me a link to the following:

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Pon Farr Edition) from Darth Mojo on Vimeo.

Two disclaimers:

1. The audio is pretty much NSFW in 98.3% of work environments
2. You can watch the first… minute or so… and just skip to the 3:20 mark without missing anything.

What made this even more surreal was that a Goldfrapp’s Strict Machine (audio only) started playing on iTunes almost immediately after I was done watching the video.

Wolverine + frog = ???
(Thanks to Derek for the story link)

And what would you call it?
Wolvertoad?
Froggerine?

Monday – 09 June 2008
Here comes the work week.

I can’t complain about the weather, though.

It’s supposed to get up to the upper 70s. I can deal with that… especially since SaraRules just told me that it’s cold enough in Aspen that she had to wear a sweater this morning. In June. That just ain’t right.

I played a little CoH last night. I may switch over to CoV in the next day or two and show Mr. Dhoruba some love. Speaking of whom, I need to get a screenshot of his updated look… as well as a shot of my new Hero-side character, Kurigari.

This morning, I apparently woke up long enough to turn off the alarm… and roll back over. I don’t really , remember it, though. I was up about twenty minutes later, though. It didn’t take too long to kick the morning into gear. And the frozen mocha didn’t hurt, either.

Stray Toasters

• WWDC.
• SaraRules and kind of bonded over a common… um… “lack of bonding” experience.
• Have you ever listened to Space Oddity with only one channel (right or left)? Try it sometime.
• I have started trying a couple of new layouts of items in one of the display cases:

  

  I know that this leaves a lot of empty space on that shelf, but I really like the way it accents the figure. The only better thing that I could imagine would be to have an LED in/on the figure, similar to the McFarlane HALO3 Cortana figure. I also wish that I had about a half-inch more height to work with – Galactus would look nice behind Jean.

• New rocket car spotted in Silver Lake
  (Why does this many me want to hum the theme from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?)
• My coworker Robert came over a little while ago to ask me if I had seen Stuff White People Like. I told him that I had and that I found it amusing.
• I find this particularly apt, especially given many Utah drivers’ aversion to roundabouts:



• Okay… this is a little uncanny (and weird): Without any input/coercion from me, a dialogue clip from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang just played on iTunes.
• Joshua Ellingson Fine Art & Illustration

Whee!!!!

Namaste.

Before I forget (again): Happy Hatching Day to !

The move went much faster than expected. I think that we were done with the lifting/shuttling in just over thirty minutes. We even got to use Forearm Forklift straps; different, but not bad. Nizlee’s folks fixed us a nice lunch in return for the elbow grease, which was very nice of them.

I had some time to kill before heading to Chris and Mary’s, so I thought I’d go by and play with the kids, since I was nearby. I called to see if she was at home; she wasn’t but said that I was welcome to stop by. And that’s exactly what I did. It’s been a few months since I’ve seen them. The biggest noticeable difference is that the fur on Presto’s lower back is developing more of an orange tint. But they’re all still very cute.

(click images for larger versions)

On to Chris and Mary’s to watch Diary of the Dead. It was a George Romero film, so of course there was a bit of commentary… but it was also a pretty good movie, too. It got a little campy for a couple of scenes near the end, but it did wrap up nicely.

Stray Toasters

• “I’m Samuel. Hello.”
• I picked up a pass to a sneak preview of The Incredible Hulk after the tournament yesterday. The screening is Monday night… at 7:00. I was actually looking forward to going… but then I remembered that I am going out to dinner with SaraRules’ family tomorrow evening.

  

  Oh, well. I’ll catch the movie when it releases. So, if anyone is interested in a free pass to the movie, let me know.

• I should play City tonight.
• Or Marvel Ultimate Alliance.
• Or go old school and play MechCommander, which I just got back from Chris.
• This is a cool picture of Wonder Woman.
• X2: X-Men United is on FX. I like this movie. And its predecessor. X3… not so much.

And with that… I’m a vapor trail.

Namaste.

Sunday – 08 June 2008
Last week, I mentioned going for a morning walk with , but I was too out of it Sunday morning. At Clitorati, we bandied about the idea of trying again today. said that he wanted to go to the Gay Pride parade… and I figured that we could kill two birds with one stone: Get in a walk and fly wingman for .

Great plan.

In theory.

I was up later than I had planned to be and slept in again this morning. I woke up to find that had been up working on a project until O’dark-thirty himself. I’m not sure if he wound up heading downtown or not. And I don’t know what wound up doing, either.

O, na.

In a couple of hours, I’ll be helping parents move some furniture. Nothing like some good, old-fashioned heavy lifting to kick off your day! And, I’m counting it as another (much needed) workout… of sorts. Today is also Chris’ birthday; we’re celebrating by watching a zombie movie: Diary of the Dead.

Stray Toasters

• posted this video earlier. I’m sharing the love:

• After watching that, I noticed that was still online, so I chatted with her for a few minutes. I may have possibly condemned her to a corner of Hell near mine as we wound up talking about dust bunnies, “cool beans” vs. “hot beans,” and the possible origins of the term “holy shit.”By
• My angels
  My devils
  Thorn in my pride
• By way of Esquire: Tips on Buying Denim and Three Ways to Wear Denim
• I should get my guitar back tomorrow or Tuesday.
• What Went Wrong? Twelve Experts on the Clinton Campaign
• No cure for the Summertime Blues? I find that hard to believe.
• hall != haul
• 
• I just heard from lj user=”tofer1977″, he didn’t go downtown, either.
• Tin Machine just played on Nomad. I’d forgotten how much I liked their second CD.

Time to get ready to face the day.

Namaste.