Random Access

Wednesday – 14 May 2008
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Check.
Houston Hobby Airport. Check.
McCarran International Airport. Check.
In-N-Out Burger. Check.
Six-hour drive to Salt Lake City. Check.

In other words: We are back behind the Zion Curtain.

The vacation was great. We both had a good time. And, let’s face it: Getting a chance to get out of Utah – and head to the Right Coast – is always a bonus. The chance to hang with the family-unit added a few extra points to the score, too.

We had lunch with Kris at Cracker Barrel before heading to the airport; somehow, SaraRules had never eaten at Cracker Barrel before. Back to her place to pack up and get under way for the Great Western Migration.

The flights weren’t bad. On the FLL-HOU leg, we watched Road to Perdition. Wow. How is it that I have owned – OWNED – this movie for months but not watched it?! Unglaublich! I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Since my old laptop was… old… I never watched movies on it. (No DVD player in that one.) So, watching movies on Defiant is a relatively “new” thing. Something brand-spanking new was the idea of watching the movie with the subtitles. This made understanding some of the more quiet parts of the movie much easier. While watching Road to Perdition, I think that the young lady sitting next to me was watching/reading the movie with us… but trying not to look like she was. Added bonus: We shared the flight with a polygamist family. (“It’s not a compound. It’s our home.”)

The HOU-LAS leg of the trip wasn’t hellish, even despite the baby that started screaming about halfway through the flight. Screaming. Banshee wailing. The flight was full and as people were boarding, there was an older Vietnamese (I’m Ivory Soap sure) couple that wound up having to sit apart from each other. The gentleman turned to ask if I would mind changing seats with him. I declined as:

1. I had boarded early enough to choose the seat I wanted.
2. I was sitting next to SaraRules
3. While she is willing fly, SaraRules isn’t overly fond of it.

So, I wasn’t about to abandon her. Tough noogies, Mister.

The drive from Vegas to Salt Lake wasn’t bad. We drove past a moderate-sized brush fire just north of St. George. There were a few minutes before we got to Cedar City when I thought that we might have to stop for the night, but after getting out to top off the tank and get something to drink, I was fine for the rest of the drive. And, other than those things, the drive was rather uneventful.

Stray Toasters

• I neglected to mention that we watched Memento a few days ago, a movie which I have only had a couple of weeks, but also had not seen. I also greatly enjoyed that film.
• Hilary Clinton pretty much swept the West-by-God Virginia primary. Who would have expected that?!
• Rotary iPhone Dial
• Darlin’, it’s better down where it’s wetter: Under the sea!
• passed this along to me the other day; it made me chuckle:



• Why I Started Punching Jerks Again
• Who needs (or “needed”) eHarmony when you could just use the 1939 marital rating scale for wives?
• Mormon Church Goes After WikiLeaks
• And another covet-inducing ‘Clix:

  

  

• Prince Ali!
  Mighty is he!
  Ali Ababwa
  Strong as ten regular men, definitely!
  He faced the galloping hordes
  A hundred bad guys with swords
  Who sent those goons to their lords?
  Why, Prince Ali!

/lunch

Namaste.

Friday – 09 May 2008

It’s… a little after 8:00 AM EDT. I’ve been up since about 6:30. (This is a vacation, isn’t it?!) I’ve been hanging out with Mom – having coffee, watching news, watching her start cooking dinner – since waking up. I’m sure that having been up since O’dark-thirty will catch up with me sooner or later. And, did I mention that Mom is following this year’s election coverage with the same hawkishness with which she followed the O.J. Simpson trial back in the 90s? She is. It’s kind of amusing.

Today will involve a good bit of errand-running, I’m sure. That’s cool.

Stray Toasters

• Severe storms hit the area of NC near Mom’s. I’m waiting to hear what kind of damage the area around the house sustained. I chatted, briefly, with Markin’ Time, this morning; he said that his area was pretty much spared. , what’s the story from your part of the state?
• Burma impounds UN aid deliveries
• 
• Preview of Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #1
• I haven’t had an NES for over fifteen years, but this NES Controller Coffee Table makes me kind of wish that I did…
• …of course, if they’re putting an XBox in a Microsoft Surface Table, well, I wouldn’t mind one of them, either!
• Close to the Wind
• 
• John Ridley (1,2) author of The American Way (which, if you haven’t read, you need to read) and Undercover Brother, is a commentator on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Who knew?!
• Mmm, coffee.
• Steampunk in The New York Times
• LEGO + Nathan Sawaya = Skateboard

Namaste.

Thursday – 08 May 2008
Today is not only the first day of vacation; it’s also my stepmother and younger brother’s birthday…

…and…

…respectively.

The drive to Mesquite was uneventful.  Long, but uneventful.  We stayed at The Oasis.  I was out almost as soon as I hit the pillow.  This morning, we were up and on the way to Florida… by way of Las Vegas.

Human of the Day
The woman on the moving walkway who wasn’t paying attention… and almost faceplanted when it came to and end.

Almost time to push back, so I should probably log off.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 07 May 2008
Midweek. Grey and Rainy.

Vacation starts tomorrow. Or tonight, depending on your point of view. Florida. Forecast is sunny and hot (upper 80s). Yeah, I think I can deal with that.

Stray Toasters

• Pink Floyd’s Money just turned up in my iTunes rotation. I like have liked this song for many years. I even used it as the theme for my radio show in college.
• In order received, , and got the right answer.
  (Technically, only got half of it, but she still got her half right.)
  The answers were: Vasco da Gama and Amerigo Vespucci.
• loonybin88 pointed me in the direction of Not on the Test. Amusing… and sadly true, in many cases.
• Duck season!
  Wabbit season!
  DUCK season!
  WABBIT season!
  Zombie season!
• Yay for Windows Server 2003 manuals! ZzzzzzzZZzzzzz…
• Webcomic WTH takes an amusing look at City of Heroes.
• I haven’t played City in… at least a week. *taps vein*
• While I’m happy with Senator Obama’s performance in last night’s primaries, I’m not so naive as to think that he’s an automatic shoe-in for the Democratic Party nomination, as some news sources seem to be reporting. The race isn’t over and there is still a long way to go.
• I ‘Toastered Isabella Rossellini’s Green Porno yesterday; the link led to stills from the videos. The Sundance Channel’s website has posted the videos.

Quote of the Day
has been chatting with one of our robot overlords (Did I say “overlords?” I meant “protectors.”) about an email issue. This was part of the conversation:

Robot Overlord: “I’ve sent your request on to Adam and Jamie to see if they know the right people to contact.”
: “You sent it to the Mythbusters guys!? How can they help with an email forward problem??”

He didn’t get a reply. Sad. Humorless robot overlords.

Anyway…

I just got back from lunch with SaraRules and Perry. While out, I took a couple of pieces of equipment to be exchanged for an RMA. I went to a new place to take care of this. The young lady at the store, God bless ‘er, didn’t quite understand what to do. So, what normally took about five (5) minutes to do took on the order of twenty-five. Yay. But, it’s done.

Back to the grind.

Namaste.

I have forgotten how much of a piece of piece Windows XP can be. Yes, I’ve been spoiled by the simplicity of OSX and program upgrades and installations. I recently had to wipe and reinstall XP on one of my machines in the north office. I forgot about that today when I had to do some online training. Which means that I had to reinstall a number of helper applications in order to use the training modules.

Install.
Reboot.
Install.
Reboot.
Lather.
Rinse.
Repeat.

I got everything installed. I went through the training modules. Life was good. Yay.

Earlier in the afternoon, Code Monkey and I went for a constitutional. We were talking about how temperate it was today. From there we went off on a tangent about skin color and heat absorption. That, in turn, led me onto a tangent about Kryptonians’ (and Daxamites’) ability to absorb energy from yellow solar radiation. Then, came the big tangent:

Where were the Black Kryptonians?!

CM and I then had a couple of other questions:

1. Would the concept of Black Kryptonians work? If high melanin-content in the skin reflects heat, then would the darker-skinned be as “super” under a yellow sun as their light-skinned counterparts?
2. If Krypton was a cold/ice planet, as seen in Superman and Superman II, would there even be any dark-skinned Kryptonians?

Of course, this meant that I had to look up whether or not there had ever been Black Kryptonians in the comics. Lo and behold, there were! Evidence was found here, here and even here.

Still no word on Black Daxamites, though.

Stray Toasters

• Newsarama had a link to Legion of Super-Potatoes. The second page, with the Legion of Substitute Potatoes, nearly made me double over and smack my head on my desk from laughter.
• This is the cover of the first issue of Legion of Super-Heroes that I ever bought:



• Living Between Wednesdays had an amusing look at The Invincible Iron Man #172, featuring a drunken Tony Stark…
• …which makes a perfect segue for this:



• Isabella Rossellini Does Bug Porn
• What if John Byrne had written the X-Men?
• Also, check out the official trailer for Wolverine and the X-Men, the upcoming animated series from Marvel. It looks like an interesting twist on the X-Men mythos.



• Not the droids you’re expecting…
• While watching CNN’s primary coverage, SaraRules mentioned that she was fascinated by the multi-touch interactive display they used to track/follow voting reports. So, I showed her the multi-touch exhibition from TED in 2006:

  Then I showed her an item from Popular Mechanics.com about the Microsoft Milan. That made me wonder when the Milan was going to be available to the public. Apparently, it hits the market on 30 May 2008.

Namaste.

A few finds during some lunch-time surfing:

• 2008 Webby Award Nominees and Winners
• Yelp – Salt Lake City
• Passive-Aggressive Notes
• Refacing Government Tender
• Epicurious.com
• IM Iron Man – a review of the movie… as done over AIM.  (Potential spoilers.  You have been warned.)

/lunch

Namaste.

Tuesday – 06 May 2008
Okay, I didn’t wake up in my clothes again this morning, but it made for a good subject line. And, I did wake up on the couch. I apparently nodded off while watching TV last night. At some point, I must have turned off the TV… but didn’t muster the muscle power to get up off the couch. Until nearly 4:00 AM.

A few minutes ago, I was sitting here staring out the window and the thought “Marco…? POLO!” ran through my head. It was immediately followed by:

• Vasco…?
• Amerigo…?

Bonus points to anyone who can remember their last names… without having to look them up.

Stray Toasters

• I have Bit-O-Honey candies.
• What are some of your favorite sources for news:  TV?  Radio?  Internet?  Smoke signals?  I’m not generally given to watching news on TV; I find too much of the coverage to be “human interest” stories and not “news,” especially when looking at local news.  I tend to get most of my news from NPR, BBC News and various sites on the Internet.
• By way of BoingBoing TV: Sneak Attack and Magic Ink:

• The Tim Burton Batmobile Is for Sale
• Win Server 2k3.  Yay.
• Breastfeeding ‘helps to boost IQ’
• Mission: Impossible IV?
• Drivers fined for slow-drive on scenic bridge
• 

Namaste.

Monday – 05 May 2008
Cinco de Mayo.

Last night, after we moved some of SaraRules’ things and had dinner, we watched Night Watch and Cloverfield.  It’s been a while since I’ve seen Day Watch; I need to watch it again to get the full story.  Seeing Cloverfield on the small screen was good as it didn’t have the same overwhelming sense of “Blair Witch cam”-induced sensory overload that seeing it on the big screen had.  (No, sitting on the fourth row of the theatre had nothing to do with it…)  It was also good because of the special features.  There was one interview that mentioned something about the story of which neither of us was aware.  Knowing this item changes the dynamic of the movie a bit.

Meanwhile, back in northern Utah…

The commute wasn’t bad this morning.  The monkeys were pretty well-behaved.  This is not to say that there wasn’t action:

I had just crossed into Beaver County when I got passed by a red Mazda or Acura or Infinity.  The lady driving it looked like she was on a mission.  I was doing somewhere around 80 MPH and she cruised right on past me.  She didn’t exactly leave me in the dust, but she was moving at a good clip.  I decided to ghost her, lagging behind about seven to ten car lengths.  We drove through Beaver, no problem.  Just north of Beaver, she crested a hill as she cruised up behind a van and a truck.  Approaching the top of the hill, I decided to back off the gas a little.

Good thing, too.  As I hit the summit, there was a UHP Dodge Charger in the middle of a U-turn.  I backed off a little more; he completed his turn a few lengths behind me.  He cruised along, off my driver’s side rear quarter panel.  Then he sped up a bit.  Just after he passed me, he dropped the pedal and hit the lights.

Target: Red car.

He rolled up behind her.  She was apparently oblivious to this fact.  He must have stayed behind her for nearly a half-mile before she rubbed a couple of brain cells together, mustered up a clue and pulled over

Other than that, the drive was uneventful until I got to NEHPI Nephi – there was an overturned tractor-trailer just south of Exit 225.

Workout
Today’s workout focus was shoulders:

• Flys (Nautilus): 3 sets/15 reps – 95 lbs, 125 lbs, 95 lbs.
• Shoulder Press (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 40 lbs
• Upright Rows (barbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 50 lbs
• Lateral Raises (dumbbell): 3 sets/12 reps, 12 lbs
• Back Extensions: 2 sets/15 reps, using 5 lb. weights to do flys at the top of the extension

Post-workout weight: 170.4 lbs.

We tried a few shoulder presses with 50 lb. dumbbells.  They felt awkward and too heavy.  We also tried them on a couple of benches – The first one, a preacher curl bench, just felt “wrong;” the second was a flat bench, which provided no back support.

Stray Toasters

• Florida in t-minus three days and counting…
• The Evolution of Video Game Music
• Iron Man wound up making $101M (USD) over the weekend.  Somehow, I think that they’ll easily recover the costs of making/marketing the movie.  Call it a hunch.
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Woman without hands asked for fingerprints
• #000000 Power T-shirt



• The 50 Greatest Commercial Parodies of All-Time

/lunch

Namaste.

Wednesday – 30 April 2008
“That explains the Crisco and the jelly beans… but HOW does the feather duster come into play?!”

Tuesday: Coda
Chris came over around 7:00. We talked comics and other geekery. We headed out for a bit to eat. And then we came back and played ‘Clix.

Galactus versus a slew of X-Men.

The game started off a little slowly… but I did pretty well. Took out five of Chris’ team in fairly short order. Then the numbers started to wear me down. And they did. According to the scenario, they didn’t kill Galactus, they just made him think that other planets looked more appetizing.

We tried again.

Chris reminded me that I hadn’t been using a particular ability during the first game, so I tried to keep that in mind. The dice rolls weren’t nearly as favorable to me as they were in the first game, however. And, I neglected to deal with the characters whose abilities were negating a couple of my abilities.

But, as SaraRules put it: It was good practice for the next time I decide to use Galactus.

Things I learned from tonight’s gaming:

1. Multi-attack. Use it.
2. Determine which opponents have Outwit. Deal with them. Quickly.
3. Use Cosmic Engines. (We didn’t use them this game.)
4. Find errata on whether the Ultimate Nullifier is optional. (We didn’t use this either.)
5. Heralds. Get some. Use them. Galactus is powerful, but alone, he’s a target. A very big target.

All-in-all, it was fun. I look forward to using the figure again.

Now, it may be time for a little ice cream before hitting the rack.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 29 April 2008
Happy Hatching Day to :

…and to :

I woke up from an odd dream this morning and realized a couple of things:

• My corner of The Dreaming is comprised of unusual architecture: I know where I’m “supposed” to be (city or state), but the trappings of the location seldom match more than a small part of the its Waking World counterpart.
• The people who populate my corner of The Dreaming are comprised mostly of people I know… with smatterings of strangers I know only by user icon or an occasional picture.

One of this morning’s dreams is a prime example of that: I was jogging in Baltimore. I “know” that it was Baltimore because it was “supposed” to be Baltimore. (I am pretty sure that it’s a good thing that my career as a City Planner is limited to SimCity.) Along the way, I ran into … and a dog that was with her that (I think) was supposed to be Bella.

Strange.

With one notable exception, it was a good work day. The notable exception being the “customer service” (and I’m using that term in its most broad sense) monkey I had to deal with for a hardware return. His voice reminded me of Ira Glass, from This American Life…

…if Ira Glass talked about 4x faster
…and never let people get a word in edgewise.
…and was an insufferable know-it-all.

Suffice if to say that by the time the call was over, I was ready to reach through the phone and throttle someone.

Chris is heading over in a bit to play dolls. The character card for Galactus was printed on the rules sheet for the figure. So, rather than the usual 4″x2½” card, I have a 5″x11½” sheet of paper. Correction: “Had.” I scanned the card and made a few modifications:

from this to this

Much easier to put on the table for easy game-time reference, I might add. I even printed it on card stock (thanks to Ms. OnlyAly) so it doesn’t try to shrivel up and die if someone looks at it crosswise. We’ll see how well the game goes and if I can possibly snap my losing streak to Chris.

I should get back to straightening up and getting ready…

Namaste.

Monday – 28 April 2008
Indulge

Pronunciation: \in-ˈdəlj\
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): in·dulged; in·dulg·ing

Etymology: Latin indulgēre to be complaisant

Date: circa 1623

That’s exactly what I did this morning: Indulged myself with staying in bed. Forty-five whole extra minutes. Alarm? Yep, it was set. And it went off. A few times.

Didn’t matter.
Didn’t care.

This morning was about enjoying the last vestiges of the first full good night’s sleep that I’ve had in almost a week. And it was totally worth it. As an added bonus, I got to spend a little more time with SaraRules. Can’t beat that at twice the price, either. Sure, it meant a later start to the commute. And a later end to the work day, but like I said:

Didn’t matter.
Didn’t care.

Workout
Coming back to a workout after a week off is not fun. Today was no exception. We pretty much did (most of) last Monday’s routine:

• Bench Press (barbell): 3 sets/8 reps – 2.5 sets @225 lbs, half-set @ 185 lbs
• Curls (barbell): 3 sets/10 reps – 2 sets @ 70 lbs, 1 set @ 50 lbs
• Flys (Nautilus): 3 sets/15 reps, 95 lbs
• Curls (dumbbell, Hammer grip): 3 sets, 10 reps, 25 lbs
• Dips: 2 sets, 20 reps & 15 reps

Post-workout weight: 170.2 lbs.
(If nothing else, not having an appetite for four days helped get rid of a few pounds…)

Home. Everything seems to be in one piece. That’s a good sign.

Stray Toasters

• Thanks to an excellent suggestion from , The Covet List is now being given form as my Amazon Wish List.
• America’s Dirty Little Oil Secret: Plastic Bottles and Bags
• 
• Chris and I are playing ‘Clix tomorrow. I get to try out Galactus. I should probably bone up on the special rules for him before we play…
• Apple has upgraded the iMac.
• , can you explain why your team gave up all their draft picks until the fourth round?!
• Guilty: Jury Convicts Reiser of First-Degree Murder
• Wow… sounds like my desk:



• I’ve mentioned before, but you should also check out Brad Guigar’s other comics, Courting Disaster and Phables.
• Even though the content is often very similar, I think that I like Gizmodo a little better than Engadget.

And now, to see if I can figure out what sounds good for dinner…

Namaste.

Checking out the ‘tubes, I stumbled across this item.

(click the image for the article)

And I can’t say that I disagree.

Wednesday – 23 April 2008
It’s grey-ish with a good chance of rain today. But, considering that I heard the words “chance of snow” earlier in the week, I’ll gladly take rain.

I received a late-afternoon call from Bret. A bit of a surprise, but a very pleasant one. It’s a uncertain whether or not we’ll be seeing him next week, but we made tentative plans for October… if not sooner.

Last night’s Scion game was… abbreviated, but we managed to get the new storyline moving. Globe-trotting. Saving the world. All in a day’s work. I also took dessert to the game.

Not pie…
Not s’mores brownies…

S’mores Brownie Pie

Oh, no he didn’t!
Did he just say…?
He couldn’t have!

Oh, but I did….

That’s right, kids: The next step in dessert evolution.
And it was good.
Double-plus good.
Squared.

Thanks to for sending me this:

(Click image to see the entire photo set)

Songs to get the day started:

• ABC – The Jackson Five
• Superstition – Stevie Wonder
• Boom! Shake the Room – The Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff

I believe that I will introduce a few coworkers to Munchkin today.

And with that…

Namaste.