Random Access

Tuesday – 13 November 2007
So far, it’s been a decent day. It started with me being lazy and sleeping in a bit, but other than that… I can’t complain. Not that I’m really complaining about sleeping in. Short commute to the north office to drop off a few things and check on a couple of projects and then down to the south office, where it’s been pretty quiet. Selah.

Today’s workout was good, even though we got “a bit” of a late start. I was able to pull off two reps of 300 pounds. (It’s amazing what you can do when you don’t tire out your triceps right out of the gate.) The rest of the workout went well and served to remind me that I need to put a little more attention into curls – my biceps feel a bit weak/underdeveloped.

• Bench Press: 300 lbs / 2 reps
• Bench Press: 225 lbs / 3 sets, 8 reps
• Standing Curls (dumbbell, hammer grip): 25 lbs / 3 sets, 10 reps
• Cable Fly (Nautilus): 125 lbs / 1 set, 10 reps; 95 lbs / 2 sets, 10 reps
• Reclined Curls (dumbbell): 15 lbs / 1 set, 10 reps; 20 lbs / 2 sets, 10 reps
• Dips: 2 sets / 20 reps

Tonight is game night. We’re putting the D&D game on hiatus and switching to a new game: Scion. It looks interesting. I’m toying with a couple of ideas for characters, including a build to see if I can do a variation on Hand of Nefer-Tem. Just because I’m a geek like that. Of course, my inner anarchist thinks that it would be amusing to make a Cthulhu-based character, too. Go figure.

Stray Toasters

• I have no idea what I want to do for dinner. I want sushi… or spaghetti… or a sandwich combo from Jitterbug. Decisions, decisions…
• This weekend, Typing of the Dead shall be played!
• By way of Coworkers MikeP and DaveW: Microsoft iPod
• By way of Eric: Homestar Runner 2007 Costumes
• By way of Tyranist: Marvel launches digital archive
• Angular momentum.
• When I move, you move… (Just like that?)
  When I move, you move… (Just like that?)
  When I move, you move… (Just like that?)
  Hell, yeah… Hey, DJ, bring that back!
• Stormwinds – Flash-based Steampunk Defense Game

/lunch

And with that… Namaste.

Friday – 09 November 2007
Going to bed at 3:30 isn’t terribly unusual for me.
Getting up at 6:40… and staying awake, that’s a little more rare.

But, that’s how the day started. When I got up and started moving, I had the “Get your sexy on….” line from Sexy Back running through my head on what seemed like an endless loop. It was almost as annoying as when I had the Pina Colada Song stuck in my head. Almost. Fortunately, it didn’t last very long. Up, ready, out.

Work has been good. Answered a few questions. Put out a few small fires. All-in-all, not a bad way to wind up the week.

Today’s workout was decent, as well. I tried doing a rep or two at 300 pounds today, despite the fact that I had done sets of dips just before attempting my bench press. My triceps were shot; I couldn’t get my upper arms much past parallel to the ground. Oh, well… another day. The rest of the workout was good, though:

• Leg Raises: 3 sets / 20 reps
• Dip: 3 sets / 20 reps
• Bench Press: 3 sets – 1 set: 225 lbs / 5 reps and 155 lbs / 8 reps; 2 sets / 12 reps, 155 lbs.
• Dumbbell Pull-overs: 3 sets / 15 reps, 45 lbs.
• Row: 3 sets / 12 reps, 120 lbs.

Tyranist brought in Infernal Contraption. While looking at it, I was reminded of the online CCG, Chron-X… which I hadn’t thought of in many, many moons. I apparently still have the old version of the game on ‘Nine.

Stray Toasters

• I have a slice of Turtle Cheesecake.
• In an after-story item from yesterday’s Human of the Day section: I now have the name of the “unknown Apple Store worker!” It is Lisa. I am drafting a thank you/commendation letter to the store for the associates’ help in what turned out to be a precarious matter; it would not do to simply refer to her as “unknown Apple Store worker” in the letter.
• One of the Coworker Marks told me about Steamtown.
• Mark also asked if I knew the origin of “The Real McCoy.” I didn’t. He, making a tie-in to Steamtown, pointed me in the direction of Elijah McCoy.
• Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials
• For the first time in a while, I had the opportunity to chat with lj user=”janietrain”. Along the way, we had the following exchange:
  

  [11:25] : So, I demand info.
  [11:25] : heh
  [11:25] : Who is SaraRules?
  [11:25] : Is this a new chick of interest?
  [11:25] : “Lord Praetor, on my ship, you don’t demand. You ask.”
  [11:26] : hahaha
  [11:26] : Ahh, dorky and evasive.

  I could remember where I got the “Lord Praetor” line – an issue of Uncanny X-Men – but I couldn’t recall the specific issue, nor the exact quote. A short search later, I found it: Uncanny X-Men #167:

  Cyclops and Corsair, having recently reunited for the first time in nearly 20 years, are having a talk… which is soon interrupted.
  Raza: Corsair! *arrives on the observation deck on a hoversled with Hepzibah and a member of the Imperial Guard*
  Corsair: So much for tender moments. What’s up, Raza?
  Raza: We have a guest, Christopher.
  Cyclops: That’s Gladiator, head of Lilandra’s Imperial Guard! What’s he doing here?
  Corsair: *to Cyclops* Good question, considering he swore never to walk these decks until he’d seen the Starjammers dead or enslaved. He isn’t a man to lightly break an oath.
  *calling down to Gladiator* You’re a long way from home. Is this a social call, or business?
  Gladiator: Pirate, I demand to see the Majestrix — Empress Lilandra — at once!
  Corsair: On my ship, Lord Praetor, you do not “demand” of me… you ask.
  Raza: Thou hast been ill-mannered, cousin.
  Gladiator: Have a care, renegade.
  Hepzibah: We like you, too, Imperial. Care to argue point?
  Gladiator: Another time, Lady Hepzibah, with pleasure. Corsair, I crave an audience with my empress.

• Is Apple Cashing in on iPod’s Missing Feature?
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Toilet sign in Korea warns to be on the lookout for sickos

Gone, baby… gone.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 06 November 2007
Happy Birthday, SaraRules:

Wait… I already called. Okay, disregard that last one then. Seriously, though, I hope that you have a wonderful birthday!

So far, the day has been good. And there is frozen mocha goodness to thin the blood in my caffeinestream.

There’s no game tonight, so I’ll have to find other ways to entertain myself; I’m fairly sure that I can come up with something.

Stray Toasters

• I have rediscovered the joy that is Indexed.
• SupercaliMACiliciousexpialidocious.
• 
• By way of and Gizmodo – Misnomers: Sony TWA/T Camera Case Is Unfortunately Named
• …and, Gadget Art: Pierre Matter’s Steampunk Sculptures Belong in Batman’s Art Gallery
• Comet surprise makes it visible to the naked eye
• By way of Jason: Flight of the Conchords – The Humans are Dead
• …which remined me of Jonathan Coulton’s Chiron Beta Prime and The Future Soon
• 
• The above picture reminded me of something: There’s an LDS Primary song called, Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam… which, for the past few weeks, has been getting reparsed in my head as Cthulhu Wants Me for an Appetizer

/lunch

Namaste.

Monday: Coda
After work, it was a quick stop at home to change clothes and then back out the door and on the way to Fiddler’s Elbow for tonight’s game: Baltimore at Pittsburgh.

I shouldn’t have been in such a rush.

The Ravens performed horribly. Or, should I say: They didn’t perform. At all.

I saw people in jerseys who were supposed to be the Ravens, but I think that they just grabbed some random strangers in the parking lot. I haven’t seen a game that painful in a long while. It was so bad that my uncle, a Steelers fan, called me before halftime to apologize. Yeah, it was that bad. I’m surprised – and rather grateful – that the score was “only” 7 – 38. It could have been worse: This could have been a Browns-Ravens game. (That’s coming up in two weeks.)

On the plus side, I had the good company of , , and SaraRules’ father to watch the game – and drink beer – with.

Stray Toasters

• I still have a plethora of candy left over from Hallowe’en. Good thing I got candy that I like.
• NY Jedi School Trains Lightsaber Enthusiasts (To Be Bigger Geeks)
• For the Mac users out there: What are some of your favorite applications?
• [message redacted]
• Giant Donkey Kong Game

Namaste.

Today’s Letter of the Day is: F

F can be found in a number of places today, such as:

• Fall (the season, not the gravity-induced acceleration towards the ground),
• French press (as in coffee),
• Full-body hug,
• Football, and
• Frank Sinatra (as in the current musical selection and/or the song by Cake)

Sunday – 04 November 2007
Sleeping in is even better with Daylight Saving Time. That whole “Fall back…” thing. It kicks grass. I woke up this morning thinking that I had fifteen minutes until the first round of NFL games. Wrong. I had an hour-and-fifteen minutes. So, that time was spent reading the two most recent issues of GQ, with a cup of coffee, while SaraRules read the latest Vogue. After checking NFL.com, I realized that there weren’t any games in the early set that I was really jazzed about watchng, so I was able to enjoy my reading time.

Last night, we went to see American Gangster. The movie tells the story of 1960s/1970s Harlem drug dealer Frank Lucas and New Jersey police office Richie Roberts, the man who brought him down. Wow. It was a very well-done piece of cinema. As usual, Denzel Washington did an excellent job, as did Russell Crowe. In fact, this movie did many great things to wash the lingering memories of Virtuosity out of my mind – the last picture in which I can recall both Washington and Crowe starring. I give this movie an enthusiastic thumbs-up with an okay.

Stray Toasters

• I played Backgammon for the first time in probably… ten years… last night. I lost fabulously.
• By way of : Shatner woo remix
• : Glad to see that you enjoyed Across the Universe. (Told ya so!)
• 
• Wal-Mart’s Terrible Nintendo Wii Knock-Offs
• By way of Slashdot: Elephants on acid – the 10 wackiest experiments of all time

*voop*

Namaste.

Saturday – 03 November 2007
So far, it’s been, to quote Mr. Rogers, “…a beautiful day in the neighborhood.”

As with any good Saturday, it started with sleeping in. This was followed by breakfast and coffee (and college football) and then cartoons (Legion and The Batman, natch). After observing the necessary hygiene rituals, SaraRules and I headed out to check out the shops on Main Street. Highlights included a couple of bookstores (picked up a new-to-me Spenser book!), the kite shop and the sporting goods store. The latter store amused me because I noticed that the guy working the desk was playing poker on PokerStars; he seemed a little surprised when I mentioned it. Back home for lunch (and more college football) and some other random TV watchin’.

Tonight, we – along with a couple of the roommates and their S.O.s – are going to see American Gangster. We had considered making it a double-bill with Across the Universe, but the roomies’ schedules wouldn’t work with it. Oh, well.

Stray Toasters

• I think that I have found the perfect item for use in this year’s Christmas card. Perfect, I say!
• Duane “Dog” Chapman has had his show placed on indefinite hiatus, after a conversation in which he used racial epithets in trying to convince his son to dump his girlfriend was brought to light. But, he apologized. I would like to think that he apologized because he was sorry for what he said… rather than simply because he got caught.
• Whose Kingdome Come? Geoff Johns Talks JSA
• “What’s a Nubian…?”
• BBtv: American Furry – Life, Liberty and the Fursuit of Happiness
• 
• 8-bit retro game sound synthesizer
• I have been wanting to play some good, old school fashioned Lode Runner, lately.
• Impossible Mission, too.
• Steampunk Pac-Man
• From Baltimore’s City Paper: Hallowe’en Masks VIII… especially notable/amusing – the “Play Caller of Cthulhu” mask.
• Here there be zombies!
• For those of you who watch NFL on Fox, you’re familiar with “the Touchdown Robot.”  Well… guess who’s getting his (its ?) own action figure?
• Hot chocolate.  Boo-yah!

Namaste.

Thursday – 01 November 2007
Good All Saints Day to everyone.

When I got in from work, I started reading some of the four-color shwag I had picked up before lunch. Among the things I started was the latest issue of Action Comics… featuring the Legion. I was so stoked about reading it that I was a little late getting to last night’s gaming session. I had to make a concerted effort to stop reading it after only a few pages. (Yep… that was pretty much the last nail in the coffin, confirming beyond any/all doubt that the Legion – in all of its incarnations – is my “warm, happy place” in comicdom.)

Last night, we wound up not playing Call of Cthulhu. Sort of. We played Arkham Horror, which is more or less a boardgame version of the RPG. More specifically, we played with The King in Yellow supplement – as weird as the original game is, this addition adds another couple levels to the weird-shit-o-meter.

Today has been relatively uneventful. I had to stop in the north office before coming down to the South Forty. Things here have been quiet. I’ve been able to answer a few questions from the field and get some reading done. Today’s workout was basically a repeat of Tuesdays, with a couple of changes:

• Bench press: 185 lbs, 3 sets / 10 reps (third set was 8 @ 185, 3 @ 155)
• We added shoulder presses (20 lbs, 3 sets / 15 reps) before back raises.
• Unlike Tuesday, I managed to do all three sets of back raises.

And stuff.

Stray Toasters

• I have Twix.
• Twenty-six and change.
• Wired‘s various looks at Rock Band
• By way of Broken Frontier: Whoreoween Isn’t Just for Girls Anymore
• Pragmatism. Go figure.

Wow. Nice to completely space off the fact that this was open for a while… considering that I had planned to post this right after lunch. Huh. I should probably do that now.

Namaste.

After lunch, I went on field trip to try and find a less-dry (and slightly more up-to-date) book to cover one of the things I studying. I went to the Barnes & Noble in Sugar House. It was nearby. It was a good-sized location. What could be better? How about the fact that I probably have a larger selection of technical books in my personal library than this store did? Okay, that’s a gross overstatement, but I was horribly disappointed at the store’s selection. I considered trying another location, but changed my mind and just decided to head back to the office.

As I’m in line, waiting to get out of the parking lot, a white Ford Expedition rolls past me, trying to cut me off. So, I moved up – cutting it off – and looked at the driver with a “What in the Nine Hells do you think you’re doing?!” look on my face. The driver rolled down the passenger window.

Have you ever had one of those moments where, after the fact, you wished that you had just let the stupid things that people do just… go… and move on with your life? This was one of mine.

The driver and passenger looked like they had been working on getting three or more sheets into the wind. She gave me a story about how she was “…so out of gas, so I was just going to cut you off so I can get to a gas station.” I waved her on ahead. I didn’t want any of the backwash of stupidity to splash over on me. *gah* With monkeys like these, who needs pets? And, might I add: The nearest gas station was about 300 yards up the hill. Yeah, waiting that extra seven seconds was going to make her run out of gas. *sigh*

Stray Toasters

• I had sushi for lunch.
• Boldly go where no corpse has gone before: Star Trek Coffin Warps Your Corpse to the Final Nerd Frontier
• Gawker Shirt-of-the-Day
• Top 10 Sexiest Hallowe’en Costumes of 2007
• just tried to decapitate me.
• 
• Western Digital rolls out 320GB 2½” Scorpio hard drive

Namaste.

Tuesday – 30 October 2007
After finally going to bed last night, I figured that sleep would come easy and I would almost immediately be welcomed into the gates of The Dreaming.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I think that I spent more time tossing and turning that I did sleeping. Therefore, when the alarm went off this morning, I turned it off and resolved to ignore the fact that it had ever sounded. When I finally felt rested enough to get up, I did and started the day.

Fortunately, the day has been pretty good… and pretty much monkey-free. Eric suggested a change to the workout:

• Dips, leg raises and pull-ups, alternating.
  • Dips: 3 sets / 20 reps
  • Leg Raises: 3 sets / 20 reps
  • Pull-ups: 2 sets, unassisted; one set – 6 (unassisted) and 5 (assisted, 90 pounds)
• Bench press: 155 lbs / 2 sets, 12 reps; 155 lbs, 9 reps; 135 pounds, 4 reps
• Rows: 120 pounds, 3 sets / 12 reps
• Lower back raises: 2 sets, 10 reps – reverse fly at the top, 5 pound weights in each hand

By starting the dips and pull-ups, our arms got a good pre-bench press workout… which is why our bench weight was so low. And, by the time we got to the third set, getting through half of the set felt like a major accomplishment.
Stray Toasters

• I have finally opened my first box of Butterscotch Krimpets. They make a tasty breakfast, with coffee.
• Golden introduced me to Top
  
  Gear today. Interesting. And quite fun.
• LEGO Key Rack. Why do I not have one of these?!
• For SaraRules, … and others, by way of Deacon Derek:

  

• 25 items to build an Apple Store
• Last night, I found a link to this Masters of the Universe video. (17 mb file, .mov format)
  Today, I found this webcomic.
• For the golfing and Star Trek geek on your Christmas list: Star Trek Enterprise Putter Destroys Romulan Birdies of Prey
• Recursive Queries. Iterative Queries. Inverse Queries. *ack-thbbpt*
• How things would be different on Earth without the Moon

Where does the time go when you’re reading a tech book?

Namaste.

Monday: Coda
It’s been a relatively quiet post-work day. And that isn’t a bad thing. At all.

After work, I came home and decided to spend a little time in Paragon City. I caught one of my Super Group-mates online, so I asked her about the Hallowe’en event – specifically, where were places that I could Trick or Treat. She (and one of our coalition members) hooked me up with the zones where I could knock on doors and hopefully not die.

So, I headed to one of the zones…

…knocked on a door…

…and received a Trick: A Fir Bolg, a Witch and a Zombie walked into a bar attacked me. Yay. I fought them and won. So, I tried again. Another Trick: A Witch and a Sorceress. Whoop-de-damn-doo. I beat them… but not before they landed a few solid hits on me.

About this time, I remembered a couple of real world things that I needed to take care of, so I logged out and handled them. When I came back home, I decided that “food” came under the heading of “good thing,” so I fixed something to eat.

And then I headed back to Paragon City. C’mon… it’s the Hallowe’en Event! And I haven’t really played much in the past few weeks. No sooner than I logged in and said “Aloha” to my coalition, I was invited to join a team. I did. We kicked some Council and Devouring Earth… um… well… robots don’t really have butts – with the possible exception of Bender – and I don’t want to think about the DevEarth having recta, either. So, suffice if to say: We whooped ’em. Soundly. After the team broke up, I did a little more Trick or Treating. This time, for my efforts, I scored a couple of temporary powers: Hallowe’en costumes. I’ll get a couple of pics up in the next few days.

Stray Toasters

• I almost mistyped that as “Stray Tiasters,” which (for some reason) made me think “Stray Tiamats.” And absolutely no good would come from that.
• Speaking of Stray Tiamats (but hoping not to see one), morrownight is Game Night: D&D.
• And, Wednesday night is Hallowe’en… which means that will be running his annual Hallowe’en Horror Game. This year, it’s Call of Cthulhu. And I get to dust off a character who hasn’t seen the light of day in some time… a character that I had a lot of fun playing.
• This one’s for SaraRules, Tyranist and Nox: From Wizard – The 21 Greatest Horror Movies of the 21st Century. Examine and discuss.
• “Thanks!” to and for their helpful hints in getting acclimated to the Mac way of thinking.
• This post is being written on Defiant, now that I seem to have it properly trained on the network.
• I need to remember that there is NO mouse attached to Defiant. Just the touchpad. *sigh* I keep reaching for ‘Nine‘s mouse when I try to move the cursor across the screen.
• I just described Defiant to Code Monkey BB as “Black as midnight, sweet as sin.” He got a chuckle out of it… as did I.
• Style is like a second cousin to Class…
• UK Minister detained at Dulles Airport
• While trying to see if someone had posted a copy of Joe Cocker’s performance of Come Together, from Across the Universe, I found this video of the cast singing Hey Jude in Central Park. It’s a little rough, but pretty cool… and you can see that they – and the crowd – were having fun.
• Steampunk Time Machine
• One of the Coworker Daves – I swear, I’m going to have to number them to keep “who’s who” straight – emailed a link to today’s post from The Best Page in the Universe to a few of us in the office. I was chatting with both of them at the time and mentioned to Maddox that the link was going around the office… and to Dave that Maddox is a friend of mine; Dave seemed surprised by that, even though he knows about my superpower of knowing just about everyone. On the plus side, this encounter reminded me that I hadn’t added Maddox’ page to Random Access’ blogroll – an oversight that was quickly corrected.
• “party representative submission position”
• Celebrate Halloween with Halo, Lord of the Rings Online
• From Wired.com’s How To Wiki: Shred Like a God in Guitar Hero 3

.eof

Monday – 29 October 2007
A new week begins.

Getting up and on the way wasn’t so bad this morning. I chatted with for a few minutes before hitting the street. It seems as though there was a 5.0 earthquake in Kathmandu this morning. Oddness. And here are some interesting stats about Nepal.

Stray Toasters –

• Defiant is now running Leopard (Mac OS X – 10.5). New hotness for the new hotness.
• By way of SaraRules: ‘Fall Trio’ at Bountiful gallery; Mössel’s magic realism at SUU
• 
• The 13 Scariest Things in IT in 2007
• My Green Lantern ‘Clix should arrive soon. Very soon.
• Preparing for Diwali
• 
• Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi…
• I feel yet another pilgrimage to the Garden of Sweden coming on.
• 
• Man place on sex offender register for sex with bike
• Driver denies threatening officer

Quote of the Day
Land called Saturday to share this gem, from a consultant (obviously not from Utah) with whom he was working. She had apparently asked about getting some coffee and, when met with odd/curious looks, spouted off this beauty:

Oh, that’s right… you don’t drink coffee. Something to do with the purity of your temple or some shit like that.

Yay for ignorant and insensitive monkeys!

Namaste.

Wednesday – 24 October 2007
Two down, one in the chamber and one to go.

Last night, I met , , and Pat for dinner at Jitterbug before heading to non-Game Night. I think that I am getting addicted to the Tropical Smoothies there – I had two last night… and could have easily gone for another.

Chris wasn’t running on all cylinders last night, so there was no zombie killin’. *sigh* Oh, well… there’s always next time. Instead, we spent a couple of hours talking comics and related geekery and then played a bit of Justice League Heroes. It was a good way to spend the evening.

I got home and decided to chill on the couch with the October issue of GQ. “The best-laid plans of mice and men,” as the saying goes. I wound up falling asleep while reading the Colin Powell interview. Next stop: 3:30 AM. Right. Bed. Bed good. I slept pretty well. I slept so well that, at one point, I managed to wake up to move (i.e.: “toss off the bed”) a pillow and wound up taking out a cup of water on the nightstand. *grblsnrkx* Way to go, Robzilla.

The day, so far, has been good. We’re having a meeting today, for which we’re being required to dress “business casual” (no jeans). No problem. I even broke out one of my favorite sweaters – It’s similar to this one, but with buttons rather than a zipper.

Stray Toasters

• I had Linus and Lucy, the theme from Peanuts, running through my head a little while ago. I mentioned it to SaraRules. She countered with this article. I volleyed back with this one.
• From KUER’s RadioWest: Mothers Who Know
  

  SALT LAKE CITY, UT (2007-10-22) Earlier this month at the LDS Church’s General Conference, the head of the Relief Society Julie B. Beck praised the power in motherhood. She encouraged women not to postpone having children, and equated nurturing with homemaking. Her words re-ignited a controversy about the role of Mormon women, and within hours, LDS blogs were inundated with responses. Tuesday on RadioWest, Doug talks to LDS women about Beck’s remarks and what those say about women’s position in the LDS Church and culture.

• By way of Wired: When Geeky Goes Bad – Tackiest PC Mods
• Alienware announces Alien Exchange program
• Merry Christmas from Chiron Beta Prime,
  where we’re working in a mine for our robot overlords.
  Did I say overlords? I meant protectors.
• Free Cake.
• The Brothers Brick – LEGO Blog

Namaste.

To borrow a line from Dave Brubeck and/or Al Jarreau, I’m taking five; I’ve had it up to about “here” with TCP/IP for a bit.

Eric wasn’t in the office today and Karl punked out on us, but Jake and I went to pick up and put down heavy things:

• Bench press: 225 pounds / 3 sets, 8 reps each
• Pull-ups: 2 sets of 10 (unassisted); 1 set of five (unassisted) and 6 assisted (90 lbs)
• Rows: 120 lbs /3 sets of 12 reps/rows
• Cable fly: 110 pounds / 1 set, 10 reps; 95 pounds / 2 sets, 10 reps – all sets with a 10-second hold on the tenth rep.
• Curls: 30 lbs (dumbbells) / 3 sets, 10 reps
• Decline dumbbell press: 40 pounds / 3 sets, 15 reps

It was a good – and somewhat tiring – workout.

Stray Toasters

• Did you know that 90% of the total US pumpkin production is within 90 miles of Peoria, IL? I didn’t either.
• By way of : Dr. Frankenstein to Head Medical Group
• I had a fun conversation with about Batgirl and the DCAU the other night, including how the art for the animated Batman series changed when it went from Fox Kids to Kids’ WB.
• Guiding Lines: Women in Comics
• A tip of the hat and a wave of the cane to for pointing out the LEGO Pathfinder Space Ship
• More to Mac sales than a halo
• Smurfs. *heh*
• Also from Gizmodo: Unintentional LEGO Goatse
• Officer Surrenders After Road-Rage Shooting
• The pictures that I hung in the dining room have steam locomotives in them. Somehow, thinking about them lead to the question: Do steam locomotives count as steampunk technology, even if only in the broadest sense?
• Glamguns.com – featuring Hello Kitty AK47, Care Bear Body Armor and the My Little Pony M4A1 Carbine
• I’m craving sushi.
• Blog of comic panels depicting groin punches

Okay. That was a good breather. Back to it.

Friday – 19 October 2007
And so the week winds down.

Last night, I had dinner with lj user=”khayla”. Sushi. Tsunami. But, they were out of Ika. (KHAAAAAAAAN!) Oh, well, another time, perhaps. After that, I went to visit Kate and Perry. Then, a couple of errands and then home to try and make a little sense of the chaos before Ms. SaraRules got in.

This morning, I turned off the alarm… and turned off consciousness for an extra hour and some change. As I drifted in and out of sleep for the next little while, I phased in and out of The Dreaming. During my last excursion, I dreamed that I was playing basketball – I don’t remember with whom, though. Whomever the other guard was, we were approaching the half-court line when he lost control of the ball. I dove and stretched out for the ball…

…instead, I wound up nearly knocking my lamp off the nightstand. Fortunately, I found, I didn’t dive off the bed.

That was my cue to actually get out of bed and start the day.

Stray Toasters

• I chatted with Kris for a bit yesterday. It was a pleasant surprise.
• I enjoy Instructables. I’ve found many interesting and fun things on there. However, I think that this item has to be one of the most creative articles on there.
• Whatis.com Word of the Day: Unconference
• I Got Six
• Hmm… I found a non-Rockapella version of Zombie Jamboree on YouTube, done by The Kingston Trio.
• Zombie wedding cake topper
• SaraRules and I are making a sojourn to the Garden of Sweden this afternoon.  *genuflect*
• Darth Vader Rules Hot-Air Balloon Event
• “Did I say ‘overlords?’  I meant ‘protectors.'”
• God’s Mechanics: Vatican astronomer reconciles religion and science
• Prophet 60091…

Namaste.