Random Access

Wednesday – 22 August 2007
It’s not Tuesday.
This isn’t Belgium.
But I am in Amurric’n Fark today. Unexpected trip to the south forty, but work is work. So, I can’t complain.

Last night’s game went… well. Translation: “We didn’t get our asses handed to us. Much.” Sure, we took some damage. But the Luck Lords of Ventura smiled upon us (along with a bit of goodwill from lj user=”nox_aeternus”) and we survived. Thus, our characters live to adventure another day.

Stray Toasters

• I need to make or find a Master Chief icon.
• Tyranist brought in his copy of Black Seas of Infinity, a collection of H.P. Lovecraft stories. So much for catching up on other reading…
• “I’m sorry… I don’t speak Blonde.”
• From the “How NOT to Use The Internets” file: An IM Infatuation Turned to Romance, Then the Truth Came Out
• One day I feel I’m on top of the world
  And the next it’s falling in on me
  I can get back on
  I can get back on
  One day I feel I’m ahead of the wheel
  And the next it’s rolling over me
  I can get back on
  I can get back on
• sent me a link to this; I shall have to print a copy of it and put it on my cubicle wall.
  
• Most Dangerous Object in the Office This Month: $2 Pocket Shots
• From the “Almost Too Absurd to Be True” file: China to Tibetan Buddhist monks: no reincarnating without our ok
• Cheesecake from The Fresh Market (GSO) would be very good right now.
• Halo 3: How Microsoft Labs Invented a New Science of Play
• Sweet Mary, mother of Jesus… A friend has a couple of kids who will be going to this school. Brand-spankin’ new school. State of the art. Green. Check out the information brochure (.pdf) on it.
• NMKY (Finnish cover of YMCA)

Quote of the Day

: Wow. You could teach the Japanese something about polite rudeness.
Me: *bow* I’m going to take that as something of a compliment.
: You should.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 21 August 2007
Waking up this morning was something of a chore. And one that I didn’t really want to do. But, who really enjoys chores? But, I mustered up some go-get-’em and did it anyway.

I don’t know what happened, but about 2/3 of the way through the commute, it seems as though a couple of road monkeys decided to have a meeting. Physics was involved. And I’m sure that there was a measure of deceleration trauma involved as well. There had to be…

…because that’s the only rational explanation that I can devise for the two-mile backup on I-15. Rather than try to navigate an alternate route, I rolled down the windows, fired up the iPod and crept down the road.

The rest of the day went well, comparatively. Including the lunch workout. I’m getting more comfortable with my sets of 205; I was able to do all three sets without having to break up the third set or having to decrease the weight.

On the way home, there was another accident on I-15.  Northbound.  Around 80th South.  There was a notification of the accident around the time that I crossed the county line, which was around… 150th South.  Traffic stopped around 120th South.  And it took about :20 minutes to go five miles.  Good thing I had the iPod.  Again.

Tonight is D&D Night.   The highlight of the game: We had to figure out how to get into the lower levels of a fortified pyramid.   Which was a bit of a problem since the hunger god’s follower’s had set spiked walls of doom at the bottom of the “chimney” that we were planning to use as an entrance.

Our solution was to pour pitch and Greek fire into the hole… and send a dragon down to light it on fire.

…and hilarity ensued.

City of Heroes/Villains: View from the Aerie
Last night, for the first time in a while, I took Corvus Nox to Paragon City. I was invited to join a team shortly after logging on. Unfortunately, they grabbed me because I am a Defender. Defenders are most often the class of healers. I’m more of a…. field medic. At best. And, I warned them of this right off the bat. The invitation stood. But, they apparently didn’t take me seriously. For which a few of us died. A few times. But, we did manage to make it through that mission. And, eventually, we found another healer… with roughly the same Health set as mine, but working in tandem seemed to work well for us. And there were a lot fewer deaths.

By the end of the evening, I had tacked two-and-a-half levels on to Nox.

Stray Toasters
No Toasters, especially since I:

• …have been working on this post (thank God for “Save” and “continue editing”) for hours.
• …am in the middle of figuring out what to do now that our characters have made it into the hunger god’s pyramid… and we don’t want to die.

Namaste.

Monday – 20 August 2007
A new work week begins.

So far, the day’s been nominally busy, but not overly so.

Football Update
The Ravens played last night. Pre-season game. I went to Fiddler’s Elbow to watch the game… and to enjoy Guinness by the pint. Draft. Mmm. The Ravens wore their “Pitch Black” uniforms, but the intimidation wasn’t quite enough to help pull off a win. But it was a decent game.

• Steve McNair looked good for the time that he was in.
• Kyle Boller looked MUCH better than he has in the past few seasons – not jittery or unstable, fairly confident in his choices.
• Drew Olson, one of the candidates for the 3rd QB spot was…. there. I didn’t really see anything that made him stand out.
• Troy Smith, however, looked good. He got sacked on his first snap – the offensive line fell apart in front of him – but the rest of his game was solid. Not bad for the 2006 Heismann Trophy winner from *ahem* “THE Ohio State University.” , what can you tell me about Mr. Smith’s college years?
• The defense looked decent, but there were a few problems. They should be able to suss out the issues and get things to gel by the time the regular season rolls around, though.
• NY suffered four (4) pretty big casualties of war during the game, including the loss of WR Mike Jennings for the rest of the season.
• NY backup QB Jared Lorenzen…. You just don’t think of someone his size as a QB. But, he has skill and moves better than you’d think he expect. AND he has an arm. Well, it’s more of a gun, but you get the idea.

Stray Toasters

• Brownies. I am craving brownies. I may just have to bake some this week.
• “Excuse me… who are you?”
• Everyone knows it’s Windy!
• Scotty doesn’t know… but Jason is figuring it out.
• US property tycoon Helmsley dies
• 
• Radioactive, by The Firm
• Dwim came by a little while ago to tell me that he was taking Acolyte Derek somewhere. In and of itself, that’s pretty mundane. But, he told it in MMORPG terms. That made it much more amusing. And geeky. And stuff.
• If Victor Von Doom Developed a SuperSoaker…
• Joker. Lurch. Riker.
• Anotherloverholeinyohead (video)

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Um… I mean.. uh…

Namaste.

Thursday – 16 August 2007
Another day of bliss in Happy Valley.

Today’s big news: I tried a new max weight on bench press – 275 pounds.

I managed to do two reps at that weight. The first one was slow, but steady… the second one was wobbly. I tried 300 pounds. The operative word in that sentence is “tried.” The bar just hovered (BARELY) a couple of inches above my chest. I’ll get there someday.

But, I got the 275.
1.71 times my body weight.
And that is chock full of awesomeness.

That even makes up for the plethora of road monkeys that I had to deal with this morning.

The Best: Hungry Like the Wolf
Duran Duran (video) vs. Bruce Campbell (video)

Bruce Campbell. No contest.

The Scales of Justice
Last night found the Hand of Nefer-Tem in Paragon City, once again. I teamed up with members of my supergroup… kind of. Two of them were running characters who had “aged out” of the primary group and have since been moved to the senior group – kind of like graduating from the Teen Titans to the Justice League… or from the New Mutants to the X-Men. We were up against The Carnival of Shadows. There was much dying and resurrecting and/or hospital-going. But the experience, even despite the XP debt, was good; I’m roughly 60% of the way through Security Level 32.

Stray Toasters

• sent me a link to this. *blink blink* How she found it, I don’t know. WHY she found it, I do not know. What possessed someone to try this in the first place…? Let’s go for the hat trick: I don’t know that, either.
• TV’s Uhura joining Heroes
• Dolores O’Riodan: Life After The Cranberries
• 
• US schools ask 14-year-olds to declare a major
• Turtle cheesecake.
• Action Figure Modders
• From NPR: It’s Easy to Miss the Memo on Recalled Products
• SR-71. No, not this one (this time)… this one.
  

Namaste.

Stray Toasters

• The car looks great. was right about this place: They do good work. I dropped it off at 9:30 and it was done around 3:00. When I went to pick it up, Brian – the guy who worked on it – came out to say that he was “done,” but asked if I could possibly wait a bit because he wanted to try and remove some residue. I told him that was fine… and ten minutes later, I was on my way.
• We went on an away mission before lunch today.
  And I found a new toy/hobby shop.
  All in one stop.
• I talked with for a few minutes this afternoon. She seems well. Busy, but well.
• Too bad dark languages rarely survive.
• Steampunk monocycle on eBay
• And out of nowhere comes a craving for sushi.
• Covet!
• I’ve got the acumen of a seasoned pro
  I’ve got the legacy of a billion souls
• Wearing your anatomy on your skin: The Anatomy Tattoo Gallery
• 
  I’ve made no bones about how much I enjoy the Evil Inc. webcomic. I’ve suggested that many of you – okay… all of you – read it, too. A year-long story arc just wrapped and Brad Guigar, the webcomic’s is about to give new readers a jump-in point. From his blog:

  In a story arc that started the day Evil Atom was forced out of the company he single-handedly created, the new CEO of Evil Inc — a superHERO — has had to grapple with making the company profitable.
  
  Failure would cause the demise of the Legion of Justice — which invested heavily in Evil Inc.But success would, of course, mean aiding and abetting super-criminals.

  Last week ended with a mysterious explosion and this week began with an equally mysterious memorial service. The next nine days are not to be missed.

  If you’re not a regular reader of “Evil Inc,” there’s no better time to start. Jump in here — and buckle your seat belts.

• Atomic Madhouse (t-shirts)

Namaste.

Wednesday – 15 August 2007
Two down, three to go.

Last night, I met the group (formerly ?) known as Black & Tan for coffee with Sara, who’s in town for a few days. She’s, in her own words, “Fabulous.” And, it was nice to spend a few hours with the former Monday night (ir)regulars. Cocoa Caffe had been chosen as the venue, but their “summer hours” have them closing at 8:00 PM. Right. Instead, we wound up at Salt Lake Roasting Company. It was a good alternative.

Hours later, I came home and decided to go adventuring in Paragon City. I was invited to join a team that included at least three people with whom I’ve been on a team in the past few days. As I joined the team, I caught the very tail end of a conversation wherein someone was complaining that I teleport team members “too often without warning/asking.” Um… no. She was just “a bit” touchy because there was a bit of miscommunication between us – two days ago – on the one time that I ‘ported her before she was done selling items. Did I mention that this is a game?! No? Well, I’m Ivory Soap sure that you were pretty much able to deduce that on your own. *shrug* The sticks in some peoples’ asses…

Stray Toasters

• I found the rules to the ST:TNG Drinking Game while looking for some files last night. It amused me.
• Pasties and tassels and hammocks… Oh, my!
• I started watching Hot Fuzz, but I didn’t finish it. I will most likely do so this evening. Funny movie.
• They have remade 3:10 to Yuma. Hm.
• 
• Phil Rizzuto, Yankee Shortstop, Dies at 89 – Mr. Rizzuto had stopped playing ball LONG before I was born; but I think that I played a few games of Earl Weaver Baseball on my college roommate’s Amiga with “him” in the game. I do remember him as the pitch man for The Money Store, though.
• 
• I’ve exchanged a few emails with Matt Silady, the writer of The Homeless Channel. He seems rather personable. I will have to try to pick up the book this weekend.
• 3

Attack the day, like birds of prey…
(I just like the sound of that, in the sense of “Carpe Diem!”)

Namaste.

Tuesday – 14 August 2007
Last night, I had dinner with and Vikki at David’s Kitchen. Potstickers and Beef Lo Mein. Beef Lo Mein which I meant to bring to work today for lunch… but just realized that I left it in the fridge. *sigh* At least I know what I’m having for dinner.

This morning has seen an odd assortment of weird music-related items running through my head:

• I’ve had Tom Jones’ It’s Not Unusual randomly running through my head for a little while. Just the chorus, though.
• I was listening to 2112: Overture and Temples of Syrinx on the morning commute. I was, for some reason, reminded of how much I despised it the first time(s) that I heard it – 8th Grade carpool. First thing in the morning. VERY loud. Had I been using the term *grblsnrkx* back then, it would have been applied often. In fact, I couldn’t stand Rush from 1982 until late 1987, when a friend in my dorm actually asked me to sit down and actually listen to… of all things… 2112. *twitch* I agreed to do so. It took a few tries, but I got past my grade school loathing of the song and the band. The rest is history, as they say.
• I’ve been thinking about songs that are usually played back-to-back and just don’t sound “right” when not played together:
  • 2112: Overture and Temples of Syrinx
  • We Will Rock You / We Are the Champions
  • Eye Would Die 4 U / Baby, I’m a Star

  I’m sure that there are others, but these are the ones that keep sticking out in my mind.

• Puttin’ on the Ritz just popped into my head. The version by Taco… although when the chorus came up again, it was the one from Young Frankenstein.
• And now, something from a video game – which one I can’t seem to remember – just passed through.
• While playing CoH last night, I was on a bit of a Jim Croce kick. YouTube helped me get my fix, as I had, in a masterful stroke, left my iPod at work.

Other than that, it’s been a good day… not that I consider the aforementioned to be “bad” things.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
Life is an ongoing series of checks and balances:

• Check: My coworker who was diagnosed with the tumor has undergone surgery and is in recovery. He seems to be doing well… but will have to learn to walk again.
• Balance: I got a phone call yesterday saying that there’s been a death in my extended family. It was not entirely unexpected, but still something of a shock.

The Scales of Justice
The Hand of Nefer-Tem dispensed some justice in Brickstown last night. I joined a team for a few missions against The Council. Level 36 Council. Oh, boy. The team had a good balance and did pretty well. By the time the team disbanded, I was (only) 5,000 points from Security Level 32. Oh, so close…. so close….

I was preparing to log out when I was invited to join another team. The desire to level was strong, so I did. This was a smaller team, but it was well-constructed and we managed to run through a couple of missions with a fair amount of ease.

And, by the time I left that team, I had made it to Level 32 and a new power: Resuscitate.

Stray Toasters

• I cleaned up the links page on Random Access last night. While there may not be rhyme nor reason, there is order.
• The Subtle Pleasures of Building a Dungeon
• doot doot doot
• Time in a Bottle (video)
• For those of you who’ve been to Paris, does this hold true?
  
• Miniot’s Hand-Crafted iWood Cases
• By way of… I don’t remember whom: Mind-blowing magic
• A Softer World Laundry Day (t-shirts!)
• 
• 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Karl Rove

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Monday – 13 August 2007
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

This morning’s good intention was to get up (relatively) early and get a jump on the day. I reconsidered, however, when the alarm and iPod went off. Three-and-a-half hours of sleep is usually not bad… but having capped the night off with a tall glass of Merlot (and a Sam’s Summer Ale) made an extended stay in The Dreaming a very pleasant thing, indeed. And, I was still in the office at a decent time, so I’m good with having caught a few extra ZZZs this morning.

Last night, post-movie, I stopped by to see Kate, Perry and the kids. The kids crack me up. Pure, straight-up comedy.

Scales of Justice
When I got home, I decided to take a side-trip to Paragon City. As soon as I logged in, I was invited to join a team. No waiting. No muss, no fuss. I accepted.

Then, I noticed who was on the team: The same tank who got us killed (repeatedly) on Saturday. *grblsnrkx*

And, guess what…

The team mortality rate was fairly high. Until he quit the team. After that, no problems. Go figure.

And now, The Hand of Nefer-Tem is knocking on the door of Security Level 32.

Stray Toasters

• I had a corned beef sandwich for lunch. And you didn’t.
• Mike Wieringo Passes Away
• Merv Griffin dead at 82
  • It’s pretty well-known that Mr. Griffin created Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! What’s not quite as well-known is that he wrote the theme for Jeopardy!, the music that they play when contestants are considering their answers for “Final Jeopardy.” Most people refer to the song as “The Jeopardy! Theme” or even “Think Music;” but he originally wrote that song as a lullaby for his son, Anthony, and it was originally named “Time for Tony.”
• Beheaded snake sends man to hospital
• I received a friendly, neighborhood reminder about registering my copy of Eudora a few days ago. It actually made me laugh:
  

  Please register your copy of Eudora.

  Registration will enable us to provide you better service when you contact us for technical support and it comes with these benefits.

  — list of benefits —

  We’ll also erect a giant statue in your image on the front lawn of our corporate headquarters.* How cool is that? C’mon, register! It’s easy and it’ll stop this stupid box from popping up!

  *Giant statue offer void to Eudora users living on the planet.

• From the “Holy crap! Who’d’ve thought it was possible” file: Girl overdoses on espresso
• 
• There are a couple of articles floating around the Interweb that basically say “NASA considering repairs to gouge in shuttle heat shield.” *blink blink* Let’s look at the basic math and physics behind this:
  • The shuttle orbits Earth at a little over 17,000 mph (nearly 28,000 kph)
  • It re-enters the atmosphere at roughly Mach 25 (~ 5.3 miles per second or almost 9 kilometers per second).
  • The heat shield endures temperatures over 2700° F (1500° C).
  • The gouge in the heat shield is 3½” long and goes ALL THE WAY THROUGH the thermal shielding.

  “Considering?” Hi. I’m sorry… I’m thinking that Mr. Goodwrench better be well past the “considering” stage and on his way – tools in hand – to get the job done.

• I read this Real Life Comics strip… and immediately was reminded of this movie clip.
• Steampunk cloque

Namaste.

*EDIT:  Went back to correct the math on the re-entry speed.  It’s MUCH faster than I had originally posted.

Sunday – 12 August 2007
Quiet day around the ranch, so far. I should do some cleaning, but I’m just not feeling it. Which is all the more reason to just do it and get it over with. There’s not really that much that needs to be done. So, it’s not like it’s some daunting task. I do believe that this comes under the heading of: “I have caught a case of the Lazies.”

The Scales of Justice
Last night, I decided to do my part to fight crime in Paragon City. I logged on and discovered that most of the members of my supergroup were on, but were in the middle of a task force – a series of missions that usually take a few hours to run. The drawbacks to TFs are:

• You can’t “save” a TF – once you start it… you’re pretty much in it until it’s done.
• Once it has started, others can’t join the group.
• If you quit a TF, you don’t get credit for the portion you’ve run. That’s right: You get to do it ALL over again.

On the “plus” side, however, you typically earn a few goodies for the investment of time and effort.

However, I wanted to get in and play, so I looked for a team. I wound up having to start one. We were small, and ragtag, but we seemed like we had a good build.

If only that was true.

Our Tanker, the one who was supposed to keep the bad guys occupied so that we could beat on them from a relatively safe distance, embodied the philosophy of “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” I believe that he, singlehandedly, caused our party to die at least twice. *sigh* He quit shortly. Selah. I rebuilt the team.

Better.
Stronger.
Faster at kicking ass.

I got lucky and found one Hell of a good Defender for our healer; she stayed right on top of things and didn’t miss a beat. We also picked up a Scrapper, Blaster, and another (BETTER) Tanker. And we went through three missions like a hot knife through butter.

Stray Toasters

• There are about seventy-leven reasons that is one of my favorite people, but among the top reasons is because he sent me this little gem: Eddie Izzard – Death Star Canteen… in LEGO!
• “With a name like ‘Smuckers,’ it has to be good!”
• Impossible Mission. Ah, nostalgia.
• Prophet 60091…
• I found this design, from 2Warped.com, to be rather amusing:
  
• Jackie Cane
• , what do you make of this? v6?
• From Wizard World Chicago: Toys! Toys! Toys! (I still want one’a those John Stewart GLs from the DC Super Friends collection.)

Looks like has come up with a viable option for the afternoon: Catching a movie. Now, I just have to choose between The Bourne Ultimatum or Stardust.

Namaste.

Saturday – 11 August 2007
So far, it’s been a good day. Blue skies. High clouds. Temps in the upper 90s.

The day started with me hanging out with Perry and Max. Coffee. Cinnamon rolls. Dolls. Mini-figures. We hung out and chatted/geeked out for a couple hours; as Max started getting a bit restless, I remembered that I had my GameBoy in my backpack and further cemented my role as “best adopted uncle ever.”

After they headed home, I put in a few hours with pencil and paper. I finished off She Talks to Angels. I’m happy with the way it turned out. I also decided on a couple of changes to Ed’s Song. And, I’m now toying with the idea of redoing 8:45 as a drawing; I would probably use the same basic “content” that I did in the Poser/Bryce one, more or less. Or maybe not. We’ll see…

Stray Toasters

• I’m still craving chocolate milk like a fiend.
• Report: Gamers largely clueless about next-gen console media capabilities.
• Slowly, but surely, I’m making my way towards the end of Deathly Hallows.
• WizKids is starting to release images and info for the upcoming Justice League set.
  • Is it just me or does this figure scream, “Hey, look! I have a crotch! Wanna see it?!
  • , you will want to see this figure.
• This is Ethan van Sciver, probably best know as the artist behind Green Lantern: Rebirth and Green Lantern Corps: Recharge and Sinestro Corps Special #1. This image, taken at Wizard World Chicago (a great-huge comic convention), amuses me greatly on many levels:
  • Ethan is LDS (That’s “Mormon,” for those of you outside the Zion Curtain).
  • His t-shirt says: “I’ve tried polygamy!” (That in itself is amusing enough.)
  • The shirt – and slogan – are for Wasatch Brewery’s Polygamy Porter.

Whether or not Ethan has actually sampled the beverage (which is unlikely, given his religious beliefs…) I don’t know, but I admire and applaud his sense of humor.

• 
• For Acolyte Derek: Stephen Colbert portrait in 768 mini Rubik’s Cubes
• U.S. Gov’t plans changes in air passenger screening
• LIEFELD!
• Coworker Tommy shall henceforth be referred to as “Code Monkey Build Bitch” or “Code Monkey BB.” Thus it is written, thus shall it be!
  Code Monkey BB sent me the following message yesterday, it amused the geek/gamer in me:

  [16:11] Tommy: graffiti seen (among many others) on the granite walls of a pit-fall
  [16:11] Tommy: In Dwarven: “Durembar Ironshanks was here and killed more orcs than he could count.”
  [16:11] Tommy: In Elven (below the preceding): “That means eleven.”

• Tyranist: At least it’s not a “space maggot.”
  
• The Great Data Migration proceeds apace.
• So… is this guy the new Phoenix?
  If so, does Jean know? Cause we all know that Scotty Doesn’t Know.
• Damn you, Tyranist. *shakes fist*
• Wow… they’re recruiting ’em young these days.

Time to go save the world. Or something.

Namaste.

Friday – 10 August 2007
Last night, I finished Discs 3 and 4 of Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles. It was a series, based on the movie Starship Troopers, which in turn was based on a book of the same name, by Robert A. Heinlein. The movie was of the “check your brain at the door” type; the book on which it was (loosely) based, however, was brilliant… even more so when you consider when it was written. The series was intended to have a 40-episode run, but due to production issues, ended after only 36 episodes. Like the book, the series follows the members of the Mobile Infantry under the command of Lt. Jean Rasczak/Razak, most importantly: Juan (Johnny) Rico. We follow Rico’s rise from student to enlistee to non-com-to lieutenant over the course of seven campaigns. The series loosely followed the movie, but differed in a few details. All-in-all, I enjoyed the series – and even the late-90s CGI that it employed.

Today has been a decent day. Nothing too bad… other than an IT task for Monkey #2. Really, it’s a no-brainer. And I had to work on a system that used to belong to the Monkey Formerly Known as Monkey #1. (I have since moved the former Monkey #5 into the #1 spot.)

Stray Toasters

• I found a quote from a review of a Star Trek: TNG episode, “Coming of Age,” on Wikipedia that I found interesting:
  

  Worf (to Wesley Crusher): “Only fools have no fear.”

  It made me think of both the Green Lantern Corps and Daredevil. It brought the Corps to mind because, in order to be a ring-bearer, one “…must have the ability to overcome great fear.” I think that Geoff Johns has done a good job of portraying this in the way that rookies are still susceptible to “the yellow impurity,” which was how The Guardians explained away the taint of Parallax, the embodiment of fear, in the Central Power Battery. Once they master their fear, they have no problem in handling things colored yellow – the one thing that a power ring has been unable to deal with according to GL canon… until Green Lantern: Rebirth.

  Daredevil came to mind as he is called “The Man Without Fear.” While Matt Murdock has done a number of foolish and/or foolhardy things, I doubt that he could truly be called a fool.

• Giant LEGO man found in Dutch sea
• Maybe it’s just me, but how difficult is it to wipe the countertop around the sink if you splash inordinate amounts of water on it? If I were to gauge by the amount of water left sitting on the counter over the course of the day in the AF office, it’s apparently a nigh-Herculean task.
• Hot Stormtroopers in love
• The Hardest Bosses of All Time (I didn’t make up the title, I just find it amusing…)
• I was humming IKEA the other day when it occurred to me that there was a flaw in the lyrics:
  

  Ikea: just some oak and some pine and a handful of Norsemen

  Um… there’s a reason I call it “the Garden of Sweden” and not “the Garden of Norway.” Sure, they’re both Scandinavian, and “…a handful of Swede-men” doesn’t roll easily off the tongue, but come on. *shrug* Oh, well.

• Steampunk maker Datamancer video
• 
• Big Man on Mulberry Street
• mayhem
• “GOD BLESS AMERICA! WOOOOOO!!!”
  “Um… they’re Canadian.”

And that’s that.

Namaste.

Thursday – 09 August 2007
Three down, one in the chamber and one to go.

I ran out of coffee creamer last week and neglected to pick some up. But, I’m trying something (again) that I haven’t done in a while: using ice cream instead of milk. I like it. I still need to find the right blend, but it seems like two(-ish) tablespoons do the job nicely for my travel mug.

She Talks to Angels is nearing completion. Thank God. (No pun intended.) I have a little more detail work to do and it should be pretty much good to go. I’m also deciding whether I want to color the piece or just color selected parts of it. I’m also thinking about how I want to do Ed’s Song. The content will remain as I planned, but I may go for more of a sketch style than a detailed drawing.

The Best: Pink Cadillac
Bruce Springsteen vs. Natalie Cole

The Boss’ version is a hard-driving (again, no pun intended), almost-garage band sounding song about a guy’s love for his ride. (As much as I hate to make the comparison, it’s kind of like the way Danny Zuko sings about Greased Lightning in Grease.) Ms. Cole’s version has much more of an R&B feel and swing to it… but it just doesn’t handle the curves quite as well as the original.

This one goes to Springsteen.

The Scales of Justice
I found my way to Paragon City last night. A few members of my SG and my coalition were on, but they were already involved in teams and/or missions. After some aimless wandering, I decided to hop the train to Brickstown. A little more wandering, but I did find some bad guys in need of a beat down. I headed back to Talos Island and was invited to join a team… in Brickstown. I joined the team and got back on the train. We went up against The Council. In the words of Dr. Peter Venkman: “We came, we saw, we kicked their asses.” After a couple of missions, I decided to call it a night.

Stray Toasters

• I discovered Matt Silady’s The Homeless Channel last night, while cruising boingboing.net. Very interesting premise. I will have to add this to my next order at Dr. Volt’s. I signed up for the THC GoogleGroup last night. At the bottom of the sign-up page was a section for comments, so I left one. Less than an hour later, I received confirmation of my acceptance to the group… and a brief “thank you” message from Matt.
• Stardust opens this weekend. I need to see it. I also need to get in a viewing of The Bourne Ultimatum.
• And, speaking of Mr. Gaiman’s work, from the movie Mirrormask: Close to You
• In further efforts to bend my brain, sent me a link to this post. I told him that it was both awesome and scary… at the same time.
• Yep… more things to add to the Covet List. (, you might want to check this out, too.)
• You just don’t get it
  What it is … well, you’re not really sure
  You move like you’re walking on this ice
  Talking like you’re still insecureTime is a spiral – Space is a curve
  I know you get dizzy, but try not to lose your nerve
  Life is a diamond you turn into dust
  Waiting for rescue, and I know you just
  Don’t get it
  You just don’t get it
• I know that there is a Speed Racer project in development; I loved the cartoon as a kid, but I’m only *ehn* about the prospect of a live-action movie. But… Warner Brothers is now talking about making a Jonny Quest movie. This piques my curiosity quite a bit. Hopefully, they won’t dumb it down; the 60s series was pretty well-written, even if some of the episodes’ content would be dated today; the 80s/90s series also had intermittent glimmers of greatness.
• , you should click here.
• 
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” File: American Red Cross Sued for Using a Red Cross
• Wizards of the Coast has made a lot of their D&D content available for download. Geeks…? Online..?!? Who’d’ve thunk it?!
• A Million U.S. Idiots

Namaste.

sent me a link to Where in the F*ck Is Carmen Sandiego.

Near the bottom of the page was a picture of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard. Thinking that it might have been a link to the Vaudeville Alphabet Song, I clicked on it…

Boy, was I wrong.

It was The Picard Song.

Both of them were sick, wrong and twisted… in oh, so many ways… but rather amusing.
And, like Utah drivers passing an accident on I-15, I couldn’t bring myself to stop watching them.

Friday – 03 August 2007
I watched Casino Royale and finished Dark City last night.

• Casino Royale: Bond. James Bond is back. I haven’t watched this movie since its theatrical release. It was every bit as enjoyable on the small screen as it was on the silver screen. Daniel Craig makes an excellent rough-around-the-edges, newly-minted 007. It will be interesting to watch as this “blunt instrument” develops into the refined spy who defined cool for many a movie goer over the past 40-odd years. If, in fact, they are using this movie to “reboot” the James Bond franchise, I will be quite interested to see how they portray Bond as going from cold and detached, to falling for Vesper Lynd, to once again setting aside his emotions… only to later fall for – and marry – Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo.
   
  As the opening – and closing – credits rolled, I listened to You Don’t Know Me, the theme for this movie. Performed by Soundgarden and Audioslave front man, Chris Cornell, it stylistically harkens back to older Bond themes. It was also interesting to note how it was worked, very subtly, into the score… even in places where one would expect to hear the classic “007 Theme.”
• Dark City: As I watched this movie, I couldn’t help but draw parallels between it and The Big O:
  • Both take place in cities where people have lost their memories.
  • Both take place in isolated cities: Dark City is a… petri dish, for lack of a better term; Paradigm City has been sealed off from the rest of the world, inside a giant dome.
  • The protagonist lives a little outside the norm – both John Murdoch and Roger Smith know that “something isn’t right” with themselves and in their respective cities – and question the norms.
  • Both protagonists have, in supporting roles, a prominent female figure and a police officer as a somewhat reluctant ally.
  • Both features are done, to borrow a phrase from Warner Brothers Animation Studios, in a “dark deco” (and in some instances, gothic) style.

  I’m not entirely sure what I expected to get from the movie. It borrowed from many different concepts and blended them into a dark oleo. I’m not saying that it was bad – or that it was done poorly – but it was definitely… different. One thing that I did note was Jennifer Connelly’s presence. No, not for that reason (but, yes, she is nice to look at). I saw her and thought about her role in Ang Lee’s Hulk, in which she played the romantic lead opposite another man who not only had metahuman abilities, but also had… issues. I enjoyed the movie, but it would probably take another viewing for me to sort everything out about the movie.

Stray Toasters

• I was sent a link to this video from Loading.Ready.Run. by . It amused me… and reminded me of a (non-monkey) coworker.
• HALO ActionClix. Check out the size of that Scarab!
• Limited Edition ‘Diamond Variant’ Emma Frost Bust
• By way of boingboing.net: Freaky roadsign photoshopping contest
• While I generally find the LOLcats phenomenon (do DO do-do-do) only mildly amusing, this and this made me chuckle.
• WHAT?! And how did I miss this gem!?
• I just got an ego-boost-in-an-email from Mom. Not only is that a nice way to start the day, it’s even better than finding homemade chocolate chip cookies in your lunch. What was the last thing your mom sent you?

And now, off to save the world! to work.

Namaste.

Whenever I hear It’s All Been Done, and it gets to the verse…

Alone and bored
On a thirtieth century night
Will I see you
On The Price Is Right?
Will I cry?
Will I smile
As you run
Down the aisle?

…images of the Legion (and ther supporting cast) sitting in a holo-studio, with Saturn Girl running down to Contestant’s Row, pop into my head.

And it makes my inner comic geek grin like a fiend.