Random Access

Saturday – 02 February 2013
It’s Groundhog Day.
(Just so you know, there won’t be a guest post by Bill Murray or Andie MacDowell. Sorry.)

It’s the weekend. Hallelujah. It hasn’t been a bad week, but with Team DiVa not sleeping well (due to their colds), Sara! and I haven’t been sleeping well. Or, rather, our sleep has been broken and not as restful as it could be.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
Today’s person: Julian Bond

Horace Julian Bond (born January 14, 1940), known as Julian Bond, is an American social activist and leader in the American civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. Bond was born in Nashville, Tennessee, to the former Julia Agnes Washington and Horace Mann Bond.

In 1960, Bond was a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and served as its communications director from 1961 to 1966. From 1960 to 1963, he led student protests against segregation in public facilities in Georgia. Bond left Morehouse College in 1961 and returned to complete his BA in English in 1971 at age 31. With Morris Dees, Bond helped found the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a public-interest law firm based in Montgomery, Alabama. He served as its president from 1971 to 1979. Bond continues on the board of directors of the SPLC.

In 1965, Bond was one of eight African Americans elected to the Georgia House of Representatives after passage of civil rights legislation, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965. On January 10, 1966, however, Georgia state representatives voted 184-12 not to seat him because he publicly endorsed SNCC’s policy regarding opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. They disliked Bond’s stated sympathy for persons who were “unwilling to respond to a military draft”. A federal District Court panel ruled 2-1 that the Georgia House had not violated any of Bond’s federal constitutional rights. In 1966, the United States Supreme Court ruled 9-0 in the case of Bond v. Floyd (385 U.S. 116) that the Georgia House of Representatives had denied Bond his freedom of speech and was required to seat him. From 1967 to 1975, Bond was elected for four terms as a Democratic member in the Georgia House. There he organized the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus.

In January 1967, Bond was among eleven House members who refused to vote when the legislature elected segregationist Lester Maddox of Atlanta as governor of Georgia over the Republican Howard Callaway, who had led in the 1966 general election by some three thousand votes. The choice fell on state lawmakers under the Georgia Constitution of 1824 because neither major party candidate had polled a majority in the general election. Former Governor Ellis Arnall polled more than fifty thousand votes as a write-in cadidate, a factor which led to the impasse. Bond would not support either Maddox or Callaway though he was ordered to vote by lame duck Lieutenant Governor Peter Zack Geer.

He went on to be elected for six terms in the Georgia Senate in which he served from 1975 to 1987.

During the 1968 presidential election, Bond led an alternate delegation from Georgia to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. There, unexpectedly and contrary to his intention, he became the first African American to be proposed as a major-party candidate for Vice President of the United States. While expressing gratitude for the honor, the 28-year-old Bond quickly declined, citing the constitutional requirement that one must be at least 35 years of age to serve in that office.

Bond resigned from the Georgia Senate in 1987 to run for the United States House of Representatives from Georgia’s 5th congressional district. He lost the Democratic nomination in a runoff to rival civil rights leader John Lewis in a bitter contest, in which Bond was accused of using cocaine and other drugs. As the 5th district had a huge Democratic majority, the nomination delivered the seat to Lewis, who still serves as congressman.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Bond taught at several universities in major cities of the North and South, including American, Drexel, Harvard, and the University of Virginia.

In 1998, Bond was selected as chairman of the NAACP. In November 2008, he announced that he would not seek another term as chairman. Bond agreed to stay on in the position through 2009 as the organization celebrated its 100th anniversary. Roslyn M. Brock was chosen as Bond’s successor on February 20, 2010.

He continues to write and lecture about the history of the civil rights movement and the condition of African Americans and the poor. He is President Emeritus of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

From 1980 to 1997 he hosted America’s Black Forum. He remains a commentator for the Forum, for radio’s Byline, and for NBC’s The Today Show. He authored thenationally syndicated newspaper column Viewpoint. He narrated the critically acclaimed PBS series Eyes on the Prize in 1987 and 1990.

Bond has been an outspoken supporter of the rights of gays and lesbians. He has publicly stated his support for same-sex marriage. Most notably he boycotted the funeral services for Coretta Scott King on the grounds that the King children had chosen an anti-gay megachurch. This was in contradiction to their mother’s longstanding support for the rights of gay and lesbian people. In a 2005 speech in Richmond, VA, Bond stated:

African Americans … were the only Americans who were enslaved for two centuries, but we were far from the only Americans suffering discrimination then and now. … Sexual disposition parallels race. I was born this way. I have no choice. I wouldn’t change it if I could. Sexuality is unchangeable.

In a 2007 speech on the Martin Luther King Day Celebration at Clayton State University in Morrow, GA, Bond said, “If you don’t like gay marriage, don’t get gay married.” His positions have pitted elements of the NAACP against religious groups in the Black Civil Rights movement who oppose gay marriage mostly within the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) who was blamed partly for the success of the recent gay marriage ban amendment in California.

Today, Bond is a Distinguished Professor in Residence at American University in Washington, D.C. He also is a faculty member in the history department at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, where he teaches history of the Civil Rights Movement.

Stray Toasters

• I like football. That’s kind of well-known. I just saw a commercial on CBS about the Super Bowl: The game starts at 6:30 PM EST… but their game day coverage starts at 11:00 AM. What. The. Hell?!
• Top 10 Good Tech Habits Everyone Should Have
• Temple of the Winds: Done
  On to Soul of the Fire
• How LEGO Fans See Each Other
• I just heard Emeli Sandè for the first time on The Late Show with David Letterman. I might have to track down some of her other stuff.
• For Sara!…
  
• I started playing Star Trek Online tonight. Because, you know, I need another time sink.
• Superman in Bondage: The Kinkiest Kryptonian Covers Ever Published
• As much as I love my kids, look forward to the day when diapers are a thing of the past, and enjoy my iPad,  this is something that I don’t foresee taking up space in our home.
• Sesame Street mashed up with the Beastie Boys’ “Sure Shot”

Namaste.

Monday – 14 January 2013
It’s cold here in the Land Behind the Zion Curtain.

How cold? Well, this is what greeted me when I checked the weather before getting out of bed:

What?! I was reading on my iPad before going to sleep; it was right there. Don’t judge.

This was the difference between my car and outside as I got ready to head into the office:

Yes, that is a nearly 70°F difference. So, like I said: It’s cold.

Reeling By On Celluloid: Tomb Raider
As of last Saturday, Sara! and I finished our run of Bond’s movies… since Amazon wanted me to buy Die Another Day. Yeah, that was not going to happen. We decided to start a new run of movies; we just had to decide on a theme. We wound up going with “Action Movies with Strong Female Leads.” That, in turn, lead us to Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

We’d both seen the movie before and knew that it was light on brainpower and fairly full of action. Win. Win. And something that we’d forgotten: Daniel Craig was in the movie. That’s right. James “Double Oh Seven” Bond. Well, five years before he was Bond. And who could forget that Ms. Jolie’s father, Jim Phelps, I mean Jon Voight was in the movie, as well.

And, in the final analysis: It was fun.

Instant Replay: Football
Saturday afternoon, the Ravens took on the Denver Broncos:

Baltimore Ravens at Denver Broncos
38 – 35
The Ravens traveled to Denver to take on Peyton Manning and the Number 1 in the AFC Denver Broncos for the AFC Divisonal Game. Going into the game, the odds were stacked against the Ravens: The Broncos gave the Ravens a thorough trouncing in Week 15, just four weeks prior. The Ravens were playing on a short week – having played in an AFC Wild Card game on Sunday. Peyton Manning was 8-2, all-time, against the Ravens. The Broncos were 9-point favorites. Playing in Denver meant that the Ravens would not only have to travel across the country, but they would also have to acclimatize (quickly) to the thinner air at the higher altitude. And, there was also this gem, as tweeted by the Ravens’ own Terrell Suggs: But, as Han Solo once told C-3P0: “Never tell me the odds.” Because the Ravens went to Denver to make like Big Daddy Kane and Get the Job Done. The game was close all the way through; the score wound up being tied a total of five (5) times! There were amazing plays on both sides At the end of regulation, the score was tied 35-35. Then came overtime. Then came the second overtime. Then, Peyton Manning threw a pass… that was picked off by Corey Graham.  That set up a game-winning Justin Tucker 49-yard field goal, sending the Ravens to the AFC Championship game. After the game, two future Hall of Famers met at mid-field for the last time as competitors. Congratulations to the Ravens on a great game. Hey, Joe…?! How does it feel to go into Denver and handle business like you did on Saturday? Next stop: New England.

Stray Toasters

• HERadventure Will Provide a Positive Black Female Superhero
• Lynchings by State and Counties in the United States: 1900 – 1931
• Ask Chris #136: Supergirl, Krypton and How It All (Sort of) Works
• I am preparing to reread The Diamond Age.
• Am I Ready For Some What Now?
• Snow art made with snowshoes
• This weekend, Sara and I are attending the opening of Florencia en al Amazones at Utah Opera. That’s right: Tuxedo time is nigh upon us once more!

Namaste.

Friday – 11 January 2013
Today has been a good day. Even with all the snow.

The morning commute was about a half-hour long, give or take. The drive was made a little better with the addition of two fifty-pound bags of salt to the trunk. (I have a rear-wheel drive car that apparently puts out A LOT of torque at low speed.) But, on the whole, it was uneventful.

The evening commute was slower than expected, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as last night’s two-hour journey. I made it home in about 45 minutes.

Stray Toasters

• A few days ago, I changed the screen saver on the computer in Team DiVa’s room. Previously, it was just random abstract lights; now it’s a series of space pictures. And the girls have gone completely mad over it. Seriously. They used to always/only want to play AlphaBaby on their computer. Now, they just want to see the screen saver. They’ve even learned the sign for “stars,” well.. mostly. They have it about 90% down. But you still know what it is that they want. And I couldn’t be happier to let them have it.
• Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival
  
• No, it’s not a prequel:  ABC President Confirms S.H.I.E.L.D. Takes Place After The Avengers
  #CoulsonLives #AllThePheels
• The 6 Things You Need to Know About DC Universe Online
• A little food for thought: I Stopped Telling Women to Smile (and You Should, Too)
• U.S. Currency as the Justice League
• Someone call Samuel L. Jackson (or maybe William Shatner or John Lithgow): Snake on a Plane: Qantas Passenger Spots Python Holding on to Wing During Flight

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Thursday – 10 January 2013
Another NBN Thursday in the valley draws to a close.

When I woke up this morning, it was in the low 40s. That means that today started off warmer than it’s been during the day for the past week.

And then a snowstorm blew in.

Temperatures fell.
Traffic got stupid.
Yada. Yada. Yada.

And, I’m not kidding about the traffic. My commute home  – depending on the route I take and time of day – is usually about 20 minutes. Today, it was just shy of 2 hours. But, Sara! kept Team DiVa up until I got home, so I was able to end the evening with a smile. And a late dinner. Grilled cheese sandwiches and soup. Tonight was a perfect night for it, too.

Stray Toasters

• Society6 is offering free shipping on ModHero’s artwork.
• Thanks to Don for pointing out that Rockabye Baby Music’s catalog now includes Rush.
• 10 Things Extraordinary People Say Every Day
• Long-time readers know that I have an affinity for The Powerpuff Girls cartoon. I am also optimistically curious about the upcoming Pacific Rim. So, it’s not hard to understand why reading (and watching) this made me smile: Unexpectedly Appropriate Mash-Up of the Day: Pacific Rim Meets The Powerpuff Girls
• Project Azazel Captures Superhero Movie Scenes in Awesome LEGO Dioramas
• A Drug That Restores Hearing in Deaf Mice
• I just realized that I don’t have any new (2013) pictures of Team DiVa. I will have to rectify that. Soon.

Namaste.

Sunday – 06 January 2013
I have had a great weekend.

No, seriously.

Saturday, I judged a HeroClix tournament at Dr. Volt’s Comic Connection. We had a good turn-out; we had ten players. While there, I received a message from my friend, Jonni. He had a show Saturday night and wondered if I would be able to make it. After consulting the Lady Sara!, I learned that I’d be able to make the show. Win.

I came back home and finally got around to making a fix to the railing and got some help from an unexpected quarter.

>> Fast Forward >>
After Team DiVa was in bed, I got ready and headed to the show. Doing some mental gymnastics, I realized that I hadn’t seen Jonni play – Hell, hadn’t even seen him (other than online) – in over ten years. Yeah. That long.

This was taken 10 January 2002 at the release party for his second CD:

This was taken Saturday (05 Jan 13) night:

And, it was a lot of fun. We’re trying to figure out a time when we can get together for lunch or dinner or something.

Instant Replay: Football

Today, I got to watch the Ravens-Indy game. Brad and Dave came over to watch the game, as well.

Indianapolis Professional Football Club at Baltimore Ravens
9 – 24
The Ravens played their first playoff game of the 2012-2013 season today… …the same day that Ray Lewis played his last game as a Raven at home. The first half was mostly a defensive struggle, but the Ravens went into halftime with a 10-6 lead. In the second half, the offense went to work, racking up 14 more points and holding Indy to just another field goal. Baltimore wound up with the ball as time wound down and for the final play, Ray Lewis came in at running back… …and after the clock ran down, he treated Baltimore to a final dance. After the game, Ray took one last celebratory/congratulatory lap around M&T Bank Stadium. Congratulations to the Ravens on a job well done and “Thank you” to Ray Lewis for an amazing career and legacy. Next stop: Denver.

And, to wrap up the weekend, Sara! and I are watching Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Stray Toasters

• Scientists Showed Kids Sesame Street to Study Brain Development
• I’ve said it before and will say it again: If you’re not reading Love and Capes, start now.
• Then I Watch ‘Em Roll Away Again
• 5 Amazing Things Invented By Donald Duck (Seriously)
• Kinetic energy, as illustrated by Disney
• Sara! and I were going to finish our Bond series with Die Another Day (we were going to MST3K it), only to find out that Amazon doesn’t have a rent option for it. They want you to buy it. I’ve seen the movie before. It’s not worth the $5 they wanted.

Namaste.

Monday – 31 December 2012
The end of the world year is here.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
Today is the last day of 2012. Some of the experiences of the year include:

• I left my old job and found another one.
• Team DiVa had their first birthday party.
  • They also started walking, talking, signing and doing other all-around amazing things.
• I started a new blog: Pinstripes and Polos
• My mother went back to work… as a consultant.
• We did some renovations to the house and grounds:
  • We tore down the gazebo to facilitate new landscaping in the back yard.
  • We started felling trees and shrubbery in front yard, also to accomodate new landscaping.
  • We built a new gate to replace the one that a storm demolished. (I need to replace one of the sides of the gate – again! – following another storm.)
  • The Train Room has been finished; I just need to schedule an appointment to have carpet installed.
• I turned 42… I’m still not sure what the Ultimate Question is, but I do know where my towel is.
• My fifth niece was born.
• I played City of Heroes for the last time. Ever.
• We got to celebrate a very lovely Christmas with Sara!’s family.

…and, as I said a couple of years ago: “…these are all part of ‘life.’”

On the whole, 2012 was a good year. I am thankful for the many new people I met and I am grateful for the many wonderful things that I got to experience. If you were part of my year – no matter how big or small a part – thank you for the pleasure of your company and for being a part of my journey.

Stray Toasters

• Over the past few days, Sara! and I have combatted the 2012 Death Plague. I’m not sure where we picked it up, but I’m glad to have it in the proverbial rear view mirror. I didn’t leave the bedroom for over 18 hours (Thu night/Friday) and for 10 of those hours, I didn’t even leave the bed. Sara! was laid up all day Saturday and part of the day on Sunday. Somehow, Team DiVa seem to have avoided the worst of it.
• Sunday afternoon, I headed to the airport to see my friend, Megan, during a long layover. While there, I also ran into Dave, Erica and Aria, as well as former Utah Opera Resident Artist John Buffett. Superpower-on-overdrive for the end-of-year win!
• I’ve finally gotten around to continuing the Sword of Truth series, which was suggested to me years ago by my friend, Jess. (It was one of her favorite series.) It’s equal parts thrilling and maddening. I’ve also learned that having access to the Internet while reading/listening is not always a necessarily “good” thing, as I have semi-spoiled a couple of things for myself.
• Snow. 10″ in the past week and we’re having flurries now.
• I really need to figure out exactly what I want to do with the spare computers around here.
• While they lost their last game, the Ravens are still the #4 Seed in the AFC and made the playoffs for the fifth straight year under Head Coach John Harbaugh and QB Joe Flacco.
• By way of Mike B.: Off Topic: A Movie So Bad, It’s Good: The Legacy of Road House
  I’ve not seen the movie before, but this just about makes me want to invest the hour-and-a-half to see it.
• I’m sure that there were eleventy-billion other things I was planning on adding to this list. Oh, well.

I wish you a very happy and prosperous 2013 and beyond.

Friday – 21 December 2012
…or as I would write it in short form: 21 Dec 12.
…more to the point: 21 – 12. (With an extra “12” for good measure.)

And this is the last 21-12 of the century.

And with that in mind, I give you: 2112

“Overture” and “Temples of Syrinx”

…and…

The whole “A” side of 2112:

• I. Overture
• II. Temples of Syrinx
• III. Discovery
• IV. Presentation
• V. Oracle (The Dream)
• VI. Soliloquy
• VII. The Grand Finale

According to the Mayan Calendar, the Fourth World ends today and the Fifth World begins. (Sorry, Jack Kirby.)

Last night, Sara! and I watched Men In Black 3 for Movie Date Night.

I thought that it was a fun romp and a nice way to wrap up the series; I think that Sara! thought that it was alright. (It was better than MIB2.) And, Josh Brolin does a very good Tommy Lee Jones.

Stray Toasters

• I came home to find a package from Thom Zahler (creator of Love and Capes) on the counter:
  

  Book and artwork (c) Thom Zahler

• New Online Privacy Rules for Children
• Case Study: Cups of Great Cheer
• From the “It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature” file: Watch a Mudslide Derail a Train
• 
• GoG is having a sale.
• Capturing America, Fact by Fact
• 10 PRINT CHR$ (205.5 + RND (1)); : GOTO 10

Namaste.

Wednesday – 12 December 2012 Sunday – 16 December 2012
Midweek. Check.
New comics day. Check.
Movie Date Night. Check.

Everyone seems to be going ape over the 12/12/12 thing. Personally, I’m waiting  for the 21st. (Rush fans will understand.)

Yeah. This post started on Wednesday. Then I figured that I’d just finish it on Thursday, which didn’t happen because things went eight kinds of sideways at work. How bad? Think: “Sixteen-hour-day.” Yeah, it was like that.

And Friday? Yeah there was some busy-ness there, too. Not as bad, but still some running around.

Yesterday, I had a tournament and by the time I got home, all I wanted to do was veg. I was so tired that I barely made it through last night’s Action Movie Saturday fare: The Living Daylights.” It was, I think, the last Bond movie – other than Skyfall – that I haven’t seen. It wasn’t a great movie. In fact, I thought that it was at least as cheesy as – if not more cheesy than –  the later Roger Moore Bond films.

Things have been good on the home front. Team DiVa has been full of surprises lately. They’re learning to climb on more things. Their vocabularies are growing, too. They both surprised me the other day when they looked at my cup of coffee and said, “Cocoa?” (They’ve had – and liked – hot chocolate, so it wasn’t a stretch for them t0 assume that I was drinking cocoa.) Clever girls.

Stray Toasters

• The Broncos just handed the Ravens a major beat down.
  In Baltimore.
  *sigh*
• The art of Ant Lucia
• Here are a couple of good items on the demise of City of Heroes:
  • Meta’s Verse: Interview with a Melissa Bianco and Matt Miller
  • Ephemeral Existence: Picking Up the Pieces of City of Heroes
• A Sad Farewell to the Game Studios We Lost in 2012
• University of Chicago Admissions Office received this item last week.
• I just realized that I still haven’t seen last week’s Last Resort. But, it’s on the DVR. Win!
• Beautiful LEGO Bonsai

Quote of the Day
Today’s Wednesday’s quote actually comes from a few days ago. What?! I’ve been busy.

After the new trailer for Star Trek: Into Darkness came out, there was a lot of buzz about who the villain would be. Khan? Trelaine? Someone new?

I was chatting with John, my brother-in-law, and we had this exchange:

(12/8/2012 5:55:32 PM) John: http://entertainment.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/06/15736805-khaaan-maybe-star-trek-2-movie-teaser-wont-say-or-will-it?lite
(5:55:36 PM) John: what say you?
(12:02:46 PM) Rob: And I say, “Gary Mitchell.”
(12:02:54 PM) Rob: Seems to be the prevailing thought at this point.
(12:03:01 PM) John: No Khan, eh
(12:03:33 PM) Rob: Don’t think so.
(12:03:43 PM) Rob: We had a alot of discussion about it Thursday/Friday
(12:03:53 PM) John: At first I was kind of excited by the possibility…then I got kind of annoyed b/c I think they’d probably screw it up after all this time
(12:04:03 PM) John: Sometimes you have to leave the classics alone
(12:04:04 PM) Rob: And it seems as though Karl Urban let it slip in an interview a couple of weeks ago.
(12:04:30 PM) Rob: I’d be okay if Khan was in the movie… as long as they spun the story in a different direction.
(12:04:53 PM) John: Bingo. I don’t want a damn remake
(12:05:12 PM) John: I’m kind of biased…ST2 is in my top 10 movies
(12:05:25 PM) Rob: In my Top 5, I think.
(12:05:42 PM) John: Also has one of my top 10 movie lines ever too
(12:05:46 PM) Rob: It’s a solid piece of movie-making, with a sci-fi candy-coated shell.
(12:05:58 PM) John: KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN goes well with “KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!!!” and “Time…to die”
(12:06:11 PM) Rob: heh
(12:06:14 PM) Rob: True enough.
(12:06:18 PM) John: (the latter STILL my favorite movie scene ever)
(12:06:43 PM) Rob: For me it’s: “You… you, I do not know. But you… I never forget a face. Mr…. Chekov!”
(12:06:52 PM) shadorunr: (even though they never met on the original show.
(12:06:57 PM) John: Details.
(12:07:02 PM) shadorunr: Exactly.
(12:07:13 PM) Rob: It happened during a commercial, as far as I’m concerned.
(12:07:17 PM) John: lol
(12:07:31 PM) John: Maybe they ran into each other at the bridge’s urinal line. Who knows.
(12:08:25 PM) Rob: to the Bat-IMDb!
(12:08:28 PM) Rob: Khan says to Chekov, “And you – I never forget a face. Chekov, isn’t it?”. Although Chekov was not a bridge officer in the TV show that first featured Khan, it should be remembered that when Khan first took over Enterprise, he started with the engineering deck. Chekov was engineering ensign at the time, according to the movie’s novelization.
(12:08:34 PM) Rob: Tada!
(12:08:50 PM) John: Eh…I like the urinal explanation better.
(12:08:54 PM) Rob: Ditto.
(12:09:08 PM) John: “Oh yeah…well…he was in…engineering. Yes, engineering.”
(12:10:21 PM) Rob:  From Wikipedia:

Pavel Andreievich Chekov is a young and naïve ensign who first appeared on-screen in The Original Series’ second season as the Enterprise’s navigator. However, The Wrath of Khan established that he had been assigned to the ship sometime before the first season episode “Space Seed”, since Khan remembers him in the movie. Koenig joked that Khan remembered Chekov from the episode after he took too long in a restroom Khan wanted to use

(12:10:46 PM) John: hahahaha!!!
(12:10:50 PM) John: See?
(12:11:01 PM) Rob: So it is written, so must it be.

And for the day’s final miracle: As of 10:03 PM MDT, the painting of the train room is complete!

Namaste.

Thursday – 18 October 2012
Here’s some Team DiVa cuteness to start your day:

Vanessa, sporting my House of Blues cap

Diana, in my Ravens cap

Last night was Movie Date Night with Sara!. We started out watching a Danish film called The Substitute, that I’d ordered from Netflix. It was… slow. And, while it wasn’t a necessarily “bad” movie, neither of us thought that it was a “good” movie, either. At least, not in the 20 or so minutes of the movie that we made it through. And I can’t figure out “why” I chose that movie… unless it was recommended, based on something else I’d seen.

So, I called an audible.

We watched 28 Weeks Later. (And, yes, we made it all the way through that.)

• Bonus: It fulfilled Sara!’s wish to watch horror/horroresque films in October.
• Bonus: I had completely forgotten that Idris Elba and Jeremy Renner were in the film.
• Geek Bonus: Rose Byrne, who played ‘Scarlett’ in the film, was also Moira McTaggart in X-Men: First Class… meaning that three of the leads have been in Marvel films:

1. Idris Elba was Heimdall in Thor
2. Jeremy Renner was Hawkeye in Thor and Marvel’s The Avengers

I also had a crossover revelation during the film: If someone had borrowed the “Stay in the house, Carl” line from The Walking Dead TV series and told it to Andy in 28WL, there would have been two big points:

1. It would have been a VERY short movie, because…
2. No one would have died because of Don (Robert Carlyle’s character)…
   …because the kids would have never gone to the house to get that picture…
   …which means that they would have never found their mom…
   …who wouldn’t have kissed Don, turning him into a rage-infected monster…
   …who, in turn, infected most of the civilians (and soldiers) in the newly-reopened London.

Q.E.D.

All-in-all, it was a good flick for a date night.

And it was a good day.

Stray Toasters

• As of Tuesday afternoon, the train room has primer on the walls. Now, I just need to figure what color I want to paint them.
• I even managed to get some sushi – for the first time in months – yesterday.
• Revolution – Map of North America, 15 Years After the Blackout
• I need to remember to turn off the sprinklers this weekend.

Namaste.

Monday – 15 October 2012
I need to convince Sara! that these would make excellent family Hallowe’en costumes:

Sisko and Dax in TOS uniforms

…and either:

…and/or…

(minus the ears and hairpiece)

…for Team DiVa.  (Not in red, though, because… well, you know… the whole “non-senior staff Redshirt don’t often come back from an away mission” thing.

Hopefully, the eleventy-seventh time is the charm.

This is another test to verify whether or not the new WordPress/Google+ plugin is working properly.

This is only a test.

This is just a test to verify whether or not the new WordPress/Google+ plugin is working properly.

This is only a test.

Monday – 14 October 2012
It was a good weekend…

…but let’s go back a few days. I mentioned on Thursday:

I was also informed that there’s also some good news from one of the East Coast contingents of the family. Good news is always welcome.

Well, the good news was: I’m an uncle again. My sister, Kristen, had a little girl on Thursday:

Kennadi Noelle

She was 5 lbs., 18.5 inches. Wee thing. Kennadi and Kristen are doing well and both should be going home from the hospital tomorrow (Monday).

Saturday, Sara and I took Team DiVa to the Junior League of Salt Lake City’s Touch-a-Truck event. The girls got to see – and touch and climb into – a number of trucks and buses:

Vanessa (l) and Diana, on a school bus

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Later, Sara! and I attended the opening performance of Utah Opera‘s 2012-2013 season, Il Trovatore:

And, aside from being a great date night, it was also a great opportunity to wear my tuxedo:

The performance was quite good. If you live in the greater Salt Lake City metropolitan area, I’d recommend seeing this opera.

Sunday was a mostly quiet day around the house, but we did manage a trip downtown to the Urban Flea Market. Later, Sara!’s parents came over for dinner. Sara! made a french onion soup, which was delicious. We weren’t sure how Team DiVa would respond to it. We shouldn’t have worried: They loved it.

Instant Replay: Football
Today, the Ravens hosted the Dallas Cowboys.

Dallas Cowboys at Baltimore Ravens
29 – 31
Tony Romo led the 2-2 Cowboys into M&T Bank Stadium… and the Ravens sent ‘em back to the Lone Star State with a loss. Joe Flacco and the offense started out strongly, but ended their first drive with a field goal. Dallas marched down the field and scored a touchdown. The defense got broken down like fractions by Dallas’ run offense. Fortunately, Defensive Coordinator Dean Pees figured out where the gaps in the defense were and closed them for the most part. Possibly the game’s biggest highlight: In the Third Quarter, WR Jacoby Jones, fielded a kick-off – eight yards deep in the end zone – and ran it 108 yards for a touchdown, tying a NFL record and breaking WR David Reed’s former Raven record of 103 yards. The game came down to a Dallas 51-yard field goal attempt… which went wide to the left. It wasn’t a pretty win, but the Ravens still came away with the “W” and stay atop the AFC North with a 5-1 record.

Stray Toasters

• Congratulations to Felix Baumgartner and the Red Bull Stratos Team.
• If you’ve never watched The BBC’s Luther, you should.
• Google’s ‘Little Nemo’ Doodle
  (Hint: Click on the drop-down bookmarks on the right.)
• What happened to DC Nation on Cartoon Network?!
• Incredible LEGO Batcave Built Out of 20,000 Pieces
• Ottoman Was Geeky

Thursday – 11 October 2012
Today (at least what’s left of it) is 10-11-12 Day.

It has been a good NBN Thursday.

I was also informed that there’s also some good news from one of the East Coast contingents of the family. Good news is always welcome.

Today was also the first International Day of the Girl.  Timely, considering that this just happened a couple of days ago:

• Taliban Gun Down Girl Who Spoke Up for Rights
• My ‘Small Video Star’ Fights for Her Life 

That, I believe, is all that I have for the moment.

Wait… the NFL just delivered a little more good news: The Titans took down the Steelers in the last few seconds of their Thursday night game.

Namaste.