Random Access

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• Item One
• Item Two

Tuesday – 01 May 2007
Last night’s D&D game set many wheels in motion.  We finally remembered to ask some of the important questions that we had neglected.  We also made some decent in-roads to accomplishing some of the major campaign items that have been looming over our heads for months.  And, we didn’t get eaten by a dragon.

Stray Toasters

• Note to Self: Call Bret.  Today.
• Justice League: Countdown – an animated parody of DC’s Identity Crisis
• Since won’t play along when I say “Mahna Mahna…”
• Big Mac, Filet-o-Fish
  Quarter Pounder, French fries
  Icy Coke, thick shakes
  Sundaes and apple pies!
• Dell wil pre-install Ubuntu Linux
• 
• Steampunk Mouse
• The Refreshments – Banditos
• Wizkids is showing more of the upcoming Legion of Super-Heroes HeroClix set.  They’re going with the v5 Legion, to boot!
• – Catwoman Vinyl Statue
• Date Night – Nightwing and Batgirl, by way of the Comics2Film DCG
• Tyranist, this one is a fastball down the plate for you: Three screams for these stars
• USPS Star Wars Stamp Pre-Orders

Namaste.

Monday – 30 May 2007
And so, another week begins.

Fortunately, it’s a short week… and a week that will end with me on the Right Coast – Kris (Sib3) graduates from law school this weekend.  Of course, that also means that it will be a busy weekend.  Oh, well… no rest for the wicked.

Yesterday, I made it to the second game of Patryck’s double-header.  The umpire was ludicrously inconsistent with his calls – one pitch would be a ball; another, in the same spot would be a strike.  It wasn’t pretty.  But, Patryck’s team won, so I guess that’s all that really matters in the long run.  After that, I stopped in to see and Matt.  Enchiladas!  Homemade enchiladas, at that!  TASTY homemade enchiladas, even.  Then, home to take care of a few things… including making a mess of my kitchen, because it’s much better to pour rice all over the stove and floor than into the pot of near-boiling broth.  *sigh*

Stray Toasters

• I just caught myself humming the theme to Spider-Man.  The 60’s cartoon theme, that is.
• The Spidey saga suits Sam Raimi
• I’m still taking suggestions for the next lyrics-to-drawing and webcomic I should be reading.
• How the Internet took over
  (“Skynet is now online…”)
• Tyranist is/was right: There are no more – or at least very few – big surprises in comics anymore.  Publishers just seem to give away the big reveals… sometimes, even before the series is released.  Although, I will admit that DC has done a good job of leaving some mysteries in 52.
• Pro-coffee tee tweaks Mormon Church, Church responds with trademark threat
• I unintentionally started a mini-flame war yesterday.
  …and then fiddled while Rome burned.
• One more day until Snakes & Arrows is released.  Officially.
• The Black Crowes – Sometimes Salvation
• I am actually starting to look forward to Jon Favreau’s Iron Man.  Weird.
• I am looking forward to Spider-Man 3 and FF2.
• Other Heroes: African-American comics creators, characters and archetypes

Namaste.

Sunday – 29 April 2007
Coffee…? Check.
Honey Bunches of Oats…? Check.
Interweb connection…? Check.

Let’s get this thing moving, then.

So far, it’s been a quiet morning. I’ve been up a little longer than I would have expected – since a little before 9 AM. Yet, miraculously, I haven’t done much. Oh, sure, I have observed the rituals d’hygiene and made a pot of coffee, but other than that…? Bupkis. And I’m okay with that.

I’ll be getting out of here shortly to check out Patryck’s team play some baseball. That will get me out in the sunshine for a while. Gotta work on getting a good base for my tan, after all. Beyond that, I’m not sure what kind of trouble I’m going to get into. But I’m pretty sure that I can find something.

Stray Toasters

• For the first time in a LONG while, I actually went top-to-bottom through the list of webcomics in my bookmarks… and read them all. I need to eighty-six Megatokyo, I think. I haven’t read it with any regularity in at least six months. On the converse, I need to go back and fill in the gaps in my The Gods of Ar-Kelaan reading. The Tao of Geek? Hit or miss.If anyone has a suggestion of a good webcomic that I should check out, please let me know.
• From the City Paper: Social Studies: “Ho Down” and The Cool of Birth
• May the Farce Be With You – a look at the upcoming Robot Chicken/George Lucas collaboration
• Silly song? Yeah… maybe.
  Silly video? Yeah.
  But, damn and a half if I still don’t like Walk the Dinosaur. It makes me bum wiggle.
• OldSuperstitions.com – The Largest List of Superstitions on the Web
• By way of The Guardian Unlimited: Fascist America, in 10 easy steps
• Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! is coming to Salt Lake City in June. Details here.
• To seek the sacred river Alph
  To walk the caves of ice
  To break my fast on honeydew
  And drink the milk of Paradise…
• Steampunk guitar
• From the “Things that make you go ‘Hmmm’ ” file: Satan responsible for illegal immigration, saysUtah delegate

Out-of-Context Quote of the Day

: You don’t need lube for grab-ass.

Namaste.

Saturday – 28 April 2007
“Sundown”

It’s both the name of a Gordon Lightfoot song and today’s episode of Legion of Super Heroes. But, since this is my blog – and it’s a Saturday morning – it’s a fair bet that this post will have very little to do with the song (even though it is a pretty decent song).

This was the first of a two-part episode. It opened strongly, with the Legion taking on the Fatal Five… and getting trounced. While newly-elected leader Bouncing Boy is still reeling from this, an emergency alert is broadcast: The Legion is called to a weapons depot to keep a weapon from being released. No one, not even the guards, know what the weapon is; they just know that it can’t get out. The LSH arrives on the scene and searches for the weapon – which is trying to break free of the facility. Artificial intelligence, go figure. After the weapon goes a couple of rounds with various Legionnaires, Brainiac 5 identifies it: A sun-eater. The sun-eater breaks free and begins a journey towards a nearby star to feed. One problem: It’s a red star, meaning that Superman will be powerless. Undaunted, the LSH pursues and takes on the sun-eater again. The fight was well-choreographed and the characterizations were pretty solid, too. We also got to see Sun Boy in action – for the first time that I’m aware of.

The conclusion airs next week; the previews show a LOT of LSH-related characters engaging the even more-power sun-eater.

As long-time Legion fans know, the sun-eater crisis also involved the death of a Legionnaire: Ferro Lad. In the original comic story, Superboy was going sacrifice himself to detonate a bomb in the sun-eater’s core. He was subdued by Ferro Lad, who carried the bomb to the sun-eater. I will be interested to see if the next episode follows through with this and, if so, how they will treat it.

Long Live the Legion!

…and I don’t mean the Mormon Pope, either.

Good work and good scouting to Derek for pointing this out.

His Chocolate Holiness,
Pope Groovalicious

Tuesday – 23 April 2007
So far, it hasn’t been a bad morning. When the alarm went off, I was up… hit the deck… made it into the kitchen and started my coffee…

…and then went back to the bedroom and laid back down.

The alarm on the iPod – set to music – went off a few minutes later. I listened to it as I faded in and out of sleep for the next forty-five minutes. I got up, observed the hygiene rituals, ironed my shirt, took out the trash, grabbed my gear and headed out.

I had to take some equipment to the north office before making my way to A.F. While there, I talked with , who suggested that I check out two of the stop signs near the parking deck before I left. He said that it would be worth my time. When I got there, this is what I found: 1, 2. Definitely worth it. Then I was on the road.

Along the way, I discovered a new form of road monkey: The PoW monkey. “PoW” being short for “Piece of Work.” I was fortunate enough to see two of them this morning! Both within… a half-mile to a mile of each other. I was coming up the north face of Traverse Mountain when I encountered the first one – a lady in the fast lane… on her cell phone… not looking out the windshied… going about 59 MPH. Did I mention that she was in the fast lane? I did? Okay. She was completely oblivious to the line of cars stacked up behind her. That must have been one HELL of a conversation. A number of us passed her, on the right – we couldn’t get around her fast enough. The second PoW monkey was driving some large, boat-sized car. Also in the fast lane. Also oblivious. This monkey was an older gentleman, so I was willing to cut him a little more slack. Just a little, though.

It’s Day Two of Suit Week. Today’s choice:

• Olive double-breasted suit
• Cream and white cotton/poly blend shirt, long-point collar
• Olive, brown and gold abstract tie
• Tan woven leather tassel loafers.

Brett’s looking rather dapper in a rather nice black-and-white Glen Plaid single-breasted suit, with a black shirt. Once again, there were more comments from coworkers. Although, there have been fewer “Where’s your interview” comments and more “You guys look nice” or “You guys are making us look bad” ones.

Stray Toasters

• Derek has erected a Code Monkey shrine at his desk. It amuses me.
• YouTube has deleted the Code Monkey/Stargate: Atlantis video from its servers. Last night, I discovered that I had… creatively acquired… a copy of it a few weeks ago.
• I found a new way to look at Marvel’s Civil War: It was really a thinly-veiled version of Pokemon. Think about it.
  • Tony Stark (Iron Man) would be Ash (NOT to be confused with Ash from Evil Dead)
  • In Pokemon, the motto is “Gotta catch ’em all” and they capture the creatures in little balls. In Civil War, that’s what Tony and company were trying to do – catch all of the non-registered metahumans… and put them in little cells in the Negative Zone.
  • Pokemon has Team Rocket, the “bad” guys… with that annoying cat. Civil War had the New Avengers, portrayed as the bad guys… with the often-annoying Spider-Man.
  • I’m sure that there are others, but that is a good enough starting and stopping point.
• GamerZ. What in the Nine Hells..?
• This week’s Homestar Runner ‘toon even comes with an NPR reference. (Don’t forget the Easter egg at the end…)

Namaste.

Monday – 22 April 2007
So far, the day hasn’t been bad.

Today is the first day of Suit Week. Brett and I, for no other reason than “because we can,” are wearing suits. My weapon of choice:

• Black and white houndstooth single-breasted suit
• White cotton shirt, spread collar
• Black, red and white tie
• Black cap-toe lace-up oxfords

Of course this has led to a number of “why are you wearing a suit” questions. Although, I did one exchange was rather amusing:

Dave: Are you trying to upgrade the quality of fashion around here?
Me: I’ve been trying to do that for the past two years.
Ty: After all that time, without any success, he’s still trying.
Me: No. I just got to the point where I don’t care about the rest of you. You can all go float rocks for all I care.

The morning commute wasn’t bad either. The monkeys were fairly well-behaved. I had a large cup of triple-shot laden frozen mocha goodness. And, Nomad found a good selection of songs… and apparently was on a bit of a Will Smith/Men in Black kick, too:

• Duran Duran – Notorious
• Harry Connick, Jr. – Funky Dunky
• Will Smith – Nod Ya Head (remix)
• Will Smith – Men in Black

Back-to-back, although in reverse order, MiB themes. I think that the only thing that could have made it more amusing would have been if the theme from the animated series had made it into the rotation.

Stray Toasters

• I’m tempted to email this article around the office: Esquire’s Guide to Shirts and Ties
• Vindication is a wonderful thing.
• will be on the Treasure Valley Rollergirls team that will be here in June.

Namaste.

Sunday: coda
I need more time on the driving range.

It’s not so much a matter of feeding the newfound addiction as it is that I don’t want to injure, maim or kill anyone.

Out of the 100 balls that I had (105, if you count the one’s gave me out of his bucket), I managed to – somehow – hit four or five of the balls behind me.  Into the area where spectators stand.  With a good amount of force.  While physics and I aren’t necessarily on hanging out terms, we have come to terms and I do have a basic understanding of forces and vectors.  Although, to have seen those balls, you would not have known it.

Despite this, I had a fun time.  I hit a few solid drives.  And a lot of ground-skimmers.

After our time on the live ammunition obstacle course… I mean “driving range,” , Chris and I went to lunch.  Mimi’s Cafe.

The Scales of Justice
After a good afternoon out, it was time hit the mean streets Paragon City.

I was invited to join a team with an old teammate.  After that team broke up, I was invited to join another team.  All in all, it was a productive patrol: I hit Security Level 24… and made it a few bubbles in the direction of Level 25.

Stray Toasters

• I have a bottle of Merlot.
• I do NOT have a corkscrew.
• The above statements, together, both amuse and frustrate me.
• , by way of , sent me a link to the following: Mechs in the II World War   And, all I can say is “Wow.”
• It would be great to learn ASL (American Sign Language).   But, is it bad that part of me wants to learn because of this video?
• I’m liking Thunderbird.  The email client, not the drink.
• The Brave and The Bold #5, featuring….
  
• What happens when you cross Super Mario World with 300?  Something like this…
• …and “a certain movie” and pirates will give you something like this.
• and , in case you don’t already know: Goatse.cx domain is for sale
• This… is not a good thing.
  

  More info here.

• Do you remember the scene in The Incredibles when Bob and Lucius went “bowling” (i.e.: “snuck out to secretly fight crime”)?  And how… “unhappy” with that whole situation Helen was when she found Bob trying to sneak back in the house?

  Well, let’s extrapolate a little… hypothetically, of course.

  What happens when six guys – say these guys – decide to take a pro-active stance in shaping the course of events around the world.  And… what if they got caught “sneaking in the house,” so to speak, by say their respective significant others… like these ladies, for example?

  How much Hell do you think a certain six somebodies are going to have to pay?  Mm-hmm, that’s right.  A LOT.

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Friday (coda)
The work day ended well.  No coworkers were harmed.  No road monkeys were harmed on the way out of Happy Valley.

I headed to Borders directly from work.  I worked on – and finished (for the most part) – the drawing I’ve been working on; this drawing was based on Jim Croce’s You Don’t Mess Around with Jim.  I’m mostly happy with it, but I still want to do some work on the rightmost picture.  Shading mostly.  But, it’s done for now.  And I can move on to the next drawing… if only I had a lyric in mind to work with.  I also realized that I don’t think I posted a link to the last drawing: It was based on Barenaked Ladies’ When I Fall.

The rest of the Clitorati showed up a little while later.  And hilarity ensued.  As usual.  A former coworker, from the REC, joined us tonight.  And, we had a special surprise guest: .  It’s kind of funny: The original groundwork for Clitorati came from the Friday nights that she and I would spend drawing.  Okay… let me amend that: She would draw and she would coach me in developing my drawing skills.  That was… about six years ago.  Then, we started inviting people to come join us and hang out.  And they told two friends.  And so on.  And so on.  And so on.  And now, we’re here.  Roll the bones.
Stray Toasters

• This song came up in the iTunes rotation at work.  It makes me laugh… and sing along.
• Coworker Matt sent me the following, after learning about a new Firefox plugin:
  

  Matt: http://digg.com/software/Firestorm_Adds_BitTorrent_Support_to_Firefox
  Matt: Super hero
  Matt: College student
  Matt: Multiple-personality disorder
  Matt: And now…
  Matt: Firefox developer!

• The 28 Days Later Survival Test
  My results:  The Handyman -  81% Combatives, 71% Survival, 80% Judgement
  I showed the test to Tyranist…

  Me: How’d you do?
  Tyranist: 99% in all three categories.
  Me: …
  Me: Wow.
  Tyranist: Too many horror movies.
  Me: Okay.
  Me: You’re one to keep around.

• Quotes from The Long Kiss Goodnight
• I am about 153% sick of pop-over ads.

Namaste.

More amusement from xkcd…

• This is what sparked yesterday’s grue question…
  
• And this amuses on general principle…
  

I’ve been informed that it’s snowing in SLC.  Does this mean that zombie Jesus did not see his shadow when he came out of his tomb and that we have six more weeks of winter?  Or should I just chalk it up to “It’s Utah…?”

Friday – 13 April 2007
Last night, I started on the new lyric drawing. I’m about halfway done… unless I decide to get OCD about one of the sections. We’ll see how that goes.

This morning started early. Well, what should ostensibly be my “normal” time… but hasn’t been for the better part of the week. It also started with a chalice of frozen mocha goodness and a quick stop in the north office.

Then the fun began.

Actually, the fun began before this but the story isn’t as good if I didn’t word it that way. *shrug* As the song says, “Time is a spiral, space is a curve.” So, by that rationale, I can make this as non-linear as I so choose.

The race with the road monkeys was fraught with obstacles. You would think that they could climb, swing, jump or otherwise avoid said obstacles. Apparently, I gave them far too much credit. There were three roadside incidents, one on the I-15 southbound collector from I-215, two on southbound I-15. And all of them – ALL of them – brought with them the phenomenon known as “spectator slowing.” Seriously, that’s how the radio stations here refer to it. For those who can’t suss it out from the name: “Spectator slowing” occurs when commuters slow – nearly to the point of stopping – to stare at an accident or someone getting a ticket… or someone who’s pulled onto the shoulder to make a phone call. And Utahns are no-no-notorious (notorious!) for doing it. In fact, the “second” incident on I-15 was caused by spectator slowing tied to the first I-15 incident.

So, the commute had pockets of stop-and-go flow. (There’s a bad joke in there to the effect of “See your doctor if this describes your symptoms…”). Knowing how the road monkeys often react, I’m sure that there were a lot of angry commuters in their shiny metal boxes. I, on the other hand, was cool with the whole thing. Why? Because the technopathic link with Nomad was in full effect again this morning:

• Rush – The Body Electric
• Rush – New World Man
• Madonna – Die Another Day (while possibly not a “great” song, it’s one I like AND it was quite possibly the best part of the movie by the same name)
• Rush – Kid Gloves
• Led Zeppelin – Rock and Roll (I think Nomad chose this solely for the fact that we were in the CTS… and it’s a good song)
• Rush – Turn the Page
• Rush – Force Ten
• David Bowie – I’m Afraid of Utah Drivers Americans
• Parliament – P-Funk (I Wants to Get Funked Up)

In that order. Without me having to skip through songs. I am seriously beginning to think that ‘s sentient Winamp technogeist has taken up residence in Nomad. Which is cool… as long as it doesn’t start trying to reshape the Federation in its image. But, the fact that it was pumping out good music just meant that the traffic jams were allowing me more time to enjoy it.

Stray Toasters

• I was sent a link to this by Nyx…
• …which, amusingly, ties in nicely with this:
  
• Nyx also hooked me up with some Goldfrapp vids:
• White Horse (Isle of White 2006)
• Strict Machine
• Number 1
• Do you think that someone has a wee bit too much free time?
• WizKids explains the new Powers and Abilities Card and Special powers, using the Legion Starter Game.
• I may have to add another statue to my collection. Click the image for a full view.

Quote of the Day
This came from Tuesday night’s aborted gaming session:

and I started talking about our characters in City of Heroes/Villains. At one point, while I was talking about Nefer-Tem and his new abilities, he looked at me and this exchange came about…

nox_aeternus: Is it not true that when you go from running around half-naked, showing off your manly chest, to your Kheldian form, you are a nebulous ball of purple energy?
shadorunr: No, I’m a squid.
nox_aeternus: Are you sure?
shadorunr: Yes.
nox_aeternus: Because, when I saw you, I half-expected to see you hanging out around Prince’s groin.

Namaste.

Thursday – 12 April 2007
Last night, I played Battlefield 2142 for the first time since God was a boy.  Okay, it hadn’t been that long, but it had been since early January.  I met up with the rest of team and we exchanged bullets, rockets, and grenades with opposing forces.  It was fun.  I do, however, need to remember to turn Multiplicity off before playing – the mouse kept tracking over to Intrepid at inopportune moments.
I woke up with a phenomenal (do DO do-do-do) headache this morning.  I decided to take some Aleve and sleep in.  That seemed to do the trick, for the most part.  I still have a slight twinge, but not nearly as bad as it was earlier.

I’m not sure if the headache was contagious or if I’m developing a new level of technopathy, but Nomad was a bit cross this morning, too:

• David Bowie – Look Back in Anger
• Rush – War Paint
• MC 900 Foot Jesus – While the City Sleeps
• Prince – Electric Chair

That’s right, my iPod is apparently not to be trifled with.

Quote of the Day (so far)
Excerpted from a conversation with :

[10:33] shadorunr: So..
[10:33] shadorunr:  I saw [this]
[10:33] shadorunr: And the first thing in my head was
[10:33] shadorunr: “Vagina Dentata…….”
[10:33] shadorunr: To the tune of Hakuna Matata
[10:33] shadorunr: Hell.
[10:34] shadorunr: Handbasket.
[10:34] nyx_hemsut: hahahaahahaahahahahahahahaha
[10:34] nyx_hemsut: I loves you 😀

And that’s that.

Namaste.

Monday – 09 April 2007
I, very unintentionally, slept in this morning.  Apparently, Saturday night’s lack of sleep, coupled with Sunday morning’s early awakening, caught up with me.  Sleep Hard: With a Vengeance (coming soon to a theatre near you!)  The rest of the day was cake.  Aside from the road monkeys, there were no other monkey antics in the day.  I consider that a plus.

After work, I met at ‘ders.  I thought about starting a new drawing, but I didn’t have anything in mind to work on.  So, I thumbed through magazines.  I also found a plethora of interesting links that I want to explore.  And, I think that I have a couple of lyric-to-drawing ideas.  I need to give them some consideration.

And, of course, I watched the Jack Bauer show.  *beep*…*beep*…*beep*…*beep*… (fade to black)

Stray Toasters

• I had far more fun on the driving range than I think should be allowed.  Especially since my swing and accuracy are very inconsistent.  Very.  After whacking a few golf balls down the range, I tried my hand at the putting green.  There were no windmills or clown faces, but it still was not a piece of cake.  At one point, I tried a long putt.  While I was lining up my shot, I had an image of Electronic Arts’ PGA Tour Golf (for the SEGA Genesis, of course) putting green, with hash marks and lines denoting the lie of the green.  It made me laugh.  (Sidebar: I didn’t know that EA had acquired a company in the SLC area.  Apparently, they did it last year.)
• League of Marvels: Denouement – Custom-crafted figures, done in the style of an alternate Marvel Universe. (, check out the Kurt Wagner figure.)
• For some reason, saying “nukerate” amuses me much more than simply saying “microwave.”
• A few years ago, I picked up a copy of Dragon Magazine Archive, the first 250 issues of Dragon Magazine on CD.  I was perusing a few issues today and read some of the comic strips in the “Dragonmirth” section.  On a whim, I decided to see if I could find any information on a couple of the strips online.  I found more than information on two of them, I found websites: Yamara and Twilight Empire.
• By way of (not to be confused with Sgt. Trellos from Squad 003): The 10 Worst PCs of All Time
• All that I can say to or about this is, “Amen.”
  
• I was explaining “non-sequitur” to someone the other day, when the name “Non-sequiturial Guinea” popped into my head.  I wonder if Equitorial Guinea would mind changing their name and, if so, what their flag would look like.
• It all makes sense now…  (Thanks,