Random Access

Tuesday – 31 May 2011
I don’t know if this is Mother Nature’s parting gift or the setup for an incredibly cruel joke, but it’s a lovely morning. It’s sunny and clear, temps are in the 50s, on their way to the mid-70s. Everything about it says “Today’s going to be a great day.” Yet, my inner cynic is still waiting for the other metaphorical meteorological shoe to drop.

Yesterday was a fairly quiet, low-key day. SaraRules! and I did get a little productivity in, though. We added some new items to the baby registry. We looked at tile for the new bathroom. And, we discovered a new place to eat. Well, it’s not really “new,” as much as it’s “new to us:” Mama’s Plantation Restaurant, in the Midvale Family Center (near the Wal-Mart). had mentioned it a while back, but SaraRules! and I never got to visit it at its old location in Taylorsville. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that it wound up in our extended neighborhood. The food and the service were good. The pricing may be a little on the steep side, but it was a nice change of pace and someplace we will revisit.

…and tonight: Guys Night Out.

Stray Toasters

• Today is apparently World No Tobacco Day (1, 2)
  • World No Tobacco Day: Does it really help people quit smoking?
• Arts-Funding Site Gets ‘Kickstart’ from Business Bids
• Sheryl Sandberg: Why We Have Too Few Female Leaders
• 
• Suspended in Space, 103 Stories Above Chicago
• By way of SaraRules! and the “I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane train!” file: Vietnam on alert for smugglers after deadly snakes found on train
• Retailers Offer Apps With a Catalog Feel
• 
• Who’s to blame when gas costs $1 than last year?
• Housing Index Is Expected to Show New Low in Prices

On with the show…

Namaste.

Monday – 30 May 2011
Today is Memorial Day.

Please take time to remember those who have fallen in the line of duty to protect the freedoms that we hold dear.

This has been a good weekend. Saturday, I took Ron up to Clearfield to see the O-Gauge layout at Almosta Junction. My friend, Dee, met us there. One of the guys from Almosta offered to fire up a train and let it run. We took him up on it. After hanging around for a while, Ron and I headed back to SLC and over to shockpuppet and ‘s place for their summer kickoff barbecue. Mother Nature, however, had other ideas. The party wound up moving inside… but it was just as much fun. (And far less wet.)

Sunday was a sleeping-in day. I made it to 9:30. It was also a fairly lazy day, which came under the heading of “not a bad thing.” SaraRules! and I picked up Ron and headed up to the in-laws’ for dinner. After we ate, we watched a movie called Wild Target. It was a funny romp about a hit man who’s not-s0-sure he wants to stay in the business… and the problems he has completing his last assignment. While my FIL and MIL had seen it before, none of the rest of us had. It was quite worth a viewing.

Stray Toasters

• How to Observe Memorial Day Weekend
  • Forgetting Why We Remember, courtesy of
• microkosmic, by way of

  

• Painful workarounds from computer novices
• Review: ‘Wonder Woman’ Pilot
• 100,000 People (Including Princess Leia) Still Recieve Electoshock Therapy Each Year?
• Cleaning Up Japan’s Radioactive Mess with Blue Goo

Namaste.

Saturday – 28 May 2011
The sun is up and playing Hide and Seek among the clouds. This is good.

Last night, SaraRules! and I, along with our friends Marie and Josh, had an evening out. We had dinner at Settebello (all of us had variations of the same pizza), dessert at Capo and then attended Utah Symphony’s final concert of the 2010-11 season:

The program consisted of:

• Charles Ives – Three Places in New England
• Richard Strauss – Four Last Songs
• Igor Stravinsky – Le Sacre du printemps

I’d not heard the Ives nor the Strauss pieces before. The Ives was a chaotic and frenetic piece; it was the aural equivalent of a hurricane. Yet, in the midst of the storm, Maestro Fischer did a fantastic job of  coordinating the musicians. If Three Places in New England was the leading edge of the hurricane, Four Last Songs was the calm eye of the storm. The movements were melodic and serene. Soloist Janice Chandler Eteme‘s performance was beautiful and very well-received — very nearly the entire hall gave her a standing ovation, with three curtain calls. The program closed with La Sacre du printemps (“The Rite of Spring”), another hectic and wildly energetic piece. As the symphony played, I realized that this piece is, in my opinion, one of the musical compositions that should be experienced as a live performance.

During and after the performance, I pondered Director Fischer’s choices for the selections used in this concert. I found there to be something of a counterpoint to the selections — the upbeat and chaotic sounds of Three Places and Rite, contrasted against the mellow tones of Four Last Songs. I also came to the conclusion that ending the season with pieces as energetic as Three Places and The Rite of Spring was akin to ending the season with a very emphatic exclamation point. It closed the season on a very strong  note, so to speak — showing that even at the end of a season, Utah Symphony was able to end things with a bang.

All told, the concert was a fine finish to Maestro Fischer’s first season as Music Director and was an excellent end to Utah Symphony’s season.

Stray Toasters

• Gil Scott-Heron, Poet and Musician, Has Died
  • Poet, musician Gil Scott-Heron dies
  • In Memoriam: Gil Scott-Heron, “The People’s Poet”
• Ow. Yesterday’s workout is now having its revenge upon me.
• RSA SecurID breach linked to hacker attack on Lockheed Martin; other US military contractors may be affected
• Too Young for Kindergarten? Tide Turns Against 4-Year-Olds
  With a late October birthday, I was four when I started Kindergarten… and I think I turned out alright. Being the youngest in my class never really bothered me.
• Saudi woman wants to give women the right to drive in her country
• 

• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” AND the “Only in Utah…” files comes: Headline of the Week: “Horse herpes outbreak forces rodeo queens to ride stick ponies”
• Anchor from Blackbeard’s ship raised after 293 years off North Carolina coast
  The first thing that came to mind when I read this was, “I wonder if raising the anchor has anything to do with the new Pirates movie coming out…?”
• Blue Angels commander steps down after subpar performance
• 

• A 911 Call That Can Save a Sirloin, and The Griller’s Ego
  • Goodbye Food Pyramid, Hello Dinner Plate
• The Slow, Strange Death of the Demo

Namaste.

Friday – 27 May 2011
It’s my 9/80 day off… and it’s the start of a four-day weekend. I’m good with that. I’m looking forward to a bit of downtime this weekend.

Last night, SaraRules! and I hit the local Noodles & Company for dinner, ran a few errands and then came home for a quiet evening in. I fired up the 360 and tried my hand at the CoD: Black Ops mission that’s been kicking my ass for the past little while. I finally had to look up some hints online. Same result, but I think I finally figured out what I need to do differently. (Aside from the general “not get killed” concept.)

This morning, I slept in… until 8:15. Hey, it’s later than my normal mornings, so it counts as “sleeping in.” After seeing SaraRules! off to work – and puttering around the house for a bit – I dragged my sorry carcass out of the house and into the gym for the first time in [REDACTED]! I have witnesses to prove it — I ran into ‘s dad and former coworker/current co-gamer Josh. Today’s workout consisted of:

• Elliptical: 20 mintues/Level 3/Random, pacing between 5.0 and 5.5 MPH
• Bench Press: 3 sets/8 reps, 135 lbs.  (Gotta start somewhere…)
• Curls (dumbbell, seated): 3 sets/10 reps, 20 lbs
• Lateral Raises (with Flys): 2 sets/10 reps, 10 lbs
• Shoulder Press (dumbbell): 3 sets/8 reps, 30 lbs
• Flys: 3 sets/8 reps, 100 lbs

Not too bad for the first workout in a while. It’s my One Little Victory of the morning.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules! found – and sent – a link to an alternate version of Starfish and Coffee. I like it.
• Union Pacific’s Great Excursion Adventure is under way!
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Tiki Barber under fire for outrageous Anne Frank comparison
• 
• 2011 Twilight Concert Series Announced
• I caught this item, Christopher Meloni responds to my SVU comic, by way of Comics Alliance yesterday. What cracked me up was the following:
  

  I got the email at work, and as soon as I read it, I said “HOLY SHIT” pretty loudly (and I then had to explain the whole thing to my boss, because you don’t get to say something like that and then say, “Oh, nothing”). First, I was excited because Christopher Meloni is totally rad (if you somehow have not seen Wet Hot American Summer, what is wrong with you?). Second, I was even more excited that Ice T had seen my comic and apparently liked it; I had assumed that if he ever saw my comic, he’d tell me to eat a hot bowl of dicks. (Thanks, Ice T, for not telling me to do that! Because I would have done it, out of respect. Respect and fear.)

  What made it curious was that the “…eat a hot bowl of dicks” part had a link attached to it. That bore investigation. The link led to was: Ice-T to Aimee Mann: ‘Eat a Hot Bowl of Dicks’, which was apparently the Twitter equivalent of a drive-by. And the account was hilarious. It almost made me want to sign up for a Twitter account. Almost.

• 
• Shore Things: 12 Essentials for Every Man’s Beach Bag
• Passenger coached to fly plane after pilot incapacitated
• When Children’s Scribbles Hide a Prison Drug
• 
• Study Questions Treatment Used in Heart Disease
• Mahna Mahna…
  (do-DO-do-do-do)

Time to find some lunch and get on with the day.

Thursday – 26 May 2011
It’s my “Technical Friday.” And, since we’re going into Memorial Day weekend, that means that this is a four-day weekend. Win.

Last night, SaraRules! and I went to Rodizio Grill for dinner. At least one of us (*raises hand*) decided to indulge in one of the Seven Deadly Sins. When we left, I was quite full. When we got home, I read the day’s four-color haul before calling it a night. (And I was still very full from dinner.)

Stray Toasters

• Roger Goodell: Time coming soon to cancel first NFL game due to lockout
• Studying the Frequency of Redaction Failures in PACER
• I should play DCUO or City tonight…
• 
• NASA to Launch New Science Mission to Asteroid in 2016
• Less Active at Work, Americans Have Packed on Pounds
• Egyptian pyramids found by infrared satellite images
• Sony expects to spend at least $171 million over breach
  • If I ran the zoo…
• Operation Seduction
• 
• Boeing considers replacing the best-selling 737
• Lawsuit claims Cisco bears blame for Falun Gong abuse
• John Edwards to Face Criminal Charges

Namaste.

Wednesday – 25 May 2011
It’s not just midweek. Nor is it just new comics day or D&D 4.0 game night…

Today is also Towel Day. (1, 2)

For those who don’t grok why a towel should have it’s own day, perhaps this will help explain it:

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)¹

That pretty much sums it up.

Last night, SaraRules! and I ran a few errands – including setting up a baby registry at the local Babies ‘R’ Us – and then capped the evening with cups of ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. We also (finally) got around to watching last season’s finale of NCIS… which, not so oddly, explained a few things about this past season. Go figure.

Stray Toasters

• Given that the sun was out for about seven hours before I got home, I mowed the lawn yesterday. I may have cut it a little shorter than I had originally planned… but it’s cut. And it looks much better. Now, I just need to find some time to do the edging.
• What Will Come After
• The Facts (and Fiction) of Tornadoes
• A New Approach to Railroad Switching
• USA comes up a bit short in global Better Life Index
• 
• Oh, the Stuff Those Lions Guard
• Secret Origins: Firestorm
• Google Expected to Introduce a Wireless Payment System
• This is what happens when we don’t vaccinate
• 
• The Stanford Prison Experiment
• Chrysler Pays Back Rescue Loan

Quote of the Day
“Rebar is not forgiving…”

So long and thanks for all the fish.

¹ — Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Tuesday – 24 May 2011
I think that 10,000 Maniacs said it best:

The color of the sky as far as I can see is coal grey.
Lift my head from the pillow and then fall again.
With a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather…

“What a cold and rainy day. Where on earth is the sun hid away?”

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

Last night was a lazy night around the household. We noshed on pizza and finished the season of NCIS: Los Angeles. After that, SaraRules! watched Creepshow 2, while I surfed the Interwebs. There was a vignette in the movie, called “The Raft,” that reminded me of the ST: TNG episode “Skin of Evil.” In both, a “killer oil slick” devours/engulfs people. In doing a little – very little – research, I found that both the movie and that episode were released in 1987.

Stray Toasters

• I should listen to Hold Your Fire in its entirety today.

  

• 3 Classic Novels. 22 Minutes. Why Not?
• I like the premise behind Once Upon a Super Hero.
• Treats Without Calories? Imagine That
• Borders loses $132.3 million in second full month of bankruptcy
• 
• Lady Gaga Sales Stall Amazon Servers
• Top Ten Myths About the Brain
• From the “Whoops… my bad” file: Obama’s limo gets stuck on bump in Dublin
  If you can find it, the video is pretty amusing.
• Life’s Little Mysteries
• Gail Simone on comics, characters and Asheville
• 
• Steady Decline in Major Crime Baffles Experts
• The Human Skin Condition
• How spam works, from end to end

Namaste.

Friday – 20 May 2011
It’s my working Friday. We’ll see just how much monkeydom there is to deal with today. Hopefully, it won’t be too much.

Last night, SaraRules! and I went out for dinner at Pawit’s Royale Thai. As usual, the food was delicious. Pawit came out and chatted with us for a few. After that – and a quick trip to say “Hi” to the in-laws – we headed to one of the local Home Depot stores to look at bathtubs. That’s right, we’re about to kick “Project: Renovate” into gear.

Tonight, I get to hang out with a friend of mine from home whom I haven’t seen in roughly ten years.

Stray Toasters

• After talking about the Edmund Fitzgerald yesterday, Corey sent me this link about Odyssey Marine Exploration: A Bountiful Undersea Find, Sure to Invite Debate
• Make My Bed? But You Say the World’s Ending
• Gas prices could plummet for summer driving
• 
• The Real and Fascinating Origin of the Bikini
• America’s First Monorail
  • 1943 color photo of a Topeka, Kansas train yard
• Implant Allows Paralyzed Man to Move
• I’m getting tired of all of the “event” comics series coming out.  When it was one every few years, that was fine. You had an event and it meant something. Now, it’s just “Hey! You!  Buy this mini-series… and while you’re at it, buy all of these tie-ins!” Blah.
• Deal Reached on Extension of Patriot Act
• 
• Playboy puts all 57 years of its magazines online
  But, you’ll probably just click on it for the articles…
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Yes, a Cat-Food Brand Has Created Three iPad Games for Cats
• I think that I’m going to try and fix my 360’s RRoD.  God help us both.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 18 May 2011
Midweek finds a soggy, grey day settling in over the valley. (“Desert plain,” my ass.) And, naturally, with all of the rain – and snow – that we’ve had this Winter/Spring, flooding is now a concern — so much so that there have been major sandbagging efforts around the valley to hopefully stave off damage to homes and property.

Yesterday’s venture to the southern reaches was not bad. We (Minion #2 and I) were kept somewhat busy, so that helped pass the time. I made it back home in time to meet the swamp cooler techs, who were prepping our unit for use this season. (Of course, with the rain and cool temps we’ve had for the past few days, we don’t need to run the cooler. *sigh*)

Last night was also D&D 3.5 game night. We adventured. We didn’t die. I always view that combination as a “good” thing.

Stray Toasters

• Chemical Suspected in Cancer Is in Baby Products
  • Coffee Wards Off Cancer

• McNabb to Ravens “A Bad Match”
  • Locked-out players line up for cash loans
• Bionic hand for ‘elective amputation’ patient
• Blacks’ exodus reshapes cities
• 
• Walker moves to ban hospital visitation rights for same-sex couples
• One Death Provides New Life for Many
• Rock band KISS to play Carnival cruise ship
• 
• In Japan Reactor Failings, Danger Signs for the U.S.
• I completely spaced off the this past Monday was Miracle Monday.
  I actually owned this book many moons ago. I guess there’s still a chance that it’s lurking somewhere in my parents’ house.
  • Books — That is exactly how they work
• Fringe season finale = YeahbuhWHAT?!

Namaste.

Monday – 16 May 2011
A new week begins.  My week, however, will begin a little later than some others’, as I started the day with a trip to the doctor’s office. It was another appointment to make sure that Babies A & B are progressing as they should. (They are.)

This weekend was a good one:  Saturday, I stopped in at Dr. Volt’s Comic Connection to say “Hi” to Valerie Finnigan. She was there for a book signing and to promote her horror book, which is due this fall. After that, I traipsed up to Clearfield. (Hey… I had air and opportunity.) I picked up a few track pieces. I also stopped at The Train Shoppe when I got back to SLC, but left empty-handed.

Back home to clean up and get presentable for Utah Opera’s opening of Falstaff (1, 2), adapted from Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. The cast and crew of the production put on a delightful show. Although it’s a comedic opera, it didn’t suffer from being “too” over-the-top; director Christopher Mattaliano did an excellent job of balancing the opera’s humor with just the right amounts of (semi-)seriousness. It was quite a fun way to spend the evening.

Sunday, SaraRules!, Angy, and I went up to Millcreek Eggworks and Cafe for brunch. Mmm, coffee cake…  After a very satisfying meal, came back and helped me get the sprinklers online. (No busted sprinkler heads! Hoo-AH!) Later in the afternoon, SaraRules! and I made a pilgrimage to The Garden of Sweden. We didn’t buy anything, but we did come out with a couple of ideas. In the evening, we headed up to John’s (one of UO’s resident artists) for a birthday cookout. That was a LOT of fun. And we capped the evening with a visit to the in-laws… for yet more dessert!

Stray Toasters

• Space Shuttle Endeavour Is Readied, Once Again, for Its Final Launching
  • Farewell, my space shuttle
• An Explorer of Black History’s Uncharted Terrain
  • Entry from January 2010 I wrote about seeing Freedom Riders
• 14 Ways to Make Yourself Better Right Now
• 
• Rhode Island’s Medicaid Experiment Becomes a Talking Point for Budget Cutters
  • The real reasons why our health care costs are so high
  • Nursing Homes Seek Exemptions From Health Law
• I finally remembered to get some pictures and video of the new train layout.
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car up for auction
• Renaissance at Salt Lake Art Center
• The 43 best obnoxious responses to misspellings on Facebook
• Welcome back, Sony Online Entertainment and Playstation Network.
  • 
• I discovered something while reading a blog entry from . I didn’t realize that William Marshall (1, 2) the actor who played Dr. Richard Daystrom on the Star Trek: TOS episode “The Ultimate Computer,” also played Blacula in two movies AND was the King of Cartoons on Pee-wee’s Playhouse.  For some reason, I just never connected the dots.
• Foods With Benefits, or So They Say
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Australian dies after ‘planking’ on balcony, police say
• War Machines (with Gymnasts)

Namaste.

Monday – 09 May 2011
It’s a rainy night in Georgia day here in the Land Behind the Zion Curtain. (But, at least it isn’t snowing, like it is in the southern part of the state.)

Yesterday was a long day. Not because I had so many things to do. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I had so much free time that I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.

I started by sleeping in. That was followed by mowing the lawn (before it started raining). After a quick shower, I was hit with the first bout of indecision over what to do. I passed the time by surfing the Internet. When I finally got it in mind to get something to eat, it was early afternoon. I decided to head up to MacCool’s Public House. I had Finn’s Skins, along with the Buffalo Shepherd’s Pie… and a pint o’ Guinness. After lunch, I stopped in to wish

Back home for Round 2 of “What Do I Do Now?” (That, again, translated into some more surfing.) I also started looking at a couple of books that contained some ideas that I want to incorporate into my train layout. Yes, I believe that the layout – or at least half of it – might get a bit of an overhaul in the next few days. Around 6:15, I decided to have some more limited human interaction by heading over to the local Barnes & Noble and doing some drawing. Fortunately, I decided to look up the store’s hours before driving there: The store closed at 7:00. Feh. More surfing. I remembered that I still needed to do some grocery shopping, so I did that.

After I returned home, I put away the goods, ran a load of dishes and treated myself to a snack and some TV time. I caught up on a little more Human Target – and cleared a bit more space on the DVR – before calling it a night.

Stray Toasters

• Comic Books as Education
• I picked up three new cars for my railroad. Passenger cars. If I go with the layout scheme that I’m thinking of, I’ll be able to run two trains – one freight, one passenger – concurrently.
• 
• Obama Has a Bridge He Wants to Sell You
• The Utah Museum of Fine Arts is presenting: The Smithson Effect
• 8 False Tea Party-Republican Memes to Talk About Before You Go to the Polls
• Blogger announces own death after battle with cancer
• 
• Video: Bionic legs helping people walk
• Sci-Fi Ikea Manuals
• “Thor Loser”
• Hillary Clinton Photoshopped Out of Situation Room Photo

And now… Lunch from the Chow Truck!

Namaste.

Sunday – 08 May 2011
It’s Mother’s Day.

Happy Mother’s Day to my mother, stepmother, sister, mother-in-law, grandmothers and a certain mother-to-be, as well as to all of the mothers whom I count among my family and friends…

…as well as to the fathers who have picked up and carried the torch when a mother wasn’t around.

Okay, okay… let’s be serious here…

Alright… don’t literally drop the kids. But, you get the idea.

Today is also my stepmother and younger brother’s shared birthday:

I met Chris and Alex yesterday afternoon for lunch. We were going to David’s Kitchen… but they were closed. We wound up going to La Puente, instead. I hadn’t been there in a while, so it was a nice change of pace. After lunch, we headed up to Dr. Volt’s. I picked up some FCBD books – and the FCBD Green Lantern HeroClix figure – and hung out for a bit before kicking off last night’s tournament: a 1,000-point brawl. We had a good turnout (16 players) and a few new faces.

After the game, I came home and pondered what to do. I resolved the dilemma by fixing myself a bowl of ice cream and watching some DVR fare.

I’m not sure what I have on the agenda for today. If the weather holds, I might try to mow the lawn before it starts to rain.

Stray Toasters

• Word To Your Mother: The 1o Gushiest Mother’s Day Rap Songs
  • Hey, Mom, What’s Your Favorite Song?
• I should give some thought to the whole “breakfast/brunch” thing.
• Easily Distracted People May Have Too Much Brain
• 
• New Board Game Coming Soon — Star Trek Expeditions
• Thanks (I think…) to for pointing me towards: What Not to Crochet
• Johnny Depp Can’t Watch 3D Movies
• The Joy of Seersucker
  • Spring 2011: Trends That Matter
• 
• The art of Dan Hipp
• A Tour of an Abandoned Amusement Park in America’s Heartland

Namaste.

Thursday – 05 May 2011
It’s not only a NBN Thursday, but it’s also Cinco de Mayo.

…and the “obscure Mexican battle” was the Battle of Puebla.

Last night saw something of an exercise in futility in trying to accomplish the very simple goal of finding something to eat. SaraRules! was going out for dinner with a couple of friends from the Justice League Junior League, so I was on my own for dinner. Ordinarily, this would have meant grabbing a burger before heading to play D&D… but was still under the weather, so our game was cancelled. Thus, my options for dinner opened up a bit…

…and thus began my dilemma.

I finally figured out – about 8:00 PM – that I wanted Greek food for dinner. This would be easy to fulfill as City Creek Grill was close by!

Or so I thought.

They closed at 8:00. *sigh*

Okay. Fine. No problem. Dask’s wasn’t too far away. So, off I went…

…only to find that they had closed at 8:00, as well.

*grblsnrkx*

Leaving Dask’s, I tried to figure out what I had a taste for.

• Burgers? No.
• Rumbi Grill? No, I’d had that for dinner Tuesday night.
• Outback…? Maybe, but I would have preferred having a dining companion.

I wound up going to Barbacoa. I had a steak burrito. It was a good call. I got back home and started to catch up on Fringe, when SaraRules! got back home. All-in-all, it was a good evening.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
Jill Pantozzi, self-professed Geek Girl and blogger, wrote a good article about what it means to be a woman and to be a geek: I’m a Geek, Girl (& You Can Too!) In her article, she also extends her to comments to talk about peoples’ senses of identity, in general:

“…people, female or male, should be free to identify themselves however they like without being persecuted or looked down upon. Someone being proud of who they are or what they enjoy should be applauded.”

It’s a good read and one that I recommend to all.

Stray Toasters

• Mr. Lucas, the 4th is not to be trifled with
• Superman Actor Jackie Cooper Passes Away at Age 88
  • Jackie Cooper Dies at 88
• Mind-Controlled Artificial Arm Begins First Human Testing
• 
• Amazon cloud failure highlights customer responsibility
• The Limits of Nostalgia
• A Diamond in the Roughage
• With the movie opening tomorrow, I thought that this might be a (semi-)helpful primer on the God of Thunder: Comics, Everybody: The History of Thor Explained

  

• Last known World War I combatant dies at 110
• Sony breach prompts House data theft hearing
• Department of Justice asks NCAA why it does not have football playoff
• Intel Increases Transistor Speed by Building Upward

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Friday – 22 April 2011
It’s my 9/80 “on” Friday. S’okay… it’s the quiet, low-number-of-employees day. That’s a good thing.

Today is also Good Friday…

…and it’s Earth Day, too.

But, it’s still a Friday, and that means that the weekend is mere hours away…

Last night, after I got home from work, I went to the basement and ran my train around the layout for a bit. To those who don’t get “how” people can derive enjoyment from “…just watching a train go in a (modified) circle,” I don’t think that I can sufficiently explain it. But I do. And it was good. And fun.

After a failed trip to the Village Christmas Shoppe at Gardner Village (it’s closed… as in permanently) SaraRules! and I picked up dinner from the Papas – John and Murphy – and went home to watch The Godfather: Part III, which I’d never seen before. It was good. (Man, it was LONG, too…) I enjoyed seeing continuation and conclusion of Michael Corleone’s rise to power and how he wielded it.

Stray Toasters

• I’m playing phone-tag with two different service companies, while avoiding… umm, “delaying”… calling two others. Yay.
• Well, $#!* Swearing is good for you, sort of
  Really?! It took them 2 years to figure this out? I could have told them that in about 2 seconds.
• SLC church distributes free copies of the Quran
• 
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How 50 Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture
• Georgia nuclear reactor shuts down; investigation under way
  • Speaking of Georgia and nuclear power, I need to correct something that I posted (at least once) before: It turns out that former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was not a nuclear engineer, as I had previously been told. He did work in the field of nuclear energy, but wasn’t a physicist or nuclear engineer. (Source)
  • Fukushima Plant Is (Officially) Dead Forever
• There’s a new Green Lantern trailer…
• At Ebenezer Baptist Church, a Glorious Rebirth
• 
• Zombie comic tutorial for using the college library
• Inquiries Grow Over Apple’s Data Collection Practices

Namaste.

Tuesday – 19 April 2011
It’s a kind of grey-ish day. It’s currently not raining; it would be nice if that holds up for the rest of the day.

Last night was a very casual night around the house. SaraRules! and I had dinner in front of the TV. Our viewing choice for the night: Big Trouble in Little China, a movie that I had somehow managed to go twenty-five years without seeing. To her credit, SaraRules! warned me – before the movie started – that it was a “Cool World-Long Kiss Goodnight” Scale kind of film. She was right. (But, it was fun. Silly, but fun.) We also caught an episode of Top Gear.

Stray Toasters

• William Donald Schaefer, governor and mayor, dies
  • Remember Baltimore’s Champion, William Donald Schaefer

  

• Figure Out Where Your Tax Dollars Went
• Lucasfilm Animation’s New Building Is a Sandcrawler
• What Makes Music Expressive?
• BrikWars!
• 
• Parents, don’t dress your girls like tramps
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: UK gets Viagra-laced beer
• Adrianne Palicki, Chris Hemsworth and other superhero actors Simpson-ized
• Is Sitting a Lethal Activity?
• Here comes the sun (do-do-do-doooo)
  Here comes the sun
  And I say: It’s all right…
• How big an explosion could you realistically survive?
• 2nd teen survives leap from Golden Gate Bridge
• Malls Across America

Namaste.