Random Access

Tuesday – 25 September 2007
Last night, I stopped by to hang out with Perry and the kids. We watched Jeff Dunham: Spark of Insanity. Very funny.

called and asked if I had plans for the evening. She invited me to join her and Pat at Jitterbug for coffee.

Sidebar: I’m going to take a moment to toss out a/yet another friendly word out Jitterbug:

Jitterbug Coffee Hop
1855 South 700 East
SLC, UT 84105

Stop in, say hi to Bruce and get a cup of coffee, chai or a smoothie.
Have a sandwich, while you’re at it.

You can check out the menu here.

I told her I’d be there. The three of us sat around and shot the bull for a couple of hours… including an hour and change past the shop’s closing. Bruce came over and chatted with us for about the last hour-and-a-half.

Home again, home again. Jiggety-jig. I put together the second nightstand. It went considerably faster than the first one. While assembling it, I kept thinking: “I have a drill; why do I need a screwdriver?!”

Stray Toasters

• I have five bags of cotton candy.
• It’s 33° outside. Thirty-three. I call “bullshit.”
• Semaphore
• It’s Clobberin’ Time!
• From Wired‘s Games Without Frontiers: Halo 3 Balances Hot New Guns, Old-School Cool
• 
• Jonathan Coulton: Zombie-Fighting Troubadour
• What is your favorite article of clothing that you own?
• Steam-Driven Dreams: The Wondrously Whimsical World of Steampunk
• Steampunk Magazine #3
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Furries vs. Klingons bowling tournament this Saturday in Atlanta.

Time to hit the road and face the day.

Namaste.

Monday – 24 September 2007
You know that the week can only get better when you nearly launch yourself out of bed as the morning alarm goes off. And, yes, I do mean “launch.” I don’t usually have a problem with simply reaching over and turning it off. This morning…? I have no idea.

Other than that, the morning prep went fairly easily. I had the forethought of checking weather.com to get an idea of what to wear. It was in the mid 40s. Mid. Forties. *sigh* It’s too damn early in the year.

City of Heroes/Villains: Dhoruba
That’s right, … I took a trip to the Rogue Isles with the gay Mr. T. 😛

had Giroux and his mob o’ zombies running around Sharkhead Island and took me on as a lackey. We ran a mayhem/bank heist mission. I remembered how much I hate rent-a-cops and Longbow (at least on this side of the CoH/V line…) I also remembered how badly I need to get Mr. Dhoruba to level 14 so that I can get a decent travel power. Fortunately, I’m about halfway there… minus some debt.

Stray Toasters

• My left eye (not to be confused with My Left Foot) is being… bothersome… today. So much so that I’m actually wearing my glasses.
• One bedside table down, one to go.
• Superman: Doomsday review, from Comic2Film’s SuperNaut (chock full of spoilers)
• Taxicabs and the ‘bot.
• Copyright and tattoos: Who owns your skin?
• Simpsons scenes and their movie references
• Take a look at this picture of Clark Kent from this weekend’s episode of The Batman. Is it just me or does it look like they tried to make him look a bit like Brandon Routh’s Clark, from Superman Returns? (more stills from the episode)
• Poster of recommended and forbidden words for Chinese store clerks
• 
• Ass-kicking, watercooled steampunk PC

/lunch

Namaste.

Sunday – 23 September 2007
Another weekend draws to a close.

Sara got here as I was winding down cleaning mode yesterday. I finished up and we hung out for a bit before heading to and onlyaly’s, where I met (again, I think) ‘s mom, a very nice woman. I watched as introduced Chris to the joys of the liquor cabinet; I wonder what his head felt like this morning or if she was kind enough to tell him to drink lots of water before hitting the rack. All-in-all, ’twas a good bit of fun. By the way, : Who made that Merlot and the Shiraz?

This morning started lazily, as any good Sunday should. I called Perry to see what he and the family-unit were up to and tossed out the idea of meeting for coffee; he liked the idea and the day was set in motion. Introduced Sara to Perry, Kate and company. It was amusing to watch as the baby nearly leaped out of her high chair to jump into Sara’s lap. Followed very shortly thereafter by the middle boy. We hung out and chatted for a while…

…and when we left, I decided that it was time for a trip to CompUSAirways. I walked out empty-handed, although I was tempted to pick up a few items. One of the items was new memory for Intrepid, since I lobotomized it to up ‘Nine‘s memory. Something told me to hold off a bit, so I did. Then I saw the recently-reduced-in-price Mac mini. Mmmmm, Apple-y goodness. Again, I resisted. I also held off on a set of PC speakers and a secondary iPod speaker system.

From there, it was off to see if one of the seventy-leven area Barnes & Noble stores had a copy of The Prophet of Akhrahn. They didn’t have it. *shakes fist* I know that I saw it in one of their local stores around, I just have to remember which one it was.

Next on the docket: Follow-up ride up Emigration Canyon to see the foliage. There were more hints of reddish tones, but it still hasn’t changed much. It might be a little more vibrant in another week or so. Back down Parley’s and on to Jitterbug for lunch…. where we ran into Spydr and Uriah. Pleasant surprise, that.

Back home. I asked Sara’s opinion on the frames from yesterday’s Garden of Sweden excursion, since I was 50-50 on the matter. She thought the black one looked good with the pictures. I’ll probably wind up exchanging the silver frame for another black one. (And I still need to assemble the bedside tables.) Since, as lj user=”everydave” is fond of saying, I have the metabolism of a ferret on crack, I started getting hungry a short while later, so I started cooking dinner. And, I went at it in a two-birds-one-stone fashion: I grilled chicken thighs and then added some stir-fry vegetables to the pan and fixed rice in chicken broth, while I baked a couple of chicken breasts. Dinner. Lunch. Dinner(s) later in the week. Hoo-AH! Sara headed back to Cedar shortly after dinner…. and the bedside tables have still not taken the initiative to magically assemble themselves.

Football Update

• – Beat the Cardinals. At home. Selah.
• – Took it to the Hawks… in Atlanta.
• – Beat down the Lions. ‘Grats, !
• – Dropped one to the Sea-chickens.
• – Lost to the Raiders. The Raiders! C’mon, , what’s up with that?!
• – Lost to the Chiefs. Sorry, .
• – Scalped the Redskins. ‘Grats, !

Stray Toasters

• I just made a pretty damned good coffee milkshake. Then I spilled it all over the kitchen counter. *grblsnrkx*
• I just made another pretty damned good coffee milkshake. I did not spill this one all over the kitchen counter.
• “Madlessly.” I think this is my new favorite word.
• 
• Dr Volt’s is now open… on… Sunday?!
• “What’s a Nubian?” (NSFW)
• “Shower foul.”
• Someone with way too much free time compiled a list of Legion Action Figures., including HeroClix… although not all of the ‘Clix have been added, yet.
• Naomi Wolf on Colbert Report: 10 Steps to Fascism
• 
• From Worth 1000: Fake It Till You Make It
• HOW TO: Bleach-Stencil a Shirt
• Tyranist: Shaun of the Dead will be The Tower’s midnight movie on 12-13 October 2007.

Since the bedside tables don’t have the gumption to assemble themselves, I guess I’m going to have to do it.

Namaste.

Saturday – 22 September 2007
The day’s been good… and nominally productive.

I started the day off over coffee with and Perry and his kids. From there, it was off to run a few errands – including a trip to the Garden of Sweden. *genuflect* I went with the intention of getting a couple of bedside tables and wound up picking up frames for a couple of my railroad pictures.

And that’s when a problem reared its ugly head: I had originally thought that I’d just get black frames for the pictures; when I got to the store, I saw some pretty snazzy metal frames. I liked the metal frames because they might add to the retro look of the railroad pics – the pics are of trains from the early to mid-20th Century.

Conundrum.

I compromised: I got one of each. I will see which looks better with the pictures and proceed from there.

And now, it’s time to deal with the ugly beast known as “cleaning” so that I can chill for the rest of the day and weekend.

…and I even remembered (although, just barely) to record the season premiere of Legion of Super Heroes. Go, me!

Namaste.

The Best: Under the Boardwalk
The Drifters vs. Bruce Willis with The Drifters vs. Rockapella with True Image

The Drifters.  No contest.

However… there is one version that I didn’t list that always brings a smile to my face: This one.  I just wish that I could find a video of it.

Stray Toasters

• Alexandra and her Uppity Bitch Stick
• Darth Grom
• Yar!
  • Revenge!
  • Tasha!
  • Ishara!
• 
• Fates of real-life advertising icons
• By way of Bunny: IKEA – universal furnishings

Back to it.

Monday – 17 September 2007
And so, another week begins.

Friday, I spent the early part of the day elbow-up in servers, wires and DDR RAM. Yay. The first few racks I checked weren’t too bad; but the last one…? Not nearly as fun as it could have been. When I finished, I called it a day… and a week.

I ran a couple of errands and hit the road.

Destination: Cedar City
Objective: Visit Sara.

As with any good road trip, there were plenty of road monkeys with which I had to deal. Natch. Fortunately, by the time I got out of Payson, they had pretty much disappeared. The trip was rather uneventful, with the notable exception of a 15-mile stretch heading into Scipio… where the road is narrowed to one lane, in each direction. And did I mention the 55 (at best) MPH speed limit through there? Yeah. Icing on the cake. Monkeys and construction aside, I made decent time.

Friday night, Sara threw a potluck dinner party/get-together. Aside from a lack of the usual Friday-night people-watching, it could have easily been a Clitorati-esque gathering. Oh… and substitute wine for the usual caffeinated beverages, too. And there was Guitar Hero II, at which I proved once again that I either need never play it again or play it a lot and master it.

Saturday was a relaxed day that included:

• …a trip to Cedar Breaks National Monument. We hiked the Alpine Lake trail, which divides into an “upper trail” and a “lower trail,” which meet at the aforementioned lake.
• …kite-flying. Well, “some” kite-flying – the kite kept wanting to nose-dive into the ground. It looks like a couple of the lines on the parafoil are twisted, so I’ll need to see what I can do about correcting that.
• …dinner at Casa de Don Miguel’s, a small Mexican restaurant in town. I had an enchilada and burrito combination plate that was pretty good.
• …a trip to the local Dairy Queen, where I sated my craving for a chocolate-dipped ice cream cone. A craving that I keep neglecting to appease in Salt Lake.
• …EuroTrip. (Damn you, Tyranist.)

Sunday was an equally-if-not-moreso relaxed day. Sara and I hung out, headed to Chili’s for lunch and then to see Stardust. Having seen it before, I wasn’t as shocked by Robert DeNiro’s performance, although I was just as entertained by it as the first time I saw it. I paid a little more attention to Michelle Pfeiffer’s performance this time; I feel like I slighted it in my first review. She did an excellent turn as Lamia, a witch in search of Claire Dane’s Yvaine. I remember thinking at one point,”Lamia… Catwoman… Lamia… Catwoman…” I had forgotten how well she portrays villains/antagonists. After the movie was homework (for Sara) and geekery (for me) followed by dinner. And an episode of Coupling. (Damn you, Tyranist. Again!)

This morning’s commute wasn’t bad. Fortunately, the monkeys weren’t out en masse. And the fifteen-mile crawl wasn’t unbearable. And I made it to the office in good time. Of course, I realized, a tad too late that I didn’t caffeinate myself before leaving, so I will have to tread lightly when dealing with the monkeys, as the blood content in my caffeinestream is higher than usual. I should check the break room to see if there is anything brewable in there.

Football Update
I missed the game, but I did see that the Ravens shot down the Jets. Two down, thirteen to go…

Additionally, Congratulations (and “Thank you”) to for the beatdown his beloved Browns gave to ‘s Bengals.

Stray Toasters

• I need to definitely get to the Garden of Sweden this week.
• , did you and onlyaly get your Recommended Daily Allowance of speed, loops and corkscrews during your excursion to Coaster-opolis?
• 
• Superman: Doomsday comes out tomorrow.
  
• HALO 3 comes out in eleven days.
  …of course, that also means that I’ll need to get a 360 on which to play it.
• 
• Two down, two in a holding pattern.
• Discovery paves way for gamma-ray annihilation lasers
  Gamma Rays?! Are they mad!? Didn’t they learn anything from Bruce Banner’s accident?!
• Another man dies after marathon gaming session
• *voop*

Namaste.

Thursday – 13 September 2007
A new NBN Thursday begins.

Last night was a lazy, do-a-lot-of-nothing kind of night. And you’ll hear no complaints from me about that. I got home, figured out what to do about dinner and just… hung out. And, I talked (actual vox) with . Twas fun. The conversation ranged from silly to serious, with quite a few stops everywhere in between.

This morning, I actually did something that I haven’t done in a very long time: I wrote a letter. A real-life, honest-to-God, pen-and-paper letter. Not an email. Not a few lines on a greeting card. A letter. Granted, it was a bit short, but that’s not the point here. The point is: I wrote a letter. Not only that, I folded it, put it into an envelope, sealed, stamped and addressed it and put it in the mailbox.

City of Heroes/Villains: The Hand of Nefer-Tem
Since it had been a few days, I decided to do some crime-fighting in Paragon City. I logged in right as a Rikti invasion fleet was attacking the zone where I usually park my characters. So, I joined the fray. I was invited to join an invasion team and we started beating on things. After that portion of the invasion was repulsed, we went to another part of town to fight. After the invasions broke off, the team broke up.

A short while later, a member of my supergroup messaged me and asked if I wanted to join a team and run a few missions… some of my missions, at that. Hm… let me think about that… I joined. I had a few Devouring Earth missions to run. The first one kicked our collective asses eight ways from Sunday. After numerous deaths and some team restructuring, we muddled our way through it. We ran another D.E. mission, after that; it wasn’t nearly as disastrous.

Stray Toasters

• Aside from a little congestion – and a little frog in my throat – I am pretty much done with this whole cold thing.
• How to Survive a Horror Movie
• Have I mentioned how much I like this whole “Save and Continue Editing” feature? Lots.
• And, in continuing coverage from our “Tony Stark Is a Dick” file comes this gem, by way of Wizard:
  

  TONY’S TOY COLLECTION
  Unimpressed by G.W. Bridge’s houseboat, Stark feels the need to run down the inventory of his garage, which includes a boat, some planes, a spaceship and a flying submarine. Arrogant as always, he does, to his credit, segue very awkwardly from his brag session into his real business with Bridge. It’s hard to understand where Bridge’s reluctance comes from with a proposal that begins like this.

  

• By way of contrast: From the “Before Tony Stark was a complete dick” file: the Iron Man movie trailer.
• And, from the trailer: Would the Iron Man (Mark I) suit qualify as “steampunk?”
• By way of : IKEA room planners
• For the Bruce Campbell fans out there, Comics 2 Film is having a The Man with the Screaming Brain giveaway.
• For : Morris Day and The Time – 777-9311 and Color of Success
• From NPR: John Ridley’s Visible Man – Life After the NF-Hell
• 
• Apple, AT&T: Bosom buddies or odd couple?
• Jake, a coworker and workout partner, came over to ask a question about work and noticed that I have a Green Lantern figure on my desk. He asked if that was my inspiration/goal for working out. I looked at it and told him, “No, but I would have filled out my Hallowe’en costume a lot better if it had been!”

And, that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Sunday: Coda
Today was a good day.

Post-errand running and spending time at the driving range, I acquired a cup of frozen mocha goodness, picked up Sara and headed to the Hogle Zoo.

Click for pictures (and they’re great-huge, sorry to those of you on dial-up).

The weather was perfect: Sunny with a light breeze. After seeing the animals (and some prime people-watching), we headed up Emigration Canyon to see if the foliage had started to change. It had… but not much.

From there, it was back down to Parley’s Canyon… and on to Park City. For ice cream. Look, if Burt Reynolds and Jerry Reed could go to Texarkana for beer, we could go to Park City for ice cream. And we did. So there.

Westbound and down to SLC for dinner (and a little football) with Sara’s family. I met her brothers a few years ago – and, in a case of “small world gets even smaller,” I discovered/realized that one of them is a DJ at one of the local clubs – but hadn’t met her parents. Dinner was good. Football was football… but the game I’m concerned about is the Monday night game: The Ravens vs. Cincy. (That’s right, Ms. , it’s on!)

Then, home to load up on orange juice and Sudafed. Again. And work on the pics from the day.

posted this meme. I liked it. I’m copping it:

Copy this list. Leave in the bands you’ve seen perform live. Delete the ones you haven’t and add new ones that you have seen until you reach 25. An asterisk means the previous person had it on their list. Two asterisks means the last two people who did this before you had that band on their list. Three asterisks etc…

1. Nine Inch Nails*****
2. Aerosmith
3. Babyface
4. Barenaked Ladies
5. Ben Folds Five
6. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
7. Boyz II Men
8. Cake
9. The Cruxshadows
10. David Bowie
11. emmet swimming
12. India.Arie
13. Information Society
14. Jonni Lightfoot (pre-Air Supply)
15. Luscious Jackson
16. New Edition
17. Poe
18. Preservation Hall Jazz Band
19. Rockapella
20. Rush
21. Sister Hazel
22. Shawn Colvin
23. Squirrel Nut Zippers
24. Sting
25. The Who

Stray Toasters

• Just in case I haven’t mentioned it enough or there was some lingering question about it: I’m sick of being sick.
• Toll the bell
  Pay the private eye
  All’s well
  20th century dies
• Zaz!
• I think that I have a plan for the dining room: Railroad motif. I have some old railroad pictures that I think would look good, once framed. And then, although I’m still a little indecisive on this part, I may get some free-hanging shelves and put my HO and N-scale trains on them.
• How do I swear in foreign languages?
• I need to buy a new architect scale. *sigh*
• Going back through some old posts, I came across this one. It made me laugh.
• Y’know what…?
  The Candy Man can.
  Even after all these years.
• needs some attention.
• O-E-O-E-O!
• RFID implants linked to animal tumors
• VIKA Blecket

And, that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Saturday: Coda
I played a couple of hours of CoH this afternoon. As soon as I logged in, I was invited to join a team. Caught me a little off-guard, as I didn’t recognize the person who had asked me to join. Clarity came a few minutes later. And then it was off to adventure.

The Hand of Nefer-Tem is now at Security Level 35. And, with the new level came a new power. I decided to go for Dark Extraction, which basically allows me to extract the (waning) life essence from a defeated enemy, infuse it with energy and turn it into a “pet,” of sorts… kind of like Sparky was for Indigo Bolt.

I was feeling run-down, thanks to this lovely cold, so I decided to leave Paragon City and head to Arkham. I read a bit of Black Seas of Infinity, while chugging yet more orange juice. Reading soon gave way to sleep – I took a two-hour nap (a two-hour naaaaaap!). I felt a bit better, post-nap.

Then, it was on to breakfast.

Stray Toasters

• Velocirobs vs. T-Robs.
  “I’m learning to open doors.”
• The Elevens.
• I may try to squeeze in a trip to the driving range in the morning.
• Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit
• While driving to breakfast, LL Cool J’s The Boomin’ System came on the iPod. What is it about that song that makes it so timeless? And just damn good and fun to listen to? I think that it has secured a place on my list of “Driving Songs.”
• Beefcake! BEEFCAKE!!!
• I can tell that I’ll be making a pilgrimage to the Garden of Sweden soon: I’m looking up the prices for picture frames.
• Tiny Titans…. interesting….
• Behold the inertial-dampening powers of coffee creamer!

Quote of the Day
While talking about travel, we wound up discussing the need to remove one’s shoes at airport security. This led into the best types of shoes to wear and wearing socks. This, in turn, led to talking about removing one’s shoes at various airports. On the subject of McCarran International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas:

: “There’s syphilis on the floor! C’mon… Drippy hookers!”

Namaste.

Saturday – 08 September 2007
First off, Happy Hatching Day to Sib-4, !

Last night’s Clitorati was good. Sara, in town for the weekend, put in a special surprise guest appearance. The conversations were good, but the people-watching was a little lax.

This morning, Perry called to see if I wanted to get together for coffee. Not one to pass up early morning caffeination, I said that I’d be along shortly. I rolled out of bed, came in to check my email….. and the power went off.

*blink blink* Oooookay.

I checked the breakers, they were fine. But still, no power. So I called the power company. No reports of problems in the area, but they could send someone to check it out. The agent also suggested that I check with the apartment management or maintenance. I hadn’t thought of that angle; that’s what I did. I finished getting ready and rolled out. The ladies in the front office said that others had reported outages, throughout the morning, but that they weren’t long-lasting. I asked to have someone from maintenance check, just in case I had missed something.

Coffee with Kate, Perry and the kids was good. After I had thinned the blood in my caffeinestream, they invited me to go with them to Gardner Village. I have been “to” Gardner Village before, but that was usually on Sunday bike rides along the Jordan River Parkway; and the shops are closed on Sundays. It’s a quaint little shopping… village with a couple of restaurants. It was a nice way to spend a couple of hours.

When I got home, the power was back on. I have seen no notifications from Rocky Mountain Power nor from maintenance as to the nature of the problem, though.

And with that: Electricity, Electricity!

• Schoolhouse Rock! version
• Goodness version, from Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks

Enjoy!
Stray Toasters

• I have apparently picked up a cold. Let me add: I am getting seriously tired of the congestion and of having my voice intermittently decide that it doesn’t want to work.
• Wired’s How To Wiki: Write a Perfect Email
• Vikki just jumped up a few spaces on my “Favorite People” list.
• I had two people come up to me at work yesterday to ask me some “getting started” questions about working out.
• The Great Closet Migration is pretty much done. I still need to tweak a few things, here and there, but I am rather satisfied with the way it’s turned out.
• WB Unveils T-Works; free, expansive online animation
• Water, Gatorade or juice…? I should probably go with juice. Orange juice.
• Oran “Juice” Jones. The Rain.
• Juice: Pulp or pulp-free? I prefer pulp-free.
• 
• I feel a pilgrimage to the Garden of Sweden coming up…
• Toilet paper and paper towels: Over the top or under the bottom?
• Tentacle Hentai Birthday Cake
• 
  As if we needed yet another team break-up in the Marvel Universe. Who knows…? Maybe we’ll get “The New X-Men” and “The Mighty X-Men” and “Young X-Men” spin-off series outta the deal.
• Sorry, I just found a new low: Marvel Zombie Dark Phoenix. *shakes head*

I believe that a trip to Paragon City is in order.

Namaste.

Sunday – 02 September 2007
I don’t know what it means, but I had a dream with the following people in it:

• Rick James
• Eddie Murphy
• Bob Barker – in a blue-and-white seersucker suit… telling jokes (Whiskey Tango…?!)
• Will Smith

There were a other people in the dream, but I can’t remember whom nor can I remember the details of the dream beyond the fact that it was some kind of party. Bizarre.

, Chris and Perry are coming over in a bit to play dolls HeroClix. I’m finally getting a chance to test out my new Legionnaires. Or maybe I’ll just use Phoenix and call it a day. I do, however, need to figure out who I want to use, given the number of points we’re playing with.

Stray Toasters

• I neglected to get Rana’s opinion on something for Dad’s birthday. I didnt’ realize it until close to midnight. *sigh*
• “Did you just say ‘nut rolling?’ “
• Last night, Shelley, Kris, Jon (all former VI workers) and Gary (Shelley’s husband) popped in to VI while we were having breakfast. It took me a few moments to recognize who was who until I saw Jon – he reminds us of Tom Welling; in fact we nicknamed him “Clark,” due to the resemblance.
• By way of Tyranist: Why superheroes always win
• I have Nomad on Shuffle. Ezekiel 25:17 just played. It’s Sunday and it is derived from a couple of actual scriptures, but for some reason that verse, as done in Pulp Fiction, just seems a little… “not right”… especially with the punctuating gunfire at the end. But it did put a smile on my face. Yeah, yeah… I know: Hell. Handbasket. Gasoline drawers.
• I want to go to the Garden of Sweden. I don’t really need anything. But, I still want to go.
• Top 100 Undiscovered Sites

Errand-running, a frozen mocha and some cleaning are in my not-too-distant future. I should probably get a move on… or something that approximates it.

Namaste.

I decided to hang the last two Rush tourbooks while waiting for dinner to cook.

I had finished getting them all on the wall when I noticed that I needed to move the nail that Snakes & Arrows was on – the Vapor Trails book/frame had previously hung there and there was about a 5/8″ difference in how the two frames hung. I took S&A off the wall, measured and marked the distance and started pulling the nail out of the wall.

That’s when Far Cry started playing.

That made me chuckle.

As I finished rehanging Snakes & Arrows, I noticed that I needed to make a couple of minor adjustments to Roll the Bones.

That’s when Ikea (where I got the frames) started playing.

That made me laugh.

But, I got them all on the wall.

(click image for larger image)

Saturday – 25 August 2007
Any day that starts with coffee and a trip to IKEA can’t be all bad. This was no exception. The unusual thing is that this trip was not for me and I walked out with nothing new. Well, except for a new bible. I mean “catalog.” I then spent the better part of the afternoon helping Perry to assemble his newly-purchased bed frame… and then hanging out with him and the family.

Home now.

Soon, I’m off to Park City for the Park City Jazz Festival. (Thanks, !)

Stray Toasters

• For :

  

• While standing in the checkout line at IKEA, a couple walked up behind me and the guy said something to the effect of: “Oh my God…” when he looked at how crowded the lines were. I turned around and asked: “First time…?” He said,”No, I was here last weekend, but it wasn’t as bad as this.” I nodded. He asked me, “How long have you been doing this.” I smiled and said: “About 15 years.” He wrinkled his brow and said, “Not here…?”

  INTERNAL MONOLOGUE: Of course, not here, idiotstick. The IKEA here has been open for what… three months? *sigh* Common sense, unfortunately, isn’t.My response: “No, not here. There was one back home.”

  INTERNAL MONOLOGUE: Idiotstick.

• So… let’s take a quick look at some Civil Bore items a bit of the aftermath:
  • Tony Stark gets the wild hair to turn into Ash from Pokèmon and get people to sign up to play for his team… or get thrown in jail. (Gotta catch ’em all!)
  • As part of his master plan, he takes a bit of DNA from the late God of Thunder, Thor.
  • …and he makes a clone of him, not-so-affectionately referred to as “Clor.”
  • Clor, is.. um.. “a little” unstable.
  • Clor kills the former avenger, Goliath.
  • Civil Bore wraps up.
  • Thor… comes back from the dead. (Maybe he’s part-Vulcan or part-Kryptonian… who knows?!)

  Now, I mentioned Ash… I mean Tony Stark… at the beginning of this, right? Okay, good. So, when you first meet up with (read: “confront”) your former comrade-in-arms, especially an Asgardian god… AND the same Asgardian god that you, in your infinite wisdom, decided to clone, how can you expect that meeting to go any way other than this: (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) ?!? Oh, that’s right… you’re Tony Stark. Iron Man. A futurist. You don’t have to think about the rules.

  Or you’re just plain stupid.

• Transformers in IMAX? Hmm…
• Guy Gardner may not be my favorite Lantern, but WizKids got his ‘Clix figure and stats right.
• I should eat something. Soon.

Up out.

Namaste.

Friday – 24 August 2007
Last night’s “What should I have for dinner” conundrum was solved thanks to the timely intervention of lj user=”khayla”. She suggested sushi (Ika! Ika! Ika!). I agreed and we were off to the races, as the saying goes. We went to Tepanyaki; our chef, Don, was good. Not just that he was a good cook, but he also had personality. (“Personality goes a long way….”)

City of Heroes/Villains: View from the Aerie
After dinner, I took Corvus Nox back to Paragon City to get the last few thousand points he needed to hit Security Level 17. I joined a pretty good team and got the points needed… and moved a decent way towards getting to Level 18.

As I was preparing to log out, I stopped outside the Talos Island train station to try and resurrect a player who had been ambushed. The attempt was successful… to a degree. There were two problems, minor things really…

• The person would have rezzed fine… had they been paying attention. But, they weren’t so they just continued to lie there.
• The type of power that I was using requires me to drain life from nearby enemy characters – to redirect their energy into the body of the fallen hero. That part worked, but as soon as I did that, they started attacking me. And they were WELL above my level. So, I wound up dying. With the quickness. *sigh*

Stray Toasters

• I introduced a couple coworkers to Avenue Q, by way of the The Internet is for Porn machinima and the Avenue Q Wikipedia entry.
• It’s a good thing that it’s Friday: I just scrolled up to edit something in the top paragraph, saw the “Ika! Ika! Ika!” comment… and immediately started trying to reparse it to fit Iko Iko. Yeah… I need a weekend.
• Coworker Susan sent me a link to Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. (As if I needed yet another distraction…) I countered with Instructables.
• forwarded this to me. It made me laugh.

  

• Wife of Police Chief Arrested on Drug Charges.
  “Wife of Police Chief.”
  “Drug Charges.”
  *facepalm*
• Tag: The Ring meets zombies
• Liz sent me this; I should print it and put a copy of it on my cube wall…

  

• Grindhouse breakfast cereal photoshopping contest
• Here’s another way I can tell that I need it to be Friday:
  • I was looking at the cover art to Tag (from the ‘Toaster posted above)
  • It reminded me of the artwork for Chess
  • Chess reminded me of Deep Blue
  • Deep Blue kicked off a tangent about “…the Devil and the deep blue sea”
  • …which morphed in my head to “Devil and the Deep Blue C,” as in the programming language (naturally, I had to look up what language Deep Blue was programmed in – it was C)
  • …which somehow triggered a thought about Crystal Blue Persuasion.

  At that point, I forced myself to stop thinking about tangents. Yeah, I need a weekend.

• By way of boingboing.net: someecards – When you care enough to hit send.

Namaste.

Saturday – 18 August 2007
The morning started with some errand running. One of which seemed to go smoothly, but I discovered a gross error and had to go back to correct it. It was handled quickly, fairly efficiently and effectively.

On to coffee with Perry. dropped in a short while later. The three of us chatted for a bit before we decided to make a pilgrimage to the Garden of Sweden. Of course, it was a bloody madhouse. But, we basked in the glory of “the land where the furniture folds to a much smaller size.” We ate lunch in the restaurant and then it was off to the races: I picked up the last two frames I need for my tourbooks and a couple of curtain rods for a banner I have been wanting to hang.

Four-Color Coverage

• Action Comics #854 – The secret’s out. (I’ll cover this more in the Countdown bullet.) Mr. Action, Superman and… Krypto take on the Kryptonite Man and Titano. And, young Jimmy Olsen asks his buddy if he can get a try-out for the JLA.
• Booster Gold #1 – When Booster Gold first appeared in the post-Crisis DCU, he was a definite sign of the times: A self-aggrandizing hero who was all about appearances and what he could do to earn a fast buck. Sure, he actually managed to pull off some actual heroics, but it was all about the glory game. Over the years, he managed to get into the Justice League… but was mainly written off as comic relief. Second-rate. “Crowd control.” (That last one will make more sense if you’ve seen the Justice League Unlimited episode, “The Greatest Story Never Told.” But, following the events of 52, Booster’s back and trying to do the right thing. Too bad that no one will ever know…
• The Brave and the Bold #6 – Batman, Green Lantern, Supergirl and Adam Strange face off against the Lords of Luck. The prize: The Book of Destiny. And time’s running out. No, time’s changing. So, the heroes call in some help. Maybe it will be enough.
• Countdown: 38 and 37 – Oracle vs. The Calculator. Zatanna and Mary Marvel vs. Deep Six. Robin vs. Mr. Action?! All of this plus: The reason that Karate Kid and Una broke into Oracle’s lair. And, as I said above: The secret’s out – Jimmy Olsen finds an astounding discovery about Clark Kent.
• Green Lantern #21 and #22 – The Sinestro Corps War rages on. Lanterns continue to fall before the onslaught of the newly-formed Sinestro Corps. And it looks as though many more will fall before the war’s end. Guardians Ganthet and Sayd recruit Hal Jordan to undertake a secret mission. He’s going to need help. Unfortunately, the Lost Lanterns – GLs whose rings Hal took (and whom he left for dead) when he was possessed by Parallax – still have axes to grind with Jordan, so it doesn’t look like he’s going to get much assistance from them. And just what is it that Hal Jordan fears? Plus, Hal takes on a Parallax-possessed Kyle Rayner. And, Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg-Superman, asks the Anti-Monitor for a boon.
• Justice League of America #12 – I actually bought two copies of this… so I could have both halves of the Alex Ross cover. This issue deals with two shadow figures watching the JLA as they deal with… “Monitor Duty.” The duo are voicing their opinions about the various members, what each brings – or could potentially bring – to the team. And they look at how those various elements, no matter in what combination, serve to make the team stronger than the sum of its parts.
• The New Avengers #33 – Welcome to another rousing round of “Are You a Skrull?!” The team, already under stress from the events and aftermath of Civil Bore War, shows how tightly wound they are as the lack of trust grows. And who’s that making shadowy deals with crime lords (and a lady)…?
• Superman/Batman #39 – Scarecrow. Desaad. Darkseid. And a brainwashed Superman. Yep, the Dark Knight has his hands full with this one. Very full.
• Ultimate X-Men #85 – Bishop’s all-new, all-proactive X-Men take on Sentinels. Jean’s talking to her imaginary friends again. Dazzler pulls a new trick out of her sleeve. And a couple of someones may be getting visitors from their pasts. While this book is still rather hit-or-miss, I’m intrigued enough by the new story to stick it out a little longer.

I should probably decide which brand of trouble I’d like to get into this evening.

Namaste.