Random Access

Thursday – 17 January 2008
Guess who just printed two tickets to LEGOland: California.

Mm-hmm, that’s right.

Tuesday – 15 January 2008
Although it won’t be observed for another six days, today is the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.

This morning, I managed to sleep through my alarm. Fortunately, my internal clock tends to awaken me around 8:00 AM. I got up, ready and out the door in fairly short order.

It was snowing earlier. Fairly heavily, in fact. But, you wouldn’t know it to look outside now: Blue skies with a few high clouds. “Welcome to Utah: If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.”

MacWorld was held this morning. Among the announcements came news of the newest Mac hotness: MacBook Air. It looks like a rather slick machine. The other announcements included:

• Updates to the iPhone software and a software developer’s kit
• Updates to the iPod Touch software
• iTunes movie rentals
• Updates to AppleTV

So, it would seem as though yesterday’s “leaked” list for the keynote address was bogus… although it did hit on a couple of items. Imagine that.

City of Heroes
Last night, after I settled in – and had a bite to eat – I paid a visit to Paragon City with the Hand of Nefer-Tem. I ran a couple of in-game errands and was soon invited to join a team for some mid-40s missions. I wasn’t about to turn down higher-level missions, so I joined the team. We fought The Council, which on the whole isn’t a “bad” thing… but The Council also tends to have Void Stalkers and Quantums hanging out with them. Voids and Quants tend to have weapons that are anathema to Kheldians – on the order of one- or two-shot kills. Fortunately, we had some heavy-hitters and good healers on the team. By the time we were done, I had earned over 500,000 XP and was only 300K away from Security Level 38. Not bad for roughly an hour’s work.

Stray Toasters

• I just had a craving for Dunkin’ Donuts. Too bad there aren’t any behind the Zion Curtain.
• Stay the Night, by Chicago
  • Bonus Question: Without looking it up, what was the band’s first/full name.
• LEGO geodesic dome
• LEGOland… this weekend… *genuflect*
• A fella really got to eat
  And a fella should eat right.
  Five will get you ten
  I’m gonna feed myself right tonight.
  I don’t want fish cakes and rye bread,
  You heard what I said.
  Waiter, please serve mine fried
  I want the frim fram sauce with the ausen fay
  With chafafa on the side.
• 
• Most users of Microsoft Windows-based systems are probably familiar with Remote Desktop and/or Remote Assistance. For those of you who aren’t, it basically allows users to “share” a computer’s desktop – with one user remotely accessing the desktop from another computer. (Mac OS offers the same thing, as do any number of VNC clients, but I digress…)As I’ve noted before, I’m studying Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment, for Exam 70-290. I’ve been going back over some things I read before Christmas and just got back to the Remote Assistance section. I came across the following passages:
  

  Remote Assistance provides a way for users to get the help they need and makes it easier and less costly for corporate help desks to assist their users.With Remote Assistance… an administrator or support representative can connect remotely to a user’s computer, chat with the user, and either view all the user’s activities or take control of the keyboard and mouse.

  It goes on to say…

  To receive remote assistance, a client must issue an invitation and send it to a particular expert. The client can send the invitation to the expert using Microsoft Windows Messenger or email, or he or she can send it as a file.

  Now, we get to the heart of the matter…

  To use the Windows Messenger service for your Remote Assistance connection, you must have the expert’s Windows Messenger user name in your contact list.

  For a successful request through email, both computers must be using a Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI)-compliant email client.

  As a third option, you can save the invitation as a file and transfer that file to the expert through removable storage media or as an email attachment.

  That’s right. “Removable storage media,” like a flash drive or disc. Now, correct me if I’m wrong (which, in this case, I don’t think I am) but if you’re putting on media like that, is it just going to magically “appear” at the tech’s desk? No, I think not. What does that mean?! You – or a lackey unwitting dupe coworker – have to take it to the tech.

  Granted, the expert can still use Remote Assistance to access the client machine, but doesn’t using Sneakernet to deliver the invitation kind of defeat the purpose?

• I heard a cool version of On the Good Ship Lollipop, by The Persuasions, this weekend in St. George. I think I’ll have to track down the CD it’s on.

And now it’s time to save the world. Again.

Namaste.

Friday – 11 January 2008
Grey and overcast… and snowy… day in Utah Valley. When I drove into the AF office this morning, I was surprised to see the road leading to the office and the parking lot covered in snow. Apparently, 6 – 8 inches fell late Tuesday/early Wednesday.

The work day hasn’t been bad. After a brief stop in the SLC office, I headed to AF. Jason helped me suss out a problem with one of our servers, so that I could get it rebuilt and back online. Then some lovely Win2K3 reading. Huzzah!

Today’s workout was good. I was able to move more weight today. (I may not be able to move tomorrow.)

• Bench press: 3 sets/10 reps – 185 lbs, 205 lbs (x2)
• Cable Fly: 3 sets / 10 reps – 80 lbs, 100 lbs (x2)
• Curls (dumbbell, standing): 3 sets /10 reps, 25 lbs
• Push-ups (elevated): 3 sets / 15 reps
• Curls (dumbbell, incline bench): 3 sets/10 reps – 20 lbs
• Dips (bench): 2 sets / 25 reps
• Lateral Raises: 3 sets / 10 reps – 15 lbs.

I’m heading out soon and heading south. Hopefully, the drive through Beaver (NOT to be confused with “drive-thru beaver”) won’t be bad.

Stray Toasters

• I almost had The Pina Colada Song stuck in my head earlier. I headed it off at the pass with some well-timed Schoolhouse Rock!, thankfully.
• From the “Kids These Days…” file: 14-Year-Old Turns Tram System into Personal Train Set
• FBI Wiretaps Dropped Due to Unpaid Bills
• By way of Comics2Film: Gamma Blog – Capes and Costumes
• : Dawnstar will be in the new Crisis set for HeroClix.

  

• Darth Vader and Yoda in Soul Calibur IV
• 
• Penn Jillette’s video rant show
• Death on holiday (Photoshopping contest)
• Keith Giffen takes a look at One More/Brand New Day: Unfortunate Confluence of Words
• LEGO Catalog

And, with that… I’m a vapor trail.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 09 January 2008
This morning started early. 6:15 early. All things considered, that’s good for many reasons, not the least of which was that I was able to chat with Mom for a few minutes before I headed off to work. And when I stepped outside… I saw that it had snowed. And it continued to snow, intermittently, throughout the day.

The work day has been relatively quiet, allowing me to dive back into Win Server 2003 reading – which at this point includes a lot of going back and taking some notes on things I read before our Winter vacation. But, it’s proceeding apace.

Today was also Sushi Wednesday (Oh Sushi, the restaurant formerly known as Go Sushi) and Four-Color Crack Day. Due to the holidays – and some delays from Diamond – shipments for the past two weeks have been a little “off.” So much so that last week, Dr. Volt’s had two shipments: One on Wednesday (the previous week’s shipment) and one on Friday (last week’s intended shipment). Since I worked out of AF – and headed south – on Friday, I missed out on getting the second day’s haul until today. And even with the today’s new arrivals, the haul was fairly light. So, I made up for it by picking up this and this, after all…

1. It’s a John Stewart figure. (If I need to ‘splain beyond this, just stop reading now.)
2. They’re more X-Men Minimates for my “Sentinel Attacks!” scenario. ‘Nuff said.

I neglected to cover yesterday’s workout in yesterday’s post. Let me start off by saying that it hurt. A lot. Something about “not going to the gym for three weeks” comes to mind. The overall workout was light and more of a “getting back into the swing of things” routine:

• Pull-ups: 3 sets/10 reps (on the last set, the last half were done with my feet braced against the back of the Roman Chair)
• Leg raises: 3 sets/20 reps
• Dips: 3 sets/15 reps
• Bench press: 3 sets/10 reps, 135 lbs. (Like I said: “Getting back into it”)
• Nautilus Cable Fly: 3 sets/10 reps, (2 sets at 95 lbs, 1 set at 80 lbs)
• Seated dumbbell curls: 3 sets/10 reps, 25 lbs.

Like I said: It hurt. A lot. Yesterday. Today. And maybe even tomorrow.

Tonight, I think that I shall spend some quality time in Paragon City… or the Rogue Isles. I’m not quite sure “which” locale sounds more appealing.

Stray Toasters

• Rather than going to bed at a nominally reasonable hour last night, I took time to set up my LEGO train alongside the Rokenbok Factory. I’ll have to take some pics of the “new” setup at some point.
• Speaking of LEGO: SaraRules and I are looking at the feasibility of visiting LEGOland: California in a couple of weeks, while in Lost Angles.
• Yes, I know “Los Angeles” is misspelled above.
• My Favorite James Bond portrayers, in descending order:

1. Sean Connery
2. Daniel Craig
3. Pierce Brosnan
4. George Lazenby / Roger Moore (tie)
5. Timothy Dalton

• I went the high-tech route an text messaged (rather than call) my father to tell him it was snowing. Again. He asked that I keep the snow out here and not send it eastward. Again.
• Falafel.  Black Ops.   Back, Crack and Sac Wax.
• From Wired: Best Vintage Tech Commercials
• For an as-yet unexplained reason, I had the chorus from Wake Me Up Before You Go Go stuck in my head this morning.
• I’ve been spending time on the Rokenbok site. Sweet, sweet ‘bok goodness…
• I got a call from this evening; she needed help troubleshooting a computer problem. A little mental “elbow grease” and a short time later, we sussed it out.
• 
• From Reuters: Election 2008 – The Latest on the Leading Candidates
• By way of Craigslist: Halloween Observations
• PokerStars makes a Mac client.
• Yet another item to add to the Covet List.
• It’s a REALLY quiet night in Paragon City.
• Chocolate Jesus Crunchies.

*BAMF*

Monday – 07 January 2008
Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

Remember the snow I mentioned last night? It didn’t stop until this morning. Given this, you would think that UDoT would have sent a plow or two to take care of clearing I-15 Northbound. Nope. And, if… IF… they did, it must have been in the wee hours of the night and not since. Therefore, the drive from Cedar City to Beaver – which usually takes about 35 minutes – took over an hour. *sigh* There were a couple of small patches of clear road up to Beaver, but each of them was less than a half-mile long. I should also mention that for most of the Cedar-to-Beaver trip, only one lane was decently drivable. Yay. And then there was was that driver from Nevada who decided that she could/would not be passed: When I made a go of it – on one of the rare clear stretches of two clear lanes – she sped up to pace me… until I hit the next slushy/icy patch. Monkey.

Once I got a few miles north of Beaver, you would have never known that there had been snow on the roads. Seriously. The roads were bone dry. I made up a little time, but didn’t really drop the hammer.

Work was quiet and low-key today. This was a good thing. I was asked a few questions; I gave a few answers. Not everyone went away happy, but they knew what was up.

Stray Toasters

• I’m (finally) reading Batman: The Long Halloween. It’s pretty damned good.
• Interesting mashup: Thuggy Stardust and the Hustlers from Mars
• The X-Files Are Coming Back, But They Never Left
• If you have kids, watch this video: TED Talks – Gever Tulley: 5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do
• LEGO pictures (clickable), by way of The Brothers Brick:
  • 
  • 
  • The next pair are for :
    • 
    • 
  • 
• Bob Staake Works in Adobe Photoshop 3.0
• World Series of Poker. Mmm…
• and Tyranist: Storm

Okay, that’s enough for now. Time to go save the world…

Namaste.

Thursday – 03 January 2008
Not a bad day for an NBN Thursday. I woke up (more or less) when I had planned to. Getting out of bed was a different matter altogether. I got up after a bit of decided laziness and started the day.

Work was a bit busy. I was trying to track down some hardware information, but kept running into proverbial walls. After a few hours of what felt like spinning my wheels, I think I found a way to get what I needed. I’ll know for sure tomorrow morning.

After work, I came home and had a bite to eat – and watched a little bit of Rio Bravo – before meeting up with Chris and heading to a comic shop near his place to play dolls HeroClix. We played against a few other guys. We played 1000 points per side; which is one of the – if not THE – largest “small” game I’ve played in. I picked a force comprised mostly of the JLA, Teen Titans and one of the X-Men:

• Batman (Red Rain)
• Green Lantern (John Stewart)
• Dmitri Pushkin (Rocket Red)
• Cyborg
• Raven
• Bishop

Chris played with mostly X-Men, along with a different Batman and a paramedic. Healers are a GOOD thing in that game. We started off alright, but hit a string of craptacular dice rolls in the middle of the game. Fortunately, the Luck Lords of Ventura looked upon us fortunately in the waning turns of the game: Chris and I won. I had a lot of fun.

And now there’s Whose Line! (With Robin Williams, even!)

Stray Toasters

• I did it: Boot Camp.
• I did it again: City of Heroes on the Defiant.
• Four Root DNS Servers Go IPv6 on February 4th.
• Four words: LEGO. Indiana Jones. Game.
• Five words: LEGO. Batman and Robin Game.
• Two more words: Coming soon!
• By way of Wizard Entertainment: 2008 Preview – Notable Comic Anniversaries
• Guillermo Del Toro Ready to Unleash Frankenstein’s Monster

Quote of the Day
From a conversation with :

: 12:44 s’ok
spent an hour with my team giving an american civics lesson this morning
was kind of neat, actually
one of those rare moments that take me out of my privileged bubble
: 12:44 Cool.
: 12:45 funniest part of it all was one of my guys asking “but the woman…she is from the clinton caste, so shouldn’t she be next for president?”
i keep forgetting where i am
: 12:47 So, how did you ‘splain it?
: 12:49 i said anybody can be president…response was “but as long as i can remember, only clinton and bush castes have been leaders.”
ok, true
however, if you are over 35 and you were born in the USA, you can run
“but can you win? here anybody can run but only upper castes win”
yes…that’s partially true in USA too
“so this man…this black man…can win?”
: 12:50 HA!
: 12:50 yes, he just won in iowa
“so he is president?”
no, thsi is just the first caucus
“but if he wins many caucuses?”
yes, he can be the nominee, and then maybe be president
“but he is black.”
yes.
“wow.”
yes. wow.
: 12:50 If he wins many caucauses, does that make him Caucasian?
: 12:50 HAHAHA
now that is a quote of the day.
: 12:51 *bow* I do what I can.

Namaste.

Saturday -29 December 2007
The day started with breakfast with SaraRules, her parents and one of her brothers at The Artist’s Palate Cafe. The food was good and the prices weren’t bad, either. It’s a small place on 2300 East, just south (and I mean “just south”) of the I-80 on-ramp… and it has local art (for sale) on the walls, too.

Next stop: Dr. Volt’s, to see if Dave had heard whether or not the shipment would arrive today. It didn’t; it won’t be in until Wednesday. From there, we swung over to the Parents-of-SaraRules’ place to hang out for a bit. Then home. SaraRules took a nap; I played City of Heroes. I was invited to join a team of mid-to-upper 30s… taking on low-level 40s villains: The Council, mostly. Over the course of three missions, I managed to hit Security Level 37. Between missions, I put the cards from the newer ‘Clix sets into binder sheets so that they aren’t scattered all over Hell and half of Georgia.

We’re off to run some errands and then meeting vikingsonya and for dinner at Outback.

Then, I think SaraRules and I will spend some time mucking around with Rokenbok and LEGO before heading off to breakfast.

Indeed.

Namaste.

Friday – 28 December 2007
Yet another lazy day about town. I have to say that the downtime has been nice.

I woke up and puttered around the apartment for a bit this morning and early afternoon, while SaraRules went to lunch with an old friend. I was nominally productive though: I hung the LEGO key rack she got me for Christmas.

After she got back, we headed out for a bit to get lunch (for me) at Go Sushi. I had their Teriyaki Rice Bowl Combination (with chicken). It was just the right mix of food:

• Miso soup
• Teriyaki chicken and vegetables over rice
• Gyoza (potstickers) and
• California roll (half order)

I had a couple of pieces of Ika nigiri and some green tea to wash it all down.

Next, over to Dr. Volt’s… only to find that the shipment that should have been in yesterday was delayed again and now most likely will not be in until next Wednesday. And that’s on top of the already scheduled-to-be late shipment that’s due next Friday. To console myself, I got a couple of boxes of ‘Clix and the hardcover edition of The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes, to replace the (signed) softcover edition I can’t find. *shakes fist* Although, I was able to find it with the last printing’s cover, so it matches the softcover copies of Dream Country and The Wake that I have. A few pieces of note from the plastic crack haul include:

• Granny Goodness (unique)
• Power Ring (super-rare)
• Toyman

Then, we popped over to see SaraRules’ parents for a bit. We’re having brunch with them tomorning. Now, all we need to do is figure out “where.”

Back home for a bit… and some time in Paragon City.

Stray Toaster
Just one thing, for the moment: Solid!
(Click on the picture… you have to see the larger version. Comedy.)

And now… off to Clitorati!

Namaste.

Tuesday – 25 December 2007
So the big man in the red suit with the magickal reindeer apparently showed up and dropped off goodies and whatnot. This year’s haul included:

• The Art of the Japanese Garden
• LEGO Key Rack
• Gift certificate to IKEA
• Gift certificate to Dr. Volt’s
• Metallic dice
• One World, Many Cultures CD
• Ocean graphic novel
• “Grow a Pirate” toy
• Little Flip Book of Crosswords
• Subscriptions to Esquire and GQ
• Green Lantern paperweight (…and it’s even John Stewart!)
• AoA Cyclops HeroClix
• The Superhero Handbook

There are still other goodies to open (they’re back at my place and there are couple of things that are in transit)… but this has already been great.

What did Sanity Clause bring you?

Wednesday – 21 November 2007
Sweet Big Butter Jesus… it was 19°F when I woke up this morning. NINETEEN! (N-n-n-nineteen! Nineteen!) But, at least it is Sushi Wednesday; at least, it is according to shockpuppet.

I am in the SLC office and just met a new coworker. He looked at me and recognized me… from the gym. But, it was the gym in American Fork. We used to workout at roughly the same time. “Curiouser and curiouser,” said little Alice…

Stray Toasters

• I opted to go with a Cafe Mocha, rather than a frozen mocha, this morning.
• Sneakiest Uses for Everyday Objects
• I like this LEGO ad:

  

• Because of (who should click here), I am craving Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
• I need Dream Girl, Supergirl (this one, because I already have this one), Triplicate Girl and Colossal Boy (Micro Lad!) to complete my plastic crack Legion of Super-Heroes. I think that I already have a Shvaughn Erin… otherwise, I need one’a her, too.
• The art of Adam Koford.
• Girl to have arm taken off back
• Is Brian Michael Bendis just writing everything for Marvel now?
• Speaking of Marvel, here’s another look at the new Captain America

  

For those who will be traveling today/this weekend: Good luck against the masses and may you arrive safely at your destination.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Namaste.

Saturday – 17 November 2007
As Bobby Darin sang, “What a difference a day makes…”

Last night’s drive to Cedar City was relatively uneventful, although long. I left SLC a little later than I had planned, thanks to some office monkeydom. Nature of the beast, I guess. Leaving late meant that I got caught in the Great I-15/I-215 Southbound Exodus crunch. It’s great when it takes you 20 minutes to go four miles. Once I got past 106th South, traffic wasn’t bad… until I got to Orem. At UVSC, I-15 turned into a parking lot again. A monkey-filled parking lot. And, that had barely cleared up when there was another clot around Center Street in Provo. Not so amazingly, when I got out of Utah County, traffic was (for the most part) fine. Although, there seemed to be more southbound traffic than I am used to seeing. *shrug*

When I got here, aside from seeing SaraRules, I was also reunited with my work ID badge, which had decided to stay here on holiday. SaraRules, Roommate Kim and I ate take-out from Wendy’s and watched Batman Begins, which made for a good way to end the day/week.

So far, today has been quiet and lazy. In true Saturday fashion, the morning started with breakfast and coffee and cartoons – a new episode of Legion; a rerun of The Batman. Now, SaraRules is knocking out some homework and I’m playing around on the Interweb. And deciding if I want to play around with Parallels. Tonight, I’m either going to a basketball game – which will get me back on track for my “Year of Sports” goal – or going to a Gershwin… opera-type-thingamabob.

Stray Toasters

• I have a taste for something sweet, but I haven’t pegged “what” yet.
• posted a link to this: Elise Hendrick’s piece Fuck Euphemisms. Go read it.
• LEGO Master Working on 100,000-piec, 21 foot long Battleship Yamato model
• I was showing a coworker the video for Weapon of Choice (which he had never seen) yesterday. That led me to look up Christopher Walken’s IMDb page. I noted that he had also appeared in Madonna’s Bad Girl video, which I had never seen.
• iStat menus
• 
• Automata for Sale – papercraft, DIY and wooden
• Typing of the Dead shall be played today (or tonight)!
• Best book covers of 2007
• Does anyone remember the game Marble Madness? Of course you do. You know that you spent quarter after quarter trying to get the damned marble to the bottom of the track/maze without getting eaten or crushed by the Steelie or just running it off the edge. But, I digress… check this out.

Time to find some trouble to get into…

Namaste.

Monday: Coda
The post-work day has been relaxing. I stopped by to say “Hi” to Kate, Perry and the kids on the way home.

Stray Toasters

• Ou.
• called me out on something: I keep congratulating/mocking on Bengals’ win/losses… but never give a shout out/raspberry to her, even though she lives in Cincy. Rest assured, it won’t happen again. Bank.
• LEGO steampunk creations:
  • Behold, the SteamWalker!
  • Steam-powered Flamethrower
  • Steam Tractor
• Lung-on-a-Chip Replicates the Tiny Explosions Inside Diseased Lungs
• Onion rings.
• Framed: A Heretic’s Guide to Suiting Up
• If you need me
  I’ll be downstairs
  With the shop vac
  You can call but I probably won’t hear you
  Because it’s loud with the shop vac on
• She kicked Batman’s ass (and Superman’s on at least two or three occasions), so this should be a walk in the park…

  

• By way of Eric: Renault F1 “plays” God Save the Queen (yes, a car playing a song… kind of. Just watch it.)
• Internet Porn: Worse than Crack?
• Defiant now contains all of the mp3s that I’ve ripped at work.
  Ripped from my CD collection. (That’s right… up yours, RIAA!)
• Speaking of “Up yours, RIAA” – and breaking my “No Christmas songs before Thanksgiving” rule – AND invoking Jonathan Coulton (again): Podsafe Christmas Song
• Atari 2600 enters Strong National Museum of Play’s Hall of Fame

Hm. Maybe I’ll take a little trip to Paragon City…

Namaste.

Tuesday – 30 October 2007
After finally going to bed last night, I figured that sleep would come easy and I would almost immediately be welcomed into the gates of The Dreaming.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I think that I spent more time tossing and turning that I did sleeping. Therefore, when the alarm went off this morning, I turned it off and resolved to ignore the fact that it had ever sounded. When I finally felt rested enough to get up, I did and started the day.

Fortunately, the day has been pretty good… and pretty much monkey-free. Eric suggested a change to the workout:

• Dips, leg raises and pull-ups, alternating.
  • Dips: 3 sets / 20 reps
  • Leg Raises: 3 sets / 20 reps
  • Pull-ups: 2 sets, unassisted; one set – 6 (unassisted) and 5 (assisted, 90 pounds)
• Bench press: 155 lbs / 2 sets, 12 reps; 155 lbs, 9 reps; 135 pounds, 4 reps
• Rows: 120 pounds, 3 sets / 12 reps
• Lower back raises: 2 sets, 10 reps – reverse fly at the top, 5 pound weights in each hand

By starting the dips and pull-ups, our arms got a good pre-bench press workout… which is why our bench weight was so low. And, by the time we got to the third set, getting through half of the set felt like a major accomplishment.
Stray Toasters

• I have finally opened my first box of Butterscotch Krimpets. They make a tasty breakfast, with coffee.
• Golden introduced me to Top
  
  Gear today. Interesting. And quite fun.
• LEGO Key Rack. Why do I not have one of these?!
• For SaraRules, … and others, by way of Deacon Derek:

  

• 25 items to build an Apple Store
• Last night, I found a link to this Masters of the Universe video. (17 mb file, .mov format)
  Today, I found this webcomic.
• For the golfing and Star Trek geek on your Christmas list: Star Trek Enterprise Putter Destroys Romulan Birdies of Prey
• Recursive Queries. Iterative Queries. Inverse Queries. *ack-thbbpt*
• How things would be different on Earth without the Moon

Where does the time go when you’re reading a tech book?

Namaste.

Thursday: Coda
And so, the work week comes to a close. Friday is International Annual Rob Day, known in some regions as “Pope Groovalicious Day.” In honor of that I am hereby declaring it a personal holiday:

After work, I met for dinner at Tepanyaki. Sushi and a Teriyaki Steak and Chicken combination dinner. Nice. The couple sitting to our right was nice, even somewhat conversational. The family on our left… not so much. Oh, well. After dinner, I headed around the corner to CompUSAirways to pick up some memory for ‘Nine. Yes, I know I’m getting Defiant (Mark II) tomorrow, but I’m not abandoning ‘Nine… and Intrepid has been wheezing along since I lobotomized it to up ‘Nine‘s memory a few months ago. And, added bonus: The memory was on sale. Win-win.

On the way home, I stopped to see and onlyaly. No sooner than I had entered was I also greeted by Daisy and Sadie. I think that I got a decent workout from playing with Daisy – almost enough to make up for not going to the gym this afternoon.

Since getting home, I haven’t done much. So far, the highlights have been:

• Getting an early birthday call from Mom; she’ll call back tomorrow, but didn’t want to call me at O’dark-thirty… especially when I told her that I was taking the day off and sleeping in. God bless her.
• Ordering a couple of pieces of plastic crack on eBay: Green Lantern (John Stewart) from the out-of-“print” Cosmic Justice series. The price was right and I’ve been on the fence for a while too long in deciding whether or not I was going to get them.

Stray Toasters

• I was surprised/shocked/about to wet myself by/because of “The Leash” just before dinner. Fortunately, it was just a status message.
• Rock Band. Not necessarily my cup of tea, but I know a few grad students eagerly awaiting its release.
• Steampunk + LEGO = ???
• …with a hint of lip gloss.
• Horrifying cute animal photoshop contest
• I think that there’s an ice cream sandwich in my immediate future.
• Worm study may bolster idea of human sexuality being hard-wired in brain
• Madlessly.
• The Ravens have a bye this weekend… and next take the field on 05 Nov 07 against ‘s beloved Bengals, for a Monday Night Game. Fiddler’s Elbow, anyone…?
• Porno-embroidered handkerchiefs

Yep. That’ll do it.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 24 October 2007
Two down, one in the chamber and one to go.

Last night, I met , , and Pat for dinner at Jitterbug before heading to non-Game Night. I think that I am getting addicted to the Tropical Smoothies there – I had two last night… and could have easily gone for another.

Chris wasn’t running on all cylinders last night, so there was no zombie killin’. *sigh* Oh, well… there’s always next time. Instead, we spent a couple of hours talking comics and related geekery and then played a bit of Justice League Heroes. It was a good way to spend the evening.

I got home and decided to chill on the couch with the October issue of GQ. “The best-laid plans of mice and men,” as the saying goes. I wound up falling asleep while reading the Colin Powell interview. Next stop: 3:30 AM. Right. Bed. Bed good. I slept pretty well. I slept so well that, at one point, I managed to wake up to move (i.e.: “toss off the bed”) a pillow and wound up taking out a cup of water on the nightstand. *grblsnrkx* Way to go, Robzilla.

The day, so far, has been good. We’re having a meeting today, for which we’re being required to dress “business casual” (no jeans). No problem. I even broke out one of my favorite sweaters – It’s similar to this one, but with buttons rather than a zipper.

Stray Toasters

• I had Linus and Lucy, the theme from Peanuts, running through my head a little while ago. I mentioned it to SaraRules. She countered with this article. I volleyed back with this one.
• From KUER’s RadioWest: Mothers Who Know
  

  SALT LAKE CITY, UT (2007-10-22) Earlier this month at the LDS Church’s General Conference, the head of the Relief Society Julie B. Beck praised the power in motherhood. She encouraged women not to postpone having children, and equated nurturing with homemaking. Her words re-ignited a controversy about the role of Mormon women, and within hours, LDS blogs were inundated with responses. Tuesday on RadioWest, Doug talks to LDS women about Beck’s remarks and what those say about women’s position in the LDS Church and culture.

• By way of Wired: When Geeky Goes Bad – Tackiest PC Mods
• Alienware announces Alien Exchange program
• Merry Christmas from Chiron Beta Prime,
  where we’re working in a mine for our robot overlords.
  Did I say overlords? I meant protectors.
• Free Cake.
• The Brothers Brick – LEGO Blog

Namaste.