Random Access

Thursday – 25 Sep 2008
How do you kick off a great NBN Thursday? How about with a text message from your father saying that you have two (2) tickets to the Raiders-Ravens game for your birthday? Boo-yah. Yeah, I’d say that qualifies.

After work last night, I went home and decided – after almost a year – to hook the 360 up to the Interwebs and download firmware updates. The main problem: The 360 is in the living room, my router is in my office – in the back of the apartment – and I didn’t have an ethernet cable that was long enough to reach. I thought about – and tried – using my old router (as a hub) to daisy-chain a couple of cables. Which I would have gotten away with, if it hadn’t been for you meddling kids and your dog! the fact that I didn’t have any 10′ cables to run from the second router to the 360. *sigh* Then, on a whim, I decided to see if I could share Defiant‘s wireless connection to give the 360 access to the Interwebs. After a quick consultation with and a look at some Mac forums, I found what I was looking for. And it was pretty simple, too. And it worked.

SaraRules came over a little later. Wednesday nights have become Project Runway (and, often, The West Wing) nights at my place, as SaraRules doesn’t get Bravo at her place. I’m not a huge “reality TV” fan, generally speaking, but I like seeing some of the designs that the contestants come up with on the show. Last night’s episode had an interesting challenge: The designers had to design outfits based on specific music genres… for each other. The genres that were chosen were:

• Country (Leanne designing for Korto)
• Hip Hop (Kenley designing for Leanne)
• Pop (Jerell designing for Kenley)
• Punk (Korto designing for Suede) and
• Rock (Suede designing for Jerell)

A couple of the designs (Pop and Punk) were spot on;the Rock outfit was… a little bland; the Country look was a bit too subtle. But the Hip Hip look was… just… bad. Which was sad for a two reasons:

1. Despite her occasional attitude, I like Kenley and most of the pieces she comes up with.
2. LL Cool J was the special guest judge.

Yeah. You get tagged to design a Hip Hip look… and get it all wrong… AND you have to show it off in front of LL Cool J. Triple whammy.

It was also funny hysterical to hear some of the snarky comments by the other designers about the design – including a couple of “sabotage” comments, when they were asked, “So, do you think that this looks Hip Hop,” as she would try different accessories with an outfit. And they would say, “Yes…” and turn away before they burst out with laughter. Surprisingly enough, Kenley did survive elimination this week. But the preview for next week’s episode featured a couple of shots of the remaining designers in tears as their designs were critiqued, so it should be worth a look.

After Runway, I flipped over to The Late Show with David Letterman; I wanted to see who they got to fill Senator McCain’s guest spot. I had considered flipping over to MSNBC to see if Keith Olbermann had anything to say about it. I didn’t need to – Olbermann was Letterman’s guest. And they both had opinions to share about the senator’s decision. Letterman’s comments, by way of :

And, I found this copy of Olbermann’s thoughts:

Wait… did he say that making a bi-partisan/joint announcement was originally Senator Obama’s idea? And it was copped by the McCain camp? Huh.

Stray Toasters
Check back later for ‘Toasters.

Namaste.

Senator McCain is suspending his campaign to help work on the economic crisis.

He is calling for Senator Obama to do the same.

I wonder about the following:

1. Will Senator Obama ask Senator Biden to leave the campaign trail, as well?
2. What will be the fallout if Senator Biden doesn’t leave the campaign trail?
3. What will Governor Palin do if/when/while she has the campaign trail all to herself?

Derek posted this in his blog a couple of days ago, reprinted with permission:

Story time! Before the midnight Sabbath day barrier, we went to Albertsons, because Number 5 needed food. I stayed in the car with some others. Jill, unaware that I have Tourette’s, began telling a story about some kid in church with Tourette’s, yelling in Sacrament Meeting. Now let me officially state this: I love funny stories about people with Tourette’s, being crazy. They are funny and make me laugh. There I said it. But no one else can laugh at it, because they don’t have the disease. Now all you white people, you can no longer laugh at that OR say the N word.

Anywho, she began telling the story and everyone else in the car, who knew that I had it, got really embarrassed and felt awkward. It was awesome!

Ah, Derek.

Stray Toasters

• was talking about the top headline on Google News: Bernanke Tells Congress That US Economy Is Faltering earlier. His response:
  

  NO. SHIT. Thanks for the newsflash.
  I guess that’s why I’ve been getting such dirty looks walking around whistling We’re in the Money.
  It explains so much.

  With that, I clicked over to Google News to check out some other headlines. Most of them were rather mundane, but there were two that I saw that immediately went on the “Why should I care about this?” list:

  • Clay Aiken Comes Out
  • Are Lindsay and Sam Dating? Dad Doesn’t Think So

  Couldn’t. Care. Less.

  Ms. Lohan’s “fifteen minutes of fame” has been at 13:55 for a long time, as far as I’ve been concerned. Yes, I think that Mean Girls is a fun film and her SNL Harry Potter skit is still amusing, but other than that… *shrug* And Clay Aiken? I’ve never been a big American Idol fan, so… yeah.

  And the bottom line: They’re living their lives. Let them. Is it really anyone else’s business? Um… no. Thank you, move along.

• How Children Fail: angry lessons from failure to teach
• Shipping containers could be ‘dream’ homes for thousands
  Such a simple, yet effective, solution. Why didn’t someone think of this before?!
• 

.eof

Wednesday – 24 Sep 2008
Some of my recent forays into The Dreaming have been odd. This morning, my subconscious apparently found a rather twisted path along the wildways in a dark area of The Dreaming… and skipped merrily along its way. Thus, I’ve been awake (for the most part) since 5:30 this morning, thanks to a lovely dream about my apartment being broken into. It was “a little” disturbing. After proving to myself that it was just a dream – but being too keyed up to sleep – I wound up sprawled on the couch watching SportsCenter. I apparently dialed down enough to nod off somewhere around 6:10. Just in time for the alarm to go off at 6:20. Yay.

Last night was very uneventful. I played my guitar for the first time in weeks. Adam called while I was cooking dinner – baked chicken over spaghetti, with a side of spinach; he had picked up The Invincible Iron Man animated movie that came out last year and had a couple of questions about it and how it related to the mainstream Iron Man. That led to questions about Watchmen – he’d seen the trailer and wanted to know if it was based on a comic. I told him that it was and that he should check it out. He then suggested the new Fox series, Fringe, to me. The show happened to be just starting as I finished cooking, so I watched it. It was good, but it may take a week or two to fully grow on me.

I also read two-and-a-half TPBs of Gotham Central (1, 2, 3). I had read the first and second ones before, but it has been a few months; I’d forgotten their storylines. I like what I’ve read of the third book, which I will probably finish tonight.

Stray Toasters

• Jeff came by – to ask if SaraRules had already gone by (she had) – and noticed a pile of hard drives near my desk. He asked what we were planning on doing with the dead ones. I told him that we were keeping them aside and preparing them for destruction/disposal. He said that if it involved thermite or shredding, he wanted to watch. That reminded me of a video of a BMW getting shredded. I contacted Oracle for information on the video, which was on YouTube. But, there was a link to the main shredding site, where I had originally seen the video – SSI: Watch It Shred!
• Blend-Tec: Will It Blend?
• By way of SaraRules and the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: PETA Urges Ben & Jerry’s to Use Human Milk
• By way of : Former National Review Editor Endorses Obama
• I think that I need this t-shirt.
• SaraRules, Tyranist, and could probably use this t-shirt.
• What is the nature of an IT worker?
• For the gamers: World’s largest wargaming table art installation

…right on to the friction of the day.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 23 Sep 2008
Guess who’s having Eggo LEGO waffles for breakfast.
Mm-hmm, that’s right.
I am.

Last night’s tourney was a wash: Only Chris and I showed. So, Keith basically rolled the dice: I “won,” Chris got Fellowship. The prizes were a Johnny Storm LE ‘Clix. With the “formalities” over, Chris, Keith, Nano and I played a four-way free-for-all. Since it was a just a fun game to kill some time, I tried a random team:

• Batman
• Captain America (Ultimates)
• Deathstroke and
• Psycho-Pirate

Chris rolled with his usual Batman team, with a special guest star:

• Batman
• The Flash
• Green Arrow and
• Johnny Storm LE

Nano played with:

• Batman and Robin (dual figure)
• Big Barda and Mister Miracle (Green Lantern)
• Green Arrow

Keith brought the Fantastic Four (starter set), including the Sue Storm and Johnny Storm LE figures. I have two things to say about this team:

1. Watching someone play the FF as a team – and play them well – is a thing of beauty.
2. Getting beat down by that same someone/team is a bittersweet pill… though still fun.

I think that my dice thought that we were playing a game of “Suicide ‘Clix,” because I couldn’t hit my target numbers half the time. I wore down a couple members of the FF, but Keith wound up taking me out. Chris and Nano duked it out on the far side of the board, with Chris winning that fight. Then it came down to Chris and Keith. They danced around the playing field a bit, but Keith finally wound up taking Chris out.

After the game, I headed over to SaraRules’ to hang out with her and her family and watch Monday Night Football. (Four shots at a two-point conversion – FOUR – and you THROW it?! ALL FOUR TIMES?!?) Her parents just returned from a ten-day Oregon excursion and it sounded like they had a lot of fun. And, as an unexpected bonus, they brought back some smoked Brie.

Back home. Chilled on the couch… started nodding off on the couch… called it a night. However, before I hit the rack, I watched a little of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. One of his guests was Marianne Jean-Baptiste, from Without a Trace. I don’t think that I’d ever heard her speak out of character, so I was “a little” surprised to hear a British accent.

This morning, I saw SaraRules drive by as she headed to work.
In a rare occurrence, she apparently saw me – and Jeff, a coworker with whom I was talkin – as well.

Stray Toasters

• Bit is speaking!
  Her first word: “Dada”
  Bot is not so amused.
  From last night’s conversation with :

  11:00 hahaha bot is ragingly annoyed
  11:00 and thusly i am ragingly amused
  11:00 bit’s first word today
  11:00 or in the words of rana
  11:00 I SPEND ALL DAY WITH THIS CHILD
  11:00 I CHANGE HER DIAPERS
  11:00 I FEED HER
  11:00 EVERY
  11:00 DAY
  11:00 EVERY NIGHT
  11:01 AND WHAT’S HER FIRST WORD?!!?
  11:01 DADA!!!
  11:01 lol life is good

• A new trailer for Quantum is Solace is out.
• SaraRules pointed out a video that I neglected to check out from yesterday’s Muppet ‘Toaster:

  Watch it all the way to the end…

• Some 640,000 Texans still without power
• Did Howard Mackie and John Byrne plan on pulling a “One More Day/Brand New Day” kind of stunt in the 90s? You bet they did. Details here.
• 15 train robbers killed by poison gas
• MarknTyme: You’ll have to check this out when you get home: Habenera

And that’s that… for now.

Namaste.

Stray Toasters

• I’ve been playing HeroClix for a couple of years now. It’s taken me this long to realize something about two teams’ abilities that bears out some testing. While it won’t make me unstoppable/unbeatable, it will change a couple things about the way I play the game… and who I consider for team builds.
• Salt Lake City named eighth most-stressful city to live
• Holy Rocket-propelled Monkeys!



• Rebel attack – an all-out LEGO Star Wars battle in micro-scale
• , click here.
• Disney Prepares to Use Its Marketing Magic to Bring Back the Muppets

Up out.

Monday – 22 Sep 2008
Another work week begins.
And it’s a grey, wet morning.

Yesterday was a 2/3 good day, in terms of football:

• The Ravens beat the Browns 2.0, in Baltimore.
  28 – 10, and Ed Reed had yet another INT for a TD.
• The Dolphins beat down the Patriots, 38 – 13.
  Yes, those Dolphins and those Patriots; Ronnie Brown was a machine yesterday.
• The Panthers, however, took one on the chin from the Gus Frerotte-led Vikings.

There was a lot of good football yesterday, but I don’t think that anything amused/pleased me as much as seeing “Big Ben” Roethlisberger and the Steelers drop a game to the Eagles. Of course, ANY Steelers loss makes me smile, but the Steelers never found the end zone and were held to two field goals. We’ll see if they’re still playing this “well” next week, when the Ravens make a trip to Steeltown and face them.

SaraRules and I finished The Orphanage last night. Good movie, but not quite what we were expecting. Given the Guillermo Del Toro name, I think that we were expecting a little more “horror.” There were definite horror elements, but I wouldn’t call it a “horror movie.” I’m sure that Tyranist would disagree with me, though.

Stray Toasters

• Math is hard. Let’s go shopping!
• Kate Perry != Jill Sobule
• Sexist pigs earn more than normal men
• I’ve read some complaints about the “I’m a PC” commercials that MicroSquish is now running. Personally, I find them amusing… and far more palatable than the Bill & Jerry commercials. What I would really love to see would be a new wave of Apple “Mac vs. PC” commercials where they start off:
  

  PC: I’m a PC.
  Mac: I’m a PC, too… but I’m running Mac OS X.
  PC: *sputter* What?!
  Mac: Yeah, I’m a PC. I just happen to run a different OS. But, when you really look at it, our hardware isn’t really that different.
  PC: But, that’s just going to confuse people. Just say you’re a Mac and be done with it. People don’t want to have to think.
  Mac: *stares at PC* Are you saying to just keep the sheep quiet and happy…?
  PC: *deer in headlights look* No… no! I’m not saying that. I’m saying that you’re just going to… confuse them.
  Mac: So… they’re too slow to understand the difference between hardware and software?
  PC: I…. You…. oh, forget it! *throws hands up in the air* There’s just no talking to you!
  Mac: Actually, there are lots of ways! Wireless networking. Wired. Even good, old-fashioned SneakerNet.
  PC: *rolls eyes and walks off-camera*

• SaraRules just pointed out the following: Microsoft is pushing Seinfeld away too soon
• 
• Feds Tighten DNS Security on .gov

Today: Work… work… work…
Tonight: ‘Clix tourney.

Back to it.

Namaste.

Friday – 19 Sep 2008
I woke up with this song running through my head:

It stayed there for a while, too. Good thing I like the song.

I slept poorly again last night; I kept waking up. Oddly, it made getting out of bed this morning much easier – I think that by the time the alarm went I was annoyed at having been awake so much during the night and just decided to get on with the day.

Stray Toasters

• Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day and, with that in mind: Free Pirate Fic.
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Wank your way to nasal clarity
• Barack Obama bumper stickers… for every state
  
  • … for the Free State
  • …for the Beehive State
• New York’s top restaurants plagued by tip trouble
• Wall Street havoc deals blow to mobile phone makers
  
• 
• Guitar Hero lines up new acts

Zoom.

Thursday – 18 Sep 2008
Three down.
One in the chamber.
One to go.

Yesterday, after work, I went home and enjoyed a tasty dinner prepared by Ms. SaraRules – baked chicken with rice and a salad. Yes, I said “salad.” As in “food that food eats.” Move along. After dinner I stretched out on the couch… which lead to intermittent bouts of non-consciousness. I did the only appropriate thing to do in that situation: I took a nap. An apparently much-needed nap.

After the recharge, I played a City of Heroes, for the first time in a couple of weeks. I was invited to a group shortly after logging in – we had a nice balance of damage-dealers and a good healer, not to mention a non-tank Warshade who did a good job of tanking. I was a couple of bubbles from 29 when I started; by the time I finished, I was almost halfway to 30. Not bad for less than two hours’ worth of play time.

The alarm went off early again this morning. I opted to stay in bed for a little while longer, but I still managed to get here a few minutes after 7:00.

Stray Toasters

• I got to chat with for a while this morning. It was a fun way to kick off the morning.
• Giant Rocketeer Mosaic by Dave Ware (done in LEGO bricks, natch!)
  Check this site to get a better sense of the scale.
• The Omega Concern
• Pickens says Wal-Mart to study switch from diesel
• By way of come the following…
  • Goon City
  • Paging Leonidas to the Front Desk
    
• 
• : I don’t know if you’ve checked out HeroClix, but you might want to take a gander at this.
• How SEC rule exemptions led to Wall Street Collapse
• 
• Hitchhikers’ Guide series to ride again
• The mysterious Racer D…

He gets right on to the friction of the day.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 16 Sep 2008
I just had the old NBC tagline: “Tuesday is Blues day” run through my head. For those of you not old enough to remember, that was how NBC used to promote its series Hill Street Blues.

Last night, SaraRules, Logan and I watched the Philly-Dallas shootout. The first half of that game was just a romp. I’m not a big Dallas or Philadelphia fan, so I didn’t really care who won, but some of the plays – or lack thereof – were just… sad. The second half looked more like an NFL game.

Stray Toasters

• Reginald Hudlin leaves BET Networks
• “I’ll be all the props!”

• posted a link to The Terrible Crossover Fanfiction Idea Generator. I had to give it a whirl. Here’s what it came up with:
  Your challenge is to write crossover fanfiction combining Slaughterhouse 5 and Invader Zim. The story should use getting sucked into the “real world” as a plot device!

  Generated by the Terrible Crossover Fanfiction Idea Generator

• Just Past the Horizon: Wonders Never Cease
  • What’s What with… Lynda Carter
• By way of Wired: New Aluminum MacBook Shipping Already?
• A Girl’s Guide to Dating a Geek
• By way of :
  • 
  • 

Quote of the Day
From World of Warcraft to Prince… gotta love IRC:

(08:46:40) Ahpuc_: You know the worst part about having so many damned alts? Having to read the class-specific patch notes for EVERY CLASS.
(08:47:21) : heh
(08:47:28) : Gotta play ’em all!
(08:47:31) : Gotta play ’em all!
(08:49:04) Ahpuc_: Well…basically, yeah. 🙂
(08:49:08) Xeen entered the room.
(08:49:31) : PokeWoW
(08:50:05) Ahpuc_: I may be fooling myself, but I think I play my rogue better because I also have tanks and healers, and I understand what they are focused on better as a result.
(08:50:12) : “Level 58 Troll Shadowknight, I choose you!” *throws ball*
(08:50:36) Ahpuc_: Deathknight, you mean? Not til the next expansion is out. 🙁
(08:50:42) : Death.
(08:50:45) : Shadow.
(08:50:47) : *shrug*
(08:50:48) : 🙂
(08:51:12) Ahpuc_: If you don’t know the difference between death and shadows, I don’t want to be near you on a sunny day. 🙂
(08:51:30) Ahpuc_: Like the old joke about the difference between a man and a shower. 🙂
(08:51:42) : There are shadows in the rain, according to Sting, too…
(08:51:55) Ahpuc_: And death in the rain.
(08:52:14) : Death of a Salesman… in the Rain.
(08:52:18) : Wait.
(08:52:20) Ahpuc_: Hmmm…But doesn’t Death cast no shadow?
(08:52:55) : Death of a Salesman in the Purple Rain, a new heart-touching movie… coming soon from Oxygen
(08:52:59) Ahpuc_: And shadows never die, they just move, or expand to envelop the entire hemisphere at night.
(08:53:15) Ahpuc_: Don’t touch my heart!
(08:53:19) Ahpuc_: BAD TOUCH! DO NOT WANT!
(08:53:31) ***Ahpuc_ goes into cardiac arrest.

Attack the day…

Namaste.

Monday – 15 Sep 2008
Another day at the grindstone. It’s been fairly painless for a Monday… so far.

Stray Toasters

• It seems as though the NFL, in its infinite wisdom, has given Baltimore and Texas a “bye” this week, rather than have them play the game that was Ike-delayed from yesterday until today. The game has been rescheduled for 09 Nov 08.
• United Airlines doubles second-bag fee to $50
• 
• By way of BBC News: Haven’t we seen this election before?
• Russian prosecutors in bid to ban South Park
• sent me links to a couple of shirts on Threadless that we both find amusing:
  • Amazon Addiction
  • A city built on rock and roll would be…
• Star Trek‘s Takei marries partner
• Bank of America is set to take over Merrill Lynch. Wow.
• Microsoft says IE8 phoning home is “pretty innocuous”

Attack the day…

Namaste.

Sunday – 14 Sep 2008
I had a ‘Clix tourney yesterday afternoon. I tied (2-1) with another player, but he KO’ed more figures – higher total points – so he won the day. I took the Fellowship prize, so I got a Sue Storm Limited Edition figure. Not bad.

After the game, I had dinner with SaraRules before heading off to Chris’ for the first Dark Heresy game I’ve been to in… probably a month to a month-and-a-half. Back home… to find that SaraRules wasn’t feeling well. We decided not to go to breakfast and called it an early night.

This morning, we got up and watched football. SaraRules fixed breakfast while we flipped back and forth between the early games. After the first group of games, we headed to the Garden of Sweden – she wanted something for her office and I wanted to look at some new desk and bookcase options. After that (and lunch), we went to the Utah State Fair – Attractions. Exhibits. Food. Livestock. People on parade. Rides. The usual. And cotton candy. Sweet, sweet cotton candy.

Back home for the late game and then over to SaraRules’ parents’ for a bit.

All-in-all, it’s been a good weekend. Can’t really ask for more than that.

Stray Toasters

• I saw this shortly after waking up this morning; I think that this is my new favorite Sinfest cartoon.



• We watched The Running Man tonight. I haven’t seen that in many, many rains. And it’s so ripe for being MST3K’ed, too. And we did.
• DIsk Inventory X
• I showed Logan, SaraRules’ younger brother, a picture of the Burger King mascot from when I was a kid. I do believe that he found it just about as creepy as the current mascot, if not more so.
• By way of BoingBoing.net: Sarah Palin: Spammer and Digital Secrecy Scofflaw
• , did you find a copy of Watchmen?
• 
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Mom accused of stealing daughter’s identity to attend highschool and become a cheerleader
• The new Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld ads are… something.
  (And “good” isn’t the word I’m looking for.)

Namaste.

When: Saturday – 13 Sept 2008
10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Where: Cultural Celebration Center
1355 West 3100 South
West Valley City
801-965-5100

What: Help support Primary Children’s Medical Center by participating in a day of fun and tons of games! There will also be a LEGO Master Builder to help assemble a giant creation of LEGO bricks.

It’s been a bit of a busy day.
That’s not a bad thing.
It’s job security.

For some reason, despite being busy, the day seems to be creeping past. Oh, well.

Stray Toasters

• For SaraRules:
• By way of : Olbermann Slams Republicans for Exploiting 9/11 (video)
• Putting Lipstick on a Pig
• For Meliko and Tyranist: Fear And Hatred: Van Lente & Calero on X Men Noir
• Op/Ed: Forget the Rumors, Will Smith Should Be Captain America
• Coming soon from ITV4: No Heroics

• The Kid’s Comic Book Reviews – Comic book reviews… by a seven-year-old
• From NPR: Early-Onset Schizophrenia Has Never Been More Adorable

Namaste.

Thursday – 11 September 2008

Today marks the seventh anniversary (1, 2) of the day when innocent people lost their lives due to the actions of radical factions of an otherwise peaceful faith.

Before someone decides to take umbrage at that last statement, consider that many religions, including Christianity, have their fair share of bloodshed – in the name of their god – on its hands, too. So, let’s not jump to “holier than thou” statements.

That said, today we remember the lives lost to a tragic event.

In the words of Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing:

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;

There are lessons to be learned from the past.
There are things to be on our guard against in the present.
But one day – through diligence, vigilance and Providence – we will once again see the hope and promise of a better place for ourselves and future generations.

Until that day, do not give into fear.
Do not give into hate.
Do not give into ignorance.

And do not forget the loss and sacrifice of those who died on this day seven years ago.

Namaste.