Random Access

Monday – 04 February 2008
Another week begins…

…but it’s one daycloser to the 14th, which is not only Valentine’s Day (or Single Awareness Day, as some would say) but also the day that SaraRules and I head on another long weekend vacation.

Destination: Baltimore.

We’re heading home to see the miracle of the new little grey (or zebra-striped or polka-dotted) addition to the family. I’m still hoping that is able to convince Sib -1 that “Ercu Latte” is a good name for a baby.

The commute this morning wasn’t hellish. UDoT took care of most of I-15 with their usual aplomb. Of course, the areas just south and just north of Beaver were a little lacking in attention to detail, but them’s the breaks. For the most part, the other drivers were decent and courteous… although there were a couple of monkey-riffic ones, including a semi driver whom I had to fight my way past in Cove Fort.

SaraRules had mentioned something last weekend, while she was up here: About 6 miles south of Nephi, on the east side of the highway, is a sign for a Super 8 Motel. But… there’s a problem with the sign. See if you can figure out what it is:

For those of you who don’t see anything wrong, let me help you:

The name of the town is Nephi, pronounced “knee-fie.”
As spelled on that sign, it would be pronounced: “neh-pee” or “neh-pie.”

That sign had to go through, at least, two or three levels of quality control before it made it to the roadside. You would think that someone – the motel owners, the graphic designer or even the printer – would have caught the error before clearing the sign for use.

Oh, Schoolhouse Rock! , how we miss you…

Namaste.

Friday – 01 February 2008
Welcome to Black History Month.

(from http://pioneer.utah.gov)

Last night, I had dinner with Land at Biaggi’s. I haven’t eaten there in… over a year. I had the Chicken Marsala entree; it was quite good and very filling. I think that I saw the waiter who waited on us the first time that and I ate there… I think. But, I’m not sure. Fortunately, we had a different waiter and he was good – he was a little slow in bringing our drinks at first, but once he got going, he was rather attentive. After dinner, I ran a few errands then headed home.

I slept in a little this morning. Not much. Just enough. And it was good. A quick stop at the SLC office and then I was on my way to AF.

Things were fairly quiet in AF. Selah.
The lunchtime workout was a repeat of Tuesday’s workout.
I weighed in today at 172.0 pounds. (Wow.)

City of Heroes: The Hand of Nefer-Tem
I put in a couple of hours in Paragon City. Not quite enough to hit Security Level 40, but it got me a good portion of the way there. I should – hopefully – be able to get there by the end of the weekend.

Next weekend is another Double XP Weekend event. Double XP == good.

Stray Toasters

• I need to replenish the Twix and Butterfinger stores in my AF desk drawer o’ goodies.
• Eric and I just figured out who one of our coworkers reminds us of: Homsar.
• The Internet may (or may not) be a series of tubes, but this is.
• With John Edwards out of the race, commentators on this morning’s Diane Rehm Show speculated as to whether we could possibly see an Obama/Clinton or Clinton/Obama ticket in the Fall…
• Microsoft wants to buy the flagging Yahoo! Interesting.
• Microsoft is also doing a webcomic: Heroes Happen Here
• Frozen Grand Central – the latest prank from Improv Everywhere.
• 
• sent me a link to this. O.o

Time to make like the cast of The Wiz (Broadway) and Ease on Down the Road.

Namaste.

Thursday – 31 January 2008
After a few post-work errands, I holed up in the apartment and waited for the MythBusters “Plane on a Conveyor Belt” episode. It was good. They did a couple of other interesting experiments, including a test to see whether cockroaches would truly be able to survive a nuclear war.

After that, I logged into City of Heroes to see if anyone from the SG was on and to try and get closer to Security Level 40. I found one SG member on, but he was helping people with the Katie Hannon task force. I looked around for a while, but didn’t find anything else that looked promising, so I logged out.

I started reading some of yesterday’s four-color goodness. Even the “low priority” reads were good. When reading a week’s comic haul, I usually read books starting with the “little-to-waning interest” group and finishing up with the “warm, happy place” books. After all, why start off big only to work your way down to “Wow… that was completely craptacular,” when you can go the other way and (usually) end on a good note.

Somewhere in the middle of reading Fantastic Four, I konked out.
For the night.
On the sofa.
Again.

I woke up about ten minutes before my alarm was set to go off.

I prepped for work in a fairly leisurely manner, including taking the time to brew a pot of coffee and to enjoy a bowl of Honeycomb before heading off to face the day. And I remembered to bring my coffee to work this morning. Go, me.

The work day hasn’t been too bad. I discovered that I needed to reconfigure one of my MCSE test machines. Oh, well. I’ll probably wind up adding (yet) another machine to that group, so that I don’t have to keep reformating and installing an OS on the secondary box.

Stray Toasters

• I stumbled upon a new webcomic last night: Looking for Group. If you’re a gamer – and if you have an eye/ear for pop culture references – you might enjoy this one.
• VideoJug – Life Explained. On film.
• PHP. I need to get back into that.
• 20×200
• By way of : Election 2008 – Issues
• There is apparently a SWAT stand-off in Utah County. Not terribly far from the south office, as the crow flies, that is.
• 
• In addition to wanting to redo Queen videos with Disney movies, I am having the urge to make a “video” for Red Sector A using my X-Men MiniMates, some LEGO minifigs and my Sentinel.
• From Apple.com: Robert J. Lang – The Art and Science of Paper Folding

And stuff.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 29 January 2008
Last night, after the ordeal of the afternoon commute – it took about 75 minutes to get from AF to SLC – thanks to post-storm, near-whiteout conditions – and finishing out my day I went home and watched the State of the Union address. I had a few things go through my mind as I was watching:

1. When GW turned his head a certain way, he reminded me of Johnny Carson.
2. I don’t get why the Peanut Gallery Congress feels the urge/need to give a standing ovation for some of the most mundane bullet point items in a speech. It reminded me more of a pep rally than a presidential speech when they did it… even though I’ve seen it many times before.
3. I wound up watching the C-Span broadcast, because I got tired of the way the networks would always try to find Senator X, Y or Z for a “reaction shot” whenever GW was applauded for a particular note – especially Senators Obama and Clinton.
4. I want to download a transcript of this speech and – over the course of the next year – see how many of the stated/proposed items come to fruition.

After the speech, I took the Hand of Nefer-Tem on a field trip to Paragon City. I hooked up with members of my SG and we took on The Council and the Circle of Thorns. Over the course of the next couple of hours, I not only racked up the points I needed to make Security Level 39, but got about… 4.2 bubbles on the way to Level 40.

I stopped playing a little before midnight. I stretched out on the couch with the intent of watching a little TV before calling it a night. I was out in less than ten minutes. I’d be willing to bet that it wasn’t even five minutes.

Next thing I know, it was 5:00 AM.
I stretched… and nodded off again.

Phone alarm. 6:15. Ignored.

I finally managed to leave the gates of The Dreaming at 8:00. I got up and started the day.

I headed to the SLC office to take care of a few things. Then on to the AF office… and the gym. Today’s workout was good (but a little short):

• Bench press: 3 sets/8 reps (2 sets @ 205 lbs; 1 set/7 reps @ 205 lbs, 3 reps @ 185 lbs)
• Rows (cable): 3 sets/12 reps @ 120 lbs
• Shoulder press (seated, dumbbell): 3 sets/12 reps @ 40 lbs
• Bent-over row: 3 sets/10 reps per arm @ 35 lbs
• Curls (cable): 3 sets/10 reps @ 50 lbs

And, when I did my weigh-out: 169.4 lbs, which is down from Thursday’s 169.8. I’m not necessarily trying to hit 170 lbs, but I won’t cry if I do.

The Best: I Heard It Through the Grapevine
Gladys Knight & The Pips vs. Marvin Gaye vs. Creedence Clearwater Revival vs. The California Raisins.

The song was originally performed by Gladys Knight and, shortly thereafter, by Marvin Gaye and in the nineties, it was used by the California Raisin Advisory Board (no, I didn’t make that up) to promote… well, if I really have to tell you what it was for, you should just turn off the computer now. Seriously.

In my book, it comes down like this:

1. Marvin Gaye
2. Gladys Knight & The Pips
3. The California Raisins
4. Creedence Clearwater Revival

I don’t really have anything against CCR, but I don’t particularly care for their cover of this song… hence, the Raisins knocking them out of the Number Three spot.
Stray Toasters

• I got a call from Land this afternoon. Turns out he’s still in town. We may do dinner this evening.
• Coworker DaveW mentioned The Power of Two: A Twin Triumph over Cystic Fibrosis to me this afternoon. Turns out that he grew up with the authors.
• Bug (be sure to hover over the image for “ALT” text)
• Sock Zombie: Like a Sock Monkey, but undeader
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Apple Prohibits Movie Rentals on Recent iPods
• Eight promising games for ’08
• “the return of the revenge of the son of jones”

  

• Video Games Live is coming to Utah Symphony in March. I think that this would be a lot of fun. And, I want to go.
• “Wii the people, in order to form a more perfect union…”  (Sorry.  It slipped.)
• Casas’ ballpoint pen artwork

Namaste.

MythBusters will be taking on the “Plane on a Conveyor Belt” conundrum this Wednesday.

From BoingBoing:

Last night I spoke to Adam Savage, co-host of MythBusters. He’s in Alaska, where current temperatures range between 0 to 30 degrees below zero. He just finished a test on “cabin fever” (he wouldn’t say how long he lasted before murdering his cabin mates and running out into the frozen wilderness wearning nothing but longjohns and a sleeping cap) and is now working on another episode up in the 49th state.

But the real reason I talked to him was to find out about the next episode of MythBusters (airing this Wednesday). It tackles the famous “plane on a conveyor belt problem,” that has pitted brother against brother and friend against friend for years.

To get to the bottom of the thought-problem, Adam and Jamie used a real plane, in this case a 400-lb ultralight, and a large conveyor belt. Did the plane take off? You’ll have to wait until Wednesday to find out, but Adam said even the pilot guessed wrong.

MythBusters site

Monday – 28 January 2008
I am in the office already… and I’ve been here since 7:15.
Not only that, but I’m in the AF office.
Madness!

Okay, not really “madness.” SaraRules left this morning and I got up, ready and out when she left. It’s just that I haven’t been in the AF office this early since God was a boy.

Speaking of which: Gordon B. Hinckley passed away last night. As the 15th President of the LDS Church, he led his congregation for over 13 years. I wasn’t in Utah the last time a Prophet of the Church died, so it will be interesting to see how the local population treats such an event.

Back to the story at hand: 7:15! I slept… well, when I slept. I was up and down a few times last night, mostly with some unusual dreams. Fortunately, there is coffee and iTunes to help me make it through the morning. I started the day with Tank! and Billy Ocean’s Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car (sorry, and ) is currently playing.

Alright… “Attack the day like birds of prey” time.

Namaste.

Thursday – 24 January 2008
So far, so grey. I mean,”So far, so good!” Yeah… “good.” That’s the ticket. Even if I can barely see across 215 from the office window.

I have hot chocolate. I’m willing to bet that most of you don’t. Pity.

The morning started off slow and leisurely, and included a quick chat with . Then the short trek to the north office; I’ll most likely wind up in the south office a little later, but for now… I’m here.

Stray Toasters

• I meant to post this yestermorn… but forgot it: The Weather Channel’s Epic. Check out the “Dangerous Drop” video.
• TheAtlantic.com has dropped the fees for access to their online content.
• As much as I enjoy a good episode of Justice League and/or Legion of Super-Heroes… or even reading my weekly four-color goodness… or even having my GL costume for Halloween 2004… or even playing City of Heroes, I don’t think that I’m quite this far gone: Superheroes in Real Life. More power to ’em, though. 🙂
• , this might be up your alley: CoolMiniOrNot – Hot or Not site for sculpted, painted miniatures

And, that’s a good start.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 23 January 2008
Mid-week and all’s well… if grey, gloomy and generally “blah” can be considered “well.”

I got a decent start on the morning… even after someone dialed my number at 5:45 AM. No idea who it was, because no number came up on the Caller ID. Monkeys. I was up and nominally mobile a little after 7:00 this morning and out the door, caffeinated (and bagel-laden) and in the office by 8:30. As an added bonus, the first song on Nomad’s shuffle play was Big Daddy Kane’s A Job Ain’t Nuthin’ But Work. Nice way to kick off the short commute.

Mo’ money, mo’ money, mo’ money got get made
To get paid in this trade
And I believe that I can acheive
To make ends meet like a hair weave

Survivin’ in this economy people in the world wanna be
Stayin’ in the upper class so you’re the path
The rich gets the most and the poor gets so little
And only Monie Love can make it in the middle

The work day wasn’t too chaotic. Fortunately. I was asked to check out a problem with a server… which not only was not having a problem (today), but was also in the middle of running some tests for one of our engineers. So, that got downgraded from “Put this at the top of today’s to-do list” to “Keep an eye on this.” I’m okay with that. I’ve also managed to work in some hardware testing… which means that I have been able to clear stacks of dysfunctional machinery out of my work area. I actually found some work space under all of the dreck!

Sushi Wednesday.
New Comics Day.
‘Nuff said.

Genius that I am, I left the power cord (POWER CHORD!) for Defiant at work. *sigh* This meant that – rather than go buy a (“yet another”) new one – I had to go back to the office to retrieve it. This was good on a couple of counts… as I also forgot that I needed to pick up a few things at the store, too. So, I headed to the office to find…

…neither of my badges worked on the main doors of the building. *grblsnrkx* Fortunately, I had messaged Code Monkey BB to see if he was still at work before leaving home. He was. I called him and he brought my cord down to the lobby. We chatted a bit before I took off to run some more errands and he went back upstairs to sling some more code.

After errand-running, I decided to see if was in. She was. I told her that I had her Trader Joe’s shwag with me and would drop it off, if that was alright. Not only was it alright, she asked if I’d mind lending a hand to , who had been helping her resurrect her PC – at this point they were having a problem getting her mouse to respond and needed to rejoin the PC to the wireless network.

No problem!
Piece of cake!
We’d have it back online and humming in no time!

An hour and a half later, we finally had things up and running again. Just like Tom Tom the Piper’s Son… but without the pigs.

Stray Toasters

• I had many things in the four-color hold today… and I picked up a couple new Stikfas:
  1. Alpha Male Samurai with Stallion
  2. Omega Male Black Knight
• By way of comes Gaslight Justice League, a steampunk/Victorian Era look at the JLA.
• had a few things to say about peoples’ reactions to Heath Ledger’s death.
• Today was also Sushi Wednesday for … who, along with the Sib-1 sister-unit, has been interviewing pediatricians. It sounds like it has been a feast-or-famine kind of thing.
• : has your Trader Joe’s items, as you are more likely to see her on Friday evening.
• Area 51 designated with a new name
• By way of : The Internet Party: What happens when Google’s parents leave town for the weekend?
• By way of : The 5 Most Horrifying Bugs in the World
• SR-71A… made out of LEGO. Win-Win!

I’m sure that there was probably more that I was going to add to this… but all I want to do now is save the world (if I can find a team) and read the rest of this week’s four-color haul.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 22 January 2008
And… we’re back in the Land behind the Zion Curtain.

Actually, we got back last night. We arrived in Utah as snow began to fall a little south of Cedar City. *sigh* I left (relatively) sunny southern California for this?!

Yesterday, SaraRules and I hit the Trader Joe’s in La Cañada before hitting the road. I haven’t been to a Trader Joe’s in a few years – since the last Disneyland trip, in fact. I stocked up on a few bottles of Two Buck Chuck, among other tasty wines and some assorted snacks. Then, we were northbound and down. We stopped at an In and Out Burger in Vegas. ‘Twas tasty.

Today’s commute wasn’t as hellish as I had feared that it might be. The roads in southern Utah were fairly clear. I didn’t really have to deal with any road monkeys, which was also nice. Today’s workout was good:

• Bench press: 3 sets/10 reps, 185 lbs.
• Curls (standing, barbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 50 lbs.
• Fly (Nautilus): 3 sets/10 reps, 95 lbs. (ten-second hold on the tenth rep)
• Decline press (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 50 lbs
• Tricep press: 3 sets/10 reps, 80 lbs.
• Dips: 2 sets/15 reps

It was definitely tiring, but good. I think that I will start increasing my weights next week, by at least 5 lbs per exercise. And, speaking of increasing weight: When I stepped on the scale today, I tipped the scales at 169.6 lbs. I don’t think that I’ve weighed quite that much since my freshman year in college.

Stray Toasters

• Last night, somewhere north of Las Vegas, SaraRules put Queen’s Greatest Hits in the CD player. While we were listening to Killer Queen, I started thinking, “What would you do for a video for this song?” Almost immediately, I thought of the Queen of Hearts, from Alice in Wonderland, running around going “Off with ‘is head!” From that point on, it became something of a game to see what Disney movies/characters could be best matched with the rest of the songs on the CD.
• Chris Anthony’s Dream Photo Exhibition
• 
• Beer Can Dan
• By way of Wired (and Sarah Silverman): The 33 Things That Make Us Crazy
• Retro-gamer cupcakes
• From xkcd: “The Data So Far”

  

• I have a fresh supply of Twix.
• Steampunk LEGO Naboo Fighter and UK Church of the Jedi

Quotes of the Day

Item 1 comes from a brief (though not brief enough) conversation with a coworker:

Office Simian: Is there a color printer around here?
Me: No, there’s one in Salt Lake
Office Simian: Well, that makes it kind of difficult, doesn’t it?
Me: Not really… if you’re going to be in Salt Lake

Item 2 is from a conversation with :

(4:36:13 PM) : please. kill me.
(4:36:33 PM) : Can I just… wound… you?
(4:36:40 PM) : but..
(4:36:41 PM) : shockpuppet would kill me if I kill you.
(4:36:51 PM) : if you strike me down now i will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
(4:37:45 PM) : I dunno… I can imagine a lot.
(4:39:47 PM) : MORE.
(4:41:53 PM) : But, shockpuppet…
(4:43:39 PM) : yeah. she would really fuck you up.
(4:43:57 PM) : and then she’s have SaraRules to deal with…
(4:44:01 PM) : she’d..
(4:44:12 PM) : in the end it would probably kick off a world war.

Tonight: Scion… and maybe saving the world, after I get home.

Namaste.

Sunday – 20 January 2008
This morning, we got up and breakfast at Noah’s Bagels with Meliko, Cat and Adrienne. After that, we headed back to Meliko and Cat’s apartment to get our gear and get on our way. We made a… somewhat… quick stop at the comic shop around the corner from the apartment. I’m glad I did: I found a Time Trapper ‘Clix.

On to LEGOland! Sweet Mary, mother of God… it was fun! The park was bigger than I expected. We got to pretty much all of the sections, but there are still some things that we’d like to go back and check out. We saw the exhibits. Rode a few rides. Walked. Toured. Shopped. Had a good time.

From there, we headed up to Montrose to meet up with the infamous Tom C., his girlfriend Jo and their roommate, Blair. (, both SaraRules and I hugged him for you. His reaction was worth it.) We went to dinner at Jerry’s Famous Deli in Studio City. Our waiter looked like an adult Peter Brady (NOT Christopher Knight… but, rather, what Peter Brady would have looked like had “he” grown up). And he wasn’t exactly the most attentive waiter. *sigh* Oh, well. Back to Tom’s to chill and hang out.

Here are today’s pictures… with a warning: After the pictures of SaraRules and Meliko and of Cat and me, there are over 350 pictures in LEGOland.

Human of the Day
Today’s HotD is SaraRules, for putting up with me being a horribly overgrown kid – with a camera – at LEGOland. (Or, as she put it: “It was fun watching you be so excited about being at LEGOland.”)

Time to relax and unwind.

Namaste.

Saturday – 19 January 2008
This morning SaraRules and I got up, observed the hygiene rituals and then headed off to enjoy a few things in the greater L.A. Metro area. But first… on to the nearby Target for a couple of new SD cards for the camera. Next, we went to a bagel shop around the corner from Meliko’s place. I had ham, egg and swiss on a sesame bagel, which was rather good.

And then…Seal Beach. (pictures) We walked down the pier and then walked down on the sand… and a little way into the surf. The ambient temperature was in the mid-60s and the water 57°F, pretty chilly but still okay to stand in (briefly!). There were surfers on the north side of the pier and sunbathers on the south side. And, we even saw one wakeboarder trying to “surf” down a sand dune. He was unsuccessful in all four attempts that we watched. There was no wind, so I didn’t get to fly my kite.

Back to the apartment to meet/pick-up Meliko and then we headed to Messob, an Ethiopian restaurant. The ladies split a vegetarian platter; I had Sigo Wat – a braised beef dish. All of it was good and I understand why it is that SaraRules tries to make this one of her “must go to” places when she’s in L.A.

After lunch, we went to Beverly Hills (cue Axel F) to go to Sprinkles Cupcakes. I had heard them both rave about the cupcakes… and bemoan the fact that there was usually a wait to get in the door. When we got there, we had 20-ish minute wait to get in. That gave us the perfect opportunity to do some people-watching. We weren’t let down. We counted more than “a few” fashion faux-pas and straight-up “fashion don’ts.” Finally, we went inside, ordered our cupcakes and were on our way to…

…Gallery 1988 for Under the Influence: A Tribute to Stan Lee. As cool as the pieces looked online, they were even more impressive in the gallery. If I had the money to do so ($$$), I would have added a couple of pieces to my burgeoning art collection. If you’re in the L.A. area – and are a fan of comic-related art – you should definitely see this exhibit (on display through 01 Feb 08). After looking at the exhibit, we went next door to Golden Apple Comics.

*bliss*

I found some old issues of Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, a handful of Legion of Super-Heroes and an Elseworld title that I haven’t seen in a while: Speeding Bullets. Not only that, I picked up a few pieces of plastic crack, including:

• Captain America
• Lex Luthor
• Shadowcat
• Superman Blue
• Triplicate Girl (!)
• Wasp and
• Wonder Girl

Yeah, I was pretty stoked. Back to the car – by way of a nearby Baskin-Robbins – and back to the apartment.

Next up, we’re going to see Cloverfield in a bit.

::: time lapse :::

So, SaraRules, Meliko and I just got back from Cloverfield. It was well-done. Very well done, in many ways… but be warned: It’s shot in Blair Witch cam. Even more so than the second and third Bourne movies. However, the technique was used very effectively in this movie. And the characters were rather believable. And the movie was written with the assumption that the members of the audience actually had functional brains. So… I give the movie a thumbs-up with an okay.

Tomorrow: LEGOland.

Namaste.

Friday: Coda
Annnd, we’re here. Long Beach. SoCal. According to Weather.com, it’s 49°F here. Forty-nine. At almost 10:00 PM. SLC won’t see the other side of forty for the next couple of months, probably.

The trip was fun. Long, but fun. We stopped in St. George (so I could pick up my camera – kudos to online shopping/in-store pick-up). While we were off the interstate, we decided to pick up lunch at the nearby Burger King. This was… entertaining.

We pulled up to the drive-in and SaraRules started to place our order. I think that it took four tries to get the first part of the order in and have the person on the mike actually get it right. Then, SaraRules put in the second part of the order. That was, comparatively, a piece of cake – she only had to repeat herself once.

And, just as we were about to add an extra order of onion rings to the mix, we were cut off, given a total and told to drive around.

*blink blink*

We drove up to the window… and added in our onion ring request. Because, as SaraRules put it: “We already had food and knew that they would not spit in our onion rings.”

So, the whole exchange – which should have taken about… four minutes – took nearly ten. Wow. Talk about “fast” food.

We drove through Vegas and the NV/CA state line and on to Baker, CA. If you’ve never been to/through Baker, you’re not really missing much: A few gas stations, some restaurants (mostly attached to the gas stations) and a buttload of mobile homes. Oh, and the world’s tallest thermometer. On the plus side, they did have a Dairy Queen, so I was able to sate my chocolate-dipped cone craving.

On the road again and on to Long Beach! Tally-ho!

As we dropped through Cajon Pass and into San Bernardino, the traffic picked up… the way that traffic does when you’re entering a major metropolitan area. It reminded me of the traffic on 495 in/around DC.

We made it to Meliko‘s. When we got there, Jeff and Adrienne – friends of theirs, were there. We said our “hellos” and then decided to head off to get something to eat. We went to a place called Marri’s Pizza and Italian Restaurant. I had the chicken alfredo. Good stuff. By the time we got back, Meliko’s roommate, Cat, was home. SaraRules and I hung out while the four of them (Meliko, Cat, Adrienne and Jeff) practiced a song.

Stray Toasters

• Right after this afternoon’s post, pointed me in the direction of 25 Amazing Photos Taken at the Exact Perfect Time
• : I got ya covered. There’s actually a TJ’s just around the corner. Literally.
• How bad-ass is Wonder Woman? Not only did she whoop Batman’s ass, but she’s a therapist: Ask Golden Age Wonder Woman
• The newest “Sneak Preview” from the upcoming HeroClix release Crisis: The Flash. The Barry Allen “I’m going to run myself to death” Flash.

  

And, since I’m on vacation… I’m done.

Namaste.

Friday – 18 January 2008
Yesterday, I was tired. Weary. BEAT. The drive from AF to Cedar was no longer (distance-wise) than usual, but damn and a half, if it didn’t seem to take seven hours longer than usual. On the other hand, I was able to capture this shot, just as I was passing through Nephi:

Not the best picture in the world, but not too shabby for an in-phone camera. It doesn’t show incredibly well, but there was a “column” of light and cloud in the middle of it that made me take the picture.

Shortly after I got in, SaraRules and I went to dinner with Josh and Steve. It was fun… even though we had a “not as good as she could have been” waitress. She was on par with Heather, our waitress from the Christmastime Outback dining experience. At least the food and the company were good. Steve came back to SaraRules’ for a bit and we hung out with Steph, Darillyn and Vince. After things died down, I decided to call it a night. I crawled into bed and was apparently out – and I mean “OUT” – in about three minutes.

I woke up this morning and it took me about three minutes to come to the realization that today was “Friday” and not “Saturday.” Although, being Friday, it made infinitely more sense as to why SaraRules had to go into work this morning. *facepalm* Yep… genius, I am. She should be home in a few and then we’re off like a prom dress after midnight.

I didn’t think about this before, but we will be hitting a Trader Joe’s or two while we’re outside the Zion Curtain. If anyone has anything that you’d like from there, drop me a line. I’m not sure what my connectivity will be like in California, so if you want to be sure that I’ll get your request, call or text message me.

Stray Toasters

• In another first: I almost typed “Starry Toasters.”
• I told a couple of people around the office that I was taking off to California this weekend. A few of them – Tyranist in particular – asked why I chose this weekend. I told him because of the long weekend/holiday. After a moment’s reflection, he nodded… “Ah, Black Christmas. Got it.”
  (Back story: Many businesses in Utah close for 24 July, Pioneer Day. Tyranist pointed out that if I could – and usually do – refer to Pioneer Day as “Mormon Christmas,” he could refer to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as “Black Christmas.” I agreed.)
• After seven years of solid use – and a few cases of abuse – I am replacing my digital camera. After all, I’m going on vacation – I should have a reliable camera with which I can take pictures.
• The IKEA Winter Sale ends 21 January 2008.
  I may have to see if I can squeeze in a pilgrimage to the Costa Mesa Garden of Sweden…
• Ever have a “What Would Cthulhu Do?” moment? Get some of these and maybe you’ll be a few steps closer to figuring it out.
• 
• By way of Wired: Macheads Dream of Teleporters, Holographic Sex Toys, Squidets
• 
• Paper airplane to be launched from International Space Station

And… that’s a wrap for now.

Namaste.

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

Mm-hmm, that’s right.

Wednesday – 16 January 2008
It snowed today. Okay, that may be a bit of an overstatement. It flurried today. But, it was Sushi – and Comic Book – Wednesday, so that made up for a lot of wrongs. For the most part. I only had two (2) books in my hold today. Two! Unglaublich! So, to make up for some of the pain I felt, I picked up the last two boxes of Origin ‘Clix in the store. Most of the pieces were… average, but I managed to walk away with a couple nice pieces:

• Batman (unique)
• Jakeem Thunder (unique)

So, it wasn’t a bad haul. And, I finally remembered to use my gift certificate, so there was even less out-of-pocket money that had to be spent.

As I was getting ready to leave Dr. Volt’s, I got a text message saying that the technician (who was supposed to be there yesterday) had arrived. So, I headed back to the office with all due haste. I shouldn’t have worried: The guy was not exactly “social.” Oh, well. At least the hardware has been repaired and everything should be hunky-dory, once again.

After work, I came home to do some cleaning and a bit of laundry. Yay, domesticity! It needed to be done and apparently, I have neither gnomes nor house elves who are going to do it for me. (And I never learned to warble/yodel/whatever it is that the Disney princesses do to summon legions of animals to do the cleaning for me, either.) Frankie dropped by for a while and we caught up on what each other has been up to for the past few months. She’s doing well and it was nice to see her.

Tomorrow is “Friday.” Put in some time in the north office. Head south to put in some time and make sure that things are copasetic…

…and then it’s off to southern Utah to see Ms. SaraRules and prep for a sunny – and WARM – weekend in southern California. Selah.

Four-Color Coverage
Short and sweet this week, as I only have a couple of titles to cover:

• Countdown: 15 -Mary Batson, the former Mary Marvel, washes ashore on Themyscira. Ray Palmer, the former Atom, finds a backbone. Donna Troy vs… Donna Troy? And Monarch’s armies whoop some ass.
• Justice League of America #17 – Black Lightning can’t catch a break. He has to snap off a little somethin’ in an airport before he can even get on his plane and go on vacation. Batman… a conspiracy theorist?! Say it ain’t so! A bunch of villains attack the Hall of Justice?! Where.. the.. heroes… hang out and plan stuff. Together. Wait. What’s wrong with this picture?!

Stray Toasters

• It’s 11:30 PM… and I’m making brownies. Just because.
• By way of : A god in Nepal: second only to the Dalai Lama
• I woke up to a comment on last night’s post from Julie Lawson, wife of Jerry Lawson – former lead singer for The Persuasions. How cool is that?
• Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?
• NCSoft President Speaks on Publisher’s Future
• “Flame on!”

  

• Six steampunk saints fit on a quarter
  (But, I still want to know how many angels fit – or can dance – on the head of a pin.)
• Wow… it’s been a while since I’ve had a “steampunk”entry.
• Art exhibit of Stan Lee tributes now showing at Gallery Nineteen Eighty-Eight
  I’ll have to see if we can sneak in a trip to the gallery this weekend…
• Cloverfield opens this weekend, too.

Time to finish packing… and maybe, just maybe, sneak in a little world-saving.

And have a brownie or two.

Namaste.