Random Access

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.

Monday – 14 January 2008
Back in the proverbial saddle again.

I had a good weekend in Cedar City with one notable exception: The Internet in SaraRules’ complex went tits-up Friday night. In and of itself, this wasn’t a hellish thing… BUT, there was one – exactly one – thing that I was looking forward to doing this weekend that required an Internet connection: Playing City of Heroes with Perry on Saturday morning, while SaraRules was at a seminar.

No Internet = No City
*grblsnrkx*

Instead, I watched Saturday morning toonage. LSH was a rerun, as was The Batman, but it was an episode of The Batman that I hadn’t seen, so I was satisfied with that.

In the afternoon, we headed down to St. George for a bit of shopping. I hit a good sale at the Eddie Bauer outlet and found some movies I wanted at the Best Buy; SaraRules found Mouse Trap – which she hadn’t been able to find in our previous shopping excursions – at the Target. One thing about the Target: It reeked. We walked in the door and were assailed with a stench so foul that we though someone had decided to skip the whole “going to the bathroom” thing and just relieved themselves on the front carpet. It was that rank. (Turns out that it was just REALLY badly burnt popcorn from their snack counter.)

Saturday evening, we went to see Art. It was interesting to see this again… and every bit as enjoyable as the first time. The actors whom we saw perform it in the fall reprised their roles; there were a few subtle changes in their performances – a little more… personalization, if you will – despite it having been three or four months since the play was staged.

Sunday was rather low-key. We watched football and watched a couple of movies. We watched 3:10 to Yuma (the new one) and Fantastic Four (at Ms. SaraRules’ request). I enjoyed 3:10 quite a bit. It was a good, old-fashioned western. I might even be inclined to agree with the tagline that it was “…the best western since Unforgiven,” which I thoroughly enjoyed. I do want to see the original 3:10 to Yuma, for juxtaposition. FF was as fun to watch this time as it was the eleventeen times before. I picked up the “Extended Edition,” with additional footage. While not all of the added footage was “necessary,” there were a couple of parts that I think would have gone well in the U.S. theatrical release.

This morning’s commute was uneventful. The odd/notable thing was the fog that I had to drive through from just south of Scipio to Mills. Pea soup. Visibility was cut down to less than a quarter-mile – it was thick enough that all you could see was white-grey nothingness. When I got down into Scipio, visibility cleared to maybe a half-mile, but there was still thick dense fog hovering about 500 feet above the ground. By the time I got to the Mills exit, the fog had thinned enough to see blue sky… and visibility extended for a few miles.

Stray Toasters

• I plowed through more of I Am Legend (the story) this weekend.
• As I mentioned above, SaraRules picked up a copy of Mouse Trap this weekend. She, Steph and I played it Saturday night. It was rather fun, in a Rube Goldberg contraption kind of way. (And it made me covet the Tower of ROK Mania even more. *sigh*
• Harbin Ice and Snow World 2007
• Wired reports that the highlights of tomorrow’s MacWorld keynote were leaked on WikiPedia. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow how accurate this is/was.
• 
• SimCity goes free software
• For : Gonzo: the Life of Hunter S. Thompson
• US Policy Would Allow Government Access to Any Email
• I had completely spaced off the fact that the Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight DVD goes on sale tomorrow.
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Ford Slaps Brand Enthusiasts, Returns Love with Legal Punch
• Ten Strange Keyboards

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.
Time to get comfortable and relax.

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.

Friday – 04 January 2008
And the work week – the short work week – comes to an end. Thankfully. Today, I started off in the SLC office, planning on finishing up the task I was working on yesterday and heading down to AF. “The best laid plans of mice and men…” I didn’t get out of there until 3:00. Then, I was off to AF… for the first time I’ve been in that office in a shade over two weeks.

I left the AF office and hopped onto I-15 South for a weekend in Cedar City. The weather was far more cooperative than it had been the last to southbound trips. And there were road monkeys – of special note was the Dodge Ram 1500 driver who got on the road in Fillmore. He decided that I was NOT going to pass him. Under (almost) any circumstance:

• Did he drop down below the speed limit?
  By the time I got halfway past him, he’d speed up.
• Was he stuck behind someone and I passed them both?
  Come Hell or high water, he was going to make sure that he passed me again.

The Council for Better Driving would like to take this opportunity to remind readers of Rule #1.

I finally passed him – and stayed ahead of him for a while – a little north of Cedar City, but I slowed down again, due to some rather strong winds blowing out of the canyons. AHA! The opening he needed! He zipped around me… only to slow down as the winds buffeted his truck. (And the Highway Patrolman in front of him may have had a little to do with it, too.) Idiotstick.

I’ve been hanging out with SaraRules, Steph, Darrilyn and Vince (and Darrilyn’s younger brother and sister, who arrived a little later). I’m looking foward to a nice, relatively quiet and relaxing weekend.

Stray Toaster
As I noted last night, I installed City of Heroes on the Windows partition on Defiant. When I went to run it, it kept giving me an error during the loading process. Today, I tried a couple of diagnostic tools, but they wouldn’t tell me why it was erroring out.

So, I uninstalled City.
And reinstalled it.

Still no go.

Eventually, I had an epiphany: Check the device manager to see if there was a noticeable problem there. Nope. Everything was hunky-dory. On a whim, I decided to look up information on the troublesome .dll file that kept throwing the error. It was tied to the video chipset. Hmm… I checked the display driver.

It was one of Microsoft’s generic “This should work!” drivers.

I immediately went to the Intel site and looked for a newer, better driver. I found it rather quickly and easily – kudos for good site navigation! I installed the driver, rebooted and decided to try City again.

Lo and behold, it loaded on the first go. I logged in, to be sure that everything else was working properly. Not only did it work properly, the framerate was a bit faster – and smoother – than I get on DS9. I logged out, with a satisfied smile on my face: Paragon City (and the Rogue Isles) just became my Kandor.

I’m a happy camper.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 02 January 2008
The year is another day older.
A new work week – and work year – began this morning.

Wahoo.

Yesterday, SaraRules and I headed over to her parents’ to watch the Rose Bowl (Illinois and USC) and just… chill. It was nice. The game, not so nice. The Fighting Illini got their midwestern hindparts handed to them, eight ways from Sunday. TLC would have called it “Unpretty.” (It’d make you feel unpretty, too…) After we turned from the game – somewhere in the third quarter – we watched Resident Evil: Extinction. I had seen it before, but it was a fun way to spend the evening.

We left, and came back to the apartment and decided that we weren’t tired enough to call it night, so we watched Superman: the Movie. At SaraRules’ request, not mine, believe it or not. *jawdrop* Wow. And, again, for two-and-a-half hours, I was a seven-year-old kid.

This morning, I don’t know if the alarm went off. If it did, I turned it off in my sleep. I woke up a little bit later, performed the hygiene rituals and hit the bricks. A week-and-a-half vacation is hard to recover from. But I – and everyone in the office – managed to pull it off. At lunch, SaraRules came to the office (she wanted to say “Hi” to ) and we met shockpuppet, and Joe for lunch. Sushi. Go-Sushi. Post-lunch, I picked up last week’s four-color shwag and then headed back to work.

After work, I came home and hung out with SaraRules before she headed back to Cedar City. After she left, it was time to have a bite to eat and then head to Paragon City with the Hand of Nefer-Tem. I was invited to join a team. We fought the Council of Thorns. And the difficulty level was cranked waaay up – we had our virtual hindparts handed to us, eight ways from Sunday. (It made us feel unpretty, too.) But, the experience was good, so I can’t complain too much.

I just got a call from SaraRules: She made it back to southern Utah without any problems.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
A commercial for Staples just came on and made me think of something: You see all of the ads for “Back to School” buys and whatnot in August. Every August.

And, because every year people apparently forget that they need to by school supplies – until they see those ads – there’s a bit of a rush at the stores to get supplies for little Johnny and Susie.

My question: Why not buy some/all of the supplies sooner? I mean, it makes sense… but it’s not something that you really think about – or want to think about – until you need it.

Kind of like buying a plunger.

Stray Toasters

• I have a taste for… some… kind of dessert, but I’m not sure exactly what.
• 
• Thermochromic Toilet Seat
• The Electric Company. Mm-hmm, that’s right… Easy Reader.
• Proving that he really is 2 Legit 2 Quit – MC Hammer’s Next Act: Tech Entrepreneur
• I’ve been rather vocal – at least to comic-reading friends – about how completely asinine I think the resolution to Marvel’s “One More Day” and “Brand New Day” storyline in the Spider-Man books is/was. (Short version: Joe Quesada and company have retconned Peter Parker and Mary-Jane’s wedding right out of existence. By making a deal with the devil – okay, technically it’s Mephisto, but come on… he’s as close as you’ll get to Old Scratch in the Marvel Universe.) I found a few blogs on Comics2Film that sum things up nicely:
  

  1. One More Day: One Less Reader
  2. One More Day: The Right Way to do a Retcon
  3. One More Day: The Art of the Swerve

• The Men’s Warehouse is having their Winter Sale. Hmm…
• IKEA is also having their Winter Sale. Hmm…
• Goats.
• Bruce Springsteen was right: “57 channels and nothing’s on…”
• Keys to the Kingdom

Namaste.

Sunday – 30 December 2007
An intermittently snowy day in the SL Valley.

Last night, SaraRules and I assembled (and played with) the Rokenbok Monorail that I’ve had, but never assembled, for… four-and-a-half years. We had more fun than should be allowed. I also discovered that my X-Men Minimates are the same size as the Rokenbok figures. (“X-Men Save the Factory” storyboards, here I come!)

This morning started lazily and slowly. As there was not a new shipment of comics this week, I figured that I would not get to partake in the weekly “coffee and comics in bed” ritual.

I was mistaken.

I had forgotten that Meliko had gotten me Ocean for Christmas. And that’s what I read. It was a great story. Science fiction (or “speculative fiction,” if that suits you better). Mystery. Intrigue. And action. All in one story. Correction: All in one well-told story. It made for a great way to start the day. Tyranist: If you haven’t read this, I think that it would be up your alley. While I read Ocean, SaraRules read the Justice mini-series (1, 2, 3).

After we finished reading, it was time for a late breakfast and football. Imagine my surprise to discover that the Steelers-Ravens game was going to air in this market. You could have, happily, bowled me over with the proverbial feather. It was the final game of the season and a division rivalry game… and they broke out the all-black uniforms. The game was good. Really good. “Ravens on top early” good. The team came to play some serious ball. Granted, a lot of starters were out, due to injuries, but their replacements did a great job. Troy Smith looked good in the QB spot. Second-year RB Cory Ross was all over the place. New-to-the-Ravens LB Nick Grieson did a great job of covering the ball on the defensive side of the game. To their credit, with many of the Steelers’ starters out due to injury and/or injury avoidance (as the Steelers made the playoffs), their second-stringers played well. But, in the end, the Ravens came away with the win.

Tonight, SaraRules and I went to visit Chris and Mary for dinner and a couple of movies: Dollman vs. Demonic Toys and The Ice Pirates. Both of these movies were “Cool World-Long Kiss Goodnight” Scale fodder, but they were also fun to watch… especially in the company of friends. A couple of odd bits of IMDb-supported trivia:

1. Tracy Scoggins and Tim Thomerson (both in Dollman vs. Demonic Toys) and Mary Crosby (from The Ice Pirates) were all in episodes of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Scoggins was a regular cast member in the first season; Crosby and Thomerson were guest stars.
2. Crosby and Scoggins were also guest stars on episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

And now, we’re home, sipping hot chocolate and eating biscotti. Huzzah!

Stray Toasters

• I talked with Adam today; all’s well with him and Chelsea.
• My uncle called me in the middle of the second quarter of the Steelers-Ravens game. Just to say “hi” and to commiserate over the fact that the game wasn’t playing in his area.
• Nintendo Wii Hacked
• There’s a new Monorail Metropolis Start Set. *adds to Covet List*
• The Red Balloon has become a dangerous store for me: They carry Rokenbok toys.
• Going to a Go-Go: Hip-Hop repays its debt to Chuck Brown
• 
• What in the Nine Hells has Joe Quesada turned Marvel Comics into!?
• Jon Favreau talks Iron Man
• Three weeks to L.A.

Namaste.

Thursday: Coda
SaraRules and I headed up to Ogden this afternoon. We were going to The Bookshelf… or, if was right, to where it used to be. The store was still there. But, they are in the middle of a “quitting the business” sale. This is a shame, as it is the overall best used book store that I have found, so far, in Utah. (There’s a much smaller, but decent, store in Cedar City called Braun Books.) We went… we looked around… we bought a few things. I may head back up there in a few weeks to see what’s left and if they’ve upped the discount on merchandise; they are currently selling things for 20-25% off and up to 50% on videos (VHS). All-in-all, it was worth the trip up there… and it was nice to get out of SLC for a bit, too.

We came back to town and after an unsuccessful trip to Dr. Volt’s – the new stuff isn’t coming in until tomorrow – we had dinner at Spaghetti Mama’s. Quite good and very filling. And, we got to see Kate, though only for a couple of minutes.

Next, we met , , , Jana and Chris for I Am Legend. It was good. I knew that it had been adapted from a book of the same name, but I had forgotten that it had also been adapted twice before as a movie: The Last Man on Earth and The Omega Man. Will Smith did a very good job. And they did a very believable job of rendering “The City that Never Sleeps” into a quiet, desolate and very lonely place. I definitely recommend the movie.

Thursday – 27 December 2007
Another lovely day in the valley. It’s a tropical 24°F outside, but there are partly cloudy skies, which means that the sun is putting in an appearance.

Last night, SaraRules and I watched Mirrormask. She liked it, overall, but thought that the story was a bit weak. She did like the visualizations, though.

Today, we’re still deciding what to do, but heading up to Ogden and making a pilgrimage to Mecca (known to the locals as “The Bookshelf”) may be on the docket. And there will also be a trip to Dr. Volt’s, as today is new comics day; the shipment is off by a day because of the holiday.

And tonight: I Am Legend.

Stray Toasters

• Benazir Bhutto killed in attack
• 
• Online games battle for top spot
• From the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot file: Jackson has ‘surgery’ after [being] hit by son
  

  Michael Jackson reportedly underwent emergency surgery after his young son accidentally punched him in the face. The Thriller hitmaker – who has undergone multiple cosmetic surgeries on his face in the past – was recently photographed in a Los Angeles bookstore wearing numerous bandages around his mouth. But sources tell Finditt.com the singer’s son, Prince Michael II, caused the injury: “He was whacked in the face accidentally by his younger son Prince Michael II while playing around and part of Jackson’s upper lip collapsed. “That mishap led a hysterical Jacko to make a beeline for the plastic surgeon for a bit of quickie repair work.”

• …and keeping it in the family, somewhat:

  

  (For those who don’t remember: Michael and Lisa Marie Presley were married for almost two years in the 90s)

And that’s a wrap for now.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 26 December 2007
Happy Boxing Day.

Last night, SaraRules and I went to see Aliens versus Predator – Requiem. I had not seen the first movie, so I was a little concerned about coming into this one at a bit of a loss. I had also heard that AvP was… a… less-than-stellar bit of cinema. Despite these items, I had a great time watching this movie. It was definitely a “check your brain at the door” kind of movie, but Ms. SaraRules said that it was “leaps and bounds better than the first one. By far.” The movie, while definitely sci-fi fare, had a bit of a horror movie bent. And it was fun. Additionally, it continued a nominal tradition that I had with and Don: Seeing a movie on Thanksgiving and/or Christmas Day(s).

This morning started lazily. Which, to be quite honest, is a great way to start the day after Christmas.

After observing the hygiene rituals and getting dressed, SaraRules and I headed down to The Bayou to have lunch with , onlyaly and others in celebration of ‘s birthday. I had a rather tasty jamabalya (the only thing I would have added was shrimp). I also had the Rogue Imperial Stout. (Don, if you’re reading this, you need to see if you can find a bottle somewhere in the Triad.) Holy Crap! It was good; filling, but good. I wish I hadn’t loaded up on soup, salad and jambalaya before drinking this. As it was, I was so full that I had to split the stout with . Then he, SaraRules and I shot a few games of pool.

Next was some shopping and an errand or two… and then back home.

City of Heroes: The Hand of Nefer-Tem
I tooled around Paragon City for a couple of hours as part of a pick-up team. We were in our mid-to-upper 30s. We fought The Council, a few members of the Carnival of Shadows and The Freakshow. The XP was good… even though I managed to die a couple of times.

Stray Toasters

• I am sitting here with a bowl of candy next to me because I’m craving something sweet… but not any particular type of candy. So, I’m going with “whatever strikes my fancy.”
• From Broken Frontier: Legend, Legion Reunited
• SaraRules + + = comedy
• offered up a couple of ‘Toaster-ready items
  • Damn Interesting: Raiders of the Lost Lake
  • Goth-o-Matic Poetry Generator
• 
• For : Lee Bermejo’s Joker Sketchbook

Namaste.

Saturday – 22 December 2007
Last night’s Clitorati gathering was but good. And there was news: Land is moving. To Ohio. A couple of opportunities came up and he decided to dive in and take a chance. Best of luck to him. And, in a pleasant surprise: got my attention and pointed to another patron in the store. I turned, looked… took a moment to process…. and realized that we knew the person: Ghela, who used to work in the bookstore. She came over and chatted with us for a while; there’s a chance that she may join us occasionally.

Today started – as good Saturdays should – with breakfast, coffee and cartoons. Today’s episode of Legion of Super Heroes was the second part of “The Man from the Edge of Tomorrow,” which I hadn’t seen before. “New” episodes kick grass. The Batman was also a rerun, “The Joining, Part One,” which I had not seen all the way through. Win-Win.

After toonage was done, SaraRules and I did a little more shopping. Which included a trip to the Garden of Sweden. Selah. We also stopped to visit Kate, Perry and the kids. And I got to be the kids’ jungle gym for a bit. It was fun.

On to SaraRules’ parents’ place for dinner and to meet her sister, Melissa, who’s in town for Christmas. Dinner was lasagna (vegetarian) and salad. Post-dinner, we had homemade cookies and watched Corner Gas (1, 2) with a couple of friends of the family.

Stray Toasters

• I got a call from both of the ‘rents today:
  • Mom called to say that my gift was on its way
  • Dad called to say that they had received their gifts.
• Darkwood Armory
• 
• Universities with the Best Free Online Courses
• pointed out the Faber-Castell Grip 2001 pencils. Nice.
• How To: Prevent Lost Luggage
• …speaking of which: Sky Shirts

Quote of the Day
From onlyaly, at last night’s Clitorati:

“From wet beaver to hot nuts…”

Namaste.

Thursday – 20 December 2007
Last night, SaraRules and I traipsed about town polishing off some more of my (last-minute) Christmas shopping. We were mostly-successful. There are a couple of places I need to check for four things, but I think I’ll be fine. After shopping, we headed to Olive Garden for dinner, which was good. They have removed one of my favorite dishes (Chicken Vino Bianco), so I had to try something a little different. I went with the Tuscan Garlic Chicken… which, aside from the pasta, was very similar to the Chicken Vino Bianco. Win-win. Back home for a few more episodes of Coupling (British version). One word: “Inferno.”

This morning started off overcast, but the sun has put in an appearance… along with some traces of blue sky. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that. Add to that the fact that I have been able to work out of the SLC office and today is shaping up to be a good NBN Thursday. *nod*

Human of the Day
Co-Humans: and for pointing out the OS X update that fixed the problem of the locking-up keyboard for the BlacBook.

Stray Toasters

• I picked up the Christmas cards today. They turned out well. Local cards are going to be distributed by hand; cards bound for the coast should go out tonight or tomorning and (God willing and the creek don’t rise) should get to their destinations by Monday.
• In a related note: I have to hand it to FedEx/Kinkos for doing a nice job with the cards. I’m still not overly enthused by the fact that their site requires the use of Internet Exploder, though.
• I managed to leave home without my phone this morning.
  I went home at lunch to drop some things off and – in theory – to get my phone.
  I managed to leave home without my phone this afternoon, too.
  (Oddly, I’m not really missing it…)
• New Justice League: The New Frontier trailer
• I ran into ‘s mother while running errands at lunch. That was a pleasant surprise.
• Stan Lee interview
• 
• During yesterday’s lunchtime run to Dr. Volt’s, I fed my plastic crack addiction. I picked up a couple of boxes of the Origin boosters. In one of the boxes I got Supergirl (veteran), bringing my plastic Legion one figure closer to completion…
• …and, speaking of ‘Clix, check out the new “Buy It by the Brick” promotional figure.
• The Giggle Loop
• The Salt Lake Valley is about to get hit with a pretty big storm. Here are a few office window pics, including a west-facing one to show the grey doom – full of Mother Nature’s frozen mocking laughter – heading our way. (The red glow in the pictures is not nuclear doom. Nor is it a nucular toonami. It is the reflection of the flash on the glass.)
• Science Tattoos (a Flickr set)

Quote of the Day
This morning, I got a message from Coworker Brett (on the right in this picture), who is in the Washington, D.C. area:

Brett: I thought about you the other day… as I was walking around a mall in Prince George. I thought, “This must be what Rob feels like in Utah Valley Mall.”
Me: And that’s why I don’t go to malls in Utah Valley.

It was a good – and amusing – way to kick off the work day.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 19 December 2007
Mid-week and all is well. The clouds over the valley are breaking up… a little. It’s Sushi Wednesday. And it’s new comic book day.

Last night, I had dinner with SaraRules and her family. Before I jetted off to and ‘s for game night, SaraRules handed me a gift. *blink blink* I looked at her and said,”But… it’s not Christmas, yet.” She smiled and told me that it wasn’t a Christmas gift… so open it! And I did. It was a copy of the DVD for Stardust, the first movie we saw together. It doubly surprised me, as I wasn’t aware that the DVD had been released.

On to game night! The game was a little slow – mostly because we, as a group, weren’t exactly sure how to proceed with a couple of things. But, half of us did manage to get our collective recta beat down and handed to us at one point. Not pretty. And, I was reminded that my character was not built to be a fighter. Not by any stretch of the imagination. My spec is more “the face,” the fast-talking social chameleon. So, getting into combat isn’t exactly in my best interests. But, we survived. And lived to adventure another day.

This morning, letting go of the bed was hard to do. So I put it off as long as possible. So far, it’s been a good day. Can’t complain about that.

Stray Toasters

• I got a message from the action man: “I’m happy, hope you’re happy, too…” my father a little while ago: The present for my stepmom arrived this morning. Now to get Dad and Rana’s presents in the system…
• Coworker Jan told me today’s Sven and Ole joke; he’s my go-to guy for my daily dose of Sven and Ole (and/or Ole and Lena) jokes. I mentioned that I had talked with Adam a few days ago and that he was loving (/sarcasm) his current post… a post that Jan was up for when he was deciding whether or not to join/stay in the Air Force.
• NASA has a Stargate
• I love it when you’re on a tech support call and you’re (in theory) being transferred to another department… and they drop the call. >.<
• When did Trekkies jump the shark?
• Why not Minot?
  Reason: It’s Freezin’.
• Ten Habits of Highly Successful Brains
• 

  (You can watch the new trailer here.)

• Recap of 2007’s “12 Gizmos of Christmas”
• From the “Big Brother is watching you” file: Chicago police ask you to report people using maps or taking notes in public
• There’s a rumour that Marlon Wayans is either up for or interested in the role of Heavy Duty in the upcoming G.I. Joe movie. That scares me. My pick would be Michael Clarke Duncan. Hands down. No, wait… I was thinking of Roadblock. Yeah… MCD for Roadblock, not Heavy Duty. Okay, I’m better now.
• The ten most entertaining tech videos of 2007
• “Server… Server… No… Server…”

Namaste.

Monday – 17 December 2007
A new week begins.

Last night, SaraRules and I had dinner with her family. And watched football. And trimmed their tree. And watched part of Reign of Fire. Okay, to be fair, I should probably say “MST2K-ed part of Reign of Fire.”

Amusing sidenote: We had barely taken off our coats and sat down (my seat wasn’t even warm yet!) when Mother-of-SaraRules asked me: “So what happened to your team!?” Ah, the joys of having your #1 team lose to your #2 team… and having a girlfriend whose family enjoys watching football.

Later, we headed back to the apartment and watched Mallrats, which I had never seen. I liked it. And, being a comic book geek, it spoke my language. Thanks to Tyranist for letting me borrow it.

This morning, I headed to the SLC office and had the quandary of “Do I really want to go to AF today?” Then I remembered that I had a test to set up in the AF office. The “choice” at that point became academic.

Stray Toasters

• I finished arranging the artwork for my Christmas card last night. I would have sent it for online printing then… but the FedEx-Kinkos site only works with Internet Exploder. Bastiches!
• I talked with Rana earlier; she and the tadpole are doing well.
• Congratulations to and Don on the arrival of their new baby!
• God bless the Interweb! Christmas shopping + shipping == hotness!
• Last week, RadioWest rebroadcast an interview with John Ronson, author of Them: Adventures with Extremists.
• I have been trying to find a particular style of hat for the past few months. The search would have been much easier had I known the name of the style of hat. This weekend, I found both the name and a place from which I can order it. Selah.
• 
• I borrowed Cat on a Hot Tin Roof from Coworker Eric. I’ve seen parts of it before; I’m looking forward to seeing it in its entirety.
• I know that it’s geeky as all Hell, but part of me wouldn’t mind having one of these.
• From the “What’s Playing in Rob’s Head” Network:
  • Rock Lobster, from the B52’s
  • 1-2-3-4, from Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine
• Deryni

And that’s that.

Namaste.