Random Access

Friday – 28 September 2007
It’s Friday. Do I really need to say anything more than that?

No? Somehow, I didn’t think so.

Today’s going well. I’ve had my head semi-buried in a textbook for the better part of the morning – buildin’ them job skills! Yay for learning.

Stray Toasters

• I sent a group email this morning; almost immediately, I got a response from someone asking for a clarification of the name, because he almost dumped it into his spam filter without reading it. That, just on general principle, amused me.
• I just finished copying my mp3 library onto my system in the north office.
• Corollary to the above: Damn you, Tyranist.
• By way of : Brian Dettmer – Book Autopsies
• The design below, available on a t-shirt, grew out of this case.

  

• , this might interest you: The Podcast Network Signs John Cleese for Video Podcast

• I’m a goddamn marvel of modern Rob.

  Which movie was this quote from?

  Get your own quotes:
• US Navy calls MySpace kids an “Alien Life Force”
• I am eating cotton candy.
• Apple update shuts down hacked iPhones

Whoosh!

Namaste.

The inbound commute was relatively painless. There was a PoW monkey that I got stuck behind from Lehi to just shy of my exit, but she was able to intermittently find the skinny vertical pedal with her right foot, so I didn’t have to run her off the road. (Although the temptation was there a couple of times…)

Stray Toasters

• Happy Birthday to

  

• By way of : “Sabbasattā bhavantu sukhitattā” — May all beings without exception be happy — Metta Sutta
• By way of : World Clock – “…shows current statistical figures for world population, births, deaths, deforestation, and much more.”
• NASA’s Dawn takes off for asteroid belt
• By way of Eric: Picture of the Day
• Happy SGN Thursday to !
• From the “Nucular Toonami” file: First New Nuclear Power Plant in US in 30 Years
• 
• I’m sorry, but whenever I think about this article, my first thoughts are either:
  • Take the Lobster-heads Bowling
  • Take the Skin-suits Bowling
• LEGO Millennium Falcon goes on sale

Quote of the Day
The following was sent to me in a text message, it was the perfect way to start an NBN Thursday:

May the crabs of a thousand whores infest the crotch of the person who fucks up your day and may their arms be too short to scratch.

Namaste.

Wednesday: Coda / Thursday – 27 September 2007
Three down, two to go.

I cleared – or at least did some damage to – a few items on my task list today. Productivity = good. I had lunch with Jason (coworker) and Perry at Tres Hombres. It was a little more than I had planned on spending for lunch… especially since I had taken a lunch with me today, but it was good.

As I was winding up the day, Land called and asked if I was free this evening. I was, and told him to swing by the apartment and we could go in search of food-type items. We wound up at Cafe Rio. Dinner and a good conversation later, I wandered over to Office Depot to replace my broken architect’s scale. And then, on to Barnes & Noble, to introduce Land to Way of the Peaceful Warrior. He had heard of, but not seen, the movie; I told him that it was worth the price to purchase the book. He did. Mission: Accomplished.

When I checked the mail, there was a package from my father. Ô.õ I opened it to find sections from The Baltimore Sun about Cal Ripken, Jr.’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. There was also a letter in the package. An old letter. 30+ years-old old. And some note card-sized sketches. I didn’t quite get the gist of what they were for… so I called home. Dad said that they were ideas that he and a former coworker of my mother’s had come up with as a proposal for a set of stationery/seals with patriotic themes. They never really did anything with them, but he thought that I might be able to find a use for them. How cool is that?

Stray Toasters

• I still have four bags of cotton candy.
• A word and a movie
• 50 Years of ‘West Side Story’
• 26
• Titan missile silo for sale
• Wizard First Look: Millar and Hitch’s Fantastic Four
  
• 
• Why women read more than men
• A year of following all the rules in The Bible
• From the “Things We Don’t Need” file: NBC Revs Up New Knight
• Kurt Busiek on “The Third Kryptonian” and more
• …and, since we’re on the topic of Superman: Incoming: All-Star DC figures

And, with that… bed.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 26 September 2007
Yesterday was pretty good, all the way around. No real problems. I had to demonstrate my technopathic abilities to a new coworker. And, I had cotton candy. How can you beat a combination like that? You can’t.

Yesterday’s workout was good, too. My sets of 215 (10 – 10 – 9 and a reverse) were decent. My pull-ups (the exercise, not the training pants) are getting better, too: I did two-and-a-half sets (10 pull-ups, each) with no assistance. That’s a nice – and noticeable – improvement. And then, there were the side bends. *urk* Good for the obliques… in theory. I woke up this morning to pain, which is pretty normal the day after doing side bends. I keep trying to convince myself “It’s good training” and “It builds character.”

Last night was zombie-killin’ game night. We came. We saw. We dropped grenades and retreated made a hasty advance to the rear. We lived, which is a good thing… but we returned to base tas it was about to be overrun by the Chaos-infused armies of the damned. Yeah, we are screwed. Who wants to live forever?

Stray Toasters

• I talked with Adam yesterday. He pre-ordered the limited edition of Halo 3. *genuflect* And, as with almost all of the limited edition copies, his was scratched beyond the ability to be played.
• Thirty-eight degrees. That ain’t right.
• Back to the Future: Shooter talks Legion of Super-Heroes
• I’m nearly done reading V for Vendetta. I like the graphic novel, but I can appreciate the cuts that were made in the screenplay. They were necessary, to fit time constraints, and didn’t detract (too much) from the overall story.
• List of the “World’s Weirdest/Stupidest Conspiracy Theories”
• 
• Oliver Sacks explains how your brain does music
• Okay… you’re the Master of the Mystic Arts, do you really need to peep in on women in tanning booths to get your jollies?

Time to go “politely explain” why my someone needs to come take a look at/fix my furnace -  today – to the lovely ladies in the leasing office.  *sigh*  No rest for the wicked, I tell ya.

Namaste.

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

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

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

Jitterbug Coffee Hop
1855 South 700 East
SLC, UT 84105

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

You can check out the menu here.

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

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

Stray Toasters

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

Time to hit the road and face the day.

Namaste.

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

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

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

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

Stray Toasters

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

/lunch

Namaste.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Football Update

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

Stray Toasters

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

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

Namaste.

Wednesday – 19 September 2007
Ugh.

I had to take the car in to have some service work done. That, in and of itself, isn’t so bad. My appointment was for 7:00 AM. Again, not so bad.

The problem, however, came in not sleeping very well last night. I don’t know if it was a subconscious fear of oversleeping or what. Whatever the problem, my journey through The Dreaming was troubled. I am hoping that by thinning out the blood in my caffeinestream, I can find a modicum of sanity… or at least enough mental stability to make it through the day without painting the walls red. It is Talk Like a Pirate Day, after all; why stop at just talking like a pirate? lj user=”asdf_cat” and I have been upholding the pirate talk… at least through IM.

::: meeting break :::

And, we’re back. On a plus note, Wes was in the office today. This is the first time I’ve seen him since he went out for his surgery a couple of months ago. He looks good. And he says that he feels much better and that he’s improving daily. That’s good to hear.

Stray Toasters

• I need many of these for the office. Both offices.
• Cats Harbor Sercet Plan to Turn Us Into Litter-Scooping Robots

  

  

• I don’t know how I missed this story over the past few days.
• 
• Report: Insiders cause more computer security problems than viruses
• By way of lj user=”ferriludant”: So by now, you know all know about the meteorite in Peru…
• 
• The Hypertext d20 SRD
• From boingboing.net: Home Inspection Nightmares from This Old House

Namaste.

Just a few quick hits:

• I was checking out boingboing and found this item for the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file… (potentially NSFW)
• Then, there was an article for this music video, by a group called Familjen, out of Sweden… made from vintage religious event footage.
• After showing it to a couple of coworkers, I then turned around and showed them Hurra Torpedo’s version of Total Eclipse of the Heart. After all, why pass up a perfectly good opportunity to break coworkers?!
• Nebraska Senator Sues God to Stop Terror Threats
• Thanks to for pointing out the Simuring feature on Vonage.
• Thanks to Tyranist for pointing me in the direction of the Marvel Database Project. I’ll need to check out how it compares to Marvel’s site/database.
• Brain surgery changes boy’s accent

And now… gym time.

Monday: Coda / Tuesday – 18 September 2007
Tonight, I got to play “Favorite Uncle” to the kids while Kate and Perry took care of a couple of things. The kids were finishing dinner when I got there, so they were ready for a little play time before bed. Aside from using my lap as an occasional playspace, they pretty much entertained themselves.

About an hour before bed, I sat them down for some quiet time while they watched cartoons. Then, the boys decided they wanted to watch Doctor Strange before bed… so I let them watch it, with the understanding that when it was time for bed, they’d have to turn it off and go to bed. So, popcorn was popped and they sat down and watched the movie. If someone had been watching through a window, it would have looked as though the two youngest had tried to attach themselves to my hip: The baby was on my left, feeding herself and handing me kernels of popcorn when I was taking too long to get them myself; the middle child was on my right, half-watching the movie, half-trying to feed me popcorn, too. And now that I think about it, the oldest was hovering pretty close, too.

When it was time for bed, they went to their respective rooms and got into bed. No fuss. Even the baby – She ran into her room, made a bee-line for the crib, asked for one of her dolls and laid down. Just like that. I tucked them in, closed their doors and didn’t hear a peep from them for the rest of the evening.

When Kate and Perry got home, Kate asked if I “…survived the kids alright?” I told her that as far as babysitting gigs went, this was cake. The kids took care of themselves (with the exception of one pre-bed diaper change, for the baby) and were great all night long.

The Best: Killing Me Softly (prompted by post from )
Roberta Flack vs. The Fugees

While I like the up-tempo groove of The Fugees’ cover, for my money, this song is best as done by Roberta Flack. No contest.

The Best: I Can’t Make You Love Me
Bonnie Raitt vs. Prince vs. George Michael

This one was pretty close. Sara and I were listening to Prince’s Emancipation this weekend and his cover of the song started playing. I asked if she had heard the George Michael version of it; she hadn’t. Fortunately, I had Nomad with me (A road trip without my trusty iPod?! Unheard of!) and played it.

Both covers are good… but for me, this round goes to Bonnie Raitt. There’s something that sounds more emotionally charged in her version, although I’d say that the Prince version runs a not-too-distant second.

Stray Toasters

• I posted the pictures from this weekend’s Cedar Breaks hike. (Apologies to those on dial-up connections…)
• , what’s this about Maoists quitting the Nepalese government?
• For some reason, I just had the thought of a wheelbarrow race pop into my head.
• Jamie McKelvie talks Suburban Glamor
• By way of : LOLthulu
• This sounds like an interesting idea, but “Lemon-squeezin’ Jesus” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. I think I’ll stick with monkey-squeezin’ Jesus, thank ya kindly.
• Hmm… Monkey-squeezin’ Jesus vs. Micro-Jesus. That could be interesting.
• Rare Timothy Leary document on eBay
• …speaking of which: I was in a chat/conference/speech with Timothy Leary waaaay back in the days of Quantum Link – the service that eventually became the AOHell behemoth.

I should try that “sleep” thing.

Namaste.

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

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

I ran a couple of errands and hit the road.

Destination: Cedar City
Objective: Visit Sara.

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

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

Saturday was a relaxed day that included:

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

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

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

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

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

Stray Toasters

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

Namaste.

Friday – 14 September 2007
Last night, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do about dinner, so I decided not to make a choice… so to speak.

Instead, I rang up to see what her plans were. She had none. She asked if I had a taste for anything in particular and I answered with my generic response: “Food.” She said that didn’t help. *shrug* She threw out a couple of suggestions. The one that stuck was Olive Garden. And so, we went. I tried one of their new dishes: Chicken and Gnocchi Veronese, a chicken and dumplings dish in a garlic cream sauce. It was rather tasty, but there seemed to be a disproportionate number of dumplings to chicken bits. Oh, well.

The rest of the night was spent being rather aimless and taking care of a few things around the apartment.

This morning, I woke up, got ready for work and hit the road. Short commute today. I can tell that I am ready for it to be the end of the day because I didn’t notice that I was missing my ID badge until I was in the elevator, on the way up to the office. I toyed with the notion of running home to get it, but decided against it, as it would be “too much” effort. A guest badge would do. Today, I am #10. For some reason, I started thinking, “What if this wasn’t written in Base 10? What if it’s Base 2? Or hex…?” From there, it only got worse: I started thinking of how to write “007” in different bases.

Yeah… it’s Friday.

Stray Toasters

• I’m handling Day 2 of a server upgrade survey. I talked with the person responsible for these servers yesterday, in an effort to coordinate shutting them down without affecting too many people adversely. Overnight, he apparently forgot part of what we had discussed. *sigh*
• Happy ‘coastering (not to be confused with ‘Toastering) to and onlyaly.
• I caught this meme by way of :
  1. Go to http://www.careercruising.com/.
  2. Put in Username: nycareers, Password: landmark.
  3. Take their “Career Matchmaker” questions.
  4. Post the top ten results.

  My results:

  1. Multimedia Developer
  2. Electronics Engineering Tech
  3. Electrical Engineering Tech
  4. Website Designer
  5. Optical / Ophthalmic Lab Technician
  6. Industrial Designer
  7. Architect
  8. Computer Support Person
  9. Interior Designer
  10. Tailor / Dressmaker
• World’s Worst Poluted Places 2007
• Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Ko Bop
  Shimmy Shimmy Bop
• 
• Video for MC Frontalot’s nerdcore song about Zork

Back to the grind. Need to get this stuff sorted out and done so I can get on to my weekend.

Namaste.

Thursday – 13 September 2007
A new NBN Thursday begins.

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

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

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

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

Stray Toasters

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

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

  

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

And, that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Sunday: Coda
Today was a good day.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stray Toasters

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

And, that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Thursday: Coda
Post-work, I came home, took care of a few errands and headed to Jitterbug to have coffee – and a light dinner – with and . The food, drink and the company were all good.

After that, I came home to face a project – rearranging a couple of my closets – that I left undone last night. Well… “half-done,” I guess. Either way, there was a good bit left to do. It’s still going to take a bit of tweaking, but I’m happy with the preliminary results.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you come across something – or several things – that offer(s) up a glimpse at how good things are.

I had posted the following as a Toaster a couple nights ago…

I believe in what I see
I believe in what I hear
I believe that what I’m feeling
Changes how the world appears

…and didn’t realize that how fortuitous it was.

Tonight, while going through one of the closets, I found a few things that I had forgotten about. And they made me smile. Every last one of ’em.

Stray Toasters

• I have Black Cherry Kool-Aid…
• …but I think that I want some chocolate milk.
• By way of Dwim: Internet People! – The Meth Minute 39
• Because it pops up every once in a while (and I like it): An American Pantheon
• I’ve been reading Starslip Crisis… and enjoying it.
• William Gibson WashPo interview “one of the best ever”
• Road monkeys. *grblsnrkx* In the… roughly three miles from I-15 to Union Park Avenue, I believe that I hit my Recommended Daily Monthly Annual Allowance for road monkeys.
• This was me, two nights ago.
• “Conundrum.” (They really need to put 7 Days on DVD.)

Namaste.