Random Access

Wednesday: Coda
I drove home from work with grand designs of taking a nap. After a restless night’s sleep, it seemed like a good way to go. I even planned it out so that I would start dinner (baked chicken breasts) and doze while they cooked.

Naturally, when I got home, I remembered a couple of things that I wanted to accomplish this evening and thus… pushed dinner and my nap onto the back-burner.

About an hour later than I had planned, dinner was under way and I prepared myself to visit Morpheus and the other denizens of The Dreaming. I was apparently more wiped-out than I had thought: My planned 30-minute nap stretched into an hour. I did wake up and turn off the chicken, but I stretched out on the couch again afterwards. When I roused myself, it was time to eat: chicken breasts, angel hair pasta and what would have been “stir-fry vegetables,” had I not put them in the oven alongside the chicken… and a glass of Gewürztraminer.

Four Color Coverage
There is an article on Broken Frontier about the 50th issue of (the current run of) Teen Titans. In it, it mentions how a number of writers and artists collaborated on the issue and how long-time fans would appreciate the four pages of work by George Perez, who pencilled the Titans’ adventures for many years in the 80s. In fact, many would say that he was the definitive Titans artist.

That got me thinking: Who are my “definitive” artists for given books? Whose style stands out when you picture a given title?

For me, the list includes:

• John Byrne – Uncanny X-Men and Fantastic Four
• John Cassady – Astonishing X-Men
• Alan Davis – Excalibur (I’m sorry… no one drew/draws that book like Alan Davis.)
• Keith Giffen – Justice League International
• Ethan Van Sciver – Green Lantern

I’m a little torn about the Legion: I grew up with Keith Giffen’s art, but I really liked Barry Kitson’s Threeboot run.

I’m sure that if I were to go through my collection, I’d come up with dozens more artists, but for now, this is a good start.

For those of you who read comics, who are some of your definitives?

Stray Toasters

• From the Broken Arrow file: Commander dismissed for nuclear mistake
• X-babies! (1,2)
• And, yet another addition to the Covet List: Phoenix
• , do I even want to ask about this: Nepal’s airline sacrifices goat to fix jet !?
• “A Wynn-Wynn situation”
• Psychological “torture bible” published in 1961 resurfaces online
• tried to kill me once again. This time, she tried with this. The even more odd thing: I had seen it, at behest, a couple of years ago.
• Thus, for Ms. Lightning: This.
• Or maybe…. this:

  

  (Yes, I did hear about Friday’s “Batman got beat up by a girl” conversation. Many thanks to for taking up the role of The Voice of Reason in my absence.)

• Dear Angie and John, a columnist’s introduction of a couple of friends to the world of comics.
• Partial Face Transplants – An advanced Photoshop pictures gallery
• I like Elton John’s Rocket Man; I also appreciate a good joke or comic that references it.
• COMIC URBAN LEGEND: Terra was created as a sort of parody of Kitty Pryde.
• Tyranist: It Came From the Quarter Bin: Star Brand #1
• The power just blipped out. Followed by a lovely reboot – my UPS needs a new battery or to be replaced. I thought that I had lost this post, as I hadn’t used “Save and Continue Editing.” Fortunately, Firefox somehow managed to save it. All.
• : Journey into Comics: Legion Season 2

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Tuesday: Coda / Wednesday – 05 September 2007
The post-work day has been… a bit… interesting.

I went to dinner with and a few of his friends and family. In and of itself, that’s not a bad thing. The problem was the storm that rolled in just as we were getting to the restaurant: Lightning. Thunder. Rain. Wind. Mayhem.

The mayhem came in the form of a blown transformer that took out power on 33rd South from just shy of 7th East almost all the way to State Street. So… dark restaurant. No food. Yay! We regrouped at one of the local Lone Star Restaurants. I haven’t eaten in a Lone Star in a couple of years – something about my aversion to what refers to as “cat in a dryer” (i.e.: “country”) music tends to keep me at bay. But, in the company of friends, what the Hell?! Why not? The food was good, as was the company.

From there, and I headed to Casa de for Game Night. Well, not really Game Night, per se, but we talked about where we’d like to go from this point (since we kind of, sort of killed/dispersed the major antagonist of the campaign). Nox has some ideas and we’re going to venture forth in two weeks.

Four-Color Coverage: Animated Edition
I borrowed the new Doctor Strange DVD (IMDb page) from Perry the other day. The good doctor has never been one of my A-list favorites, but I haven’t turned a title or story down just because he’s in it. I know the basics of his back story and that he’s Marvel’s Sorceror Supreme (read: “He’s the Grand Poobah of Magical Mojo in the Marvel Universe”). He’s been a part of the latest incarnation of The New Avengers, The Defenders… and he’s also part of Marvel’s Illuminati.

With that knowledge in mind, I sat down to watch the new release from Lionsgate and Marvel Entertainment.

The Stephen Strange to whom viewers are introduced is a brilliant neurosurgeon… who just happens to be aloof, arrogant and an all-around ass, quite frankly. He doesn’t have time to be “bothered” with things that aren’t going to bring a healthy fee and/or notoriety. He’s the walking epitome of hubris.Soon, he has a horrible automobile accident and loses the fine motor control of his hands, spelling the end to his career as a surgeon. From there, viewers see his descent into a broken man with no hope.

Enter: Wong, a disciple of a mystic known only as “The Ancient One.” With him, Wong brings the promise of healing for the former doctor. And hope.

And, from that point, the journey of Doctor Strange begins.

I have to admit that I was rather impressed. This movie, though given a PG-13 rating, wasn’t dumbed down. It was well-written, well-voiced and (with a couple of brief exceptions) well-animated. With the exception of young children, I’d say that this feature is something that the entire family could enjoy.

Stray Toasters

• I believe that I want to see Across the Universe.
• The word of the day, heard on Tuesday morning’s commute, is: “Superfunkycalifragisexy.”
• One of the ‘Little Rock Nine’ Looks Back
• When worlds collide, by way of Real Life Comics:

  

• Meat and greet – all the president’s lunch, by way of lj user=”dmmaus”
• “Mischief managed” and “Danger averted.”
• I believe in what I see
  I believe in what I hear
  I believe that what I’m feeling
  Changes how the world appears
• “Nucular toonami!”
• 
• Not one to avoid controversy, Whoopi Goldberg defends Vick’s dog-fighting role
• I noticed that the calendar in the… hmm, I can’t call it the HALO Command Center, as my Xbox is in the living room… “office” – a Marvel 2007 calendar, chock full o’ superhero goodness and given to me by Acolyte Derek – has September 11, 2007 noted as “Patriot Day.” I’m not going to go into my usual “Why the day shouldn’t be called that” rant here… but I thought about it.
• One of my KVMs is acting up; I can’t find all of the cords for the other one. *sigh*

It’s early and I have to get up later.

Namaste.

Mid-day Toasters

• The lunchtime workout was good, despite a week-long absence from the gym. I increased my bench press weight up to 215 pounds for the second and third sets.
  • Set 1: 205 / 10 reps
  • Set 2: 215 / 10 reps
  • Set 3: 215 / 8 reps and 205 / 2 reps

  We’ll call it a “work in progress,” but I’m shooting for 215 to be my base bench press weight.

• Steampunk stormtroopers and Alien spotted in Dubai
• What do you get when you cross YouTube, Weird Al and World of Warcraft? This. Thanks to for pointing this out.
• I have bacon-cheese popcorn, once again.
• Woman visits own heart

Back to it.

Namaste.

Monday: Coda / Tuesday – 04 September 2007
And so, the day (and the holiday AND the long weekend) comes to a close.

I found a few things to do that, while not “labor,” per se, were nevertheless good and fun:

• I had a craving for sushi for lunch, so I met at Tsunami. Today’s fare included: a Steak and Chicken Teriyaki lunch combination, with Ika nigiri and a Bonsai roll. All of it was quite tasty.
• From there, I visited Kate, Perry and the kids. (Who needs a workout when you have adopted nieces and nephews?!)
• Perry and I snuck out to check out a few stores. Okay, we didn’t “sneak,” but saying “…and we heading to a few stores” doesn’t have the same ring to it.
• I went to Murray Parkway Golf Course, to swat a bucket o’ balls on the driving range. They had closed a little before I got there…
• …so, I headed to Golf in the Round. They were still open! I got a large bucket and was on my way. I mixed my use of the irons, rather than just the 2, 4, 5 and 7. I need some work with the 9-iron, but on the whole, I think things went well. The 2- and 5-irons did well. And, I had a few really decent drives with the 5-wood and my driver. I tried to incorporate the things that told me (which helped quite a bit) and I tried to be more aware of how I was positioning myself relative to the tee and how I was swinging the clubs. Still not perfect, but getting better.

Now, I’m about to put in a little time on (what will hopefully be) the actual lyric-to-drawing piece for Ed’s Song, as opposed to the dry runs and fly-bys that I’ve been practicing on.

Stray Toasters

• I may make a decaf and Irish cream nightcap, to cap off the long weekend with a (minor) flourish.
• leucism vs. albinism
• I’ve added everydave.com to the blogroll on Random Access; I don’t know why I hadn’t done it before.
• laughter is infectious
  excitement goes to my head
  winds are stirred by planets in rotation
  sparks ignite and spread new information
• Nepal’s gadget-loving, 10-year-old Living Goddess: Interview
• I need to find a copy of The Prophet of Akhran, the third book in The Rose of the Prophet series. A trip to Mecca might be in order.
• Huh. Mentioning a possible trip to Mecca made me consider the following:
  • I refer to Utah as “The Land Behind the Zion Curtain.”
  • I refer to The Bookshelf as “Mecca”
  • IKEA (*genuflect*) is affectionately referred to as “The Garden of Sweden.” (Maybe I’ll start writing that as “SwEden.”)

  The only thing missing is Totem (click “Totem” for lyrics) playing in the background.

• From NPR: Dad Finds Answers to Kids’ Darndest Questions
• For some reason, The Who’s The Seeker just popped into my head. It was immediately followed by a random Harry Potter thought (as Harry was a Seeker on his Quidditch team). Then the two, like some horrible Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup accident, combined to form the following question: I wonder if any aspect of the song played a part in the outline that became the story of Harry Potter?

And, that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Monday – 03 September 2007
Happy/Good/Merry/Whatever Labor Day to those of you in the U.S.

Labor Day.
Summer’s last hoorah.
The last day to wear white, in some fashion circles.
Or the day spend it at the mall/shopping center, hunting down the latest bargains.
The day we sit at home, on our collective recta, not working… unless you happen to work in the service industry.

Labor Day Related Songs
This is by no means an exhaustive or comprehensive list; these are just the first few songs that popped into my head:

• Working Man – Rush
• Working for the Weekend – Loverboy
• A Job Ain’t Nuthin’ but Work – Big Daddy Kane
• I Get the Job Done – Big Daddy Kane
• I Go to Work – Kool Moe Dee
• She Works Hard for the Money – Donna Summer
• Money for Nothing – Dire Straits
• Opportunities – Pet Shop Boys

It reminds me of Memorial Day, in the way that many people oxymoronically don’t – or possibly choose not to – remember the reason for the day… other than, once again, great sales.

Playing ‘Clix last night was fun. Chris handily handed me my plastic crack-playing ass. But, it was fun. I got to try out some new figures and get a better feel for some of the game’s dynamics.

Stray Toasters

• This morning, around 3:30 AM, the word “pericardium” popped into my head for no apparent reason.
• Papers, Please: Arrested at Circuit City for refusing to show ID, receipt
• 
• Spirit and Opportunity Are Back Online
• After a week away, tomorrow’s workout should be… fun (read: “painful”).
• When I First Kissed You, by Extreme, just came up on iTunes.  I haven’t heard this in many months of Sundays.  I guess that this is yet another reminder/reason that I’m going to finally have to integrate my home and work iTunes libraries.

Time to find some trouble to get into.  And lunch, too!

Namaste.

Back.

And, because of some delay, I even beat the family-unit home.

It was a good trip. Though short, it was well worth it on all accounts.

Stray Toasters

• Thanks to Rana, I am now (once again) in possession of one of the last items I wanted from my grandmother’s house; I believe that there is only one more thing that I want.
• I found out a couple of things that are going to require some deliberation.
• “Not a star,” along the same lines as a “not-sheep.”
• I caught a couple of commercials/previews for the upcoming seasons of Legion of Super-Heroes and The Batman. They both look interesting.
• I had sushi last night. Naturally, I ordered Ika. This recipe was a bit different than others: It had a bit of lettuce between the squid and the rice… and a bit of wasabi.
• Great. As soon as I typed “wasabi”, this popped into my head:
  

  Hot like wasabi when I bust rhymes
  Big like LeAnn Rimes
  Because I’m all about value

• I decided to hang with the sibko rather than see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy last night. It’s a lot easier – and generally far less expensive – to see BBVD on tour than it is to fly to Nepal. And I had fun.
• Heading out of St. George, I passed a Highway Patrol officer who had stopped to assist a motorist. As he was waiting for traffic to pass, so that he could get out of his vehicle, he rolled down his window and flicked ashes off his cigarette. Seeing that, a line popped into my head:
  

  He reached out the window and flicked ashes off the end of his cigarette. The motion looked almost angry or disdainful, as if the mere presence of the ashes somehow offended him.

• Last year, Rana developed an… affinity… for I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas, by Shirley Temple. If I remember correctly, and I derived a bit of amusement from that.

  A week or so ago, I found a small toy hippo.

  2 + 2 = evil

  I gave it to Rana, before they left this afternoon. , when he saw what it was and as I explained why I was giving it to her, turned away to grin/laugh without being seen and possibly hit for it. Fortunately (for both of us), Rana laughed, too. Although, it may have been more of a smirk. But, I’ll take what I can get.

• People-watching is fun, as borne out by this image from Indexed:
  
  People-watching at the MGM and pretty much anywhere in Vegas probably falls somewhere between “airport” and “shopping mall” AND it adds new dimensions and twists to things.
  People-watching with Rana and : Priceless.
• By way of : Who watches wears the Watchmen?
• The Knight Shift. This is in the same system in which my mother and ‘s husband work. I have to ask one of them if they’ve heard any of the hullaballoo about it and/or the outcome of the election.

And I believe that’s that.

Namaste.

Saturday – 01 September 2007
Wake up.  Check.
Hygiene rituals.  Check.
Dressed and ready to go. Check.

Time to check out, find the sibko and family unit and figure out what we’re doing before they leave.

And then, back on the road.

Zoom.

Friday – 31 August 2007
Day Two of the Great Vegas Road trip.

I put the SL and Utah Valleys in the rear view mirror and headed south on I-15. I stopped over in Cedar City to visit the fabulous Ms. Sara. We had dinner – at a restaurant… that served Louisiana-themed cuisine (very tasty) … in southern Utah (*blink blink*) – and then went to see Twelfth Night at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. After that, we chatted away a good portion of the night.

This morning: Drive a-go-go. Part two.

Most of the drive was good… then I got into Vegas… and traffic came to a crawl. On the freeway. *sigh* Oh, well, I finally made it to my hotel and contacted the family-unit to see where they were. We met up at the ESPN Zone in New York New York. We wandered around for a bit, after lunch. And… there was some roulette involved. Down $15. I can live with that.

And I’m still on the fence about BBVD tonight. I’ll let Fate decide.

Stray Toasters

• And I’m still on the fence about BBVD tonight. I’ll let Fate decide.
• “What are you…?! 12?!?”

Quote of the Day
I love my stepmom for a number of reasons. Among them, was the gem she spouted off while we were in the Coca-Cola store on The Strip:

“I’m going to get you some squirrel nuts.”

The looks around the table – and the silence, then broken by lots of laughter – were priceless.

Namaste.

Thursday – 30 August 2007
This morning, getting up wasn’t a problem. Deciding what to do was. For about five minutes.

I was on the fence about taking a partial day or the whole day, as I am heading in the general direction of Las Vegas in a few hours.

I decided that I’m taking the day off.

City of Heroes/Villains
As I’ve been playing this game for a little over two years now, it’s pretty safe to say that I enjoy the game. I think that would refer to it as one of my “warm, happy places.”

What I don’t enjoy is racking up over 60,000 points of XP debt in one mission, because the team’s Tanker (built like a brick house – OW!) and one of the Blasters (long-range damage-dealer) were a bit… “overzealous”… in their play. The Blaster would run into rooms with multiple villains, get them riled up and then lead them back to the group. And the Tanker, according to another team member, “…leaks aggro like a sieve.” In other words, his job was to basically stand around and look pretty… and to take abuse from the bad guys while we mopped them up. Unfortunately, this became a case of “practical theory vs. real-world application.” In fact, he even had an ability to hold the villains’ attention, just for that purpose. Did he use it? Not that any of us saw. *sigh*

I was asked to join another team later. That one went much better. Not only did I manage to get rid of my accrued debt, but I am probably…. 7/10 to 8/10 of the way to Security Level 35.

Stray Toasters

• I’m not sure if I’m going to see BBVD tomorrow night; it depends on whether or not Sib-1 and want to go.
• With a write-up like this, I may have to see if I can get a copy of 5.
  

  This comic will give you pet tigers, chained artists, lizard eggs, space ships, mutated dogs and kung fu blaxploitation sci fi craziness. It will give you joy. It will make you want to create your own comics. And that is the highest praise I can give it. Highly recommended, if you can find it.

• : Three words – “Sunday. Night. Football.” Oh, add a fourth: “Beer!”
  Think about it.
• I had a couple of blasts from the past last night.
• Tires are not inexpensive.
• FLCL (because the pillows are playing on the iPod).

Up out.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 29 August 2007
Waking up wasn’t quite so bad this morning. That’s not to say that I leapt out of bed as soon as the alarm sounded, but it wasn’t an ordeal.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
Right out of the gate, Nomad started playing The Jackson 5’s ABC on the morning commute. Not a bad way to kick off the drive, to be honest.

ABC
Easy as…
123
As simple as…
Do re mi
ABC, 123, baby, you and me girl

I occasionally think of how one would perform a song in sign language. I had one of those moments this morning:

ABC
(simple enough, you would finger-spell this)
Easy as…
(again, I think that this should be fairly straight-forward)
123
(finger-spell, so to speak)
As simple as…
(again, this should be simple)
Do re mi
(Ummm…)

That’s where I hit a blocker. Do re mi. *blink blink* “Do re mi fa so la ti do” is a solfege (NOT to be confused with Soul Edge), used to help in sight-singing, where each syllable correlates to a specific tone/pitch… but I don’t know that it really “translates” into sign language.

If anyone knows anything about this, help me out.

Stray Toasters

• Coffee, ice cream (as creamer) and a dash or three of chocolate syrup.
• Thanks to for sending a link to this.
• 
• Human-like robotic arm, with familiar muscles and bones: video
• AT&T Stops “Time,” Ends an Era
• 

Namaste.

Monday – 27 August 2007
Another work week begins.

Yesterday, I saw The Bourne Witch Project
The Blair Witch Ultimatum
I mean The Bourne Ultimatum. with . It was a good movie, but damn-and-a-half…. someone needs to buy Paul Greengrass a Steadi-Cam mount. Hell, buy him two, just in case one of them breaks.

Post-movie, we stopped in to say hi Kate, Perry and the kids. One thing about playing with the kids: I don’t need to worry about needing a workout – they keep me pretty busy. (Not a bad thing at all.) From there, it was on to ‘ place for a cookout. Mmm, pork loin.

I also framed the tourbooks for R30 and Snakes and Arrows yesterday afternoon. In “an unfortunate mishap,” I managed to break the glass in the frame for Roll the Bones. Yep, two great glass events in three weeks. I’m batting 1.000. Fortunately, the glass didn’t shatter; it just fractured into large, easy-to-clean-up pieces. I still need to hang the books. Maybe I’ll do that tonight.

Four-Color Coverage / Reeling by on Celluloid
I’m not sure exactly where this fits best, as it covers both categories. Rather than try to sort it out, I’ll just make it a combined entry.

Code Monkey BB and I went for a constitutional Friday afternoon and a snake was slithered across the walkway.

I’m not a fan of snakes.

After it had gone on its merry way and we continued walking, an odd thought crossed my mind: Would Indiana Jones have made a good Green Lantern?

I’m not saying that the erstwhile Dr. Jones was a slouch in the bravery department, but let’s face it: Most of the time, he was probably either dusting off artifacts on a dig of fending off the advances of a co-ed during a lecture. Neither of those is the most courage-consuming of tasks. (Well, I guess that depends on the co-ed, really.) But, I digress…

Fairly early in Raiders of the Lost Ark, we discover that Indy is afraid of snakes. We see it again, when he drops into the Well of Souls… next to a cobra and its friends. In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, we learn the origins of his phobia.

Green Lanterns derive their power from their willpower, as channeled through their rings. The reason that rookie Lanterns are still affected by “the yellow impurity” is their inability to overcome fear. Once their fear has been overcome, their constructs are only limited by their willpower and imagination.

I posed the Indy/Lantern question to lj user=”everydave” Friday night. He pondered it for a moment and noted that in the scene where Indy and Jock are taking-off after Jones’ daring escape from the Aztec (or was it Mayan?) temple:

Indiana: There’s a big snake in the plane, Jock.
Jock: Oh, that’s just my pet snake Reggie.
Indiana: I hate snakes, Jock. I hate ’em.
Jock: C’mon, show a little backbone, will ya?

‘s point was: He apparently was able to overcome his fear, in that he dealt with the fact that the snake was in the cockpit rather than leap out of the plane.

Then there’s the scene in the Well of Souls:

[Upon opening the Well of the Souls and peering down into it]
Sallah: Indy, why does the floor move?
Indiana: Give me your torch.
[Sallah does, and Indy drops it in]
Indiana: Snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes?
Sallah: Asps. Very dangerous. You go first.

…and he did.

So… I guess that Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr. would have made a potentially good Green Lantern.

City of Heroes/Villains: The Scales of Justice
The Hand of Nefer-Tem made the rounds in Paragon City last night. I teamed with some upper 40s and 50s on a couple of Praetorian missions. By the end of the night, I was about a bubble-and-a-half away from Security Level 34.

Stray Toasters

• NX Server. I like.
• Comics Should Be Good’s Top 100 Marvel and DC Characters
• Jeff: I’m going to be sitting there, trying to convince them that I’m a safe choice for Senior Accountant… and suddenly, I’m a naked man saying, “Vulva!”
  Steve: You’re just going to sit on a chair and talk. It’s not difficult.
  Jeff: Not diffi… not difficult?! I’ve got accidental words to worry about… thanks to Patrick here, I’ve got nudity projection. And there’s the giggle loop, of course.
• Original Haunted Mansion documentation
• “plot synopsis”
• By way of Dwim: Nixon-Peabody’s ego masturbation (click on the “MP3” link) *shakes head*
• Sad news for denizens of The Dreaming…
  

  I understand that, to celebrate Sandman’s 20th Anniversary, Neil Gaiman was to write a “Sandman” mini-series. However, recently the project was pulled.

  When asked, Neil told me, “We couldn’t come to an agreement that would allow me to do a new six issue Sandman story for DC, and many people at DC and my agent tried hard to make it happen. Pity.”

  I understand that certain people at DC are quite upset – though not with Neil or his agent. Given the performance of the “Endless” hardcover volume, this could have been expected to be a No.1 best seller in the direct market for all six months and the No.1 in the bookstore bestseller lists.

• 
• Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak LEGO playset
• Patrick: What’s the matter?
  Jeff: I can’t turn off the naked people.
• 
• Michael Vick (finally) plead “guilty” to federal charges. Great. Can we move on to other news now? PLEASE?!
• Steampunk in the Boston Globe

Namaste.

Sunday – 26 August 2007
Yesterday was good. I mean… come on… the day started with coffee and IKEA and ended in Park City watching India.Arie. How could that not be a good day?! I’ve listened to some of her music before, but seeing her live was very cool. She had great stage presence and just seemed to be having a good time. The crowd really seemed to enjoy her performance, as well.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
At last night’s concert, India.Arie played/sang bits of many different songs – songs made popular by other artists, including a really good cover of Rufus and Chaka Khan’s Tell Me Something Good. But, she put her own twists on them and changed the way they came off… and, in that way, made them her own.

That made me consider something that I wrote a couple of years ago:

I’m having a bit of a John Stewart moment, not to be confused with a Jon Stewart moment.

When I say that I’m having a John Stewart moment, I don’t mean that I’m dressing up in a black and green outfit (I did that last Hallowe’en) and saving the world (I do that in City of Heroes). What I do mean is that I think that I am in the middle of rediscovering/redefining what makes me tick.

I used to use a lot of quotes when I was young. To make me sound mature. To make me sound serious. To make me feel like I wasn’t the second-class entity I’d always thought I was.

But the courage to use your own voice, that’s the test of maturity. That’s the proof of seriousness. Maybe that’s my mission here.

To find my own voice.

To find a voice for all these creatures and let them speak in harmony.

Yeah. Maybe. But in the meantime… there’s business.

I don’t think that I have changed that much since I started writing in this. Maybe I have. Maybe I’m “too close” to it to see. I do know that this journal has changed – it has a flavor that is distinctly mine, but does it speak with the full timbre of my voice? Or the voices in my head – past, present and future? I don’t know. Quite possibly so. But, there are still questions to be asked. And voices that need to be heard.

I should find that voice. My voice. And then, I can find the voice for this journal. Will it change the way that I write in here? Possibly. It’s hard to say until I undertake the process. Maybe it will metamorphose into something new. Perhaps it will revert to something like it was before. We’ll see how it goes.

One of the things that I had been worried about was using others’ quotes to express my thoughts, feelings and/or opinions. Listening to the way the India.Arie used other artists’ songs and wove them into and through her own pieces made me realize something: The things that I listen to and read have become a part of my voice.

They are things that have found an anchor and resonated within me. They’ve made a connection. Brought life to some spark. And, eventually, provide a pathway that I can use to relate/convey what I’m thinking or feeling. Even better, they aren’t the only weapons in my arsenal. They are handy, sometimes even convenient, but I have a versatile array of tools at my disposal. No matter which one I choose, it is mine to use.

That’s something that I think I have known – at some level – for a while. But, sometimes, it takes a different lens to help bring things into focus.

And I like the view.

Stray Toasters

• I have Honeycomb cereal. Before this last grocery run, I don’t think that I could tell you when the last time I had bought Honeycomb was.
• As promised: Pat, here is your mention in my blog.
• The War(s) They Fought
• By way of comes “proof” that I’m Chinese. (Which isn’t really true… I’m Negro-Saxon.)
• From NPR: My Cancer
• Tori Amos is apparently coming to SLC in November.
• 
• If they were to make a Sandman movie, I think that Tori Amos would make an interesting Delirium. Or maybe Evanna Lynch, the young lady who played Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
• 
• I need to hang my banner. Of course, that means cutting it and prepping it for hanging. And that requires effort.
• In this picture, we see U.S.Agent (at one point chosen to be Captain America’s successor) getting ready to tear into… someone. (I don’t read Omega Flight, so I’m not sure who that is.) But, that’s not what struck me. ‘Agent’s costume is based on Cap’s. I thought that I had read somewhere… somewhen… that Cap’s tunic was chainmail. That picture looks more like scale mail. And, according to the Wikipedia entry I just found, apparently it is supposed to be scale mail. Now I want to see if I can track down the source that made me think it was chain.
• I am craving a frozen mocha. But that requires a bit of effort, too.
• 
• Great. Just found an item that said Cap’s tunic is chainmail.
• Speaking of which: I remember playing Chainmail many moons past at The Armory.
• The Armory used to make the best miniatures paints, too…
• I need to get some paints: I am going to do custom ‘Clix for Hand of Nefer-Tem and Corvus Nox. Because I’m a geek like that. To date, the miniature paint job of which I am most proud was the tattoo I did on Alias‘ arm. I wish I still had the miniature, but I think that it fell prey to one of Mom’s cleaning sprees many years ago.

Time to do… something.

Namaste.

Friday – 24 August 2007
Last night’s “What should I have for dinner” conundrum was solved thanks to the timely intervention of lj user=”khayla”. She suggested sushi (Ika! Ika! Ika!). I agreed and we were off to the races, as the saying goes. We went to Tepanyaki; our chef, Don, was good. Not just that he was a good cook, but he also had personality. (“Personality goes a long way….”)

City of Heroes/Villains: View from the Aerie
After dinner, I took Corvus Nox back to Paragon City to get the last few thousand points he needed to hit Security Level 17. I joined a pretty good team and got the points needed… and moved a decent way towards getting to Level 18.

As I was preparing to log out, I stopped outside the Talos Island train station to try and resurrect a player who had been ambushed. The attempt was successful… to a degree. There were two problems, minor things really…

• The person would have rezzed fine… had they been paying attention. But, they weren’t so they just continued to lie there.
• The type of power that I was using requires me to drain life from nearby enemy characters – to redirect their energy into the body of the fallen hero. That part worked, but as soon as I did that, they started attacking me. And they were WELL above my level. So, I wound up dying. With the quickness. *sigh*

Stray Toasters

• I introduced a couple coworkers to Avenue Q, by way of the The Internet is for Porn machinima and the Avenue Q Wikipedia entry.
• It’s a good thing that it’s Friday: I just scrolled up to edit something in the top paragraph, saw the “Ika! Ika! Ika!” comment… and immediately started trying to reparse it to fit Iko Iko. Yeah… I need a weekend.
• Coworker Susan sent me a link to Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. (As if I needed yet another distraction…) I countered with Instructables.
• forwarded this to me. It made me laugh.

  

• Wife of Police Chief Arrested on Drug Charges.
  “Wife of Police Chief.”
  “Drug Charges.”
  *facepalm*
• Tag: The Ring meets zombies
• Liz sent me this; I should print it and put a copy of it on my cube wall…

  

• Grindhouse breakfast cereal photoshopping contest
• Here’s another way I can tell that I need it to be Friday:
  • I was looking at the cover art to Tag (from the ‘Toaster posted above)
  • It reminded me of the artwork for Chess
  • Chess reminded me of Deep Blue
  • Deep Blue kicked off a tangent about “…the Devil and the deep blue sea”
  • …which morphed in my head to “Devil and the Deep Blue C,” as in the programming language (naturally, I had to look up what language Deep Blue was programmed in – it was C)
  • …which somehow triggered a thought about Crystal Blue Persuasion.

  At that point, I forced myself to stop thinking about tangents. Yeah, I need a weekend.

• By way of boingboing.net: someecards – When you care enough to hit send.

Namaste.

Wednesday (coda)

Stray Toasters

• I pretty much positioned myself as the de-facto Office Manager of our Utah County office; we don’t have an Admin in that office and since I handle the equipment requests (I’m the IT guy… go figure), I thought: “I might as well do the general supplies, too.” Today, our Controller brought in some replacement pull-chains for the blinds in some of the offices and asked me to find a home for them. As I was taking them back to my desk, I had an epiphany…
  

  I walked over to one of the programmers areas and stood there for a second, chains hanging from my clenched fist. I looked at one of the programmers, held up the chains, and said: “Your name is Toby!”

  He stared at me, blankly… absolutely no recognition of what I was doing on his face.

  So, I repeated myself.

  Another programmer, across the aisle, spoke up: “Kunta Kente!”

  I looked at him and laughed and said,”See… [He] knew the reference!”

  A third guy looked up and said,”No. He was just the only one not afraid to say anything.”

  It made me smile.

• Jason sent me a copy of Coupling (Season 1, episode 4: “Inferno”). Nine Hells… it was funny. Tyranist had loaned me the first season on DVD, but I haven’t had the opportunity to watch it. Or I haven’t made the time to watch it. One or the other. Or both. Or something like that. I will have to make the time to watch it… from the beginning.
• A friend sent me a link to If My Nose Was Running Money, kind of a… country version of If I Had $1000000. Kind of.
• Applegeeks Blog: Mr. Grenade
• The night I baked brownies, I sent a quick email to my mother. It simply said: “How domestic am I? I just baked brownies.” She sent this back, in reply:
  

  JUST HOW DOMESTIC? Obviously, far-r-r-r-r-r-r-r more than your Mother and your Baby
  Sister…if you BAKED brownies! CONGRATS! Were they good? Edible? 🙂
  MOM

  “Edible?”
  She cracks me up.
  (And, yes, they were – and continue to be – edible.)

• 
• Virtual Recruiting for Real-World Jobs
• Ted (sixth one on the page) obviously thinks:
  

  1. That it is 2750 (or after).
  2. That he has jump jets.
  3. That he can pull off “Death From Above.”

  Click here to see why.
  Click here and here and here for explanation of the above points (if you don’t already get it, that is).

• 
• Earth, Space, Hendrix: The Most Significant Album Ever

Okay, enough of this. Time to fight crime… or something to that effect.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 22 August 2007
It’s not Tuesday.
This isn’t Belgium.
But I am in Amurric’n Fark today. Unexpected trip to the south forty, but work is work. So, I can’t complain.

Last night’s game went… well. Translation: “We didn’t get our asses handed to us. Much.” Sure, we took some damage. But the Luck Lords of Ventura smiled upon us (along with a bit of goodwill from lj user=”nox_aeternus”) and we survived. Thus, our characters live to adventure another day.

Stray Toasters

• I need to make or find a Master Chief icon.
• Tyranist brought in his copy of Black Seas of Infinity, a collection of H.P. Lovecraft stories. So much for catching up on other reading…
• “I’m sorry… I don’t speak Blonde.”
• From the “How NOT to Use The Internets” file: An IM Infatuation Turned to Romance, Then the Truth Came Out
• One day I feel I’m on top of the world
  And the next it’s falling in on me
  I can get back on
  I can get back on
  One day I feel I’m ahead of the wheel
  And the next it’s rolling over me
  I can get back on
  I can get back on
• sent me a link to this; I shall have to print a copy of it and put it on my cubicle wall.
  
• Most Dangerous Object in the Office This Month: $2 Pocket Shots
• From the “Almost Too Absurd to Be True” file: China to Tibetan Buddhist monks: no reincarnating without our ok
• Cheesecake from The Fresh Market (GSO) would be very good right now.
• Halo 3: How Microsoft Labs Invented a New Science of Play
• Sweet Mary, mother of Jesus… A friend has a couple of kids who will be going to this school. Brand-spankin’ new school. State of the art. Green. Check out the information brochure (.pdf) on it.
• NMKY (Finnish cover of YMCA)

Quote of the Day

: Wow. You could teach the Japanese something about polite rudeness.
Me: *bow* I’m going to take that as something of a compliment.
: You should.

Namaste.