Random Access

Friday – 15 June 2007
So far, it’s been a pretty good day. Of course, any day that starts “Fri-” us usually pretty good.

Unless it’s 1929.
And October.
And the last Friday of the month.

But, it’s not. So we’re good.

I’m working in the Salt Lake office today and that’s a good thing because a semi driver decided to play chicken with an overpass – the one at the exit I take to get to the A.F. office – and lost. Big time. He was hauling a pre-fab home. I guess that he technically is still hauling it… but it now has one hell of a sunroof:

Picture courtesy of Acolyte Derek

Yeah. Not so good there.

Last night, I went to a taping of Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! with KHAYLA. I had a ball! I was expecting it to be fun, but nowhere near as much as it was. The whole taping took about two hours… of which only forty minutes or so will make it on the air. That’s a shame, because I’m willing to bet that some of the really funny stuff is going to be edited out. Your loss. The panel was Paula Poundstone, Mo Rocca and Tom Bodett and their celebrity guest for “Not My Job” was Donny Osmond (by phone from L.A.). I have never been the biggest Donny Osmond fan, but I have nothing against him, either… and he was quite funny. DANGERMOUSE_UT: You were right – Peter Sagal is not a very tall man. But, he knows how to work a crowd, has good comedic timing AND he knows when to just let the panel – and Carl Kassel – just go off on their riffs. Last night’s taping will air on Saturday, 16 June 2007, check your local NPR station for the time.

Stray Toasters

• I lost the original version of this post this morning. *sigh*
• I’m getting the urge for prime rib from Outback. Maybe I’ll satiate that desire sometime this weekend.
• Jan, yet another coworker, has introduced me to KLOV – Killer List of Video Games… like I needed another distraction.
• Giant snake terrorizing Pennsylvania – Okay… are we sure that this isn’t just an American chupacabra story? TIPHASAURUS, would you look into this?

• 

• Wooden robot toys!
• Getting an iPhone, but not an iTunes Music Store fan? Better rethink that.

Tonight: Clitorati
Tomorrow: Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer with Perry and Max and the Chalk Art Festival… and, at some point, a trip to IKEA.

Namaste.

Thursday – 14 June 2007
Today is Flag Day.

Yesterday was Blog Like It’s the End of the World Day.

My last four posts – and ‘s comments and posts – were part of that. Salt Lake City has not succombed to “mass hysteria, dogs and cats living together” …. or even the zombie apocalypse. This time. C’mon, we’re talking about the Land Behind the Zion Curtain, after all. Do you think something like a zombie uprising is going to stop the faithful?

*ponders a missionary vs. zombie cage match*

As a result of yesterday’s little exercise, I recieved:

• Three comments
• Two IMs and
• One phone call

…to make sure that everything here was alright. That made my inner writer feel good. “Better than James Brown” good. And I didn’t want to come right out and say “Hey, look! Zombies!” I thought it better to slowly build up some suspense and tension – I hate it when they give everything away in a story or movie right after it starts. Where’s the reason to keep going, if you already know what’s up from the get-go?!

If you’re interested in seeing what others who participated wrote, click the link at the top of the page. Or click here. Or don’t. It’s your call.

Stray Toasters

• Last night, I went to a test/preview screening of Day Watch with Liz, Tyranist, Rish (the other contributer to the Horror Film Compendium), and . Interesting movie. This morning, Tyranist asked me what I thought, as I have not yet seen Night Watch. I told him that liked it and that it had enough “what came before” flavor to help fill in some of the gaps. One thing that was very cool about it: The subtitles were not just “static.” They did some rather interesting things with them that went along with what was happening on-screen. I would like to see both Night Watch and Day Watch, together, to see how the story flows as a more-or-less complete piece (there’s supposed to be a third movie, at some point).
• Screensaver of Old Comic Book Ads
• From Dwim: FlÅ“jte Hero
• Etched in Time
• 
• Steampunk Computing

Tonight: Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me… the taping!

Namaste.

I tried calling both places again – this time, I got the “All circuits…” message in both locations. That’s really not kosher. Just for the sake of argument, I tried calling Kris’ cell phone. Straight to voicemail. Same thing with Mom and Dad’s phone. I know that there’s about a 12 hour time difference, but I called Rana to see if she’d heard anything. I was able to get through to her; All seems to be going fairly well on the far side of the world. Not wanting to alarm her, I tried to leave out as much of my worry as possible and just chalked it up to something stupid going on back east.

I tried to get my uncle on the horn. No go. And, like I said: The last time I couldn’t get through in the NY and MD areas, there were planes falling out of the sky. It’s REALLY unlikely that something like that is happening again, so I’m going to mentally eliminate that option.

: I couldn’t turn on the TV, I was already at work. When I looked at newsfeeds, all that I could find were items about mobs and rioting. There was something that looked official, from either NIH or the CDC, but I haven’t a chance to follow it up. (That reminds me: Bret works for NIH, I should see if I can get through to him.)

: I didn’t have any problem with traffic this morning, but I was in the office a little before 8 and I had the short commute today. Have you checked Commuterlink? With the cameras and all, it’s usually pretty good for checking traffic. Tell your IT guy, “I’m sorry,” from another IT guy. Too bad it’s not No Bad News Thursday.

*looks out window*

There’s a nice view of the valley from here. And there’s no inversion, so I can see downtown, too. Bonus! And, there’s… smoke…. downtown. Must be a fire. No… there are multiple plumes of smoke. *looks around* There’s smoke in West Valley, too. And… Taylorsville. Okay. This is officially NOT cool.

m3l: I just looked down onto 215 – there are a couple of pile-ups that I can see from here: One over by Old Mill Golf Course and one a little west of 2300 East. And it looks like road rage central at the 2300 one. I can’t make out the details, but it looks like there’s a pretty big fight or something down there. Stupid Commuterlink cam is focused further down the road, so it’s not helping. Have you seen/heard anything?

Stray Toasters

• Safari for Windows already hacked
• These are pretty neat: High-speed still and motion captures
  • Milk drops in a coffee cup
  • Igniting a cigarette lighter
• Lids down, I count sheep
  I count heartbeats
  The only thing that counts is
  that I won’t sleep
  I countdown, I look around
• Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies
• I was playing with Photoshop and with an old picture that took many moons past and came up with this:
  

  

  AND it even comes in a bite-sized version, perfect for use as a topping on your favorite dessert icon:

  

• Music to walk by:
  • Queen – Princes of the Universe
  • Tupac – Changes
  • Liz Phair – Supernova
  • No Doubt – New

*voop*

Tuesday – 12 June 2007
I must have been “a little” tired last night – I fell asleep reading Vision of the Future. But, I did it in my comfy chair – thank you, Cardinal Fang – so it was alright.

This morning is proceeding apace. Up, equipped and on the road. Traffic was a little heavier than usual, but not horribly so. As I was passing out of Sandy and into Draper, Drowning Pools’ Bodies found its way into the drivetime musical oleo. I found myself reparsing the lyrics to “Let the monkeys hit the floor!” It amused me. Now that I think about it, though, it probably should have been something along the lines of “Throw the monkeys out the door!” I would also like to say that I Would Die 4 U/Baby I’m a Star make for some fine traveling music.

I’ve been toying with the WordPress portion of my site. I’m considering moving most/all/some (who knows?!) content into it and unifying the overall look of the site. Of the parts that I have played with, I like the way it looks.

Stray Toasters

• I just had a toaster pastry… from a not-so-stray toaster.
• Let me see if I got this right: First, we have a wooden marionette that wanted to be a real boy. Now we have a bicycle made of wood?
• just sent a link to this story. Words fail me.
• ATI or nVidia? What’s your weapon of choice and why?
• Superhero Celebrity Poker
• Conversations with often take amusing – if not very odd – turns:

[06:59] evangelinaarion: wow if you cross the two pics you sent me, you get the pic i sent you
[07:02] shadorunr: Yep.
[07:02] shadorunr: Like a… digital Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.
[07:03] shadorunr: “You got your Catwoman in my Strawberry Shortcake!”
[07:03] shadorunr: “You got your Strawberry Shortcake on my Catwoman!”
[07:03] shadorunr: Mmmmm.

• Is the Xbox 360 Core System about to undergo a price drop?
• Papurika (Paprika) is coming to the Broadway in a couple weeks. It looks like it could be as weird as Perfect Blue. I shall have to go and see it.

  

• Oh, YEAH!
• Quentin Tarantino’s Penny Dreadful: Steampulp Fiction

Namaste.

Monday – 11 June 2007
“Waking up and getting up has never been easy…” – Elastica

This morning, it wasn’t a big struggle. Sure, I turned off the alarm and laid back down… but, I have Nomad set to start playing about 15 minutes later. And it’s in the living room, which means that unless I want really loud music playing – and disturbing the neighbors – I need to get my butt out of bed and turn it off/down. Of course, I just listened to the first two of the morning’s selections…

• Biz Markie – Just a Friend
• Malcolm McLaren – Madame Butterfly

…before getting up. Observed the hygiene rituals, got dressed, made sure that the kids had food and busted out of L7. ( and maybe will get that reference… maybe.)

Stray Toasters

• So, you think your job sucks? After reading this, you might reconsider.
• OS X upgrade, iPhone may boost Mac sales
• I would just like dedicate this song to these people.
• Eric pointed out this commercial. I laughed. You will too… most likely. And, believe it or not: It’s 99.44% work-friendly!
• Sweet Christmas!
• ..and this, too.

Back to it.

Namaste.

Sunday – 10 June 2007
I’ve been emailing and texting Kris this morning – today’s her birthday. I would call… but she’s in a review class, for the Bar exam, which she will take in a few weeks. Yeah, in class. On a Sunday. It’s not exactly my idea of fun; it doesn’t seem to be her idea of fun, either. But, she’s doing well. That’s what matters to me.

I’ve also been chatting with . He’s currently in Germany. He said, “this is one emotionally cold country.” At first, I thought that it was simply an emotional detachment that could be attributed to guilt in their ancestors’ role in WWII. Then, I remembered something else:

[10:40] shadorunr: I just figured it out.
[10:40] shadorunr: Emotionally cold.
[10:41] shadorunr: Great engineers.
[10:41] shadorunr: They are going to colonize Vulcan.
[10:41] shadorunr: You’re in the midst of proto-Spocks!
[10:41] trellos: god i hope not
[10:41] trellos: i can’t see the vulcans wanting to create a master race
[10:41] trellos: i mean c’mon
[10:41] shadorunr: Those are the Romulans.
[10:41] shadorunr: Wait.
[10:41] trellos: spock is an intergalactic zebra after all
[10:41] shadorunr: [Being Romulans] would account for the warlike tendencies.
[10:42] trellos: i can see that

And, with that, we have solved one of the great mysteries of the Star Trek universe. Or what would be a great mystery, if anyone really gave a damn about it.

Stray Toasters

• I need caffeine. It hasn’t reached a critical stage yet, but I should get some soon.
• Canadian Filmmakers Festival
• MysteryNet
• Sissy is sitting on the floor starting at my hands while I type. It’s a little odd, but nowhere nearly as disturbing as this (Paragraph 2) was.
• Steam Trek – a steampunk take on Star Trek
• “Adults, a necessary evil.”
• “Parallel lines meet at infinity.”
  There are a couple of lines approaching an odd vanishing point.
• I believe that I will have to own this book: Rejuvenile: Kickball, Cartoons, Cupcakes and the Reinvention of the American Grown-up
• : Does this qualify as “cross-promotion” or is it just “jumping on the bandwagon?”
• Man in wheelchair takes ride on semi’s grille
• Tyranist and : From the CS Moore Studio – The Walking Dead Statue (preorder)
• Tetris fridge magnets
• Anthem of the heart and anthem of the mind
  A funeral dirge for eyes gone blind
  We marvel after those who sought
  New wonders in the world, wonders in the world,
  Wonders in the world they wrought.
• Yep, this pretty much sums it up!
• , I think this is up your alley: Bigfoot bust for sale

Namaste.

Thursday (coda)
Despite a traffic back-up (from 126th South up to 114th South… because of an accident off to the side of the road), the evening hasn’t been bad. I’ve been playing with the cats and watching Game 1 of the NBA Finals. At one point, Lightning jumped up on the couch and curled up in my lap and watched part of the 4th Quarter. I have the fur all over my shirt to prove it.
I think that I might try to find some trouble to break up in Paragon City in a little bit. Or play some poker.

Four-Color Coverage
I haven’t picked up this week’s four-color goodness (or some of last week’s), but I saw a preview of Justice Society of America #6, the latest installment of “The Lightning Saga,” and it made me smile:

The JSA and JLA are trying to figure out where the six Legionnaires have gone. Their only clue is a duralim rod, from Wildfire’s belt. Superman explains…

Wildcat: Ya act like you’ve seen that thing before.
Superman: I have, Ted.
Wildcat II: What is it?
Superman: It’s a lightning rod.
Black Canary: A handheld lightning rod?
Superman: It’s 31st Century science, Canary, way beyond anything I could explain. Even Kryptonian science. Mr. Terrific’s trying to identify how it works, but…
Flash: You already know.
Superman: I know what it’s used for. One of the founding members of the Legion, Lightning Lad, was killed stopping an alien invasion. We searched the universe for a way to bring him back. We found one — but it was a bizarre game of Russian Roulette. By activating the rods with lightning, we could sacrifice one of our lives and give it to Lightning Lad. We all volunteered. We raised the rods around him. And we waited for lightning to strike one of us. In the end, Chameleon Boy’s shape-shifting pet, Proty, secretly took Saturn Girl’s place and gave its life for Lightning Lad’s.
Geo-Force: That is not only ridiculous, Superman, it is insane.
Superman: Our devotion to each other was unexplainable.
Batman: You were kids.
Superman: No, Batman. We were Legion.

The next two-page spread shows the missing Legionnaires flying through the night…

Dawnstar: We agreed before we left that we would complete our mission here in the past and return home. Superman and his teammates were never supposed to get involved… we’ll find the last Legionnaire this way.
Timber Wolf: If they hadn’t gotten involved, I’d still be racing dinosaurs with a bunch of talking gorillas.
Wildfire: I’m surprised you didn’t find a girlfriend, Brin.
Timber Wolf: ‘Least I didn’t think I was a statue. ‘Course, I like you better that way.

That’s just good stuff. And, the panel of the Legionnaires at Lightning Lad’s coffin was done in the style of the original story, way back in Adventure Comics #312. I need to ease on down the road and head to Dr. Volt’s and pick this up.

Stray Toasters

• I chatted with the rare and elusive this evening.  She is well.
• As usual, cracks me up. Today, he proved his mastery of the “Two birds, one stone” concept.
• Tom DeSanto Looking to Adapt City of Heroes
• : Legion Animated Ferro Lad from the Comics2Film DCG
• The kids are silly. Most cats like using scratching posts. Not these three. Instead, they love using my 12″x12″ LEGO base plates as scratching mats. I’m pretty sure that it has to do with the studs on the plates feel against the pads on their paws, but it’s still damned amusing to watch.
• 
• Secrets of Contrails
• Hmm… Ben & Jerry’s or ice cream sandwiches?  Decisions, decisions…
• UK physics teacher says British physics sucks
• I haven’t read Daredevil in a few years. But, I just read this article – Will Daredevil’s Wife Survive? – and it made me wonder exactly what in the Nine Hells is going on at the so-called “House of Ideas?”

  I know that Joe Quesada has never liked the fact that Peter Parker’s life got “easy” (steady job, supermodel wife), but come on, as the saying goes: “Every dog has his day.” Or, as I prefer to put it: “The sun shines on a dog’s ass, too.” Sure, in the time-altering “House of M,” Peter wasn’t just “a guy,” he was a superstar. And a publicly known one, at that. But when the House of M ended, so did that life for Peter. But the worst part: He remembered it. All of it. And starting with “Civil Bore,” Marvel proceeded to turn Peter’s life upside-down. Again.

  Now, it seems as if they are about to pull the rug out from Matt Murdock. Again. *sigh* “Everything old is new again.” But, they didn’t bother to dust it off or polish it or anything. I would like to be surprised and find out that they are actually giving someone in the Marvel Universe a break. Anyone. Hell, at this point, I’d be happy if it’s anyone but Tony Stark. Even Power Pack. Or the Great Lakes Avengers.

• This was so bad that I was compelled to include it:
  
  (from xkcd.com)
• “How do you circumcise an orange brick?”  (Bet that got your attention, didn’t it?)
• : I saw this and it reminded me of you.
  
• Nintendo creates new disease… “Wiiitis”

Namaste.

Thursday – 07 June 2007
Day Two of the “Great Salt Lake Temperature Drop.” This just ain’t right.

I finished Specter of the Past last night. It ended on an interesting note; I’m looking forward to seeing how the story advances in the next book.

The kids are doing well. Sissy is still trying to be the alpha… but only at certain times. When I had the laser pointer out, she actually played with the twins, without too much fuss. Speaking of which, I took what I think is, to date, the best picture of all three cats:

(click picture for larger view)

…and it shows their affinity for IKEA, to boot! I have seen both Sissy and Presto sit/lie/stretch out in the chair many times over the past few days. (One thing that doesn’t show in the picture: How much fur Sissy has shed over the cushion. Oh, well, that’s what lint rollers and vacuum cleaners are for.)

The Scales of Justice
I took Hand of Nefer-Tem out on patrol last night… but couldn’t get into soloing. Nor could I find a team. So, I decided to let Paragon City’s other defenders of justice handle the crimefighting for the night.

Stray Toasters

• I called Mom this morning (something about it being her birthday or some such thing). All’s well; she has her first post-op checkup later today. (I forgot to call her “Lady Deathstrike” while she was on the phone.) Assuming that her doctor clears her, she and my uncle are heading “down to the hills,” as Dad would say, to get some things out of the old house.
• Scott: Uh-oh…
  Jamie: What?!
  Scott: Big tunnel.
• – 25 Trends that changed the way we live
  USA Today is running lists of “25 things that…” in celebration of their upcoming 25th anniversary. Some of the lists – and the selections therein – are rather interesting.
• To quote and : “People suck.”
• Last week, I saw that someone had created a MySpace page for their City of Heroes character. I thought that it was a bit odd. Granted, I have CoH and CoV links on my site, but I haven’t gone so far as to create MySpace pages for any of my characters. When I logged into City last night, there was a notice on the front page for this.
• “Did I win?!”
  
• Smoke Camels, be a better sniper
• and everyone will say “I told you so”
  yeah they’ll all just nod and sigh
  but I’ll make a run at something real
  and they’ll never even try
  and everyone will say “I told you so”
  yeah they’ll all just nod and sigh
  as I go down in a ball of flames
  they’ll just watch, i wonder why
• Internal workings of a mechanical watch video
• : 27 June 2007 (1, 2, 3)
• Steampunk Monitor from the Steampunk Workshop
• By way of ZDNet: Why DRM won’t ever work
• “More Parachute! RAAWR!!!” –

Namaste.

Wednesday – 06 June 2007
It’s the middle of the week.
It’s the first week of June.
And I’m actually wearing a turtleneck.

Because someone decided to turn down Utah’s thermostat again. By at least 30°. It’s raining here in the valley and there is some fresh snow on the mountain tops.

Did I mention that it’s June? I did? Well, I don’t think that I mentioned that I’m not in the Southern Hemisphere, because that does make a bit of a difference.

Aside from that – and the fact that I called the ‘rents to tell them the same – things are going well.

Last night was a game night: All Flesh Must Be Eaten. We attacked a cathedral. Well, not really the cathedral, per se; we attacked the people inside. For some reason, they weren’t exactly happy to see us… and they shot back. How rude. In the end, we took some bumps and bruises (and a couple of laser burns), but we kicked their collective recta. So far. We still have some places to explore and there is still the slight problem of having to find and rescue some hostages. “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,” as the saying goes.

Stray Toasters

• Did I mention “turtleneck” and “June” before?
• At Tyranist’s behest – and because I can’t seem to get Scotty Doesn’t Know out of my head – I watched EuroTrip.    I had summarily dismissed it as “too stupid for the Cool World – Long Kiss Goodnight Scale” when it was released.  I was wrong.  VERY wrong.  I may actually have to buy this movie.

  I kept looking at the guy who played Scotty and trying to figure out why he was so familiar.  It didn’t come to me until I looked at IMDb and saw that he was the lead in this movie.  *duhr*

• Dwim pointed me in the direction of this, which included this picture:
  
• Script review: Wonder Woman
• “Just some oak and some pine and a handful of Norsemen…”
• By way of PC Magazine: 10 Wicked Awesome Webcomics
• 
• Interview with Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer director Tim Story

Namaste.

Sunday (coda)
I wound up heading to Jitterbug for a late lunch/early and light dinner and to get some more time with a pencil in my hand. I was successful at both. I didn’t finish the picture because I didn’t have a reference book handy, but I got a lot of other work in on it. I’m probably less than thirty minutes from completing it.

After that, I decided to take a drive. I didn’t want to simply loop the SLC Valley, my usual Parley’s/Emigration run didn’t sound appealing and I didn’t feel like going to Park City. So, I headed north. My thought: I’ll head north until I don’t want to go any farther and turn around and come back. Sounded good in theory, the practical application was a little different: I wound up going to Ogden. And, since I was in Ogden, I decided to stop in and see Dee, Kim and the boys. I’m glad that I did – it was fun to hang out with them for a while.

I headed home. After checking on the cats (they were fine) and determining that I didn’t feel like sitting at home, I decided to take in 28 Weeks Later. Not bad. Not bad at all. It did raise a couple questions that I will throw to and Tyranist, however:

Are all zombie movies inherently apocalyptic/nihilist? Or has there been a movie – other than *ack-thbppt*Undead – where the zombie hordes are defeated/eliminated and the world goes on more or less as it was?

Shortly after it started, 28WL made me think of a question and a similar one popped up about two-thirds of the way through the movie:

1. Could you make the choice to leave a loved one behind in the face of overwhelming odds or would you stick with them and take your chances?
2. Could you make the call to wipe out everyone and everything (and I do mean “everyone and everything”) in order to eliminate an otherwise unstoppable threat?

I enjoyed the movie… even though I noticed, as with Spider-day Night Fever, there were some contrivances/coincidences that without which the movie would have fallen apart. And… it reminded me of Aliens in a number of ways. But, it was a nice way to cap off the weekend.

Stray Toasters

• Is it bad that I want one of these for my desk at work? (At least for the south office.)
• …and one of these wouldn’t be bad, either.
• Heaven help me for the way that I am
  Save me from these evil deeds
  Before I get them done…
  
• Sissy’s taken to growling at the twins again. *sigh*
• While I don’t really need anything from here, my inner LEGO Maniac wouldn’t mind having the Ice Brick Tray, Coaster Set… and even the Plate and Tumbler Sets. Particularly the Ice Brick Tray, though.
• Amazing 3D Scanner Made with LEGO and Milk
• At some point today, I heard John Sugar Melonhead’s Jack and Diane. It got to the refrain, “Oh, yeah, life goes on… Long after the thrill of living is gone” and I almost immediately started laughing: I had a picture of Nefer-Tem fighting a villain and getting blasted/pummelled/whatever to the point of near-death. (Which, since he is technically a mummy, is merely a minor setback.) He gets up, casually tosses out that line… and proceeds to wail the tar out of his opponent.
• iPhone Release Date Confirmed as June 29
• While I’m on the subject of cell phones: Cell phone ‘CSI’
• Have you heard Tori Amos’ cover of Bruce Springsteen’s I’m on Fire? Check it out here, even though this is not the version I was looking for.

I should give more than “a little thought” to calling it a night…

Namaste.

Thursday – 31 May 2007
And so, another month draws to a close.

Yin: I overslept this morning.
Yang: The barista at the caffeine dispensary made a mistake and gave me a large frozen mocha… for the price of a medium.

Starting tonight, I have the kids for a week.

I talked with Mom. She doesn’t remember talking with me yesterday… which I pretty much expected. She ‘splained what was wrong and what the surgery did – including the addition of a bit of titanium. I’m gonna start calling her X-23 or Lady Deathstrike from now on. I don’t think they added claws, but to err on the side of caution I’ll make sure that I’m out of arms’ reach before I call her either of those names.

Stray Toasters

• I took my morning constitutional a little while ago. As I walked past a bird, it warbled and flew off. I had a Dr. Doolittle moment and wondered what it would be like to know what it was “saying.” That hyperlinked to a mental image of Tarzan. Then things took an even more odd turn, as the next mental image that popped into my head was NOT Shanna, the She-Devil or even Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. Those, I could have fairly easily explained. No, the first post-Tarzan thought was Jana of the Jungle. Whiskey Tango…?!
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’ opening date has been pushed up two days.
• Knowing his affinity for most things zombie, I pointed Tyranist in the direction of this item from Marvel’s website.

[11:16] Tyranist: Wow. I guess Zombies are marketing gold.
[11:31] shadorunr: Apparently so.
[11:31] shadorunr: Cold and (un)dead are the new “in” thing.
[11:31] Tyranist: And normally I like zombies. Just not Marvel’s version. They . . . uh . . . bite.
[11:31] shadorunr: *rimshot*

• 
• My weekly work commute just got 32.31% shorter. (Where’d I put that Ares Alpha with grenade launcher…?)
• scares me sometimes… such as when he shows me things like this.
• By way of boingboing.net: The Battle of Ham’s Deep – Helm’s Deep made with Muppets
• I was a big fan of Jonny Quest back in the day. While I get that it’s a parody/satire, I am not such a fan of Venture Bros. However, there are two things from the show that make me smile:
• Major Tom Dies
• Best Entrance Ever
• …and, speaking of Mr. Bowie: What in the Nine Hells is this?!

Time to pick up and put down heavy things.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 30 May 2007
I talked with Mom last night – everything went well.  Of course, I neglected to factor in time zones when I called, so she was already asleep.  I’m going to try again in a little while.
Last night was also D&D night.  wasn’t there, but we sallied forth without her.  Somewhat.  I ran her character.  *shrug*  Two characters, no big deal.  (I ran five in a campaign once, many moons past.  That was… interesting.)  I didn’t get her – or myself – killed, so I consider that an accomplishment.

This morning’s commute moved to the beat of my “Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll” playlist.  A few songs came on that reminded me of people:

• Lola (The Kinks) – I’ve enjoyed this song for years, but the thing that always makes me chuckle about it comes from high school.  A student named Brian, one year ahead of me, held an assembly which was basically a mini-“concert”.  He played the piano… and guitar, if I remember correctly.  He closed out the assembly with a great piano rendition of Lola.  It went over pretty well with the student body; the administration…. had issues with it.
• Kiss Me Deadly (Lita Ford) – Johnny M.  He was one of the guys from my dorm, sorry “residence hall,” at Purdue.  And he had a HUGE mad on for Ms. Ford.  Massive.  Huge.  Ginormous, even.  I don’t know if it’s possible to wear out a CD, but I think that he tried to with Lita.  And he’d rock out to this song – and most of the others on the CD, too.
• Love Rollercoaster (both versions – The Ohio Players and RHCP) – I first heard the RHCP version of the song, when it was part of the Beavis & Butt-head Do America soundtrack.  I remember thinking, “How long could it have taken them to write this?!  Five minutes, if that?!”  Then, I discovered that it was a cover of The Ohio Players’ song… which meant that the only new part of the song was the “rap” that Anthony Kiedis does during the bridge.  Right.  This reminds me of a former postal coworker, Chad.  We would often share a tape player or CD player at work – it was good for saving on batteries and getting some variety in what we listened to.  Even when I wasn’t listening to the same thing as him, I could tell when this song came on because he’d lean way back in his chair and his typing – already rather fast – got even more fast.

This morning also started in the SLC office, which is almost never a bad thing.
Stray Toasters

• I, once again, managed to not spill my mocha on the way in.
• Sisyphus
• Last night, I went to a local grocery store to pick up a package of razor blades.  Actually, I wound up going to two stores – one was out of them.  *grblsnrkx*  At the second store, I found the razor blades… locked behind a plexiglass barrier.  Ô.õ  ?!  I don’t think that I’ve seen that before.  And it was just the blades.  The razors – including the multi-packs and some of the more expensive hand razors – were sitting out in the open.  Big as day, twice as bright.  It shocked me to also note that that locked up the razor blades… but left the condoms out.  Maybe they are more worried about kids going emo than the local birth rate.
• He’s a little bit afraid of dying
  But he’s a lot more afraid of your lying…
• 
• Gear Clock
• I saw this article and the first thing that came to mind was: “What would George Clinton have to say about that?”
• I’m craving cheese fries and prime rib from Outback.
• Finally, the perfect lamp for the chiropractor – Mortal Kombat fan – on your Christmas list.

Back to the mill.

Namaste.

Monday – 28 May 2007
Happy Memorial Day.

It’s about more than cookouts and swimming and sales at the local shopping center.

Namaste.

* The subject line is taken from the first verse of Taps.