Random Access

Friday – 09 May 2008

It’s… a little after 8:00 AM EDT. I’ve been up since about 6:30. (This is a vacation, isn’t it?!) I’ve been hanging out with Mom – having coffee, watching news, watching her start cooking dinner – since waking up. I’m sure that having been up since O’dark-thirty will catch up with me sooner or later. And, did I mention that Mom is following this year’s election coverage with the same hawkishness with which she followed the O.J. Simpson trial back in the 90s? She is. It’s kind of amusing.

Today will involve a good bit of errand-running, I’m sure. That’s cool.

Stray Toasters

• Severe storms hit the area of NC near Mom’s. I’m waiting to hear what kind of damage the area around the house sustained. I chatted, briefly, with Markin’ Time, this morning; he said that his area was pretty much spared. , what’s the story from your part of the state?
• Burma impounds UN aid deliveries
• 
• Preview of Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #1
• I haven’t had an NES for over fifteen years, but this NES Controller Coffee Table makes me kind of wish that I did…
• …of course, if they’re putting an XBox in a Microsoft Surface Table, well, I wouldn’t mind one of them, either!
• Close to the Wind
• 
• John Ridley (1,2) author of The American Way (which, if you haven’t read, you need to read) and Undercover Brother, is a commentator on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Who knew?!
• Mmm, coffee.
• Steampunk in The New York Times
• LEGO + Nathan Sawaya = Skateboard

Namaste.

Wednesday – 07 May 2008
Midweek. Grey and Rainy.

Vacation starts tomorrow. Or tonight, depending on your point of view. Florida. Forecast is sunny and hot (upper 80s). Yeah, I think I can deal with that.

Stray Toasters

• Pink Floyd’s Money just turned up in my iTunes rotation. I like have liked this song for many years. I even used it as the theme for my radio show in college.
• In order received, , and got the right answer.
  (Technically, only got half of it, but she still got her half right.)
  The answers were: Vasco da Gama and Amerigo Vespucci.
• loonybin88 pointed me in the direction of Not on the Test. Amusing… and sadly true, in many cases.
• Duck season!
  Wabbit season!
  DUCK season!
  WABBIT season!
  Zombie season!
• Yay for Windows Server 2003 manuals! ZzzzzzzZZzzzzz…
• Webcomic WTH takes an amusing look at City of Heroes.
• I haven’t played City in… at least a week. *taps vein*
• While I’m happy with Senator Obama’s performance in last night’s primaries, I’m not so naive as to think that he’s an automatic shoe-in for the Democratic Party nomination, as some news sources seem to be reporting. The race isn’t over and there is still a long way to go.
• I ‘Toastered Isabella Rossellini’s Green Porno yesterday; the link led to stills from the videos. The Sundance Channel’s website has posted the videos.

Quote of the Day
has been chatting with one of our robot overlords (Did I say “overlords?” I meant “protectors.”) about an email issue. This was part of the conversation:

Robot Overlord: “I’ve sent your request on to Adam and Jamie to see if they know the right people to contact.”
: “You sent it to the Mythbusters guys!? How can they help with an email forward problem??”

He didn’t get a reply. Sad. Humorless robot overlords.

Anyway…

I just got back from lunch with SaraRules and Perry. While out, I took a couple of pieces of equipment to be exchanged for an RMA. I went to a new place to take care of this. The young lady at the store, God bless ‘er, didn’t quite understand what to do. So, what normally took about five (5) minutes to do took on the order of twenty-five. Yay. But, it’s done.

Back to the grind.

Namaste.

I have forgotten how much of a piece of piece Windows XP can be. Yes, I’ve been spoiled by the simplicity of OSX and program upgrades and installations. I recently had to wipe and reinstall XP on one of my machines in the north office. I forgot about that today when I had to do some online training. Which means that I had to reinstall a number of helper applications in order to use the training modules.

Install.
Reboot.
Install.
Reboot.
Lather.
Rinse.
Repeat.

I got everything installed. I went through the training modules. Life was good. Yay.

Earlier in the afternoon, Code Monkey and I went for a constitutional. We were talking about how temperate it was today. From there we went off on a tangent about skin color and heat absorption. That, in turn, led me onto a tangent about Kryptonians’ (and Daxamites’) ability to absorb energy from yellow solar radiation. Then, came the big tangent:

Where were the Black Kryptonians?!

CM and I then had a couple of other questions:

1. Would the concept of Black Kryptonians work? If high melanin-content in the skin reflects heat, then would the darker-skinned be as “super” under a yellow sun as their light-skinned counterparts?
2. If Krypton was a cold/ice planet, as seen in Superman and Superman II, would there even be any dark-skinned Kryptonians?

Of course, this meant that I had to look up whether or not there had ever been Black Kryptonians in the comics. Lo and behold, there were! Evidence was found here, here and even here.

Still no word on Black Daxamites, though.

Stray Toasters

• Newsarama had a link to Legion of Super-Potatoes. The second page, with the Legion of Substitute Potatoes, nearly made me double over and smack my head on my desk from laughter.
• This is the cover of the first issue of Legion of Super-Heroes that I ever bought:



• Living Between Wednesdays had an amusing look at The Invincible Iron Man #172, featuring a drunken Tony Stark…
• …which makes a perfect segue for this:



• Isabella Rossellini Does Bug Porn
• What if John Byrne had written the X-Men?
• Also, check out the official trailer for Wolverine and the X-Men, the upcoming animated series from Marvel. It looks like an interesting twist on the X-Men mythos.



• Not the droids you’re expecting…
• While watching CNN’s primary coverage, SaraRules mentioned that she was fascinated by the multi-touch interactive display they used to track/follow voting reports. So, I showed her the multi-touch exhibition from TED in 2006:

  Then I showed her an item from Popular Mechanics.com about the Microsoft Milan. That made me wonder when the Milan was going to be available to the public. Apparently, it hits the market on 30 May 2008.

Namaste.

Sunday – 04 May 2008
Last night was the last gathering (sort of) for the 2008 MFAs… at least until they come back for their Capstone defenses in August.  Rachel, Josh, Tyler, Lish and a couple of his friends from NC and Anna came over and hung out.  It was far more low-key than other gatherings have been, but nevertheless it was fun.

This morning was quiet (all of the roommates have already moved out) and lazy.  Today, we are going to start packing up SaraRules’ things and moving them into her storage unit.

Tonight: We’re watching the second half of Night Watch and Cloverfield.

Stray Toasters

• So far, everyone I’ve talked to has greatly enjoyed Iron Man.  I’m looking forward to seeing it again… and it seems as though I apparently missed a reference to The Mandarin in there somewhere.
  • By now, most people know of Samuel L. Jackson’s appearance in the film.  Most Marvel fans know Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.  When Marvel created their “Ultimate Universe” nearly ten years ago, they needed a Nick Fury for that setting; they based Ultimate Nick Fury‘s look on Mr. Jackson.
  • Iron Man has grossed over $100M (USD), so far in its opening weekend.
    By comparison, Made of Honor, which also opened this weekend, grossed $15M (USD).
• Markin’ Time: You might want to check out HotRants Political BlogReport.
• 
• Long-lost Vivaldi opera performed for the first time since 1730
• Integrous Quiche!
• LEGO is communication.

Quotes of the Day
As jotted down by Rachel last night:

• “I got my ‘This Little Piggy’ fix for the day, I’m good.” – Me.
• “I thought I did everyone.” – Lish
• “It sounds like they’re a pretty non-traditional poly bunch…” – Josh
• “You got little squatty feet, though.” – Anna

And on to the packing!

Namaste.

Thursday – 24 April 2008
I dislike being sick.

This isn’t to say that I know anyone who enjoys being sick, but I am just asserting that as a preface to the following:

I started feeling a little “off” yesterday around lunchtime. While it wasn’t doing somersaults, my stomach felt a bit queasy. I finally decided to go to lunch around 1:00. Since I was working in the north office, I figured that I’d just go home, take a nap have something light to eat and then head back to the office.

“The best-laid plans of mice and men…” as the saying goes.

I got home and had a difficult time falling asleep. It felt as though as soon as I did, the alarm went off. BAH! I was also feeling a bit cold. I figured that a hot soak would help. It did. Kind of. But I still wasn’t feeling top-of-the-line when I got out, so I crawled back into bed.

Three-and-a-half hours later, I felt a little better. Not great, but enough to function to head back to the office long enough to gather my personal belongings and head back home. Which I did. On the way home, I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things that would be considered “bland food.”

I got home, put away the food and took up a position on the couch. I watched S.W.A.T. and most of Law & Order before it felt like I needed to spend a little “quality time” in the sanfac. (Bonus points to those who know where ‘sanfac’ comes from.) The chills that I had felt earlier began to give way to sweats. Yay! When I felt up to it, I decided to have another hot soak session. That seemed to help a bit. After finding something comfy – and warm – to put on, I put on some soup, grabbed a Gatorade and resumed my post upon the couch. I watched a bit of David Letterman and Jonny Quest. I don’t remember seeing the end of Jonny Quest…

…I don’t really remember much of anything until The Snorks came on. I checked the clock. 6:00 AM. Hm. Okay. I ignored The Snorks – and pretty much everything else – until the alarm went off at 6:35. I headed for the bedroom, turned off the alarm and sprawled across the bed. I fell asleep again. When I finally woke up, I noticed something: I was feeling much closer to baseline “human” than I did last night. I started milling around the apartment. There was a definite improvement in the way I was feeling. A definite fringe benefit of my metabolism (“ferret on crack,” as puts it) is that I don’t tend to get really sick very often; and when I do get sick, I don’t tend to stay sick very long. And, to be honest: Last night/this morning was one of the times I was very glad of that. I’d say that I’m feeling probably 85-90% of normal.

Tonight, I’ll probably wind up on the couch again, watching CSI: and generally taking it easy. I think I can handle that. Besides, I have Jell-O! “There’s always room for Jell-O.”

Stray Toasters

• loonybin88 pointed out this article to me yesterday. My response: “It’s a fucking bear! DUH!” Let me first say that I feel badly for Stephan Miller’s family’s loss. But… IT WAS A BEAR! No matter how many safety precautions one takes, at the end of the day it’s still an animal that acts on instincts; the bear may have just been playing, as far as it was concerned. The consequences of its actions, however, have now raised a quandary as to what should be done with the bear:
  • Should it be put down? In my opinion, “No.”
  • Should it be released into the wild? I don’t think so… are its survival instincts refined enough to deal with being returned to its “native” environment? I don’t know.
  • Could it possibly be donated to a zoo? I don’t know, but this seems like the possible “best of both worlds” option to me.
• I have discovered a new (to me) comics-related blog: Living Between Wednesdays
• One of the last things you feel like doing when you’re sick is check your mail. I didn’t check mine yesterday. Had I, I would have found my Green Lantern John Stewart Minimates figure. That would have been something to smile about yesterday.
• Wait… I did have something that not only made me smile, it downright made me laugh: invited some folks to dinner at Jitterbug and a showing of Forgetting Sarah Marshall last night. When I got her message, I told her that I wasn’t feeling well and would have to take a raincheck. That spawned the following messages:
  

  applevenus: Sorry about your herpes.
  applevenus: Spydr says sorry about your herpes.
  me: I’ll get some ointment.
  applevenus: Ha. Ha. Ha. Have fun.

• Details interview with John Waters
• For SaraRules and other fans of Pinkberry: The All-Natural Taste That Wasn’t
• Caffeinate With Care: Small Shots Do a Brain Better Than Large Blasts
• 
• Maureen McHugh’s Brilliant short stories available as free Creative Commons download
• BoingBoing has an article entitled Creepy/catchy “It’s Not a Compound” remix, featuring this video:

And it’s snowing. Again.

Namaste.

I didn’t see this article until well after I had submitted the last post.  And, it’s just… odd… enough to merit an entry of its own:

Ill. Rep. Monique Davis: It’s dangerous for children to know atheists exists, orders atheists to stop

Don and I may not always agree on politics, but we often agree on “funny.”

Hillary Clinton’s 3AM Call of Duty – Mission: Bosnia

…and…

Obsessed with Obama

Wednesday – 26 March 2008
Whew. It’s been a day. I’ve been fighting PHP and MySQL… and discovering the differences of installing MySQL on a Windows machine versus installing it on Defiant. I also got to wrestle with changes that my host made to their “create a new email” feature. Some would argue that it’s “easier” and/or “more simple.” To some degree, it is. But it wasn’t what I was expecting.

Sushi Wednesday is moving to Thursdays, it seems. Today, we went to Olive Garden. Almost all of us had the soup and salad with breaksticks special. I must say: It was a decent change of pace, both in the sense of not having sushi for lunch and in having something different than my usual fare at Olive Garden.

Last night, The Hand of Nefer-Tem hit Security Level 48.

Politics
I read this op-ed piece, Donna Brazile offers Hillary Clinton a reminder about Rev. Wright, yesterday. It was an interesting read. And, yes, it would be easy to jump on the bandwagon about Sen. Clinton’s… “creatively remembered” (or would that be “revisionist” or “retconned”) versions of events, but I’m not going to do that. This time.

Instead, I was more taken by one of the comments that I read. When I originally saw the article, there were only three (3) comments on it. When I returned to it a few hours later, there were three dozen or more. The particular comment that struck me was this one:

Obama is our Savior. Barak and Reverend Wright are Right, God D*** america. Now is the time to rally around Barak and Michelle and make them proud! And news flash america, Barak is right, your typical white american is a racist! Obama will apologize to our Muslim brothers for arrogant american policies of hate and slavery. Only Obama can forgive an evil nation founded slavery. REPARATIONS NOW!

 

Posted by: Obamamania

By the time I hit the third sentence, the following lines from Styx’ Mr. Roboto came to mind:

I’m not a hero, I’m not a saviour
Forget what you know.

…and that was almost immediately followed by these lines from Queen’s Flash’s Theme:

Just a man
With a man’s courage
You know he’s
Nothing but a man
And he can never fail
No one but the pure at heart
May find the Golden Grail

While becoming the President of the United States is a rather lofty goal, I’m not sure that I’d necessarily call it “the Golden Grail.” And, I won’t say that Senator Obama is without his failings. He’s human.

There have been those who have touted him as a hero. Or a possibly “a great Black leader.” Of course, there have also been those who have said that he’s “not Black enough,” or “just Black enough to not be ‘too scary’ to White voters.”

Another respondent to the piece pointed out something that I hadn’t considered: Obamamania’s comment was most likely a supporter of Senator McCain who was flaming the op-ed piece. After some thought, that seemed rather plausible.

How about this: At no time during this campaign have I heard Senator Obama claim to be anything other than a man who wants to make a difference and hopefully bring about some change. He has addressed issues of race with candor, but – in my opinion – has not attempted to use it as a soapbox or a crutch.

And I can – and do – respect that.

Stray Toasters

• I stopped in to visit Kate and Perry after work last night. They were watching American Idol. “When in Rome…” Apparently, this week’s challenge (or whatever they call it on Idol) was for the contestants to sing a song from the year they were born. There were some rather decent renditions of songs performed. Then, David Cook came onstage and performed a version of Billie Jean (yes, Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean), that I believe he arranged. It was pretty impressive.

After his performance, Perry suggested that I check out Cook’s arrangement of Lionel Richie’s Hello. I did. And I thought that it was rather good, as well…as was his Eleanor Rigby. He has good stage presence and seems to react/interact with his crowd well. He easily could become someone to watch – or listen – for on the radio in the not-too-distant future. (Listen to the judges’ comments on his performance, too.)
• Cartoonist sets out to take taboo out of swastika
• Endor Express offers up a look at upcoming Disney/Lucasfilm toys.
• I have no idea what I want for dinner.
• Dyscalculia
• Marvel has released the trailer for Next Avengers – their next direct-to-video animated feature
  …and…
  Entertainment Weekly has a 10-page preview of Marvel’s upcoming Secret Invasion limited series.
• Keith Giffen’s “Unfortunate Confluence of Words.”

  
  (click image to read the article)

• What if Clark Kent worked for Barry White instead of Perry White?
• Pilot’s gun fired during flight
• Correction: I now know what I’m having for dinner.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 19 March 2008
Yesterday, Senator Barack Obama gave a speech on race and relations in Philadelphia, PA. He spoke before a small crowd… and the media. The speech was roughly 35 minutes long. In it, he addressed his relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright, his minister of the past 20 years.

Twenty years is a long time.
(Click here to see some of the things that have happened in the past twenty years.)

The speech has sparked a lot of discussion.
On TV.
On the radio.
Online.
Offline.

One such discussion can be found in ‘s journal entry from yesterday. It took me a while to collect and compose my thoughts on the speech. When I finally gathered them, my response, left as a comment in ‘s journal took this form:

I was, also, duly impressed with the speech.

As a member of Black churches, I have heard many sermons laced with comments that could be seen as… “unfavorable” or possibly even separatist… but they also addressed the beliefs and fears of the congregations. Yes, many/most were “black vs. white” issues, but for the areas in which the churches were located, those were the issues about which the people were cncerned. In some of the same sermons, the ministers also charged the congregation to do more than just sit back and talk – or more commonly, just complain – about the situations and instead to get up and DO something about them. Get out with their neighbors and coworkers… or even just random people on the street… and work together to make the communities better places to work and live.

Would I disavow my ministers on the bases of their sermons, especially if someone took selected excerpts out of context? No. No more than I would for taking family and friends’ comments out of context – all of us have, at one time or another, said things that could be considered “unpalatable,” especially when taken out of context. (I point to any [of our] given Friday night coffee gathering[s] as a shining example.)

Could more have been said? Possibly… but to what end? He addressed the issue at hand – the divisive comments of Reverend Wright – and he also addressed that there is still disparity between the races and the sexes… and that NONE of it will change until we, as a nation, are willing to acknowledge that “yes, there is a problem” and are willing to do what it takes to move ourselves through and past it. I appreciate and respect the fact that he acknowledged that the statements were invective, but would not disavow his relationship because of things Reverend Wright said.

And, if you need anything else to consider about the speech, consider that it was not written by speechwriters or committee: [Senator Obama] wrote it himself.

Namaste.

Events that have occurred in the past 20 years:

• Perestroika began in the former Soviet Union.
• The Iran-Contra Affair
• George H.W. Bush was elected President of the United States of America
• Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan
• Pan-Am Flight 103 was blown up over Scotland
• Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska
• Tiananmen Square protests
• Yusef Hawkins was shot in New York City
• The collapse of the Soviet Union
• Nelson Mandela was freed from prison, after 27 years of captivity
• Germany reunified
• The Gulf War
• Los Angeles motorist Rodney King is beaten and arrested; the event is caught on videotape.
• Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 3000, for the first time
• Boris Yeltsin was elected President of Russia
• Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested
• White supremacist David Duke was defeated in his bid to become the governor of Louisiana
• Windows 3.1 released
• Bill Clinton is elected (and later re-elected) as President of the United States of America
• World Trade Center bombing in New York City
• FBI Raid on the Branch Davidian compound
• The World Wide Web was “born”
• The Oslo Accords
• So far, we’ve only covered 1988-2003…
• The North American Free Trade Agreement goes into effect
• Nelson Mandela inaugurated as South Africa’s first Black president
• Mississippi formally ratified the Thirteenth Amendment
• Michael Jordan announced his retirement
• Oklahoma City bombing
• NASDAQ Composite Index closed above 1000 for the first time
• Windows 95 released
• eBay was founded
• The first Harry Potter book was published
• Microsoft bought $150 million share in Apple Computer
• Diana, Princess of Wales, died following a high-speed car chase and crash
• Mother Teresa died
• The iMac debuted
• In Texas, three white supremacists murder James Byrd, Jr. by dragging him behind their pickup truck
• Google, Inc. was founded
• Ten years down, ten to go….
• Columbine High School massacre
• Windows 98 SE released
• Lance Armstrong wins his first Tour de France
• World populations reaches six billion people
• Y2K
• Windows 2000 released
• Windows ME released
• George W. Bush elected President of the United States
• Wikipedia goes online
• Apple’s OSX v10.0 released
• U.S. – China spy plane incident
• Pervez Musharraf elected President of Pakistan
• September 11, 2001 attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.
• U.S. President George Bush announced that the U.S. was engaged in a “war on terror“
• Windows XP released
• USA PATRIOT Act became law
• Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) died
• The Beltway Sniper attacks began
• Hu Jintao became General Secretary of the Communist Party in China
• The United States Deparment of Homeland Security began operation
• STS-107: Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates on reentry
• Invasion of Iraq by forces from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Poland
• Human Genome Project successfully completed
• Martha Stewart indicted for insider trading
• CIA Leak Scandal, in which a Washington Post reporter named Valerie Plame as an undercover agent
• The last of the old-style Volkswagen Beetles rolled off the assembly line
• The Concorde made its last commercial flight
• Saddam Hussein captured
• BSE (Mad Cow Disease) outbreak announced in Washington State
• That’s fifteen years down, five more to go…
• The CIA announced that there was no imminent threat from “weapons of mass destruction” before the 2003 invasion of Iraq
• Simultaneous explosions kill 190 on trains in Madrid, Spain
• Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan died
• 9.3 magnitude earthquake hit the Indian Ocean area; nearly 200,000 people killed and 40,000 missing
• Pope John Paul II died
• Live 8
• Hurricane Katrina struck the U.S. Gulf Coast
• Hurricane Rita struck the U.S. Gulf Coast
• Dow Jones closed above 11,000
• Apple, Inc. celebrated its 30th birthday
• Fidel Castro relinquished power to his brother, Raul, while undergoing a surgical procedure and post-surgical recovery
• U.S. population reached 300 million people
• Windows Vista released
• Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein executed
• Ban Ki-Moon becomes the new Secretary General of the United Nations
• Benazir Bhutto assassinated
• Raul Castro elected President of Cuba
• New York Philharmonic Orchestra performed in North Korea
• Cost of gold increased to $1000 per ounce

Twenty years. Like I said: “That’s a long time.”

Tuesday – 18 March 2008
Last night, SaraRules and I joined and went to An Evening with Garrison Keillor at Abravanel Hall. It was a lot of fun. He talked, told stories, sang a few songs. It was like an extended version of “…the news from Lake Woebegon,” with a couple of sprinklings of personal connections thrown in.

After we got home, we lazed around watching TV and just hanging out. A little after midnight, I started getting really tired. REALLY tired. That almost never happens that early. But, it did last night. And I was in bed and knocked out before 12:30. That almost never happens, period.

I slept in a bit this morning. When the alarm went off, I wanted no part of that whole “being conscious” thing. The extra sleep was good. And the work day hasn’t been bad, either.

A little before lunch/gym time, I watched Sen. Barack Obama’s speech on race.

(read the transcript of the speech here, from The New York Times)

It was a very good speech. Aside from a a paragraph or two about 25 or so minutes into the speech, there wasn’t much politicking in it. There wasn’t, in my opinion, a lot of sniping or snarky remarks about his opponents. It was a solid discourse on his relationship with his former minister and why, despite the comments that Rev. White made, he is not “disowning” or disavowing his connection with the man. I don’t want to go into too much detail about it, rather I’d say watch the video or read the transcript (or both) and decide for yourself.

Workout
Today’s workout didn’t cover a lot of exercises, but it was good and tiring:

• Pull-ups: 3 sets/10 reps (2 unassisted sets, 1 assisted set @ 80 lbs)
• Leg Raises (full extension): 3 sets/20 reps
• Bench Press: 3 sets/8 reps (2 sets/225 lbs, 1 set: 225 lbs/6 reps, 205/3 reps)
• T-bar Rows: 3 sets/10 reps, 45 lbs
• Lunges (dumbbell, one-leg): 2 sets/10 reps, 15 lbs (each hand)

We tried – TRIED – max press again today… for the first time in far too long. Eric started at 300 lbs. Neither of us made it. I was able to lower the weight and get it to… 3 or 4″ above my chest, but at that point, I stalled. Eric lifted the weight before I could try it again. When it was his turn, he stalled at about the same spot. We’ll try again Thursday, I presume, but most likely with a little less weight.

The lunges were not fun. I was wobbly and winded after them. I guess that means that I need to either do more of them and get better at them and/or start doing more cardio.

Pre-workout weight: 174.4 lbs.

Stray Toasters

• I haven’t really drawn anything in months. But, I’m intrigued by Project Rooftop’s Iron Man Invincible Upgrade.
• I Am Legend and Enchanted hit the shelves today; I shall have to acquire both.
• Wooster Collective – A Celebration of Street Art
• Butterfingers® are tasty.
• The Wit and Wisdom of Prince Philip
• From xkcd: “Unscientific”

  

• Dream Girl and Star Boy seem to feature prominently in this weekend’s episode of Legion of Super Heroes. I wonder if the show will portray anything of their classic in-comic romance…?
• KidsWB is soon to be no more. The Batman ended two weeks ago. Legion will end on 05 April 2008. *sigh* It was good while it lasted.
• Comcast wants to put a camera in your cable box
• I haven’t acquired any cotton candy in a while. I should rectify that.
• Do doo do-do-do

Namaste.

Thursday – 13 March 2008
Tomorrow is International Pi Day.
It is also Albert Einstein’s birthday.

<< Rewind <<
Last night, after work, I stopped at Dr. Volt’s for my weekly fix. I also treated myself to a box of ‘Clix from the Justice League set. I picked up a couple of boxes, but one “felt” better that the other (i.e.: “it was heavier”). It was a good choice, too, because waiting inside was:

That’s right: Batman and Robin. At 138 points, it’s a pretty economical figure for the punch. The rest of the pack was alright, but after this seeing this piece, I felt satisfied with the purchase.

I did laundry, had a bite to eat, watched a little television and even got in some time in City of Heroes. There was an announcement about Issue 12: Midnight Hour. Apparently, it will be live fairly soon. I ran a mission for Vanguard against the Rikti. I did fine… until just before I got to the boss. Then I died. It feels like a really bad, recurring theme, I tell ya:

• Solo a mission…
• Work through the lesser villians…
• Get to (or near) the end boss…
• Die.

*sigh*
The good thing about being an Amenti (from the background I created for Nefer-Tem) is that death is relatively transitory. I resurrected, re-entered the mission, and took down the alien. Neat as a pin.

> Play >
Today has been good. It was drizzling when I left home this morning, so I opted not to wear my brown suede jacket. (Something about not wanting it to get water-damaged…) I wore, for the first time in a very long time, my double-breasted trenchcoat. And my fedora, of course. I had someone ask if I was trying to go for a Dick Tracy look. That made me chuckle, especially as it had never crossed my mind.

Workout
Today’s workout was a rehash of Tuesday’s workout:

• Chin-ups: 3 sets/10 reps (2½ unassisted sets, ½-set assisted at 80 lbs)
• Dips: 3 sets/10 reps
• Leg Raises: 3 sets/20 reps
• Decline Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 185 lbs
• Bent-over Rows: 3 sets/10 reps, 35 lbs
• Tricep Press (dumbbell, overhead, seated): 3 sets/10 reps, 50 lbs
• “Good Mornings”: 3 sets/60 lbs

Today’s pre-workout weight: 174.2 lbs.

It felt good to be able to do the Decline Press at 185 pounds and not have to change weights on each set. By the time I got to the third set, my arms were starting to burn; the 8th-10th reps weren’t stellar, but I was able to complete them.

Stray Toasters

• I had the theme from Bonanza going through my head a little while ago. It amused me.
• Speed Up Your Mac
• Speed Up Windows XP and Speed Up Windows Vista
• From Questionable Content:

  

• Steampunk LEGO Mecha
• From the “No… you don’t say” file: Clinton apologizes to black voters
• Creator of ELIZA, Joseph Weizenbaum, Dead at 85
• This is an amusing mash-up: Bionicles of Narnia

That’s close enough for jazz.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 12 March 2008
Mid-week.
(As I typed that, I heard

Midnight, and it’s raining outside…

…the opening line from “Midnight,” by Yaz (Upstairs at Eric’s) run through my head.

I went to Chris and Mary’s, after work, to play dolls HeroClix with Chris. He wanted to test a couple of figures before he plays in a tourney next month; I wanted to try out a couple of new figures. He cleaned my clock, but I learned a few things about how to better use a couple of figures, including:

• Green Lantern (Guy Gardner)
• Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) and
• Time Trapper

Chris was a little disappointed with the way the new Kyle Rayner figure plays, but I thought that it was alright. And we both agreed that WizKids should do an updated (read: “less underpowered”) John Stewart figure. *shrug* Maybe in the next set…

Today has been good. Nothing out-of-the-ordinary to report.
No sushi today.
No comics. Yet. But, soon… Soon…

Stray Toasters

• I came home last night to find a package from my father waiting for me. Random assortment of things (no Butterscotch Krimpets, though), but some neat stuff, nonetheless.
• YouTube Everywhere
• Vih-Dee-Ohs
  • Star Wars, as described by a 3-year-old
  • Star Trek: Closer
  • Star Trek: The Wrath of Farrakhan
  • National Spelling Bee

  And, just for the record: “Closer” and “Spelling Bee” are quite NSFW. You have been warned.

• What Real-life Dungeon Exploration Might Look Like, Graduate Students in Tow
• I have been using this image as my desktop wallpaper in the SLC office for… three or so weeks now:

  

  I adapted it from this image, which is part of the cover for the Incognegro graphic novel. And here is an article on the book, from The New York Times.

• Southwest grounds planes, places three on leave
• Rock Me, Amadeus

  
  (click image for more information)

• Surveyor of the Superheroes: Kaveney talks new book
• ‘Oldest Profession’ updates to a wired world
• …and, in a related note, it seems as though David Paterson will be assuming the role of Governor of the State of New York as of 17 March 2008, making him New York’s:
  • …first Black governor
  • …first visually-impared (legally blind) governor and
  • …first disabled governor since FDR
• Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub
  

  * Why did Utah name its capital, Fillmore, after the president (and the county it is in, Millard, too)? The Mormons wanted to join the U.S. They wanted to be a state. Congress and the executive branch were nervous about taking in a state so large (at the time the state covered most of Nevada and chunks of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Idaho — larger than Texas as I recall) and there was active opposition to taking in a state run by Mormons. So the Mormons moved the capital to Fillmore — more centrally located, and out of Salt Lake City where the Mormons had their temple and a lot of people. Then they named the capital after the president, hoping to curry his favor and that of the Whig Party partisans. It didn’t work. The proposed State of Deseret was carved up, and Utah didn’t get statehood until 1896 — after even Nevada.
  (from the site’s “Sources on Millard Fillmore” page)

  Fillmore is one of the towns I go through on the way to/from Cedar City.

• PHP and arrays.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 11 March 2008
One down, one in the chamber and three to go.

Last night, I got home and flopped on the couch. I watched the tube for a bit. Then I realized that eating dinner would be a good thing. Then I remembered that I had planned to cook dinner. So, off to the kitchen to do it.

Objective: Spaghetti and sauce.

I seasoned and cooked the ground beef. I added tomato sauce and paste. Spices and sugar. (Yes, “sugar.” I use sugar in my spaghetti sauce recipe.) I cooked the pasta. And I even made garlic butter for a few slices of garlic bread. Tasty.

Dinner and more TV. Top Gear, Law & Order and an episode of JLU. Having gotten my “watching superheroes” fix, I decided to give in to the dark side my “playing superheroes” fix. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a team to join and got beat down by an end boss in the solo mission that I ran. (Fortunately, I clued in on something that will let me defeat him if I try to solo the mission again.) After licking my wounds, I decided that I wasn’t in the mood for much more CoH, so I logged out and watched Jonny Quest. The classic series, not the 8os or 90s revival.

Then, an early (for me) night, as I was apparently rather tired.

Today hasn’t been bad: I wound up sleeping in a bit. Not horribly so, but enough to get rested. Up, dressed and out the door in (fairly) short order.

Workout
Today’s workout was… work. Muscle-fatiguiging work. “Break out in a serious sweat” work. Which, after the fact (LONG after the fact, that is) wasn’t such a bad thing. Today’s routine:

• Dips with Leg Raises: 3 sets/10 reps
• Pull-ups: 3 sets/10 reps (2 unassisted sets, 1 assisted set at 80 lbs)
• Decline Press: 3 sets (1: 185 lbs/7 reps, 135/4 reps; 2: 185/6 reps, 135/4 reps; 3: 145/15 reps)
• Bent-over Rows: 3 sets/10 reps, 35 lbs
• Tricep Press (dumbbell, overhead, seated): 3 sets/10 reps, 50 lbs
• “Good Mornings”: 3 sets/60 lbs

Today’s pre-workout weight: 174.6 lbs.

Stray Toasters

• I watched a little of Thundarr the Barbarian last night. Wow. “The road to Hell…”
• Star Wars Guide to the Presidential Candidates
  and
  Presidential Candidates as Monster Manual monsters
• Glenn Medieros (ft. Bobby Brown): She Ain’t Worth It
  
• Geoff Johns: Secret Origins and Blackest Night
• From Weblog Tools Collection: Who Comments on Blogs, and Why?
• Free! – Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business
• 
• 10 Things You Didn’t Know About David Paterson
  • WHO is David Paterson? Click here for more information.
• By way of Drew: Apple Shooter
• City of Heroes Veteran Award: 39 Months – Ardent
  Okay, this just cracks me up.  “I played for 39 months… so I could create Rocky?!”

Namaste.

Friday – 22 February 2008
I wound up staying in SLC all day Thursday. I was going to head down to AF after working on a system here, but was… convinced to stay north of the county line. The day was… something. In fact, at one point it came precipitously close to breaking the No Bad News Thursday rule. I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t bad news, just a very poor presentation of information.

After work, I ran a couple of errands and then headed to Jitterbug to meet and for dinner. And coffee. And catching up on the latest things going on. After that, I headed home for a few.

Next up: A jaunt to ‘s to help her with a computer problem. Nothing earth-shattering (or even earth-shaking, like yesterday’s earthquake – which I, again, slept through). While there, I saw and played with the kids. They have new collars – Sissy has a green one. That’s right: My cat wants to be a Green Lantern when she grows up. (I’m so proud of her…)

Home again. I fired up City of Death Heroes and joined a team with a couple of guys whom I’ve grouped with before. They’re both “a little” gung-ho. Unfortunately, they were both Scrappers and not Tankers. Suffice if to say that there was plenty of death to be had for everyone. *sigh* I left that team and was invited to join another. The second team had their act together.

Stray Toasters

• and I had to explain Zork and grues to Jason yesterday.
• Speaking of which, you can play an HTML/PHP version of Zork here.
• You can play ports of other Infocom games here.
• Clinton doesn’t vow to go on beyond March 4
• And now, another episode of “How Rob’s Mind Works”:
  

  While getting ready for work, I saw the packaging for some toilet paper in the trash can and had the following thought: “Cottonelle… Cotton-elle… Hm… Superman’s Krytonian aunt… who was a sanitation engineer? Yeah, that works.”

• Smurfs at 50: Ready for a Comeback
• Next week’s release of the Crisis set for HeroClix includes another Legionnaire: Karate Kid

  

• From Gamespot: GDC ’08: LEGO Batman First Look

  

  

• Pleas for condemned Saudi ‘witch’
• Yeah, toast!

Namaste.

Tuesday – 19 February 2008
Home again.

I tried getting in touch with Tammy, but didn’t catch her… so Monday was “spend the last few hours of vacation hanging out with the family before getting on a plane” day. We did head out for a bit, so that I could take SaraRules over to Pimlico Race Course, home of the Preakness Stakes… which is only a couple of miles from the house. After getting back from that, we hung out with Bot, Bit and . Pictures were taken. (Granted, these were lumped in with other pictures taken over the course of the weekend – including two with my uncle and one with Bret – but there are pictures nonetheless.) Also, here are pictures of the quilt that SaraRules made for Grace. When the time came to leave, we said our goodbyes, threw our things in the car and headed to BWI. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. We checked in and made it through security quickly and painlessly. Then… we waited.

We boarded our plane and we were on our way west again. The flight was rather uneventful; to pass the time, SaraRules and I watched Transformers. She hadn’t seen it before, but enjoyed it. An hour and some change later, we were in Las Vegas. Our bags were on the carousel almost by the time we got there. To the car. Out the garage and we were on our way…

…to In-n-Out Burger. After that and a stop for gasoline, we were on the road back to Cedar City. By the time we got in, we were exhausted. So, we crashed.

This morning, we got up, ready and on our respective ways: SaraRules to class; me to work.

The work day wasn’t very eventful, which is not a bad thing. Eric and I had a special guest star for today’s workout: Wes, who in the AF office today. Today’s routine included:

• Leg Raises: 3 sets/20 reps
• Pull-ups: 3 sets/10 reps
• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 205 lbs.
• Cable Row: 3 sets/10 reps, 120 lbs.
• Shoulder Press (seated, dumbbells): 3 sets/10 reps, 45 lbs.
• Cable Fly: 3 sets/10 reps, 95 lbs.
• Core Exercises
  • One-leg, with twist: 2 sets
  • Standard (plank): 3 sets – 45 seconds, 30 seconds, 30 seconds

Today’s weight: 172.4 lbs.
It was a good mix. And tiring. It was Wes’ first time really working out in about six months. (Having brain surgery will do that to you, apparently.) He did fine. While he had to back off of some of the weight that Eric and I did, he was still right there with us otherwise.

Post-work, it was Scion game night. We didn’t do very much, as a couple of players weren’t there, but we were able to move the story along a little. And it was fun to hang out with the gaming crew.

Monkey of the Day
On the way home from gaming, I stopped at the grocery store. While I was in the checkout line, a young-ish guy (mid 20s, I would guess) came in, carrying a gallon of milk. He asked to speak to one of the managers. When she came to the front of the store, he told her that he’d purchased the milk at another location, but it was apparently past its “best if used by” date and wanted his money back. The manager offered to exchange the bad milk for a new one. The guy wasn’t having any part of that – he wanted his money. The manager said that she couldn’t just refund his money – as the milk wasn’t purchased at this store – but re-offered to replace the bad milk. His response: “Yes you can! This is all just one big chain. You can give me my money! It’s all the same store!” The manager countered that it was not, in fact, “…all the same store.”

This went around and around a couple of times. The guy finally started cursing at the manager. She walked away, saying, “I’m not going to go on with this if you’re going to speak to me this way.” She never raised her voice. She didn’t get confrontational. The guy just wouldn’t quit. He asked… no… “demanded”… that she get him the general manager’s name and contact information. She politely refused, as the guy was still slinging expletives at her.

He was still arguing (is it right to say “arguing” if he was the only one talking?) after I checked out and left.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules sent a lovely bouquet of flowers to my parents as a “thank you for your hospitality” gift. Dad replied by text message to her and to me. If I had to guess, I would say that she made a good impression on the folks. (Not that I really had to guess, though.)
• Cherry Hill to Capitol Hill: Barry C. Black marks several ‘firsts’ as U.S. Senate Chaplain
• Senators Obama and McCain both won in Wisconsin.
  And with 51% of precincts reporting, Senator Obama is well ahead of Senator Clinton in Hawai’i.
• 
• D&D Insider Flash Interviews
• By way of Deacon Derek: Subnormality: “Supervillains Anonymous”
  
• 
• Tyranist: Library built into a staircase
• Classic SF movies rendered as Russian folk-art woodcuts

I suppose that I should move from “the theory of sleep” to “the practical application of sleep.”

Namaste.