Random Access

Tuesday – 05 April 2011
Day two of the work week… and I’m in the south office today. Some of us are doing rotations down here once a month. And, today is my day. Well, one of them — I think I’ll be back down at the end of the month, too. Oh, well.  It’s a nice change of pace.

Last night, after dinner, SaraRules! and I ran a few errands and then went to Frogurt for dessert. It was good and it wasn’t as tart as the yogurt at Red Mango. (On the other hand, they didn’t have a Green Tea Yogurt, so it’s kind of a draw.) We wrapped up the evening with an episode of Castle and an episode of Top Gear.

I stopped at Pin-up Girl Espresso this morning, to get a caramel mocha for the road. I was pleasantly surprised to see (former) Pin-up Girl Erin in the window. I didn’t get a chance to ask if she was going to be a semi-permanent regular in the store, though.

And tonight is D&D 3.5 night.

Stray Toasters

• Commodore is back!  (Not to be confused with the music group, The Commodores.)
• Roberts’ three-run home lifts Orioles to first 4-0 start since 1997
• Salt Lake Art Center takes an outsiders look at SLC
• 
  
• Advocate for the Arts
• Obama Invites Republicans to Meet on Budget
• Chemical found which ‘makes bone marrrow repair skin’
• FAA to Order Airlines to Inspect 737s for Cracks
• 
• Guess who went to The Hobby Stop and looked at train stuff while at lunch.
• NFLPA’s Mike Vrabel arrested for alleged theft, calls it ‘misunderstanding’

Namaste.

Monday – 04 April 2011
It’s the beginning of a new work week. (At least it’s sunny)

Today is also my stepfather’s birthday…

…and my friend, Mark’s, birthday…

…and my friend, Spydr’s, birthday.

Yeah. S’a lotta birthdays today.

Yesterday was a very lazy day. I woke up to snow, a continuation of the snowfall that started before I went to bed Saturday night. Throughout the day, it was alternately snowy and sunny. (“Welcome to Utah…”) In the late afternoon, I decided to visit the soon-to-be-closed local Borders. I found a few items that I couldn’t live without. After returning home, I took a trip to Gotham City, via DC Universe Online. I ran a series of missions that featured crimes by Poison Ivy. But, in the end mission, Ivy kicked my trash… using Robin to do so. (Of course, that kind of means that I got beaten up by Wil Wheaton. Or at least a character whose voice actor was Wil Wheaton.)

During and after dinner, we watched a new-to-me show called Bert the Conqueror. Hilarious. SaraRules! had apparently seen it before. It was a ton of fun. The premise of the show has the host, Bert Kreischer, traveling to different parts of the country “…in search of can’t-miss thrill rides and local activities, from the crazy to the insane to the downright dangerous.” The episodes we were: Maine and Virginia. After the Maine episode, I mentioned to SaraRules! that we had four years to prep for the 15th annual North American Wife Carrying Championship. She smiled and stopped short of patting me on the head and saying,”Sure we do, dear.”

We wrapped up the evening watching a movie called Monsters; SaraRules! had heard of it by way of a couple of friends. It was part Cloverfield, part The Mist and part… either Logan’s Run and/or The Road. It was a small studio/lower budget film, but its production quality was still better than 95% of the original movie content that SciFi… sorry, “SyFy”… comes up with. Part of the movie was interesting and engaging and somewhat as I expected, but the ending was a little flat and anticlimactic to me. Still, I’d say it’s worth a viewing.

Stray Toasters

• The Neville Brothers: Yellow Moon
• Breach exposes Chase, Capital One, TiVo customers
• Ex-astronaut Lisa Nowak’s criminal record to stay open
• BBC’s ‘Top Gear’ fires back at Tesla lawsuit
• HeroClix World has a link to the new Green Lantern footage, which debuted at WonderCon last weekend.
• 
• Vast Gene Study Yields Insights on Alzheimer’s
• Rubber’s Psycho Tire Rolls into Pantheon of Road-Rage Cinem
  There’s a part of me that is just curious enough to want to see this movie…
• Just because: A History of Rap

• The Spirit of Sharing: Museums Pursue Engagement with Social Media
• Steve Rogers Returns as Captain America in July
  While I realize that this is most likely being done due to the release of Captain America: The First Avenger, I’m a bit sad/disappointed by this, as I’ve enjoyed the “passing of the mantle” from Steve to his former sidekick.
• Searchers find pieces of crashed jet in Atlantic
• Ruling Spurs Effort to Form Digital Public Library

That’s pretty good for now…

Namaste.

Sunday – 03 April 2011
It’s snowing.

I figured I’d get that one out of the way, right off the bat. It started last night, before I went to bed, so I’m estimating that we have three to six inches of the stuff on the ground. I’ll do a measurement later, when I go out to shovel the driveway.

It’s been a good weekend. Friday, I had brunch with at The Park Cafe. The food and the atmosphere were both good. From there, I stopped at The Train Shoppe for a minute; I needed to inquire about a problem that I am having with the couplers on one of my locomotives. Randy told me that it was a pretty fast and easy fix. Armed with that knowledge, I headed out. I took Defiant back to Expercom. They installed the new PRAM battery and the new top case… and it was less expensive than they’d originally quoted me. So, I once again have a fully-operational Death Star BlacBook. Later in the evening, SaraRules! and I skipped meeting the usual suspects for Clitorati and, instead, went to a Utah Grizzlies hockey game. The game was good, although the Grizzlies lost. (My guess is that since they’d already locked up a playoff berth, they: A) didn’t have anything to prove and B) didn’t want their players to get injured.)

Saturday, I met Chris for breakfast and then we headed up to Dr. Volt’s for this weekend’s HeroClix tournament. There was a decent turn-out — nine players, so I played the bye rounds. Dr. Volt’s also hosted a book signing with Valerie Finnigan, one of the authors of Untold Stories from Iraq and Afghanistan. After our tournament was over, I had the opportunity to speak with Valerie for a bit. She was a charming woman with a few interesting story to tell. (Jeremiah also did an interview with her.) I got back home and tried to figure out what I wanted for dinner. SaraRules! to the rescue! She suggested Famous Dave’s Barbecue. So was it done. And it, too, was good. And very filling. After that, we came home and assembled a LEGO airplane that I got for Christmas. (Hey, some people do puzzles together; we assemble LEGO toys.)

Pictured here, with LEGO Universe Astronaut

Next, we watched (500) Days of Summer. Good movie. Not quite what I expected, but it was rather enjoyable… and a bit quirky.

Stray Toasters

• According to Google, today marks the “119th Anniversary of the First Recorded Ice Cream Sundae”

  

• Plane makes emergency landing with hole in cabin
  • Southwest Airlines grounds jets over mid-air hole scare
• This is one way to get down stairs, I guess…
• By way of Christopher M.: Wall of Sound: The iPod has changed the way we listen to music. And the way we respond to it.
• 
• Lynda Carter Reveals Opinion on New ‘Wonder Woman’ Costume
• Hands-Free Faucets Not Germ-Free, Study Finds

Today is a good day for getting in some DCUO or LEGO Universe… or both!

Namaste.

Friday – 01 April 2011
Hello, 9/80 Friday off!

Oh, yeah… and today is April Fool’s Day, too.

Last night, SaraRules and I decided to enjoy get a bit of exercise, while enjoying the sunny and warm Spring evening. After a bite to eat at Noodles & Company, we went for a leisurely walk through and around Wheeler Historic Farm. It seemed as though many other people had the same idea, as we passed many other walkers during our trek. Back at home, we watched some programs that we’d recorded, along with an encore presentation of a Top Gear show from 2008, in which the hosts traveled the length of Vietnam – over the course of eight days – on motorcycles… which had to be one of the most non-intentionally funny trips ever recorded.

Today, I need to take Defiant back down to Expercom so that it can have its PRAM battery replaced and also be refitted from being a TuxedoBook back to a BlacBook. (Although, it’s gotten some interesting looks and lead to some amusing questions about “why” it has a white keyboard…)

Stray Toasters

• The O’s take the field today against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
• I’m taking another stab at reading Black Seas of Infinity: The Best of H.P. Lovecraft and making better progress this time.
• Comically Vintage: Paleocomicologists with a Sense of Humor
  • “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover. Frozen North Edition”

    

• Thanks to for pointing out: Utah LEGO League Group Headed to World Festival
• It seems as though Maddox has given up “The Best Page in the Universe,” in lieu of a new site.
• Brad Guigar, who does Evil, Inc., also does a webcomic called Courting Disaster, “the weekly sex comic and sex-advice web site.”  Today’s post and poll– and the responses – are pretty good:

  

• ‘Tree of Hope’ Stands as Poignant Symbol in Japan
• Asking Kidney Patients to Forgo a Free Lifeline
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file:
  • Ryanair to Make Child-Free Flights a Reality?
  • 3-Year-Old Killed by Mother for Throwing Away Game Console
• 

• Modern Marvel
• Lion Capital board members bolt from American Apparel

And now, off for brunch with.

Namaste.

Thursday – 31 March 2011
It’s a blue sky NBN “Technical Friday.” And I’m good with that.

Last night was supposed to be D&D 4.0 night. So, after dinner, I ran a couple of errands and headed over to Hastur Hobbies to partake in hack-and-slash goodness. I arrived to find no one from my group there.

*headscratch*

I went back through my messages to see if I had missed something. I had. had called the game earlier in the afternoon… but, that message was basically attached to another thread of messages, so I didn’t catch it when I skimmed over them.

*D’oh!*

That just meant that my evening freed up for me to go and hang out with the missus. Which I did. For the most part…

…until I decided that the best thing for me and my newfound head cold was a nice relaxing soak while reading the day’s new comics haul. And I was right – it was good.

A little later, SaraRules! and I finished off the last DVD of Mad Men that we got from Netflix. I now understand what and meant by “the lawnmower episode,” and why they both agreed that I’d “get” it as soon as I saw it.

This morning, I woke up with this song running through my head…

…and I was okay with that.

Stray Toasters

• Shannon Tavarez, Nala in “Lion King,” Dies at 11
  I can’t recall if she was the performer I saw when The Lion King was here last year.
• Phishing scam poses as Adobe upgrade
• Possible Safety Risks Put Met Opera Tour to Japan “in Jeopardy”
• Today is opening day for most of the MLB.
  The O’s open tomorrow night against the Devil Rays, in Tampa.

  

• Stanley Chow Does ‘Dr. Who,’ He-Man, Super Jon Hamm and More
• Fat Stigma Spreads Around Globe
• Lawmakers try to stall law on cutting debit card fees
• Spring Trends for Men, According to Women
• 
• BP “leaks” data of 13,000 Gulf oil spill victims
• Antitrust Cry from Microsoft

Namaste.

Wednesday – 30 March 2011
It’s a grey and drizzly midweek morning. But that’s okay. It’s new comics day. It’s also game night. And… depending on how my day goes, I might try to sneak out for Sushi Wednesday at lunch.

Last night, Perry, , Chris and I went out for guys’ night out/send off get together for Perry, who’s moving in a little over two weeks. I know that Perry needed some “grown-up time,” as he’s been playing Mr. Mom with his kids — early retirement, go figure.  We went to the MacCool’s in Foothill Village. As always the food was good; I had the Shepherd’s Pie and Finn’s Skins, all washed down with Guinness.  We had a good time;  it was nice to just have a night to sit back, knock down a few beers and shoot the bull with the guys. (Kind of like Monday nights… but without football.) I can’t think of a better way to have spent the evening.

Stray Toasters

• One of the great things about having a programmable coffee maker is that you can prep your coffee the night before and, by the time you wake up or get out of the shower, there are cups of caffeinated goodness waiting for you.

  Of course, this process only works in this manner if you remember to set the timer.

• U.S. Housing Prices Fell Again in January
  • Foreclosure Aid Fell Short, and Is Fading
• As Problems Persist, Is Southwest Losing Its Luster?
• Tesla sues Top Gear over “rigged” electric car test
• Apparently, lairs are the “in” thing in webcomics this week:
  • 
  • 
• Exonerated inmate won’t get $14M
  • Harry Connick, Sr.’s office also oversaw the Gregory Bright case, as detailed in Never Fight a Shark in Water.
• New Wonder Woman TV Images Show Action, Tweaked Costume
  Thank God, the Devil and Bob that they changed the boots. And, the costume doesn’t seem to incorporate as much vinyl as the demo shot did.
• Beyond Banned: Books That Survived the Censors
• A Victim, Her Picture and Facebook
• The Mysterious, Cursed Billiards Room Hiding Under an English Lake

Namaste.

Monday – 28 March 2011
Another work week begins. And this one comes complete with snow! (Well, flurries, but still…)

Yesterday was good. It was a mostly low-key day. I did head over to West Valley Hobbies for a bit, but didn’t buy anything. I also stopped at Dr. Volt’s, to pick up the Apocalypse ‘Clix that they had on display. SaraRules! and I had dinner with her family and, after dinner, we watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which I hadn’t seen in a while. Back at home, we watched last week’s episode of Fringe before calling it a night.

Today, we’re having issues in the office. And there have been many “Why” and “How” and “When” questions asked. We’re handling it as best we can. (Which, surprisingly, doesn’t include punching monkeys.)

Stray Toasters

• How to Raise the Status of Teachers
• World’s largest LEGOLand taking shape in Florida
• Mobile phones may rot your bones
• A couple of Star Wars-related items:
  • Distracted by Star Wars
  • Homages, Ripoffs and Coincidences: Star Wars
• 
  
• When test scores soared in D.C., were the gains real?
• Paul Baran, Internet Pioneer, Dies at 84
• Thanks to for posting a link to this video, which shows the pre-launch preparations for Discovery‘s last flight:

• The Nintendo They’ve Tried to Forget
• 12-Year-Old Rewrites Einstein’s Theory of Relativity

On to the rest of Monday…

Namaste.

Sunday – 27 March 2011
Yesterday was a good day.

I went to visit with Perry and Kate for a bit. They were doing some pre-sale house work, so I didn’t stay terribly long. I next went to MRS Hobbies… from which I exited empty-handed.

Next, I took Defiant (my BlacBook) to Expercom — I’ve been having a bothersome problem with its PRAM battery and figured that I’d get it looked at and/or fixed while I had some free time. Mike, the tech on-duty, had never had to replace that battery in my model of MacBook, so it was something of a learning experience for both of us. While disassembling the laptop, he noticed that my case had cracks in the front of it. He said that he’d order a new top case and replace my old busted one with new Apple hotness. When we determined that there was A LOT more work involved in getting to the battery – and that they didn’t have one in stock – I decided to bring my MacBook back next week and kill two birds with one stone. Thus began the reassembly process. Everything was going hunky-dory, until Mike tried to replace my keyboard. It seemed that something in the pin connector was… off. So, he replaced it.

That’s right, my black MacBook has a white keyboard… at least for the next few days. There are a few not-so-minor differences in key-mappings (volume, built-in calculator keys, screen brightness, Spaces/Expose), but I’m getting used to them. Slowly.

I headed home and met SaraRules!, so we could decide what to do with the afternoon and evening. We decided to go see Sucker Punch.

I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from the movie… but it wasn’t the movie I expected, if that makes sense. The movie’s tagline, “You Will Be Unprepared,” was spot on.  Let me rephrase that a bit: It was a good movie and we both enjoyed it. But it was more than just visually appealing; it told an interesting story… and it wasn’t the story that I expected. There were also a few surprising faces in the movie, as an added bonus. Also, I will be tracking down the soundtrack — it was eclectic and suited the different styles of the movie very well. I have to admit: As this movie gives yet another indication of just what Zach Snyder is capable of, I’m less leery and more curious to see next year’s take on the Man of Steel, under his direction.

After the movie, we stopped at the nearby Hobby Lobby. I picked up two more tank cars for my train. The only “problem” is that all three of my Norfolk Southern tank cars have the same road number. (I’m easily able to overlook this.) With their addition, I am now able to run three types of unit trains:

• All boxcars,
• All coal hoppers, and
• All tank cars.

After we got back home, I headed to the train room, hooked everything up to the N&W Bantam J and ran a 23-car consist. It made me smile.

And, sometime overnight… it snowed.

Stray Toasters

• Former U.S. Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro passed away yesterday.
  • The Pioneer: Geraldine Ferraro (1935 – 2011)
  • Ferraro was a trailblazer for women
• How D.C.’s Cherry Blossoms Almost Didn’t Bloom
• A Girl’s Nude Photo, And Altered Lives
• 
• No Flying Car, But How About an Invisibility Cloak?
• A Comic Book Lover’s Guide to Going Digital
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…!?” file: Time Warner charges Wright-Patt engineer $16.4 million for cable
• Snap Judgment
• 
• On the Clothes Watch at SXSW
• Royally ridiculous Royal Wedding packages
• Microsoft Disables HTTPS for Hotmail Users in Iran, Sudan (and More)

Namaste.

Saturday – 26 March 2011
After the atrocity that was “Friday at work,” today looks to be a much better day. In fact, one of the first things that I thought of, after opening the blinds in the living room was this:

Except, I was hearing the Broadway version in my head… although, this version does feature Diana Ross as Dorothy and Michael Jackson as The Scarecrow. Something that I didn’t know was that the song was written by the late Luther Vandross. (Listen to the Vandross version here.)

Last night, I spent the evening in the company of (along with little Mister Thunder),  and over coffee. It made the end of the day rather pleasant.

I didn’t do the 5k that I was considering this morning. Depending on my schedule, I will either do one next month or in May. That will give me a chance to work some cardio back into routine.

Stray Toasters

• Doctor to Teen Athletes: Skip Spanx
• Bryan Singer Owns His Mistakes on ‘Superman Returns’
  • Friday Night Fights: Happy Birthday, Superman!
    • Artist Mike Kelley Recreates the Bottle City of Kandor Without Terrorizing the Galaxy
• 
• Erica Simone lays bare everyday activities in nude works of art, by way of
• FAA Orders New Air Traffic Controller Procedures
• Washington’s New Brat Pack Masters Media

Time to go out and enjoy the day!

Namaste.

Friday – 25 March 2011
It’s Friday.  The end of the week. And for this, I am grateful. It’s my 9/80 “on” Friday, which is typically a quiet and low-key kind of day.

So, why is my blood pressure – and my annoyance level – through the roof?

Maybe it could be due – in some small, almost insignificant part – to the fact that I spent part of my morning elbow up in trash looking for a piece of equipment. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

The day started nicely enough. Got up, got ready for work, stopped at Pin-up Girl for a cup of morning go-juice. So far, so good. Got to work, ready to tackle the items on my day’s agenda. And shortly after that is when I discovered that all was not well in Mudville:

We had scheduled technicians to come in and deal with a problem with one of our cooling units. This service has been on the docket for three weeks now, as the part needed had to be special ordered and fabricated. Okay, fine. That’s the cost of doing business. Because of the nature of the work, we had to schedule a time for a tech from our fire control system vendor to turn off our fire suppression system. So, three weeks… all leading up to this morning. Call it “confluence.” Call it “convergence.” Call it what you will.

The fire control tech showed up and did his thing. No problem. The HVAC guys showed up to do their thing… and that’s when we noticed that something was wrong: The part that we had ordered – and that had been sitting on a table, awaiting installation – was nowhere to be found.

* braincramp *

So, the hunt began. In the server room. In the storage rooms. In the labs. Nothing. That’s when I started making calls. No one knew where it was.

* severe braincramp *

I put a call in to our cleaning crew, to see if they possibly tossed out the box last night, not seeing the part inside. They didn’t think so, but the boxes they did throw away went into a recycling dumpster. *sigh* Great. Next stop: The dumpster. Brian, one of the HVAC techs jumped in. No luck finding the box or the part.

*grblsnrkx*

Just after I got back to my desk, the cleaning company called back: One of the cleaners remembered throwing away a few boxes… in the trash dumpster.

So… back downstairs we went. Brian and I hopped into the front of the dumpster, but didn’t go too far in for a couple of reasons, the BIGGEST one being: It was a trash compactor. I’ve seen Star Wars: A New Hope. More than once. I know what happens to people in trash compactors. I also don’t happen to own either a protocol droid or an Astromech droid, so there was NO way I was wading in. (Besides, I didn’t know if there was a monster lurking below the surface, just waiting to drag me under.)

NOTE: At this point, I almost defy anyone to claim to have had a worse morning than I had, based solely on the fact that I was in a dumpster, looking for a part that obviously didn’t want to be found.

We didn’t find the part. Which means that we have to order another one. And schedule a time for the fire control and HVAC guys to come back in. Which means that we’re looking at – bare minimum – two to three weeks from now before this problem is fixed.

The odds against this confluence of nearly impossible events coming together, in just this way, to bring us to this improbable outcome is mind-boggling.

And, it’s snowing.

How’s your Friday?

Stray Toasters

• Today, I would definitely be more of a Red Lantern than a Green Lantern: I’m ready to punch monkeys in the throat right now. Repeatedly. And hard.

  

• Will Work for Food: Curatorial Position and Cake Preferred
• Many U.S. Blacks Moving to South, Reversing Trend
• Tilting at Windmills: Lessons Learned from Comic Relief and Borders
• 
• Census Data Presents Rise in Multiracial Population of Youths
• Buck Showalter rips Derek Jeter, Theo Epstein in magazine
• Brickwork: ‘M.A.S.K.’ Returns as a Fan-Made LEGO Set
• The art of Jordan Witt

  

• Missionary Men with Confidence in Sunshine
• Ford to dealers: No more black, red paint due to Japan crisis
• World’s Best Ruins

Namaste.

Thursday – 24 March 2011
It’s a grey, rainy No Bad News Thursday in the Land Behind the Zion Curtain. WHEEE!

Last night was the first D&D 4.0 game that I’ve been able to attend in the past… three, I think… weeks. And when I arrived, it was without my character. This was a fact that I didn’t recognize until I’d walked in the door and thought “Shouldn’t I have something else?”

*grblsnrkx*

Yep. Genius move on my part. So, I got to play the part of one of the NPCs. An evil NPC, at that. I believe that it was the first time in all the years I’ve played D&D that I’ve actually played a character with an evil alignment. And, it was fun. I think that I caught a couple of my party member when I… kind of… started a fight with a bunch of guys because my character didn’t like his attitude. (We won the fight, though.) Partway through the game, I had an apostrophe epiphany: My character might actually be in my car, not at home… so I went and checked. Lo and behold, there it was.

::: facepalm :::

So, I went and got it. I played both characters for a few turns, until the NPC left the game. (His story arc was done, I didn’t get him killed.) It was a good game session.

Stray Toasters

• I’m contemplating running walking a 5K this weekend: Running of the Leopards. The two mitigating factors for me are:
  1. Weather
  2. If I can find a walking partner.
• Smithsonian. Historically Hardcore.
• Long-lost Frederic Chopin letters recovered by museum
• Bearing Witness Beyond the Witnesses
• 
• I’ve had four, count ’em… FOUR… meetings today. Before lunch.
• Gadgets You Should Get Rid Of (or Not)
• Posting “not-so-great” news about this guy might not win me any fans among the BYU crowd, considering how… revered… he is in this neck of the woods. Oh, well, here it is anyway: N.B.A. Scouting Report on Fredette: Good but Not Great
• The new – full – trailer for the upcoming Captain America movie has finally been released:

• Inside Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server: Apple replaces Samba for Windows networking services
• Germany Steps Away from European Unity
• David E. Kelley Talks Wonder Woman
• 
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file:
  • Airport tower silent as planes land
  • Woman suing Carnival: Ship sailed too fast, made me sick
• How Western Diets Are Making the World Sick

Namaste.

Wednesday – 23 March 2011
New comics day + D&D (4.0) game night = A good combination.

Last night, Chris came over and – after a lot of shooting the bull – we played dolls. We did a Teen Titans (Chris) vs. the X-Men game. And he cleaned my clock. Six ways from Sunday. It started off as a good game, but my dice decided to play jokes early on. That wasn’t insurmountable. The problems began when Chris moved a couple of his pieces into positions I wasn’t expecting and then made like LL Cool J and knocked a couple of my key pieces out… and then picked apart the rest of my team. One bright spot in the game: Having my Wolverine eviscerate Robin. All-in-all, it was a good game. But, I need to plan some revenge for the game where I run the Titans.

Stray Toasters

• Elizabeth Taylor dead at 79
  • Hollywood Icon Elizabeth Taylor Dies at 79

  

• Japanese Vegetables and Milk Banned from Import to US
• NFL moves kickoff line from 30-yard line to 35; no change on touchbacks
• A Queens Guy Toughs It Out in Hollywood
• Android: Sued by Microsoft, Not Linux
• 
• Are We There Yet?: new art installation at SF Contemporary Jewish Museum
  It turns out that a high school classmate of mine is the Deputy Director of Development at the museum.
• Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Being Adapted to Crime-of-the-Week Mystery TV Series
• 
• Weimar Rail-Zeppelin: streamlined white-elephant
• ‘Spider-Man’ Broadway musical shaken by another injury
• Detroit Census Confirms a Desertion Like No Other
  • Motor City population declines 25%
• 
• DCU Online Gets Lucky with Two-Face, Mxyzptlk in March
• Race Issues Rise for Miami Police
• But I be done seen ’bout ev’rything
  When I see an elephant fly Wonder Woman, Amazon Baby Sitter!
• For Consumers, Little to Cheer in AT&T Deal

Quote of the Day
Something that I enjoy (and look forward to) is the occasional instant message from my brother-in-law, recounting something – usually highly entertaining – that either my niece or my sister has said or done. This morning, I found this gem, which he sent last night:

your niece.
today two verbal gaffes that made Rana inform me i’m doing harm to my children
playing Mario Kart
she [Bit] first asks to play the character “honky kong”
then when we unlock a new character, “funky kong”
of course…now she’s informing Rana she wants to play “fucky kong”
i give up.

That made me laugh. A lot.

Namaste.

Thursday – 17 March 2011
It’s my “Friday.”
Happy Green Lantern Day.
Or, for some of you: “Happy St. Patrick’s Day.”

Could the day possibly get better? Somehow, I doubt it.

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I left work a little early and made a trip down to The Train Shoppe. I managed to not buy a ton of stuff, just a few sections of track. Of course, I was exhibiting some restraint because I was picking up a case of ‘Clix, as the new Giant-Size X-Men set was released yesterday. And, with release day comes… Release Day Tournament. On the plus side: This was an event that Jeremiah ran for the store, meaning that I got to play in the event, rather than having to judge it. Win-Win.

Stray Toasters

• Here’s a little “green” music for your day – Booker T and the MG’s: Green Onions:

• This morning’s first cup of coffee included a little St. Brendan’s Irish Cream.
• Saint Patrick as a Green Lantern.  Hm… this might work.
• First Guinness store in the USA to open in Las Vegas
• I turned my 4-year-old daughter into a Dungeons & Dragons geek
• 
• For SaraRules!: Amy Ahlstrom: Urban Quilter
• Long Pause for Japanese Industry Raises Concern About Supply Chain
• How to fix “sexting” laws
• Ten Things People Say Right Before Being Punched on Saint Patrick’s Day
• 
• Coaches’ salaries slashed in NFL lockout cost-cutting
• Health Net breach prompts investigation, affects 1.9M
• ‘The New York Times’ Unveils Metered Online Paywall

Namaste.

Tuesday – 08 March 2011
Today is International Womens Day.

It is also Fat Tuesday, apparently also making it Pancake Day.

For me, the morning started out with me shoveling somewhere between 8 and 10″ of snow off the driveway (… the closest thing that I’ve done to a “workout” in longer than I’d care to admit). That’s right, Mother Nature looked down on the Salt Lake Valley and decided that we needed a fresh blanket of snow. And it appears as though the east side of the valley got the brunt of it; west-siders got 2-3″ of new powder.

Yesterday, I received the newest addition to my layout: Angelo’s Pizza Delivery Van. That’s right, I now have “traffic.” I also noted a difference between the two vans: the pizza van is faster on the straight sections; the painting van is faster in the curves. I’m still a little torn as to whether or not I want to expand the SuperStreets to the other board. *shrug*

Stray Toasters

• ‘Oreo’: A Satire of Racial Identity, Inside and Out
• Debit Card Fees Prompt a Push Near Deadline
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Man allegedly karate chops air marshal
• The Astronaut’s Playlist: Groovy Songs for Space Travelers
  • William Shatner delivers wakeup call for Discovery’s STS-133 crew
• I played LEGO Universe for a little bit last night.
  
• Honda, Toyota, Chrysler issue recalls
• I would watch this: Zibby Challenges Ochocinco to a Fight
• DHS seeks increased cybersecurity funds for 2012
• Microsoft begs users to stop using IE6
  Two words I never thought I’d see together: “Microsoft begs.”
• Cost of Hard Drive Storage Space

Namaste.

Tuesday – 01 March 2011
A new month begins.
Today also marks the beginning of Women’s History Month.

T minus three days to the train show.
T minus sixteen days until Green Lantern/St. Patrick’s Day.

Last night was very low-key around the house. SaraRules! fixed soft-shelled tacos and rice for dinner. While eating, we knocked out the last two episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles on the DVR and watched an episode of House Hunters about a couple in Texas. (They were almost as finicky as the couple I posted about a few days ago who were looking for the one-level home.) But, they found a spot they liked.

Tonight, SaraRules! and I are attending Utah Symphony‘s 2011-12 Season Announcement Reception at Abravanel Hall. (Yeah, I get some pretty swank fringe benefits of having a wife with a cool job.) After that, I’ll be dashing off to join ‘ D&D game. No rest for the wicked, I guess.

Stray Toasters

• Women Have a Right to Talk About… Everything
• Drinking Soda May Increase Your Blood Pressure
• I finally got robandsara.org back up and running… only to realize that we never posted much after (read: “anything”) after the wedding. There’s still some fine-tuning to be done, but the pages are there. I’m thinking that I’ll be adding content from here (and from some photo galleries) over the next little while to bring it a little more up-to-date.
• 
• “BlackHole” malware, in beta, aims for Mac users
• Screen legend Jane Russell dead at 89
• lj user=”gazehound”: You’ll want to check out some of the images on this page. (Particularly, the third one.)
• What’s behind home-sales-scuttling low appraisals?
• Egypt’s nostalgia and ancient civilizations
• The following ‘toon came from this page on Let’s Be Friends Again:

  

  • The notes on that page also referencedThe Racial Politics of Regressive Storytelling, a very good commentary from Comics Alliance’s Chris Sims (1, 2)
• I bought a new van for my railroad layout’s Superstreets last night. I should have it in-hand sometime next week, God willin’ and the creek don’t rise.
• This ad…

  

  …somehow reminded me of this:

  

• Remapping Computer Circuitry to Avoid Impending Bottlenecks
• Dance! Dance! Dance! (And, by the way, Ms. , you might want to check some of these out, as well…)
• Famous, With Foot in Mouth
• NYC’s Last Chinatown Arcade Shuts Its Doors
• 
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Union Pacific Railroad Billboard Campaign Reminds Truckers to Stop for Trains
  Really…? You have to remind drivers of this? Even for non-rocket scientists, the concept of “crash” should be fairly easy to grasp.
• The Art of Video Games

She would waste not, not in struggle
No other shall there ever be
And what she is to love, listen oh my brother
Is as the wind to Mercury

Namaste.