Random Access

Thursday: Coda
After work, I headed home to grab a few things, filled up the car, picked up SaraRules’ mom…

…and hit the road.

A shade under seven hours later, we were in Snowmass Village. We listened to The Areas of My Expertise from Price all the way to the condo. It was entertaining; SaraRules’ mom seemed to enjoy it, as well.

Tomorrow:

• Work from the Aspen office in the morning.
• Beethoven and Brahms concert at the Aspen Music Festival in the evening.

Namaste.

Stray Toasters

• I picked up another brick of ‘Clix over lunch. Hopefully, I’ll be able to round out my set… and/or find some eBay-worthy figures.
• I also picked up the three trade paperbacks of The Middleman.
• Other Middle-stuff
  • Javier Grillo-Maruach has a LiveJournal.
  • The Middleblog
  • The non-ABC Family Middleman site
• By way of : Al Gore Places Infant Sun in Rocket to Escape Dying Planet
• I took a look at the stats for the Invisible Woman and Susan Richards (Skrull) ‘Clix figures. Wow. They’re getting used in a game soon, I think.

  

• 10 Things to Scratch from Your Worry List
• Back in the day, I bought The Typing of the Dead for my DreamCast. Until today, I had simply thought that it was a port of The House of the Dead. I had no idea that there was an actual arcade version of TotD.
• Just as a point of reference, Google Maps “doesn’t understand” the following phrases:
  • “Nuke this location”
  • “Bomb this location”

  It does, however, recognize “Target this location”

• Looking for a place to get away from it all? Try Private Islands Online, they offer islands for rent and for sale.
• Maybe I’ll actually buy some eggs so I can (finally) make some brownies tonight.

*voop*

Wednesday – 30 July 2008
Midweek.

Coffee: Check.
Failsafe lunch: Check.
Lack of road monkeys: Check.
Hooverphonic’s 2 Wicky on iTunes: Check.
Butterscotch Krimpets for breakfast: Check.

It’s also the day that Baltimore, MD was founded.

Man… all that AND a reference from The Wiz (Broadway, not the movie), too.

Let’s get this started.

Tuesday – 29 July 2008
No marshmallowy alarms this morning. I take that as a good sign.

This morning’s work music is: Ride of the Valkyries.

I have both frozen mocha goodness and a bagel sandwich. Win-Win.

Attack the day…

Friday – 25 July 2008

It’s SysAdminDay!

In honor of this, I once again bring your Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie’s System Administrator Song.

Last night, I hung out with Allie and her friend, David; I haven’t seen her in close to a year, I guess. She’s in town for a CF treatment. When I talked with her earlier in the week, I told her that I’d come visit her. I asked if she wanted anything. Her response: Tiramisu. So, I picked some up and took it to her. It was a fun visit.

I got back home around 11:00. I turned on the TV and watched the tail end of The Late Late Show. I thought about hopping on PokerStars, but realized at 12:30 that I was tapped. So I called it a night.

Stray Toasters

• If the weather stays decent, I may head to a driving range this weekend.
• From the Council for Better Driving: Utah comes Utah Code Section 41-6a-801 – Turning – Manner – Traffic Control Devices

  Loosely translated: “To the road monkey in front of me this morning: You could have turned left – into your designated lane, even though there was oncoming traffic turning right… into their designated lane.”

• No, I don’t play for the 49’ers
• Last Lecture Professor Randy Pausch, 47, Dies
• Wizard People
• 
• Oil paintings of computer cables
• The Shining recreated with WowWee robots

• LEGO Beijing Olympics

Namaste.

Thursday: 24 June 2008
Three down, one in the chamber and one to go.

Today is Mormon Christmas Pioneer Day in Utah. As such, all state-owned and many locally-owned businesses are closed. There’s a parade… for which people started lining the streets last night. A rodeo. Fireworks. The whole kit and kaboodle.

Extreme Makeover: IT Lab Edition should wrap up today. Selah.

Stray Toasters

• This morning’s commute was enhanced with:
  • Hollaback Girl (which I still think MarknTyme should teach his band…)
  • The Boomin’ System
  • Drop It Like It’s Hot
• I miscounted the Secret Invasion set. There are 60 figures, but there are some figures not listed on the site, because they are members of the invasion force. And those figures come with a “dual identity” character card, reflecting their status as a hero or a Skrull.
• Steamboy Machine Mini Figures
• Someone brought in doughnuts this morning.
• Marco…?

Attack the day.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 23 July 2008
After getting home from work, I took a relaxing – and somewhat necessary – shower. The last thing I wanted while gaming last night was B.O. It would have just been embarrassing.

Last night’s Scion session was good, if less than entirely productive. We were given our marching orders and set out to act upon them. Maybe we were a little headstrong. Maybe we were a little rash. Maybe it was Maybelline. Whatever it was, we almost got our collective recta handed to us. Fortunately, we all survived long enough to escape and try to come up with something that resembles “a plan” for next time.

I slept rather well last night. I was hoping that would be the case, given the all-day workout I had. I even indulged in a little sleeping in this morning.

Human of the Day
In what I believe to be a first, I am nominating someone under the age of five for Human of the Day. At last night’s game, did the nigh-unthinkable: She pulled up Superman: The Movie on Netflix, as a way to keep Josh quiet. I don’t think that she was aware of my affinity for the movie… or how torn my attention would be. She gave Josh headphones so that he could watch – and listen – without disturbing our gaming.

The reason that Josh gets the nod for today’s HotD is not only because he was as rapt by the movie as I usually am (although, I have apparently seen the movie enough times to be able to glance at the screen and do dialogue…), but because he would get so excited by the movie that he’d leap out of ‘s lap and bound over to Nox to say “I’m watching Superman!” and then run back over to the desk to watch more of the movie.

As a counterpoint, Nox, ever the Lex Luthor fan, kept reminding Josh and me: “You know that the good guy doesn’t win at the end of this movie, right?”

Stray Toasters

• Adam just called… because he was bored and didn’t feel like doing any work. I’m not sure if I mentioned it previously, but he and Chelsea are expecting a baby this fall/winter; they will find out the baby’s sex this afternoon.
• Church minister shames congregation by dressing as a tramp
• 
• From Broken Frontier: Uncanny X-Memories – this round has a couple of fond remembrances of issues #153 (“Kitty’s Fairy Tale”) and #186 (“LifeDeath: A Love Story”).
• Batman Then and Now: The Cost of Being Bruce Wayne
• 
• More DC Universe Online news… including screenshots
• Tyranist: I know you hate “thriller” as a genre title, but… DC to launch thriller imprint, Vertigo Crime
• Sandman 20th Anniversary Poster
• And tomorrow is Mormon Christmas, as some of us like to call it.

Time to dive in to Storage Room: Day 2.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 22 July 2008
I have been having… issues… with my cable box for the past few weeks. It decided to become more problematic late Sunday night. I was particularly miffed because I was geared up to watch The Middleman last night… and ABC Family is one of the channels whose reception has been “less than perfect.” Fortunately, I was able to jiggle things around (yes, that’s a technical term) and get reception on most of the failing channels. After calling Comcast – twice -yesterday, it’s basically come down to “there’s something wrong with your receiver; you should just bring it in and exchange it.” Great. The office hours are from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, which just happen to be the hours I’m usually at work. So, I’ll be taking it in on Friday, when I will hopefully be getting out of work early.

Not only was I able to watch The Middleman, but I caught a rebroadcast of Burn Notice… and still put in a little time in City of Heroes. I ran Corvus Nox’ cape mission… not that I’m planning on him wearing a cape, but I did it anyway.

This morning, breaking up waking up was hard to do, but I managed to rouse myself and get up and on the way. Stopping for a free frozen mocha didn’t hurt, either.

Today, for a change of pace, I volunteered to attempt to bring a measure of order to the chaos that our IT Lab/storage area. It keeps me off the main floor (for the most part). I brought in my powered speakers and hooked them up to Defiant, so I’ll have music to keep me company. It sounds like the sub has seen better days; maybe I’ll just leave this set of speakers here and look for a better set for home.

This might just wind up qualifying as today’s workout. I’m good with that.

Back to it.

Namaste.

Monday – 21 July 2008
A new week begins.

Last night, Perry and I spent a few hours in Paragon City – I played Corvus Nox, he played his Reforming Demon character. We joined a team that was running a few missions in the low to mid-20s. The team was “top heavy” with Tankers. This was a good and bad thing:

• Good: We had people who could hold aggro (keep the bad guys’ attention).
• Bad: They had to be elbow-up in bad guys… which meant that as the de facto healer, so did I.

I’ve mentioned before that Corvus Nox can heal, but that he’s not a primary healer. I tried making this point more that abundantly clear to my teammates. I think that the multiple deaths helped to underscore my point. Nevertheless, thanks to Double XP weekend, I put three-and-a-half levels on ‘Nox.

In an amusing side note, I ran into another character on the server named “CincinnatiJen,” who was a Bengals fan. In fact, the character concept was that of a super-powered Bengals fan. I commented to the player that, as a Ravens’ fan, I found it amusing. I’m not sure whether he/she knew enough Latin to know that “Corvus Nox” (roughly) translates to “Night Raven.” Oh, well.

And… I got my Rikti Monkey last night!

I’m not sure what to name him.. er.. her… um… it… though.

I wasn’t tired when I went to bed, so I used a crossword puzzle to help induce sleep. It worked… about 20 minutes later. I should have just stayed awake – I had one of the most disconcerting dreams I’ve had in a long time. It not only woke me up, but rattled me enough to make getting back to sleep difficult. *grblsnrkx* Thus, when the alarms went off this morning, I turned them off – with gusto – and returned to The Dreaming for a bit.

It’s Monday, but I’m hoping that wasn’t a harbinger of things to come.
On the plus side, Take Me There, by Blackstreet and Mya, greeted me on the morning commute and I have sauteed spaghetti for breakfast.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules made it back to Aspen in good time.
• I finally found the link to the Heroclix Batman: Alpha site.
• Speaking of Mr. Wayne, The Dark Knight made $155 million in its opening weekend, setting a number of records.
• S’mores brownies.
• Band Geek Hero
• A couple weeks ago, I picked up four packs of NYTTJA frames from the Garden of Sweden, in red, green, yellow and blue. Yesterday afternoon, I pulled a number of comics out of my collection. Once I figure out which covers and frames will compliment each other best, I’m going to hang copies of cover art on the walls in my office. (Oddly enough, the green frames were easy to find cover are to match.)
• Comcast. *shakes fist*
• I picked up A Show of Hands (DVD) at Best Buy yesterday. It shall be included in today’s musical oleo.
• just had to deal with an issue – which should have never been an issue – that someone in the office created… all because that person wanted to have things his way. Apparently, he forgot that we do NOT, in fact, work for Burger King.
• Wow… and Mr. just did a little jig. Welcome to Monday.

Attack the day…

Namaste.

Stray Toasters

• Act II of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog went live today.
• Tonight’s episode of Fear Itself was directed by Darren Bousman (Saw 2, Saw 3, Saw 4)… and it has post-apocalyptic zombies.
  (Check local listings for times)
• The Watchmen trailer hits the web, a day early.
• I forgot to mention something this morning: I also had Everybody to the Limit running through my head shortly after I woke up.



• It’s apparently too much to expect for people to check their (work) email more than once a day? Good thing that I’m not planning on doing anything with their responses before Monday.

I had to survey 15 servers today. For the most part it went without any hitches… aside from taking down two servers out from people who were working on them: I felt bad about one of them; the other was Chimpy.

Human of the Day
Today’s Human is for the reasons posted below.

Stray Toasters

• had to help me recall the proper syntax for using Web Sharing to find something on Defiant. I felt like a complete n00b when I finally remembered it. To make me feel better, showed this to me:

  

  …and all was better with the world.

• For : Wizard Magazine’s Greatest Bond Villain Poll
• How would you pronounce “ghoti?” (Answer below)
• In the words of Jude: Rick James was the original Superfreak.
• Thanks to for pointing this out:

  

• By way of Drew: Pickens Plan – Boone Pickens’ idea for weaning ourselves of our dependence on foreign oil.
• Science of becoming Batman

And the answer to “How do you pronounce ‘ghoti'” is “fish.”

::: vapor trail :::

Tuesday – 15 July 2008
“Sleeping in” is what occurs when one decides to ignore alarms in order to spend more time in The Dreaming
“Oversleeping” is what occurs when one fails to awaken at or by a certain time to begin the day.

Three guesses as to which one I did this morning.
Hint: I was up until 2:00 this morning watching The Middleman and stumble-dragged myself into bed when it was over and alarms were deemed “evil” in my sleep-addled brain.

After work yesterday, I headed home changed clothes and waited for Chris to show up… and then we headed over to play HeroClix with Perry. We played a 2-on-1 game – Chris versus Perry and me; 300 points, unrestricted. I played with the team I used in Saturday’s tourney and Perry used the Abomination and the Super-Adaptoid. Chris used Magneto and an assortment of mutants (with a couple of human Paramedics). And, as an added bonus: We played on a map that I have learned to hate. With a passion. And Chris beat us down. Soundly. We did manage to take out Wolverine… and nearly defeated Cyclops. But, it was fun.

Stray Toasters

• I have to keep reminding myself that today is “Tuesday” and not “Wednesday.”
• Cyberbullying grows bigger and meaner with photos, video
• I think I’m going to get a Rikti Monkey for my Veteran Rewards pet:



• By way of ThinkGeek: Under Construction t-shirt
• Chicago is seeing the dearth of the blues
• 
• From the “Grace Under Pressure” file: ‘It was like I was on rollerblades,’ says Miss USA
• From ‘untouchable’ to role model
• Vegan Zombie t-shirt



• Server room: Day 2
• Wes just bowed out of today’s workout. *sigh* Maybe I’ll hit the gym on the way home from tonight’s Scion game.
• I need to pare down some of the music in my iTunes. I have far too many duplicate entries…

Ka-POW!

Sunday – 13 July 2008
And on the first day, Rob worked.
Amen.

That’s right: I made like Kool Moe Dee and went to work. loonybin88 and I did a server upgrade today – we had to unrack, swap memory and hard drives and re-rack 18 servers. And like Big Daddy Kane, we got the job done.

After that, we headed to Olive Garden to have dinner.

And, when it’s all said and done, my work week is officially 20% done already.

Booyah.

Stray Toasters

• I found the following as the signature line to someone’s forum post:
  

  In Ulthar, no man may kill a cat. In Utah, no man may marry a cat. These rules were made because of the ramifications of them happening before.

  It amused me greatly.

• Steampunk Wallpaper. ‘Nuff said.
• By way of Wired: Is Sunday Morning the Best Wake-Up Tune Ever?
• By way of YouTube: Sunday Morning

• I need a steampunk icon.
  I don’t really need one, but I think that I want one.
• Microsoft cuts XBox price by $50, plans 60GB model
• 
• David Bowie: Underground

  I don’t know how much Aha’s Take On Me influenced Mr. Bowie’s decision to take the video for Underground in this direction, but take a look at the similarities:

• I’m a little… weirded out by the fact that I JUST noticed how similar Cool World and Take On Me are.
• The Cosby Show can still make me laugh.
• The classic Jonny Quest is on (not the 80s or 90s remakes). I think that if done properly (operative words: “if done properly”), it could make an interesting live-action TV show and/or movie. It could be done in the vein of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Or, it could even be told from the point of view of an older man recounting his globe-trotting adventures to his kids, grandkids or protege.
• d

Stray Toasters

• It’s 7-11 Day. Get your free Slurpee!



• While I doubt that they had ‘s affinity for cow-themed things in mind, it is apparently Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A, too.
• does this seem at all familiar?



• It looks like I’ll be working for a few hours on Sunday. All things considered, this isn’t a “bad” thing, as it will be in the middle of the day, when I’d otherwise probably just be doing my couch potato impression. And, as an added bonus, that cuts down the hours that I’ll have to be here on Friday… possibly even eliminating the need to be here on Friday. Win-Win.
• Rob Worley, from Comics2Film, has discovered a link (of sorts) between The Middleman and a certain Michael J. Fox movie
• For the WoW gamers out there:



• Mandelbrot Set you’re a Rorschach Test on fire
  You’re a day-glo pterodactyl
  You’re a heart-shaped box of springs and wire
  You’re one badass fucking fractal
  And you’re just in time to save the day
  Sweeping all our fears away
  You can change the world in a tiny way
• 

Thursday – 10 July 2008
Last night, Dr. Z brought my XBox from the AF office up to SLC. Along with it, came the six games I had stored in the carrying case, including X-Men: Legends. Win-Win. I took them home and put Legends in the 360 and sat down to enjoy some comics-based gaming.

I had, however, neglected one very important factor into account: The 360’s poor backwards compatibility.

After some research, I found that I needed to download an emulator – to trick the 360 into thinking that it was an O.G. XBox.¹ (Yes, calling it “O.G.” just made me laugh.) And, even then, there’s no guarantee that the emulator will play Legends properly. *sigh* As the home network is mostly wireless, I looked to see if I had a long enough Cat-5 cable to run from the living room to the office. Nope. Next, I considered trying to cascade wireless routers, since I have SaraRules’ router for the time being. Then I decided that was more effort than I really felt like putting into it last night.

So, I opted for playing City of Heroes.

Which had a new patch release. So, I waited for it to download and then clicked to apply it. I was apparently so wiped from the poor sleep Tuesday night – possibly aided by the Shiraz I had with dinner – that I nodded off before the patch finished applying.

So I called it an early evening, relatively speaking.

This morning, I was up and ready to roll in just over 40 minutes, including the time it took to iron today’s outfit. Not too shabby. It would have been even better if I had remembered my cell phone before leaving the complex. *sigh* At least I have frozen mocha goodness to see me through the morning.

And it’s Comics and Sushi ‘Wednesday.’

Stray Toasters

• Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Sheila E. are performing Saturday. I’m a little torn about which show I’d rather go to… but leaning towards BBVD.
• The new season of Burn Notice starts tonight.
• The HeroClix Fantastic Four Starter Set should be in stores today.
• As bad as I’ve (re)discovered that Super Friends can be, this sounds like an interesting compliation.
• I haven’t played Second Life in probably a year. This is almost enough to get me to check it out again: New Babbage – A Steampunk City in Second Life:

• iPhone 3G meets the masses tomorrow.
• It looks as though the right reverend Jesse Jackson could use a good talking-to.
  But, he’s still my top choice for reading Green Eggs and Ham:

• I just introduced DaveW to Christopher Titus Apologizes. In return, he sent me back to my desk with a video from Lisa Lampenelli: Take It Like a Man

Namaste.

¹ – O.G. XBox – A conversation between a classic XBox and an XBox 360:

XBox 360: So what are you supposed to be?
XBox: Me? I’m O.G.
XBox 360: “O.G.?” Shit… you ain’t gangsta.
XBox: Gangsta? Naw, man… not gangsta. O.G. “Original Gamer.” Word.