Random Access

Tuesday – 30 March 2010
“Wow.”
That’s really the best way to describe how the morning has gone. There were some… networking issues that took a little longer to sort out than planned. They have been dealt with and all is well with the world once more. At least, for the time being.

::: hangs up cape :::

Last night was relatively quiet. I hung out at home while SaraRules was at a club meeting. Then we met up at the mall and did a little shopping. Back home for some TV and downtime. I also worked on the railroad building for the Dr. Volt’s masterboard.

Stray Toasters

• Today is ‘s  farewell lunch. Pawit’s. Should be good.
• For reasons relating to solving this morning’s network snafu, is also my Human of the Day.
• For SaraRules: Eagles sending quarterback Donovan McNabb to Raiders? , by way of
• This morning, I had Nelly’s Shake Ya Tailfeather playing in my head. That was a good way to start the day.
• Sony’s PS3 Update Could Affect Supercomputer Users
• Xbox 360 to Accept Any and All USB Storage Starting April 6^th
• My new NFL jerseys have shipped. They should arrive early next week. This is good.
• Wye Oak: Tiny Desk Concert
• ::: This Space Left Intentionally Blank :::
• 
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Court OKs Repeated Tasering of Pregnant Woman
• My friend, Melissa S., posted a link about this fashion atrocity – which is apparently called a “Peekaroo” – on Facebook:
  

  With it, you can re-enact your very own version of the chest-burster scene from Alien.

• First Listen: Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
• Gadget and video game-themed baked goods

Namaste.

Huh.  I just noticed that I’m actually dressed like my icon, with the exception of the tie color being different.

Wednesday – 13 January 2010
Midweek and all’s pretty much well. On top of that, it’s Comics and Sushi Wednesday, so there should be added goodness to the day. My Prerogative came on the radio during the morning commute. It made me smile… and sing along. It was a good way to kick off the morning and prep for a day in the trenches.

Last night, Chris came over to finish our HeroClix “Arkham Asylum Breakout” game. He won… which was totally expected – I had three figures to his eight – but, the fact that it took him a tad over 30 minutes to do so made me feel good. We need to schedule the other side of the fight, with me running Batman and company and him running Gotham City’s least desirable citizens.

Stray Toasters

• Today is Delta Sigma Theta’s (1, 2) Founders’ Day
• Haiti’s quake devestation emerges
• The Great Joe Rollino, Bender of Steel, is Dead at 104
  Mr. Rollino will be awarded today’s Human of the Day award, posthumously.
• 2010: Living in the Future
• …which, naturally, leads us to The Future Soon
• Nintendo helps savvy singer Beyonce step up her style game
• Sarah Palin Makes Fox News Debut, Slams Obama, Critics
  (But, is anyone really surprised by this…?  No?  I didn’t think so.)
• I’ve never really been a big fan of Conan O’Brien, but I have to give him kudos for his resignation letter, as posted by The Grey Lady.
• Snubs – part of the diplomatic game
• Nintendo Wii to Get Netflix Streaming

That’s good for now.

Sunday – 20 December 2009
Yesterday was a good – and full – day. I started at 0830… and was on the move until around 2300. But, it was worth it.

I started the morning with a call to my uncle; it was his birthday. SaraRules and I talked with him for a few minutes before we headed out to start our respective days: She was shopping with her mother; I was having coffee with Chris and Perry. After that, Chris and I headed up to Dr. Volt’s for another HeroClix tourney (pictures here). This time we had four people (including Chris) show – technically, it was five people… but the fifth showed up after I had started the first matches, so he opted not to play. He said that he’s in for the next tournament, though. Chris won the event, going 3-0.  He played Josh (one of the new arrivals) who until that game was also 2-0. Josh took home the Fellowship prize.

After I dropped Chris at home, I came home and then SaraRules and I headed to Five Guys for burgers and fries. They were, as usual, quite tasty. Back home to change and get ready to head out to the Utah Symphony Holiday Pops with Jerry! concert. It was a lot of fun, with a lot of good music… but, the best part of the concert came just after the concert:

I was walking backstage with SaraRules (she had to put away some work material), when we came to a doorway that led to steps from one of the upper tiers. A few people exited the door, among them an older lady in a red dress.

She turned and looked at me.
I looked at her.

She looked at me… like she knew me.
I looked at her… blankly.

She looked at me… like she knew me… and came over and took my hand.
I stood there… still not knowing her… not quite sure what to say.

“You don’t remember me, do you?  I’m Lotta Mae¹ ” she smiled and said.
“I don’t believe that we’ve met before, ma’am,” I responded, warmly and with a smile.
“Oh… you’re not Eric, are you?”
“No, ma’am… I’m not.”
“Oh, well, then… I’m sorry.”

And, with that she walked off.

SaraRules and I continued down the hallway, she with a grin on her face. I was still completely in the dark as to exactly why, but I did find the situation a bit comical. After we got to her desk, SaraRules explained that after thinking about it, she understood why the woman thought that I was this “Eric” chap. As we were walking out, we saw Eric and she introduced us. Eric…

• …is roughly my height
• …is roughly my build
• …is very similar to my complexion (Yep! There’s another Black guy in Utah!)
• …also has a shaved head
• …was also wearing a black suit.

That’s about where the similarities end:

• He was in a white shirt; I was in a white/purple-striped shirt
• He had a gold jacquard tie; mine was with purple with white/grey squares.
• He was clean-shaven; I have a goatee.

When SaraRules explained to him what had just happened, he broke out in hearty laughter. I did, too. Again. We came to the conclusion that we were apparently Mirror Universe opposites and that Lotta Mae had failed to notice that I was actually the “evil twin.” (And, I actually made a Driving Miss Daisy joke to SaraRules about it on the way back to the car, as well.)

But, it was a heckuva funny way to end the evening. And for that reason, I’m naming Lotta Mae and Eric as co-Humans of the Day.

Stray Toasters

• The Bears – Ravens game has been postponed until 1615 (EST), due to weather.
• Bryan Singer on X-Men: First Class
• By way of Rachel: Star Wars Weather Forecast
  (Enter your city in the text box at the top of the page.)
• ‘Alien’ Screenwriter Dan O’Bannon, Dead at 63
• 99 Luftballons, Side-by-Side Comparison – the German translation and the bastardized version that we got in English.
• 
• British troops to get first new camouflage in 40 years
• Traveler’s worst nightmare: East Coast snowfall cancels over 800 flights
• A Lament for Saab

And now, I believe that it’s time for coffee and some form of breakfast.

Namaste.

¹ – I’m not sure that’s how her name is spelled; since this is my story, I get to spell it the way I want. Hopefully, I’m at least close to how it’s supposed to be spelled.

Tuesday – 15 December 2009
Back into the working grind.  Not too much to plow through… aside from about 40 emails. Those are easy enough to deal with.

Last night, for the first time in at least two years, I made “Chocolate Jolt” coffee bean-infused chocolates. This time, I tried something a little different – I added mint, kind of like Andes Chocolates. I haven’t taste-tested them yet, but they seemed to turn out alright.

Last night’s excursion to Barnes & Noble proved unfruitful… at least as far as I was concerned. SaraRules, however, had a big score and was able to find [SPOILER DELETED], which [SPOILER DELETED] should think is pretty awesome.

On the other hand, after a couple of calls to local Graywhale CD Exchange stores, I have finally found a copy of Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration! It took the clerk I spoke with a few minutes to locate it – for some reason, it was put in the “World Music” section. *shrug* “Ours is not to reason why…” He’s holding it behind the counter for me; I will have to see about getting it at lunch or after work.

Stray Toasters

• At ‘s suggestion, I’m wearing a suit today; he and other professors decided to wear them to the final exam that they were proctoring “…just to entertain the students.” I wear mine around here, from time to time, “just because.” That… and the fact that it tends to make people nervous. (That’s really a nice fringe benefit.)
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Haagen-Dazs opens no-Indians-allowed store in Delhi
• sent me a couple of amusing links:
  • From Not Always Right: “The Fourth Is Not Strong in This One…”
  • Zombie ‘Star Wars’ Posters Are Beautifully Disturbing
• From the “Who Wants to Live Forever?” file: Turritopsis nutricula: The world’s only ‘immortal’ creature
• By way of come today’s “Humans of the Day” award winners: Mystery Couple Starts “Magical” Chain Reaction
• Unplugged: The Web’s Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy of 2008
• CoH is doing free character server transfers, through the end of January!

Namaste.

Wednesday – 21 Oct0ber 2009
Midweek and all appears to be well.

And it’s Comics and Sushi Wednesday, to boot.

Last night was my night to cook dinner. I pondered the issue all day and came up with “Fish…” as an idea. Then I came to the realization: I’ve never cooked fish – other than Van de Camp’s fish fillets or fish sticks – before and I wasn’t sure that SaraRules wanted to play guinea pig. So, I went with chicken instead. I made a dry rub, put it in a plastic bag, tossed the chicken in the bag to season it and threw the pieces of chicken in the oven.  Then I went to work on the rest of dinner: Green beans, cooked in chicken broth, and pasta (angel hair and thin spaghetti). When the chicken came out of the oven, it smelled good. It tasted good, too… at least my piece did. SaraRules had gotten a piece that was VERY heavily seasoned and was very salty. Looking at it, I realized that she had gotten the first piece of chicken to which I had applied the rub; it got the lion’s share of the dry spices, despite my attempts to remove most of them. She ate it quietly, suffering in silence. I traded pieces of chicken with her, as mine was nowhere near as salty-tasting as hers. That seemed to go over better. Other than that, it was a good dinner, though. I just need to remember to watch out for the first piece of meat that gets seasoned with a dry rub next time…

Stray Toasters

• For SaraRules and – Dolly Parton: NPR Staffers Celebrate ‘Dolly’
• If you ever wonder what “Fighting for freedom” means, take a listen to this testimony from an 86-year-old World War II veteran, speaking at a public meeting on Maine’s marriage equality bill:

  He wins today’s “Human of the Day” award.

• Turtles prefer ‘city life’
  Of course, this isn’t exactly news, as we have long known about sewer-dwelling, pizza-eating ninja turtles.
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Yahoo hires lap-dancers to entertain at its open, inclusive Hack Day event
  Be sure to click through the links at the bottom of the article (before the comments)
• Vatican welcomes Anglicans into Catholic Church
• Amelia Earhart: Pioneer of Style
• From xkcd: “More Accurate”

  

• has an interesting take on “a fundamental difference between Australians and Americans.”
• Essential plot twists for writers
• Bionic Eye Opens New World of Sight for Blind

Hm… it looks like it’s just going to be “Comics Wednesday.”  Oh, well.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 12 August 2009
Midweek and all’s well.

Last week, before heading out of town, I had requested that some job-related information be  faxed to my office. As of Thursday morning, nothing had been received. *shrug* Monday, still nothing. Yesterday, nada. So, this morning, I called to inquire about it. The person I talked with said that, according to his records, nothing had been sent. *sigh* He did, however, say that he would see about getting it out this morning.

Last night, Chris came over to play dolls HeroClix. I got to use my two newest buildings, the second of which is still a bit “under construction” (still needs a couple of interior walls placed and a roof). We went with Checkmate (me) vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. (Chris) theme, because who doesn’t like the idea of “spy vs. spy?” To be honest, I totally expected to get thrashed – I hadn’t played Checkmate as a team and Chris is better than “pretty good” with S.H.I.E.L.D. To my surprise, I did alright. We called the game because of time; Chris won, but my team held its own. If we were to replay the match, I might go with a slightly different lineup -mainly, replacing the old Checkmate Agent and Medic figures with something more effective – but on the whole, I was happy with the team I had. (Pictures)

Day Eleventy-Seven of the Great HDD Recovery… and things are proceeding. Slowly, but progress is being made. And, for their help in scraping data from the old drive, and Chad (co-worker) are getting nods for Human of the Day.

Workout
I neglected to note that Wes and I went to the gym yesterday afternoon. We had a brief – VERY brief – workout:

• Sit-ups (incline): 3 sets/20 reps
• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 205 lbs
• Compound Row: 3 sets/ 10 reps
  • 1 set @ 130lbs
  • 2 sets @ 110 lbs
• Curls (dumbbell, with Shoulder Press): 3 sets/10 reps, 25 lbs

Weight (morning): 182.5 lbs

Stray Toasters

• Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal were on The Late Late Show last night; they performed She Caught the Katy.

• “Finagle” is a fun word.
• Geneva Conventions’ struggle for respect
• Muslim women uncover myths about the hijab
• Periodic Table sweater
  • Periodic Table of Comic Book Elements
• Are we on the brink of creating a computer with a human brain?
• The fax I was expecting came in this afternoon… and it wasn’t exactly in the format I expected, but at this point, I’m just glad to have it.
• IMG MGMT: Life as a Woman, Hedy Lamarr
• Thieves Cashing in on Stolen Clunkers in Germany
• Abjection Sustained
• Hard drive + Freezer = partial data recovery
  (WHO KNEW!?)

Namaste.

Tuesday – 04 August 2009
Another work-a-day morning in Paradise. And this is after a 12-hour day yesterday. On the plus side, this means that after logging today’s and tomorrow’s hours, I can trim a bit off the number of hours I need to take for leave on Thursday. I’m not sure that’s a full “Win-Win,” but it’s not bad. Of course, I’m in an all-day meeting, so that should keep me (more or less) out of trouble.

Last night was a low-key evening. That not-so-loosely translates to: “I sat in front of the television and vegged.” And it was good. I also got a little further in cataloguing ‘Clix.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules pointed me in the direction of: One Super Wedding
• Inverse Spatial Logic Game
• sent me a link to this picture; I nearly fell out of my chair laughing.
• Indian police accused of abuses
• Wow…. Kenneth just used the phrase “money shot” in our meeting. With our CEO and other top brass in it. I think he just scored “Human of the Day” for that.
• US Health Care Debate (infographic)
• 
• 5 Robots that make C3PO look like the Terminator
• 10 Badass Female G.I. Joe Characters
• Also by way of Nyx: Obama’s Birthday Cards from Birthers
• Living in a massive high-rise with no neighbors

Namaste.

Saturday – 01 August 2009
Last night’s sleep was… a little broken. I woke up a few times, for as-yet undetermined reasons. After getting into bed after 0230, I was up around 0730… and thought I might stay up for a bit. I thought better of it and crawled back into bed. I finally woke up and decided to start the day around 0915, which was a much more reasonable hour.

I got dressed and went to have coffee with Perry. It was a very brief get together, as he was on the clock. I came back home and found that SaraRules was already back from quilting. We hit the road again… this time with a two-fold mission:

1. To pick up our invitations from the printer
2. To pick up a new HDD for my MacBook

We were successful in both.

Human of the Day
While at the Best Buy, getting the hard drive, I saw what I’m sure is going to be the most awesome thing I see all day: A guy playing football on what I believe was the PS3 display. That, in and of itself, isn’t so noteworthy. What made it great was that he had pulled up a chair from their office section (a nice brown suede-looking finish), set it up in front of the display, taken off his hat (and put it on the display) and was just… going to town playing video games. It rocked. SaraRules and I decided that only a couple things could have made the scene better:

• If he had a Big Gulp^® and some chips on a little tray next to him and/or
• If he had friends with him, throwing down some game time trash talk.

I completely spaced off getting a phone picture of it, though.

Workout
We also hit the gym for a weekend workout:

• Leg Extensions: 3 sets/10 reps, 70 lbs
• Leg Curls: 3 sets/10 reps, 70 lbs
• Calf Raises (standing): 3 sets/10 reps, 100 lbs
• Bent-over Row (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 35 lbs
• Sit-ups (decline): 3 sets/20 reps
• Reverse Fly: 3 sets/10 reps, 80 lbs
• Tricep Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 80 lbs
• Tricep Extensions (rope): 3 sets/10 reps, 60 lbs
• Side Bends (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs

Stray Toasters

• Bobby McFerrin hacks your brain with the pentatonic scale
• After Scare, Tempers Flare at La Guardia
• The Le (pronounced “Tee Lee”) sums up what was wrong with Marvel Comics’ last couple of events, World War Hulk and Civil War:
  

  Since the reader has become so attached to Hulk’s cause, this makes the reader a fool too… and that’s really the problem here. The Hulk’s a chump, and we’re also chumps for taking his side.
  
  That’s just bad storytelling. The author, Grek Pak, was clearly trying to pull a fast one on us, and he succeeded. Like the terrible last moments of Civil War before it, we’re left with a great story that is utterly ruined by a pitiful ending.

• America makes nothing except weapons
• 
• From the “Yeah, I want some Cheesy Poofs!” and “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!?” files: Cheezy poofs marketed as “organic carrot stix”
• Also from the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!?” file: Michael Jackson wanted to make ‘Spider-Man’ movie, Stan Lee says

Tomorrow: Off to Park City for the Arts Festival.

Namaste.

Saturday – 18 July 2009
After work yesterday, I headed up to hang out with the in-laws-to-be. SaraRules’ cousins (first cousin and her kids) were visiting for a few days and were there when I arrived. We all had dinner and then SaraRules and I headed off to Clitorati.  When we got there Jim, Sandi and company were already waiting for us; that was a pleasant surprise.

I took my car to the dealership to get a leak looked at. I had taken it to the local Firestone last week and they said that at least part of the problem was the water pump – which I’ll get back to in a minute – but that there seemed to be something else leaking, as well – something not related to the water pump. They recommended taking it to the dealership and let the certified GM mechanics look at it. Made sense to me, so that’s what I did. I told them that there was “a leak” and asked them to check it out. While they did that, SaraRules and I went to have lunch with Perry. I got a call a short while later. Their answer: Water pump. Nothing else, just the water pump. They could install a new pump, this afternoon, for something in the $550 (USD) range.

*facepalm*

I told the rep that I’d come get the car and bring it back next week. *sigh*

<< REWIND <<
Back to the water pump. I’ve now taken my car to Firestone three times in the past six weeks. A lot of people might just write off the shop at that point, but I’m not. My rationale:

• Trip 1: They replaced my old water pump.
• Trip 2: After still seeing some leakage, they replaced a couple of bad hoses… which they missed the first time around.  But, they did this on their dime… because they missed it the first time.
• Trip 3: I took it back a week later. Turns out that the replacement water pump was defective. That’s when they found “Possible Leak #2” and suggested taking the car to the dealer to get fixed. Scott, the manager at the Firestone, said that they would replace the pump – even if they had to order a new one directly from Cadillac – under their warranty, because it should have been fixed the first time and because he wanted to make things right.

> PLAY >
That brings us back to today. I went back to Firestone to schedule the water pump replacement. I talked with Scott again and he said that they’ll take care of it on Monday. It looks like they may also cover the cost of having the GM dealership look at the car. On top of that, I discovered that Scott also lived in Baltimore. Not only that, not too far from where I grew up. We had a mini-homecoming right there in the store. SaraRules just laughed at us.

On a serious note: In my dealings with Firestone over the past few weeks, Scott and his team have, in my opinion, demonstrated that they want to foster good relations with their customers – They want to do the right thing and they want to be fair. I don’t think that you can really ask for much more than that from a business. So, with that in mind, I’m naming Scott and his crew at Firestone #595179 as today’s Humans of the Day.

After that, SaraRules and I went to the Utah Museum of Fine Art. One exhibit features art from Southeast Asia; there are some amazing pieces in there, including some elaborately detailed ivory carvings from China. It was a nice way to spend part of the afternoon. On the way home, we stopped for a bite to eat at Dask’s.

Tonight… who knows?

Namaste.

Friday – 10 July 2009
It’s finally the weekend; thank Heaven for 9/80 Fridays.

The second half of yesterday’s workday was slow, which wasn’t necessarily “bad.” I was able to clear a few things off my task list and there weren’t any large fires to dowse. And, we once again had ice cream! Nevertheless, I was glad when quittin’ time rolled around.

Last night, SaraRules and I headed to the gym. For a change of pace, we stayed in the free weight room for our entire workout:

• Lateral Raises (with forward rotation): 3 sets/10 reps, 15 lbs
• Shrugs (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
• Reverse Punches (with dumbbells): 2 sets/20 reps, 10 lbs
• Curls (barbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 50 lbs
• Curls (dumbbell, hammer grip): 3 sets/10 reps, 25 lbs
• Overhead Tricep Extensions: 3 sets/15 reps, 45 lbs
• Decline Sit-ups: 3 sets/15 reps
• Side Bends: 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
• Bench Dips: 3 sets/10 reps – w/ 25lb plate on sets 2 and 3)

Later in the evening (read: “In the wee hours of morning…”), I played City of Heroes. I wasn’t able to find a team to join, but I was able to solo a couple of story arc missions that I had pending.

Stray Toasters

• While I was preparing to play CoH, I left the TV on. Oprah follows The Late Late Show. Last night’s show was about Dani Lierow and her family. All that I can say is: “Wow.” Major kudos to the Lierows for the love, time and patience that they’ve had to give to a little girl who had been dealt a bad hand. They get half of today’s nod as my Humans of the Day…
• …the other half of the honor goes to my friend Joe, who’s shipping out today to provide IT support in Iraq. For a year. He is chronicling his adventures at: On the Rear Lines.
• Item Not As Described
• pointed out: ‘City of Heroes’ character ‘Twixt’ becomes game’s most hated outcast courtesy of Loyola professor. The article tells the story of David Myers and the “social experiments” that he conducted via the online game. I hadn’t heard about this before and did a little digging; I discovered that he did not play on the same servers that I do.
• 
• From NPR: The Trick to Teaching Is Sometimes Magic
• Lawyer asks judge to force rival to wear nicer shoes
• MarknTyme sent a link to The Absolute Greatest Gaming Table Ever
• New ‘Burger Time’ serves up a good time
• Artists live high on outside wall
• Most epically bad food movies

Namaste.

Stray Toasters:

• SaraRules and I actually encountered a mythical “good Samaritan” doing a random act of kindness yesterday. It was a refreshing change from all of the “People are no damn good…” stories you hear. He’s today’s “Human of the Day.”
• Tickets for Transformers Giant Robots Blowing Shit Up have been acquired.
• Brownies! (Unfortunately, I have no ice cream here at work with which to eat them.)
• I just had a conversation with some folks at work… that included Star Trek, Superman and the Legion. During that conversation, I had an epiphany:
  

  Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was really just an update of Smokey and the Bandit. Seriously. You have to make the following substitutions, but they all track… more or less:

  • Substitute going back in time for going to Texarkana,
  • Substitute picking up a couple of whales for picking up a truckload of beer,
  • Substitute the Klingon Bird of Prey for either the Trans-Am or the semi (or both!) and
  • Substitute William Shatner for Burt Reynolds.

  challenged me on a few of the more esoteric points:

  • What about Paul Williams?
    Answer: The Space Probe.
    Why? Because Paul Williams (along with Pat McCormick) was the reason Bandit and Snowman went to get the beer… just as the probes were the reason Kirk and crew went to get the whales.
  • What about the sidekick?
    Answer: Jerry Reed was Bandit’s partner-in-crime, Cletus (The Snowman).  In ST:IV, Spock provided that role… and comic relief.
  • What about Sally Field?
    Answer: Dr. Gillian Taylor, the whale biologist that Kirk “picked up” and took back to the 23rd Century… just like Bandit picked up Carrie (Field) on the side of the road.
  • What about Jackie Gleason?
    Answer: Gleason, along with every other cop in the movie would be embodied by the Federation.
    Why? Because The Federation represents “The Man,” especially when they bust Kirk – the man who just saved the planet – back down to Captain from Admiral. DAMN THE MAN!!!

  Quod Erat Demonstratum.

• This is my 9/80 week.  And I get next Friday off for 04 July.  AND… the following Friday is a 9/80 day, too.  Three Fridays off in a row. SCORE!
• We had a shipment arrive a little while ago. The driver, who recently won a truck driving competition, and a coworker of his are going to Pittsburgh to compete in the national competition. How often does one get to say “I met someone who won a truck driving competition?”  I think that this is the first time I’ve ever been able to do that.

Monday – 25 May 2009
Today is Memorial Day. Thank you to the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces who sacrificed their lives – or portions thereof – to ensure our safety and security.

After we got back from IKEA, I went to hang out with Perry for a bit. I came back home and hung out while SaraRules started dinner: Barbecue chicken, green beans and cornbread. Logan came over for dinner and we watched Transformers, as kind of a refresher before the new movie comes out. After Logan left, SaraRules and I watched a few epsidoes of Justice League before she called it a night.

Human of the Day
Today’s HotD citation goes out to the servicemen and women – past and present – of the Armed Forces, with a special nod to friends and family.

Four-Color Coverage
I finished reading Locke and Key: Welcome to Lovecraft, a hardcover graphic novel I picked up a couple of weeks ago, on Saturday. It’s a horror/suspense story about the Locke family, who moves to Lovecraft, Massachussetts, following the death of the father and move into the house where he grew up. A house full of secrets – some fun and good, but others dark and almost palpably evil. The story primarily follows the Locke children and their attempts to not only reconcile their father’s death, but to also cope with the new changes in their lives.

This volume collected the first six issues of Locke and Key and was a solid read. I didn’t find the story wholly predictable and enjoyed the twists that the author, Joe Hill, threw at the reader. If you’re looking for a comic that’s not your usual “cape-and-tights slugfest,” I recommend giving this book a once-over.

Stray Toasters

• Obama pays tribute to all vets – Rebels and slaves, included
• Powell: In GOP, says party must be more inclusive
• Today is also Towel Day.

  

• Superb fan-made Green Lantern movie trailer
• Royal chauffeur suspended after alleged palace security breach
• I have at least four theme ideas that I need to pare down to one idea for a ‘Clix team to use tomorrow.
• In Civil War, Woman Fought for Freedom Like a Man
• , this one’s for you: Alaska Hosts Battle of the Beards

That’s a good stopping point.

Namaste.

Saturday – 25 April 2009
It’s 7:00 and I’m already at work. Day Two of Server Room Weekend begins.  We’ll see how this goes…

Stray Toasters

• NFL Draft 2009
• Man, 84, fends off attackers
  It should pretty much go without saying that he’s my Human of the Day
• , this one’s for you: Your Day Can’t Possibly Be as Bad as Richard Simmons’
• Improving the Abilities of Bionic Arm Patients
• GM Ready to Scrap Pontiac Brand

And here we go…

Namaste.

A few late-afternoon distractions have been discovered:

• By way of and Not Always Right: May Contain Scenes of Gratuitous Bowie
• Erfworld
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Woman rubs chili pepper seeds in her eyes after setting new world record
  I can’t just make her “Human of the Day.” It would be… too much of an understatement.  So, we’ll make her “Hardcore Human of the Day.”  Yeah, that’ll work.
• Obama eases curbs on Cuba travel
• Ariana Page Russell: The Human Etch-A-Sketch
• 
• We are in the midst of a server room upgrade. Along with this, we’re getting some new cabinets for servers. Julie fielded a call this morning from the shipping company to schedule delivery of the cabinets. She set us up for Thursday delivery.  Ten minutes ago, a driver from the company showed up… with the racks in his truck. We couldn’t take delivery for a couple of reasons
  1. The truck had no liftgate.
  2. We have no forklift.
  3. Our building has no loading dock.  (FAIL!)
  4. We weren’t expecting them until… um… Thursday maybe?!

  So, Julie sent the driver packing. The cabinets will be delivered… on Thursday, as agreed upon… in a truck with a liftgate.

Namaste.

Monday – 16 March 2009
Yesterday afternoon, SaraRules and I decided to get in a little shopping. We didn’t find much that made us go “wow.” We stopped by a craft store so that SaraRules could pick up some material for a quilt. While there, I decided to look for some glitter – I had an idea for my Sodam Yat ‘Clix mod.

After that, we headed up to her parents’ place for dinner. During dinner and dessert, we watched Miami Vice. It wasn’t a great movie, but it was entertaining. (There’s another part of my youth that just went *poof*.) No one in the room had seen the TV series other than me, so I had to do a little ‘splaining after the movie was over.

We headed home. As it was still fairly early, we looked for something to watch On Demand. SaraRules picked Ghosts of Mars, which she’d seen before. It was, as she warned me, another “not great, but entertaining” movie.

Human of the Day
W. Neil Berrett earns the honor today for coming up with what has to be the hands-down best resignation letter that I have ever seen.

Stray Toasters

• I finished my Sodam Yat HeroClix figure.

  
  (click image for more pictures)

  I also took care of his dial and his character card. For both of them, I used the stats and quotes devised by flashshello, a member of the HCRealms community:

  

• It’s March Madness time, once again.  Got your brackets ready…?
• Superman/Batman confirmed as next DC animated movie… after this summer’s Green Lantern: First Flight movie.
• Cleopatra’s mother ‘was African’
  Really?  I never really thought that there was much question about this, the movie with Elizabeth Taylor aside.
• 10 Republicans vote against Pi… including a senator from Utah.
• AIG Ripoff Gets More Maddening
• “No, ma’am. I’m just The Middleman.”
• STS-119 finally launches into space

Back to the grindstone.

Namaste.