Random Access

Thursday – 01 April 2010
It’s April Fools’ Day.

In her inimitable charming manner, Mother Nature sent March out a little less lamb-like than many cared for. We were graced with new snow. Seeing the humor in making it an April Fool’s Day prank, she allowed the snow to continue to fall this morning. The Council for Better Driving: Utah reminds drivers to use caution when commuting today.

Today is also NBN “Technical Friday.”   Win.

Last night, SaraRules and I rented kids for the evening. I guess that it would be more accurate to say that we watched the kids while Kate and Perry took a belated anniversary night out. As usual, the kids were fine. And, for the first time in many, many years, I got to change a loaded diaper. (I’m sorely out of practice with those, it seems…)

Stray Toasters

• We bought a house.
  I believe that it will sink in even more this weekend, once we get the keys.
• (Almost) Everything You Need to Know About Spring Style
• Improv Everywhere’s No Underwear Subway Ride
  (Thanks to the magic of digital editing, this is safe for work.)
• 
• The Color of Fear == Covet!
• Google, Topeka formally trade names
• Everybody was kung-fu fighting…!
• Leonardo: An early Dr. Strangelove?
• A part of the parenting process I’m not looking forward to (besides the messy diapers)…

  

  And, no, this is NOT a subtle way of saying that we’re expecting kids. I just found the comic amusing.

• Apple’s iPad: The First Reviews Are In
• My First Bacon
• Klingon Bird of Prey, made from 274,350 virtual bricks

Namaste.

Monday – 29 March 2010
It’s overcast, but warm. I can live with that, especially since it’s Monday.

Last night was low-key. We had dinner with SaraRules’ parents. As we ate, we watched The Princess and the Frog. I still think that it was a good – and fun – movie. After that, we did grocery shopping and went home. SaraRules did some some quilting, I started laying out the floor plan for the railroad station for Dr. Volt’s. I also took the opportunity to catch up on another episode of 24. Win-Win.

This morning, I had Eve’s Let Me Blow Ya Mind running through my head…

…so we’ll go with that for this morning’s musical kick-off.

Stray Toasters

• Those of you who read comic books in the 70s/80s may remember the Hostess Snack Cakes Ads.
• Top 10 Tips and Tricks for Making Your Stuff Last Longer
• Tron Title Sequence, Reimagined for 1960:
• By way of and SaraRules: The A to Z of Awesomeness
• For SaraRules: University of Wisconsin – Stout wins Rube Goldberg contest
• Fatty foods may cause cocaine-like addiction
• This was pretty close to what most people expected my reaction to be the first time that I went camping with SaraRules’ family:



• Why a $14/hr employee costs $20
• For : Douglas Adams speech – “Parrots, The Universe and Everything”
• Repeal the nth Amendment
• Cat owners will get this:



• Toys That Inspired Scientific Breakthroughs

Friday – 26 March 2010
It’s snowing.

That’s right: Mother Nature’s silent mocking laughter, in the face of Spring, is descending upon the Land Behind the Zion Curtain. It’s not a blizzard (or “snowmaggedon” or “snowpocalypse”), but it’s snowing, nonetheless. Did I mention that I’m ready for Spring? The Council for Better Driving advises caution when taking to the streets today.

Last night, SaraRules and I visited her folks for a little bit. I had to take something to her father: A fresh new copy of the new TPB of The Middleman: The Collected Series Indispensability. He was pleasantly surprised by it. Yep, “Favored Son-In-Law” status: Confirmed.

After that, we went to dinner at Thai Orchid. (This came after we discovered that neither of us had taken the steaks we had planned to have for dinner out of the freezer to thaw…) I had forgotten that I’d been there a few months ago, with Josh and Marci. I had the Pad Kee Mao, which was moderately spicy, but very good.

When we got home, SaraRules tuned in Project Runway. They had an interesting challenge: The designers not only had to create a fashion item, but they got to design their own fabric, as well. Most of the choices were creative, some were… not-so-creative (and kind of boring). While watching this, I was going through the files I’d need to complete the gaming board for Dr. Volt’s. I thought that I had a decent handle on how to proceed, but when I started on it, I discovered that some of the pieces were slightly different measurements than I had thought. Not enough to completely stop production, but enough to make me consider a few things differently.

Stray Toasters

• Monkeys. *sigh* The phrase “Act your age, not your shoe size” has already been brought to mind this morning…
• WorldWorksGames has dropped another bombshell. TWO of them, actually:
  • Mayhem: Streets of Legend
  • Mayhem: Armoury 1

  Both are part of their TerrainlinX line, so they can be built modularly and are updates of a couple of their older sets: Streets of Mayhem and Mayhem Armoury, respectively. I saw these late last night/VERY early this morning, while working on the masterboard. And, yes, I snatched them up immediately. I have some buildin’ in my future, it seems…

• 
• Cancer Threat from Tanning Beds May Prompt FDA Changes
• I neglected to mention that my superpower kicked in the other night, while I was at the mall: I ran into Pat and Adriana, whom I haven’t seen in over six months. And, for a surprise-packed surprise: Adriana is pregnant! I had no idea.
• Zombie Survival Transportation
• How to Fit a House and Garage Into 2000 Stylish Sq. Ft.
• By way of Mike B. and the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file : ChatRoulette / Lady Gaga Telephone Mash-up
• Badass of the Week: Lydia Litvyak
• I said come on Fhqwhgads
  I said come on Fhqwhgads
• Ultra: 10 Songs to Shake the Dance Floor

I should figure out what I want to do for lunch…

Namaste.

Thursday – 25 March 2010
Another NBN Thursday kicks off in the valley. This morning is a bit overcast, but the forecast isn’t calling for rain… at least not that I’m aware of. Doesn’t really matter, either way, because I kicked off the morning with 112 and that is a good thing:

I left work a little early yesterday; I was tired and my productivity  was flagging. I took that as an indicator that it would be beneficial to go home and take a nap. And that’s exactly what I did. And it was good. After that, SaraRules and I headed to Dask’s for a bite to eat. She later went to see Legally Blonde: The Musical with Melissa, while I stayed home and read yesterday’s four-color haul. After that, it was off to the mall to see if the local Eddie Bauer store to pick up a new pair of jeans – they were out of my size – and to do a little window shopping. I headed home and watched another episode of 24 — I’m slowly catching up on this season.

Stray Toasters

• Today’s word of the day is: Copacetic.
  (Not to be confused with “Copacabana“)
• Easter flowers for the mother-units: Check.
• By way of SaraRules:
  • First Sikh in decades graduates at US Army officer school
  • Flash mobs take violent turn in Philadelphia
• From the “Titles I Wish I Had Made Up” file: How the TSA will inspect your monkey
• It appears that Angela Bassett, who would have been my first choice to play Storm in an X-Men movie, will be appearing in the upcoming Green Lantern movie as Amanda Waller.
• 
• Steampunk Stormtrooper Helmet, Boba Fett and Princess Leia
• Grieving mothers blame baby slings for infant deaths
• The WWG railroad masterboard for Dr. Volt’s should get some structure tonight. I’d like to have it ready to deliver for Saturday’s tournament.
• Gates eases ban on gays in the military
• Iron Alloy Could Create Earthquake-Proof Buildings
• Several coaches not thrilled about how owners held OT vote
• Alien vs. Pooh: Webcomics realize their full potential at last

And with that… meeting time!

Namaste.

Wednesday – 24 March 2010
The sun is out.
It’s Comics and Sushi Wednesday.
And, the work day morning is starting off with a little Ludacris:

Last night, I headed over to Chris’ to play dolls. We decided to do a 1500-point Avengers vs. Justice Society of America game. We played on the “Fountain of Asgard” map, which I don’t think that I had previously played on. It was a good game; while I won’t say that Chris completely picked my team apart (My Superman did, however, fall at the hands of a angry Hercules…), he did win the game. Decisively. It was fun and we both got to field some pieces that we hadn’t had opportunities to play before.

Stray Toasters

• I just made a bet with Bret over this year’s NFL games (although, it may just be down to the Ravens vs. Steelers games). The loot: Jersey of the winner’s choice.
• March 24, 2001: Apple Unleashes Mac OS X
• For sale in Utah: “die-hard survivalist bunker”, just in case anyone is looking to move out here to The Land Behind the Zion Curtain…
• 
• Amy: Kitty Pryde comes back today.  Just thought you should know.
• Jackie Wilson: The Singer and the Showman
• Cost-cutting is important in tough times but too much can cause harm
• I’m not quite sure what to make of this Lil’ Vampire Pacifier, but this picture does amuse me:



• App developers are gearing up for Apple’s iPad
• WizKids has posted their 2010 release schedule
  • April ’10 – The Brave & The Bold
  • May ’10 – Blackest Night Starter
  • July ’10 – The Watchmen 25 Figure Collector Set
  • August ’10 – Web of the Spiderman
  • October ’10 – Brightest Day (7 Figures – Like starter but no fiddly bits)
  • November ’10 – DC 75th Anniversary Set
  • Q4 2010 – Halo Reach ActionClix (Battle Packs & Mega Battle Pack)

• US charges car firm Daimler with violating bribery laws
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Bacon-flavored toothpicks
• HOW TO: Run an Ultramarathon

Back to it.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 23 March 2010
This morning there was… well… to call it a “flurry” would be a bit of an overstatement. Yes, there were snow flakes. Yes, they were falling. But, no, they weren’t falling en masse. And, you sort of had to look to see that there really was snow falling and that it wasn’t an illusion or trick of light.

Last night, I needed some “down time.” I got it. It was good. I spent a portion of the time assembling a team of ‘Clix for tonight’s game with Chris.

I am often amused and stymied by the randomness of the music that pops into my head first thing in the morning. Today was no exception. This morning’s “Song Stuck on Repeat” was Only In My Dreams, by Debbie Gibson. Yeah. Really. And, to be honest, it wasn’t even the whole song. It was mostly just a few lines from the first verse. I blame my old dorm-mate, Mark D., for this one — he was a pretty big fan of hers, back in the day.  Thanks, Mark.

Stray Toasters

• The Arc of Electromagnetic Radiation Connection
• National Chains Turning to Free Food on Tuesday
  • Special Note: Today is Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s
• 
  
  The bill passed.  This is not necessarily a “bad” thing.  Move along. Thank you.
• From the far-too-infrequently-used “Cyberpunk” tag: The Beauty of Bones (and Skinput)
• Drink Darker Coffee for a Happier Stomach
• Nyx sent me a link to this:
  
  …which, in turn, reminded me of this:

  ….as well as the Closer fan video, but I figured that I’d keep things safe-for-work today.

• Binder Clips as Cable Catchers Redux
  This kind of simplicity and ingenuity reminds me of the old – and quite false – chestnut about NASA, in the early days of ‘The Space Race,’ attempting to develop a pen that would write in space (pesky ink vs. zero-gravity issues and whatnot…), where as the Russian space program found a very simple, but effective solution: They just used pencils.
• Wrecking ball lamp.  I like. Quite a bit. I’m not sure, but it might even find a spot on The Covet List.
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Row over ‘torture’ on French TV
• Youdunnit: Locked Room Murder, Backwards in Time
• From the “Double dumb-ass on you!” file: US couple jailed after boasting on TV about shoplifting toys

Back to the grind…

Namaste.

Sunday – 21 March 2010
Good morning, Second Day of Spring.
It’s a bright and sunny day outside. I can hear birds chirping in the trees outside the sliding glass door.

Yesterday also turned out to be a very nice day, weather-wise. Low-to-mid 50s, with lots of sun and no clouds. In fact, it was nice enough to ride around with the sunroof open and the windows down a bit.

SaraRules and I went to Cottonwood Cafe for lunch yesterday. One of these days, maybe I’ll remember how messy their Mushroom Bacon Cheeseburger is before I order it. (But, it’s oh so tasty…)  After lunch, we trekked south and west to visit Hobby Lobby. We wandered around the store for a bit; I found a couple of model railroading books that followed me home. Next stop: The Garden of Sweden. Miraculously, I walked out of there empty-handed. I was proud of myself. (Or is it that I was disappointed in them for not having anything that I couldn’t live without…?) After the fun part of the excursion, came the less-fun-but-just-as-important task of running errands.

After errands were run and there was no place else that we needed/wanted to go, we came home. SaraRules took a nap, I hopped on the nerd. After an hour-plus of surfing the Interwebs, I had a minor epiphany: I was hungry. I awakened SaraRules and we decided to get something to eat. We agreed upon Olive Garden, called Galadriel to see if she wanted to join us and we were on our way. We were seated inside of five minutes. Our server, Jaron, was pretty quick on the uptake. I had the calamari appetizer, Pasta e Fagioli soup and the Chicken and Shrimp Carbonara, washed down with a glass of Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay. Everything tasted very good.

Back home to finalize plans for the rest of the evening. We decided to go bowling. We figured that we’d check out Karen Pullman’s Pro Shop and Bowling Center, which is pretty much just around the corner from where we live. Nice place. Fifteen lanes. Not nearly as chaotic as Sandy All-Star Lanes used to be. Jana and Chris also joined us. My games were off — two of them were WAY off: I bowled 102, 106, 165. I couldn’t close a frame in the first two games to save my life. Seriously. And I missed some/most of the spares by inches. However, Galadriel had the hot hand last night: 144, 141, 186. Yeah, she was all over it.

Today, I have absolutely no idea what I want to do, let alone what I’m going to do. SaraRules has the final performance of The Italian Girl in Algiers this afternoon, which means that I’m a bachelor from about 1230 until 1800. We’ll have to see what comes up.

Stray Toasters

• Last night, I had a dream with my paternal grandfather in it. In the… over twenty years… that he’s been deceased, this is the first time that I recall having a dream with him in it.  Odd.
• 10 Essentials: Paul Smith
• We finally confirmed that the little girls who live upstairs are actually roller-skating in their kitchen. That fact is made even more scary/fascinating given how small the kitchen is.
• Mom-and-Pop Site Busts the Web’s Biggest Myths
• It appears as though Live+Press is working again.
• My Very Own Gagavolution
  Including a link, for those who haven’t seen it, to the video (NSFW) for Telephone
• Sequels, reboots bring sizzle to summer box office, by way of
• How did Lois afford that apartment anyway?
• Children’s Drawings, Painted Realistically
• Abraham Lincoln Reborn as a Vampire Hunter
• Bishops’ remains stolen in Cyprus
• And this is why I use Keynote:



And, for those who don’t get it: Edward Tufte.

Saturday – 20 March 2010
It’s the first day of Spring.
It’s sunny outside… hopefully, it will stay that way. Yesterday seemed to suffer from multiple personality disorder, as it was alternately sunny and snowy. Yeah. “Welcome to Utah — If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.”

Yesterday was a good day, all around. I had lunch with Galadriel and Paul at California Pizza Kitchen. I hadn’t been there in… years, I don’t even know how many. I had their jamabalaya, which I recalled as being good. (It was, indeed, quite good.) The lunch was a kind of meet-and-greet for Paul and Galadriel — I realized that he could provide a wealth of information to her about finance and accounting and thought that it would be a good opportunity to set up some kind of mentoring relationship. Thankfully, it went very well. Fait accompli.

After lunch, as I was around the corner from where she worked, I stopped in to say “Hello,” to my friend, Danette.  We chatted for a couple of minutes before I was in the wind again.

Next stop: USUO offices.
Objective: Drop in for a quick visit to a certain SaraRules.
Mission: ACCOMPLISHED.

From USUO, I headed over to The Train Shoppe. I’ve been threatening to go there for a couple of weeks, but never quite getting around to it. They had an old Lionel 4-4-2 engine and tender with C&O markings that I’d seen the last time I visited the store…

…and I wanted it. Fortunately, it was still there. And it came home with me. It was from Lionel’s 6-1184 Alleghany Steam Freight Ready-to-Run Set, from 1971/1972.  I had originally planned to put it atop the railroad pictures in our dining room – I currently have some HO scale train pieces there now – but reconsidered when I realized just how much the engine weighs.

Next, I headed down to visit Kate and Perry. We shot the bull for a bit, as the kids played. While I was there, Perry showed me the opening credits from – and I wish I was making this up – a Japanese Spider-Man show. Yeah. Complete with a giant robot. O,o Madness. And just in case you think that this was all just some bizarre fever-dream:

There. Told you so. Straight from the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file.

Next, it was home for a longer-than-planned pre-Clitorati nap… and then, I was off for the evening.

Stray Toasters

• Arrest made in Wal-Mart racial announcement incident
• For Galadriel: Spanish Inquisition
• Snoop Dogg wants to know why there are no black superheroes [UPDATED]
• Seeing the Littlest, Cutest Voltron of Them All Made Me Melt

Time to go greet the day.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 16 March 2010
Last night, a group of us took the advice of Queen and had “A Night at the Opera.” We saw Utah Opera’s production of The Italian Girl in Algiers, by Rossini. Thanks to SaraRules, we had amazing seats: Grand Tier, second row center. This afforded an amazing view of the stage and supertitles.

The opera was more light-hearted than your standard fare. And, after the production, SaraRules informed me that it was directed by the same person who directed La Cenerentola a couple of years ago — once she said that, I could note similarities in the staging. It was a fun opera, made even more enjoyable by the group who went… and, more notably, by the fact that SaraRules was in the production. She was a supernumerary; her role was as one of the harem girls. She and her coworker, Melissa (another super in the production), even garnered a small write-up in The Salt Lake Tribune, where they were noted as being “remarkably funny.” It was a good way to spend the evening. The opera runs through Sunday, if you’re looking for a fun change of pace, you should consider seeing this production.

Stray Toasters

• I’m still finding things that I do – and don’t – like about MacJournal. Testing continues…
• Nude performers cause a stir at New York museum
• Steampunk St. Patrick’s Day video
• From the “Don’t call it a comeback, he’s been here for years” file: Tiger Woods to return to golf at Masters
• How to Make Peanut Butter and Jelly ‘Sushi’ Rolls
• You’re Leaving a Bacterial Fingerprint on Your Keyboard
• LaDainian Tomlinson is going from the Chargers to the Jets.
• Undateable: A Style Guide to Everything You’re Doing Wrong

Back to the grind.

Namaste.

Monday – 15 March 2010
“Beware the Ides of March…”

Saturday’s tournament went well. In a 500-point limit match, you expect to see scores in the 1300-1500 range, for the winner. Not so with this event: The winner clocked in with 1767 points — he had a feat on some characters that garnered him extra points for winning. Well played. Well played, indeed.

After the tournament, SaraRules and I did some errand-running. In the snow. That’s right: Snow. BLAH. But we trudged on. And, when she left to make her stage call for the opera, I kept running errands. (They had to get done and weren’t going to get done by themselves.)

After the running around had been buttoned-up, I still managed to make it to The E-Center and caught the third period of the Grizzlies hockey game. (I bought the ticket; I should get to enjoy the game, at least.) Galadriel, Mary, Matt and I went to Hopper’s for post-game dinner. I had the “Far From Philadelphia” cheese steak sandwich and fries… and a Madame X Stout.

Sunday morning, I woke up and played around on the Interwebs until SaraRules got up. We had a light breakfast and then headed to Cedar City to hang out with Lish — who was in town for Josh’s wedding — for a while.

SaraRules and Lish got to talk shop and catch up on things. Then we headed to find something for dinner, which was no small feat in Cedar City on a Sunday evening. We went to Ninja Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi. (Who’d’ve thought it…?!) We sat at a hibachi table, so we got dinner and a show. I had the Steak and Chicken combination, with gyoza and a couple of pieces of Ika nigiri. Yep, there’s a chance that this is a two-sushi-meal week. Mm-hmm, that’s right! After dinner, we dropped Steve off and made our way northward… by way of the local Dairy Queen.

Stray Toasters

• Hopefully, everyone remembered to “Spring Forward” and didn’t wind up an hour late for anything yesterday… or today.
• Yesterday was also Pi Day.
• Fake Russian invasion broadcast sparks Georgian panic
• ‘Mission: Impossible’ actor Peter Graves dead at 83
• Artist Helps New York ‘LEGO’ of Its Crumbling Buildings, courtesy of Amy
  • When she showed me this, it reminded me of an article that I had seen a while ago. I clicked through a link in the article and found the very item that I was thinking of, this.
• Coffee inhaler. Why have I not heard of this before?!

Duty calls.
Namaste.

Friday – 12 March 2010
It’s (almost) the weekend.
In honor of this fact, I kicked off the morning with Tank!, Just Got Paid and The Spirit of Radio (Live). After all, if you have to work on a Friday, you might as well start off the day with a little something to get the blood pumping, nicht wahr?

Last night, I had grand designs of heading to the local B&N and drawing. Laziness/tiredness, a comfy couch and a call from my father won out, however. I did see an interesting show on the National Geographic Channel, Man-Made: Supersize Steamship. It detailed a moving company’s task of moving an old paddlewheel steamship from St. Louis, MO to St. Elmo. The reason they couldn’t just float the ship to the new town: St. Elmo is landlocked. It was cool to watch how the movers dealt with the obstacles involved with getting the ship from Point A to Point B.

Stray Toasters

• It seems as though MacJournal not only plays nicely with WordPress, but it apparently routed the post through WordBook, too. It didn’t automatically post to LiveJournal… but I think that’s due to a recent problem with the LivePress plugin. And, it didn’t have an option for the PostAvatar plugin, which means that if I’m going to have an avatar on a post, I’ll have to update the post in WordPress. That’s not too bad/big a deal.
• Thalidomide effect mystery solved
• I have no idea (yet) if this will set link targets to “_blank”.
• Mini-documentary on the British war on public photos and video
• Esperanza Spalding: Just Bass and Voice
• Paris Fashion Week 2010
• Deal Gives New Life to Overhaul of Student Loans
• 
• Hm… I can’t reset an image’s alignment in here. Good to know.
• Americans: Test Your Broadband Speed, Help the FCC Keep ISPs Honest
• Student Work — Kyoto University of Art and Design
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: French bread spiked with LSD in CIA experiment

Okay, this should be a decent test of MacJournal. Let’s see how it goes.

Namaste.

::: EDITED :::
Added Post Avatar
Changed image alignment

But, all-in-all, I could get used to MacJournal.

Monday – 08 March 2010
The weekend was good.
The work week has begun.

Today is also International Women’s Day.

Yesterday, I wound up going to the train show with . It was a very nice change of pace for a way to spend a Sunday afternoon. There were some very nice layouts on display. There were a lot of things that could have easily wound up on The Covet List there. A lot.

I dropped off — after stopping in to sample a few of the peanut butter cookies that he’d been talking about during our trip. They were good; I asked OnlyAly for the recipe. And then, it was on to the in-laws’ for dinner and a movie.

We watched Black Dynamite. It was done in the style of a 70’s blaxploitation film — sets, clothing, dialogue, music… the whole nine yards. Actually, it was part-blaxploitation/part-kung-fu movie. It was, in a word, “Awesome!” It was a great way to cap off the evening.

Stray Toasters

• I didn’t watch – or really care about – The Oscars this year.
• Ethics cases bruise Harlem’s political heart
• By way of SaraRules: A Game of Tag Breaks Out Between London’s Graffiti Elite
• MarknTyme just shared a couple of videos:
  • From the “No way in Hell…” and “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” files:
  • BMW Commercial:

• Rockslide closes 17 miles of I-70 in Glenwood Canyon
• Female Illustrators of the mid-20th Century
• This gives an entirely different meaning to the term “banana hammock.”

Namaste.

Friday – 05 March 2010
Happy Birthday to Liz and Jenny, a couple of my high school classmates:

…even if you’re not really conjoined.

It’s snowing outside. I have to admit that isn’t doing much for my motivation.

Last night, I spent the evening hanging out with ; she interviewed me for a school project. We had planned to go to Borders… but we discovered that their cafe closes at 1900 during the week. YeahbuhWHAT?! Yeah. I think that qualifies as “lame.” We wound up at the nearby Barnes & Noble, instead… where we ran into an old friend of ‘s. The interview took about a half-hour; after that, we sat and chatted almost two hours away.  It was a good way to spend the evening.

Stray Toasters

• Body scanners are headed to 11 major airports
• 10 Jobs You Absolutely, Positively Should Not ‘Take Your Child to Work Day’
• The West Wing
• Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn



• Apple’s iPad to be released April 3
• Alien vs. Eel
• Ubisoft’s new DRM cracked in under 24 hours
• Yep, There’s a Patch for That
• 
• They’re doing a new version of The Rockford Files?!  Nice!
  And, for the nostalgia buffs: The Theme from The Rockford Files, courtesy of YouTube.

There’s a Friday out there; I should go introduce myself to it.

Namaste.

Monday – 01 March 2010
There’s an old proverb that says “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.” Looking outside, it’s sunny and clear – at least as clear as the valley gets when the smog/inversion sets in. It’s supposed to be somewhere around 50F today. If this is a lion, it must be Kimba, the White Lion.

I watched the third period and overtime of the Team U.S.A. vserus Team Canada hockey match for the Olympic gold medal. Wow… That was an excellent game. I can only imagine how dejected the American players were at the loss, but they played very well. Kudos to them one a well-played game.

Last night, Bonne, Logan and Justin came over for dinner – mahi mahi, rice pilaf and salad – and a movie: Dead Snow. Dinner was quite delicious. The movie was… pretty damned good, actually. The synopsis:

A ski vacation turns horrific for a group of medical students, as they find themselves confronted by an unimaginable menace: Nazi zombies.

I think the only thing that they left out of that synopsis was: “Hijinks ensue” or “Mayhem ensues,” either fits.  While it wasn’t necessarily an Oscar-calibre movie, it was entertaining and fun.

Stray Toasters

• It’s definitely “a Monday.”
  I’m trying to determine where my alignment is today (trending towards “Neutral”)… and whether I should use the 9-position grid or the “flat” alignment system.
• How to Live a Simple and Peaceful Life
• America’s Worst French Fries (And What You Should Eat Instead!)
• Pounding in your temples
  And a surge of adrenaline
  Every muscle tense-
  To fence
  The enemy within
• Palladia is a nice amalgamation of Viacom’s MTV Networks (MTV/VH1/CMT) programming… where they actually (are you ready for this…?) play music!
• Gene test to aid cancer treatment
• *grblsnrkx*
• Duel 365
• I should go bowling. Soon.
• Russia-Georgia border crossing reopens
• ZipList

He knows changes aren’t permanent
But change is…

Namaste.

Sunday – 28 February 2010
It’s a quiet lazy morning.

The sun’s out. iGoogle says that it’s supposed to be (relatively) warm. To quote an old Kellogg’s commercial: “It’s gonna be a great day!”

Logan, Bonne and possibly Justin are coming over this evening for dinner and to watch Dead Snow:

A ski vacation turns horrific for a group of medical students, as they find themselves confronted by an unimaginable menace: Nazi zombies.

Let’s allow that last part to sink in further: Nazi zombies. How can this movie not be (horribly) good?!

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month

Today is the last day of February and, as such, the last day of Black History Month in the United States and Canada. Of all the things that we’ve looked at over the past twenty-seven days, one question has not been asked: “Why do we have a Black History Month?”

The remembrance was founded in 1926 by United States historian Carter G. Woodson as “Negro History Week”. Woodson chose the second week of February because it marked the birthdays of two Americans who greatly influenced the lives and social condition of African Americans: former President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass.

The celebration was expanded to a month in 1976, the nation’s bicentennial. President Gerald R. Ford urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

While I believe that it is good to set aside time to recognize the achievements and pitfalls of the past, we still have “…miles to go before [we] sleep.” Black history – and any ethnic group’s history, for that matter – shouldn’t be relegated to just one month of the year. In the same way that America was known as a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities, our history is an amalgamation of those peoples’ struggles and stories. These are things that should be studied and celebrated throughout the year, as a common history of the people of the United States of America.

Stray Toasters

• Engineers Solve 80-Year-Old Puzzle to Make Computer Modeling 100,000 Times Faster
• By way of my friend, Susan, and the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Utah Has Now Made Miscarriage a Criminal Offense
• By way of Philina: 31 Incredible Examples of LEGO Architecture
• Rooftop scene from Blade Runner, done in LEGO:


Blade Runner – Tears in Rain (in LEGO) from Zach Macias on Vimeo

• Put Together a Rock-Solid Home Tool Kit
• How You Can Live to 100


(click here for larger version)

• Classic Videogame Store Displays

Namaste.