Random Access

Saturday – 09 August 2008
I woke up this morning and took the leisurely path to getting ready. There was another sealed box Secret Invasion tourney at Far West, so I couldn’t be a complete slacker about the morning, however.

Breakfast.
Shower.
Dress.
Zoom.

I stopped for a frozen pick-me-up on the way to the store. Bonus: It was a free drink.

I got to Far West to find Matt (owner) and Keith (event judge)… and no one else. *sigh* I knew that Chris was out of town, but I expected to find at least a couple of other players there. Oh, well. So, once I again: Win, by default. Whoop-de-damn-doo.

I did play Keith and Matt. We played under the draft rules. I got (yet another) Iron Man and another Cloak and Dagger. I decided that they would be the overall best use of points and went with them as my team. Keith’s team consisted of:

• Clea
• Gamora and
• Namor

… with whom, he cleaned my clock – it’s amazing what happens when someone mind controls your figure and then proceeds to use them for target practice. Lemme tell you: It ain’t pretty. Iron Man folded more like Tin Foil Man. After that, his team just kind of… beat on Cloak and Dagger. But, I kind of expect that when playing a judge. Or Chris. (The experience is oddly similar.)

Matt and I squared off next. His team consisted of:

• Morbius
• Ms. Marvel (Skrull) and
• Tarantula

Once I got into position, I started picking on Tarantula. Hey, she was the easiest… and the only one I could see, thanks to Morbius and Ms. Skrull’s stealth abilities. *blah* Matt, with some helpful assistance from Keith moved Morbius in to melee range. Fortunately, his attacks missed. Mine didn’t. Scratch one vampire. That just left his all but invisible-to-me tank. Then, the unthinkable happened: Customers came into the store. So, Keith took over for Matt. And then the beatdown resumed. Ms. Skrull took out Iron Man… and then we played a game of cat-and-mouse until she finally felled Cloak and Dagger. So, I effectively lost to Keith twice.

In the process, I learned a couple of things about Duo-Attack and stealth, which should come in handy in the future.

Stray Toasters

• I talked with the parental units today. Both of them are doing well.
• I’m almost ready to start putting some of my ‘Clix extras up for auction on eBay
• By way of : The Amazing Wooden Mirror
• Spaghetti!

Tonight: Breakfast with the usual suspects.
Tomorrow: Brunch with Shelly and Bill.

Hoo-AH!

Wednesday – 06 August 2008
Sometimes, it’s amusing to realize what it is that breaks us out of our morning doldrums and gets us ready to face the day. For me, this morning, it was remembering that I was planning on trying a fruit smoothie recipe this morning before heading to work. And I did. And It’s pretty good.

Last night’s Scion game was good. I almost got half the party killed… all because an NPC didn’t like the answer I gave to a riddle. So, a few rounds later: Sphinx: 0, Us: 1… kind of. In the process of some rather fancy bow (archery) work, it seems that ‘s character has taken over the role that the Sphinx held. We need to find a way to liberate her from that so that she can come party adventure with us.

Stray Toasters

• Kris called me yesterday as I was leaving AF. The first thing she said was “You’re going to be an uncle!” After a couple seconds’ bewilderment/pondering/pause, I came back with,”Oooookay.”She’s getting a puppy.But, she said that the look on Mom’s face when she said it was priceless.
• Laurence Fishburne is prime CSI: suspect
• Port forwarding only works when you remember to set it up.
• The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away — story about geek monasteries for smart people who don’t fit in
• Paris Hilton responds to John McCain’s ad:

• Pulp City
• Guy gets locked out of all Google apps
• I’m sore from yesterday’s workout.
• I stumbled across this article on BoingBoing yesterday: How to give yourself elf ears. It’s a body modification how-to. The article was linked from an item on Instructables; I wasn’t aware, until yesterday, that there was a “Kinky” group on there – probably because I didn’t really care or even think about it. Learn something new everyday, I guess.
• *shake fist* at for getting Sir Mix-A-Lot stuck in my head

Namaste.

Tuesday: Coda
After work, I made haste to get to Far West Comics for the HeroClix tournament. Keith, the judge got there just after me. And no one else did. Fortunately, Matt and Nano (the store owners) were playing in the event, so it wasn’t a complete wash. I got my two boosters and pulled the following figures:

• Iron Fist
• Yellowjacket (Skrull)
• Arachne
• Captain America
• Kristoff
• Dum Dum Dugan (Human)
• Iron Man
• Doom
• Super Skrull: X-Men
  
• Impossible Man

I was very pleased to pull the Dugan, Doom and Impossible Man figures… very pleased, indeed. The others were all duplicates of figures that I got in my brick. I constructed my team of:

• Arachne
• Dum Dum Dugan
• Iron Fist and
• Kristoff

I used a Feat card – Loner – on Dum Dum, which gave him a bonus to his defensive value. And then, we went to work.

My first match was against Matt, he also fielded four figures:

• Clea
• Iron Fist
• Speedball
• Thor Girl

I split my force and moved to positions that afforded me decent lines of fire, while still providing cover. The first game went fairly quickly. I took out two of Matt’s pieces without losing anyone. Next up, I fought Nano. He brought

• Mole Man
• Spider-Man
• Spider-Slayer
• Tombstone
• Yellowjacket (Human)

I divided my force again, but in a slightly different pattern – I remembered to array my figures in a pattern that allowed the ranged members of each team to provide cross-field support to each other. That came in pretty handy. And some really good dice rolls didn’t hurt, either. I was able to eliminate Mole Man and the Spider-Slayer and was working on taking out Spider-Man when time ran out. Once again, I was able to keep everyone on my side alive, although Kristoff took a couple of solid hits.

For going 2-0, I got an Illuminati event dial, a Nowhere to Hide battlefield condition card and a map.

After the tourney, I came home… and had a lazy evening. Me, the couch, the TV and a crossword puzzle book. Mm-hmm, that’s right. And it was good.

Stray Toasters

• It’s almost 1:00 AM. I am craving brownies. I would be making them now… if I had one more egg.
• George W. Bush as The Joker
• 
• This cake, however I don’t think would be more delicious than carrot cake.
• 85 Works of Art ‘Improved’ via Modern Technology
• Comedy Central is having a roast for Bob Saget. In honor of that, I give you Rollin’ with Saget

• Laurie Anderson interview from Smithsonian.com
• Rocket Racers: Like crazier NASCAR in the sky

And that’s all.

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.

Thursday – 26 June 2008
Last night was a relaxed night. After work, I headed to Dr. Volt’s to pick up this week’s comics. Home. Dinner. City of Heroes. I was invited to join a team for some Tsoo missions and nearly tacked on two levels before logging off. And, in an unusual turn, I felt tired fairly early – so early that I was showered and in bed a little after 12:30.

When the alarm went off this morning, I wasn’t quite ready to roll out of bed and face the morning, so I laid in bed for a few minutes… which turned into me falling asleep again. I woke up when alarm 2.0 went off. After staring at the ceiling and walls for a few, I got up, got ready and got under way.

Of course, I didn’t notice that I had left The Leash at home until I got to the office. Fortunately, the monitoring/notification software that sends alerts to the pager has a web interface. So, really, I’m just cutting out the middle man, not to be confused with The Middleman.

I need to decide whether today is a sushi day or a workout day. Bah.

Stray Toasters

• I got another package from my father yesterday: The 47 currently released state quarters.
• SaraRules has updated the Aspen section of her site with a couple of recent goings-on.
• Dave Koz: You Make Me Smile

• MarknTyme: Fix your GoogleTalk settings – you keep bouncing on/off.
• By way of : Christopher Titus Apologizes

• The 10 Best Fan-Made Hip-Hop Videos with The Sims
• DNS & BIND == *bleh*
• Brothel bus makes last stop in Miami Beach
• 

It’s a sushi day.
Decision: Rendered.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 25 June 2008
During the work day, I (and usually a coworker or two) take walks around the complex/campus/whatever you’d care to call it. This week, I’ve had a couple of amusing/interesting experiences:

1. There are trees along the south end of the path where we walk. Apparently, there are a couple of new nests in some of those trees. Wes and I were… not quite “dive bombed”… more “strafed”… as we walked along the path. The first time it happened, I felt a little like Tippi Hedren in The Birds. And the second and third times, too. I may suggest altering our walking path for the next couple of weeks.
2. On Monday afternoon’s walk, I was almost done with my walk when I approached a couple of ladies walking in the same direction, but more slowly, than me. I was a few feet behind one of them when I said,”Excuse me, please, ladies.” One froze, the other… yelped (best word for it). Hell, I froze, too. They hadn’t heard me approaching; I had figured that since I was wearing hard-soled shoes and was on a cement walkway, they had heard my footsteps. No go, Flight. It took the yelping lady a few moments to regain her composure.

Yesterday also included a workout with Wes. It’s the first time I’ve been back to the Gold’s on Van Winkle in close to two years. Nice gym… although a couple of the patrons were ass-monkeys. “It takes all kinds,” I guess. The routine was a little short, but good:

• Recumbent Bike: 0.5 miles, 100 rpm
• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 185 lbs.
• Flys (machine): 3 sets/10 reps, 100 lbs.
• Curls (standing, hammer): 3 sets/10 reps, 25 lbs.
• Lateral Raises (with forward extension): 3 sets/10 reps, 10 lbs.
• Tricep Extensions (rope): 3 sets/10 reps, 60 lbs.

Last night was lazy. I came home, cooked dinner, sat on the couch and vegged. I also finished off the Superman card I’ve been working on:

I’m pretty happy with it. Once again, finding quotes was a right royal pain, but I wanted to find some from various sources (comics, TV series and movies). I think that the quote I’m most fond of is “Excuse me, sir. Would you care to step outside,” from Superman: The Movie.

Stray Toasters

• I just chatted with ; all’s well with him, Bot and Bit.
• “Can You Hear Me Now?”
  A cellphone. *shakes head*
• You don’t need no finesse or no personality
  You just need two arms and an attitude.
  And everybody sing with me, come on now!
• I found these images in Derek’s blog. I’m liberating them in the name of the people:
  • 
  • 
• , this sounds like something you might want to check out: Sarah Milstein on urban hiking
• By way of Indexed:



• Man in wheelchair charged with drunk driving

Time to hit it.

Namaste.

Sunday: Coda
Today was a good day in the valley.

I met , , , Carl and Pat for lunch at Jitterbug. Food, good conversation and good company. The veritable Triple Crown for a coffee shop.

Next, I went to visit SaraRules’ folks.

Then, it was on to Chris’ to play Matt and ‘Mano for a rematch of the game where they royally spanked us. We weren’t sure what they were going to bring, but we came loaded for bear. When the dust settled, I had lost three pieces, but they were mostly there to keep my two other pieces from dying. And that’s exactly what they did. Chris and I had won.

Not a bad wrap-up to the day.

Stray Toasters

• How do I know that my mother still worries about me? She called me this afternoon; she called because, knows that SaraRules is out of state for the summer and wanted to make sure that I wasn’t – and I quote – “…just sitting at home twiddling my thumbs.” I love my mother.
• Edgy comic George Carlin dies in L.A., aged 71
• 
• I redid the character card I made for Galactus:
  • Old and busted
  • New hotness
• Matt and ‘Mano showed the following video to Chris and me today. Despite it’s title, it’s quite work-safe:

I should have been in bed long ago. Time to rectify that.

Namaste.

Tuesday: Coda
After work, I came home to find a package waiting for me. I wasn’t expecting anything, so my curiosity was “ever so slightly” piqued. I picked up the box and looked at the handwriting: It was my father’s. “Curiouser and curiouser,” said little Alice…

I took the box into the apartment and opened it.

Inside, there were four (4) boxes of Butterscotch Krimpets!

I called Dad to thank him; he laughed and said that he sent them because I deserved a good surprise. We talked for a few more minutes; all’s well there.

I headed to Chris and Mary’s for a few games of ‘Clix with Chris. We both wanted to try out teams before Saturday’s tournament. 1000 points. Unrestricted. I tried a rough team, built around Phoenix the first game and a version of the Green Lantern Corps the second game. Chris brought out The Anti-Monitor, the new Sinestro and Psylocke, for both games. We played timed rounds; Chris won both of them on points. I picked up a few things, but still wasn’t entirely happy with the way I played either team. But, I didn’t want to just fall back on the Legion, because I want to be a fairly well-rounded player and not a one-trick pony. But, I still had fun. We may try to squeeze in another game later this week.

Olly olly oxen free!
Did you know that one of the collective nouns for “ox” is “a span of oxen?”
I didn’t until working on a crossword puzzle today.
I did, however, know that a collective of crows is called “a murder.”

And that’s all for now.

Namaste.

asked if I had seen this article:

GOP convention button asks, ‘If Obama is president…will we still call it the White House?’

I hadn’t… but, my first thought was “People. Chainguns.”

I shared the link with , whose response was a simple: “nice, they’ve completely given up subtlety”

I think that sums it up nicely.

Paul (coworker) just came over and told and me that our corporate parent is doing some sort of “cultural awareness week” in September. Julie, one of the executive admins, is being tasked with getting ideas for things to do. Paul came to us to let us know that he’s going to send Julie to and me for ideas.

I asked Paul if he had ANY idea the kind of Hell we could wreak upon this place?

He simply nodded and smiled.

And when he heard some of our immediate ideas, he laughed. A lot.

I told him that giving us something like two months’ lead time is FAR too much time. Then I realized that giving us anything more than a week qualified as “too much time,” as well.

I also mentioned that I was thinking of changing my workstation’s wallpaper to this for that week:

I mentioned the same thing to , who suggested that I should consider using this instead:

EIther way, it’s win-win.

and I tried to ‘splain to Paul that we’re sure that our corporate robot overlords protectors were doing this with the best of intentions… but that they didn’t seem to account for those of us who like to push buttons and break things from the inside. He grinned knowingly and appreciatively at that, too.

Sunday – 15 June 2008
Happy Father’s Day

This morning started lazily. SaraRules made sauteed spaghetti and coffee for breakfast. (By the way: Drew, I did get the recipe.) Rachel hung out through breakfast and then went out for a hike. Next up: Hygiene rituals and a spot of laundry.

I’ll be heading west again in a couple of hours. It has been a good (though brief) trip – it was nice to see SaraRules and some of the places that she has talked about for the past few weeks. I’m going to try and get back out here sometime next month, God willing and the creek don’t rise.

A couple of shots from the front porch of the condo:

(click for larger versions)

Stray Toasters

• Last night, we watched Across the Universe again. We’ve been trying to see this for a couple of months. I love the arrangements of the songs… and I had forgotten how much I liked the arrangement of Let It Be. And the visuals are great, as well. If you have somehow not seen this movie, I strongly recommend renting it. Soon.
• Congrats to and Team Chalk-o-Licious for winning “Best of Festival” at this year’s Chalk Art Festival.
• The Things That Carried Him – This is a story that I first heard about on RadioWest a few months ago. It tells the story of a U.S. soldier’s final journey – the journey home to be buried. It’s a pretty amazing story. Hearing the interview with the author, Chris Jones, made me look forward to getting that issue of Esquire.
• This American Hero Wins Machinima Contest
• By way of BBC News: The United States of Advertising
• What the iPhone 3G Is Still Missing
• I’m not going to get my entry for “Superman: Man of Style” done in time to submit it to Project: Rooftop… but I’m going to keep working on it. Because I can. And because it’s been pretty fun.
• William Katt: The Hero Guest Stars on Heroes

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Saturday – 14 June 2008
It’s clear and sunny out; hopefully, it will be a little warmer than yesterday.

This day started with a good morning ping from , not a bad way to start the day. He pointed me in the direction of this article from John Scalzi’s Whatever blog. I don’t suppose that I should have read the NPR article, Obama’s VP Search: Avoiding Party’s Past Mistakes, because about the time I hit the third sentence in the section entitled “Handicapping the VP Short List,” I was done. “Gracious exit…!?” My ass. That exit was to “gracious” as Utah’s Black population is to the state total population. (Translation: “Not very.”)

Quick note for those of you in the SLC metro area: The Utah Foster Care Foundation Chalk Art Festival continues today. Go down and cheer on/vote for and Team Chalk-O-Licious. Here’s their work-in-progress:

(click for ‘s (quick) post about this piece)

SaraRules and I are going to head into Aspen in a little while. That should be fun and interesting.

Stray Toasters

• From NPR: Songs for Dad: Father’s Day Jazz
• Men in Black is still fun – and funny – movie.
• By way of Wired: Coolest Movie Metamorphoses – From Wolf-Man to Hulk
• USA Today has a poll asking how readers would feel about an Obama/Powell or McCain/Powell ticket.
• I skipped “Blog Like It’s the End of the World Day” – not for lack of ideas, I just couldn’t get into it.
• Worthplaying.com takes a look at LEGO Batman

Quote of the Day
“Football (soccer) is like chess, only without the dice.” – Lukas Podolski

Up out.

Today is Kris’ birthday. I called her this morning… but didn’t get an answer. I tried again this afternoon with much better success.

After work, I headed home to change clothes and have a bite to eat.

Next up: Scion… for the first time in nearly two months.

Workout
Today’s workout wasn’t too bad… considering that it’s been a week since I was last in the gym.

• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 185 lbs
• Flys (Nautilus, high-to-low): 3 sets/12 reps – 1 set @ 95 lbs, 2 sets @ 110 lbs
• Bent-over Rows (barbell): 3 sets/12 reps – 1 set @ 55 lbs, 2 sets at 70 lbs
• Bench Dips: 3 sets/15 reps – 1 set with 40 lb dumbbell, 1 set with 45 lb plate
• Lateral Raises (with forward extensions x3): 3 sets/4 reps – 2 sets @ 15 lbs, 1 set @ 8 lbs
• Push-ups: 1 set/10 reps

Post-workout weight: 175.6 lbs

Stray Toasters

• Terence Stamp talks Valkyrie and Superman II
• …which reminds me: General Zod – 2008 Presidential Candidate

  

• Best and Worst-Dressed in Sci-Fi
• “Genuine Leather”



• How… HOW… in the Nine Hells do you manage to hit yourself in the head with a nail gun?!
• Edo Period-style Pac-Man fan art
• Giger-esque furniture from old motorbikes

Namaste.

Monday – 09 June 2008
Here comes the work week.

I can’t complain about the weather, though.

It’s supposed to get up to the upper 70s. I can deal with that… especially since SaraRules just told me that it’s cold enough in Aspen that she had to wear a sweater this morning. In June. That just ain’t right.

I played a little CoH last night. I may switch over to CoV in the next day or two and show Mr. Dhoruba some love. Speaking of whom, I need to get a screenshot of his updated look… as well as a shot of my new Hero-side character, Kurigari.

This morning, I apparently woke up long enough to turn off the alarm… and roll back over. I don’t really , remember it, though. I was up about twenty minutes later, though. It didn’t take too long to kick the morning into gear. And the frozen mocha didn’t hurt, either.

Stray Toasters

• WWDC.
• SaraRules and kind of bonded over a common… um… “lack of bonding” experience.
• Have you ever listened to Space Oddity with only one channel (right or left)? Try it sometime.
• I have started trying a couple of new layouts of items in one of the display cases:

  

  I know that this leaves a lot of empty space on that shelf, but I really like the way it accents the figure. The only better thing that I could imagine would be to have an LED in/on the figure, similar to the McFarlane HALO3 Cortana figure. I also wish that I had about a half-inch more height to work with – Galactus would look nice behind Jean.

• New rocket car spotted in Silver Lake
  (Why does this many me want to hum the theme from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?)
• My coworker Robert came over a little while ago to ask me if I had seen Stuff White People Like. I told him that I had and that I found it amusing.
• I find this particularly apt, especially given many Utah drivers’ aversion to roundabouts:



• Okay… this is a little uncanny (and weird): Without any input/coercion from me, a dialogue clip from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang just played on iTunes.
• Joshua Ellingson Fine Art & Illustration

Whee!!!!

Namaste.

Before I forget (again): Happy Hatching Day to !

The move went much faster than expected. I think that we were done with the lifting/shuttling in just over thirty minutes. We even got to use Forearm Forklift straps; different, but not bad. Nizlee’s folks fixed us a nice lunch in return for the elbow grease, which was very nice of them.

I had some time to kill before heading to Chris and Mary’s, so I thought I’d go by and play with the kids, since I was nearby. I called to see if she was at home; she wasn’t but said that I was welcome to stop by. And that’s exactly what I did. It’s been a few months since I’ve seen them. The biggest noticeable difference is that the fur on Presto’s lower back is developing more of an orange tint. But they’re all still very cute.

(click images for larger versions)

On to Chris and Mary’s to watch Diary of the Dead. It was a George Romero film, so of course there was a bit of commentary… but it was also a pretty good movie, too. It got a little campy for a couple of scenes near the end, but it did wrap up nicely.

Stray Toasters

• “I’m Samuel. Hello.”
• I picked up a pass to a sneak preview of The Incredible Hulk after the tournament yesterday. The screening is Monday night… at 7:00. I was actually looking forward to going… but then I remembered that I am going out to dinner with SaraRules’ family tomorrow evening.

  

  Oh, well. I’ll catch the movie when it releases. So, if anyone is interested in a free pass to the movie, let me know.

• I should play City tonight.
• Or Marvel Ultimate Alliance.
• Or go old school and play MechCommander, which I just got back from Chris.
• This is a cool picture of Wonder Woman.
• X2: X-Men United is on FX. I like this movie. And its predecessor. X3… not so much.

And with that… I’m a vapor trail.

Namaste.