Random Access

SaraRules and I headed into Aspen this afternoon.  We went to the Aspen Music Festival and School campus.  From there, it was into town to the Aspen Art Museum and to wander around; it reminded me a bit of Park City – a decent place to visit, but I don’t think I could live in either place. Next, we headed to the Aspen Music Festival concert grounds.  And then… back to Snowmass Village.  Jiggety-jig.

All that and pictures, too.

Stray Toasters

• Sock Monkey Named for Obama Criticized as Racist
• 3G iPhone coverage from…
  • Gizmodo
  • Engadget
• Shakespeare… in manga form: Much ado about manga.
• Sweet Christmas!

Zoom!

Thursday – 12 June 2008
So far the day goes well. That’s always a good thing.

<< Rewind <<
Last night, I was unbelievably lazy. I’d planned to do some straightening around the apartment. Nope. Didn’t happen. I think that the closest I came was putting the Sentinel in the case behind Phoenix… and then deciding that I liked the way Phoenix looked alone on the shelf better.

I did play City of Heroes, though. Not only did I play, I tacked two-and-a-half levels onto Kurigari. I hooked up with a good team and we ran through a few missions in The Hollows. It’s still a crappy zone for ground-pounders, but at least I’m less than two levels away from Superspeed. (Hover and Flight just don’t fit this character, so I’m not using them.)

I also watched Justice League Unlimited and ST: DS9, along with a couple of episodes of L&O: SVU. Decent episodes of each show: “Chaos at Earth’s Core,” “Emissary, Part II” and… I don’t remember which SVU episodes.

One thing that’s not a win: I’m remembering why I don’t watch G4’s Attack of the Show with any regularity. I keep comparing it – unfavorably – to The Screen Savers. TSS was a good show, you got tech news and info… with a little levity thrown in on the side. But the humour was smart and witty. AotS… just seems to go for the quick/cheap laugh or thrill and throw in something technical for fun or as an afterthought. Or maybe I’m no longer part of their core demographic.

> Play >
Coffee is a wonderful thing.
Coffee cake would be a nice addition… but I don’t have any.

Stray Toasters

• I have a doughnut. It’s not coffee cake, but beggars should not choosers be.
• Dinosaur
• By way of Indexed:



• Thanks to for pointing out Religulous. I’m interested in seeing this.
• Teens sending nekkid pics of themselves on cell phones! Oh, my! We never saw this coming, did we? Not in a million years. Apparently, Utah news sources are jumping on the bandwagon. Let’s hope that this doesn’t go over the same way as “the emo epidemic” did.
• …of course, then there’s this: Health group denounces Incredible Hulk for smoking
  Because, Heaven knows that kids would never see anyone smoking out on the street or anywhere else in everyday life. Flaming idiotsticks.
• 
• I’m spoiled. I had to change out a workstation’s power supply… with a manual screwdriver rather than a drill/driver.
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Man in court over comedy TV show
• Trial halted over judge’s website

The show must go on.

Namaste.

Hello, knee-jerk reaction: Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and Sprint to Block Usenet

And, yes, “toasterifficness” is a word.
His Chocolate Holiness has decreed it, so shall it be.

• I had an interesting thought while taking a walk at lunch: I passed some flowers outside one of the buildings in our office park; some of the flowers had begun to wilt. My first thought was “Why is beauty so transitory?” I mused on it for a few moments and then had to amend the thought to: “Why is our perception of beauty – or what is considered ‘beautiful’ – so transitory?”
• Somebody’s Somebody
• Lish wanted me to make a note of Bacon Salt. I seem to remember that someone else (possibly or ) had pointed this out to me a few months ago.
• Lish also thinks that I should audition for Top Chef… based solely on the strength of my S’mores Brownie Pie. I’m not so confident that they alone are enough to get me on – let alone through – a season of Top Chef.
• I’m anxious to get my guitar back from the shop. I wasn’t really aware how much I missed having it around… until it wasn’t. Go figure.
• Rowling’s Harvard Speech Doesn’t Entrance All
  Wow. I was pretty amazed at some of the graduates’ reactions in this article. Want to talk about “entitlement,” check these out these quotes:

  “I think we could have done better,” shrugged computer science major Kevin Bombino. He says Rowling lacks the gravitas a Harvard commencement speaker should have.”You know, we’re Harvard. We’re like the most prominent national institution. And I think we should be entitled to … we should be able to get anyone. And in my opinion, we’re settling here. “

  …and…

  “It’s definitely the ‘A’ list, and I wouldn’t ever associate J.K. Rowling with the people on that list,” says senior Andy Vaz. “From the moment we walk through the gates of Harvard Yard, they constantly emphasize that we are the leaders of tomorrow. They should have picked a leader to speak at commencement. Not a children’s writer. What does that say to the class of 2008? Are we the joke class?”

  As SaraRules put it: “I’m sorry that probably the most published living author isn’t good enough for a CS major.” I think that the best summary to the article was this:

  “They’ll grow up,” says 1983 graduate David Epstein. “They’ll have a broader worldview and they’ll understand that there are many, many ways to contribute. You know what they say — the freshman bring so much, and the seniors take away so little.”

• Today’s iTunes random play has been full of Prince songs.

Tuesday: Coda
When I got home, I turned on the TV and started surfing. I landed on CNN. As the Montana and South Dakota primaries were tonight, I watched the coverage. I missed Hillary Clinton’s… “No I’m not done, yet” speech. There’s a part of me that’s glad I did. I did watch Barack Obama’s speech. Once again, it was a classic. He didn’t bash Senator Clinton and there was only one jab (that I picked up on) at Senator McCain. Other than that, he seemed sincere and humble and appreciative.

After I watched a little more primary coverage, I flipped over to L&O: SVU. It was a rebroadcast of the season finale, which I didn’t see in first-run. It was a good episode, but it left a few questions about next season.

While waiting for dinner to cook (i.e.: “putting it the nukerator”), I installed a light in one of the display cases. It looks nice. I may move some things around to catch the light better. I may not. We’ll see.

Stray Toasters

• I chatted with Rana briefly this evening. She and Bit are back in the States and doing well.
• Liv Tyler is on The Tonight Show. She seems so… grounded. I find that odd/interesting, as her father is Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler. I guess that I was expecting her to be more Jack and Kelly Osbourne.
• , guess what character is getting a new action figure made. Here’s a hint:

  

• With Eric’s help, I was able to recover data from DS9’s former hard drive. After the process, I dismantled the drive – it was the first time that I had done that.
• I made the mistake of flipping to Boomerang a little while ago. Space Ace was on. That reminded me of the proliferation of video game-related cartoons that were part of the CBS Saturday morning lineup in the 80s.
• By way of Despair.com:



• AirPort Extreme. Hmm.
• A commercial for Burger King, featuring The Artist Formerly Known as Puff Daddy, was just on. In it, a BK marketing guy tells P. Diddy (as he is now known),”We need a new ad campaign.” Young Mr. Combs looks at him and, very simply says, “Tell ’em Diddy says ‘BK is open late.'” And then something FINALLY hit me: Something about the name “P. Diddy” struck me as both odd/ridiculous… but strangely familiar, however I didn’t make the connection until tonight:

  

  That’s right: Diddy Kong. He renamed himself… after a cartoon/video game monkey.

• Donkey Kong was adapted into a cartoon, too. Also on CBS. Also far from good.
• There’s a Utah Blaze game Monday night. That could be a nice change of pace way to spend the evening.

Time to figure out what I want for a pre-bed snack.

Namaste.

Friday – 30 May 2008
Nodded off on the couch (yet again) last night. I woke up long enough to take care of the nightly hygiene rituals and hit the rack somewhere around 2:00.

Once again, I was awake around 6:00.
The alarm was set for 6:35.
Naturally, I stayed in bed for the extra few minutes.
Up out and in the office by a few minutes past 8:00. Hopefully, the rest of the day will go as swimmingly.

Stray Toasters

• By way of (with an assist from ):



• By way of Rolling Stone: The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time
• Adventurer will live 300 days as Robinson Crusoe
• From Indexed:



• What’s wrong with the following series of pictures? (Answer at the end of the post)

  
  (click images to view larger versions)

Quotes of the Day: Things overheard in a Waiting Room
You just can’t make stuff like this up:

• A phone call came in, apparently a patient canceling because a family member had something going on/bad. The receptionist replied: “…just let her drink some flat soda or Sprite or something, to get some nourishment in her.”
  (Wait… Since when is “soda” considered a source of “nourishment?”)
• Receptionist 1: 13 year old boys won’t cuddle with their moms…
  Receptionist 2: Sure they will, if they’re sick.
• A woman checks in, gets forms to fill out, hands them back in…
  Receptionist: You’re not allergic to anything?
  Patient: No.
  Receptionist: I mean medicines…
  Patient: No.
  (If someone says that they aren’t allergic to something, I’d take it as a pretty good bet that they would consider medicines on the list of “Things I’m allergic to,” especially if they are in a doctor’s office.)
• Observed: PA comes into the waiting room, looks around… “Claudia?”
  There was only one woman in the room.
• A man comes in to reschedule an appointment for his wife:
  Receptionist: Did the pill give her diarrhea?
  Man: No, more constipated than anything.
  Receptionist: Oh. Well some people react to it differently. Some people say it doesn’t do anything to them, others say it’s like an explosion.

Back to the grind.

Namaste.

Answer: If it’s supposed to be an automatic faucet, why does it have handles?
(Hint: It wasn’t.)

Thursday – 29 May 2008
A couple of things that started the morning nicely:

1. I Am LEGO



2. Sent to me by CoworkerJG, who knows my proclivity for City of Heroes/Villains:

I think that these were good ways to kick of any NBN Thursday. And this morning’s coffee didn’t hurt, either. Nor did “The Boys in Brazil,” the behind-the-scenes movie from Disc Two of Rush in Rio, made during the Vapor Trails tour, playing on my port side monitor; it’s not only a cool look at what you might not otherwise see or know about putting together a concert and/or a tour, but it’s fun, too.

So, all together, I guess that it would be “No Bad News Sushi and Comic Book ‘Wednesday’,” too.

Stray Toasters

• I am “this close” to ordering a set of HeroClix Giants. It has Colossal Boy and Validus ‘Clix. Must have.
• Terminator Salvation: The Future begins principal photography
• principal != principle
• sent me a link to an article about Nepal abolishing it’s monarchy. In honor of that, I dedicate this Schoolhouse Rock! toon:

  No, it’s not entirely the same thing, but it’s as close as I could get.

• also (indirectly) had to deal with a monkey today:
  

  : there was a goddamn monkey in my yard today
  : O.o
  : while the movers were packing things up
  : Did it get packed into the truck?
  : you assume there was a moving truck
  : Oh.
  : the 9 crates are still in my yard
  : Right.
  Wait…. WHAT?!
  : they have to take them to the airport one by one in a tiny little jeep
  : …
  Wow.
  : yea
  so this little fucker is running around trying to bite the movers
  he climbed inside the crates while they were packing boxes into them
  i was laughing my ass off
  but admittedly
  i was laughing from behind the window inside
  those things are freaking mean

• NBC launches horror anthology series Fear Itself
• Does anyone else remember Tales of the Gold Monkey?
• Private Donor Saves Fermilab
• Update: I bought the ‘Clix Giants.
• Tyranist: James Bond Book Covers
• Ken Jennings, the man who holds the record for the longest winning streak on Jeopardy!, has written a blog post about Mike Allred’s Madman!, whose protagonist is apparently Mormon. I recall reading many rains past that The New Mutants’ Cypher was supposed to be Mormon, but the only other character that I knew was definitely LDS was Dr. Deseret (1, 2) from Will Shetterly’s Captain Confederacy.

/lunch

Namaste.

Intelligent != Smart

Monday – 05 May 2008
Cinco de Mayo.

Last night, after we moved some of SaraRules’ things and had dinner, we watched Night Watch and Cloverfield.  It’s been a while since I’ve seen Day Watch; I need to watch it again to get the full story.  Seeing Cloverfield on the small screen was good as it didn’t have the same overwhelming sense of “Blair Witch cam”-induced sensory overload that seeing it on the big screen had.  (No, sitting on the fourth row of the theatre had nothing to do with it…)  It was also good because of the special features.  There was one interview that mentioned something about the story of which neither of us was aware.  Knowing this item changes the dynamic of the movie a bit.

Meanwhile, back in northern Utah…

The commute wasn’t bad this morning.  The monkeys were pretty well-behaved.  This is not to say that there wasn’t action:

I had just crossed into Beaver County when I got passed by a red Mazda or Acura or Infinity.  The lady driving it looked like she was on a mission.  I was doing somewhere around 80 MPH and she cruised right on past me.  She didn’t exactly leave me in the dust, but she was moving at a good clip.  I decided to ghost her, lagging behind about seven to ten car lengths.  We drove through Beaver, no problem.  Just north of Beaver, she crested a hill as she cruised up behind a van and a truck.  Approaching the top of the hill, I decided to back off the gas a little.

Good thing, too.  As I hit the summit, there was a UHP Dodge Charger in the middle of a U-turn.  I backed off a little more; he completed his turn a few lengths behind me.  He cruised along, off my driver’s side rear quarter panel.  Then he sped up a bit.  Just after he passed me, he dropped the pedal and hit the lights.

Target: Red car.

He rolled up behind her.  She was apparently oblivious to this fact.  He must have stayed behind her for nearly a half-mile before she rubbed a couple of brain cells together, mustered up a clue and pulled over

Other than that, the drive was uneventful until I got to NEHPI Nephi – there was an overturned tractor-trailer just south of Exit 225.

Workout
Today’s workout focus was shoulders:

• Flys (Nautilus): 3 sets/15 reps – 95 lbs, 125 lbs, 95 lbs.
• Shoulder Press (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 40 lbs
• Upright Rows (barbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 50 lbs
• Lateral Raises (dumbbell): 3 sets/12 reps, 12 lbs
• Back Extensions: 2 sets/15 reps, using 5 lb. weights to do flys at the top of the extension

Post-workout weight: 170.4 lbs.

We tried a few shoulder presses with 50 lb. dumbbells.  They felt awkward and too heavy.  We also tried them on a couple of benches – The first one, a preacher curl bench, just felt “wrong;” the second was a flat bench, which provided no back support.

Stray Toasters

• Florida in t-minus three days and counting…
• The Evolution of Video Game Music
• Iron Man wound up making $101M (USD) over the weekend.  Somehow, I think that they’ll easily recover the costs of making/marketing the movie.  Call it a hunch.
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Woman without hands asked for fingerprints
• #000000 Power T-shirt



• The 50 Greatest Commercial Parodies of All-Time

/lunch

Namaste.

Thursday: Coda
Post-work, I got stuck in the northbound crawl to Salt Lake. There was an accident a few miles north of where I got on the interstate, so what should have been a 30-ish minute drive turned into a nearly hour-long trek. I don’t know “when” the accident occurred, but by the time I got to the scene, the vehicles were on the side of the road and being loaded onto tow trucks. But that didn’t mean that everyone had stopped rubbernecking. Quite the opposite, in fact. Yay for road monkeys!

I met SaraRules, in town for a group presentation, at her parents’. The presentation went well, she said. We hung out with her family for a while before heading to coffee – it was nice to see and hang out with the usual suspects.  Tomorrow, after work and a certain “team-building” exercise (involving personal armor with offensive and defensive capabilities), we’re heading to Cedar… where we’ll hook up with her parents again.  Saturday, she graduates with her MFA.

Stray Toasters

• The classic Jonny Quest still kicks much ass. Yes, there are some outdated concepts and stereotypes, but a lot of today’s cartoons could learn a lesson or fourteen from this toon.
• Sarah Chalke, who portrays Dr. Elliot Reid on NBC’s Scrubs, was also (the second) Becky Connor on Roseanne.
• Iron Man: The Science Behind the Fiction
• 
• Most of you have undoubtedly heard the phrase “…a quantum leap.” Many people assume that it means a major change. It doesn’t.
  

  In real physical systems a quantum leap is not necessarily a large change, and can in fact be very insignificant. A good example of this can be taken from the Bohr model of the hydrogen atom, where the observed energy shifts associated with shifts of different quantum states (quantum leaps) span a wide range from large to small (when compared to the energy required to completely free an electron). In the popular sense, the term is usually applied to mean a large or significant change, which is thus not strictly correct.

• From woot.com: Winners’ Gallery – the Best of Contest 170
• To avoid complication
  She never kept the same address
  In conversation
  She spoke just like a…
  

Namaste.

Thursday – 17 April 2008
NBN Thursday in the valley. Sunny, trying to be warm.

Today has been pretty good. I have been trying to figure out a (better) way to build a list with checkboxes, pulling data from my database. Slow-going, but it’s coming along. It is also “Sushi Wednesday.” I had a Seattle roll along with Ika and Ebi (shrimp) Nigiri.

There is construction on 33rd South. There’s a deep trench running down the middle of the street. On the way to the restaurant, Joe asked what they were doing. I responded: “Laying pipe… and in this case, it’s not a euphemism.” A little later Mike showed up and asked,”What are they doing out there,” to which Joe quickly retorted: “Laying pipe,” at which we just ran with the joke:

“Laying pipe.”
“Yep, lots of men… laying pipe.”
“Pipe so big they need heavy equipment to lay it right.”

Hilarity ensued.
Stray Toasters

• I hung out with last night. She was having an issue with pools of water collecting on the carpet outside her bathroom. (Hm, that sounds vaguely familiar.) She called maintenance to look at it; the guy did what he could, but noted that he would have to check the apartments above hers for signs of leakage. (That sounds familiar, too…) After he left, we went out for dinner. Aside from the plumbing issue, it was a nice way to spend the evening.
• Two Minutes and 42 Seconds in Heaven
• By way of Markin’ Time: Coolest Fighter Jets… EVER!
• Superman and Superboy: Newsarama takes a look at the ongoing cases
• I just received the following email from my mother:
  

  Slap Your Co-Worker Day Is Coming!

  

  Do you have a co-worker who talks nonstop about nothing, working your last nerve with tedious and boring details that you don’t care about?
  Do you have a co-worker who ALWAYS screws up stuff creating MORE work for you?
  Do you have a co-worker who kisses so much booty, you can look in their mouth and see what your boss had for lunch?
  Do you have a co-worker who is SOOO obnoxious, when he/she enters a room, everyone else clears it?

  Well, on behalf of Ike Turner, I am so very very glad to officially announce tomorrow as SLAP YOUR IRRITATING CO-WORKER DAY!

  There are the rules you must follow:

  • You can only slap one person per hour – no more.
  • You can slap the same person again if they irritate you again in the same day.
  • You are allowed to hold someone down as other co-workers take their turns slapping the irritant.
  • No weapons are allowed…other than going upside somebody’s head with a stapler or a hole-puncher.
  • If questioned by a supervisor [or police, if the supervisor is the irritant], you are allowed to LIE, LIE, LIE!

  Now, study the rules, break out your list of folks that you want to slap the living day lights out of and get to slapping…..and have a great day!

• D&D Ability Score Quiz
  • Strength: 12
  • Dex: 15
  • Con: 13
  • Int: 15
  • Wis: 15
  • Cha: 15
  • Special Abilities: Sarcasm
• Young Me / Now Me

And that’s a wrap… for now.

Namaste.

Friday – 11 April 2008
Greetings from southern Utah. I got special dispensation to work from home today… so I decided that since I had everything that I needed for today’s work on Defiant, I would beat Friday afternoon/evening traffic by leaving Thursday night. It seemed to work pretty well.

Today, I’ve been working on my database front end and I found a/the error in coding that’s kept one section from working properly. One small, simple thing. It’s been dancing at the edge of my awareness for the past day or so – I’ve been tinkering with things around it, but not that one item – but I finally found it, changed it, and now it’s working. Now I can move on to the next piece of the puzzle. This whole project – warts and all – has been a fun challenge.

I went to the gym before going to lunch. Details below.

SaraRules got in from work, picked me up and we met some of the other MFAs – and Matt, director of their program – for lunch at a place called “Grumpy Joes.” The restaurant is a small, very unassuming place in a little strip of shops. If you blinked while driving by it, you’d miss it. Literally. We did, in fact.

It’s run by an older couple; the gentleman, known only by his (last) name: Farina, is a riot. Seriously. He was taking our orders and would stop to tell a story or a joke/funny comment. And did he ever take a shine to SaraRules. She walked in the door and he walked over and hugged her. She also got special attention from him throughout the meal.

The food was pretty good. It wasn’t Spago or Tavern on the Green, but neither did it purport itself as such. It was more like home-cooking. I think that we’ll have to go there again before SaraRules leaves Cedar.

Workout
A little before lunch, I headed to the Gold’s Gym to get in a workout. I needed it; I’ve been slacking a bit on my exercising. The Gold’s here is kind of… small. But, it’s a gym. And I was able to get in a decent workout:

• Recumbent Bike: 1.6 miles, ~100 rpm (roughly 7 minutes)
• Decline Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 155 lbs
• Curls (dumbbell, Hammer grip): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
• Lateral Raises (forward rotation): 3 sets/10 reps, 10 lbs
• Rows: 3 sets/10 reps, 120 lbs
• Tricep Extension (dumbbell, overhead, standing): 3 sets/10 reps, 45 lbs
• Tricep Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 80 lbs
• Core: 4 sets – 2 sets/full extension, 45 secs.; 2 sets/elbows, 30 secs.

Post-workout weight: 171.0 lbs

I forgot to weigh myself at the gym. In fact, I completely spaced it off until I was just about to step in to the shower. So, today’s weight, while accurate, doesn’t reflect the added weight of gym clothes.

Stray Toasters

• I am beginning to grok:
  • CSS layout > HTML tables

  …and how to implement them.

• After seeing Kevin Cronin on Don’t Forget the Lyrics a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been more apt to listen to the various and sundry REO Speedwagon selections in my iTunes folder.
• Firefox Logo Spied in Deep Space
• Someone in SaraRules’ apartment has a copy of the April 2008 issue of Cosmpolitan. In it is an article entitled: “21 Things Every Guy Wants to Hear” Laughing, SaraRules pointed out the following, saying that she saw it and thought of me:
  

  #19: “A man wearing anything dressier than jeans and a tee shirt is trying too hard.

  *blink blink*

  Fortunately, I also know her sense of style and fashion, so I know that she doesn’t agree with this. For laughs, I read the other twenty items. Given that Rocky is her favorite movie, I told her the following reminded me of her:

  #21: “I want to march down the aisle to the theme from Rocky.”

  …to which she retorted: “The theme? Can you see me marching down the aisle to that? No. Now, the slow, romantic theme, maybe. But not really.”

• For :



• Discuss among yourselves: Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone
• Coldfinger….
  She’s the girl, the girl with the polar touch
  A penguin’s touch
  Such a cold finger
  Beckons you to enter her cave, frozen
  But don’t go in….
• 
• Mother saw warning signs in son who planned shooting spree
• tomarrow != tomorrow
• Murdered Pregnant Women: The Racial Divide
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Mom Brings Baby Along to Candy Store Robbery

Time to get on with the weekend… in the words of .

Namaste.

Monday – 07 April 2008
Yesterday afternoon, SaraRules and I took a little time to play in the sunshine; we went for a walk along the trail in Ann J. Gardner Canyon Park (pictures). After we got back, we watched Superman: Doomsday. Fun film… even if it didn’t exactly follow “The Death of Superman” storyline perfectly.

After that, we realized that it was time to find something dinner-like. But, we had no idea “what.” Once we finally settled on it – grilled cheese sandwiches and soup – we hit the grocery store and came home.

Objectives:

1. Fix food
2. Eat
3. Watch Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

As Meat Loaf said: Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad: By the time we got back, Darrilyn and Kim had started watching Dirty Dancing, which Darrilyn hadn’t seen before. So… we watched Dirty Dancing. MST3K-style. Mr. Poitier and company will just have to wait until next weekend.

Today, I slept in a bit before making the journey back to the northlands. I pushed back my departure a bit because looneybin88 told me that the roads were a bit nasty thanks to… you guessed it: Snow. Fortunately, I-15 wasn’t bad, until I got a little north of Fillmore. Then, I hit some rain. It cleared up around Scipio. But, when I got a few miles south of Nephi, I ran into a wall of rain that turned into snow. And, as I left Nephi in the rear view mirror, I left the snow behind, too.

Workout
Eric waited for me to get in before heading to the gym. Today’s routine consisted of:

• Bench Press: 3 sets/8 reps, 225 lbs
• Curls (dumbbell, Hammer grip): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
• Flys (Nautilus): 3 sets/10 reps, 110 lbs
• Pull-downs (behind the head): 3 sets/10 reps, 120 lbs
• Rows (T-bar style, with a barbell): 3 sets/12 reps, 55 lbs
• Core: 3 sets at full-arm extension, 2 sets on elbows

Pre-workout weight: 176.8 lbs.

I wish that I could say that the weight gain is due to packing on the muscle… but I think that it would be more apt to say that the s’mores brownies that I made Thursday night – and ate all weekend – had more to do with it.

I also seem to have… um… “misplaced” my lock. Something that I didn’t discover until I was ready to secure the locker. So, unless it magically appears sometime this week, I’ll be using the Superman lock that gave me. That should get a few interesting looks around the locker room, I’m sure.

Stray Toasters

• I’m still just *a little* in shock that SaraRules actually posted on here yesterday. Just a ‘Toaster, but it still counts.
• I know that it’s just speculation at this point, but still… the idea that Apple may seriously upgrade/change the MacBook lines soon is good/bad news.
• Quinoa
• From xkcd.com: “Cheap GPS”



• There were a couple of interesting items on NPR today:
  • The Diane Rehm Show: FAA and Airline Safety Inspections
  • Talk of the Nation: After Death, a Soldier’s Journey Is Not Over

  The TotN piece was amazing. In it, Neal Conan interviewed Chris Jones, a writer for Esquire, who did a piece about a soldier’s “final journey,” from the Middle East to his burial in southern Indiana. I was pretty much rapt by the story; I can’t wait to read the actual article when the new issue of Esquire comes out.

• 
• 4/6 lfm tank and dd – The Jargon of Online Gaming
• By way of Wired.com: How College Courses Should Be Taught
• I should probably start giving some thought to what I want for dinner…
• Given the way things went yesterday, I should also start thinking about what I want to cook for dinner Sunday.

Namaste.

Friday – 04 April 2008
Another week comes to a close. And at the close of the day, I’ll be heading down to Cedar City… for the first time in five or six weeks.

Last night I didn’t really feel like doing much when I got home from work, so I pretty much spent the evening doing my best impression of a couch potato. I think I did a pretty good job at it. CSI:, Without a Trace, Law & Order… it was nice to just chill and surf and just generally hang out.

On the way into the office, I ran into loonybin88. He needed to pick up his truck from one of the nearby dealerships; I gave him a lift over rather than have him hoof it over there. When we got there, I remembered that my friend Shane, whom I haven’t seen in ages, said that she worked there… but that that was months ago. But, since I was there, I figured why not see if she was still there. Turns out that she was; it was a nice way to kick off the morning.

Workout
So, I apparently DO remember where the gym is and how to use the equipment there. Eric and I hit a decent all-around workout:

• Leg Raises: 3 sets/20 reps
• Chin-ups: 1 set (just to kill some time)
• Incline Press: 3 sets/10 reps (2 sets, 155 lbs; third set: 155 lbs/8 reps, 135/3 reps)
• Cable Row: 3 sets/10 reps, 120 lbs
• Shrug (Nautilus): 3 sets/10 reps, 180 lbs
• Cable Fly: 3 sets/10 reps, 110 lbs
• Decline Press (dumbbell): 3 sets/12 reps, 40 lbs (each)

Pre-workout weight: 174.8 lbs

Stray Toasters

• I have brownies!
• Rush To Begin Work on New Album Next Year
• CCH Pounder was on an episode of L&O: The Next Generation L&O: SVO I watched last night. She’s a damn fine actress. (And she was also a great choice for the voice of Amanda Waller on Justice League Unlimited.) I have yet to see her in a role where I don’t enjoy her performance.
• Comic Book Resources has a couple of fun interviews with:
  • Robert Downey, Jr.
  • Terence Howard
• And, in an unrelated note, they have a multi-part interview with Geoff Johns on…
  1. Green Lantern
  2. Action Comics
  3. Justice Society of America
  4. Booster Gold
• Newsarama has a Geoff Johns interview (1, 2) that delves into a bit behind this summer’s “Legion of Three Worlds” event.
• MONKEYS! >.<
• Study: Violent Video Games Relax Players
• Did I mention: MONKEYS!?!?
• We just introduced a coworker to Cthulhu. Pray for his soul.

And now, it’s time to burn the breeze.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 19 February 2008
Home again.

I tried getting in touch with Tammy, but didn’t catch her… so Monday was “spend the last few hours of vacation hanging out with the family before getting on a plane” day. We did head out for a bit, so that I could take SaraRules over to Pimlico Race Course, home of the Preakness Stakes… which is only a couple of miles from the house. After getting back from that, we hung out with Bot, Bit and . Pictures were taken. (Granted, these were lumped in with other pictures taken over the course of the weekend – including two with my uncle and one with Bret – but there are pictures nonetheless.) Also, here are pictures of the quilt that SaraRules made for Grace. When the time came to leave, we said our goodbyes, threw our things in the car and headed to BWI. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. We checked in and made it through security quickly and painlessly. Then… we waited.

We boarded our plane and we were on our way west again. The flight was rather uneventful; to pass the time, SaraRules and I watched Transformers. She hadn’t seen it before, but enjoyed it. An hour and some change later, we were in Las Vegas. Our bags were on the carousel almost by the time we got there. To the car. Out the garage and we were on our way…

…to In-n-Out Burger. After that and a stop for gasoline, we were on the road back to Cedar City. By the time we got in, we were exhausted. So, we crashed.

This morning, we got up, ready and on our respective ways: SaraRules to class; me to work.

The work day wasn’t very eventful, which is not a bad thing. Eric and I had a special guest star for today’s workout: Wes, who in the AF office today. Today’s routine included:

• Leg Raises: 3 sets/20 reps
• Pull-ups: 3 sets/10 reps
• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 205 lbs.
• Cable Row: 3 sets/10 reps, 120 lbs.
• Shoulder Press (seated, dumbbells): 3 sets/10 reps, 45 lbs.
• Cable Fly: 3 sets/10 reps, 95 lbs.
• Core Exercises
  • One-leg, with twist: 2 sets
  • Standard (plank): 3 sets – 45 seconds, 30 seconds, 30 seconds

Today’s weight: 172.4 lbs.
It was a good mix. And tiring. It was Wes’ first time really working out in about six months. (Having brain surgery will do that to you, apparently.) He did fine. While he had to back off of some of the weight that Eric and I did, he was still right there with us otherwise.

Post-work, it was Scion game night. We didn’t do very much, as a couple of players weren’t there, but we were able to move the story along a little. And it was fun to hang out with the gaming crew.

Monkey of the Day
On the way home from gaming, I stopped at the grocery store. While I was in the checkout line, a young-ish guy (mid 20s, I would guess) came in, carrying a gallon of milk. He asked to speak to one of the managers. When she came to the front of the store, he told her that he’d purchased the milk at another location, but it was apparently past its “best if used by” date and wanted his money back. The manager offered to exchange the bad milk for a new one. The guy wasn’t having any part of that – he wanted his money. The manager said that she couldn’t just refund his money – as the milk wasn’t purchased at this store – but re-offered to replace the bad milk. His response: “Yes you can! This is all just one big chain. You can give me my money! It’s all the same store!” The manager countered that it was not, in fact, “…all the same store.”

This went around and around a couple of times. The guy finally started cursing at the manager. She walked away, saying, “I’m not going to go on with this if you’re going to speak to me this way.” She never raised her voice. She didn’t get confrontational. The guy just wouldn’t quit. He asked… no… “demanded”… that she get him the general manager’s name and contact information. She politely refused, as the guy was still slinging expletives at her.

He was still arguing (is it right to say “arguing” if he was the only one talking?) after I checked out and left.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules sent a lovely bouquet of flowers to my parents as a “thank you for your hospitality” gift. Dad replied by text message to her and to me. If I had to guess, I would say that she made a good impression on the folks. (Not that I really had to guess, though.)
• Cherry Hill to Capitol Hill: Barry C. Black marks several ‘firsts’ as U.S. Senate Chaplain
• Senators Obama and McCain both won in Wisconsin.
  And with 51% of precincts reporting, Senator Obama is well ahead of Senator Clinton in Hawai’i.
• 
• D&D Insider Flash Interviews
• By way of Deacon Derek: Subnormality: “Supervillains Anonymous”
  
• 
• Tyranist: Library built into a staircase
• Classic SF movies rendered as Russian folk-art woodcuts

I suppose that I should move from “the theory of sleep” to “the practical application of sleep.”

Namaste.