Random Access

Thursday – 14 February 2008
First off: Happy Valentine’s Day.

Now that we have that out of the way…

Yesterday was…interesting. On many levels. I started the day in SLC, so that I could work on a couple of server issues. The biggest headache of the issues was replacing a mainboard and a couple of sideboards. That took longer than planned, but I got it done.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get it finished before the latest snow storm to hit Utah – not just SLC – rolled in. I left the SLC office, popped home to pick up a couple of things I needed for the trip and got back on the road. It took me two-and-a-half hours to get from SLC to AF. This was due mostly to the fact that UHP and UDoT had closed a couple of roads that branched off of I-15 in Utah County. And, let me tell you, a gridlocked I-15 at the top of South Mountain is not where you want to be when you’re having an Wakko Warner-like potty emergency. *sigh* I made it to the AF office, took care of the two things I needed to and got back on the road.

The snow wasn’t hellish through Provo, but – to their credit – drivers weren’t behaving like heroin-addicted monkeys, either. That was a pleasant surprise. Outside of Utah County, the roads were a mixed bag: Some were well-cleared, others were not-so-cleared, but passable. I managed to get behind a couple of snow plows, which was nice. Falling in behind a few semis wasn’t bad, either…

…but it still took me SIX HOURS to get to Cedar City. *gah*

I had planned to get up and go to the gym when SaraRules headed to work this morning. Yeah… “theory vs. practical application” at its finest. I didn’t wake up until nearly noon.

Now, it’s final packing prep and on the road to Vegas.

And then… Baltimore.

Namaste.

Monday – 04 February 2008
Another week begins…

…but it’s one daycloser to the 14th, which is not only Valentine’s Day (or Single Awareness Day, as some would say) but also the day that SaraRules and I head on another long weekend vacation.

Destination: Baltimore.

We’re heading home to see the miracle of the new little grey (or zebra-striped or polka-dotted) addition to the family. I’m still hoping that is able to convince Sib -1 that “Ercu Latte” is a good name for a baby.

The commute this morning wasn’t hellish. UDoT took care of most of I-15 with their usual aplomb. Of course, the areas just south and just north of Beaver were a little lacking in attention to detail, but them’s the breaks. For the most part, the other drivers were decent and courteous… although there were a couple of monkey-riffic ones, including a semi driver whom I had to fight my way past in Cove Fort.

SaraRules had mentioned something last weekend, while she was up here: About 6 miles south of Nephi, on the east side of the highway, is a sign for a Super 8 Motel. But… there’s a problem with the sign. See if you can figure out what it is:

For those of you who don’t see anything wrong, let me help you:

The name of the town is Nephi, pronounced “knee-fie.”
As spelled on that sign, it would be pronounced: “neh-pee” or “neh-pie.”

That sign had to go through, at least, two or three levels of quality control before it made it to the roadside. You would think that someone – the motel owners, the graphic designer or even the printer – would have caught the error before clearing the sign for use.

Oh, Schoolhouse Rock! , how we miss you…

Namaste.

Wednesday – 23 January 2008
Mid-week and all’s well… if grey, gloomy and generally “blah” can be considered “well.”

I got a decent start on the morning… even after someone dialed my number at 5:45 AM. No idea who it was, because no number came up on the Caller ID. Monkeys. I was up and nominally mobile a little after 7:00 this morning and out the door, caffeinated (and bagel-laden) and in the office by 8:30. As an added bonus, the first song on Nomad’s shuffle play was Big Daddy Kane’s A Job Ain’t Nuthin’ But Work. Nice way to kick off the short commute.

Mo’ money, mo’ money, mo’ money got get made
To get paid in this trade
And I believe that I can acheive
To make ends meet like a hair weave

Survivin’ in this economy people in the world wanna be
Stayin’ in the upper class so you’re the path
The rich gets the most and the poor gets so little
And only Monie Love can make it in the middle

The work day wasn’t too chaotic. Fortunately. I was asked to check out a problem with a server… which not only was not having a problem (today), but was also in the middle of running some tests for one of our engineers. So, that got downgraded from “Put this at the top of today’s to-do list” to “Keep an eye on this.” I’m okay with that. I’ve also managed to work in some hardware testing… which means that I have been able to clear stacks of dysfunctional machinery out of my work area. I actually found some work space under all of the dreck!

Sushi Wednesday.
New Comics Day.
‘Nuff said.

Genius that I am, I left the power cord (POWER CHORD!) for Defiant at work. *sigh* This meant that – rather than go buy a (“yet another”) new one – I had to go back to the office to retrieve it. This was good on a couple of counts… as I also forgot that I needed to pick up a few things at the store, too. So, I headed to the office to find…

…neither of my badges worked on the main doors of the building. *grblsnrkx* Fortunately, I had messaged Code Monkey BB to see if he was still at work before leaving home. He was. I called him and he brought my cord down to the lobby. We chatted a bit before I took off to run some more errands and he went back upstairs to sling some more code.

After errand-running, I decided to see if was in. She was. I told her that I had her Trader Joe’s shwag with me and would drop it off, if that was alright. Not only was it alright, she asked if I’d mind lending a hand to , who had been helping her resurrect her PC – at this point they were having a problem getting her mouse to respond and needed to rejoin the PC to the wireless network.

No problem!
Piece of cake!
We’d have it back online and humming in no time!

An hour and a half later, we finally had things up and running again. Just like Tom Tom the Piper’s Son… but without the pigs.

Stray Toasters

• I had many things in the four-color hold today… and I picked up a couple new Stikfas:
  1. Alpha Male Samurai with Stallion
  2. Omega Male Black Knight
• By way of comes Gaslight Justice League, a steampunk/Victorian Era look at the JLA.
• had a few things to say about peoples’ reactions to Heath Ledger’s death.
• Today was also Sushi Wednesday for … who, along with the Sib-1 sister-unit, has been interviewing pediatricians. It sounds like it has been a feast-or-famine kind of thing.
• : has your Trader Joe’s items, as you are more likely to see her on Friday evening.
• Area 51 designated with a new name
• By way of : The Internet Party: What happens when Google’s parents leave town for the weekend?
• By way of : The 5 Most Horrifying Bugs in the World
• SR-71A… made out of LEGO. Win-Win!

I’m sure that there was probably more that I was going to add to this… but all I want to do now is save the world (if I can find a team) and read the rest of this week’s four-color haul.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 08 January 2008
This post is brought to you by The Council for Better Driving.
(…and The Society for Keeping Me from Snapping My Foot Off in a Monkey’s Ass)

Turn signals.

I believe that all cars are equipped with them. As a standard feature, no less. When properly used, they indicate a driver’s desire to either initiate a lane change or to make a turn. Note that I said “desire,” and not something like “God-given right.” There is a reason for that. To illustrate this reason, I’ll give an example:

This morning, while commuting from the SLC office to the AF office, I was traveling along I-215 (westbound), heading for the I-15 interchange. Just before the 15/215 interchange, there is an on-ramp from 280 East that merges into 215 westbound. And here, we arrive at the crux of the matter.

I was less than a mile from the I-15 exit, preparing to merge one lane to the right and turn onto I-15. A silver car – oddly, I remember the license plate moreso than the make/model of the car – came down the 280 East on-ramp. The car arrived at the merging area just behind me – just off my left rear bumper.

I continued to drive normally.

The driver sped up until it we were roughly eye-to-eye… and then she looked at me, as if to say, “Well…?! Are you going to let me over?!”

It was at this point, I noticed that her turn signal was on.

I continued driving. Again, the turn signal indicates “desire” – or even intent – to initiate a change, not a mandate to get out of the merging/turning car’s way. In fact, let’s look at the Utah Traffic Code on this matter:

• 41-6a-804: Turning or changing lanes — Safety — Signals — Stopping or sudden decrease in speed — Signal flashing — Where prohibited.
• 41-6a-903. Yield right-of-way — Vehicle turning left — Entering or crossing highway other than from another roadway — Merging lanes.

Rather than slowing to merge in behind me – for which there was more than ample room – the driver sped up and passed me. In and of itself, I would have been alright with this. More or less. The irritating thing was: The entire time that she spent speeding up, passing me and merging two lanes to the left, she was staring me down in her rear-view mirror, as if to say, “You ass… You should have let me over before!” *sigh* Some people’s children.

Therefore, It’s time for a new rule:

Rule #3: Use your turn signals.
Please remember: Using your turn signals does not bestow upon you carte blanche or noblesse oblige driving privileges.

Let’s also take this opportunity to review Rules #1 and #2, as well:

Rule #1: Don’t be a rude or discourteous driver.
(This has been amended from the previous “Don’t be a fucker,” at the recommendation of our Director of Marketing, in order to facilitate more… “palatable”… ad campaigns.)

Rule #2: Slow down and let’s ALL get where we’re going in one piece.
You might be immortal, but the rest of us on the road aren’t.

Thank you.

Namaste.

Monday – 07 January 2008
Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

Remember the snow I mentioned last night? It didn’t stop until this morning. Given this, you would think that UDoT would have sent a plow or two to take care of clearing I-15 Northbound. Nope. And, if… IF… they did, it must have been in the wee hours of the night and not since. Therefore, the drive from Cedar City to Beaver – which usually takes about 35 minutes – took over an hour. *sigh* There were a couple of small patches of clear road up to Beaver, but each of them was less than a half-mile long. I should also mention that for most of the Cedar-to-Beaver trip, only one lane was decently drivable. Yay. And then there was was that driver from Nevada who decided that she could/would not be passed: When I made a go of it – on one of the rare clear stretches of two clear lanes – she sped up to pace me… until I hit the next slushy/icy patch. Monkey.

Once I got a few miles north of Beaver, you would have never known that there had been snow on the roads. Seriously. The roads were bone dry. I made up a little time, but didn’t really drop the hammer.

Work was quiet and low-key today. This was a good thing. I was asked a few questions; I gave a few answers. Not everyone went away happy, but they knew what was up.

Stray Toasters

• I’m (finally) reading Batman: The Long Halloween. It’s pretty damned good.
• Interesting mashup: Thuggy Stardust and the Hustlers from Mars
• The X-Files Are Coming Back, But They Never Left
• If you have kids, watch this video: TED Talks – Gever Tulley: 5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do
• LEGO pictures (clickable), by way of The Brothers Brick:
  • 
  • 
  • The next pair are for :
    • 
    • 
  • 
• Bob Staake Works in Adobe Photoshop 3.0
• World Series of Poker. Mmm…
• and Tyranist: Storm

Okay, that’s enough for now. Time to go save the world…

Namaste.

Friday – 04 January 2008
And the work week – the short work week – comes to an end. Thankfully. Today, I started off in the SLC office, planning on finishing up the task I was working on yesterday and heading down to AF. “The best laid plans of mice and men…” I didn’t get out of there until 3:00. Then, I was off to AF… for the first time I’ve been in that office in a shade over two weeks.

I left the AF office and hopped onto I-15 South for a weekend in Cedar City. The weather was far more cooperative than it had been the last to southbound trips. And there were road monkeys – of special note was the Dodge Ram 1500 driver who got on the road in Fillmore. He decided that I was NOT going to pass him. Under (almost) any circumstance:

• Did he drop down below the speed limit?
  By the time I got halfway past him, he’d speed up.
• Was he stuck behind someone and I passed them both?
  Come Hell or high water, he was going to make sure that he passed me again.

The Council for Better Driving would like to take this opportunity to remind readers of Rule #1.

I finally passed him – and stayed ahead of him for a while – a little north of Cedar City, but I slowed down again, due to some rather strong winds blowing out of the canyons. AHA! The opening he needed! He zipped around me… only to slow down as the winds buffeted his truck. (And the Highway Patrolman in front of him may have had a little to do with it, too.) Idiotstick.

I’ve been hanging out with SaraRules, Steph, Darrilyn and Vince (and Darrilyn’s younger brother and sister, who arrived a little later). I’m looking foward to a nice, relatively quiet and relaxing weekend.

Stray Toaster
As I noted last night, I installed City of Heroes on the Windows partition on Defiant. When I went to run it, it kept giving me an error during the loading process. Today, I tried a couple of diagnostic tools, but they wouldn’t tell me why it was erroring out.

So, I uninstalled City.
And reinstalled it.

Still no go.

Eventually, I had an epiphany: Check the device manager to see if there was a noticeable problem there. Nope. Everything was hunky-dory. On a whim, I decided to look up information on the troublesome .dll file that kept throwing the error. It was tied to the video chipset. Hmm… I checked the display driver.

It was one of Microsoft’s generic “This should work!” drivers.

I immediately went to the Intel site and looked for a newer, better driver. I found it rather quickly and easily – kudos for good site navigation! I installed the driver, rebooted and decided to try City again.

Lo and behold, it loaded on the first go. I logged in, to be sure that everything else was working properly. Not only did it work properly, the framerate was a bit faster – and smoother – than I get on DS9. I logged out, with a satisfied smile on my face: Paragon City (and the Rogue Isles) just became my Kandor.

I’m a happy camper.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 18 December 2007
Last night, SaraRules and I had dinner with her family, including an aunt and uncle who stopped by on their way to visit family in Idaho. It was a nice way to spend the evening.

So far, it’s been a good day. In the words of the boys from Liverpool: “Nothing to get hung about.” The lunchtime workout included:

• Bench Pres: 3 sets/8reps, 225 lbs.
• Nautilus Cable Fly: 3 sets/10 reps, 110 lbs (hold for 10 seconds on 10th rep, each set)
• Tricep Extension (Rope): 3 sets/15 reps, 80 lbs
• Tricep Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 6 plates (60 lbs?)
• Overhead Tricep Extension (Dumbbell): 3 sets/12 reps, 35 lbs

I tried – operative word: “tried” – 300 lbs on the bench press again today. The problem was that I tried it after I had already done my three normal sets. Needless to say, the bar didn’t move. Oh, well… there’s always Thursday.
And tonight is game night; we moved it up a week as Christmas is next week.

Stray Toasters

• I have been reading – and enjoying – Hundred Dollar Baby, one of the newer Spenser novels.
• Brisa 2000 Fan Looks Crazy, Does the Job in Steampunk Style
• I managed to catch the Matriarch online… AND chat with her.
• bn.com and amazon.com == online shopping goodness
• PS3 Game Developer Claims to Have Crossed Uncanny Valley
• 
• Woman gropes mall Santa
• : Click here.
• For the Futurama and beer-loving fan in your life: Beer-Brewing Bender
• The Galactically Hot Women of Star Trek: TOS
• 
• I’ve found yet another something to add to the Covet List.

Namaste.

Thursday – 13 December 2007
This morning started a bit oddly. My alarm went off at 6:20 and I promptly turned it off. I wasn’t in a rush to get up and on the way, so I laid in bed for a while. I drifted in and out of sleep for the next little bit. While zonin in and out, I had a dream wherein I walked out of the bedroom and turned the corner to find that I had left the front door unlocked and open overnight. And I couldn’t tell if someone had snuck in.

I woke up a little disconcerted. I also managed to drift off again…

…and had another – different – door open overnight dream.

…and, again, woke up a bit out of sorts.

Maybe I should rename the day from “No Bad News Thursday” to “No Bad Dream Thursday.”

I did some minor straightening up this morning, to make up for the complete lack of cleaning last night. There are still some things that need a little more attention, but at least I can see a little progress.

Today’s workout, after being out of the gym for a week, was… work. Like Big Daddy Kane, I got the job done, but it took considerable effort in a couple of spots:

• Bench Press: 3 sets/8 reps, 225 lbs.
• Cable Row: 3 sets/15 reps, 100 lbs.
• Incline Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 135 lbs.
• Bent-over Row: 3 sets/12 reps, 35 lbs.
• Decline Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 135 lbs.
• Push-ups: 2 sets, 15 reps/10 reps

Some of them were not pretty – and my arms were burning when I was done – but it was a good workout.
Stray Toasters

• shockpuppet and I are having (too much) fun with Chocolate Jesus Crunchies. Click the link and check out the mock-up she did for the cereal box.
• Road monkeys! BAH!
• By way of : Discovering the Gifted Ex-Child
• 
• Finder + Cover Flow = hotness
• <rant>
  

  I work with a number of HIGHLY intelligent people. Sometimes, however, I wonder how smart they are. Case in point: Either earlier this week or late last week, a couple of them informed me that we were out of engineeing/lab notebooks. I told them that I’d submit an order for them. As of this morning, they haven’t been delivered.

  Ordinarily, I would think that this is a non-problem: There are plenty of other sources of paper (other notebooks/pads, printer paper, etc.) in the office that can be used as tide-me-overs.

  But, what do I find in my email inbox as soon as I get in?

  “Both [monkey-yet-to-be-renumbered] and I are looking for engineering lab notebooks. Any word on these?”

  And I got the following email from monkey-yet-to-be-renumbered:

  “Can we place an order for them?”
  (followed by ordering information)

  I realize that people have affinities for certain items. But…

  • …if said item isn’t available/on-hand
  • …AND if someone has already said that the order would be placed for the item
  • …AND that someone hasn’t said anything about the item having been delivered

  …doesn’t it stand to reason that you should find a workaround until it gets there? Seems perfectly logical to me.

  But, maybe that’s just me. Maybe it’s Maybelline.

  </rant>

• Knight Rider storms back, new K.I.T.T. showcased
• UPS turns to software to cut down on left-hand turns
• It’s snowing again.

Namaste.

Monday – 10 December 2007
One down, four to go.

Last night, after watching the Ravens drop (yet another) one to Indy, SaraRules and I watched Undercover Brother. She had not only seen it before, but liked/likes it… AND… she knows the movie dialogue. Solid!

This morning’s commute was uneventful. I wasn’t sure how the roads would be, especially through the Fillmore-Beaver area (go ahead and insert your own punchlines there) and the higher elevations, as the temp was below freezing. Fortunately, the roads were clear and ice-free. And, I would like to note that I didn’t have to deal with any road monkeys today.

Work wasn’t bad. Not a lot of coworker-monkey doom today. Only one possible incident which could be considered a self-inflicted wound, since I asked the person if the problem he had last week had been adequately fixed. (He prattled on and on about nothing of importance before really answering the question. GAH!) Tomorrow, I have a training class. At 8:00 AM. But, it’s in SLC, so at least it’s a short commute.

After work, I hung out with Land. And, we somehow… mysteriously… wound up at the Garden of Sweden. *genuflect* I picked up a new coffee table.

Stray Toasters

• I just realized that I talked (actual vox conversations!) with Rana (and ) and Adam today.
• It’s officially the Christmas season: I heard Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth while I was in Cedar City.
• Old-time radio Christmas plays — free, public domain mp3s
• I neglected to mention that sent the pictures she shot for my Christmas card. Now I just have to decide which one/ones I want to use. (So many good choices…) I may have to make her Official Photographer of His Chocolate Holiness.
• I need to modify that icon.
• (and I think I’m forgetting another music teacher…): Traveling Music Teacher Keeps Students in Tune
• Offensive/inoffensive tree ornament
• By way of Coworker Drew: Monkey Fluids

  
  (This picture reminded me of this Queen of Wands comic.)

• New style goodness from The Sartorialist

I have a table to assemble.
(Just some oak and some pine and a handful of Norsemen…)

Namaste.

Wednesday – 05 December 2007
Tuesday ended better than it started. Chris came over around 8:00 and we played dolls HeroClix. I brought out a squad of Justice Leaguers, Chris used various X-people. We played a time-limited game; he kicked my ass – he took out four of my team to the one of his that I got. But, it was fun. After that, we played Covenant Beatdown… I mean “HALO 3.” *genuflect* Quite fun.

This morning started with a wake-up call from SaraRules. The morning hygiene rituals followed. And then, the monkey-laden commute to the southern compound.

Is it really a radical concept to wipe the snow off of your hood (and roof) when scraping snow and ice from your windows? Does it really take that much more time to do? The Council for Better Driving, through extensive research and simulations, has concluded that it does not. So, next time you’re breaking out the ice scraper to wreck shop on the snow and ice on your windows, take an extra minute or two to knock off the snow and ice on your hood, roof and trunk. The people around you will appreciate it.

So far, the day has been fairly quiet. And, it is the birthday of Derek, my former Acolyte:

Today’s workout was good. Today’s routine:

• Bench Press: 3 sets / 10 reps, 185 lbs (slow, controlled descent)
• Lateral Pull-downs: 3 set / 15 reps (broken into 5-5-5), 100 lbs
  • Wide-grip, behind-the-head (5 reps)
  • Wide-grip, overhand/standard (5 reps)
  • Close-grip, overhand/standard (5 reps)
  • **Close-grip, underhand/reverse-grip (done as an additional 5 reps on the third set)
• Shoulder Press (Dumbbell): 3 sets / 12 reps, 40 lbs
• Seated Curls (Dumbbell): 3 sets / 10 reps, 25 lbs
• Standing Wrist Curls (Barbell):
  • Forward: 3 sets / 15 reps, 40 lbs
  • Reverse: 3 sets / 15 reps, 40 lbs
• Leg Raises: 3 sets / 20 reps

It was a bit short/abbreviated, but I can feel it. That’s a good thing.

Stray Toasters

• I downloaded the new drivers for my Graphire4. I think I’ll start doodling more. That might actually lead to me drawing more often.
• Star Trek: The Tour
• Speaking of which: Avery Brooks was on Talk of the Nation today, promoting the performance of Tamburlaine at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C.
• By way of : Former NFL player gears up for spaceflight
• By way of shockpuppet: Footprints (WoW version) and COLOURlovers
• 
• Have you been looking for a way to integrate your worship of the Old Ones with the trappings and trimmings of the modern holiday season? Well, how about Cthulhumas?
• And what better time to throw in a link to Carol of the Old Ones?
• Happy Holiday from Parallels
• The break room in the south office has been getting stocked with Welch’s Orange-Pineapple Juice. It’s good. (I’m still a Welch’s Grape Juice kid, at heart, though. And, yes, we have that here, too.)
• iBlade

/lunch

Namaste.

Friday: Coda
Sweet frozen zombie monkey-squeezin’ Jesus…

I’m in Cedar City. That’s a good thing. The trip down here was… not entirely hellish, but the Utah’s “It should be Winter now” weather was in rare form. It started drizzling this afternoon, around the time I got done with my workout. It continued through the afternoon. By the time I got between Filmore and Beaver, the rain decided to turn into snow.

<sarcasm> Yay. </sarcasm>

This, of course meant that most of the people on the road slowed down to a bit below the speed limit. The Council for Better Driving considers this a adherence to Rules #1 and #2. Nuff’ said. There were, however, a few monkeys who decided to roll the bones and drive at approximately the same speeds that they would in dry weather. The Fates must have smiled upon them, as I did not see any of them upside-down on the side of the road. After I got a little past Beaver, the snow turned into intermittent rain again.

I got to SaraRules’ around 6:30… and fell almost immediately asleep. Her parents got into town about forty-five minutes later and we went to dinner at Cafe Orleans. Tonight, I tried their crab cakes (they were “okay,” but I’m not sure that I’d order them again), a grilled chicken po’boy and the chicken and sausage gumbo, both of which were good. After dinner, we came back to the apartment and watched Blade: Trinity. It was alright, not “great,” but a nice way to kick back at the end of the day.

Stray Toasters

• I just learned that Evel Knievel died today. He was 69. If you were born after… 1980 or so, that name might not mean a lot; but if you were a kid in the late 60s/early-to-mid 70s, you are probably at least passingly familiar with his exploits. And the toy line that he inspired. (And I had quite a few of those toys, back in the day…)
• Did you know that Kris Kristofferson (yes, the country and gospel singer/actor) is a Rhodes scholar. He was also a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army. And, he dated Janis Joplin.
• 
• Uranium ore for sale on Amazon.com

*voop*

Friday – 30 November 2007
The end of the week is at hand.

Dinner last night was a lot of fun. We went to Sampan. Tasty beef lo mein… with enough left over to make a decent post-workout lunch. After dinner, most of us headed to Barnes & Noble for coffee and conversation. I also picked up a new Windows Server 2003 book, that is perfect for some of the things that I’m going to need to know for work.

After the group broke up, came over to take pictures for my Christmas card. She took many pictures. MANY. So I’ll have a good number of options from which to select. It was nice to see – and hang out with – her this past week.

This morning, I overslept a little. Only by half an hour. And I was happy that it was “only” a half-hour, as I didn’t get to bed until somewhere around 3:30. So, while I didn’t get as early a start on the day as I could have, I wasn’t as far off the mark as I could have been. Today’s workout was a good way to wrap up the week:

• Leg Raises: 3 sets / 20 reps
• Bench Press: 3 sets / 8 reps at 225 lbs.
• Nautilus Fly: 3 sets / 10 reps at 95 lbs, with a ten-second hold on the last rep of each set
• Decline Dumbbell Press: 3 sets / 10 reps at 50 lbs.
• Bench Dips: 3 sets / 20 reps – all sets with a 35 lb plate
• Dips: 1 sets / 10 reps
• Lower Back Raises: 3 sets / 15 reps

Stray Toasters

• I have too much blood in my caffeinestream. Not even the coffee I brewed seems to be changing the ratio, or it’s failing to do so at a satisfactory rate.
• I found this site last night: DonorsChoose.org It looks like an interesting way to give.
• 
• Incognegro
• I haven’t made a successful pilgrimage to the Garden of Sweden this week, but I still had a couple of IKEA cinnamon roll for breakfast this morning. Selah.
• Best Moments of 2007 (DC)
• Best Moments of 2007 (Marvel)
• The morning constitutional helped with the “getting the blood moving” factor. This is a good thing.
• shockpuppet now refers to me as “W&W,” which I have been informed is pronounced “dub ‘n’ dub”
• 
• By way of CNet: Holiday Tech Gifts We Don’t Recommend
• Justice League of America #15 (preview)
• Rabid comics fans are/can be scary. Marvel is changing the cover style for Fantastic Four… and some of the responses made me think of this sound bite.
• Phables

Quotes of the Day
Today’s quotes come from last night’s coffee gathering:

• (after seeing an ad in Lürzer’s Archive): I want to be able to shit cupcakes! I’d be []’ best friend!
• (referring to… an acquaintance): She’s the Amazing Expando-Girl!

And that’s a wrap!

See you on the other side of Juab County.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 28 November 2007
Midweek is upon us.
Snow is on the ground.

That’s right. Snow. It started last night. And, following tradition, I called my father to share the wonderful news with him. (He already knew – he watches The Weather Channel. A lot.) By the time I got to ‘ for gaming, there wasn’t much on the ground, but the streets were wet and starting to get slushy. By the time I left, there was slush and ice – the temperature had fallen – on the streets. This morning, there was more snow (and slush), but the streets had been decently salted. That didn’t stop some of the monkeys from driving a little more crazily than good sense would have deemed appropriate.

With this in mind, I reiterate the Council for Better Driving Rule #1:

Don’t be a fucker.

Given the way that some people were driving, I think that I will consider making Rule #2:

You might be immortal, but the rest of us on the road aren’t:
Slow down and let us get where we’re going in one piece.

Last night was game night. We started our new game – Scion: Hero. Our characters are the offspring of gods. Rather than try a build based on Hand of Nefer-Tem, I went with a character whose pantheon are the Loa. That’s right: Voodoo. The game was interesting – and fun – and would have been even more fun had I not left my character sheet… somewhere. I had thought that it was in my backpack (which I had), but it wasn’t. *sigh* I was able to wing it for some things, but others… no clue. Oh, well. I found the sheet when I got home. I shall be importing the data into a pdf character sheet.

Last night, I tried installing City of Crack Heroes on Defiant, under Parallels. When the installer finished, I tried to log in. I had forgotten one thing. One kind of critical thing: Patches. There were 1.7 gigabytes worth of patches. I wasn’t going to sit there, just to watch the bar crawl across the screen, so I left it and went to bed. When I woke up this morning, it was done. I tried logging into my usual server. No go. Server maintenance. *BAH*

Later, I was finally able to connect… but the graphics were not 100%. (Parallels doesn’t support DirectX 9 yet, so I’m not getting the full 3-D acceleration.) Basically, if I tried to play CoX on Defiant, it would look roughly the same as things would to Superman walking/flying around all day with his X-ray vision on: He could see shapes, forms and structures, but no details. Oh, well… I may look into setting up a Win partition in Boot Camp.

Stray Toasters

• I am trying to decide what I want for dinner. I do know that it’s not sushi, I fed that craving last night. Maybe I’ll hit up Jitterbug.
• Jitterati. *amused*
• Joysticks to the World: A Video Game Gift Guide
• G.I. Joe may have dominated the boy’s toy market of the 80s, but in the 70’s it was all about Fisher-Price “The Adventure People.” I couldn’t get enough of those. Or Micronauts.
• By way of : Precocious Kids Mess with Tracks of an Oncoming Train
• The entire run of Southern Knights is available at DriveThruComics, for 99 cents an issue. Hm…
• I’ve Got Billions, but I Don’t Like to Spend It
• There is a key chain on this page that I should get. (Go to the page and search for “Gordon” It should be easy to see why it amuses me so much.) This site also sells The Adventure People!
• Apple iMac Display Problems Reported and Some MacBook hard drives contain fatal defect
• Grape juice.
• Rock Band Leads to Eviction: Know Your Rocking Limitations
• “The Uncanny Valley”
• The Known World(s) – The List of DC Universes (definitive) and Wikipedia’s List of DC Multiverse Worlds

Quote of the Day
Today’s nugget of pure golden joy came from last night’s gaming session. One of the first things that I had my character do when he arrived in town was to acquire accommodations at a local hotel. After our group had gathered and we had finished the first of our tasks, we (meaning “they”) were deciding where to bunk up for the night. John chimed in with, “We can all sleep with you.”

I should note here that our group, at this point, consists of , , John and myself; a couple of other players were absent. Nyx looked at John and, in character, said: “What do you mean ‘we?’ I just met you three… and I’m not sleeping with any of you.”

John, after a moment’s thought, quipped back with:

“I party with the lotion.”

And much laughter ensued.

Namaste.

Thursday: Coda
Today has been not only a good NBN Thursday, but a good Thanksgiving, as well. I talked with the various factions of my family. I spent the day with SaraRules and her family. Food. Football. A tryptophan-induced nap. Pie. Serenity. The pies turned out well. I don’t know how often I’ll be making them, but I know how to now.

Four-Color Coverage
Yesterday’s haul was light – only four books – but there were items of note:

• Action Comics #859 – This issue continues the Superman and the LSH story. We find out who has subverted the name “Superman” in the 31st Century, as well as “how” and “why.” We also learn what happened to turn Sol into a red star. There was even a look at the BatCave of the 31st Century… long-since unused, but with many familiar objects that seem to have withstood the passage of the years. This was a solid issue and would have had me sold, even if it hadn’t included the Legion.
• The Brave and the Bold #8 – The Flash, his wife and children are invited to meet with Dr. Niles Caulder and the Doom Patrol to see if Dr. Caulder can help stabilize the younger Wests’ accelerated metabolisms and aging processes. While the tone of this issue was – on the whole – fairly light, the pay-off on the second-to-last page made the whole story worthwhile… and a little chilling.
• Countdown: 23 – Most of this issue was spent watching SuperBrat-Prime torture Mxyzptlk (with the help of the Earth-3 version of Zatanna). Among the best scenes in the book was Mxy telling Prime off:
  

  Mxyzptlk: Wise up, Clark Bent. I’d never give a rube like you anything except the finger. Shame you broke alla mine. Y’see, Junior, there’s an art to the battle of wits I fight with the real Superman everyone knows and loves. And actually, if you had approached me with one iota of the maturity he has, I might have cut ya a deal and played along — if the punchline to your little plan was funnier.
  Superman-Prime: This is a joke to you?!?
  Mxyzptlk: Oh, Margaret! They don’t come any richer! See, most beings in the Fifth Dimension are content to stay there and endlessly reshape their own individual realities — they want to be something, POOF! They become it, sometimes for eons. You know my girlfriend once spent thirty years as a female version of me? Flattering, but not very pretty. Now me, I’m something of a showoff. Matter of fact, I’ve perfected mischief to a form of Zen. I’m an imp that loves an audience, and I found a great one in the Third Dimension. I’m sure you’ve heard some of the names I’ve answered to over the centuries… Loki, Coyote, Anasazi…
  Superman-Prime: You expect me to believe this garbage?
  Mxyzptlk: You still don’t get the joke, do ya, Prime Rib? I’m the damn Trickster God! I couldn’t be square with you if I tried. Ha, ha! That’s what we in the comedy business call a topper, son!

  Quite the interesting twist, casting Mxyzptlk as the DCU’s incarnation of the Trickster God.

• Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Annual #1 – I picked this up, more or less, on a whim. I wanted to see how someone would write Tony Stark as the billionaire playboy who just happens to run an international intelligence agency. And without his powers or his armor. With just his wits and intellect (and a trio of secret agents at his side) to rely on. Turns out, this was a fun read. And it looks as though there may be a (or “yet another”) shake-up in the MU’s criminal underworld.

Stray Toasters

• I just ordered memory for Defiant. pointed out that Crucial is offering 10% off, so I checked it out. I was able to get 4GB (two sticks of 2GB) – with tax and express shipping – for only 42¢ more than their offered 4GB kit.
• Chicken butt.
• Watching Serenity reminded me of this comic:

  

• Pringles… Ice cream sandwich… Pringles… Ice cream sandwich…
• Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, save it for a rainy day…
• Most people know that as far as I’m concerned, there are only three (3) Superman movies: Superman: The Movie, Superman II and Superman Returns. In some parallel universe, someone had the bright idea of making Superman III and Superman IV. I think that I must have journeyed to that alterna-verse as a kid, because I have memories of seeing Superman III. But, that’s silly. I mean… don’t you think that I’d remember a travesty of a Superman movie that didn’t feature Lex Luthor, but had Robert Vaughn as a Luthor stand-in villain… and Richard Pryor as a computer genius!? C’mon. I have a good imagination, but damn! Anyway… it appears as though the original outline for Superman III has landed on the Interweb. It chills the blood. It’s even worse than the Superman III that was released. Y’know… in that alternate universe.

It’s early Friday morning now. “Black Friday.” In some parts of the country, people are already lining up for first crack at super shopping bargains… against the hordes and teeming masses of monkeys. Screw that. I’m staying in my warm apartment. And (eventually) sleeping. Besides, I can get equally good – if not better – deals shopping online. So there.

Namaste.

Wednesday: Coda
This afternoon’s lunchtime trip to Dr. Volt’s was a bust – there was a delay in the shipment, so they were late getting the books sorted. But, I had sushi with SaraRules, shockpuppet, , Joe and Mike (another name with which I will have to resort a numeric nomenclature, it seems).

Back to the office for a bit and then home. I logged into City of Heroes for a bit. No one in my supergroup was on, so I decided to roam around Founders Falls and beat on a few things. I apparently forgot one very important thing: They beat back. I’ve been so used to playing on a team that I neglected to remember just how squishy Kheldians are. I wound up in the hospital at least three times before I logged out of the game. Even so, I had fun playing. (I want to upgrade the RAM on Defiant and see if I can get City to run in Parallels.)

As I was leaving my complex, I couldn’t exit because two (not just “one,” but “TWO”) vehicles were trying to make left turns… from dead-center of the exit. The exit which is easily wide enough to accommodate two cars, one making a right and one making a left turn. *grblsnrkx* It was enough to make me want to start a list of rules for the Council for Better Driving. Not even five minutes later, another idiotstick pulled a hare-brained maneuver in front of me. That cemented what I think shall become Rule #1:

Council for Better Driving Rule #1: Don’t be a fucker.

Back to Dr. Volt’s to feed my four-color habit. It was a light week, but I had forgotten that I had asked Dave to put something on hold for me: Justice Action Figure Set. I also picked up two boxes of the new Mutations and Monsters set of HeroClix. Of note:

• Colossus
• Cyclops (First Class)
• Iceman (First Class and Modern)
• Iron Man (Zombie)
• Jean Grey (Age of Apocalypse)

From there, it was on to SaraRules’ parents’ house. On the bill tonight: Making my contribution to Thanksgiving dinner – sweet potato pie. Tonight marked the first time that I have tried making a pie. I used a recipe from a family friend – a recipe that made enough for three pies. They seemed to turn out well. Tomorrow will be the test, though. While the pies were baking, SaraRules and I watched Super Troopers, which I had not seen before. Funny movie.

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig. And now, sleep.

Namaste.