Random Access

Wednesday – 25 March 2009
After dinner last night, while SaraRules was at her book club, I went to visit . Sissy the Wonder Kitty was being social last night, as well.

When I got home, MarknTyme was online. We spent the better part of the next hour talking about bands and music and whatnot. In that time he introduced me to a couple new bands:

• Tokyo Brass Style
• Youngblood Brass Band

One of my retorts was the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain.

This morning, I woke up with the theme from Josie and the Pussycats (the cartoon, not the movie) running through my head. It’s not a horrible song, in fact, it’s rather catchy. All the same, I’m listening to Hemispheres to purge it.

Today would normally be Sushi and Comics Wednesday… but SaraRules and I are attending a tasting at our reception center, so this week’s raw fishes and four-color haul will have to wait.

Stray Toasters

• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Are Kidnapped Children Tax-Deductible?
• Problems Persist, But Art Advocates See Progress Under Obama
• Chimps Have a Built-In GPS
• …and, in a related note from Applegeeks:

  

• Sorry, : Browns will make Quinn, Anderson compete for QB job
• NPR Music has an article on the Gyuto Monks, a group that MarknTyme introduced me to many years ago.
• 
• Remixing the London police’s insane, paranoid terrorism scare posters
• By way of comes Apartment Therapy
• Model railway’s global uber-view

Attack the day
Like birds of prey…

Namaste.

Wednesday – 18 March 2009
Yesterday, SaraRules and I had dinner with her folks – corned beef and cabbage for Saint Patrick’s Day. During dinner, we watched Animal Crackers. The only word I can really think of to use to describe it is “zany.” Yes, it was quite dated, but it was still entertaining.

When we got home, I messed around with the cable receiver which had been acting flaky, according to SaraRules. Nothing I tried seemed to help, so I called the cable company. After a few minutes on the phone, the CSR offered a final suggestion: Return the box for an exchange. *sigh* I had a couple of shows on the DVR that I still wanted to see.  Oh, well.

This morning, we were up at 0530… which roughly translates to “stupid o’clock.” SaraRules, her parents and Logan are heading down to Arizona to visit her grandmother for a few days. (And all I got was this lousy t-shirt. Or will get. Or got a few years ago. Time travel makes things a little confusing…) On the “plus” side, I was in the office before 0700 this morning. That’s a good thing, especially since I’ll probably spend “a few minutes” at lunch trying to exchange my cable box.

Stray Toasters

• I talked with for a few minutes last night.
• Young Mad Scientist Alphabet Blocks



• Had yesterday been a Thursday, it would have failed. Miserably.
• , and a few others have mentioned Erfworld enough times that I decided to check it out. It’s pretty amusing… in a punny and geeky kind of way.
• Passion for opera compared to love at first sight: study
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” and “monkeys!” files: Kid walks to soccer, neighbors call the cops
• 
• Forbidden Knowledge: 101 Things NOT Everyone Should Know How to Do
• Josef Fritzl admits all charges
• IRS to allow Ponzi victims to claim theft losses
• NFL Shop.com is extending their 30% off sale through today.
  

  

• Artists buying cheap houses in Detroit

He gets right on to
The friction of the day…

Namaste.

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

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

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

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

Stray Toasters

• I finished my Sodam Yat HeroClix figure.

  
  (click image for more pictures)

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

  

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

Back to the grindstone.

Namaste.

Thursday – 12 March 2009
Another NBN Thursday begins… and today’s song-stuck-in-my-head was REO Speedwagon’s Roll With The Changes. That’s not so horrible a song to have on loop in your head.

Last night, SaraRules and I modified the cardio workout: We went walking. More specifically, we went mall-walking – we started at one end of Fashion Place and did a complete circuit of the mall. This included a tour of the new Nordstrom’s. Shockpuppet made some comments about how entering that store was like not being in Utah anymore; she was right – the new store is quite impressive.

Back at home, we watched Double Indemnity. We’d both heard about the movie, but neither of us had seen it. It was good and, despite being a little dated (style and some dialogue), held up rather well for being over 60 years old. There was an interesting commentary before the movie started about how Billy Wilder, the film’s director, chose the lead actors for the film and some of the difficulties he encountered in bringing the movie to the screen.

Stray Toasters

• I spent a little time working on my Sodam Yat figure last night. I matched a torso to the lower body. I still need to find a right arm that “works” and figure out what to do for a head.
• Yesterday afternoon, and I tossed around a few ideas for adding a new “random element” to ‘Clix games: Civilians.
• Finding the black in noir
• How the Crash will Reshape America
• I usually use the “Monkeys!” tag to denote when someone – either in the office or somewhere that I’ve been – does something completely asinine. However, this story merits the tag because, well, it’s about a monkey (actually, in this case, a chimpanzee) and is chock full of amusement awesomeness: Chimp Found Plotting Against Zoo Guests
• Cop’s Risky Gambit Nails Alleged Craigslist Child-Sex Predator
• Pattie Maes demos the “Sixth Sense”

• Man survives Niagara Falls plunge
• Disney’s new racing game at core of big bet
• Iraqi jailed for Bush shoe attack
• HOW TO: Rob the world’s most secure diamond vault
• Playing Fair: A look at competition in gaming

Namaste.

Wednesday – 11 March 2009
Last night, after a quick dinner, SaraRules headed off to a quilting class and I headed up to visit . She’s doing a bit better, which was good to see and hear.

From there, I headed over to Chris and Mary’s to play ‘Clix. As we were expecting to play with a couple other people, we hadn’t set up any teams or themes. No one else showed up, so Chris and I put together teams around the theme of “Villains.” We played for a little over an hour, at which point I needed to leave, and Chris called the game a draw… even though he was a bit ahead on points. But, I gladly took the tie.

For some reason, I woke up many times during the night. I woke up a little after 2:00 AM and would have sworn that I had nearly overslept. Nope. *sigh* When the alarm finally went off – four-and-a-half hours later – I got up… with Sammy Davis, Jr’s The Candy Man running through my head. O,o.

Stray Toasters

• Code Monkey get up, get coffee
  Code Monkey go to job…
• Sean, one of my henchmen, just told me a story about an encounter he had with one of the AF monkeys yesterday. He now wants to put up a list of “Stupid IT Requests of the Week” for each time someone puts in a dumb request. I endorse this idea.
• Thanks to for pointing out Stuff Mormons Like.  It was a funny way to kick off the morning.
• …then she pointed out Celebrities Wear Costumes for Purim, which was a bit odd and unexpected, to say the least.
• Deadly shooting at German school
• Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?
• 
• NBC Stars Whimper About Jon Stewart’s Skewering of CNBC
• From NPR Music:
  • Act Like You Know: Ornette Coleman
  • Free SXSW Sampler
• 10 Best Uses for RFID

Attack the day…

Namaste.

Thursday – 06 March 2009
It’s another NBN Thursday and there’s new snow on the ground. In the past 24 hours we’ve gone from nearly 70°F to nearly half that temperature.

Last night was a relatively quiet night. I got to play with my new Dremel, which I believe is my new second-favorite tool… after a Sawz-All. Law & Order did an interesting episode about teenagers who had escaped and/or been exiled from a polygamist community. I was surprised that they went there and was also a little shocked with how the episode ended. (I was, however, amused that they actually used the term “magic underwear.”)

Chew On This: Food for Thought
I have often mentioned that I enjoy watching The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. For me, it’s a light way to cap the day… much in the way that watching Late Night with David Letterman (back when he was on NBC) used to be when I was in high school. Last night’s episode was a very good – and atypically serious – show; the guest was Archbishop Desmond Tutu. At the top of the show, Craig gave an abbreviated history of South Africa, which was probably one of the best (and most humorous) histories I have ever heard. After a commercial break, he introduced Archbishop Tutu; they talked for the better part of forty minutes. Among other things that he recounted, the Archbishop talked about “good and evil” and how he has been able to keep his faith – and his faith in humanity. Here’s an excerpt:

All-in-all, it was an excellent interview. Other clips are available here.

Four-Color Coverage
Yesterday was a light day at Dr. Volt’s – I only picked up five books:

• Black Lightning: Year One #5 – The next-to-last issue of this series shows Jefferson Pierce continuing his fight to bring something to the Southside community of Metropolis, not-so-affectionately referred to as “Suicide Slum,” that it had been missing: Hope.  I’ve been surprised by this title – I picked it up on a lark, but have been pleasantly surprised with the story that has unfolded.
• Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #1 – Reed Richards has a problem: He’s been bothered by the fact that despite all of his calculations, he was wrong in how he set about solving the problems that led to his role in Marvel’s Civil War.  But, he has an idea.  And when Reed Richards has an idea, there is little that can stop him from following up on it. Not repairing damage from the “Secret Invasion.” Not his wife… well, maybe she can. Not even an attack from Norman Osborn and his H.A.M.M.E.R. agents.
• Dark Reign: New Avengers – The Reunion #1 – Bobbi Morse, ex-Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and (ex-)wife of the Avenger known as Ronin, is trying to re-establish her place in the post-Secret Invasion world. As she sets out to find them, she also finds that she has a partner – and unwanted one, at that: Ronin.
• Superman: World of Krypton #1 – Superman journeys to New Krypton to live among the Kryptonians from the newly-liberated (and restored to normal size) Kandor. He’s still not sure how he’ll fit in, but attempts to make a go of it. But, how will his aunt, Alura, and one of his worst enemies, General Zod, feel about him being there?
• X-Men: First Class – Finals #2 – The X-Men go up against a mutant who’s out for a little revenge against a certain “one-eyed” X-Man who dropped him down a mine shaft.  To say that he’s “a little mad” would be something of an understatement. And, someone shows up to lend the X-Men a much needed helping hand… but who is it? And where’d they come from?

As it was a light day, I also picked up Fables (Vol. 8) – Wolves and JLA: Earth 2 to supplement my haul.

Stray Toasters

• Let’s start with the big announcement: Ray Lewis will be staying with the Ravens. Amen.
• In related news: The Cowboys released Terrell Owens.
• Man camouflaged as paper in IKEA
  I think that this man has just earned a special nod as my Human of the Day.
• U2 is the week-long special guest on The Late Show with David Letterman.  Last night, they presented the Top Ten List: Top Ten Things U2 Has Learned Over the Years.
• I want to get these for my minions employees:

  

• Fans of Bloom County might want to pay attention to this: IDW Publishing will release The Bloom County Library in October 2009.
• By way of : Emergency (MC) Hammer
• By way of and the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Star Trek Fragrances.
• Fort Pierce woman calls 911 three times when McNuggets run out

Namaste.

Monday – 02 March 2009
And March, at least for Utah, comes in more or less like a lamb. That’s apparently not the case back home, where the east coast has been hit with a winter storm.

This weekend’s highlights included:

• Heading to Red Butte Garden to take a look at the Fragrence Garden and The Orangerie as a possible ceremony and reception event. I like it… more than I had expected, actually. It’s on my (very) short list of sites.
• Chris, who had an unexpected opening in his schedule, came over Saturday night and played HeroClix – the Justice League (Chris) vs. the Injustice League. We played on the masterboard  and used the multi-building cluster. Chris cleaned my clock, but it was fun.
• I dragged SaraRules to a few places in a fruitless search for vellum rub-on letters – I need them for my Shado ‘Clix figure.  If I had been thinking about it, I would have taken pictures of her last night. But I wasn’t. So, I didn’t.
• I also started on a new figure mod: James “Bucky” Barnes/Winter Soldier as Captain America.
• Last night, we had dinner with SaraRules’ family and watched The Golden Compass. I’ve owned the movie for a few months, but this was the first time we’ve watched it. I liked it. I found a number of parallels to many archtypical hero myths, as well as a couple of direct comparisions to the Star Wars mythos.

All-in-all, it was a good weekend… and I’m already looking forward to next weekend. Fortunately, it’s a short work week.

Stray Toasters

• My affinity (obsession/man-crush/whatever) for Avery Brooks began long before his tenure as Captain Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It started in the mid-80s when he played Hawk on Spenser: for Hire. SaraRules knows of this and, while channel surfing yesterday, stopped on a network called TV One, which was airing a marathon of A Man Called Hawk, a short-lived spin-off of the Spenser series. Yes, it was “a bit” dated, but it still made me smile.
• Born to Kvetch: Yiddish as She Is Spoke
• Who needs a utility belt when you have a Bat-hoodie?  (By way of )
• One More Story, also by way of Nyx
• From USAToday: Fine arts in survival mode as funds dry up
• From the “Math is hard… Let’s go shopping!” file:

  

• Cake Wrecks, as always, is good for a laugh.
• I could think up people for whom I could use a few dozen stickers from this site…
• Unusual custom guitars

Namaste.

Wednesday – 25 February 2009
After a quick dinner with SaraRules, I picked up and we headed out to and ‘s to celebrate Nox’ birthday.  SaraRules had a previous engagement and wasn’t able to go. I had a nice time and it was good to see a few folks I haven’t seen in a while.

When I got back home, SaraRules and I watched (most of) last night’s NCIS; we missed the last 7 -10 minutes, because of the preemption for President Obama’s speech.  Fortunately, I was able to find a synopsis on the Bat-web.

Stray Toasters

• Having neither modded a figure before nor picked up a paintbrush to paint/repaint a figure in many moons, I have undertaken the task of transforming one of my Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) figures into Shado, from the 80’s Green Arrow series.
• Steampunk cuff bracelet
• 
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: The World’s Most Expensive Vacuum Cleaner
• Tales of Horror from the Circuit City Liquidation
  pointed out this story: Customers burned in Circuit City closeout sale
  These fall somewhere between “monkey” and “ass-hat,” but I’m not quite sure where…
• BackGames: Videogame plots in reverse
• Commodore 64 comes to U.S. Virtual Console

Namaste.

Wes almost backed out of going to the gym this afternoon. Fortunately, he didn’t and we had a pretty good workout:

• Leg Raises: 3 sets/15 reps
• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 205 lbs
• Lat Pull-downs: 3 sets/10 reps, 120 lbs
• Rows (Nautilus, compound): 3 sets/10 reps, 130 lbs
• Lateral Raises (with fly): 3 sets/10 reps – 2 sets @ 10 lbs, 1 set @ 12 lbs
• Shoulder Press (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 35 lbs
• Tricep Extensions (rope): 3 sets/15 reps, 60 lbs

Post workout weight: 184.9 lbs

Stray Toasters

• “To boldly take your fetish geekery where no one has gone before…”
• And, in an oddly-related note, sent by Coworker DaveW: “That Jean-Luc Picard“
• I like LEGO zombies
• Ledger fans demand The Joker retired from film.
  Nine Hells.  Yes, he did a great job. Stellar, even. But… he was not – nor will he ever be – the only person to ever play The Joker. Get over it and move on.  This campaign is about as silly as saying “Don’t make any more James Bond movies if/when (fill in your favorite Bond portrayer) dies!” *sigh* Monkeys.
• Body dragged nearly 20 miles on NYC highways
• LEGO Star Wars magnets make collecting rare minifigs cheaper
• Pac-Man Ghost Lamps

Back to the grind.

Monday – 09 February 2009
Another overcast day in the valley begins a new work week.

Last night, SaraRules and I watched Appaloosa, starring Ed Harris, Viggo Mortenson and Renee Zellweger and Jeremy Irons. It was a good movie. It both started and ended in unexpected ways, which we both enjoyed. Additionally, we were both surprised to find that the story had been written by Robert B. Parker, best known as the creator/author of the Spenser books.

Stray Toasters

• We still have nothing more concrete than “September or October,” at this point, for those keeping score.  More details as they are available. Stay tuned.
• London police demand that new pub owner installs a CCTV as a licensing condition
• 
• Two monkeys, one banana.
• Speaking of monkeys, last Wednesday’s  Monkey #1 actually apologized. Unglaublich!
• Facebook flashmob shuts down station
• Stevie Wonder’s Do I Do is a long song; it checks in at nearly 10:30 long!
• Steampunk puzzle game preview
• I’m going to try another 300 lb max bench press next week. Operative word: “Try.” The last time I tried, I couldn’t do it… but could get a rep at 250 lbs. We’ll see how it goes.
• Bankers can’t possibly afford NYC on a mere $500K/year
• 

Namaste.

Wednesday – 04 February 2009
Wow. I’d been in the office less than an hour… and already had two people that I’d like to introduce to the business end of my shoe. And the first one, happened less than 10 minutes after walking in the door.  The first person was spared my ire because he’s in the other office today; the second has been spared because it would be… um… “career limiting” for me to tell him that he is an [expletive deleted] moron.

I neglected to log yesterday’s workout:

• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps – 1 set @ 225 lbs, 2 sets @ 185 lbs
• Lat Pull-downs: 3 sets/15 reps, 110 lbs
• Row (Nautilus, compound row): 3 sets/12 reps, 125 lbs
• Curls (dumbbell, hammer): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
• Side Bends: 2 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
• Tricep Extensions (rope): 3 sets/15 reps, 70 lbs

Post workout weight: 184.3 lbs

Last night was a lazy night in… even though it wasn’t originally planned that way. I was supposed to head out to play ‘Clix with Perry, but a couple of the kids got sick, so he was on Kid Patrol last night. Instead, I stayed home, created a Peacebringer on CoH and watched The Secret Life of Bees with SaraRules. It was a coming-of-age movie, set in South Carolina in the 60s, at the height of the civil rights movement. It was well-paced and well-told. I give it a thumbs-up with an okay.

Stray Toasters

• In today’s “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Australia holds ‘pigeon smuggler’
• Christians Bailing on GoDaddy Due to ‘Immoral’ Advertising
  I’m sorry… is this really something new? GoDaddy’s Super Bowl ads have been innuendo-laden for HOW many years now?! And people are just glomming onto this?!  Really?! Sorry, not buying it.  In fact, it reminds me of the Bill O’Reilly/Pepsi/Ludacris hullaballoo from a few years back.
• Automotive X-Prize Draws 25 Teams So Far
• 
• Ziggy Stardust remix album
• Bagels + cream cheese == good.
• Control-a-Cat Remote Control
• Today’s Monkey #2 just keeps stackin’ it up…
• Linda Hesh’s “Bench Project”
• Rob Cockerham writes article critical of Cash4Gold, gets offered cash to kill story

Back to it.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 27 January 2009
It’s cold (18°F), but we’re actually going to see the sun today. Hallelujah!

Last night was a lazy night of 24 and assorted TV watching and putting together some neighborhood tiles for a World Works Games model. Pre-24, I watched a couple episodes of NCIS – I remembered that I neglected to note something the other day: David McCallum, who plays Dr. Mallard on NCIS was also Lt. Cmdr. Eric Ashley-Pitt in The Great Escape… AND was Napoleon Solo’s right hand man, Ilya Kuryakin, in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

As I mentioned, I spent a good part of the evening building WWG models. I found a tutorial that suggested an incredibly simple – and very modular – method for creating miniature gaming environments. The most time-comsuming part, so far, has been cutting the pieces out, so that I can mount them on the foamcore bases. That and being distracted by the TV.

Chew on This – Food for Thought: US Airways passengers get $5,000; Is it enough?
This was almost a ‘Toaster.
Then I realized that I was more irritated about it than I had originally thought.

Maybe I’m a bit jaded, but I fall back on the “any landing you can walk away from” adage here. Is $5,000 enough? How about the fact that you’re still alive!? I’m sorry, but I can’t agree with the “It’s not enough compensation for what we went through” argument. You know what? You got to go home to your families. How many people never got that option?

I’m not saying that this wasn’t a stressful – and potentially mentally damaging – event, because it most definitely was… but YOU LIVED. Period. End of argument.

Stray Toasters

• is back home, safe and sound… and somewhat jet-lagged.
• Afghan Prison Poses Problem in Overhaul of Detainee Policy
• By way of come pictures of The Inauguration of President Barack Obama, by way of Boston.com’s “The Big Picture”



• Layoffs Spread to More Sectors of the Economy
• By way of SaraRules: Dick Van Dyke tells Mary Poppins stories
• What Life Asks of Us
• Disagree with a flight attendant? You’re a terrorist
• Monkeys… MDK. MDK. MDK.

And, I’m apparently sitting in on an interview this morning.

No rest for the wicked, I guess.

Namaste.

just posted a link to this: Pro-Life Group up in Arms over Krispy Kreme’s Abortion Doughnuts

YeahbuhWHAT?!

Seriously… do people really have nothing better to do than nitpick every little thing someone says just to try and come up with new ways of being offended?!

Political correctness is one thing, but this is just plain ridiculous.

Yesterday morning, I came into the office and one of the first things waiting in my inbox was a rather tersely worded email from a Team Lead or Manager (I forget which… but I’ll refer to him as ‘Coworker B1’ for this case) in another department. In this email, he claimed that the IT department had effectively dropped the ball on completing a request that he’d put in.

I went to that department and talked with one of this person’s peers (Coworker B2) as:

1. the email’s author doesn’t regularly work in this office AND
2. I knew that I might not be able to refrain from punching him in the throat had I seen him

I let Coworker B2 know, in no uncertain terms, that he needed to inform B1 that we were not only aware of the situation, but that we had done what we could to rectify it and were awaiting hardware to complete the task. I made a concerted effort to keep my language as office-appropriate as possible, of which I think that I did a rather commendable job – while expressing my displeasure at the tone that the person-in-question had used.  I finished the conversation by saying that if Coworker B1 still had any questions about the way things had been handled that he could come and talk with me and I would explain it to him in detail.

Later in the day, I received a follow-up email from B1. It wasn’t a complete backpedal nor was it a complete apology, but its tone was far less accusational than its predecessor.

This afternoon, IT had another email. This time from Coworker B2. He was asking about the status of a task that he had entered. He made a point of noting: “I’m not accusing you of dropping the ball here.” That amused me. He closed the email with the following:

I thought I’d better explain myself before you sent your hitman, Rob, to pound on me!

That made me smile.

Monday – 01 December 2008
And so, another work week – and another month – begin.

I was lucky enough to get to spend a portion of my morning on the phone with HP Tech Support explaining why they needed to ship me a replacement for a replacement part they sent last week. Short answer: They sent the wrong part. *sigh* This time, I sent to an email to the rep, so that he could see the differences bewteen Part A (the part I need to have replaced) and Part B (the part they sent). I should have the new – and hopefully correct – replacement part tomorrow.

Stray Toasters

• As I mentioned last week, there’s a new member of the family – now complete with pictures.
• By way of SaraRules:
  • As Taboos Ease, Saudi Girl Group Dares to Rock
  • Atlantic Records Says Digital Sales Surpass CDs
  • Kanab Orchestra Thrives Under Long-Time Maestro
    
• By way of comes an interesting read about comic book cancellations and why the Big Two keep churning out mega-crossovers: “Why you feelin’ sorry for him? He asked for it…”
• How Dan Kaminsky broke and fixed DNS
• I just discovered that a coworker used to play Star Fleet Battles, many moons ago.
• I read a news article title from Wired.com – Genetically Modified Peanuts Could Save Lives – and my first thought was of Charles Schulz’ comic strip… new and improved! Finally, Charlie Brown can kick that football! lj user=”everydave” pointed out the following:
  

  “sure..but the mutation would be across the board…so while CB might be able to finally kick the ball..the ball, now sentient, is going to come back and reign down hell on ol’ chuck in retaliation…”

• Best Book Covers of 2008
• Yiddish in Jazz
• Meetings. YAY!

Namaste.