Random Access

Sunday – 20 December 2009
Yesterday was a good – and full – day. I started at 0830… and was on the move until around 2300. But, it was worth it.

I started the morning with a call to my uncle; it was his birthday. SaraRules and I talked with him for a few minutes before we headed out to start our respective days: She was shopping with her mother; I was having coffee with Chris and Perry. After that, Chris and I headed up to Dr. Volt’s for another HeroClix tourney (pictures here). This time we had four people (including Chris) show – technically, it was five people… but the fifth showed up after I had started the first matches, so he opted not to play. He said that he’s in for the next tournament, though. Chris won the event, going 3-0.  He played Josh (one of the new arrivals) who until that game was also 2-0. Josh took home the Fellowship prize.

After I dropped Chris at home, I came home and then SaraRules and I headed to Five Guys for burgers and fries. They were, as usual, quite tasty. Back home to change and get ready to head out to the Utah Symphony Holiday Pops with Jerry! concert. It was a lot of fun, with a lot of good music… but, the best part of the concert came just after the concert:

I was walking backstage with SaraRules (she had to put away some work material), when we came to a doorway that led to steps from one of the upper tiers. A few people exited the door, among them an older lady in a red dress.

She turned and looked at me.
I looked at her.

She looked at me… like she knew me.
I looked at her… blankly.

She looked at me… like she knew me… and came over and took my hand.
I stood there… still not knowing her… not quite sure what to say.

“You don’t remember me, do you?  I’m Lotta Mae¹ ” she smiled and said.
“I don’t believe that we’ve met before, ma’am,” I responded, warmly and with a smile.
“Oh… you’re not Eric, are you?”
“No, ma’am… I’m not.”
“Oh, well, then… I’m sorry.”

And, with that she walked off.

SaraRules and I continued down the hallway, she with a grin on her face. I was still completely in the dark as to exactly why, but I did find the situation a bit comical. After we got to her desk, SaraRules explained that after thinking about it, she understood why the woman thought that I was this “Eric” chap. As we were walking out, we saw Eric and she introduced us. Eric…

• …is roughly my height
• …is roughly my build
• …is very similar to my complexion (Yep! There’s another Black guy in Utah!)
• …also has a shaved head
• …was also wearing a black suit.

That’s about where the similarities end:

• He was in a white shirt; I was in a white/purple-striped shirt
• He had a gold jacquard tie; mine was with purple with white/grey squares.
• He was clean-shaven; I have a goatee.

When SaraRules explained to him what had just happened, he broke out in hearty laughter. I did, too. Again. We came to the conclusion that we were apparently Mirror Universe opposites and that Lotta Mae had failed to notice that I was actually the “evil twin.” (And, I actually made a Driving Miss Daisy joke to SaraRules about it on the way back to the car, as well.)

But, it was a heckuva funny way to end the evening. And for that reason, I’m naming Lotta Mae and Eric as co-Humans of the Day.

Stray Toasters

• The Bears – Ravens game has been postponed until 1615 (EST), due to weather.
• Bryan Singer on X-Men: First Class
• By way of Rachel: Star Wars Weather Forecast
  (Enter your city in the text box at the top of the page.)
• ‘Alien’ Screenwriter Dan O’Bannon, Dead at 63
• 99 Luftballons, Side-by-Side Comparison – the German translation and the bastardized version that we got in English.
• 
• British troops to get first new camouflage in 40 years
• Traveler’s worst nightmare: East Coast snowfall cancels over 800 flights
• A Lament for Saab

And now, I believe that it’s time for coffee and some form of breakfast.

Namaste.

¹ – I’m not sure that’s how her name is spelled; since this is my story, I get to spell it the way I want. Hopefully, I’m at least close to how it’s supposed to be spelled.

Friday – 18 December 2009
It’s the end of the work week.
It’s also the end of my work year.
And, if that wasn’t enough, it’s a week before Christmas.
And, on top of THAT… in four (4) more days, the days will start getting longer again. Selah.

Last night, SaraRules and I ran some errands and made some (more) Christmas candy. When that was done, we watched Tuesday’s episodes of NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles. Not a bad way to spend a Thursday evening. What we didn’t do was watch the Colts-Jags game; from what we heard from SaraRules’ father, it actually turned out to be a good game. Oh, well. If it comes down to it, I’ll just look for the rebroadcast on NFL Network.

I slept fairly well last night, but – for the third time this week – I woke up due to a rather disturbing dream. You know the kind: The “Should I really be upset with Person X for that…?” kind. It took me a minute or two to realize that the transgression occured in a dream and to calm the urge to tell someone where to go, how to get there and where they could find a pair of gasoline drawers to wear on the way. *sigh* My subconscious is apparently a cruel and evil bastard.

On the plus side, today is the quiet Friday in the office. I’m not saying that one of the Star Wars movies or Green Lantern: First Flight might make their way onto the big monitor today… but I’m not not-saying it, either.

Stray Toasters

• In the name of “holiday cheer” (and just because I could), I’m wearing my Santa hat today.
• I don’t remember who posted this first, but it makes me laugh: What Really Happened
• posted a link to The Morgan Freeman Chain of Command
• YouTube video leads to Hollywood contract
• Office monkeys!  *grblsnrkx*
• 
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Spite Houses, built to piss off the neighbors
• The list of films showing at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival has been posted.
• Vertabrae necklace
• US man freed by DNA evidence after 35 years in prison

Namaste.

Thursday – 16 December 2009
Day 3 of the work week and it’s NBN Thursday, to boot.  That’s a nice combination, no matter how you slice it.

Last night, SaraRules and I had one of her former MFA classmates, Sara… hm… I guess I’ll just have to refer to her as “Sara2″… over for dinner. SaraRules made chicken and dumplings for the entree. The ladies chatted about their experiences in the MFA program, including their trip to NYC a couple of years ago. I’d heard about this trip – part of the trip, anyway – from SaraRules; last night, I got some more behind-the-scenes info and insight, which was both sad and rather funny. All-in-all, dinner and the company were quite fun.

This morning, I woke up when the alarm went off… but I really don’t remember turning the alarm off. I do remember looking at the clock, a couple of minutes after the alarm sounded and wondering why it was not going off and why I was awake.  Yep, it was one of “those” mornings. But, I have my trusty cup of coffee at my side, so things can only look up from here.

Stray Toasters

• December 17, 1903: Bicycle Brothers Make Aeroplane Work Wright
• The new trailer for Iron Man 2 is online; take a look here to check it out.
  • Semi-related: People Magazine Loves The Super Hero Squad Show
• Steampunk Menorah
• Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chris Henry dies after fall from truck
• Bank of America names new CEO to replace Ken Lewis
• 
• The Year in Media Errors and Corrections, courtesy of
• Extrasolar ‘Super Earth’ is first to have atmosphere
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Brazil boy found with 40 needles in ‘black magic rite’

Time to make the donuts…

Namaste.

Tuesday – 15 December 2009
Back into the working grind.  Not too much to plow through… aside from about 40 emails. Those are easy enough to deal with.

Last night, for the first time in at least two years, I made “Chocolate Jolt” coffee bean-infused chocolates. This time, I tried something a little different – I added mint, kind of like Andes Chocolates. I haven’t taste-tested them yet, but they seemed to turn out alright.

Last night’s excursion to Barnes & Noble proved unfruitful… at least as far as I was concerned. SaraRules, however, had a big score and was able to find [SPOILER DELETED], which [SPOILER DELETED] should think is pretty awesome.

On the other hand, after a couple of calls to local Graywhale CD Exchange stores, I have finally found a copy of Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration! It took the clerk I spoke with a few minutes to locate it – for some reason, it was put in the “World Music” section. *shrug* “Ours is not to reason why…” He’s holding it behind the counter for me; I will have to see about getting it at lunch or after work.

Stray Toasters

• At ‘s suggestion, I’m wearing a suit today; he and other professors decided to wear them to the final exam that they were proctoring “…just to entertain the students.” I wear mine around here, from time to time, “just because.” That… and the fact that it tends to make people nervous. (That’s really a nice fringe benefit.)
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Haagen-Dazs opens no-Indians-allowed store in Delhi
• sent me a couple of amusing links:
  • From Not Always Right: “The Fourth Is Not Strong in This One…”
  • Zombie ‘Star Wars’ Posters Are Beautifully Disturbing
• From the “Who Wants to Live Forever?” file: Turritopsis nutricula: The world’s only ‘immortal’ creature
• By way of come today’s “Humans of the Day” award winners: Mystery Couple Starts “Magical” Chain Reaction
• Unplugged: The Web’s Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy of 2008
• CoH is doing free character server transfers, through the end of January!

Namaste.

Sunday – 13 December 2009
Yesterday was a long and busy day…

After breakfast and a fairly lazy morning, SaraRules and I headed out to do a little Christmas shopping. Next, we stopped in to see Kate, Perry and the kids. From there…

…we went to see The Princess and the Frog (1, 2). The movie marked a return to 2-D animation by Disney Animation Studios. The movie follows Disney’s newest princess, Tiana, in her quest to achieve a dream that was inspired by her father. Tiana also holds a couple of  distinctions in Disney lore:

1. She is Disney’s first African-American princess
2. She is not a “help me, save me” princess, but more of a driven/determined young woman – much in the vein of Pocahantas or Mulan.

Let me start by saying it was a great movie. I enjoyed pretty much everything about it, from the animation to the voice casting (including Oprah?!) to the songs. The movie was set in New Orleans, in the… 20s and 30s. The animators did a good job of capturing the look and feel of the Crescent City in those days. Additionally, the animation used in a couple of Tiana’s dream sequences was also fantastic.

The movie’s dark side – provided by villain Dr. Facilier, a street con/voodoo magician – includes some scenes in which he… works his magic (sorry, couldn’t be helped)… that could be frightening to younger viewers. Dr. Facilier’s methods and motivations are reminiscent of Aladdin‘s Jafar.

The music was a fine combination of jazz, zydeco, and gospel. The different styles were used, quite effectively, to enhance the given atmosphere and attitude of specific scenes.

All-in-all, this was a fine movie and a worthy successor in Disney’s line of “Princess” movies. SaraRules made the comment: “I feel that I could let our children watch this without feeling like I just fed them a bunch of shite.” I concur.

After the movie, we headed home for a bit and then, it was time to head over to OnlyAly and ‘s for their annual “Nightmare Before Christmas” horror movie marathon.

We watched Pitch Black, The Descent and Dawn of the Dead (2004). As always, it was a fun way to spend an evening. Thanks, again, to the hosts for their hospitality.

This morning involved a good bit of sleeping in. And now… there’s football. Unfortunately, the Lions-Ravens game isn’t being aired in this market, so I’m relegated to tracking the game on NFL.com’s Game Center.

Stray Toasters

• It’s snowing. Surprise!



• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Santa Claus banned from visiting locked-up children in UK asylum detention centre
• I just saw this commercial; I like it and the message it conveys: LEGO: Build Together

• Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN adviser
• forwarded a link to My Fortress of Solitude. I think that this belongs on The Covet List. I’d love to do something like this, but I’m not sure that I could pull it off, given the types of desks that we have at work.
• Black Mesa Coffee Mug
• I looked up a little more information about The Super Hero Squad Show, specifically the voice acting talent. I was surprised and amused to note that they got Shawn Ashmore and Ray Stevenson to do the voices for Iceman and The Punisher, respectively… given that the actors portrayed those characters in live-action movies.
• went to see the Faster Than a Speeding Bullet: The Art of the Superhero exhibit yesterday. I’m a tad jealous.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 09 December 2009
It’s a cold (but sunny!) Comics and Sushi Wednesday in the valley. It was 9°F – that’s right… NINE degrees – when I got in the car this morning. It’s not a good sign when it is seventy degrees warmer inside your car than outside. That just ain’t right. No way. No how.

We got our wedding photos last night! Twila did an amazing job; she took over 700 pictures… and SaraRules and I think that all of them turned out really well. I posted some of the pictures on Facebook. I was thinking of making a gallery in iWeb, but it’s easier to just post a link to the album, at least for now.

A week or two ago, Paul loaned me Charlie Wilson’s War; SaraRules and I watched it last night. Neither of us really knew what to expect, but we were very entertained. The movie followed Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson and his role in the 1980s war in Afghanistan.  After the movie ended and the credits started, I saw a very familiar name – Aaron Sorkin – and the reason why the movie felt so… familiar… clicked into place: Mr. Sorkin was the creative force behind the first six seasons of The West Wing, one of my favorite shows of the past decade.

Stray Toasters

• This morning, I came to work and hung 30′ of gold Christmas garland over my desk. It amuses me and it’s gotten some favorable comments, too. Minion #1 even said that it “…looked like a little shrine to [me].” I can live with that.
• A couple of items about the upcoming Disney movie, The Princess and the Frog:
  • Do Disney Princesses Make Young Girls Obsessed with Thinness?
  • Talking Race: Disney’s Princess Tiana
• Computing for Dummies: Five Ways that N00bs Annoy Geeks
• School lunch meet doesn’t hold up to fast-food standards
• By way of and the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: U.S. Helps Frequent Fliers Make a Mint
• All Songs Considered Listeners Pick the Best Music of 2009
• 
• Why You Love This Decade’s Movie Villains
• From NPR Music: Lady Gaga: Most Fascinating of the Year?
• Grant Morrison on return of original Batman

Namaste.

Monday – 07 December 2009
Another week begins… and this one has snow. Or at least it will in a few hours. That’s fine. I’m indoors and plan on staying that way until evening rush hour.

Today is also the anniversary of the WWII attack on Pearl Harbor.

Yesterday was a rather lazy day. It primarily involved sleeping in, watching football and being lazy. And that was just fine in my book.

Instant Replay: Football
Yesterday was a good day for fans of gridiron action:

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Carolina Panthers
6 –16
We didn’t get to see this game, but a game with a “W” for the Panther is almost always good in my book.

.

Oakland Raiders at Pittsburgh Steelers
27 – 24
Yet another game that we didn’t get to see, but the Raiders beat the Steelers. Let’s go over that point again: Oakland beat Pitt. In Pitt. Raiders QB Bruce Gradkowski threw three fourth quarter touchdowns for a come-from-behind win. Congrats, SaraRules.

.

Detroit Lions at Cincinnati Bengals
13 – 23
The Lions jumped out to an early lead in this one… but the Bengals came away with the win. Congrats, and .

.

New England Patriots at Miami Dolphins
21 – 22
This was another game that wasn’t broadcast locally. I did catch some of the highlights, but all I needed to know is that the Fins got the win… even if only barely.

.

San Diego Chargers at Cleveland Browns
13 – 23
The Bolts broke down the Dog Pound… but Cleveland apparently proved that their bite was almost as bad as their bite, outscoring San Diego 16 – 3 in the Fourth Quarter. Sorry, .

.

Minnesota Vikings at Arizona Cardinals
17 – 30
What. Happened. Here? Where was the Brett Favre that we’ve seen in the past twelve weeks of the season? Where was the Adrian Peterson run game? And what happened to the Vikings’ defense?! I don’t have answers to those, but apparently Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald and the Cards did. Sorry, .

Boilermaker Watch

• Drew Brees and the Saints tried just about everything possible to give up the game to the Washington Redskins yesterday. But, thanks to an 18-yard FG in overtime – by K Garrett Hartley, the Saints remain undefeated.
• Denver QB Kyle Orton led the Broncos to a 44- 13 win over the Chiefs.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules did a little digging and came up with a little more information about the “911 vs. 9/11” item that I posted yesterday:
  

  A copy editor changed a reference to “911 Is a Joke,” a song on “Fear of a Black Planet,” the classic 1990 rap album by Public Enemy, to “9/11 Is a Joke.”

  “The error was not the fault of Akeya, the reporter on the story, but was made during the copy-editing process. A correction was printed once the error was discovered,” Kris Coratti, director of communications at the Washington Post, told Journal-isms, referring to reporter Akeya Dickson.

  The correction was picked up on Web sites from Regret the Error to FishBowl LA to Wonkette to Gothamist.

  “Brutal,” wrote Gothamist. “The song ‘911 is a Joke’ was of course released in 1990, on the seminal Fear of a Black Planet album, approximately 11 years before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.”

  With no indication of familiarity with the author of the story, Wonkette wrote, “Why WaPo Neocons Should Not Write About Hip Hop.”

  With that, I transfer yesterday’s “Wow… I’m an idiot” comment from Ms. Dickson to whomever her copy-editor is.

• DC Opens Up Earth One
• How does today’s weather make me feel?  I can sum it up in two words: Boat Drinks
• Cool Toys for Nerds, Ages 8 to 80
• 
• Virgin Galactic to Unveil Commercial Spaceship
• …and in a semi-related note: US Air Force Confirms New Stealth Aircraft
• Fox says ‘Avatar’ is costliest film it’s ever made
• Cirque du Soliel preps ‘Viva ELVIS’ show
• How Men and Women Badly Estimate Their Own Intelligence

Quote Pun of the Day
messaged me this morning with the following:

: ‘morning
Me: Howdy.  How goes?
: and…the puns start early…I just thought of the perfect present for : …catholic eclesiasitcal converse all stars…
Me: *snicker*
: nun chucks
Me: ::: rimshot :::

Namaste.

Sunday – 06 December 2009
Yesterday was a good – although cold – day. It also started to snow yesterday morning. There was snow in the forecast… but not until today. So, when I headed out, looked to the west and couldn’t see the Oquirrh Mountains, I knew that it was imminent. Ten minutes later, I was driving into it. Yay. It snowed intermittently throughout the afternoon. Nothing really accumulated, aside from on the grass/fields in some areas.

I hosted a ‘Clix tournament at Dr. Volt’s Comic Connection yesterday.  There was only one other person (besides Chris) who showed up to play. That was fine, because that meant a few things:

1. There was some word of mouth – the other player drove up… from Nephi.
2. Chris had someone to play against.
3. I didn’t have to worry about “Who won what,” as I could hand out both the first place and the Fellowship prizes.

Wayne, the guy from Nephi, wound up winning the tourney. put in an appearance; he’d been curious about both the game and the comic shop, so he thought he’d check them out. (Hopefully he had a good time hanging out.)

After the game, SaraRules and I went out to dinner and ran some errands. After that, we came home and set up the Christmas tree, while Christmas songs played on the 360. After that – and a nap, on my part – we chilled out on the couch, with hot chocolate and biscotti… and MythBusters.

Stray Toasters

• From the “Wow… I’m an idiot” file: I saw a blurb for the following item from The Washington Post:
  

  A Nov. 26 article in the District edition of Local Living incorrectly said a Public Enemy song declared 9/11 a joke. The song refers to 911, the emergency phone number.

  Wait. What? Really?  I mean…. REALLY??! Come on. They had to be kidding. I looked up the original article.  The correction was in reference to the following paragraph:

  Public Enemy has earned notoriety with more than 20 years of politically charged music about fighting the power, challenging racism and declaring that 911 was a joke. The group has joined forces with Virgin Mobile USA to combat youth homelessness as part of National Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week.

  I shared the item with SaraRules, who was as flabbergasted as I was that someone would make that mistake. Her post-shock comment was: “This is something that… two minutes… of research would have clarified. Did she ever listen to the song?! If nothing else, she could have looked at when the song was written and seen how far before [September 11^th] it was.”

  Not only that, what about an editor?! Someone should have caught it. I did a little searching of my own, to see if I could find a picture of the author; maybe she was an older woman who just had no clue. This is the picture I found:

  

  She is the young lady on the far left.
  And just for the record (and future reference) : 911 != 9/11.

• MarknTyme tossed me a link to a concept trailer for a show called Slingers. Check it out here.
• U.S. hospitals turn to G.E. for surgical cuts
• 
• From NPR Music:
  • Living Colour: Keeping the Music Alive
  • The Jazz Loft Project: Sights and Sounds
  • The 11th Annual Director’s Cuts Music Guide
    
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Custom LEGO model kit leads to tactical police response…
• …and, in a similar vein: Police U-turn on photographers and anti-terror laws
• I watched 1 vs. 100 last night – one of The Mob was an aerospace engineer… who was also a cheerleader for the Houston Texans. Talk about disparate jobs!
• Comic Book Artists Illustrate Sci-Fi Legends
• Apple acquires music service Lala
• This image…

  

  …is available as a card or a print. Click here for more information.

• Woman jailed, charged with felony camcordering after recording 4 minutes of sister’s birthday party in a movie theater

And with that, I think I’ll put on some coffee and watch a little gridiron action.

Namaste.

Thursday – 03 December 2009
Thirteen.

That’s the answer to “How many degrees (Fahrenheit) was it when I left home this morning?” Low relative humidity or not, that’s just cold.

Last night, SaraRules and I went out to do a little Christmas shopping and errand-running.  Our first stop was at Gardner Village; we picked out our 2009 Christmas ornament. From there, we headed to The Downtown Philly Cheesesteaks for dinner – SaraRules had the Philly Bleu, I had the Mushroom Pepper. Next stop: Hobby Lobby. And after that, a pilgrimage to The Garden of Sweden.

After we returned home, we watched Shade, a movie that SaraRules got from Netflix; excerpted from their synopsis:

A trio of grifters (Thandie Newton, Gabriel Byrne and Stuart Townsend) plots the con of a lifetime when they scheme to hustle a notorious card shark known as “The Dean.”  Jamie Foxx and Melanie Griffith co-star in this twisting tale of deception, danger and double cross.

It was a good movie, better than we expected actually. It made for a good evening’s movie watching and I’d definitely recommend it.

Workout
Wes and I made it to the gym today. The fact that I’m still sore from Tuesday’s workout didn’t help… at all:

• Sit-ups (incline): 3 sets – 10/20/10*
• Bench Press: 3 sets/8 reps, 205 lbs/195 lbs/185 lbs
• Lat Pulldowns: 3 sets/10 reps, 100 lbs
• Side Bends (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps per side, 25 lbs
• Lateral Raises (w/ fly): 3 sets/10 reps, 10 lbs
• Push-ups: 3 sets/15 reps

Post-workout weight: 190.1 lbs

Stray Toasters

• The Council for Better Driving: Utah suggests reading this article: ‘Road Rage’ Case Highlights Cyclist vs. Driver Tension
• Malware Alert: Zeus faked as H1N1 alert
• 365DayGirl posted a link to Tabloach Productions – Barbie (et al.) doll customizations
• Steampunk assemblage glasses
• Monkeys! >.<
  
• Look Out Below! Wingsuits Pushed for Airborne Assaults
• 
• : Sorry to hear about this, no one should have to go out like this – Lewis’ career likely over after he suffers post-concussion symptoms
• NBC Universal + Comcast = NBC CEO Jeff Zucker’s Statement to Staff
• Vladamir Put ‘to think about’ presidential bid
• My Hilarious Warner Bros. Royalty Statement
• The PlayStation Turns 15: What did it mean for you?

Back to the grind…

Namaste.

Monday – 30 November 2009
“Thirty days has September, April, June and November…”

…and November’s thirty days are hours away from being up. The long weekend has been a good one… and is also hours away from being over. I didn’t really “need” to take today off, but the idea of back-to-back four-day work weeks was appealing, especially as I needed to burn some PTO. Win-Win.

Yesterday, we made it up to Park City for brunch at Cisero’s. As usual, the food was very good… as was the company. After we got back to the valley, SaraRules and I went to visit Kate, Perry and the kids – they were celebrating their second-youngest’s birthday. After that, we headed back over to SaraRules’ parents’ for dinner and football.

Instant Replay: Football

Pittsburgh Steelers at Baltimore Ravens
17 – 20
The Ravens hosted the Steelers in their first match-up of the season. I wasn’t sure what to expect, as both QB Ben Roethlisberger and SS Troy Polamalu were out for Pitt. On one hand, I was hopeful that the Ravens could capitalize on their absence, but on the other hand, I would have liked to have seen the Steelers play at full-strength. The Steelers started third-string QB Dennis Dixon… who, prior to this game, had only thrown one pass in an NFL game. Everyone expected him to be cowed at starting in a big rivalry game. He wasn’t. He went out there and showed an amazing amount of poise and ability. The threw a TD and ran for one himself. (Did I mention that this was his second NFL game… ever?!) I’m far from a Steelers fan, but I really enjoyed watching Dixon play. The Steelers would be insane to let this kid get away. On the other side of the ball, the Steelers were as tenacious as ever. The defense played smart and solid football, not giving the Ravens a lot of opportunities to make big plays. In fact, the game went into overtime when Ravens’ K Billy Cundiff missed a 56 yard field goal that would have put the game away. (The kick was on the mark, but fell about three yards short.) The game turned when Ravens rookie LB Paul Kruger intercepted a pass and ran it back 26 yards, setting up the game-winning field goal. All-in-all, it was an excellent game, despite some sloppy play on the Ravens’ part.

Coach Harbaugh, you just beat the Steelers at home! Does that make you happy?

Um, Coach… the saying is “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands,” not “…look like a total spaz.” That’s okay, I think we all know what you meant.  (But you might want to work on that clapping thing, for future reference.)

Stray Toasters

• Open Letter to Hollywood: Stop Ruining Our Childhood Memories
• I recently discovered the show Build It Bigger. I like it.
• From the “Would…You…Like…To…Play…A…Game?” file: Department of Defense orders 2200 PS3s
• Thor and Avengers News Leaked?
• Interesting read: Zambia’s celebrity couple reveal wife-beating past
• Evolution of Storage
• Surprised Kitten Is Surprised

• Rusting space-marine robot toys
• everything has a season
  and only time will last
  feel the leaves falling fast behind us
  men expend their little lives so fast
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: BBC photographer prevented from shooting St. Paul’s because he might be “Al-Qaeda operative”
• Amazon.com is an evil, evil place…
• Steampunk Tales

Namaste.

Sunday – 29 November 2009

Friday afternoon, SaraRules and I went shopping. As I mentioned, I had expected most of the early-birds to be back in their respective aeries. That wasn’t the case as of the early afternoon, when we headed over to JoAnn Fabrics. I was amazed at the number of people in line to get fabric cut! If I remember correctly, there were literally about EIGHTY (80) people ahead of us! Unglaublich! Fortunately, SaraRules had the presence of mind to take a number before she started looking for fabric; I’d hate to think how much longer we would have waited had she not done that. And, we also picked up a wreath while we were there. The rest of the day and evening were rather low-key. We went to coffee and – aside from Carilyn (former coworker of mine) – were the only ones there.

SaraRules, Logan and I went to see The Blind Side yesterday. It was good. Very good, in fact. And… I have something of a confession: I’ve never really been a huge Sandra Bullock fan. I don’t mean that I dislike her – I’ve enjoyed her in other films – it’s just that she’s never really done anything that’s made me go, “Wow!” Until this movie. I actually thought,”Whoa… she can pull of depth and range beyond ‘comic actress.'” I enjoyed her portrayal of Leanne Tuohy. And, while I’m not a modern country fan, I have to give Tim McGraw props for both cleaning up nicely and doing a fine job in front of the camera, too. It was definitely “an inspirational sports movie,” but it was quite good in the way it told its story… and the fact that Michael Oher is the Ravens’ Left Tackle didn’t hurt, either.

We came back from the movie and I finished a project that I started Friday afternoon: Cleaning the office. It had been “far too long” since I had any verification that there was actually a floor in there. I set about proving that there was… and I was right! It looks about 300% better in there now.

For my final amazing feat of the day, I decided to do HeroClix mod. Like many people I wasn’t thrilled with the sculpt of the Spider-Man figure that came out in WizKids’ Secret Invasion set: The figure’s proportions weren’t right and it just looked… well… cheap. I had been toying around with some ideas and put them to work:

• Old and busted:

  

• New hotness:

While this wasn’t as much of a mod as either Winter Soldier/Captain America or Sodam Yat, it was as much fun to do as either of the others, including doing a complete repainting of the wall (including a covered-over zombie poster on the back). For a better look at what I did to make a better-looking Wall-Crawler out of Spidey, you can take a look at the before and after shots. I’m rather happy with how he turned out.

Stray Toasters

• posted a link to Super Emo Super Friends.
  (Consider the whole set as having been added to The Covet List.)
• Okay. I lied. Only one ‘Toaster, so far.  Maybe I’ll post more later.

And now, brunch at Cisero’s with SaraRules and the family!

Namaste.

Thursday – 26 November 2009
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

To all of you – even those of you who don’t have a “Thanksgiving Day” – I hope that the day is safe, fun and full of the joy of friends and family. What am I thankful for? I’ve been blessed with more wonderful things than I could count, but among the things I am most thankful for are:

• A wonderful wife who loves – and puts up with – me
  
• A great family
• My friends
  
• My health
• Having a job when so many others are struggling to either find work or to make ends meet
  
• Having a safe place to live
• Having the means to acquire the things I need, as well as some of the things I just “want”

I’m sure that I could make a list that goes on and on, but suffice it to say: I have many things for which I am thankful today.

Last night, SaraRules and I made a chocolate cream pie for this afternoon’s dessert; this morning, we’re getting ready to make a sweet potato pie. (CORRECTION: SaraRules already did most of the “heavy lifting,” but I got to help with the last few bits.)  In the not-too-distant future, we’ll head over to her parents’ for dinner and football and general “hanging out with the family.” Somewhere in there, we might even watch a movie or two.

Stray Toasters

• It’s Thanksgiving, Charlie Brown!

  

• U.S. couple from Georgia experiences Hajj pilgrimage
• By way of comes: 5 Star Wars Status Updates
• Nightwing officially joins DCU Online
• Wooden orrery
• From both the “Monkeys!” and “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” files: Couple slips through security to crash state dinner
• Industrial Thanksgiving: Science Takes Mom’s Recipes to the Factory
• Snake fire-escape graffiti
• I’m still trying to find a set of Green Lantern-Star Sapphire Minimates for under $25 USD. So far, no luck.  On the other hand, I did get my new Blackest Night Series 2 John Stewart figure yesterday. It looks good on the GL shelf in my display case.
• What’s Thanksgiving without a little MST3K?

…and to all a good night!
(Or… um… something along those lines.)

Namaste.

Wednesday – 25 November 2009
Today’s got so much going for it, I don’t think that you could cram anything else into it: It’s the middle of the week, but it’s also “Technical Friday.” It’s Comics and Sushi Wednesday. It’s the first day of Hajj, as well as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. And, it’s the day before Thanksgiving. *whew* I defy you you try packing more into a day that this.

Last night, SaraRules and I watched the NCIS block on CBS and, after a quick excursion to the local Target – where we once again ran into ex-coworker Brooke – I set about finishing up some paperwork for work. Yay.

Stray Toasters

• Late yesterday afternoon, I got a surprise call from a friend I haven’t spoken with in… close to a year, at least. Schedules, go figure. It was a great way to wrap up the work day.
• Runaway with Asperger’s Syndrome Spent 11 Days on Subway
• Indian Colors, American Fashion
• Hot Caramel Mocha goodness…
• New Disney Princess movie sounds pretty good

  

• National Gaming Day at libraries a massive success
• Michelle Obama racist image sparks Google apology
• Velocity of Media Comsumption: The Web vs. TV
• sent me a link to a video from this summer’s San Diego Sandy Eggo Comic Con, in which Kevin Smith gives his (NSFW, use headphones) opinion about the Twilight phenomenon (do DO do-do-do!):

• Bad-ass Mad Max campout weekend, complete with working gyrocopter
• Sometime between tonight and tomorrow morning, I shall be making two pies: a Chocolate Cream Pie and a Sweet Potato Pie.
• Airlines fined for overnight stranding in Minneapolis

It’s very quiet in the office today. What does that mean? Simply put: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is going on my big monitor in just over a half-hour.  Win!

Namaste.

Monday – 23 November 2009

Yesterday, the Comcast service tech came to look at – and hopefully fix – our service outage. When I scheduled the appointment, I was told: “…the earliest thing that we have available is 8 AM tomorrow (Sunday).” I agreed to that and set my alarms accordingly. Bright and early at 0800, I got out of my warm and toasty bed and traipsed out to the living room. After verifying that our service was still out, I curled up on the couch to wait for technician. A few minutes later, SaraRules came out to wait with me; after nearly an hour of trying to nap, she headed back to the bedroom – the new sofa doesn’t sleep two terribly comfortably. (Good to know…)

I called Comcast to verify that I hadn’t misunderstood the service call time/date. The IVR noted that my service window was “…between 8 and 12.” Wait. What?! If I was in a “service window,” why didn’t the CSR just say that Saturday morning, rather than “at 8AM.”

*grblsnrkx*

Wynn, the technician, showed up a little after 1000. I explained – and showed – the problem to him. He went back outside and checked the box. He came in, asked if anything had changed. Nope. He went back out and came in a couple of minutes later. Lo and behold, signal! I asked what had happened; he told me: Apparently, there was a service call in the next building, for Apartment #11… which is our apartment number. The tech for that call undid our line instead of the appropriate line.

::: braincramp :::

This wouldn’t have been so bad… had this not been the third time that we’ve had this exact same thing happen. Wynn looked a bit bemused, but understanding. He said that he would label the lines – “in a couple of places” – so that it wouldn’t happen again. Amen.

<< Rewind <<
Saturday, after coffee with the guys, Chris and I headed up to Dr. Volt’s. Our reason was two-fold:

1. We wanted to see what new plastic crack was in store and
2. We wanted to talk with Dave about running ‘Clix tournaments.

We bought a few singles – and a couple of boxes – and both wound up with some of the pieces we were looking for. Dave also said that he was up for hosting tournaments – as long as he knew “when,” he could make space available. So… with that in mind: Chris and I are running a tournament in just under two weeks! Hopefully, we’ll get some decent interest and will be able to run more tourneys in the future.

The rest of Saturday was spent doing some cleaning, a little errand-running and just hanging out with SaraRules. We also started watching Seven Samurai, which she had seen, but I hadn’t. It’s an excellent bit of film.We got about halfway through it (it’s a three-hour long fare) before calling it a night.

Sunday brought football. (Details below) After the early games, Logan came over – the three of us were going to see The Blind Side. The showing we wanted was sold out. So… we went back home and checked out SaraRules’ Netflix fare: The Strangers. Meh. Could have been (a lot) better:

We had dinner with the in-laws and – as it had started to snow – went home a little early. The late game was lax so, we finished watching Seven Samurai.

Instant Replay: Football
:

Indianapolis Colts at Baltimore Ravens
17 –15
The… sorry, The “Indianapolis Professional Football Club”… returned to Baltimore to take on the Ravens. Peyton Manning and company held the Ravens to field goals, but were only able to put up a pair of TDs and a field goal themselves. I was somewhat surprised to learn that Steve Hauschka had been released last week. As I told Julie and Minion #2 this morning: “[He] wasn’t working out.” New Ravens K, Billy Cundiff, kicked six FGs, missing one, for all fifteen of the Ravens’ points. I was expecting the “IPFC” to come in and completely wreck shop, but the Ravens were able to keep the game close, despite only scoring field goals. It was a loss, but respectable gameplay by the Ravens kept it from hurting… too much.

.

Cincinnati Bengals at Oakland Raiders
17 – 20
We didn’t get to see all of this game – just the last few minutes were broadcast here, but… the Raiders WON. Not only that, but they beat the team to whom the Ravens have already lost twice this season. Congrats, SaraRules! Sorry, and .

.

Cleveland Browns at Detroit Lions
37 – 38
The Lions? Really..? Wow. Sorry, .

.

Seattle Seahawks at Minnesota Vikings
9 – 35
I didn’t see this one, but I’m not surprised. Congrats, .

Stray Toasters

• By way of SaraRules: Shaq Takes Shot at Art as Curator of Show ‘Size DOES Matter’
• I’ve been meaning to post this for nearly a week: The Superman 2000 Pitch
• It’s healthy for kids to get dirty
• This popped up on my radar the other day and nudged me and reminded me of it:

  
  (click image for article)

• MarknTyme sent me a link to a Smallville teaser trailer… featuring the JSA.
• Animated map of US unemployment stats since 2007
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Homebrew Pikachu Ski-mask

Quote of the Day: Unintentional Porn Overheard at Work
This morning, a couple of people noted something that smelled like “burning electronics.” If you’ve ever smelled something that’s had a component blow out, you know what I’m talking about. I didn’t smell it, because I’m “slightly” congested, but loonybin88 and Minion #2 also noted that they smelled something. They finally tracked it down to one of Julie’s computers – the fan on the power supply had gone out and the components were overheating.

After they swapped out the PSU – and made sure that things were working properly – they gave Julie her machine back. Shortly after that, she got a call (I assume from someone who had asked about the smell earlier); she responded with the following:

Jason said he smelled something. It was my box.

I was (barely) able to contain any outward expression… until I got into the Build Lab, where I related the story to Minion #2. We both cracked up.

Namaste.

Saturday – 21 November 2009
Last night, SaraRules, some of the Clitorati and I went to the Grizzlies hockey game last night.  It was a lot of fun. The Grizz played the Las Vegas Wranglers… and won. In fact, they blanked ’em: 4 – 0.

After the game, we headed home and watched Thursday’s episode of Fringe. It was good. Next, I watched Thursday night’s Late Late Show; Sandra Bullock was one of the guests. The banter between Craig and Sandra was quite amusing.

Then… I went to flip over to live TV. For some reason, the cable box didn’t want to cooperate. Power off. Power on. Nothing. Power off. Power on. Still nothing. Maybe I should check the Internet connection… Nothing there either.

::: grrrr :::

Call Comcast… The customer service center was closed. Okay. Fine. Early evening. Get some sleep and deal with it in the morning.

I woke up this morning and there was still no signal on either the TV or the Internet. So, I dialed up Comcast again. After talking with the CSR, I explained what I was seeing – or not seeing – and he started checking into it:

• Bill: Paid in full.
• Outage in the area: No.
• Signal: There… but he couldn’t get a ping response from my receiver.

* grblsnrkx*

So, he set up a service call. Their earliest available slot: Tomorrow morning. At 0800.  *sigh* So much for sleeping in. Or for FINALLY being able to play City of Heroes today. On the plus side, I’m getting credit for (at least) two days’ worth of a service outage.

I guess this means that today – after coffee with Perry and Chris – is a cleaning day around the house. (Which isn’t really a bad thing.)

Stray Toasters
I’m leaving this for now.  Check back tomorrow.

Namaste.