Random Access

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 .

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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.

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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.

Tuesday – 01 December 2009
Today is World Aids Day.

Otherwise, it’s just another “back in the grind, workin’ for The Man” kind of day. So far, it’s been a surprisingly quiet morning around here, which is far from a bad thing.

Last night was my night to make dinner. After running some errands, I finally decided on one thing I wanted to try: Homemade macaroni and cheese, based on a recipe my father used. I called him up, got the info on what I needed and headed to Whole Foods to get the fixin’s. While there, I also picked up a couple of Chicken Cordon Bleu breasts from the meat department and some salad greens. I got home, started clanging pots and pans around and a short while later, dinner was ready. The macaroni turned out well; I was glad of that, especially since I made a slight modification to the recipe. Not only that, but I think that I stumbled upon something else that I want to try the next time I make it.

Instant Replay: Football

New England Patriots at New Orleans Saints
17 – 38
The Patriots headed to the Big Easy to take on the undeafeated Saints…… and got whooped. Seriously. It was a straight up beatdown. The Saints took complete control of the game on offense and defense. Saints QB Drew Brees went 18/23, 371 yards, 5 TDs… and 0 interceptions. At one point, SaraRules asked what happened to the Saints to turn them into such a powerhouse team; I told her that I had no idea, but it made for very interesting and entertaining football-watching. On the flip side of the game, it just looked like the Patriots couldn’t get it together. The offense couldn’t pull together solid drives, after their opening run to the end zone – the Saints’ defense had their number. Solid and decisive win for the Saints and a great viewing experience for the fans… unless, of course, you were a Pats fan.

Coach Belichick, why not go over and congratulate Coach Payton and his team for their well-played game?

Come on, man… I know you wanted to take down a giant, but it just didn’t happen. You could at least try to muster a decent “Good job” face. Fake it if you have to. To quote Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook: “Bad form, Peter. Bad form.”

Stray Toasters

• posted a link to Juggling is good for you in lots of ways
• By way of comes The great iPhone death watch
• 
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Reality show wannabes deny crashing White House dinner
• Microsoft investigates Windows 7 ‘screen of death’
• Washington State to Microsoft: Why aren’t you paying your taxes?
• By way of : ‘Predator’ Helmer Goes Retro

It’s just about time to go pick up and put down heavy things, so I’ll wrap this up.

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.

Friday – 27 November 2009
I hope that everyone’s holiday was safe and pleasant. Ours was good and relatively quiet – we had dinner with the in-laws and watched a lot of football. As far as low-key holidays go, it was just about perfect.

After we got home, we decided to watch a movie. I had gotten TRON from Netflix, as I hadn’t seen it before.

I used to play the arcade game that was based on the movie, but that’s about as far as I had gotten. And, since TRON: Legacy is hitting theatres next year, I figured that it was about time I saw the original. It was definitely dated and a bit on the geeky side, but it wasn’t bad; at least, it wasn’t as bad as I feared that it might be. I found the ending a little anti-climactic, but it was an enjoyable movie.

Instant Replay: Football

Oakland Raiders at Dallas Cowboys
7 – 24
The Raiders headed into Texas looking to plunder and pillage the Cowboys in their new home……but the Cowboys weren’t having any of that. At all. Sorry, SaraRules.

Stray Toasters

• Did anyone get up to go Black Friday shopping at O’dark-thirty this morning? We didn’t. It’s just not our proverbial cup of tea.
• Game-themed Tetris cake
  (Isn’t that a little redundant…?)
• Food banks nationwide report more first-timers
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Woman accused of making bomb threat to delay boss’ flight
• State dinner crashers could face criminal charges

Time to find some trouble to get into… or at least find some cool things I can’t live without, now that the masses should have died down a little.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 24 November 2009
Last night was a quiet, football-watching night, unlike last week’s Monday night game.

This morning, while cold (24°F, when I left this morning) was clear and bright. On top of that, today is “Technical Thursday;” I’m trying to decide if I want to make it NBN Technical Thursday. I opted not to bring Star Trek to work this morning. Tomorrow, however, there… may…. be a movie (quite possibly The Wrath of Khan) playing on my large monitor.

Instant Replay: Football

Tennessee Titans at Houston Oilers
20 –17
The Titans rolled into the Lone Star State to take on the Texans. (There’s a bad “Clash of the Titans” joke to be made in there somewhere, but I’m not going to pursue it.) Somehow, it had eluded me – until the second quarter – that this match was exactly the same as the Baltimore-Cleveland rivalry: The Titans were the former Houston Oilers… who moved to Tennessee and changed their name; Houston was awarded a new team a few years later. SaraRules and I weren’t expecting too much out of this game, to be honest. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that it was a solid game, from start to finish. It was also nice to see how much Titans QB Vince Young has matured as a quarterback. He was calm, collected and, as Stuart Scott would say: “Cool as the other side of the pillow.” He played a very good game, managing the players – and the clock – very well.

Stray Toasters

• Madlessly!
• Zombie Outbreak Simulator: Sim City Plus Google Maps Plus the Undead
• By way of SaraRules: Kay Jewelers Has Decided to Give Us the Creepiest Commercial of All Time for the Holidays
• What is ‘mouthfeel?’
• The Best Smartphones on Every Carrier
• From the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file:
  • Man Arrested with 15 Lizards Strapped to Chest at LAX
  • Man in Japan marries anime game character
• 
• WETA’s new cheaper, delightful, detailed plastic ray guns
  (This might actually be an “add” for The Covet List…)
• German ‘Robin Hood’ banker gets suspended sentence
• Modern Tech Versus the Past
• HIV infections and deaths fall as drugs have impact
• 3, 6, 9… 12, 15, 18… 21, 24, 27…. 30!

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.

Friday – 20 November 2009
It’s already the 20th. Where does the time go?!

9/80 “on” Friday, but it’s the quiet day in the office, so I can’t really complain. And, tonight, rather than going to coffee, some of the Clitorati are going to a Grizzlies hockey game. That will be a nice change of pace.

Last night, we had Melissa, one of SaraRules’ coworkers (and former schoolmates), over for dinner. SaraRules fixed chicken and dumplings (!) and for dessert, we had the Chocolate Cream Pie that we made Wednesday night. (And the pie was good.)

Instant Replay: Football

Miami Dolphins at Carolina Panthers
24 –17
The 4-4 Dolphins headed to Charlotte to take on the 4-4 Panthers… and came away with a win. As I’ve said, I was torn about this game. On one hand, I’ve liked the Fins for nearly 20 years; on the other hand, the Panthers are my #1 NFC team. I was going to be good with a win, either way, but “There can be only one,” as the saying goes.

Stray Toasters

• I woke up this morning with a couple of songs running through my head
  • Pope, by Prince
  • Undercover Angel, by Alan O’Day

  I’m good with the former; I’ll just blame “Random Play” on the radio in my head for the latter.

• Texas’ gay marriage ban may have banned all marriages
• Glowing bacteria that finds landmines
• I have Cracker Jack in my lunch today!
• posted this picture; I found it interesting/amusing:

  
  (click for larger version)

• Britain’s new Internet law — as bad as everyone’s been saying, and worse. Much, much worse.
• For SaraRules and Tyranist: DRM-free top-flight horror novels
• Monster Manual

  Monster Manual from Dan Meth on Vimeo.

• Oprah Winfrey to end her talk show in 2011
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file:
  • ‘Chicken’ interrupts council meeting
  • Hamster Hotel lets you live like a rodent
• WizKids/NECA (finally) has their new site up. There’s not a lot of content, but it’s a start.
• Man who killed wife while dreaming is freed

Namaste.

Tuesday – 17 November 2009
The new work week begins. Yay.

Yesterday, despite the pager incident, was a good day. I went to Chris’ and played HeroClix. Yesterday’s match-up saw the Chris’ Justice League of America taking on my Justice Society of America (pictures here). He won the game, but I was able to put away a few of his pieces before he left me fielding only one figure.

After the game, I headed home to take care of some straightening up before company came over for…

Instant Replay: Football

Baltimore Ravens at Cleveland Browns
16 – 0
Ravens 1.0 traveled to Cleveland to take on Ravens -1.0, in a game that was not only an AFC North battle, but also a rivalry match. Too bad that there wasn’t really a “game,” to speak of.  The first half was very lackluster – neither team scored: Not a field goal (K Steve Hauschka shanked yet another kick wide left) Not a safety. Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Browns’ QB Brady Quinn, who got benched earlier this season after a poor performance against the Ravens, got the start… and suffered from the same lack of ability to get anything going last night. Granted, the teams’ defenses got a good workout, but neither offense could get their game in gear. Coach Harbaugh must have gone George Patton on the team at halftime, because both the offense and the defense actually looked like they came to play: Joe Flacco and WR Derrick Mason hooked up for a long pass that set up a TD by RB Ray Rice Seventeen seconds later, SS Dawan Landry pulled down an interception and ran it back 48 yards for a TD Hauschka got it together and put up a field goal. The Ravens went to 5-4 and are still potentially in the hunt for a wild card berth.

Coach Mangini, your team just took another one on the chin.

How do you feel about that?

I can emapthize with that. Sorry, .

Stray Toasters

• Tonight: Play!
• Tomorrow: New HeroClix set – Hammer of Thor – comes out!
• pointed me in the direction of this little gem.
• Senators draw maps of their home states
• By way of CNN: 5 tips for fixing your Facebook page
• China’s Newest Export: Punk Rock
• 
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Cannibals reportedly sold body parts to kebab vendor
• Chipsounds
• “We’ve Got Some Work to Do Now” t-shirt
• Lou Jing, half-Black Chinese girl, sparks race debate in China

Namaste

Monday – 16 November 2009
I know that Mondays are, generally speaking, usually the least looked forward to day of the week. They’ve gotten a bum rap over the years, what with the whole “first day of the work week” thing. We’ve all come to expect Mondays to be “blah,” at best.

For some reason, I had actually expected something a little different this morning. I took the day off because… well, I wanted a four-day weekend. And I could. So, I did. I was expecting to sleep in and have a relaxing morning with SaraRules, who was going to work a little late this morning – she had to work over the weekend – so that could only add to the rare and elusive “goodness” of a Monday morning.

Unfortunately, I have the on-call pager for work this week. It decided to chime in at 0800 this morning.

*grblsnrkx*

I acknowledged the alert and then set about making phone calls to have someone check the system in question. No answer.

*grblsnrkx*

I waited a few minutes and tried again. No answer. I tried calling a different person. No go, Flight.

*braincramp*

I sent a warning message to Paul to let him know what was going on and then tried a slightly different tack – checking to see if anyone was in the other office. Both Minion #2 and loonybin88 were there. I explained what was going on to loonybin88 and he took care of the problem…

Hallelujah!!!

…which is definitely a good thing, but it doesn’t change the fact that I was up at least an hour before I had planned to be. *sigh*

Yesterday was a good day. It started off with sleeping in, football and homemade coffee cake for breakfast. Next, SaraRules and I assembled the buffet we got at The Garden of Sweden. After that, we headed up to the in-laws’ place for more football and dinner. It was both a relaxing and productive day, all in one.

Today, despite the way it kicked off, has the potential to be a pretty awesome day as well. I’m playing ‘Clix with Chris a little later. (We’ll see how that goes…) This evening, the Ravens take on the Browns on Monday Night Football; we’re having people over to watch it with us. (: Don’t forget the shot glasses!)

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

Atlanta Falcons at Carolina Panthers
19 – 28
The Panthers hosted the Falcons and came away with a win. This will be a short week for the Panthers, as they are featured in this week’s Thursday night game against the Dolphins.

.

Kansas City Chiefs at Oakland Raiders
16 – 10
The Chiefs took a trip to the Bay Area… and took away a win, over the Raiders. Sorry, SaraRules.

.

Detroit Lions at Minnesota Vikings
10 – 27
Brett Favre and the Vikings hosted Matt Stafford and the Detroit Lions… …and went to work on ’em. It wasn’t the blow out that many people were expecting, thanks to some miscues on the Vikings’ part, but at the final whistle, Minnesota came away with the win. Congrats, .

.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Miami Dolphins
23 – 25
The Bucs took a road trip down to Miami to take on the Dolphins at Land Shark Stadium. It was apparently a close game, but a Dan Carpenter field goal – with 10 seconds left in the game – gave the Fins the go-ahead score and the win. The Dolphins travel up I-95 (and I-85) to take on the Panthers on Thursday night.  I’m a little torn about who I want to win that game.

.

Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh Steelers
18 – 12
There aren’t many times – in fact, I can’t really ever think of a time – when you’ll hear me say that I actually want the Steelers to win a game. This was one of those times. The Bengals not only won, but they completed a sweep of the Steelers  and are one game away from sweeping the entire AFC North division. Congrats, and .

Stray Toasters

• Giant iceberg spotted off Australia
• SaraRules and I were just talking about what we wanted for Christmas.  She asked me what I wanted and I said, “A hippopotamus.” At that point, we apparently both started singing I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas in our heads. Moments later, that had somehow reworked itself in my head as Hippo Pottermus and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I need help.
• This item, from Tiny Titans, made me snicker:

  

• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: New Dating Sites Match People Through DNA Tests
• Mandelbulb: 3D Mandelbrot
• State police slash patrols as forces shrink
• The First Windows 7 Zero-Day Exploit

Off to face the (rest of the) day…!

Namaste.

Tuesday – 10 November 2009
It’s grey and a little hazy outside. The sun tried to put in an appearance as I was driving in to work, but the clouds don’t seem to want to give way. Makes for a kind of “blah” morning.

Last night was a lazy evening in. We had dinner (Sloppy Joes!) and watched Monday Night Football. After the game, I spent a little time trying to wrangle the office into shape. I managed to actually make a bit of headway… while also realizing just how much detritus I’ve allowed to accumulate in the “To be shredded..” pile. Oh, well.  One cool notable item: I was trying to figure out what to do with my TerrainLinX WWG tiles, when I remembered why I thought they were so cool: The whole thing breaks down into component pieces! I grabbed a shoebox and put the bits – both finished and in-progress pieces – in the box.  Neat, discreet, and (best of all) out of the way!  Little by little, the office is getting back to “good” shape.

Instant Replay: Football
It was Monday night. There was football. Amen.

Pittsburgh Steelers at Denver Broncos
28 – 10
The Steelers went to Mile High Stadium to take on the Broncos and try to stay tied with the Cincinnati Bengals for the lead in the AFC North. Can you say “Take it to the house,” boys and girls? The Steelers could. And they did. Repeatedly. Pittsburgh dominated the field on both sides of the ball, at least they did after the first half. Their offense was consistently able to move the chains. The “Steel Curtain” completely shut down the Bronco’s run game. Boilermaker Watch: Broncos’ QB Kyle Orton had a “less than stellar” game: He threw for 221 yards (which is good), but with no TDs and three interceptions. It was not a good night for him – he never really went for deep routes and he missed picking up the blitzes on run plays.

Stray Toasters

• Basketball great Abdul-Jabbar has cancer
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Duke University Students: you should not just ‘sit around and masturbate”
• Koalas ‘could face extinction’
• By way of come a couple of items
  • Fine and Dandy Shop
  • Driving a car with an iPhone
    
• Glittergeddon!
• For : The Spider Awards: Wired.com’s Arachnid Hall of Fame
• Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem of Hell
• For Tyranist: Science fiction from outside the English-speaking world
• Howl’s Moving Castle made out of LEGO

It looks as though the sun has finally won the battle.

Namaste.

Monday – 09 November 2009
Welcome to a new week.

Yesterday saw a nice balance of laziness and productivity. After watching the early game – and watching the stats of the Ravens game – I started working in the office. It needs to be brought out of chaos and into order.  In a big way. Next came some errand-running. Then we headed to dinner at SaraRules’ parents’ house.

Waking up this morning was a tedious process. Of course, not going to bed until nearly 0230 could have had something to do with that. Maybe.

Instant Replay: Football
Yesterday was a day of across-the-board upsets, good and bad:

Baltimore Ravens at Cincinnati Bengals
7 – 17
The Ravens (4-3) headed to Cincinnati to take on the 5 – 2Bengals… and maybe get a little closer to the top of the division.Quoth the Ravens: “Never score. I don’t know what happened, but I’m willing to wager that it was one of two things: Someone suited up Owings Mills’ JV team in Ravens’ uniforms The Bengals were seriously out for blood Whatever it was, the Ravens apparently didn’t perform like the team that ended Denver’s perfect season last week.  And, according to , they couldn’t buy a decent call, either. *sigh* It makes me glad that the game wasn’t broadcast here. Congratulations to and on both the win and sole possession of the lead in the AFC North.  (And, yes, I’ll be a Broncos fan tonight, when Pitt takes on Denver.)

Coach Harbaugh, you just got chumped by the Bengals. Big time.  How does that make you feel?

Yeah, I understand.  I wouldn’t want to talk about it, either.

Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots
17 – 27
The Dolphins, continuing their road series, headed to New England for a rematch against the Patriots! Everyone in Foxboro apparently got the  “One if by land, two if by sea” memo, because they went to town on the Dolphins. Where’s Greenpeace when you need them…?

.

Carolina Panthers at New Orleans Saints
20 – 30
I didn’t get to see this one, but I was a little torn on it. On one hand, it’s Carolina, my NFC team. On the other hand, it’s the 7-0 Saints, led by former Boilermaker Drew Brees. Loyalties… torn…. In the end, the Saints went marching in with a win and an 8-0 record.  And I was just fine with that.

Bye Week: Oakland Raiders, Minnesota Vikings and Cleveland Browns.

Stray Toasters

• By way of SaraRules: Jewish Arts Festival: Esther, the superheroine
• Berlin Marks 20th Anniversary of Wall’s Fall
  • In a related note: Controversy over U2’s Berlin Wall
• High Court Weighs Life Terms for Minors
• 
• Mixed Race Americans Picture a ‘Blended Nation’
• By way of : The Hoover Dam Bypass Will Make You Ooooh and Aaaah

Quote of the Day
A while back, I asked to write a recommendation for me on LinkedIn. He sent me the first draft last week:

Rob was a great hire. He has the skills to fit into which ever technical role we happened to throw at him at the time. However his true talent came forward whenever we needed to put a little pressure on an employee or make someone disappear. We still don’t know what happened to some of the bodies.

I thought that it was fine, as-is. He wound up changing it a little, to make it a bit more… palatable to the masses.

Namaste.

Sunday – 08 November 2009
This has been a good weekend.

Friday was SaraRules’ birthday. After work, we went out for dinner. SaraRules’ first choice was Red Iguana… unfortunately, there was an hour-plus-long wait to get in. No go, Flight. Her second choice was Sawadee, a Thai restaurant near downtown. I didn’t know that it was even there; in my defense, I don’t get to that part of the city very often. The food was very good (and very spicy!). After dinner, we met up with some of the usual suspects at Clitorati, including a special guest appearance from and .

Yesterday was a good day. It had a good mix of laziness and productivity. SaraRules went to her quilt club in the morning; I hung out with Chris and Perry. After we got home, we headed back out to run a few errands. Back home again. SaraRules took a nap, I assembled a bookcase. Later, we headed to Abravanel Hall to watch Utah Symphony perform a pair of works by Brahms:

• Concerto No. 1 for Piano in D Minor, op 15
  
• Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, op. 98

Pinchas Zuckerman conducted and Jonathan Biss was the guest pianist. The performance was good. I was particularly impressed/pleasantly surprised by Mr. Zuckerman’s attire – he wore a slightly oversized black silk (I think) shirt with a pair of black slacks, rather than the traditional tuxedo that most conductors wear. Our seats were in the first tier, about five rows from the stage. This afforded an excellent view of the orchestra and of the conductor… as well as being close enough to hear Mr. Biss breathe. Seriously. When playing particularly intense passages, he breathed heavily. Very heavily. So heavily, in fact, that SaraRules said that it was like watching and listening to Darth Vader play.

This morning has been quiet. Breakfast.  Football. (If only the Ravens could act like they remember how to play the game. *sigh* I’ve been spoiled by being able to watch them play for the past three weeks, but I think I’m glad that I can’t watch this one.)  This evening, we’re heading over to the in-laws’ for SaraRules’ birthday dinner (with the family) and football.

Stray Toasters

• Complaint Box: Public Grooming
  Another of my personal pet peeves is people who clip their nails at their desks at work.
• sent a link to: Comic books are good for children’s learning
• I watched part of The Hunt for Red October yesterday. I like that movie.
• Visually impaired gamer sues Sony Online
• 
• As I mentioned on Facebook:
  

  Thanks for the items and requests… but my Mafia Wars account is wearing cement shoes and sleeping with the fishes.

• Wonder of Wonders: Identity, No Crisis
• Troy Polamalu has already had an injury this season.
  Larry Fitzgerald is still getting it done… and is having a decent season.
  So, what does this mean as far as “The Madden Curse” goes?
• Tiny jack-o-lanterns carved in seed pods
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Swarm of Giant Jellyfish Capsize 10-Ton Trawler

Namaste.