Random Access

Thursday – 22 January 2009
Last night, SaraRules and I went downtown to see Utah Opera’s performance of Regina. I was looking forward to it, as it is not only a modern (1949) American opera, but it is performed in English – I wanted to see if it was easier to follow without having to divert my attention to the supertitles.

It was… well… let’s just say that I now have a “least favorite opera.” I was truly underwhelmed by the overall performance, as was SaraRules. I asked her to rate it, she gave it a 5.8; she asked me to do the same – I gave it a 4.0… possibly a 5.0… out of ten.  Why? My reasons include:

• In the first act, there were two or three portions where the cast broke the fourth wall… that seemed rather contrived, almost as if they didn’t expect the audience to be able to piece together something that had just occurred onstage,
• The breaks between accompanied and a capella parts – both spoken and sung – were harsh and jarring to me,
• The casting of Deanne Meek as Regina Giddens – mostly her voice didn’t seem to lend itself to the performance; she often seemed overwhelmed by the orchestration,
• The costuming seemed out of place for the period, and
• The production quality – sound, use of microphones(!?) – didn’t seem up to Utah Opera’s normal standards.

There were some redeeming qualities, however:

• The casting of Lisa Vroman as Birdie Hubbard
• The casting of Kristopher Irmiter as Horace Giddens
• The casting of Tracey Luck as Addie
• The set design – I really liked how the set transformed from indoors to outdoors and back

And, to be honest, the redeeming items added at least two points to my rating. To be fair, I would be willing to see this again, if performed by another company, to juxtapose the performances before completely writing off this opera.

Stray Toasters

• Not many men wear hats these days. Not baseball caps, hats. I’ve started wearing them more often. While I have “more than a few” baseball caps in my collection, I also have a fedora, a kofia and a couple of newsboy-style hats. Along with wearing a hat comes etiquette for wearing one.
• Obama sworn in for second time
• ‘Queen of Soul’ not pleased with performance at inauguration
• The not-so-super team: Best players never to reach the final
• First look: Star Trek toys go boldly nouveau
• Another item for men’s style and fasion: A Salesman’s Guide to Men’s Shopping with Success
• The 2009 Oscar nominations are out…
• …as are the 2009 Razzie nominations.
• The Obama Administration brings back the Freedom of Information Act and transparency in government

Namaste.

This morning, I came into the office to find the following adorning my cube:

That’s right… my cube got a Steelers makeover from Julie and Sean yesterday.

It actually made me laugh.  The only thing that could have possibly made it better would have been if they had changed my Ray Lewis/Ravens picture on the wall where we had been tracking our teams’ progress through the season.

Sunday – 18 January 2009
It’s been a lazy, football-watching day. And that ain’t a bad way to spend the day.

We headed over to SaraRules’ parents’ parents to watch the Ravens-Steelers game. It was exactly the fight that I expected to see. The Ravens came away with a loss, but they played solid ball. After 17 weeks of football (they had their bye week moved up to Week 2), to went to the AFC Championship with a rookie coach and rookie QB, I am proud of what they did.

Thoughts and prayers go to RB Willis McGahee, after the hit that he took.

…and for the next two weeks, I’m an Arizona Cardinals fan.

Namaste.

Friday – 16 January 2009
Seven more hours and not only is the workweek toast, but I am also taking a three-day weekend, in honor of National Black Peoples’ Day Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  And, starting next week, we also start 9/80 weeks, which will give us a day off – a Friday off, at that – every other week. Win-Win.

Tomorrow, SaraRules, her parents and I are going to pull off a Smokey and the Bandit-like Cedar City run: There’s an exhibit at the Braithwaite Fine Arts Gallery that we want to see… and we have to be back in SLC in time for SaraRules’ company party tomorrow night. Hopefully, we’ll manage to see Rachel and a couple of the other MFAs while there.

Stray Toasters

• Airplane crash-lands into Hudson River; all aboard reported safe
  This is nothing short of amazing – the worst injuries that I have heard of were broken bones. Considering how much worse this could have been, that’s incredible.
• Julie, our company’s Property Manager, came up to me a little while ago and said: “You’ve had a busy week. Have some cookies,” and gave me three Tollhouse Cookies.
• I’m thinking of changing my office computer desktop to one of these for the weekend.
• Speaking of which: My jersey shipped this morning.
• Granddaughter of slave: I was ‘afraid’ for Obama
• 
• Yesterday, just before I got ready to leave work, someone from the exec end of the office came to the IT area and noted that she had “a problem” with her system. I went to check it out… yeah, there were issues. But it led to a good bit of amusement.
• I don’t know if the flight rings that they used in last night’s episode of Smallville were these rings, but it reminded me that I had looked for one a few years ago… unsuccessfully.
• Bike-light that paints a laser-lit bike lane on the road around you
• 
• HOWTO make a tailfin retro media center PC

Bippidy boppidy boo.

Thursday – 15 January 2009
Last night, we had SaraRules’ parents over for dinner. On the menu: Jambalaya. It was a nice change of pace to have them over rather than us going to their place. At one point, her father commented about it being weird, because he remembered being on the other side of the equation, years ago, and the first time that they had SaraRules’ grandparents over for dinner.

Post-dinner, SaraRules spent time finishing a quilt that she’s been working on and I channel surfed… and web-surfed. Among the things that we watched was The Late Show with David Letterman; Clint Eastwood was his first guest. The interview was good and, at one point, Dave was listing some of the pictures that Mr. Eastwood has been in and how long his career has spanned – over 50 years.

Stray Toasters

• I will have one of these in my grubby little hands in the next few days…
  

• …and one of these, too.



• By way of SaraRules:
  • Adolf Hitler, sisters taken away from parents’ home
  • Graffiti artist spins a new kind of yarn
• As I glibly mentioned yesterday: Ricardo Montalban passed away, age 88
  • NPR report
  • LA Times article
  • USA Today article
• Also, Patrick McGoohan, TV’s ‘Prisoner’ Number Six, passed away
• By way of : Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn’t seen it)

  
  Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn’t seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

• Obama’s ‘Beast’ of a car revealed
• pointed out this story: Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl is now Luke Steelersthal and this as well:

  

• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Vote for your favorite nominee
• Although now might not be the best time to visit: Flintstones theme park/campground in Custer, South Dakota

And, back to the the grind… and soon to the gym.

Namaste.

Monday – 12 January 2009
Another grey workday in the valley begins.
There’s a rumour of snow, too. We shall see…

The weekend was good, but too short… as is the complaint with most weekends. I’m extending next weekend by a day by taking Martin Luther King, Jr Day off.

Last night, SaraRules, Logan and I went to see Gran Torino. It was an amazing bit of cinema.  In trying to find things that it reminded me of, I came up with the following:

• All in the Family
• On Golden Pond and a dash of
• The Karate Kid

The analogies are not perfect, the film was not “just like” any of those, but it seemed to evoke elements of them in different ways. If you have not yet seen it, I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Stray Toasters

• Good: Baltimore is playing in the AFC Championship.
  Bad: The other team is Pittsburgh.
• I just got to pass an equipment request from a couple of our developers up the chain to my boss’ boss… and – after he stopped laughing and then posing questions to which I didn’t have answers – managed to walk out of the room without having to shop for pants with “bottom-enhancing shapewear.”
• Happy Birthday Motown
  • Motown marks its 50th anniversary
  • The tears of a town with no music around
• Top 11 Compounds in US Drinking Water
• 
• Stuff Journalists Like
• Three Rules of the Internet

• By way of The Artclash Collective: Fun-A-Day 5
• HAL’s pals: Top 10 Evil Computers

Time to see what other  kinds of trouble are looming in the wings…. or that I can stir up.

Namaste.

The ‘Clix tournament was fun, Keith came up with a scenario that he called “Dead Clix Walking!” I took a box full of ‘Clix that I thought would be fun to play. I finally settled on a martial artist-themed team:

• Bronze Tiger
• Elektra (Human), with the Infiltrate feat
• Gamora
• Iron Fist
• Ronin and
• Scandal Savage

It turned out to be a good team, despite the lack of figures with Telekinesis, which would have been VERY nice for advancing figures across the board. I went 2-1 for the day (one win, one loss and a bye – for a win) and got the Fellowship prize: Edward Nigma LE figure.

After the tourney, I hurried home to watch…

Baltimore Ravens at Tennessee Titans
13 – 10
The AFC #6 Seed Baltimore Ravens, following a short week – they played on Sunday – went to LP Field to take on the AFC #1 Seed, Tennessee Titans. I missed the first quarter, due to a scheduling conflict with a ‘Clix tournament. Fortunately, there were only two scores: A Titans’ touchdown, followed by a Ravens’ TD. The second quarter saw a little more action, including a helmet-jarring Ray Lewis tackle. Samari Rolle picked off a Kerry Collins pass three minutes into the quarter, but Baltimore wasn’t able to convert and turned the ball overs on downs. The Titans proceeded to march the ball downfield, all the way to the Baltimore 17 yard line… and then fumbled the ball. Baltimore held onto the ball and ended the quarter tied 7-7. After a couple of fruitless drives by both teams early in the third quarter, Titans’ kicker Rob Bironas missed a 51-yard field goal. This gave Baltimore good field position, but they were unable to capitalize on it. Again. The third quarter was also scoreless. The fourth quarter opened with a Ravens’ field goal, which the Titans answered, two drives later. Matt Stover tacked on another three points for the Ravens with 00:57 left in the quarter, putting Baltimore ahead 13-10. The Titans went four-and-out on their final drive, with 00:12 left on the clock, allowing Joe Flacco to take a knee… and the Ravens take home a win. This was fairly typical of a Ravens-Titans game – low score, lots of defense and a LOT of attitude. There were sixteen or seventeen penalties, between the two teams, most of them belonging to Tennessee. With the penalties, miscues and turnovers, the Titans effectively shot themselves in the foot and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. With this win, the Ravens will play in the AFC Championship against the winner of tomorrow’s San Diego-Pittsburgh game.

And now the Panthers are hosting and playing – if you can call it that – the Arizona Cardinals in Bank of America Stadium. I don’t know what happened to them since last week, but this hardly looks like the Panthers team I’ve seen in the past few weeks.

Saturday – 10 January 2009
After work, I came home and purchased and downloaded the CoH Mac edition. I set up the installer and then went off to coffee. When I got home, everything was ready for me to log into City. I opted to watch a little of The Late Late Show… which turned into The Late Late Show watching me. *sigh* I got into bed about 12:30.

And was up at 8:00 this morning.

That’s not an entirely “bad” thing. There’s a tournament this afternoon and this affords me an opportunity to figure out who I want to use in it. And, I can watch Batman: The Brave and the Bold while doing it. Win-Win.

Stray Toasters

• The Ravens-Titans game is at 2:30. I’m going to miss part of it, because of the tourney… but I’ll be watching as much of it as possible. And, I can always record the game, if I choose.
• put in an appearance at Clitorati last night. It was fun hanging out with him. In a not-so-odd twist, we started talking about football, while at coffee… and a guy at the next table joined in the conversation. The odd twist: He was from Cleveland and a Browns fan, too.
• Cars: Inside the Rocket-Proof Obamamobile
• Hotel 747 now boarding

Time for some Honeycomb and cartoonage, methinks.

Namaste.

Friday  – 09 January 2009
The weekend is within sight. Yesterday wasn’t a bad day, in accordance with NBN Thursday bylaws. There were a few issues, mostly resulting from some office/cubicle moves, but those were easy to deal with.

After dinner, Logan came over and watched Hellboy II: The Golden Army with us. Then he mopped the floor with me at Madden 09.

Stray Toasters

• I’ve had a couple people point out that CoH is now available on the Mac. (I don’t recall if I posted anything about it, but I’ve been playing the Open Beta for a few weeks.) The full City of Heroes Special Mac Edition is out… which means that the game is now playable on live servers. I’m still a little torn as to whether I want to spend $20 for the download (which comes with a few exclusive items) or just get the upgrade patch to go from the Beta to the Live version (no exclusive content).  Decisions, decisions…
• sent a link to the “I’m a Hero. I’m a Villain” parody ad:

• (who got it from ) sent a link to this picture and to this xkcd comic.
• Radical cheap: $1000 homes
• also sent a link to Henry Rollins: A Love Letter to Ann Coulter (some of the audio is NSFW)

• Dragon made of cake
• HDMI == good
• Yo-Yo Ma Brings Remix Culture to Music’s Ivory Tower
• EGM Magazine shutting down
• In today’s “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” news:
  • 6-Year-Old Says Grand Theft Auto Taught Him to Drive a
  • US man who gave kidney to wife includes it in divorce claim
  • Electric Batch Duckie

Namaste.

Tuesday – 06 January 2009
Another cold and snowy day in the Land Behind the Zion Curtain. “Snowy” may be a little bit of an exaggeration; there are flurries, though.

Getting back into the swing of things around the office.  And it seems that we’ve acquired a new team member, too.

Stray Toasters

• I’ve started watching – and enjoying – Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel. It looks amazing in HD.
• Understanding Islam Through Virtual Worlds launch in NYC, Jan 29
• MacWorld 2009 Keynote
  • ArsTechnica
  • Engadget
  • Gizmodo
• Atheist bus ads roll in London
• In “What’s Happening with LiveJournal?” news: The Russian Bear Slashes a Social Network
• Shanghai recreated in dice and poker chips
• Golf can be bad for hearing
• By way of – GOP senator wants to tighten alcohol rules

Namaste.

Sunday – 04 January 2008
It’s been a good – and busy – weekend… with a good bit of traveling thrown in, for good measure.

Yesterday, SaraRules went to her quilt club; I slept in a little. Then I remembered that I wanted to take the car in for an oil change and to finally replace the center cap on the front driver’s side wheel. So, off I went. They changed the oil. They replaced a burned-out tail light. They replaced the center cap… the $103 center cap. *blink blink* Wow. Knew it wasn’t going to be cheap, just didn’t expect it to be quite that much.

Back home to pack – we were heading to Cedar City for the wedding reception for Skott (brother of Tom Chandler) and Shannon (fiance of brother of Tom Chandler). It was a small affair, but nice. It was good to see Tom and Jo – the only people I knew there, although I met other members of the family. We also picked up a few more things from SaraRules’ storage unit, before the reception. In the dark. In the COLD. Oh so bitter cold. Something in the neighborhood of 6°F. Yeah…. That cold. We drove back last night.

This morning, we got up and headed to IKEA to pick up a MALM 6-drawer chest (medium brown). We got there about 9:50, thinking that the restaurant opened at 9:30 and the store at 10:00. WRONG. On Sundays, they open at 10:30 and 11:00, respectively. Verdammt!  I wanted to be home for kickoff. *sigh* So, we sat in the car for :40, while waiting for the store to open. We went in, had breakfast and shopped. On the way through the store, I decided to look for a yellow/amber MÄKTA sphere… and found one! That’s right, I’m going to have a Sinestro Corps shelf – as well as the GLC shelf – in one of the display cases. I needed another light, so I got a set of NON lights. They come in a two-pack, but that turns out to be good, as both lights are wired to a single switch – saving the need for another cord/plug. We picked up the chest of drawers and a few other items and headed home for…

Football! The Ravens-Dolphins Wild Card game. We got home about halfway through the second quarter. (Fortunately, Kris was watching the game and was texting me info about it.) The game was amazing:

Baltimore Ravens at Miami Dolphins
27 – 9
The Ravens went on the road to take on the Miami Dolphins in Dolphin Stadium. The last time they played each other this season, the Ravens came away with a 20-3 win. The first quarter was apparently a defensive struggle – both teams only scored one field goal. The second quarter saw a little more action. With 6:56 left in the quarter, FS Ed Reed picked off a Chad Pennington pass and ran it back for a 64-yard TD. Matt Stover kicked another FG, with 21 seconds left in the quarter, to give the Ravens a 13-3 lead going into the half. After a couple of fruitless drives by both teams early in the third quarter, Ravens’ DE Marques Douglas forced a fumble, which was recovered by Terrell Suggs. This wound up leading to RB Le’Ron McLain rushing TD. On Miami’s next drive, Ed Reed picked off another pass. Baltimore wasn’t able to capitalize on this, however. In the fourth, Pennington connected with Ronnie Brown for a spectacular one-handed TD catch. This seemed to put a little more wind in the Dolphins’ sails. Both teams had a couple of three-and-out drives, but Baltimore was able to seal the win when QB Joe Flacco ran in a 5-yd touchdown. With this win, the Ravens move into the fourth AFC playoff spot. Saturday, they take on the Tennessee Titans in Adelphia Stadium.

After the game, we went to the Utah Museam of Fine Arts to see Wrapped in Pride: Kente Cloth. It was a fascinating exhibit.

We went to visit SaraRule’s parents. We watched the end of the Philadelphia-Minnesota game. And then watched Day of the Dead, which I haven’t seen in many moons. SIDENOTE: The music at the beginning of the movie sounded familiar, but I couldn’t really place it… until Miguel started yelling “Hello…?!  Is anybody there?!” Then it clicked for me. Immediately. It is used at the start of Gorillaz’ M1A1, from their debut CD. It had never occured to me to see where it had come from and I hadn’t previously put two and two together.

Four-Color Coverage
Friday, I was chatting with Markyn Time, who recommended that I stop what I was doing, pick up my copy of Justice Society of America #22 and read it. Immediately. Because, in his opinion, it was one of the best JSA arcs he’s read.

I didn’t. Instead, I went to coffee.
I did read it after I got back, though. And he was right.

This issue tied up both the Gog storyline and the Earth-22 Superman storyline. And it did both wonderfully. And… AND… it also had not only a great tie-in to Kingdom Come, but also to what I think was the v2 (“Rebooted“) Legion. All of this… and an amazing last page, too.

I was glad that I saved this book for my last read from this week’s haul.
It was just that good.

Stray Toasters

• Obama Moves to Counter China with Pentagon-NASA Link
• Facebook’s War on Nipples
• The Exact Cause of the Zune Meltdown
• From Wizard: Best of ’08 – Best Hero: Captain America
• Opening titles of B-Movies
• Apple IIe Emulator Released for the Wii

Tomorrow, the grind begins again… but, I still have a few hours of vacation to enjoy.

Namaste.

Thursday – 01 January 2009
I hope that everyone had a safe and fun New Year’s Eve.

Thanks to and and to shockpuppet and for their hospitality. We also got to meet the new addition to the Nox family; she’s a cutie and, as SaraRules put it: “She looks like her father… in all the places that could be covered with a SCUBA mask.” The festivities at shockpuppet and ‘s included “Hats and Ponies,” a Derby race with decorate-them-yourself My Little Ponies.

And, I finally got all of the pictures from the past week uploaded:

• Christmas 2008
• Sara and Rob’s Engagement Dinner
• New Year’s Eve 2008: “Hats and Ponies”

We’re hanging out with SaraRules’ family this afternoon, just hanging out and watching football.

Namaste.

Sunday – 28 December 2008
Yesterday, after a somewhat lazy morning – although, after little sleep – the family got up and rummaged around the house. We exchanged gifts with my uncle.

SaraRules and I headed into GSO in the early afternoon to do a little shopping – we stopped at a quilt shop for her and went to Acme Comics for me. Next, we went to Edwark McKay Used Books… I came out with all three seasons of Superman: The Animated Series, Hellblazer: Original Sins (TPB) and Batman/Superman: World’s Finest (TPB) for a rather reasonable price.

Theo met up with us, and the three of us headed to Harper’s for dinner. I had a blackened salmon entree with garlic mashed potatoes and iced tea (sweet tea!); it was very good. We ate, hung out and talked the next couple of hours away. It was a lot of fun.

I went to see if an old game store I used to go to was still there. It wasn’t. Oh, well. It’s not like I really needed MORE stuff to carry back to SLC.

Around that time, I got a message from Robin – she wanted to get together for a bit, so SaraRules and I headed over to New York Pizza (near UNC-G) to meet Robin and Chad, both of whom I used to work with at the USPS.

Then, back to Mom’s.

This morning, we got up and got ready for church. There’s a new pastor at Mom’s church; he’s very charismatic and dynamic, I rather like him. Back home for a bit – for some rest and football – and we’re heading out to dinner at Fleming’s in a little while. All that, and we’re still trying to get together with MarknTyme and (and their kids) for a bit this evening. *whew*

For those who missed this morning’s (brief) post: I proposed to SaraRules…

…and she said “yes.”
(Thank God.)

Since then, there have been many phone calls – and text/Facebook messages – to and from various family members and friends. No date or plans just yet, but we’ll keep people posted as we go.

Yesterday afternoon, SaraRules, Logan and I made a gingerbread train. As promised, here are the pictures.  After the train – and running a few errands – SaraRules, Logan and I went to Fiddler’s Elbow to watch the Ravens take on the Cowboys. (More on that below.) After the game, we went to OnlyAly and ‘s for their second annual “Nightmare Before Christmas” horror movie gathering. We watched The Exorcist: The Version You Haven’t Seen. I haven’t watched this movie (at least the version I have seen) in close to ten years. It was still good.

This morning, we had a lazy morning about the apartment – watching football – before coming over to hang out with her family… to watch more football and have dinner.

Football Update

Baltimore Ravens at Dallas Cowboys
33 – 24
The Ravens traveled to Dallas to take on the Cowboys. Joe Flacco had his work cut out for him as no rookie starting QB – other than Ben Roethlisberger – had beaten the Cowboys in Texas Stadium.This was another defensive game, the halftime score was only 9 – 7, in Baltimore’s favor. FS Ed Reed had two interceptions, but the workhorse of the team was WR Derrick Mason who,  despite a shoulder and leg injury, finished with six catches for 66 yards and a touchdown. The Ravens move to 10-5 and are still in the hunt for a Wild Card spot. Next game: Jacksonville Jaguars at M&T Bank Stadium.

Stray Toasters

• Star Trek‘s Majel Roddenberry passes away
• , if you haven’t seen the new Smallville trailer with the Legion in it, click here.
• Hal Jordan: Greatest Green Lantern of All? Nope.
• By way of NPR:
  • Best Superhero Graphic Novels 0f 2008
  • Chemist Divulges How to Bake the Perfect Cookie
    I heard this interview last week; you have to listen to the… sound effects… Shirley Corriher makes when describing things. It made the whole interview for me.
  • Singing: The Key to a Long Life
• Women in Big Two super-comics: It wasn’t all bad news this year

Yeah… that’s good for now.

Namaste.

Saturday – 20 December 2008
Today has been “a bit” busy. After getting up and having a tasty breakfast, SaraRules and I headed out:

• We got (most of) the last of the Christmas shopping taken care of…
• We made a gingerbread train with Logan, pictures forthcoming
• I picked up a Christmas tree (thanks, OnlyAly and )!
• We went to Fiddler’s Elbow for dinner and to watch the Ravens-Cowboys game — the Ravens won!
• We went to OnlyAly and ‘s for the annual “Nightmare Before Christmas” horror movie get-together; we only stayed for The Exorcist, but it was fun to watch with people who hadn’t seen it.

Home again, home again… jiggity-jig.