Random Access

Tuesday – 31 May 2011
I don’t know if this is Mother Nature’s parting gift or the setup for an incredibly cruel joke, but it’s a lovely morning. It’s sunny and clear, temps are in the 50s, on their way to the mid-70s. Everything about it says “Today’s going to be a great day.” Yet, my inner cynic is still waiting for the other metaphorical meteorological shoe to drop.

Yesterday was a fairly quiet, low-key day. SaraRules! and I did get a little productivity in, though. We added some new items to the baby registry. We looked at tile for the new bathroom. And, we discovered a new place to eat. Well, it’s not really “new,” as much as it’s “new to us:” Mama’s Plantation Restaurant, in the Midvale Family Center (near the Wal-Mart). had mentioned it a while back, but SaraRules! and I never got to visit it at its old location in Taylorsville. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that it wound up in our extended neighborhood. The food and the service were good. The pricing may be a little on the steep side, but it was a nice change of pace and someplace we will revisit.

…and tonight: Guys Night Out.

Stray Toasters

• Today is apparently World No Tobacco Day (1, 2)
  • World No Tobacco Day: Does it really help people quit smoking?
• Arts-Funding Site Gets ‘Kickstart’ from Business Bids
• Sheryl Sandberg: Why We Have Too Few Female Leaders
• 
• Suspended in Space, 103 Stories Above Chicago
• By way of SaraRules! and the “I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane train!” file: Vietnam on alert for smugglers after deadly snakes found on train
• Retailers Offer Apps With a Catalog Feel
• 
• Who’s to blame when gas costs $1 than last year?
• Housing Index Is Expected to Show New Low in Prices

On with the show…

Namaste.

Saturday – 28 May 2011
The sun is up and playing Hide and Seek among the clouds. This is good.

Last night, SaraRules! and I, along with our friends Marie and Josh, had an evening out. We had dinner at Settebello (all of us had variations of the same pizza), dessert at Capo and then attended Utah Symphony’s final concert of the 2010-11 season:

The program consisted of:

• Charles Ives – Three Places in New England
• Richard Strauss – Four Last Songs
• Igor Stravinsky – Le Sacre du printemps

I’d not heard the Ives nor the Strauss pieces before. The Ives was a chaotic and frenetic piece; it was the aural equivalent of a hurricane. Yet, in the midst of the storm, Maestro Fischer did a fantastic job of  coordinating the musicians. If Three Places in New England was the leading edge of the hurricane, Four Last Songs was the calm eye of the storm. The movements were melodic and serene. Soloist Janice Chandler Eteme‘s performance was beautiful and very well-received — very nearly the entire hall gave her a standing ovation, with three curtain calls. The program closed with La Sacre du printemps (“The Rite of Spring”), another hectic and wildly energetic piece. As the symphony played, I realized that this piece is, in my opinion, one of the musical compositions that should be experienced as a live performance.

During and after the performance, I pondered Director Fischer’s choices for the selections used in this concert. I found there to be something of a counterpoint to the selections — the upbeat and chaotic sounds of Three Places and Rite, contrasted against the mellow tones of Four Last Songs. I also came to the conclusion that ending the season with pieces as energetic as Three Places and The Rite of Spring was akin to ending the season with a very emphatic exclamation point. It closed the season on a very strong  note, so to speak — showing that even at the end of a season, Utah Symphony was able to end things with a bang.

All told, the concert was a fine finish to Maestro Fischer’s first season as Music Director and was an excellent end to Utah Symphony’s season.

Stray Toasters

• Gil Scott-Heron, Poet and Musician, Has Died
  • Poet, musician Gil Scott-Heron dies
  • In Memoriam: Gil Scott-Heron, “The People’s Poet”
• Ow. Yesterday’s workout is now having its revenge upon me.
• RSA SecurID breach linked to hacker attack on Lockheed Martin; other US military contractors may be affected
• Too Young for Kindergarten? Tide Turns Against 4-Year-Olds
  With a late October birthday, I was four when I started Kindergarten… and I think I turned out alright. Being the youngest in my class never really bothered me.
• Saudi woman wants to give women the right to drive in her country
• 

• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” AND the “Only in Utah…” files comes: Headline of the Week: “Horse herpes outbreak forces rodeo queens to ride stick ponies”
• Anchor from Blackbeard’s ship raised after 293 years off North Carolina coast
  The first thing that came to mind when I read this was, “I wonder if raising the anchor has anything to do with the new Pirates movie coming out…?”
• Blue Angels commander steps down after subpar performance
• 

• A 911 Call That Can Save a Sirloin, and The Griller’s Ego
  • Goodbye Food Pyramid, Hello Dinner Plate
• The Slow, Strange Death of the Demo

Namaste.

Friday – 27 May 2011
It’s my 9/80 day off… and it’s the start of a four-day weekend. I’m good with that. I’m looking forward to a bit of downtime this weekend.

Last night, SaraRules! and I hit the local Noodles & Company for dinner, ran a few errands and then came home for a quiet evening in. I fired up the 360 and tried my hand at the CoD: Black Ops mission that’s been kicking my ass for the past little while. I finally had to look up some hints online. Same result, but I think I finally figured out what I need to do differently. (Aside from the general “not get killed” concept.)

This morning, I slept in… until 8:15. Hey, it’s later than my normal mornings, so it counts as “sleeping in.” After seeing SaraRules! off to work – and puttering around the house for a bit – I dragged my sorry carcass out of the house and into the gym for the first time in [REDACTED]! I have witnesses to prove it — I ran into ‘s dad and former coworker/current co-gamer Josh. Today’s workout consisted of:

• Elliptical: 20 mintues/Level 3/Random, pacing between 5.0 and 5.5 MPH
• Bench Press: 3 sets/8 reps, 135 lbs.  (Gotta start somewhere…)
• Curls (dumbbell, seated): 3 sets/10 reps, 20 lbs
• Lateral Raises (with Flys): 2 sets/10 reps, 10 lbs
• Shoulder Press (dumbbell): 3 sets/8 reps, 30 lbs
• Flys: 3 sets/8 reps, 100 lbs

Not too bad for the first workout in a while. It’s my One Little Victory of the morning.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules! found – and sent – a link to an alternate version of Starfish and Coffee. I like it.
• Union Pacific’s Great Excursion Adventure is under way!
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Tiki Barber under fire for outrageous Anne Frank comparison
• 
• 2011 Twilight Concert Series Announced
• I caught this item, Christopher Meloni responds to my SVU comic, by way of Comics Alliance yesterday. What cracked me up was the following:
  

  I got the email at work, and as soon as I read it, I said “HOLY SHIT” pretty loudly (and I then had to explain the whole thing to my boss, because you don’t get to say something like that and then say, “Oh, nothing”). First, I was excited because Christopher Meloni is totally rad (if you somehow have not seen Wet Hot American Summer, what is wrong with you?). Second, I was even more excited that Ice T had seen my comic and apparently liked it; I had assumed that if he ever saw my comic, he’d tell me to eat a hot bowl of dicks. (Thanks, Ice T, for not telling me to do that! Because I would have done it, out of respect. Respect and fear.)

  What made it curious was that the “…eat a hot bowl of dicks” part had a link attached to it. That bore investigation. The link led to was: Ice-T to Aimee Mann: ‘Eat a Hot Bowl of Dicks’, which was apparently the Twitter equivalent of a drive-by. And the account was hilarious. It almost made me want to sign up for a Twitter account. Almost.

• 
• Shore Things: 12 Essentials for Every Man’s Beach Bag
• Passenger coached to fly plane after pilot incapacitated
• When Children’s Scribbles Hide a Prison Drug
• 
• Study Questions Treatment Used in Heart Disease
• Mahna Mahna…
  (do-DO-do-do-do)

Time to find some lunch and get on with the day.

Thursday – 26 May 2011
It’s my “Technical Friday.” And, since we’re going into Memorial Day weekend, that means that this is a four-day weekend. Win.

Last night, SaraRules! and I went to Rodizio Grill for dinner. At least one of us (*raises hand*) decided to indulge in one of the Seven Deadly Sins. When we left, I was quite full. When we got home, I read the day’s four-color haul before calling it a night. (And I was still very full from dinner.)

Stray Toasters

• Roger Goodell: Time coming soon to cancel first NFL game due to lockout
• Studying the Frequency of Redaction Failures in PACER
• I should play DCUO or City tonight…
• 
• NASA to Launch New Science Mission to Asteroid in 2016
• Less Active at Work, Americans Have Packed on Pounds
• Egyptian pyramids found by infrared satellite images
• Sony expects to spend at least $171 million over breach
  • If I ran the zoo…
• Operation Seduction
• 
• Boeing considers replacing the best-selling 737
• Lawsuit claims Cisco bears blame for Falun Gong abuse
• John Edwards to Face Criminal Charges

Namaste.

Wednesday – 25 May 2011
It’s not just midweek. Nor is it just new comics day or D&D 4.0 game night…

Today is also Towel Day. (1, 2)

For those who don’t grok why a towel should have it’s own day, perhaps this will help explain it:

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)¹

That pretty much sums it up.

Last night, SaraRules! and I ran a few errands – including setting up a baby registry at the local Babies ‘R’ Us – and then capped the evening with cups of ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. We also (finally) got around to watching last season’s finale of NCIS… which, not so oddly, explained a few things about this past season. Go figure.

Stray Toasters

• Given that the sun was out for about seven hours before I got home, I mowed the lawn yesterday. I may have cut it a little shorter than I had originally planned… but it’s cut. And it looks much better. Now, I just need to find some time to do the edging.
• What Will Come After
• The Facts (and Fiction) of Tornadoes
• A New Approach to Railroad Switching
• USA comes up a bit short in global Better Life Index
• 
• Oh, the Stuff Those Lions Guard
• Secret Origins: Firestorm
• Google Expected to Introduce a Wireless Payment System
• This is what happens when we don’t vaccinate
• 
• The Stanford Prison Experiment
• Chrysler Pays Back Rescue Loan

Quote of the Day
“Rebar is not forgiving…”

So long and thanks for all the fish.

¹ — Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Tuesday – 24 May 2011
I think that 10,000 Maniacs said it best:

The color of the sky as far as I can see is coal grey.
Lift my head from the pillow and then fall again.
With a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather…

“What a cold and rainy day. Where on earth is the sun hid away?”

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

Last night was a lazy night around the household. We noshed on pizza and finished the season of NCIS: Los Angeles. After that, SaraRules! watched Creepshow 2, while I surfed the Interwebs. There was a vignette in the movie, called “The Raft,” that reminded me of the ST: TNG episode “Skin of Evil.” In both, a “killer oil slick” devours/engulfs people. In doing a little – very little – research, I found that both the movie and that episode were released in 1987.

Stray Toasters

• I should listen to Hold Your Fire in its entirety today.

  

• 3 Classic Novels. 22 Minutes. Why Not?
• I like the premise behind Once Upon a Super Hero.
• Treats Without Calories? Imagine That
• Borders loses $132.3 million in second full month of bankruptcy
• 
• Lady Gaga Sales Stall Amazon Servers
• Top Ten Myths About the Brain
• From the “Whoops… my bad” file: Obama’s limo gets stuck on bump in Dublin
  If you can find it, the video is pretty amusing.
• Life’s Little Mysteries
• Gail Simone on comics, characters and Asheville
• 
• Steady Decline in Major Crime Baffles Experts
• The Human Skin Condition
• How spam works, from end to end

Namaste.

Monday – 23 May 2011
Monday. You know it’s going to be “a day” when you come in to four-hundred-sixty-five (yes, that’s “465”) emails. That is not what I consider an auspicious start to the day. Fortunately, I stopped at the local Beans & Brews for a 32-ounce cup of frozen mocha goodness… with a triple shot o’ espresso.

Last night, SaraRules! and I took my friend, Ron, to Cafe Med for dinner. I had the Turkish Yogurt Pasta and dolmas. And they were good. Unfortunately, the restaurant was out of Akbar Mashti. Instead, we hit the local Super Target, picked up a couple of flavors of ice cream and headed home. Ron and I wound up chatted into the wee hours of the morning — hence, this morning’s triple-shot-laden bit of liquid fuel. But, it was a great way to spend the evening.

Stray Toasters

• Mother Nature mocks me. Yet again. She refuses to let my lawn dry out enough to mow. Soon, I’ll need a machete – not to be confused with Machete – to mow my lawn.
• Talk Show Ends, and Oprah Moves On
• Minister not seen after apocalypse fails
• Thanks to Skott for making me think about this song… even though this isn’t the Batman movie that it was taken from:

• What I’ve Learned About Fatherhood
  • What I’ve Learned Archive
• Is Anti-White Bias a Problem?
• Automotive Black Boxes, Minus the Grey Area
• 
• Warner Bros. TV CEO on Wonder Woman’s future: ‘We haven’t given it a lot of thought.’
  • Even if it didn’t fit NBC’s lineup, I think that they could/should have tried shopping it to USA Network (you know, with that whole “Characters Welcome” thing…) or maybe even SyFy.
  • What Might Have Been: A Look at Those Wonder Woman Shorts
  • Podcast Review of the Actual Wonder Woman Pilot
• Police Seek New Ways to Defuse Tension

The show must go on…!

Namaste.

Sunday – 22 May 2011
March winds: Check.
April showers: Check.
May winds, showers, flowers and even more rain: Check.

What started as an overcast day has become a rainy day. Which would ordinarily be (more or less) fine in my book, but I was planning on mowing the yard this morning, before it takes on the aspect of a suburban jungle. (O-E-O-E-O!) So, rather than fire up the mower, SaraRules! and I had breakfast at Millcreek Eggworks and Cafe. We’re pondering a trip to the Living Traditions Festival… assuming that the rain lets up a bit.

Yesterday’s ‘Clix tourney went well. We had fifteen players, at least, we started with fifteen — two had to drop out after the first round. But, all-in-all, it was a good event. Had I checked a calendar beforehand, I would have themed the match to coincide with Armed Forces Day. *shrug* Oh, well. The next event, however, is a themed one that I’m calling “Suffragette City,” in honor of the passing of the 19th Amendment. After the tournament, Chris and I started a Green Lantern Corps/Sinestro Corps game, but didn’t get to finish it.

Last night, SaraRules! and I were invited to a farewell dinner for the Resident Artists from Utah Opera. It was a nice affair and it was good to see the RAs again before they leave for various destinations around the country… and the globe.

Stray Toasters

• As you’ve probably noticed: The world didn’t end yesterday.

  

• Lawn Care Tips from DIY Network
• The Man Who Sees With His Ears
  The first commenter pretty much nailed it on the head when he referred to Kish as a real life Daredevil.
• Women in Comics: A Roundtable about the ‘Geek Girl’ Phenomenon
• Twitter faces legal action by footballer over privacy
• My 360 has been repaired. Hallelujah.  I took it to Precision Gaming Repair, in Murray. They had it back to me in less than 24 hours – they’re local and accept drop-offs – and for what I considered to be a reasonable price. Not only did they fix the “Red Ring of Death” issue; they also stepped up the fans a bit, to keep overheating from becoming a problem again.
• Another Member of the Overpaid
• Want a Good Wonder Woman TV Show?
• Swiss energy minister to back nuclear exit-papers

Namaste.

Friday – 20 May 2011
It’s my working Friday. We’ll see just how much monkeydom there is to deal with today. Hopefully, it won’t be too much.

Last night, SaraRules! and I went out for dinner at Pawit’s Royale Thai. As usual, the food was delicious. Pawit came out and chatted with us for a few. After that – and a quick trip to say “Hi” to the in-laws – we headed to one of the local Home Depot stores to look at bathtubs. That’s right, we’re about to kick “Project: Renovate” into gear.

Tonight, I get to hang out with a friend of mine from home whom I haven’t seen in roughly ten years.

Stray Toasters

• After talking about the Edmund Fitzgerald yesterday, Corey sent me this link about Odyssey Marine Exploration: A Bountiful Undersea Find, Sure to Invite Debate
• Make My Bed? But You Say the World’s Ending
• Gas prices could plummet for summer driving
• 
• The Real and Fascinating Origin of the Bikini
• America’s First Monorail
  • 1943 color photo of a Topeka, Kansas train yard
• Implant Allows Paralyzed Man to Move
• I’m getting tired of all of the “event” comics series coming out.  When it was one every few years, that was fine. You had an event and it meant something. Now, it’s just “Hey! You!  Buy this mini-series… and while you’re at it, buy all of these tie-ins!” Blah.
• Deal Reached on Extension of Patriot Act
• 
• Playboy puts all 57 years of its magazines online
  But, you’ll probably just click on it for the articles…
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Yes, a Cat-Food Brand Has Created Three iPad Games for Cats
• I think that I’m going to try and fix my 360’s RRoD.  God help us both.

Namaste.

Thursday – 19 May 2011
It’s another grey and rainy day here. I’m beginning to wonder if someone switched Seattle and Salt Lake City’s locations in the middle of the night.

Yesterday was not only new comics day, but also D&D 4.0 game night. We broke in a “new” venue: Dr. Volt’s Comic Connection, as we had become… disenchanted, shall we say… with Hastur Hobbies. It was a good change of pace — we could actually hear each other and the store wasn’t all asses-and-elbows. Thanks again to Dave and Jeremiah for letting us use the store to geek out.

Long Train Running
As I’ve been working on my home layout, thoughts of running multiple trains has been part of the nominal planning process. One of the ideas I’ve had included a three-level design, with a subway, a main/freight line and an el/commuter line. This put me right on… umm, track… for that, although I may no longer do a three-level design, with the current layout.

As I’ve noted before, my mother got me the MTH Bantam J Steam Freight Set for Christmas. For my birthday last year, my father got me a copy of The Illustrated Dictionary of Trains of the World. Inside was a note:

Rob,
The Powhatan Arrow (1, 2) came through Keystone, WV (and stopped at Northfork) en route from Norfolk, VA to Cincinnati during my childhood.

When you and I traveled from Baltimore to Bluefield, train (passenger) service had been curtailed greatly…

While I wanted a passenger train line, I didn’t really have much in mind as to which road name I wanted. The Bantam J was the engine that pulled the ‘Arrow. That started wheels turning in my head. I started looking at Norfolk & Western passenger cars.

Earlier this week, I received my first passenger cars in the mail, three cars from Lionel (#16062, #16063, and #16064). These were good. I put them on the rails and ran them. And, I was pleased.

Yesterday I received another package… another package with train cars. They were three of the four cars from MTH-67418. And these were even better. The detailing on the cars – especially since these were “just” from MTH’s Rail-King (their lower price point) line – was fantastic.

And, of course, I took pictures of the new cars on the layout.

There’s something fun – and somewhat special to me – about having a train on my layout that’s representative of something that my parents would have seen in their youth.

Stray Toasters

• How to Choose a Tie
• By way of SaraRules!: The Cosby Sweater Project
• An Artist’s Performance: A Year as a Poor Immigrant
• 
• Starbucks is/are everywhere.
  Lady Gaga seems to be everywhere.
  So, this sounds pretty much like a match made in Heaven.
• Raiders allow employees to sell season tickets in lieu of furlough
• Corey and I just (re-)introduced a couple of coworkers to two songs that were (for some reason) hits in the 70s:
  • Escape, by Rupert Holmes and
  • The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, by Gordon Lightfoot… which I contend is one of the – if not THE – most depressing song ever.
• In Florida, the Natives Are Restless
• Olive Garden lasagna!
• New tax deal may speed Cottonwood Mall revival

Namaste.

Tuesday – 17 May 2011
It’s much later than I’d planned for making a post, so this will be a bit (somewhat) abbreviated.

Last night, following dinner, SaraRules! and I watched The Fighter. Very good movie. And, Christian Bale certainly earned his Oscar nod (and win) for his role. Also, it was another look at Amy Adams – who has shown a good deal of versatility in her characters – making it that much easier to picture her as Lois Lane in Zach Snyder’s upcoming Superman movie.

Today finds me in the Utah County office, once again. It’s been a little more busy than I’d expected. This is not a “bad” thing, mind you. And, I got to go to State Street Grill for lunch with some of the old crew. Win-Win.

Stray Toasters

• Today’s subject line comes from a play on “better late than never” and an old – and rather cheesy – joke. This is one variation of it.
• My 360 has exhibited the dreaded “Red Ring of Death.” *sigh*
• Orchestras on Tour: Names Hit a False Note
• End of an era: Las Vegas Strip’s Sahara Hotel to close today
• Ever wonder what it is that superheros do when they aren’t… superheroing? Ms. Marvel’s Day Off
• Why Aquaman is the best damn superhero in comic history
• You Must Read These Gleefully Deranged Stories
• I discovered this morning that one of my coworker’s ancestors were apparently the founders of the town in which my mother and uncle grew up. Small world.
• Another X-Men: First Class snippet.
• U.S. Calls for Global Cybersecurity Strategy
• Appeals court backs NFL as lockout remains in place

Namaste.

Saturday – 14 May 2011
I apparently am not as good as I’d like to be at the whole “sleeping in” thing. Yesterday, I was up at 7:15. Today, I was up at 8:15. Oh, well. It gives me time to do things. Exactly “what” those things are, I’m not sure yet.

Yesterday, SaraRules!, her mother and I went up to Park City. The weather was perfect — 70F and sunny, with light breezes. Perfect shopping weather.

Veni. Sumi. Vroomi.
We came. We shopped. We left.

After we got back to town, and dropped of the MIL, SaraRules! and I headed to Downtown Philly Cheesesteaks to get lunch. Cheesesteaks. Birch beer. Tastykakes. I’d definitely call that a lunchtime “win.” Back home for a bit and then off to coffee and dinner.

Today, I’m going to head up to Dr. Volt’s and see Valerie Finnigan at her book signing.  There’s a barbecue at Pin-up Girl Espresso, as they are temporarily closing their Cottonwood Heights location while IHC builds a medical center on the 6200 block of Highland… so we’re definitely stopping there. And, I’m also trying to decide whether or not a trip to Almosta Junction is in my plans.

And, tonight: Falstaff.

Stray Toasters

• Testimony of Mike Rowe
• Life-sized HALO Master Chief costume made out of LEGO
• Confessions of a Hollywood Stuntman
  And, of course, that reminded me of this:

• Just a thought: Since a couple of studios are trying to shop superhero-/comic book-related properties, why not change their target stations?  Instead of going for NBC/ABC/CBS, why not see about stations who might have a better demographic/target audience?  To me, it seems as though USA Networks (“Characters welcome”) and/or SyFy (I still think that was about the most inane “name change” possible…) or even Warner Brothers’ own CW would have been ideal choices for some of the new programming.  But that’s just my 2¢ worth.
  • 
• Sizzle at Cannes Film Festival
• Dropbox Lied to Users About Data Security, FCC Complaint Alleges
• Cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt’s useful advice for living

  

• How to Stock Your Home Toolkit
• Zero Charisma – An indie comedy about the greatest Dungeon Master ever.
  This trailer was pretty funny.
• Building the Empire Strikes Bike
• Access Denied! 18 Places Google Maps Won’t Let You See

Namaste.

Friday – 13 May 2011
It’s Friday, the 13th.
It’s also my 9/80 day off.
That can’t be a bad thing… can it?!

I just thought of something:

• Friday the 13th has a negative connotation, thanks to superstitious beliefs.
• Olivia Wilde’s character on House is nicknamed “Thirteen.”

Why not just take the “best of both worlds” and just start referring to Friday the 13th as “Olivia Wilde Day?”

It could work…

Last night, SaraRules! and I had dinner at Dask’s. Mmm, tasty greek food. From there, we headed up to visit the in-laws. While there, I discovered that I might have inadvertently caused a… misunderstanding… with my sister-in-law-to-be: Apparently, when she read Tuesday’s post (about going over to the in-laws’ for banana rum cake), she thought that there was some dinner that I and had been invited to… and to which she and Logan hadn’t been. Nope.  He just happened to show up on the same night that my MIL and FIL were having me over, in an effort to keep me from being home alone while SaraRules! was in Beantown.

No conspiracy.

No big secret.

But, hilariously funny in the retelling by my father-in-law.

Sorry, Swiz.

After we got home, I headed down into the train room and finished work on the new layout, based on Michael Fritschie’s 8×12 layout. It doesn’t have the sidings or the wye reversing loop – and I changed the far right curve to O48 – but it looks and runs well.  And… it allows for two trains to run at the same time!  Win.  I still have a bit of clean-up to do, but I really like the way it turned out. Now, all I need to do is wait for my passenger cars to show up, so I can run both a freight and a passenger line at the same time.

I tried sleeping in this morning. It worked… sort of.  I slept until 7:15. At that point, I just got up and decided to watch a bit of TV. It was mostly DVR fare, but it kept me out of trouble.

I’m not sure what’s on tap for today. I think that we are heading up to Park City to do some shopping. I wouldn’t mind making a run to Clearfield, but I may put that off until tomorrow.

Stray Toasters

• If you’re in the area of 33rd South and 20th East tomorrow, drop into Dr. Volt’s Comic Connection. Valerie Finnigan, one of the authors of Untold Stories from Iraq and Afghanistan, will be doing a book signing from 12 to 3.
• Despite White House Report Advocating Arts Education, Budgets Face Cuts
• NBC Passes on Wonder Woman
  • NBC Turns Down David E. Kelley’s ‘Wonder Woman’ TV Pilot
• 
• White House Wants Tougher Penalties for Computer Breaches
• Smallville ends its ten-year run tonight. My friend, Jake Black, worked on the show for a while.
  • 5 Smallville Spinoffs We Would Actually Watch
    A ‘Legion: Lost’ show?  I’d be there.  And, I’d watch good Booster Gold show, too.  Just saying.
• Disaster Plan Problems Found at U.S. Nuclear Plants
• Classical Music Never Goes Out of Style

Up. Out.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 10 May 2011
Another grey day in the valley. The forecast says we have a 60% chance of rain. With as much rain as we’ve had lately, it’s hard to remember that we live on a high desert plain… where the streets have no name.  (No, the song wasn’t written about Salt Lake City, but it was a reference that I couldn’t pass up. And, besides, it has a fun video…)

Today is also my friend, Justin’s, birthday:

Yesterday afternoon, I received a message from my mother-in-law, inviting me over for homemade banana rum cake. Not being completely foolish, I told her that I’d be there. After work, I stopped at Pin-up Girl Espresso and chatted with Jim on the way home. I remembered that I needed to pick up a few track pieces for the new layout idea, so I jetted up to West Valley Hobbies before heading to the in-laws’.  When I got there, my MIL asked if I had eaten dinner – I hadn’t – so she fed me, as well: She’d made an amazing chicken curry dish whose exact name eludes me. After I’d finished, we – MIL, FIL and lj user=”djviking” – had cake and chatted the rest of the evening away. As if feeding me and giving me dessert wasn’t enough, I was even sent home with leftovers for lunch. Win! (In case I haven’t said it before/recently: I totally hit the jackpot in the In-Laws Lottery.

When I finally made it home, I decided to mess around with my train layout. This came under the heading of “Good Idea/Bad Idea,” as it was slightly more of an undertaking that I had planned on. I was up until [REDACTED] working on it. Yes, I know… I’m going to have to tear the whole thing down (again) when we start framing the room, but I was in the mood for something different. The trackwork is almost finished and I need to figure out where buildings will go and in which areas I’ll be able to add the SuperStreets track.

It probably goes without saying, but I made this morning’s coffee extra-strong. Thank God.

Today is also a suit day. (Added bonus: It was clean and required no prep work.) Today’s option: Navy suit, white spread-collar shirt, pink-and-blue tie, pink pocket square, maroon loafers.

Stray Toasters

• Navy chaplains cleared to perform same-sex marriages
• A Brewery Is Recreating George Washington’s Personal Beer Recipe
• Flight Attendant Fashion Through the Years

  

  Hmm, that looks vaguely familiar.  I can’t remember where I’ve seen something like that before…

  

  Oh… right.

• Microsoft in Talks to Acquire Skype for $8.5 Billion
• For Journalists, a Call to Rethink Online Models
• More Familiar ‘Spider-Man’ Hopes to Bury the Dark
• Star Wars PSAs

  

• Amtrak, 15 states get Florida’s $2B in high-speed rail money
• The Town That Banned Pac-Man
• 30 Geeky Weddings
  I have actually been to Metropolis, IL and stood in front of that Superman statue (7th pic from the bottom)
• Exonerated Inmates Fight Lawyer’s Lobbying Fees

And…. that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Monday – 09 May 2011
It’s a rainy night in Georgia day here in the Land Behind the Zion Curtain. (But, at least it isn’t snowing, like it is in the southern part of the state.)

Yesterday was a long day. Not because I had so many things to do. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I had so much free time that I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.

I started by sleeping in. That was followed by mowing the lawn (before it started raining). After a quick shower, I was hit with the first bout of indecision over what to do. I passed the time by surfing the Internet. When I finally got it in mind to get something to eat, it was early afternoon. I decided to head up to MacCool’s Public House. I had Finn’s Skins, along with the Buffalo Shepherd’s Pie… and a pint o’ Guinness. After lunch, I stopped in to wish

Back home for Round 2 of “What Do I Do Now?” (That, again, translated into some more surfing.) I also started looking at a couple of books that contained some ideas that I want to incorporate into my train layout. Yes, I believe that the layout – or at least half of it – might get a bit of an overhaul in the next few days. Around 6:15, I decided to have some more limited human interaction by heading over to the local Barnes & Noble and doing some drawing. Fortunately, I decided to look up the store’s hours before driving there: The store closed at 7:00. Feh. More surfing. I remembered that I still needed to do some grocery shopping, so I did that.

After I returned home, I put away the goods, ran a load of dishes and treated myself to a snack and some TV time. I caught up on a little more Human Target – and cleared a bit more space on the DVR – before calling it a night.

Stray Toasters

• Comic Books as Education
• I picked up three new cars for my railroad. Passenger cars. If I go with the layout scheme that I’m thinking of, I’ll be able to run two trains – one freight, one passenger – concurrently.
• 
• Obama Has a Bridge He Wants to Sell You
• The Utah Museum of Fine Arts is presenting: The Smithson Effect
• 8 False Tea Party-Republican Memes to Talk About Before You Go to the Polls
• Blogger announces own death after battle with cancer
• 
• Video: Bionic legs helping people walk
• Sci-Fi Ikea Manuals
• “Thor Loser”
• Hillary Clinton Photoshopped Out of Situation Room Photo

And now… Lunch from the Chow Truck!

Namaste.