Random Access

Friday – 25 February 2011
It’s Friday. Amen. Aside from the whole “end of the work week” thing, it also means that it’s only a week until the Hostler’s Train Show in Ogden.

Last night, I made dinner: Teriyaki chicken stir-fry over rice. It turned out pretty well. SaraRules and I caught up on NCIS over dinner; now, we just need to do the same for NCIS: Los Angeles. We also caught a bit of Dawn of the Dead, by Zach Snyder. I am very curious as to how his new vision for Superman shapes up.

After that, I spent a little time in Gotham City, chasing down Harley Quinn – saving Robin in the process – and beating on some of Bane’s thugs.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
Today’s person of note is Bessie Coleman (1, 2, 3)

Elizabeth Coleman was an American civil aviator. She was the first female pilot of African American descent and the first person of African American descent to hold an international pilot license.

Coleman was born on January 26, 1892 in Atlanta, Texas, the tenth of thirteen children to sharecroppers George and Susan Coleman. Coleman began school at age six and had to walk four miles each day to her all-black, one-room school. Despite sometimes lacking such materials as chalk and pencils, Coleman was an excellent student. She loved to read and established herself as an outstanding math student.

When she turned eighteen, Coleman took all of her savings and enrolled in the Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University (now called Langston University) in Langston, Oklahoma. She completed only one term before she ran out of money and was forced to return home. Coleman knew there was no future for her in her home town, so she went to live with two of her brothers in Chicago while she looked for a job.

In 1915, Coleman moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she lived with her brothers and worked at the White Sox Barber Shop as a manicurist. There she heard tales of the world from pilots who were returning home from World War I. They told stories about flying in the war, and Coleman started to fantasize about being a pilot. She could not gain admission to American flight schools because she was black and a woman. No black U.S. aviator would train her either. Robert S. Abbott, founder and publisher of the Chicago Defender, encouraged her to study abroad. Coleman received financial backing from Jesse Binga (a banker) and the Defender, which capitalized on her flamboyant personality and her beauty to promote the newspaper, and to promote her cause.

Coleman attended the well-known Caudron Brothers’ School of Aviation in Le Crotoy, France. There she learned to fly using French Nieuport airplanes. On June 15, 1921, Coleman obtained her pilot’s license from Federation Aeronautique Internationale after only seven months. She was the first black woman in the world to earn an aviator’s license. After some additional training in Paris, Coleman returned to the United States in September 1921.

Coleman’s main goals when she returned to America were to make a living flying and to establish the first African American flight school. Because of her color and gender, however, she was somewhat limited in her first goal. Barnstorming seemed to be the only way for her to make money, but to become an aerial daredevil, Coleman needed more training. Once again, Bessie applied to American flight schools, and once again they rejected her. So in February 1922, she returned to Europe. After learning most of the standard barnstorming tricks, Coleman returned to the United States.

When Bessie returned to the United States to pursue her new flying career, she knew she must have publicity to attract paying audiences. She created an exciting image of herself with a military style uniform and an eloquence that belied her background. Her first appearance was in an air show on September 3, 1922 at Curtiss Field near New York City. The show, sponsored by Robert Abbott and the Chicago Defender, billed Bessie as “the world’s greatest woman flyer.” More shows followed around the country including Memphis and Chicago. On June 19, 1925, Bessie made her flying debut in Texas at a Houston auto racetrack renamed Houston Aerial Transport Field in honor of the occasion.

In the time between her 1922 flying debut in New York and her 1925 Texas debut, Bessie never lost sight of her goal of opening a school for aviators. She flirted briefly with a movie career, traveled to California to earn money for a plane of her own, crashed that plane once she bought it and then returned to Chicago to formulate a new plan. It was another two years before she finally succeeded in lining up a series of lectures and exhibition flights in Texas. Once there, she defied not only racial barriers but gender barriers as well. She appeared in San Antonio, Richmond, Waxahachie, Wharton,Dallas and numerous unreported small towns and fields. At Love Field in Dallas, she made a down payment on a plane from the Curtiss Southwestern Airplane and Motor Company.

Coleman’s aviation career ended tragically in 1926. On April 30, she died while preparing for a show in Jacksonville, Florida. Coleman was riding in the passenger seat of her “Jenny” airplane while her mechanic William Wills was piloting the aircraft. Bessie was not wearing her seat belt at the time so that she could lean over the edge of the cockpit and scout potential parachute landing spots (she had recently added parachute-jumping to her repetorie and was planning to perform the feat the next day). But while Bessie was scouting from the back seat, the plane suddenly dropped into a steep nosedive and then flipped over and catapulted her to her death. Wills, who was still strapped into his seat, struggled to regain control of the aircraft, but died when he crashed in a nearby field. After the accident, investigators discovered that Wills, who was Coleman’s mechanic, had lost control of the aircraft because a loose wrench had jammed the plane’s instruments.

Over the years, recognition of Coleman’s accomplishments has grown. Coleman’s impact on aviation history, and particularly African Americans in aviation, quickly became apparent following her death. In 1927, Bessie Coleman Aero Clubs sprang up throughout the country. In 1989, First Flight Society inducted Coleman into their shrine that honors those individuals and groups that have achieved significant “firsts” in aviation’s development. A second-floor conference room at the Federal Aviation Administration, Washington, DC, is named after Coleman. In 1990, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley renamed Old Mannheim Road at O’Hare International Airport “Bessie Coleman Drive.” In 1992, he proclaimed May 2 “Bessie Coleman Day in Chicago.”

Mae Jemison, physician and former NASA astronaut, wrote in the book, Queen Bess: Daredevil Aviator (1993): “I point to Bessie Coleman and say without hesitation that here is a woman, a being, who exemplifies and serves as a model to all humanity: the very definition of strength, dignity, courage, integrity, and beauty. It looks like a good day for flying.”

Stray Toasters

• Geeksoap: The Cleaning Agent for the Everyfan
• It’s the Inequality, Stupid
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file:
  • Cab driver throws out dark-skinned opera singer
  • A Woman Almost Died in Her Burning House Because of Verizon’s Dropped 911 Calls
• The Supreme Court’s Failure to Protect Blacks’ Rights
• 

• Have We Grown Too Fond of Technology?
• MarknTyme sent me a couple of links:
  • An entertaining and amusing short: Schizofredric
  • Concert for George, which is streaming all day
• How Photography Shifted the Balance of the Civil Rights Movement
• Enlisting Prison Labor to Close Budget Gaps
• 
• Gangster’s daughter has beef with a new Vegas mob exhibit
  • Hard times don’t stop Las Vegas influx
• California’s Tax Aversion Complicates Budget
• Seven Simple Ways to Fix Air Travel for Everyone
• US cities original names

Namaste.

Tuesday – 22 February 2011
Work Week: Day Two. The sun’s out, but the temps are still kind of low. (Although we might actually break 40F today…)

On the “up” side, I am definitely feeling better. I also no longer sound (completely) like a reject from the old Budweiser frogs commercials. I’m still a bit congested, but I can breathe… for the most part.

Last night, SaraRules! made a tasty chicken pot pie for dinner. We ate and watched a couple of episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles and then a couple of episodes of House Hunters.

Generally speaking, I enjoy House Hunters, but last night’s episodes contained a couple of families who the Logic Fairy seemed to overlook – or at least skimp on – when she was doling out common sense:

1. A family in the suburbs of Louisville, KY decided that they wanted to purchase a vacation home.
   (So far, so good.)Let me reparse the above with the kicker: “…they wanted to buy a vacation home, twenty minutes from their current home.” Yeah, we were dumbstruck. They wanted to take out a second mortgage ($250, 000) on a “vacation condo” in downtown Louisville. Twenty minutes away. That doesn’t even make good crazy people sense.
2. The second family wanted to buy a new home in which to raise their 18-month-old daughter. Their main “wants” were:
   • One level.
   • Three or more bedrooms.
   • A yard for their daughter to play in.

   All-in-all, their wants weren’t too outrageous… especially when compared to some of the things that people have sought on this show. The “one level” requirement was because they saw stairs as a safety hazard. (I guess they’d never heard of a child safety gate. *shrug*) They saw three houses:

   1. One level, but the “back yard” was largely taken over by a large, in-ground swimming pool.
   2. Multi-level house, with a couple of notable potential hazards.
   3. Two-level house with a loft.

   They chose House #1, despite the wife’s early – and quite vocal – objections to having no back yard and the giant water hole. I can understand some of their reasons for avoiding the second house, but the third house’s stair “problem” could have easily been handled with a gate.

I also spent a little time in Metropolis before bed. I started off just flying around, exploring parts of the city that I hadn’t yet visited. I decided to tackle a mission that I’d let languish for a couple of levels.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
Today’s personality is: Carter G. Woodson (1, 2, 3)

Carter Godwin Woodson was an African-American historian, author, journalist and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. He was one of the first scholars to value and study Black History. He recognized and acted upon the importance of a people having an awareness and knowledge of their contributions to humanity, and left behind an impressive legacy. A founder of Journal of Negro History, Dr. Woodson is known as the “Father of Black History.”

The son of freed slaves, Woodson worked as a sharecropper and a miner to help his family. He began high school in his late teens and proved to be an excellent student. Woodson went on to college and earned several degrees. He received a doctorate from Harvard University in 1912—becoming one of the first African Americans to earn a Ph.D. at the prestigious institution. His doctoral dissertation,The Disruption of Virginia, was based on research he did at the Library of Congress while teaching high school in Washington, D.C. After earning the doctoral degree, he continued teaching in the public schools, later joining the faculty at Howard University as a professor and served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Convinced that the role of his own people in American history and in the history of other cultures was either being ignored or misrepresented among scholars, Woodson realized the need for research into the neglected past of African Americans. Along with Alexander L. Jackson and three associates, he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History September 9, 1915, in Chicago. That was also the year Woodson published The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861. His other books followed: A Century of Negro Migration (1918) and The History of the Negro Church (1927).

After leaving Howard University, Dr. Woodson devoted the rest of his life to historical research. He worked to preserve the history of African Americans and accumulated a collection of thousands of artifacts and publications. He noted that African American contributions “were overlooked, ignored, and even suppressed by the writers of history textbooks and the teachers who use them.” Race prejudice, he concluded, “is merely the logical result of tradition, the inevitable outcome of thorough instruction to the effect that the Negro has never contributed anything to the progress of mankind.” In 1926, Woodson single-handedly pioneered the celebration of “Negro History Week”, for the second week in February, to coincide with marking the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The week was later extended to the full month of February and renamed Black History Month.

Dr. Woodson’s most cherished ambition, a six-volume Encyclopedia Africana, lay incomplete at his death on April 3, 1950 at the age of 74. He is buried at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland-Silver Hill, Maryland.

Stray Toasters

• I took “a few” new pictures of my railroad layout.
• Datamining Hip-Hop’s History
• I’m not an Indians fan, but I found this story interesting: Straight Down the Middle, the Long Way
• Free Trove of Music Scores on Web Hits Sensitive Copyright Note
  
• Rafting for Rocks
• “Tonight I’m Frakking You” is your new sci-fi dance single
• 
  
• Will Michael Bay’s NASCAR Transformers Be the Skids and Mudflap of Transformers 3?
• Hundreds of Tourist Photos Weaved into One
• Child-Product Makers Seek to Soften New Rules
• Apple in talks to improve the sound quality of music downloads

Namaste.

Wednesday – 09 February 2011
Midweek. Which makes it not only new comics day, but also D&D (4.0) night. Now, to just make it through the work day…

Last night, SaraRules! and I helped her father (and both brothers) move an organ out of her grandfather’s apartment. I’m going to let that sink in for a moment…

::: pause :::

Got it? Okay. Moving on. It was cold last night. Sub-freezing, with a not-so-lovely wind adding to the “fun.” The move took a little longer than it could/should have. But, in the end, the organ was loaded into a U-Haul trailer. Amen. Mid-move I jokingly asked SaraRules! where she was taking me for dinner. Without missing a beat, she asked,”Where do you want to go…? Outback?” Mmm, Outback…

And, so it was, later, as the miller told his tale, that her face – at first just ghostly – turned a whiter shade of pale that we wound up at the local Outback Steakhouse.  Aussie Cheese Fries. Prime Rib. Good. On the way home from dinner, we drove past A Perfect Dress, to see what new fashion (or horrors) they had in the windows. Turns out that SaraRules! and I agreed that most of the items weren’t too bad; there were only a couple of dresses that we questioned. The rest of the evening was spent, on the couch, watching TV. And I wrapped up the night playing CoD: Black Ops with a few coworkers before calling it a night.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
I had a hard time coming up with something that began with the letter “I” for today’s entry. Eventually, an idea came to mind… and it’s one that I find apropos, as today is also the day that new comic books release:

Today’s item is Incognegro, a graphic novel by Mat Johnson.

(c) DC Comics

For a synopsis of the book’s plot, I’ll refer to an interview that Mat Johnson did with Newsarama in 2007:

NEWSARAMA: Mat, let’s start with the big picture. What’s the gist of Incognegro?

Mat Johnson: It’s the story of a mixed person of African-American descent who passed for white in the 1930s to investigate lynchings in the South. He goes down to Mississippi on a specific mission that ends up getting tangled really quickly, and it turns into a noir thriller.

NRAMA: What can you tell us about the protagonist Zane Pinchback and where he is when the book opens?

MJ: He’s a reporter in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance, and he’s kind of a minor celebrity, but he’s only famous on paper. Nobody can know what he looks like because of what he does. So he’s somewhat frustrated by that, being famous but not being famous. He’s dealing with his past, and part of what happens in the story is he’s pulled back into his personal past, his own story.
NRAMA: In addition to dealing with his own issues, he also has to go “incognegro” and go to the South to save his brother. So there’s a whole external drive going for him, in addition to his own internal awakening, right?

MJ: He has a twin brother who looks much like himself but is dark-skinned. His brother has had none of the breaks that Zane had, largely because of his difference in appearance, even though they’re of the same mother and father. When he goes back, Zane has to confront this other life that he was able to escape, but that his brother instead had to dive deeper into. And that’s really the emotional heart of the book, the two of them and their lives, the convergence of them coming together.

Johnson also notes that the story was partially inspired by Walter Francis White, a light-skinned African-American who used his skin color (or lack thereof) to investigate lynchings and race riots in the American south in the early 20th Century:

MJ: Yeah. Well, Walter White is the primary idea for the piece, when he was investigating these lynchings, but there’ve been other points in history – I’m African-American, but I look fairly white or European, so I’ve always been very fascinated by these points in history, when people like myself interacted, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. I was fascinated with the idea of taking something that is part of my life and part of past lives, and seeing if I could make that into not just a curiosity, but into something that actually could mean the difference in lives.

As I wrote in 2008, when I first read the book:

Incognegro, written by Mat Johnson (1, 2, 3) – a light-skinned Black man, himself – is adeptly written. Its characters aren’t just stereotypical caricatures; they have depth. The settings aren’t just backdrops, they add to the flavor of the scenes. The story also contains a few interesting plot twists, as well.

See also: The New York Times review of the book.

Stray Toasters

• Employee surveys. Normally, I’d be all *twirls finger in air* about it, but it seems as though our robot overlords protectors are actually invested in seeing what employees think and feel about the company and their jobs and what – within reason – can be done to make our working lives better.  We’ll see how this shakes out.
• Speaking in Defense of Science
• Ravens’ Michael Oher tells his side in memoir
• Lymph Node Study Shakes Pillar of Breast Cancer Care
• 
• Packers celebrate Super Bowl win with 56,000 fans at Lambeau Field
• Women “computers” of World War II
• Worker Trapped in Plane’s Cargo Hold Avoids Becoming Passenger
• Homeowners face “new normal” in housing bust
  • Chart: Owing more than home is worth
• 
• Iconoscope No. 1: Star Wars Episode IV
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Sofa made from a coffin

Quote of the Day
Today’s quote comes from last night’s moving extravaganza. While standing outside, watching the comedy of trying to figure out how to arrange the organ in the trailer, SaraRules! thanked me for “…helping my crazy family” with the move. We joked about it for a moment before she noted:

SaraRules!: “Oh, your family’s crazy, too.”
Me: “Yeah, but at least my family has the good sense to be crazy indoors, where it’s warm!”

We both got a good laugh out of that.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 08 February 2011
It’s a sunny day in the valley. That is in stark contrast to the snow that fell yesterday afternoon and last night. Although, on the “plus” side: The air is clean(er) and you can see across the valley:

Last night, SaraRules! and I had a Date Night Adventure! It was really just supposed to be dinner and a concert, but the first half turned into something of an ordeal. Shortly after last month’s Preservation Hall Jazz Band concert, we learned that Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra was going to be performing.

So, we decided to go and celebrate Valentine’s Day a little early.

This came under the heading of “Good Theory.”
“Practical Application” went a little something like this:

We drove to the University of Utah campus and found parking. We walked down to 13th East, as we had planned to eat at Aristo’s, a restaurant that SaraRules! had heard was good and wanted to try. We walked in to find they had at least a 45-minute wait. No good.

We walked next door to Indochine, a Vietnamese restaurant. The restaurant was fairly packed and there wasn’t anyone at the front counter. Again, no good.

We headed over to Market Street Broiler… and were met with people walking out, saying that they’d lost some power – the block across the street had a complete power outage – and were closing. *sigh*  We were starting to see a pattern and it wasn’t good.

We then walked back down to B&D Burger. We were at the “beggars can’t be choosers” point of the evening and we were also running out of time. It was 6:30 PM when we walked in and the concert started at 7:30. Fortunately, we were only a five-minute walk from the hall. SaraRules!, in her near-infinite wisdom, suggested that we grab what looked like the last available table before we ordered. (Very good call on her part.) We stood in line for about 10 minutes, as the place was full of people – like us – who were unable to get into the other restaurants. We ordered and we sat down and waited.

6:50…

7:00…

7:05…

Around this time, SaraRules! went up “to have words” with the young lady at the counter. Granted, the place was full and the cook – the sole cook – was busy, but apparently the cashier had an “Oh, well…” attitude about the whole affair. And, at no point did anyone call in additional help to cover the rush.

7:15…

SaraRules! went back to the counter to get our order “to go.” Many other patrons had just decided to leave, without getting their orders AND without demanding refunds. (SaraRules! told me later that the cashiers were like “Hey… more money for us!” about those customers.) Contrast that attitude with this, taken from the back of the customer survey card:

We got our food about 7:25 PM. We hurried back to the car – we couldn’t exactly take our dinner into Kingsbury Hall – dropped off the boxes, took our gyros with us and ate them as we headed to the hall.

Fortunately, the performance started a few minutes late. I literally sat down a couple of seconds before the orchestra started playing.

It was a fantastic performance. One expects excellence when listening to Wynton Marsalis play. It was great to see… um, hear…  that he surrounded himself with phenomenal talent, as well. It was an amazing show. There was no band leader/conductor. In fact, Wynton Marsalis wasn’t even front and center; he played on the third row, with the rest of the trumpeters. Mr. Marsalis even explained, between a couple of the pieces, why we saw the band talking amongst themselves during the performance: It was to decide who was going to solo or be featured in some pieces. On the fly. They played for about an hour-and-a-half and came back for an amazing encore. It was a great way to cap off an evening that began less-than-auspiciously.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
Today, let’s take a look at the Harlem Renaissance.

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the “New Negro Movement”, named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke. Though it was centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, many French-speaking black writers from African and Caribbean colonies who lived in Paris were also influenced by the Harlem Renaissance.

The Harlem Renaissance is unofficially recognized to have spanned from about 1919 until the early or mid 1930s. Many of its ideas lived on much longer. The zenith of this “flowering of Negro literature”, as James Weldon Johnson preferred to call the Harlem Renaissance, was placed between 1924 (the year that Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life hosted a party for black writers where many white publishers were in attendance) and 1929 (the year of the stock market crash and the beginning of the Great Depression).

The Harlem Renaissance grew out of the changes that had taken place in the African American community since the abolition of slavery. These accelerated as a consequence of World War I and the great social and cultural changes in early 20th century United States. Industrialization was attracting people to cities from rural areas and gave rise to a new mass culture. Contributing factors leading to the Harlem Renaissance were the Great Migration of African Americans to northern cities, which concentrated ambitious people in places where they could encourage each other, and the First World War, which had created new industrial work opportunities for tens of thousands of people. Factors leading to the decline of this era include the Great Depression.

Characterizing the Harlem Renaissance was an overt racial pride that came to be represented in the idea of the New Negro, who through intellect and production of literature, art, and music could challenge the pervading racism and stereotypes to promote progressive or socialist politics, and racial andsocial integration. The creation of art and literature would serve to “uplift” the race.

There would be no uniting form singularly characterizing the art that emerged out of the Harlem Renaissance. Rather, it encompassed a wide variety of cultural elements and styles, including a Pan-Africanist perspective, “high-culture” and “low-culture” or “low-life,” from the traditional form of music to the blues and jazz, traditional and new experimental forms in literature such as modernism and the new form of jazz poetry. This duality meant that numerous African-American artists came into conflict with conservatives in the black intelligentsia, who took issue with certain depictions of black life.

Some common themes represented during the Harlem Renaissance were the influence of the experience of slavery and emerging African-American folk traditions on black identity, the effects of institutional racism, the dilemmas inherent in performing and writing for elite white audiences, and the question of how to convey the experience of modern black life in the urban North.

The progress—both symbolic and real—during this period, became a point of reference from which the African-American community gained a spirit of self-determination that provided a growing sense of both Black urbanity and Black militancy as well as a foundation for the community to build upon for the Civil Rights struggles in the 1950s and 1960s.

Stray Toasters

• Since we were heading out for Date Night – and since we were going to an event – I decided to wear my black suit, a white shirt and my African masks tie. While standing in line to get dinner, a woman (who was obviously aware of the concert) came up to me and asked,”Are you playing tonight?”

  *sigh*

  That’s right, lady. I’m a black guy in a suit and tie near the university campus.  I, obviously, must be playing in the concert.

  I simply told her, “No, I’m not.” My second – and, unfortunately, much-delayed – thought was to tell her “Yes, I’ll be playing trombone.”

• If you haven’t taken a look at Google’s home page (“Google classic,” that is), check it out.
• Ken Olsen, Founder of DEC, Dies at 84
• Space Avalance (some possibly NSFW content)
  



• A Hidden Treasure Struggles in Los Angeles
• Imperial Walker (AT-AT) from recycled computer parts
• The Apollo, Uptown’s Showbiz Incubator
• Courtesy of Vince, from Dr. Volt’s, comes Superman Classic, a short – and very well-made – animated fan film:
• Planned Parenthood to Retrain Public Staff
• Kayabuki in Utsunomiya – Where Waiters Are Monkeys

Namaste.

Friday – 04 February 2011
It’s my 9/80 day off. Amen.

Today is also World Cancer Day.

Last night, Mary and Matt came over for dinner. SaraRules! made breaded pecan chicken strips, scalloped potatoes and a zucchini/squash mix for dinner. Mary and May brought a cake for dessert. Dinner, the company and the conversation were all very good. After our company left, I finished reading this week’s four-color haul and played a little (a very little) DCUO before calling it a day.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
Since it’s the weekend, and it’s going to be “a little” busy, you’re getting THREE entries:

• Dorothy Jean Dandridge was an American actress and popular singer, and was the first African-American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.

  

  She performed as a vocalist in venues such as the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater. In 1954, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Carmen Jones. By 1956, still under contract to Fox, Dandridge hadn’t made any films since Carmen Jones. Fox still believed that Dorothy was a star, but just didn’t know how to promote her. One of the head chiefs at Fox once said “She’s a star, but we don’t have any films to put her in or leading men to cast her opposite.”

  In 1957 Dorothy’s luck came back when Darryl F. Zanuck cast Dandridge as Margot, a restless young Indian woman, in his controversial film version of, Island in the Sun, co-starring stars such as Joan Fontaine, James Mason, Harry Belafonte, Joan Collins, Michael Rennie, and Stephen Boyd. This film was a success which brought Dandridge back to the public eye. Determined to reinvent her career, she decided to wait on Fox to call for her to make a film.

  In 1959, Columbia Pictures cast Dorothy in the lead role of Bess in Porgy and Bess; Dorothy was again nominated for a award, this time for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Dorothy was again eager to see if she was to win the award, but she once again lost. A few weeks later Dorothy was released from her 20th Century Fox contract.

  Dandridge was married and divorced twice, first to dancer and entertainer Harold Nicholas (the father of her daughter, Harolyn Suzanne) and then to Jack Denison. Dandridge died of an accidental drug overdose, at the age of 42.

• Ralph Waldo Ellison was a novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer.

  

  Ralph Ellison, named after Ralph Waldo Emerson, was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Lewis Alfred Ellison and Ida Millsap.In 1933, Ellison entered the Tuskegee Institute on a scholarship to study music. Tuskegee’s music department was perhaps the most renowned department at the school, headed by the conductor William L. Dawson. While he studied music primarily in his classes, he spent increasing amounts of time in the library, reading up on modernist classics.

  During World War II, Ellison joined the Merchant Marine, and in 1946 he married his second wife, Fanny McConnell. She worked as a photographer to help sustain Ellison. From 1947 to 1951 he earned some money writing book reviews, but spent most of his time working on Invisible Man. Fanny also helped type Ellison’s longhand text and assisted her husband in editing the typescript as it progressed.

  Published in 1952, Invisible Man explores the theme of man’s search for his identity and place in society, as seen from the perspective of an unnamed black man in the New York City of the 1930s. In contrast to his contemporaries such as Richard Wright and James Baldwin, Ellison created characters that are dispassionate, educated, articulate and self-aware. Through the protagonist, Ellison explores the contrasts between the Northern and Southern varieties of racism and their alienating effect. The narrator is “invisible” in a figurative sense, in that “people refuse to see” him, and also experiences a kind of dissociation. The novel, with its treatment of taboo issues such as incest, won the National Book Award in 1953.

  In 1964, Ellison published Shadow and Act, a collection of essays, and began to teach at Rutgers University and Yale University, while continuing to work on his novel. The following year, a survey of 200 prominent literary figures was released that proclaimed Invisible Man the most important novel since World War II.

  Ralph Ellison died on April 16, 1994 of pancreatic cancer, and was buried at Trinity Church Cemetery in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City.

• Ella Jane Fitzgerald, also known as the “First Lady of Song” and “Lady Ella,” was an American jazz and song vocalist.

  

  Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia. In her youth Fitzgerald wanted to be a dancer, although she loved listening to jazz recordings by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby and The Boswell Sisters. She idolized the lead singer Connee Boswell, later saying, “My mother brought home one of her records, and I fell in love with it….I tried so hard to sound just like her.”

She made her singing debut at 17 on November 21, 1934 at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. She pulled in a weekly audience at the Apollo and won the opportunity to compete in one of the earliest of its famous “Amateur Nights”. She had originally intended to go on stage and dance but, intimidated by the Edwards Sisters, a local dance duo, she opted to sing instead in the style of Connee Boswell. She sang Boswell’s “Judy” and “The Object of My Affection,” a song recorded by the Boswell Sisters, and won the first prize of $25.00.

In January 1935, Fitzgerald won the chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House. She met drummer and bandleader Chick Webb here. Webb had already hired singer Charlie Linton to work with the band and was, The New York Times later wrote, “reluctant to sign her….because she was gawky and unkempt, a diamond in the rough.” Webb offered her the opportunity to test with his band when they played a dance at Yale University.

She began singing regularly with Webb’s Orchestra through 1935 at Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom. Fitzgerald recorded several hit songs with them, including “Love and Kisses” and “(If You Can’t Sing It) You’ll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)”. But it was her 1938 version of the nursery rhyme, “A-Tisket, A-Tasket”, a song she co-wrote, that brought her wide public acclaim.

With Decca’s Milt Gabler as her manager, she began working regularly for the jazz impresario Norman Granz, and appeared regularly in his Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) concerts. Fitzgerald’s relationship with Granz was further cemented when he became her manager, although it would be nearly a decade before he could record her on one of his many record labels. Fitzgerald left Decca and Granz, now her manager, created Verve Records around her. Fitzgerald later described the period as strategically crucial, saying, “I had gotten to the point where I was only singing be-bop. I thought be-bop was ‘it,’ and that all I had to do was go some place and sing bop. But it finally got to the point where I had no place to sing. I realized then that there was more to music than bop. Norman….felt that I should do other things, so he produced The Cole Porter Songbook with me. It was a turning point in my life.” Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook, released in 1956, was the first of eight multi-album Songbook sets Fitzgerald would record for Verve at irregular intervals from 1956 to 1964. The composers and lyricists spotlighted on each set, taken together, represent the greatest part of the cultural canon known as the Great American Songbook. Fitzgerald’s song selections ranged from standards to rarities and represented an attempt by Fitzgerald to cross over into a non-jazz audience.

Plagued by health problems, Fitzgerald made her last recording in 1991 and her last public performances in 1993. Miss Fitzgerald was generous throughout her career, and in 1993, she established the Charitable Foundation that bears her name: The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, which continues to help the disadvantaged through grants and donation of new books to at-risk children.

Stray Toasters

• MarknTyme sent me a link to an article about a “skin gun,” used as a treatment for burn victims. The accompanying video isn’t for the squeamish… but the results are rather impressive.
• 
• A Super Bowl oddity: No cheerleaders for Packers or Steelers
• No Easy Fixes as Internet Runs Out of Addresses
• Today in rock ‘n’ roll history: The day the music died
• 
  
• Gunman hijacks Greyhound bus in North Carolina
• The King of Cool’s Motorcycle Is for Sale
• Yesterday’s amazing house of tomorrow is today’s boring house of today

And, on to the day!

Namaste.

Friday – 28 January 2011
It’s finally Friday. Granted, it’s my “on” Friday, but that’s okay… I’m cutting out of here a little early and heading to Thanksgiving Point with to check out the Ophir-Tintic &Western Model Railroad Show.

Last night, SaraRules! and I – along with about 18 other people – went to The Bayou to celebrate ‘s completion of coursework for college. It was a fun evening out. I had an Epic Brewing Imperial Stout, along with dinner, a bowl of Gumbo and a bowl of Crawfish Etouffee. The food and the company were both quite good.

Back at home, I called it an early evening. To say that I slept “poorly” would be an understatement. I first woke up – screaming – from a very odd dream around 0100. After managing to get back to sleep, I woke up again, around 0415; this time, it was from a raging heartburn. I set a couple of Tums on the job and drifted off again. When the 0630 alarm went off, I was in the middle of another disturbing dream and was in no mood to get up. 0700 wasn’t much better. At 0725, I decided to drag myself out of bed and start the day.

Here’s a little something to help kick off the morning:

Stray Toasters

• HOWTO be a well-dressed office dude
• Astronaut’s Brother Recalls a Man Who Dreamed Big
  The Engineering Building at North Carolina A&T State University (I attended this school after Purdue) was renamed after Dr. McNair – who had attended A&T – following the Challenger disaster.
  • 25 years after Challenger — inspiring the future of space science
• The Geopolitics of “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?”
  



• Sundance Festival Thrives on More Than Just Money
• “aww…”  != “awe”
  Conversely, “awe” != “aww…”
• Predictions for 2011
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Beaten, concussed man finds video of his assault on YouTube, care of his attackers
• What’s Happening in Egypt, Explained
• 
• 8-bit Funding Helps Kick-Start Indie Games
• LEGO Haunted House

And with that…

Namaste.

Thursday – 27 January 2011
Another No Bad News Thursday is upon us. This one greets us with sun and the hope of a (reasonably) warm day.

Last night, SaraRules! and I met downtown for dinner at Settebello Pizzeria Napoletana. I had been there twice (I think) before, though I’ve been to Capo, the gelato shop next door, a few times. SaraRules! had the Margherita; I had the Quattro Stagioni, which was quite good. After dinner, we walked to the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center for our fifth Sundance movie, Perfect Sense:

When Susan (Eva Green), an epidemiologist, reemerges from an affair gone sour, she encounters a peculiar patient—a Glasgow truck driver who experienced a sudden, uncontrollable crying fit. Now he is calm, but he has lost his sense of smell. Susan learns there are 11 cases like him in Glasgow, 7 in Aberdeen, 5 in Dundee, and 18 in Edinburgh. In fact, Great Britain has 100 cases, with additional ones reported in France, Belgium, Italy, and Spain, and they all appeared in the last 24 hours.Although Susan’s encounter with Michael (Ewan McGregor), a local restaurant chef, holds the promise of new love, the world is about to change dramatically. People across the globe begin to suffer strange symptoms, affecting the emotions, then the senses.

This description doesn’t really do the movie justice. While it does touch on the epidemic, it focuses mostly on Susan and Michael, their relationship and how it changes as the world around them changes. It was a dramatic piece with very human comedic moments interspersed through it. I’ve noted before how I appreciate movies that use silence – or, more aptly: the absence of sound – well, like Contact and Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams. This movie joins the ranks of those films in its excellent use of silence.

Stray Toasters

• We had an “all-hands” meeting this morning, kind of a “state of the company” address. It went well… I personally think that it may have been made a wee bit better, thanks to the Saint Brendan’s Irish Cream in this morning’s coffee.
• Homeland Security to replace color-coded terror alerts



• I have a new personal goal: To make at least one person per day smile or laugh.
  I liberated this goal from Matt, last week at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.
• A Reservist in a New War, Against Foreclosure
• If “It’s Not Easy Being Green,” how do you think this guy feels?   (Courtesy, )
• ICV2 interview with WizKids Games’ Justin Ziran
• 
• At the suggestion of Thom Zahler, I am adding this book to The Covet List.
• Finding Tomorrow’s Jobs
• Thanks to Liz for this morning’s email amusement: Blue Panties (Totally work-safe, despite its title.)
• Lessons Linger 25 Years After Challenger Tragedy
• Museums Draw Scrutiny When They Sell Artworks
• I just received my new business cards!  Woot!

Namaste.

Wednesday – 26 January 2011
Midweek is upon us once again. Of course, that means that it’s Comics Wednesday. Additionally, it means that SaraRules! and I have another Sundance movie to attend; tonight’s movie is Perfect Sense.

It’s grey and foggy outside. I half expect to see creatures from Stephen King’s The Mist appear at any moment…

Last night, we had a quiet night in. I cooked dinner – chicken over rice (all cooked in cream of mushroom soup) with green beans – and we knocked out another couple of hours’ worth of DVR fare. After TV-watching, I went in to have another go at playing DC Universe Online.

I’d gotten another couple of responses from Sony’s Support Team, so I figured that I’d see what worked. The solutions worked better than before, but I still wound up crashing… but not before I got out of the introduction/tutorial. Finally. There are a couple of other things that I need to try before emailing the Support Team and telling them that their suggestions only partially worked.

Stray Toasters

• Straight out of the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Man fired for wearing Packers tie is offered new job
  So, let me get this straight: You fired a guy because he doesn’t like the same team as you…?  Idiotstick.
• F.D.A. and Dairy Industry Spar Over Testing of Milk
• Dubai’s World of Islands Is Sinking into the Sea
• 
  • • 10 Guinness Gaming Records You Didn’t Know Existed
• BBC World Service cuts outlined to staff
• Jos. A. Bank is having a sale on suits, sportcoats and blazers. I could use a couple of new blazers…
• “It’s the music that we choose…”
• For rent: Kennedy Space Center facilities, launch pads
• To Add Appeal, Olympics Borrow (Again) From X Games
• Coming soon: Wide Nose Dash-8. And it will come in CSX and Norfolk Southern livery.  *covet*

Namaste.

Tuesday – 25 January 2011
We’re almost a full month into the new year, but my fingers still want to type “2010.”

Today is my sister-in-law, Chelsea’s, birthday:

It’s snowing again. It’s not a heavy snowfall, but it is constant.  The snow doesn’t appear to have affected drivers in this part of the valley too much… but we’ll see how it goes as the morning progresses.
UPDATE: It’s gotten a little worse:

With that in mind, the Council for Better Driving: Utah would like to remind drivers to exercise caution when traveling today.

Last night, SaraRules! was kind enough to pick up the engine, tender and boxcar that I was having repaired at The Train Shoppe:

The locomotive now goes like the proverbial “bat out of Hell” — I hitched it up to a nine car consist and opened the throttle… and off it went. With the quickness. I am happy. I am also happy because I now have three (3) fully-functional locomotives.

SaraRules! fixed a very tasty recipe of stuffed peppers for dinner. As we ate, we cleared another couple of episodes of NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles off the DVR. Then, it was time to catch up with a few coworkers for CoD: Black Ops online. It was fun; I even tacked three more levels onto my character. After the group broke up, I tried to play a little more DC Universe Online. Once again, it locked up on me. (I’m going to be Level 30 before I ever get out of the introduction, at this pace…) I have a support ticket logged with Sony. In the past 12 hours, I’ve had two responses on it – one was a request for more information; one was a possible solution to the problem. I’m going to test it out this evening.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
This morning, Marvel’s latest event, “Fantastic Four: 3,” kicked off.

In this event, a member of the Fantastic Four dies. There’s been great speculation as to which character it would/could be. Comics news sites announced, as early as last night, that some mass media sources were spoiling the news of which member died.

*sigh*

It was bound to happen, I know… but I still held out a glimmer of hope that I would be able to make it until tomorrow – when I pick up my books – without hearing who the doomed person was.

Nope.

This morning, on the drive in, an announcer on a local radio station just blurted it out. There was no “Hey, if you’re a fan of the FF, you might want to turn the volume down for a minute” warning or anything.  Just “BAM!”

Monkeys.

Ear Candy
I heard this on the way to work this morning…

…which, for some reason, made me think of this:

Stray Toasters

• I finally got to introduce Kristen to iChat’s video chat option last night. It was nice to not only talk with her, but to see her, as well. I also gave her a “walking tour” of the house.
• The Sartorialist
• Bethany Sew and Sew: Character Aprons
• Chopin ‘probably had epilepsy’
• Test find high levels of lead in reusable bags
• Updated version of yesterday’s comic:



• Documents Open a Door on Mideast Peace Talks
• Jan. 25, 1921: The Robot Cometh
  • All Hail Our Robot Overlords! Sci-Fi’s Best Bots
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Flier goes ‘berserk’ over blocked lav, punches attendant
• 2011: A security manager’s wish list
• Unusual Wave of Violence Strikes Police Officers

And with that… on to the rest of the day!

Namaste.

Friday – 21 January 2011
Hello, Day Off!
I greet you with coffee and Irish cream!

Today is also ‘ birthday:

Last night, UPS finally delivered my copy of DC Universe Online.

Oddly, I didn’t immediately bound downstairs to install it. No, instead I waited until after dinner (I cooked burgers on the grill; SaraRules! fixed Tater Tots and green beans). It was one of the longest game installations I’ve dealt with… well, at least since playing games on my Commodore 64. Yeah, it was that long. But, it installed.

And then it patched.

And then I had to update the .NET Framework on my computer.

And then… it started.  Finally.

For the most part.

There still seem to be “a few” problems with the game. But, I have it. And that’s a start. I… recreated (sort of)… Nefer Tem. This version is a little different than his CoH counterpart. I’ll have to see how his power set progresses and how close/different he winds up.

After I got the game going, SaraRules! and I headed to the gym. Having come to the conclusion that I need more of it in my workout routine, I did… cardio. Well, a little. I spent 15 minutes on the elliptical, maintaining roughly a 5.5 MPH pace.

• Elliptical: 15 minutes, ~5.5 MPH
• Bench Press: 3 sets/8 reps, 185 lbs
• Shoulder Press (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
• Curls (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
• Sit-ups (incline): 3 sets/10 reps

Not too big a workout, but it was still a good one.  And I don’t know what I was thinking, but I completely forgot that my last bench press weight was 165 lbs, not 185. Nothing like jumping 20 lbs in weight… after nearly 2 weeks out of the gym! UGH!

:::INTERLUDE:::
Here’s a little something for your Friday morning:

Stray Toasters

• Investigators search for woman in connection with 1987 abduction
• 10 Most Popular Autocorrects from December 2010 (courtesy of )
• How Creed Saved a Norwegian Boy From a Pack of Wolves
  This story would have been 500% better if it had been Apollo Creed.
• F.D.A. Sees Promise in Alzheimer’s Imaging Drug
• 
• For itemizers, IRS has set tax-filing date of Feb. 14
• By way of my friend, Marie: What’s the Longest Word in the English Language?
• A Path Is Sought for States to Escape Their Debt Burdens
• Jump in de line…
  Rock your body in time!
• 12 Robotic Garages Worthy of a Bond Villain

Up. Out.

Namaste.

Thursday – 20 January 2011
I almost typed “Friday,” as today is NBN Technical Friday. Wishful thinking, I guess.

Last night’s D&D 4.0 game was cancelled. That meant that my Wednesday night had a gaping hole in the middle of it. So, after collecting this week’s four-color haul from Dr. Volt’s,  SaraRules! and I capitalized on the free evening and turned it into Date Night! We went to Pawit’s Royale Thai for dinner and then headed down to Jordan Commons to see True Grit. I’ve not seen the original, but this one was a very good movie. I have heard a number of people talk about how good the main actors’ performances were, especially Hailee Steinfeld‘s… and am happy to report that they were correct.

Stray Toasters

• Higher Taxes Wouldn’t End Some Deficits
• Malware Warning: New Kookface campaign hits Facebook
  • Koobface exploit for Macs circulating in the wild
• This was a horrible movie, but I like the music video…
• Hello Kitty’s Borg-like Assimilation of the World Continues in Awesome Mashups
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Undercover policeman married activist he was sent to spy on
• American Express to cut 550 jobs as service needs shrink
• 
• Wonder Woman Teams Up with MAC for Super Makeup
• From the “No, I never would have thought that something like this was needed” file: Has this ever happened to you?
• A Racy Show with Teenagers Steps Back From a Boundary
  I find it interesting that they waited until Paragraph 12 to note that MTV’s Skins is an Americanized version of a British show of the same name, or as the article states: “…a country that has historically displayed a higher tolerance for TV eroticism than the United States.”
• Batman vs. Bruce Wayne
• Tricks of hotel marketing photos

Namaste.

Wednesday – 19 January 2011
Midweek is upon us once more.
And it comes to us with a mixture of sun and snow. At the same time.
But, it’s also Comics Wednesday. And also possibly even “Caramel Apple Wednesday,” in lieu of Sushi Wednesday.

Last night was D&D 3.5 game night with and company. I’m not sure what the deal was, but most of the game’s disruptions came from the lot of us behaving like high schoolers. (Let’s just chalk it up to “puerile behavior” and move on.) Last night’s challenge came from our group trying to parley with a group of frost giants for possession of a crown… and not get squished. Things went well: No one died, we have favorable status with the tribe of giants and we may even have new trade partners. Not bad for a night’s work.

Stray Toasters

• I may have come up with a new (or, rather, “yet another”) rail yard layout idea. And, unfortunately, I really like this one. Instead of having a stub-ended yard – which my current layout is – it would be a double-ended yard, allowing a train to enter/exit from either end. There are a few drawbacks to this idea, though:
  1. I would need to purchase six (6) new switches, minimum, to make it work.
  2. I would need to expand that side of my layout by at least 4′ in length and 1′ in depth.
  3. I wouldn’t want to set it up until the basement is finished, which would tentatively be sometime in March or April.
• Rock Stars for a Night, and for a Price
• Who is fixing your plane, and how?
• Former Haitian Dictator to Face Charges
• This is kind of what it’s like when I go to The Train Shoppe or The Wonderful World of Trains…
  

  

• Thom Zahler Returns with “Love and Capes”
• From the “Longinus!” file: Caligula tomb found? No. Caligula movie reappraisal time? No.
• This Year, Sundance Will Savor Its Homegrown Projects
  Speaking of Sundance, our first film of this year’s festival, I Saw the Devil, is Friday night!

Namaste.

Sunday – 16 January 2011
So far, it’s been a quiet and grey morning in the valley.

I slept in a bit and then headed over to Rich’s Bagels. Sunday breakfast with SaraRules!, bagels and Ray Charles in the background… can’t really go wrong there. Later today, I’m heading over to and Jack’s for D&D; we’re playing catch-up, so that our game is back on-schedule. Then, there will be dinner with the in-laws. After that, possibly a movie or a couple episodes of Mad Men.

Yesterday was a busy day. It started with breakfast with SaraRules! and Rachel at Millcreek Cafe and Eggworks. Next, SaraRules!, Jana, and I went to brunch (Market Street Broiler) and the matinee performance of Spring Awakening. I didn’t know what to expect going in, but I quite enjoyed it. It was an interesting play; it was set in the late 1800s, but the music was mostly modern rock. I found that the dichotomy worked well, with the music providing an interesting undertone for the angst and rebellious thoughts/natures of the youths.

After Spring Awakening, we came back home and I watched my recording of the Ravens-Steelers game. (More on that in a moment.) Then, it was time to get ready for Utah Opera’s Hansel and Gretel.

The performance also featured Angela and Kate (two of the Utah Opera’s Resident Artists), as “The Dew Fairy” and “The Sandman,” respectively. It was a… “fun”… opera, and more light-hearted than many/most operas that I’ve seen. There were a couple of special effects that added to the enjoyment of the performance, most notably the “dancing broom.”

Instant Replay: Football
There were some good games over the weekend… even though I missed both of Saturday’s games.

Baltimore Ravens at Pittsburgh Steelers
24 – 31
The Ravens, coming off last week’s big win over the Chiefs, flew into Heinz Field to take on the Steelers for the third time this season. The first half of the game was fantastic. The Ravens worked rather well on both sides of the ball, while the Steelers had… “some issues.” The Ravens went into halftime with a 21-7 lead. I don’t know exactly “what” happened in the second half. Complacency? Overconfidence? Whatever it was, the teams seemed to switch playbooks — the Steelers came on like gangbusters, while the Ravens looked more like the Keystone Kops. It was both sad and disappointing. And with that, the Ravens’ season comes to a 13-5 end. While I’m sad that they didn’t hold on for the win, I am glad that they had such a good season – it speaks well to the commitment of the staff, management and players. Lewis: “We’ll be back.”

Stray Toasters

• Tomorrow, I’m going to be working at Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore for my  Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service project.



• , have you seen this: Here’s Your Chance to Own the Real Batmobile
• As the son of teachers (and having a few friends who are teachers, as well), I think that everyone should check out Classroom Superheroes.
• The Monkeys You Ordered
• I am a little more than halfway done with The Professional. Hopefully, the ending will be more satisfying than Rough Weather.
• Museum of Sex exhibition about sex and comic books
• In in today’s “Weather vs. Technology” lesson, Flooding in Australia:

• My new desktop is up and running. Now, all I need is for DCUO to show up…

Time to get ready for gaming.

Namaste.

Saturday – 15 January 2011
The sun is having a go at the clouds… and seems to be winning.

SaraRules! and I just got back from breakfast with Rachel (one of the MFAs from SaraRules!’ class). We went to Millcreek Cafe and Eggworks. Both the food and the company were very good.

That was also the start of a busy day: Next up, we’re having lunch with Jana and and the lot of us are going to see Spring Awakening at Kingsbury Hall. Then, it will be back home for a bit to get ready for the opening of Utah Opera’s  Hansel and Gretel. Yeah, it’s going to be a busy and arts-filled day.

The only down side is that the AFC Division Game between the Ravens and the Steelers. Fortunately, I have a DVR and it will watch the game for me… in a manner of speaking. So, God willin’ and the creek don’t rise, I’ll get to see the game tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. (NOTE: I’m going to be pretty much ignoring calls and messages this afternoon — partly because of the musical and the opera, partly because I don’t want the game spoiled for me.)

And with that… let the games begin!

Namaste.

Friday – 14 January 2011
Winter: Hazy Shade.
Leaves: Brown.
Sky: Grey.
Dreaming: California (…or just about any place that has temps above 40F).

It’s my 9/80 “on” Friday… which means that it’s pretty quiet in the office. And I’m quite alright with that. I had a meeting this morning, which wasn’t at all painful. I consider that a definite “plus.”

Last night, SaraRules! had a Justice League Junior League meeting, so I fended for myself for dinner (Greek City Grill) and hung out online with and a few of his friends, playing CoD: Black Ops. (MENTAL NOTE: The controls for Black Ops are not the same as the controls for HALO.) I got killed… many times. But, I also had lot of fun playing.

Stray Toasters

• I am going to miss the broadcast of tomorrow’s Ravens-Steelers game.  *shakes fist* Thank Heaven for DVRs.
• No, your zodiac sign hasn’t changed
  • 
• Opening of Spider-Man musical delayed once again
• WizKids has released pictures of and the dial for the new Magneto ‘Clix figure. And… it’s going on The Covet List.
• See Something? Cite Something.
• 
• Best Buy apparently had a rectal craniotomy — I got an email yesterday, stating that my “backordered” DCUO had shipped.  *sigh* Monkeys.
• In a related note, the new memory and case/PSU that I ordered have apparently been delivered.
• Carrie Fisher is new Jenny Craig spokesperson
  • Wishful Shrinking #1 – from Carrie Fisher’s blog (which I find clever and entertaining)
• The remix version of this song makes me want to listen to this song, which led me to this:
• What did you do, Ray…?!
• I enjoy gaming (duh) and have heard of people doing some “out there” things to get their game on, but this takes it to a whole new level. Idiotstick.
• Minnesota Death Star
• Alternate Movie Posters
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Safety Certificate

And with that…

Namaste.