Random Access

Saturday – 26 June 2010
It’s Technical Day Five of “Missa K. Week.”
(I didn’t post yesterday. Sue me.)

Belated Happy Birthday, Missa!

Thursday evening, SaraRules and I had an honest-to-goodness Date Night. We went to The Gateway and listened to jazz – courtesy of the Curtis Woodbury Quartet – at the water fountain plaza. That was followed by dinner at Thaifoon; I hadn’t eaten there in a few years… at least. The food was quite good. We followed that up with a stroll down the length of the shopping center and back. We also got to see all of the people in line to get a shiny, new iPhone 4. Back at home, I was eager to watch Burn Notice… but discovered that I didn’t have it set to record until the 1:00 AM showing. *BAH* Oh, well.

Friday was a good day off. I started by sleeping in. Next up: Mowing the lawn. That didn’t take too long, and it wasn’t too bad as I got out there before it got too hot. There are, however, some brown patches in the grass.

I finally turned the sprinklers on Wednesday or Thursday, only to discover a couple of things:

1. There are dysfunctional sprinkler heads in the system.
2. The previous owner appears to have hard-wired the system into power… somewhere.

Item 1 is somewhat expected, under the “These things happen…” catch-all.

Item 2, given some of the things we’ve discovered about the house, should have been somewhat expected, too. The reason I think power is hard-wired is that the controller doesn’t seem to turn off the sprinkler heads, so I have to turn the water on and off at the main valve.

After mowing, I came in, showered and changed and went to the farewell lunch for Marci. It was held at Porcupine Pub and Grill. After lunch, I thought I’d head down and say “Hi” to Perry.

Good intention.
Poor execution.

I missed a turn off of Wasatch Boulevard… and wound up in Draper. Not being one to pass up a random pilgrimage to The Garden of Sweden, I went to pay my obeisances. I found what I was looking for, took a few pictures of the items and their prices and then I was off. I drove downtown to say “Hi” to SaraRules. I showed her the items, we agreed on which one we liked and planned to go back later in the weekend to pick it up.

From there, I headed to The Train Shoppe. Randy, one of the employees, had been working on a park scene:

I managed to leave the store without buying anything. Again! I headed home and hung out until SaraRules got home from work. Later in the evening: Clitorati and dinner.

This morning, from the “We do more before 9 AM 10 AM than most people do all day” file, we helped a friend of OnlyAly and move. Then we stopped by ‘s for a minute and then came home for showers and preparations for our next adventure: We’re heading downtown to explore the Utah Arts Festival.

Workout
Thursday’s step count: 7,403 steps
Friday’s step count: 5,794 steps
Today’s count: 3,564 (as of 2:00 PM)

And that’s that.
For now, at least.

Namaste.

Thursday – 24 June 2010
And, I am sure that today is, in fact, Thursday.
Which makes it “NBN Technical Friday,” this week.

It is also Day Four of “Missa K. Week.”
Happy Belated Birthday, Missa.

(Seen here giving a preview of her stand-up routine from her upcoming Vegas show)

It’s also my friend, Danette’s, birthday.

And, according to Wikipedia, it is also The National Holiday of Quebec.

Last night, SaraRules and I met up with and her sister-in-law, Mauri, and attended the Cake Wrecks World Tour event at The King’s English and 15^th Street Gallery.

Jen Yates, along with her husband, John, gave a 40-ish minute presentation about how the Cake Wrecks site came about and some of their processes for bringing the site to life. You could tell that there was some… if not “scripted” material, at least some talking points that have come up before… but they were also very candid and ad-libbed a bit, as well. Jen and John held a Q&A session following the presentation and also did a cupcake “Wreck-lication” judging contest. All-in-all, it was quite fun and entertaining.

Workout
SaraRules and I hit the gym last night:

• Elliptical: 30 min/ ~5 MPH (avg.)
• Leg Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 100 lbs
• Calf Raises: 3 sets/10 reps, 100 lbs
• Leg Raises (Roman Chair, full extension): 3 sets/15 reps
• Upright Rows (barbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 50 lbs
• Curls (barbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 50 lbs
• Tricep Extensions (rope): 3 sets/15 reps, 50 lbs
• Plank: 3 sets/30 seconds

Yesterday’s step count: 8,903 steps

Post-workout weight: 181.3 lbs

Stray Toasters

• The swamp cooler now works.
  (Of course, I now have two small holes in the wall to patch…)
• Here’s a little something for your Thursday morning: Hanginaround, by Counting Crows
• Shakespearean Juggling in the Park
• The Ravens have signed a one-year deal with QB Mark Bulger. This will make for a three-way fight for the Number 2 slot, between Bulger, Troy Smith and John Beck. It will be interesting to see how things shake out.
• India’s Diverse Faiths, as Told Through ‘Nine Lives’
• Promise Seen for Detection of Alzheimer’s
• 
• John Isner beats Nicolas Mahut in epic
• Meetings!  Yay.
• iPhone 4 vs. Evo 4G: Total Cost of Ownership
  (…and “Good Luck” to those standing in line to get a new iPhone 4 today.)
• The McChrystal Saga
  • The Runaway General
  • Before and after McChrystal’s removal, a flurry of White House activity
• He’s a superhero. She’s a supervillain. They’re married.
  Complications?  That’s the fun part.
• Three iconic places to see an opera in Italy
• Unlocking New York, One Date at a Time
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Man Arrested for Photographing Cop Who Followed Him into His Home

…and I blame for the title/subject line of this post.

Namaste.

Monday – 21 June 2010
Today is the Summer Solstice.

It seems that I have been remiss with something. And I’d like to take a moment to address the issue:

I usually post some sort of greeting to friends and family in here for their birthdays. It appears that I have neglected to include my sister-in-law’s birthday last week.

In fact, she had apparently been expecting to see… some acknowledgement here… but, well… she got bupkis. And was “a little” shocked by it.

Yeah, I know! Well, at least, now I know now. (She mentioned it to SaraRules on Friday and she also mentioned it to my in-laws… who told me yesterday.) This isn’t to say that I forgot her birthday. I didn’t — I was one of the first people to post a birthday greeting on her Facebook page. (Hey, I may be an occasionally forgetful brother-in-law, but I’m not a complete jerk.)  Besides, it’s not a good idea to tick off the family member who knows how to fight with swords and tomahawks, especially when you’re going to be spending a week in the middle of nowhere camping with them soon. Just saying.  It’s just that I… neglected… to say anything about it in my most public forum.

And with that in mind, I hereby declare this week: “Missa K. Week.”  That’s right. All Missa. All week.
(What?! Me?  Overkill?! Never.)

Happy Belated Birthday, M!  🙂
I hope that you had fun playing pirate this weekend!

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled blog entry, already in progress…

Yesterday was good. We did go to The Garden of Sweden. We picked up a couple of lamps and a few other assorted items… and spent more money than we had originally intended. But, they were necessary items. After IKEA, we headed to Home Depot. And, with those two stops, our living room and dining rooms are now finished.

We wrapped up Father’s day with dinner at the in-laws’. And there was bocce. And brownies. And mojitos. Amen.

Workout
Yesterday’s step count: 5,143

Stray Toasters

• I’m going to be a bachelor again, for a few hours tonight. I know that I should do some cleaning/straightening, since there’s a good chance that I’ll be gaming with friends tomorrow night… but I just am not feeling it at this point.
• The Utah Arts Festival kicks off this Thursday.
• Google Should Give Bluetooth-Controlled Robots Away with Every Android Purchase
• From the “Tear the Roof Off the Mother” file: Tornado tears roof from arena in Billings, Montana
• ALT/1977: We Are Not Time Travelers
• Wait… Tyroc‘s back in the Legion?!  And with a better-looking costume (than this), finally?!? Whoa.
• 
• Should restaurants make health inspection grades visible?
  Um… yes. In fact, when I moved to Utah, I was surprised to see that eating establishments didn’t post their inspection grades, as I had been used to seeing them back home.
• Evo + Nesoid emulator + Burger Time = Fun
• Your Next Read

On to it…

Namaste.

Thursday – 17 June 2010
So… it seems as though today is actually my mother’s last day of work.  She had told us “the 16th” when we visited last month, so that’s what I went with. *shrug* Whether it was yesterday, today (or even tomorrow), she’s put in nearly 40 years in the public education system, which is a long time to work in any one job.

I’m also hoping that today actually is an NBN Thursday. I think that last week’s deviation from the norm has affected this week… at least, that’s what I’m attributing the week’s problems to. Last night, SaraRules and I came home from work to find water in the basement. On the floor.

*braincramp*

It wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been.  It appeared that the feed tube for the swamp cooler disconnected from the pipe that goes to the roof and sprayed over the floor in the unfinished portion of the basement. Fortunately, most of it stayed in the area where there’s a floor drain. Thank God.  The rest of the water flowed onto another part of the floor that goes under the stairs that lead to the main floor (concrete slab) and a little got onto the landing at the bottom of the stairs — about ten or so square feet of carpet.

*grblsnrkx*

I headed back to work to get the ShopVac that I had borrowed from my father-in-law, while SaraRules headed to Target to get a couple of fans. We vacuumed water out of the carpet and padding. Twice. Then, we set up the fans to dry things out. We’ll see how much – if any – vacuuming we need to do tonight.

All things being equal, I consider it no small blessing that the water was confined to a couple of areas and that the “damage” was not nearly as bad as it could have been.

Workout
Yesterday’s step count: 5,937

Human of the Day
My mother.

Stray Toasters

• This morning’s musical selection was co-selected by SaraRules:
• Oh, snap!
• By way of SaraRules: Redoing those ’80s ‘Dos
• ‘The Golden Ticket’ Is Finally Unwrapped
• The newest addition to my Green Lantern Corps arrived yesterday: Kilowog
  

  

• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: B.C. school yearbooks to be reprinted after teacher cut out student’s photo
• Poster for a notional ‘Left 4 Dead’ movie
• 
• CD on one side, vinyl record on the other
• The Bell Tolls: Injuries, money factor in expanded NFL season

Namaste.

Wednesday – 16 June 2010
Today is not only (Sushi and) Comics Wednesday.
Nor is it just my mother and stepfather’s anniversary.
Today also marks my mother’s last-day-EVER of teaching.

I hereby declare today “Triple-Win Wednesday”.
I also declare my mother today’s Human of the Day.  (Yes, I’m biased. But, it’s my blog; I’m allowed to be.)
And for today’s musical fare: Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine:

Last night, SaraRules and I had dinner with the in-laws, including the brothers-in-law and Swiz. Grilled Salmon. Salad. Asparagus. Homemade rice pilaf. Mojitos. It was a good dinner, all around. And, for dessert, Logan and Swiz made mini-pecan tarts, which were very tasty.

Back at home, SaraRules and I enjoyed a quiet (read: “uneventful”) evening. After the headaches of Monday evening, it was a very welcome change of pace. We wound down the night with last Thursday’s episode of Burn Notice.

Workout
Yesterday’s step count: 3,987

Stray Toasters

• There were numerous articles in the news yesterday about lightning striking the statue of Jesus near I-75 in Cincinnati yesterday. That reminded me of two things:
  1. Captain Marvel Jesus
  2. Big Butter Jesus
• I saw an ad on Facebook for Pretzel M&M’s which somehow led me to the thought “Pretzelcoatl.”
• ‘Godfather of the Dead’ George A. Romero Talks Zombies
• The new “Hope” trailer for the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic has been released/leaked.
• Miniature sit-com sets
• After talking with the service techs who came to the house to work on the swamp cooler, I feel quite justified in my opinion that our home’s previous owners were perfectly satisfied to half-ass their way through a home “improvement” projects.
• Sperm whale feces ‘helps oceans absorb CO₂‘
• 
  
• Shortest-possible Monopoly game
• New FDA website lets public find drug safety info

Namaste.

Monday – 14 June 2010
Today is Flag Day.

What?!  There’s a flag in the picture!  Yes, it is a CoH picture. That’s more of a “Win-Win,” if you ask me.

It’s also my friend, Keith’s, birthday.

And, as it’s Monday morning, let’s have a little somethin’ to kick off the day with a groove. Today’s offering is Maxwell’s Gotta Get: Closer

To paraphrase Ice Cube, yesterday was a good day:

• SaraRules got back from the City of Lost Angels.
• I finished the painting of the family room; we still need to figure out what we want to use for a trim color, but the main job is ovah!
• We saw The A-Team.
  
• We had dinner with Jana, OnlyAly and .

Workout
Saturday’s step count: 4443 steps
Sunday’s count: 1332 steps (official count… because I didn’t put on the pedometer until 4 PM)

The Best: Closer vs. Gotta Get: Closer
Nine Inch Nails vs. Maxwell

Given this morning’s bit of musical oleo, I was reminded that I like both versions of the song. That, in turn, made me think that I should do a juxtaposition and see which version edges out the other for the title “The Best.”

• Nine Inch Nails:

  Let’s just call a spade “a spade:” This song is just straight-up sex. There’s no question about what’s on Trent’s mind. In fact, he tells you. Bluntly. More than once. Let it never be said that the man doesn’t know how to convey what he’s thinking.

• Maxwell:
  (see video at top of post)

  What I like about this version is that Maxwell took the song and put his on spin on it. Yes, I can hear purists saying: “But, it’s not the same!”  No, it’s not. To me, that’s the essence of what makes an artist’s cover of a song a “good” cover: Being able to put their own unique stamp on it. Where NIN’s version is blatant and raw, Maxwell’s version is more… seductive, with a groove to it. To put it another way: Nine Inch Nails’ take is raw and rough sex, whereas Maxwell wants to take his time and enjoy the mood and the moment.

  • A similar example of “same brand, different flavor” along these lines can be found in another pair of songs that were released around the same time: Color Me Badd’s I Wanna Sex You Up and Extreme’s More than Words.

So, which version is “The Best?”

For me, it’s a tie. Why? Because each song holds its own for the mood that the artist is trying to convey. It’s a “Neither is ‘wrong’ and everybody wins” kind of situation.

Stray Toasters

• Who has the best corned beef sandwich in the greater SLC metro area?
• 23 Things Not to Write in an Email
• 100,000 LEGO Bricks Build One Hell of a Robotic Chess Set
• 
• Add It Up: Pricing Out a Visit to TV’s ‘Dr. House’
• Steampunk-Inspired, Hand-crafted Arduino Wristwatch Runs ‘Breakout’
• “Nude is the new Black”
  • That article reminded me of this card: 1, 2
• Pilot Kisses Death on the Lips and Flies Away
• Military Still Failing to Diagnose, Treat Brain Injuries

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

Namaste.

Saturday – 12 June 2010
First off: It’s my friend, Jen’s birthday.
Happy birthday to my favorite Rollergirl…

And now, back to your regularly-scheduled program.

It’s the middle of June.
So, why is it (only) 56F outside?!
We’ve taken a 20F nosedive in the past few days. *shakes fist*

I slept in this morning. Yes, it felt good, but I stayed in The Dreaming later than I had planned. On the other hand, I didn’t get to bed until 0400 this morning, so I guess it all washes out.

Yesterday was fairly low-key. My major accomplishment: Painting two walls in the family room. Technically, it was four walls, but for all intents and purposes, three of those walls comprise “one” wall. As far as the overall painting goes, I’m down to the last wall. Of course, it’s the wall with the entertainment center and display cases along it. The painting should go fairly quickly, as I’ve already moved the cases, and started backing the entertainment center away from the wall.

Wait… I just realized another (fairly big) accomplishment: I didn’t go to The Train Shoppe or Toys ‘R’ Us.

Workout
Yesterday’s step count:  3723

Stray Toasters

• I couldn’t get the mobile hotspot feature on my new phone to work last night. That will be another thing I need to discuss with a CSR when I pop into the Sprint Store today to ask a few questions.
• A helpful reminder for modern life
• Don’t Remake These 21 Movies, Film These Books Instead!
• Another little something for your Saturday morning:
• Surgery no longer a requirement for changing gender on passport
• F-18 Coming Out of Hyperspace
• Brightest Day Exclusive: Who is the new Aqualad?
• 
• Swords and Sandals: The New Sons of Hercules
• GE Engineer Crushes Your Childhood Dreams

Time to get on to the friction of the day.

Namaste.

Friday – 11 June 2010
It’s my 9/80 day off, thank Heaven.

Yesterday was… “a day.” Or, it might be more apropos to say that it was “half a day.” After we got a solution for the morning disaster in play, I stopped at Pin-up Girl Espresso to get my second – stronger – frozen mocha of the day. While waiting for it, I talked with Jim (Pin-up Girl’s owner) about how my morning had gone. He noted: “…there is no news that cannot be cured with a shot and a beer.” When I said that doing shots (and drinking beer) at the office was generally frowned upon, he suggested that I have them when I get home. I had decided more or less against taking the advice, as it was bound to be detrimental to my plans to paint later in the evening.

A short while later, called. She invited me out for dinner. And beer.  Right then. When the universe gives you not one but two signs that you should have a post-work beer, you might want to follow up on that. We met  at Hopper’s for dinner. And beer. And, it was good. , as always, proved an excellent dinner companion. We commiserated over how craptastic our days had been. It was a nice way to end the day.

After dinner, I came home. I remembered to water SaraRules’ garden, as she had asked. While I was outside, I also took a look at the… landscaping… in the front yard and tried to figure out how best to execute our plans for it without simply leveling the whole thing and starting over from scratch. I have a couple of ideas. (And none of them require – or even include – “commercially unavailable” explosives or corrosives.  Maybe next time…) I’m just not sure when we’ll move from the “theory” phase to the “practical application” phase.

Back inside, I moved the DVD cases back onto the family room’s north wall and started moving furniture so that I could paint the west wall. That’s about the time that I remembered that there were a couple of spots on that wall that needed some pre-painting TLC. I attended to them as best I could, but that also meant that I couldn’t paint that wall, as I needed the spackle to dry first. *sigh* Okay… two walls get painted today (or tomorrow).

Workout
Yesterday’s step count: 4308

Stray Toasters

• I talked with my sister-in-law (Sib-3’s wife) last night. It appears that they are expecting their second child later this year.
• Guess who’s wearing their black jerseys for three home games this year…
  Here’s a hint:



• Is it a bad sign that I’m actually enjoying some of the new books that Marvel Comics is putting out during “The Heroic Age?” Granted, the X-books have been good, but I’d almost sworn off of all Avengers-related titles. And now… they’re… good. (There’s got to be a catch or a “Gotcha!” coming soon…)
• Diversity in the USA: A county-by-county map
• O-E-O-E-O!
• I’m not sure where this falls, with respect to coolness or over-the-top geekiness, but it definitely pings on the Weird-Shit-o-Meter: By Any Other Name: An Evening of Shakespeare in Klingon with special guest George Takei (.pdf)
  Let’s go over that again, one piece at a time:
  • An evening of Shakespeare… Okay, good.
  • An evening with George Takei… Also good.
  • An evening of Shakespeare with special guest, George Takei… Still doing fine.
  • An evening of Shakespeare in Klingon with special guest, George Takei… YeahbuhWHAT?!?
• I missed Burn Notice, because I thought it came on at 2300 MST, rather than 2200 MST. Fortunately, I had the DVR set for “Season Recording,” so I can still catch it.
• 
  • …and in a related note: She-Ra Figure, from MattyCollector.com
• Army inquiry finds 211 graves mishandled at Arlington Cemetary
• Hey, Microsoft…? When are you going to have a rectal craniotomy and figure out how and when to get a Blu-Ray drive into XBox 360 owners’ hands?
• Is This the Craziest Bridge Ever Designed?
  And, what happens at high tide?
• Salagadoola mechicka boola bibbidi–bobbidi–boo
• Not all the oil in the Gulf is coming from BP’s spill
• I’ve picked up Teenagers from the Future again, after a rather lengthy hiatus.  I’m still enjoying it.

And, with that, I’m off to meet Perry for coffee.

Live long and prosper.

Thursday – 10 June 2010
Happy birthday to my kid sister, Kristen!

I say “kid sister,” as opposed to “little sister,” because she’s about 4″ taller than me. Because of our age difference, there was a LOT of friction between us when she was a toddler. (Most of which was due to me not wanting to have to deal with a younger sister… but some of which was due to her being a holy terror.) She has, however, grown up to become a lovely young woman and one I’m very happy and proud to have as my sister.

As for NBN Thursday, this one has been shot. Apparently, it was shot somewhere around 0600 this morning… but I didn’t realize it until almost 0830. We had a fairly major hardware issue at work. Thus, did the scramble begin for rectifying the situation. (Not to be confused with Situation.) At this point the recovery process is under way and things should hopefully be back to “normal” in fairly short order.

After work last night, I mowed the lawn as part of “Bachelor Night #2.” As I was finishing up the front lawn, my father-in-law stopped by. He was coming to offer some advice/insight for handling a couple of projects in the basement. After he left, I went back to mowing, racing an impending thunderstorm. I managed to finish both the front and back yards without getting electrocuted. After that, I realized that I was hungry… but wasn’t sure what I wanted to eat. I wound up making spaghetti. Hey… comfort food, go figure. After a rather late dinner, I set about painting a wall in the family room. I went with one of the short walls — it had the least amount of obstruction and pre-painting prep work to do. I checked it this morning; it looks pretty good.

Workout
Yesterday’s step count: 6303

…and I’m fairly sure that there’s some calories burned in mowing the lawn, too.

Stray Toasters

• The day has gone from overcast (with scattered drizzle) to partly cloudy/sunny. Hopefully, it’s not too naive to hope that the weather is a good augury for the rest of not-NBN Thursday.
• Blackhawks foil Flyers in OT to win first Stanley Cup since 1961
• Maybe it’s just me, but this sounds like an excellent marriage compromise:

  

• I had a random idea yesterday: Why not see what comics were out in my birth month. More specifically: See what titles that I currently read had issues out at that time, buy a copy and frame it. I checked The Comic Book Database and noticed that they had a “Search by Cover Date” option. I put in my birthdate and let the CBDB go to work. It found a number of issues, but I found one that caught my attention: An issue of Green Lantern. Next stop, eBay. I found a number of sellers who had the issue… many of whom had it for a rather reasonable price. So, I bought one. Now, I just need to figure out where it’s going to go.
• Stop-motion paper Super Mario Brothers
• AT&T Discloses iPad Security Breach
• I need to remember to make a flier for next weekend’s ‘Clix tourney…
• The Vader Project
  • …and in a related note: Darth, Interrupted: Does Vader have Borderline Personality Disorder?
• MAME (not Mame)… on my Evo?  Really?  Hm…
• That reminded me of Was (not Was):
• By way of and the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: US sex-for-tickets woman sentenced to year’s probation
  My question: Had she done this in Nevada, would it have been legal? (Short answer: “No.”)
• NuPenny Toy Store in Portland, Maine

Namaste.

Wednesday – 09 June 2010
Mid-week is upon us.
That means that it’s Comics and Sushi Wednesday, as well.

SaraRules flew out to L.A. last night. For the next five four days, I’m a bachelor. (Hopefully, I won’t destroy the house or turn it into an unrecognizable mess.) After dropping her off, I stopped in to say “Hi” to Perry, Kate and the kids. And, despite being near Hobby Lobby, I refrained from going in. But, I did go to the Lowe’s next door. I figured that I needed paint and (in theory) they had the color I was looking for.

Theory: 1
Practical Application: 0

I couldn’t find the paint card for Swiss Coffee… which apparently meant that I was S.O.L. for getting paint — the paint mixing system could identify the color, but couldn’t “reverse engineer” it without the barcode from the back of the paint card. FAIL. So, I wound up driving to another Lowe’s. I had to hunt for the color card, but they had it. And, a few minutes later, I was on the way out the door with two gallons o’ paint.

Workout
Yesterday’s step count: 4051

Stray Toasters

• The Blackest Night HeroClix Starter Set (FINALLY) gets released today.
• Our new living room set arrived yesterday; it goes quite well with the color we chose for the room.
• Packing tape spiderweb
  • More information about the installation can be found here; click “Enter” and look under “Projects.”
• Sculptures made out of Rolodex cards
• 
• Play honors life of early African-American Latter-Day Saint, courtesy of
• Polish inmates help restore Jewish legacy
• Here’s a little something to get your Wednesday moving…

• Border Agent Shoots, Kills Mexican Boy at Bridge
• Top Gear Season 15 Returns June 27th
• Robert Schumann: A Romantic Hero
• Digitizing the past and present at the Library of Congress

Namaste.

Tuesday – 08 June 2010
I apparently know a lot of people with birthdays today. With that in mind, I’d like to say “Happy Birthday” to:

• Julie
• Kenneth
• Landon
• Nolan and
• Serena

*whew*

Last night, SaraRules and I went to the Junior League Annual Dinner. During this event, provisional members (like SaraRules) advanced to become active members. There was also the “changing of the guard” with respect to the leadership and board. The event was held at The Alta Club. Out of roughly one hundred people, I was one of three (3) men in attendance… and the other two guys looked as though they would have rather been just about any place else. They looked really uncomfortable and generally unhappy about escorting their significant others to the event. And I have no idea “why.”  The dinner was good, the company was pleasant and there was no Waiting to Exhale-like man-bashing. Sounds like a “Triple Win” to me. All-in-all, I found it to be a nice way to spend the evening.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules is leaving on a jet plane this evening. She’s heading to L.A. for an opera conference. I, on the other hand, will be at home being a bachelor for the next five days. Hopefully, I won’t have “too much” of a disaster area to clean up before she gets back home.
• Our sitting room furniture is being delivered today… sometime between 0930 and 1330.
• Red Carpet Report: Fashion’s Oscar-caliber night
• Huge seas ‘once existed on Mars’
• I watched/read the Ars Technica coverage of yesterday’s WWDC. They’ve made some nice advances with the iPhone 4… but I didn’t see anything that made me feel like I made a bad choice by going with the Evo.
  • iPhone 4 – Droid Incredible – Evo 4G – Nexus One Comparative Chart
  • iOS 4 Jailbroken Within a Day of First Release
• Janis Joplin: The Queen of Rock
• 
• Announcing Star Trek-based Games from WizKids
• DIY Sci-Fi Trailer Draws Avatar Producer to Technotise
• Brooklyn Bridge getting a $500 million makeover
• Meetings!

Namaste.

01 June 2010
Welcome, June.
May is now in the rearview mirror.
Let’s hope that it takes the wintry weather with it…

Yesterday, while relaxing was also productive: The lawn was mowed. The garden was worked on. The trim in the sitting room was cleaned up (No more red paint!). And, my office was painted. Not only that, our excursion to The Garden of Sweden netted me a new desk/drawing table.

We also had dinner with the in-laws yesterday. Grilled steaks with sweet potatoes and yams, salad and fresh corn-on-the-cob. Dessert was brownies with ice cream.

All-in-all, it was a good day.

Workout
Yesterday’s step count: 2948 steps
Of course, I neglected to wear the pedometer while I was mowing the lawn yesterday.  *sigh*

Stray Toasters

• Official Synopsis Revealed for Green Lantern movie
• Now that my office is coming along, I’m looking forward to finishing the rest of the basement… and finding room for a model railroad layout! I want to do O-Scale, but I believe that it will probably include some HO-Scale as well. I’m not sure exactly where I’ll put the LEGO train and/or the Rokenbok monorail, though.
• 44 million stolen gaming credentials discovered
• 
• ‘How Sweet It Was’: The Cultural Impact of Gospel
• Massive sinkhole swallows building in Guatemala City in wake of Tropical Storm Agatha
• The Theme from S.W.A.T., which I contend is still one of TV’s coolest TV theme songs. Ever.
• A Love Craft: Art Inspired by Monsters, Madness and Mythos
• Adventure Comics #12 preview
• I restarted  American Psycho again last night. I got distracted from it by… well, a lot of things. This time, I should be able to plow through it.
• US sculptor Louise Bourgeois dies aged 98
  • No Doubt: Spiderwebs
    
• From Elvis to Lady Gaga: Playing with Shock Value in Music
• Why Science Needs to Step Up Its PR Game

Attack the day
Like birds of prey…

Namaste.

Monday – 31 May 2010
Today is Memorial Day.

Please remember that today is not about sales or barbecues; take some time to remember those who have fallen in the line of duty to protect the freedoms that we hold dear.

This weekend has been good. I didn’t make it to Dr. Volt’s on Saturday, but I did fire up City of Heroes and spend some time in Paragon City. I should do that more often. We then headed to Sugar House to try a New York Style pizzeria called Este. Holy cow! Good stuff! Highly recommended. The evening’s symphony was quite nice. Before the performance, I attended a short lecture, given by guest conductor Carlo Rizzi. The Mozart was good, but I found that I enjoyed the Mahler piece, Symphony No. 1 in D Major (“Titan”), more.

After the symphony, we came home and watched Surveillance, a movie that I had requested from Netflix. We both disliked the movie. On many levels.

If you have a chance to see this movie or do just about anything else, go with Option B. We took the bullet for you on this one.

Sunday started off with a stroll to Pin-up Girl Espresso. After that, SaraRules and I spent a couple of hours installing a chair rail in the dining room. I must say that it looks pretty good. It will get sanded and painted either today or tomorrow. After that, Chris came over and we played HALO 3: ODST for a few hours. Following the Covenant eradication, I fired up the grill and we cooked chicken and some fresh vegetables. We stopped by to visit the in-laws and wound down the evening with The Road, based on the book of the same name, by Cormac McCarthy. I had literally just finished reading the book before we watched the movie. The adaptation was good, and kept the feel and pacing of the story without feeling like it meandered and/or got lost.

Today, there will be things… and stuff… I’m just not sure exactly “what.” One of the options is to paint my office. I found an off-white (barely off-white, though) color that I like called “Swiss Coffee.” Go figure. Once the painting is done, I finally do things like buy a desk and start unpacking/setting up my office. Amen.

Stray Toasters

• I’m trying to come up with ideas for this Saturday’s HeroClix tournament. So far, nothing has struck me as “awesome.”
• Clickjacking Worm Exploits Facebook “Like” Feature
• I should probably mow the lawn today.
• Celebrating 35 Years of ILM Magic
• 
• In graphics: Supercomputing superpowers
• It’s coming up on arts festival season in the area. I’m looking forward to this year’s events.
• Acupuncture May Trigger Natural Painkiller

Time to find something to do…

Namaste.

Tuesday – 18 May 2010
Not many of the leaves are brown, but the sky is grey.

Today is my cousin, Ryan’s, birthday:

Last night, SaraRules fixed Sloppy Joes for dinner. Very tasty!  After dinner, we went for a walk around the neighborhood; we covered roughly 1.67 miles in about 40 minutes. While out, we checked out some of our neighbors’ lawns and landscapes for ideas that we might like to employ in our own yard.

Upon returning home, SaraRules put in some time quilting, while I set about wiring a wall plate in the family room for coax and Ethernet. I noticed something just before I started running the wires: The Ethernet cable I was using was the 568a configuration… a variation which I had never made. Once I figured out which of the strands were different, wiring the plate was pretty easy. I apparently did it right, as the 360 found Xbox Live without too much ado. We wrapped up the evening with an episode of Human Target and some ice cream.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
There are many wonderful things to be done, and only you can do them.

Workout
Last night’s walk helped keep up the step total: 6,318 steps.

I’m going to try to get back into the gym next week, after we get back from the Right Coast.  We’ll see how that goes.

Stray Toasters

• Improv Everywhere: Who You Gonna Call?
• Enrico Caruso, and Confessions of an Operaholic
• 
• A couple of items from SaraRules:
  • Downey vs. Rourke: A Tale of Two Comebacks
  • Sir Ian McKellen mistaken for a tramp as he rehearses for new play
• LEGO + science(!) = Stop-motion LEGO documentary about early microbiologists
• Legendary Jazz Pianist Hank Jones Dies at 91
• Periodic Table of Superpowers
• “Recruited.”
  I’ll elaborate on this later.
• Awesome Star Wars Wedding Cake
• Daft Punk: Da Funk (original audio remix):
• Law & Order (TOS) is going off the air.
  At least we still have Law & Order: The Next Generation and Law & Order: Voyager…
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Blowgun woman: “I like to hear people say ‘ouch’ “
• After taking on The Covenant and The Flood, UNSC ODSTs and Spartans seem like they can take on just about anything… but are they ready for this?

Namaste.

Monday – 17 May 2010
It was 60F and sunny when I left home this morning.
The projected high is 80F.
This has to be a dream…

Yesterday, the lawn was mowed and we finished putting primer on the walls in my office. There has to be at least a 40% increase to the room’s overall brightness. I wish I had taken before/after pictures to show just how great a difference it is.

Last night, SaraRules and I went to the in-laws’ for dinner and a movie. The dinner fare was grilled burgers and salad and fixin’s and whatnot. For dessert, we had homemade brownies, with mocha rum sauce and ice cream. Everything was very good.

Our movie fare was Daybreakers. This was not-so-great. In fact, I had to dig find these visual aids:

That’s right: Lawn darts.
It wasn’t entirely painful, but having seen this movie, I don’t need to see it again. This movie was apparently written and directed by the same duo who directed Undead, another film I’d like to forget. SaraRules kept this fact from me until after the movie was over, in the hopes that this would be a better experience and that I’d possibly be willing to give the directors a fair shake, without the mental taint of Undead shading my opinion. (Unfortunately, it didn’t quite pan out that way.)

Workout
I’ve been trying to keep track of my walking over the past few days:

• Friday: 4100-something steps (written down at home, but I forgot to transpose it)
• Saturday: 8132 steps
• Sunday : 5140 steps

Stray Toasters

• Homemade Blueberry muffins.
  I have them for breakfast.
  Win.
• 7-year-old girl killed in Detroit police raid
• Simple Techniques Can Make You a Great Teacher
  I find it ironic and amusing that I stumble across this item as my mother is preparing to retire from teaching after… nearly 40 years, if my math is correct.
• The Geek Alphabet



• Heavy metal legend Ronnie James Dio: 1942 – 2010
• Hot exhibits make science accessible, and lots of fun
• With Restored Footage, Metropolis Finally Makes Sense
• Marion Jones hits ground running, starts fresh in WNBA
• These Golden Books Are Not for Children

  

• What Did the Original Script for The Empire Strikes Back Look Like?

Namaste.