Random Access

04 July 2009
Today is Independence Day in the U.S. Let’s all take a moment to thank The Fresh Prince and The Fly for repelling the alien invasion that threatened to destroy all human life on Earth.

Yesterday was a very lax day for SaraRules and me. That lasted until mid-afternoon, when we did another round of “Closet Cleanout.” We have five or six bags of significant size full of clothes that are ready to go to The Salvation Army.

Before coffee, we visited Kate, Perry and the kids. They were having a cookout with some of their neighbors, which may have also included a few pyrotechnics. From there, it was on to Clitorati. There were nine or ten of us there.

Stray Toasters

• Nine reasons to celebrate America
• Schoolhouse Rock! Fireworks

• Part of last night’s coffee conversation centered around the question: “Are the crunchy bits inside a fig seeds or wasps?” pointed out that they are, in fact, wasp larva. This prompted a little more investigation. How Stuff Works (not too surprisingly) has an article called Are Figs Really Full of Baby Wasps?, which serves up a more complete truth on the matter.
• Alaska Governor Palin to resign
• 
• Compuserve Shuts Down
• Venice rolls out citywide wi-fi
• Blade Runner Tokyo (in Large-Format Photography)
• Spunky Kitty Style

Have a safe and enjoyable holiday!

Namaste.

Friday – 03 July 2009
Last night, we went out to dinner with SaraRules’ family, to celebrate her mother’s birthday. Post-dinner, we headed to her parents’ house for a birthday cake pie – a rich, multi-layered chocolate affair that SaraRules made from scratch, including a crust made from crushed nuts. It was very good and VERY rich.

Back at home, we vegged. After watching a bit of TV… and having the TV watch me, as I nodded off on the couch… I finished up my new ‘Clix building.

Sleep was intermittent; it felt like I woke up eleventy billion times during the night.

Stray Toasters

• One of the designers from WorldWorks Games is a Transformers fan. He still is, even after seeing the new movie; but he wrote a review that made me smile.
• NAACP comic from early 1960s
• WHO warns swine flu ‘unstoppable’
• Opus Dei: Separating fact from fiction
• 
• Tower of Power and Spyro Gyra will be here next weekend for the Salt Lake City International Jazz Festival
• Statue of Liberty photoshopping contest
• How to Perform a Trebuchet with a Butterfly Knife
• Ript: The dude equivalent of a padded bra

Right on to the…
…well, it’s a day off, so I don’t anticipate a lot of friction.

Namaste.

Thursday – 02 July 2009
Today has been… a day. It hasn’t really been “hellish,” so to speak, but there has been a lot going on. However, there is a plus side to the day: IT is having “Team Jersey/T-shirt Day” and we’re having ice cream (with cookies and toppings and waffle bowls).

Last night, I got the roof on the lobby of the new ‘Clix building and the water feature in front of the building. It required buying a new set, Seaworks: Atlantis, but I realized that I can now make the “Great Arena” Map in 3D using parts from the Atlantis kit.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules and I went for a walk yesterday evening. While out, we stopped at Red Mango; I had a yen for a Green Tea Yogurt. I discovered something… horrible: Red Mango no longer makes/carries the Green Tea Yogurt.
• Neverland could rival Graceland as tour attraction
• , with a generous donation from the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file, sent a link to this: Universal Lands Rights to Asteroids Movie
• LEGO’s Temple of Adorable Doom
• 
• An exciting stats website? Believe it
• It’s raining again.
• Speaking of which, SaraRules noted that Salt Lake City had 17 days of rain in June.
• SurvivalStraps Survival Bracelet

Namaste.

Tuesday – 30 June 2009
It’s the last day of June. I’m sure that this is important – or at least “notable” – for many reasons, but prime among them is the fact that the new IKEA bible catalog will be out soon.

Last night, we had a tasty dinner with SaraRules’ family. After dinner, and some errand-running, we headed home for some downtime. I started putting together walls for my new ‘Clix building. Of the eight main walls, I have five complete; the last three should go much faster. Then I can start in on the “lobby” section, which should go quite quickly. I’m looking forward to getting it completed.

This morning, I was at work at 0700. One of our teams has a couple of days’ worth of meetings and we had to get some networking ready for it. So, loonybin88 and I were in here – neither bright-eyed nor bushy-tailed – to get it taken care of.  Naturally, while we were wrapping up the setup, there was a pushy monkey who wanted to have something done his way; little did he know that he was mere moments away from having the closest live power cord plugged into a place neither God, Mother Nature nor Darwin ever intended for it to go. *sigh* Monkeys, go figure.

Stray Tourists Toasters

• June 30, 1953: Corvette Adds Some Fiber, Flair to American Road
• I have frozen mocha goodness!  And a bagel!
• L.A.’s vegan restaurants are full of egg
• Tourist Remover photoshops stray tourists out of your snaps
• Great Geek Debates: Kirk vs. Picard
• Did I mention “monkeys?”
• Jackson’s Death Puts Lucrative Beatles Copyrights In Play
  The man may have been… “odd,” to say the least, but he was a great entertainer. I had forgotten that he had a major share of the rights to many/most of the Beatles’ music catalog. I was also unaware of this performance of Come Together until yesterday:

• U.S. ‘concerned’ over cyber threat
• Force of Nature: Artist Puts Petal to the Metal for Electrifying Images
• Lord of the Rings considered as a D&D game (webcomic)
• Super Small, Super Powerful Quantum Processor Can Solve Multiple Problems at Once
  (Repeat after me: “SkyNet is now online…”)

Right on to the friction of the day…

Namaste.

Monday – 29 June 2009
We opted not to go back to the Utah Arts Festival yesterday and enjoyed a lazy day at home.  It was rather nice. When SaraRules asked me what I wanted for dinner, I had an idea: Grilling some steak and/or chicken. The more I thought about it, the better it sounded. And that’s what I did: Steak, chicken, corn on the cob, zucchini, mushrooms and red peppers. They turned out well.

Logan came over and joined us for dinner; we watched Aliens while we ate. After that, the three of us played Trivial Pursuit. (I really need to get some updated cards for the game…) When we played, we kept our wedges in our respective corners and used HeroClix figures as our playing pieces:

• SaraRules used Wonder Woman,
• Logan used The Riddler and
• I used the custom GL John Stewart figure that Perry made for me a while back.

The “Literature” category of the Genus Edition often kicks my trash; last night, the universe threw me a bone, almost literally, when I was going for the brown wedge:

What is the name of Superman’s dog?

I couldn’t believe it when Logan asked the question; I thought he was kidding. Then he reread the question. It gave me a good laugh when I answered: “Krypto.” I was so amused by the question that I switched my game piece to my Krypto ‘Clix, because I could… and because it amused me to do so.

After the game, Logan and I played through a board of HALO3. After seeing the amount of crap that we had to wade through, I was happy to have the help.

After Logan left, I started working on a new building for HeroClix City, based on a design that I came up with on Friday. I knew that I was going to have to adapt the building faces to fit the design, but I thought that three of them would be the same. Nope. Two of them are, the third one was much easier to work with. I’m also going to have to work out the details of five other faces. We’ll see how it shapes up.

So far, today’s been a good – and relatively quiet – day. There haven’t been any major fires to put out. There haven’t been any monkeys to beat down. Not a bad way to kick off a Monday and a holiday week.

Stray Toasters

• Yesterday was the first time I’ve fired up my grill in two years, I think. The igniter on the grill wasn’t working, so I had to use a camp stove lighter to kick things off. Great theory and nominally good application… aside from the fact that I had turned up the gas “a bit” too high and wound up creating a small fireball that singed the hair off the back of two of my fingers.
• In a related note: I went online to look for the manual for the grill – I need to know how to repair or replace the igniter. Sears has 119 of them posted. I looked at all of them, but only found two (2) that look close to my grill. I’ll have to compare and contrast them when I get home.
• 13 year old kid reviews 30 year old Walkman
• showed us the trailer for the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG.
• Google Mistook Jackson Searches for Net Attack

That’s good for now.

Namaste.

Thursday: Coda
After work, I came home. That’s usually the way that things go. It’s not a bad tradition, all things being equal.

I had a bite to eat – SaraRules made an awesome homemade Macaroni and Cheese dish – and then fired up the 360. Before getting into Covenant beatdown mode, I took a look at some things on the 360’s dashboard. Among them was Netflix Instant Queue, which allows me to watch movies on the 360… on demand. Pretty nice option, if I do say so. I added a few movies to my queue.

Then, it fired up HALO3. Last night, I saved the game (I remembered this time!!!) on the way to Voi. There were a couple of Wraiths and Choppers at the bridge as a “Welcome Wagon.” Yay, lucky me. After getting my – and the Marines with me – butt blown off and handed to me, repeatedly, I beat the defenders and got ready to Ease on Down the Road. I didn’t get far at all before I found the flying monkeys Brutes with jet packs had set up a roadblock. No problem. I backed down the road a bit and hopped into one of the Wraiths. A few well-place plasma bursts later, the Brutes (and the roadblock) were no more. I, and the lone Marine who stuck by me, headed down the hill… only to find more Marines – and more jump pack-wearing Brutes – in a firefight. Yay. That’s where I stopped. For now.

SaraRules and I headed to the gym for a workout:

• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 205 lbs
• Incline Press (Icarian): 3 sets/10 reps, 140 lbs
• Flys: 3 sets/10 reps, 110 lbs
• Lower Back Extensions: 3 sets/15 reps, 160 lbs
• Curls (barbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 50 lbs
• Side Bends: 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs
• Push-ups: 3 sets/10 reps

Post-workout weight: 184.7 lbs

Stray Toasters

• From NPR’s Talk of the Nation: Why Is It OK to Say “That’s So Gay”
• 20 More Ways You Know You’re Married to a GeekDad
• Michael Jackson has died, apparently from cardiac failure. There are many things that could be said of the man, but I’ll just say that he was an amazing entertainer. May he find the peace in the next world that eluded him in this one.
• Lovecraft Meets Atlas Obscura
• Microsoft Discloses Windows 7 Pricing
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Stoned wallabies make crop circles

And now, it’s time for Burn Notice.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 24 June 2009
Middle of the week and all’s well.
It’s also “Sushi and Comics Wednesday,” which is always a good thing.

Last night, SaraRules and I headed over to Gardner Village for an evening stroll. For as much of a madhouse as that place is on Saturdays, it was practically deserted last night. We only saw a handful of people the entire time we were there. One of the places we checked out was “Country Furniture and Gifts,” in the building that has the waterwheel. It was like entering “The House That Never Ends” in that it had stairwells hither and yon and new rooms just seemed to fold into and out of 3D space; Escher would have been proud. (I deduced that the pioneers must have figured out how to create a tesseract using the energy harnessed from the waterwheel – it’s the only logical conclusion of how “that much” house wound up in “that little” space.)

Once we got back home, I fired up the 360 and played HALO3, a pleasure I have recently rediscovered. I have been stuck on a board for the past few weeks – which has been a bit discouraging – so I took a sabbatical from playing it. Last night, I got past that scenario and discovered my new favorite weapons: The Machine Gun Turret and the Battle Rifle. Nothing says “Love” like tearing a 50-caliber gun off its tripod and walking down a hallway with it, lighting up any and all Covenant forces like a Christmas tree. (Yes, a very bloody Christmas tree, but that’s not the point here.) And the Battle Rifle..? It lets me take head-shots – like my former HALO and HALO2 favorite weapon: The Sniper Rifle – and it has a burst fire mode, too.

Stray Toasters

• I woke up with the Good & Plenty jingle – from the 1950s(!) – in my head for some reason:

• Michelle Obama knows what works, style experts agree
• Rethinking Gender Bias in Theater
• Bozeman, Montana changes its mind about job applicants’ social networking passwords
• 
• Gone hiking? Missing governor sparks political fight and “Missing” governor was on private Argentina trip
• Giant code wheel for sale, proceeds to EFF
• Britain’s secret plan for surviving a nuclear war

Feelings, sensations that you thought was dead (yup)
No squealing, remember that it’s all in your head

Namaste.

Saturday – 20 June 2009
I was awake at 0632 this morning. Hooray for internal clocks!  I laid in bed for another 45 minutes waiting for sleep to reclaim me… which it finally did. But, I was up again about 8:30. At that point, I decided to just call it a morning.

Today, we’re heading down to the Chalk Art Festival at The Gateway. Then, we’re… we’re… you know, we don’t really have anything on tap.  That’s not a bad thing, though.

Stray Toasters

• Rosie Hardy Photography
• Gaston, by William Saroyan
• President Delivers Exhortation to Fathers
• 
• Got abs? Ryan Reynolds does.
• FireGirl’s Hot Sauce Catalog
• MTH Electric Trains

Time to go play in the… well, it looks like it’s raining. Again.  Where’d I put those ark plans…?

Namaste.

Wednesday – 17 June 2009
Midweek. It’s already been raining/drizzling this morning, bringing our “Days of Rain” total to twelve. Yep… it’s about time to start measuring things in cubits.

Our robot overlords protectors are offering free heatlh screenings this morning. One of the announcement emails said that we should fast for eight hours before getting our screening. Ordinarily, that would be fine. However, this means that I haven’t had any caffeination yet. That holds a potential for danger to the general populace. I forgot that today, Sushi and Comics Wednesday, was the same day as the screenings. I came in to see if I could reschedule my appointment for earlier, so that I didn’t eat before getting my screening… only to find out that they can do/could have done it after I eat. *sigh*

Stray Toasters

• Every so often, Julie (our Property Manager and unofficial “Distinguished IT Admin”) and I wind up wearing similar outfits on the same day.  Today is no exception: We’re both in black slacks and light blue shirts; I’m wearing a tie, though.
• US to Extend Its Job Benefits to Gay Partners
• Windows 7 Licensing a “Disaster” for XP Shops
• Green Lantern: First Flight comes out in (just over) a month.
• 
• Kids lose summer break due to impenetrable bureaucratic mess
• Natal Technology a Gift to the Disabled, Amputees

Namaste.

Tuesday – 16 June 2009
Last night, SaraRules and I watched Kinky Boots, a movie inspired by a true story. The movie tells the story of two people – Charlie and Lola – whose lives intertwine in an unusual way. Charlie is the son of a shoe maker… who doesn’t want to follow in the family business. Lola is… well… Lola. (Oh, and Lola’s a drag queen, too.) The pair meet after Charlie intervenes when Lola is about to get mugged. From there, the two embark on a journey to help each of them discover what they both want and need out of life.

I remember thinking that this movie sounded interesting when I saw a trailer for it a few years ago. SaraRules and I flipped past it a few month ago, but didn’t back to checking it out until last night. It was a fun movie. The characters (well, most of them) have personalities and motivations that make them human… rather than just cardboard cutouts or caricatures; I was also very pleasantly surprised at Chiwetel Ejiofor‘s performance as Lola.

Stray Toasters

• On the way home last night, it drizzled. I had to check more than one window to make sure that I hadn’t either imagined it or just gotten caught in someone’s windshield washer overspray. Nope… it was precipitate from the sky. Therefore, yesterday marked the tenth consecutive day that the Salt Lake Valley (or at least this corner of it) got something that qualifies as “rain.”
• Atlas Obscura
• June 16, 1959: George Reeves, Superman, Felled by Speeding Bullet
• LEGOland Gets 10-Foot ‘Brickday’ Cake

• When Performers Write the Program
• The art of Cliff Chiang
• For – Weird Al does Craigslist, Doors style
• Shop of Ideas: Power Girl and Fangirls
• Muslims Face Risks in Giving to Charity
• Indexed: Teachers can save the economy

  

• Social Networks Spread Iranian Defiance Online
• Fashion industry steps out for its Oscars, the CDFA Awards
• Comedian Lange crosses the line on ‘Joe Buck Live’

Namaste.

Monday – 15 June 2009
Another work week begins. While I wouldn’t call the day “manic,” it is still a Monday. And, I came into the office to find out that some scheduled maintenance on our email server seems to have been “mostly successful,” it seems that one of the services isn’t playing nicely with the others… and just quit. One of the server guys is working on it now.

Yesterday, I went to Murray Park and threw the Aerobie around with Chris and Mary. We played for about 40 minuutes before the thunderheads rolled in. We thought it in our best interests to stop playing – we didn’t find the prospect of becoming human lightning rods all that enticing. After heading home for a shower, I went to visit Perry and the kids; they were doing well.

I headed to SaraRules’ parents’ for dinner. As it was still raining when we finished, there was no Sunday Night Bocce. Instead, we watched Dead Again. Despite owning the movie, I haven’t seen it in a few years. It was good and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Back at home, I took another stab at organizing my legions of HeroClix into storage boxes. For the most part, it looks as though I was successful. I still need to go through a few boxes and verify that the figures in them are extra and/or available for modification.

Stray Toasters

• By way of SaraRules:
  • ‘Imelda’ Strikes Again: Thieving Fox Amasses 120 Shoes
  • Top 10 Worst Wedding Songs
• Kids — They’ll Age You (or “Just how old is Bruce Wayne, anyway?!”)
• and A 400-lb Gorilla are written up in: Midvale couple chalks it up for art and foster care
  Don’t forget to check them out this weekend at the Utah Chalk Art Festival – this Friday and Saturday at The Gateway
• Combating malaria by sterilizing male mosquitos
• Full-sized Gundam Now Complete in Tokyo
• 
• By way of comes: Manvotional: George Washington’s Rules on Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation
• Comic Confrontations: Judge Judy vs. Breeders
• ‘Prodigal’ returns?: The new Batman’s the same as the old new Batman — or is he?
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: For Sale: New York property with quietest of tenants
• Cracked and peeling Photoshopping contest

Namaste.

Sunday – 14 June 2009
This weekend, I have (re)discovered something wonderful about saying (or at least “thinking loudly”) “I don’t feel like getting up yet…” on my days off. I’ve managed not to get out of bed as soon as I wake up. This is a good thing as Friday, Saturday and this morning, I was awake between 0630 and 0705. Without an alarm. This comes under the heading of a “good thing.”

I finally got the pictures from Ogden Union Station posted. I’m not entirely sure why iWeb wouldn’t let me post pages with similar – yet different – names, but it didn’t. So, I had to get a little creative. This workaround seems to work. Something that I didn’t consider – mainly because it was almost 0200 when I was trying to get the pictures posted – was to simply publish the pages to folders and upload the folders. (It’s amazing what a good night’s sleep and distance from the problem will do for mental acuity.) If I run into this situation again, I’ll have to keep that in mind.

Stray Toasters

• Seven Civil War Stories your teacher never told you
• It has rained, to some degree, every day for the past eight (8) days. This fact is made even more peculiar/amusing in that we are on a high desert plain. The operative word being: “Desert.” If it keeps up much longer, I’m going to start drafting plans for an ark. My mission: Save two of each kind of toy.
• The Rise and Fall of Motion Control for Games
• Speaking of games: I’ve finally given my XBox 360 a permanent connection to the Interwebs; my gamer tag is: shadorunr. If you’re a XBox Live player, feel free to add me.
• Director Guillermo Del Toro Is a Novelist, Too
• While I’m not a big fan of Twitter, I found this blending of old and new technology amusing: A Twitter Client for the Commodore 64
• Actor Phil Morris Always Seems to Get the Cool Parts
• Vincent Moore raises the question: “Where are the Black Supervillains?” (1, 2)
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Bulletproof “tactical” corset

Methinks it’s time to find something to do in the sunshine. Throwing the Aerobie around  sounds like a good idea.

Namaste.

Thursday – 11 June 2009
Another NBN Thursday kicks off…

…with meetings. Yay. Looking at my calendar, it looks as though I only have two meetings, rather than the three I thought I had. That’s a nominal win.

::: EDIT :::
One meeting down… and I just found out that I might have a third meeting, after all. It’s not the one I was expecting, however.

Last night, SaraRules and I made our weekly(-ish) trek over to The Perfect Dress to see what they were unleashing upon the world as the new, hot items in bridal and formal wear. There was only one new dress to ridicule look at. After that, we wandered through the neighborhood World Market for a bit, with side trips to Paradise Bakery and Cafe and Red Mango. The night wrapped with a bit of TV and the reading of some Stephen King (for her) and this week’s comics haul (for me).

Stray Toasters

• Buck Rogers #1 – It’s a new take on a classic character. This is your quintessential introduction issue. We meet the titular Captain Rogers, Colonel Wilma Deering… and… Ursinius. If you’re looking for Twiki, all I can say is “Sorry… bidi-bidi-bidi-Buck.” This book looks like it could be a rather fun spin on the tale of Buck Rogers and company.
  
• Fantastic Four #567 – Doctor Doom vs. his Master. Who will pay the price for the backlash from this fight? This storyline has been building nicely for the past few months, I am intrigued to see how it will pan out.
  
• The Flash: Rebirth #3 (of 5) – Can Barry Allen outrun his fate to become the new Black Flash? Would it be Barry Allen if he didn’t try?  One of the best sequences of the story includes a bit of dialogue with Superman:
  

  Superman: Barry. I’m not going to let you do this.
  Flash: You can’t stop me.
  Superman: I’ve raced you before, Barry. I even won some of those races.
  Flash: Those were for charity, Clark.  ::: speeds out of sight with a sonic boom :::

  The Fastest Man Alive, indeed.
  

• Green Lantern Corps #37 – Daxam under a yellow sun. (Never seen that one before, have we…?) GL Arisia rallies the Daxamites who want revenge on Mongul. GLs Ash and Saarek’s paths cross… at the direction of the scarred Guardian. The Alpha Lanterns make an appearance at the Sciencell riots.
  
• JSA vs Kobra #1 (of 6) – DC Comics’ cult Kobra is stepping up its game and looking become “a name” in the DCU. Their opening move: Making an attack on Mr. Terrific, member of the JSA and Checkmate’s White King… in front of the JSA’s brownstone. (“Not smart,” you say? Actually, it was quite shrewd.) What is their endgame and what are they willing to do to achieve it?
  
• R.E.B.E.L.S. #5 – Durlan shapeshifter, Ciji, states her case/mission. Astrild Stormdaughter states her case/mission.  And readers finally see the true face of Starro the Conqueror. (Or at least the updated “true face.”)
  
• Red Robin #1 – Not only are we (re)introduced to Red Robin – and the man behind the mask – but his mission. Also in this issue, we get a glimpse at the “changing of the guard” in the Batcave and of [SPOILER DELETED], who seems to have something of a vested interest in the activities of Red Robin, both in and out of costume. I was impressed with this issue – it contained interesting looks at some familiar characters and pushed at least one of them in a direction that I wasn’t expecting. I’m looking forward to see how the series progresses.
  
• Uncanny X-Men #511 – The X-Men split into two teams to battle the Red Queen and the Sisterhood… and this time, they bring their “A” game. And friends. And they’ve even managed to work up a couple of surprises. The question is: Will it be enough? And, by the end of the fight, a familiar face returns to the pages of UXM.
  

Of the books I picked up this week, there were a few that didn’t make the cut… but one that really didn’t do anything for me was Uncanny X-Men: First Class #1. It was a “behind the scenes” look at the transition from the original X-Men team and the post-Krakoa team. More specifically, it was a collection of stories from each of the new X-Men (minus Sunfire and Thunderbird) about their lives before joining Xavier’s cause. Of the stories, the only one that really struck me as “good” was the Storm story, which recounted one of her adventures as a child thief in Cairo. Other than that, it was a waste of $3.99, in my opinion; if I could give negative bricks for this, I might consider it.

Stray Toasters

• Two bits of coolness, by way of SaraRules’ parents:
  1. Her mother got me a Justice League Unlimited coloring book… and crayons!
  2. Her father gave me a box of HO Scale train stuff!
• By way of :
  • Dance United: Ballet West dancers leap to the aid of Oregon ballet company
  • Charity report: Musicians live on less to help symphony, opera
  • Tyra Banks… as a Jedi.  (Win-Win!)
  • 9,000-year-old brew hitting the shelves this summer
• Make It Work: Writers Talk Models, Inc.
• Letterman fires back at Palin’s comment
• Lucy Knisley’s zombie invasion poster
• Y’all gon’ make me lose my mind
  up in here, up in here
  Y’all gon’ make me go all out
  up in here, up in here
  Y’all gon’ make me act a fool
  up in here, up in here
  Y’all gon’ make me lose my cool
  up in here, up in here(Now why do I have an almost-overwhelming urge to watch Jesus Christ Superstar…?)
• Back to the Future wedding cake
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Dress made from meat
• Buck Up: Life Lessons from Three Young Heroines

Namaste.

As I mentioned before, today was Sushi and Comics Wednesday.

We went to Oh Sushi (as usual). As we were wrapping up lunch, the discussion turned to TV shows. Firefly became a favored topic.  (Yes, shockpuppet, you still need to watch Firefly… especially as you own the DVDs.  Just sayin’.) From the guys at the table went to Kaylee… and Inara… even River… then – and I really wish that I could remember how we got there – Angela Bassett came up. The conversation took the following turn…

Jeff (looking at me): Hey… didn’t you say that Angela Bassett was your aunt?
Me: *blank stare*
Rest of the Table: *blank stare*
Jeff: Maybe it was… somebody… else…
Me: *blank stare* followed by *raised eyebrow*
Jeff: No!  Really! I was hanging out with this guy and we were [LOST TO BACKGROUND NOISE] and I said, “Angela Bassett” and he said,”Dude… that’s my aunt!” And then he pulls out his wallet and had pictures of her and him in there!”

The whole backpedal was a lovely thing to behold.

I started this a little after 1300. It’s now after 1700, and I’m just getting done with meetings for the day. *sigh* No rest for the wicked, I guess.

Wes and I hit the gym again today:

• Sit-ups (decline bench): 3 sets/20 reps
• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 205 lbs
• Flys: 3 sets/10 reps, 110 lbs
• Lower Back Extension: 3 sets/15 reps, 160 lbs
• Reverse Flys: 3 sets/10 reps, 80 lbs
• Shoulder Press (machine): 3 sets/10 reps, 70 lbs
• Overhead Tricep Extensions (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 45 lbs
• Curls (dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 30 lbs

Post-workout weight: 188.2 lbs

::: MEETINGS :::

And then there were none. It’s always great when you (re)discover that there’s a meeting you’re supposed to attend… twenty minutes before the meeting is scheduled to start. And I wouldn’t even have known that if I hadn’t overheard someone else talking about it.

Stray Toasters

• I’m trying out the Wordbook plugin for WordPress. Ostensibly, my posts should be getting mirrored in my Facebook account. We’ll see how that works out.
• Boy, 11, graduates from college
• , and : I’d be interested in your opinions, if any, of this article: Blacksmiths of Intellectual Property: The Rise of Originality in MMOs; not necessarily limited to MMOs, but to gaming in general.
• By way of – Star Trek: The Wrath of Chaka Khan

• Apple iPhone Users Cry Foul Over AT&T Upgrade Policy
  (or, as showed me earlier in the day: Stupid Apple, You Suck!)
• Top 10 Ways to Provoke a Geek Argument
• By way of :

  

• Also from – Paradise on a Hanger is having a (going out of business?) sale.

That’s all f-f-f-folks!

Namaste.