Random Access

Monday: Coda
I called this afternoon to ask her a work-related question. We haven’t spoken in a few months – we’ve had an email or two and some random blog comments here and there, but we haven’t actually spoken to each other since I was home in May – and she mentioned something that caught me flat-footed. I asked her if there was something that I should know about. She said, “No… you already know about this.”

I’m glad that she couldn’t see the blank/lost expression on my face.

After a few moments, I managed to wrangle a couple of brain cells, rub them together and come up with something that approximated “a clue.” *sigh* Slowly, the details came back to me. Genius I am.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to deal with too many other “thinky things” as the day wound down.

Post-work, I stopped off to see Perry, Kate and the kids… and to drop off my Sentinel for Perry to use in a game this week. Perry gave me my birthday present, a little early. I now have more toon-related and geeky goodness than you can shake a stick at.

Home.

Off to Jitterbug for dinner and coffee with , , and Pat.

Home again. Home again.

Stray Toasters

• I should really be giving more than just “consideration” to going to bed.
• The pictures from this weekend’s excursion to The “C” Overlook are up.
• A key in the door
  A step on the floor
  A note on the table
  And a meal in the micro…
• 
• While the man may have gone right ’round the bend, Michael Jackson is/was quite the entertainer. As a case in point, I present Remember the Time – featuring Eddie Murphy, Iman (still my first choice to play Storm in an X-Men movie) and Earvin “Magic” Johnson.
• By way of : IKEA hacker
• Sequins != Sequence
  (Learn the difference. Please.)
• Than != Then
  (Learn the difference here, too. Seriously.)
• Happy 30th Birthday to the Atari 2600
• From the “This Has to Be Fifteen Kinds of Wrong” file: Anna Rexia Hallowe’en Costume
• Do you want/need to stand out at your next company party or high school reunion?
  Would rolling up in new hotness set it off?
  Rent a tank.
  Guaranteed to turn heads… and if it doesn’t, blow ’em away.

Alright, time to try this “sleep” thing.

Namaste.

Wednesday: Coda
Today was apparently “Have a Meal with a Cop” Day – Perry joined us for lunch and I had dinner with Pat.

I remembered to pick up birthday cards for my father; and I took them out to the AMF to get them in the mailstream tonight.

Four-Color Coverage

• Astonishing X-Men #22 – The X-Men face Danger, Kruun and a missile the size of a small moon. Think they’re getting out of this one without a scratch? Think again (spoiler warning). From the looks of things, it’s going to take a giant Band-Aid^® to make this better. The dialogue is solid. The situation is – in typical X-Men fashion – dire. Once again, Whedon and Cassaday bring an excellent story to the table.
• Countdown: 36, 35, 34, 33, 32 and 31 – Mary Marvel, spoiled brat. Eclipso, wearing a lovely Jean Loring skin. Karate Kid and Una, still in search of answers as to what’s killing the ‘Kid. All this, plus Klarion, Monarch and the return of the new – and expanded – Crime Syndicate Society of America. Some of the storylines are beginning to wear a bit thin for me; and I’m also starting to get… distracted… by the inconsistency of the artwork: Granted they are doing a weekly series, so they are distributing the art duties to different teams, but the artwork runs the gamut from “good” to “tolerable” to “I paid good money for this?!”
• Green Lantern Corps #15 and Green Lantern #23: The Sinestro Corps War – Parts 5 and 6
  

  War.
  What is it good for?
  Absolutely nothing.”
  

  Getting Lanterns dead, that’s what it’s good for. Readers are given a rather blunt example of what happens when an irresistable force (The Sinestro Corps) meets an immovable object (The GLC).

  In this issue, the battlefront has moved from Oa to Mogo, the planet-sized Green Lantern. Leading the charge is the SC’s answer to Mogo: Ranx, the sentient city. And what will Green Lantern Hal Jordan do when his power ring loses its charge? Oh… this.

  Sinestro: This is amusing. Hal Jordan struggling to access the power of fear.
  Jordan: I can thank you and Parallax for showing me how, Sinestro.
  Sinestro: Showing you how? You are only capable of opening the ring and releasing its energy. You have no idea how to manipulate fear.

  How bad do things get? Bad enough for the Guardians to rewrite the Book of Oa, including ten new laws:

  Guardian: Officers. We have all suffered a great loss during this horrific incursion of fear. Many are dead and wounded. Many more are missing-in-action. The Sinestro Corps fight without mercy. They torture those they capture. They revel in the pain they cause. And now they approach.We understand the limitations both our code of conduct and the power rings themselves have.

  It is for these reasons we have rewritten the Book of Oa. Rewritten it to include ten new laws effective immediately.

  The First Law of Ten within the Book of Oa…

  …the power rings are now authorized to used lethal force against the Sinestro Corps.

  And, it looks like the battlefront is moving. Again. The new front line: Earth.

• Justice League of America: Wedding Special #1 – Black Canary and Green Arrow are tying the knot. Fun, happy times and joy for everyone, right? Tell that to Firestorm, who’s getting the holy bejeezus kicked out of him. After a fight with Killer Frost, Firestorm hears the hum of a teleporter:
  

  Good evening, Firestorm. My associates are The Joker and Cheetah. And of course you know me, I’m Lex Luthor. Did you just wet your pants? I can’t say I’d blame you. We’re really quite terrifying.
  Firestorm: I’m supposed to be impressed? I was hoping you were Darkseid, so I could bust your skull.
  Luthor: You should perhaps consider working your way up to that. *blasts Firestorm*
  Firestorm: Uhnnn…. Okay. Caught me by surprise. But you can’t hurt me with that stuff…
  The Joker: You’re ruining the gag. You’re supposed to think it’s a regular flower. Or at the very least, just a gag flower with a squirt gun inside. *sprays Firestorm*
  Firestorm: AH!
  The Joker: But here’s the twist. It’s not harmless water. It’s my specially prepared venom.
  Firestorm: HA-HA-HA-HA… I can’t neutralize it… HA-HA-HA… but my powers…
  The Joker: See? Funny.
  Cheetah: *slashes Firestorm* You mean the same powers that should protect you from my claws? ‘Cause I don’t think they’re working.
  Firestorm: HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! HA-HA! Please, DON’T! HA! AHHH! HA-HA-HA!
  *off-panel slashing effects*
  The Joker: Life is all about perspective. If I get a hangnail, it’s tragedy. If you fall into an open manhole and die, it’s comedy.
  Firestorm: *screams*
  The Joker: Nobody gets me.
  Luthor: *to Cheetah* That’s enough.
  Cheetah: Matter of opinion.
  Luthor: *to Firestorm* You were helpless from my first shot. If you don’t want your enemies to neutralize your powers, refrain from publishing scientific papers explaining them.

  And where’s Wonder Woman? And Hawkgirl? And Geo-Force? (And Where’s Waldo, while we’re at it?!) And what happens when the rest of the League finds out what happens to Firestorm? Let’s just say that the phrase “Break one off…” comes to mind. To be continued in…

• Justice League of America #13 – Picking up where JLA: Wedding Special #1 left off, the JLA goes on the offensive. The teams split up, with Black Lightning monitoring the action from the Hall of Justice:
  

  Green Lantern (John Stewart): Team Two, checking in.
  Black Lightning: Roger that — I’m reading you loud and clear.
  Green Lantern: Have I mentioned that it’s good to be working with you again? Although, I do miss your afro.
  Black Lightning: Ho. Ho.
  Green Lantern: I’m serious. Why’d you cut your hair off?
  Black Lightning: I’m trying to be more contemporary.
  Green Lantern: Good move. Welcome to the Nineties. I know why you did it. It’s a negative combover.
  Black Lightning: A what?
  Green Lantern: You’re going bald and you’re hiding it by shaving your head.
  Black Lightning: I am not going bald. I happen to look good this way.
  Green Lantern: No, you don’t. I would, though. Maybe grow a little goatee to add a little funk…

  And more of the JLA fall to the Injustice League. And the hits keep coming as Luthor, in his battlesuit, teleports in to bat clean-up.

  What I love most about the Lantern/Lightning scene is that Dwayne McDuffie (1, 2) seems to be having fun with Green Lantern, a character for whom he wrote many episodes on Justice League, Justice League Unlimited and Static Shock. But, it doesn’t stop there: He seems to have a good handle on all of the characters – both in the JLA and the Injustice League – featured in these two books (Wedding Special and Issue #13).

• Justice Society of America #9 – Power Girl’s having bad dreams. The JSA helps out at a pancake breakfast/charity fund-raiser. And help put out a fire. And… who is the “strange visitor from another planet dimension” that just showed up? More importantly: Why is he here now?!
• The New Avengers #34 – After what seems like eleventy-seven issues of “Are you or are you not a Skrull,” Dr. Strange, Master of the Mystic arts that he is, finally pulls a rabbit out of his hat (apparently that trick does work when not being performed by a moose) and proves to himself and the rest of the New Avengers that none of them are Skrulls… just in time for the team to go up against [message redacted].
• Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #33 and #34 – The search for Cosmic Boy continues… and concludes. Brainiac 5 proves, once again, that he is the most intelligent sentient in the room. Tenzil Kem proves that Bismollians can – and will – eat just about anything. Atom Girl is on the hunt for a man. And we get a retconned origin story for a very pissed-off Wildfire.
• Tales of the Sinestro Corps #1 – Parallax: The Fall of Kyle Rayner – In the Ion mini-series, readers were introduced to a painting of a young boy in a field that used to hang in the home of a then-young Kyle Rayner. He and his mother would make up stories about the boy.That is where this story starts. Sort of.
  The painting is in a room.
  In Kyle’s mother’s house.In Kyle’s mind.YeahbuhWHAT?!Kyle is “riding shotgun,” as the Parallax entity uses his body, tearing its way through the Green Lantern Corps. An aspect of the entity pays Kyle a visit. And that’s where the fun starts.

Stray Toasters

• I like traffic lights, but not for the same reasons as Terry Jones.
  
• Asteroid renamed for George Takei
• 83 or 71
• I asked about sheets of comic book stamps while at the AMF. They were out, but should have some after the weekend.
• Richard Garriott owns a Sputnik
• Four tabs, not three.
• Learning about The War
• For – World’s worst Hallowe’en costume: “Poopie Shorts”
• By way of Applegeeks: Adam West as Batman, with dialogue from Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns.
• Toys ‘R’ Us 2007 Hot Toy List
• Sopapillas.

.eof

Wednesday – 03 October 2007
Mittwoch and all is well.

Game night was canceled last night, so I found myself faced with deciding what to do with my evening. After a bit of mental meandering, I finally decided to log into CoH/V and see what was happening in either Paragon City or the Rogue Isles. I checked to see if either of ‘ alter-egos were online. They weren’t, but he was. I mentioned a field trip to the Isles and he was down with the idea. A short while – and a few deaths – later, Dhoruba had hit Level 14. And with Level 14 came a (real) travel power: Superspeed. Thank God.

I had a couple of odd dreams last night. One of them included an… invasion/uprising (?) of crab-like robotic creatures, similar to Stargate SG-1’s Replicators. I woke up just as a wave of them was overruning me. There’s a great/weird feeling.

Otherwise, the morning has been good, relatively quiet and fairly uneventful.

Stray Toasters

• I finally got around to depleting my stores of cotton candy by one. Something about running a Council mission, beating on bad guys, well… “even-worse-than-me” guys, while eating cotton candy is amusing.
• Artist gets probation for building secret mall apartment
• No one gets to their heaven without a fight.
• By way of Disinformation: Everything You Know About God Is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide to Religion
• NCSoft has released information about the upcoming expansion: Issue 11 – “A Stitch in Time.”
• Snorg Tees
• The upgrade to WordPress 2.3 is complete and was rather painless.
• lj user=”lostbear” pointed me in the direction of a LEGO-built Serenity.
  
• Weirdest Sex Stories of 2007
• Stylized Star Wars line-art t-shirts

…and I had sushi for lunch, at a place that frequents. Not a bad place and the prices were good. AND, added bonus: It’s a few doors down from the good Dr. V’s. (And I escaped with only two pieces of plastic crack: Firehawk and Lex Luthor.)

Namaste.

Sunday – 30 September 2007
Yesterday’s move went well. And quickly. I believe that the “official” time was three (3) hours, start to finish. That doesn’t include unpack and organize time, but still… that’s pretty damned impressive. (And, it covered any “need” for a weekend workout, too.) After the move, we went out for brunch.

And it started to snow. Yes, snow. Not even in October. *grblsnrkx*

Came back home for a much-needed nap.

Sara and I went to see Across the Universe; more on this below. After the movie, we headed to Cheers: South for breakfast. The restaurant was rather busy, which made for some rather “interesting” people-watching.

Today started off lazily. When we finally got in gear, Sara and I met Perry for lunch at Jitterbug. Post-lunch, the three of us headed to Dr. Volt’s to pick up my four-color shwag and a half-brick of plastic crack… and a box of Stikfas that I had forgotten thatI had ordered. Next, a quick stop at REI to make sure that hadn’t fallen off the face of the planet. (He hadn’t.) And then, a trip through Parley’s and Emigration Canyons to see the fall colors. The foliage was making progress towards the red end of the spectrum… but it wasn’t as prevalent nor as vibrant as I had expected. Oh, well.

Reeling by on Celluloid: Across the Universe
Is there anybody going to listen to my story
All about the girl who came to stay?

There’s a saying that goes “Parallel lines meet at infinity.”
There’s a variation of it that says “Parallel lives meet at infinity.”

This movie is about those parallel lives, their meetings and is told through the use of the music of The Beatles. I was pleasantly surprised at how it all came together. I was, likewise, pleased to see that there was more to the movie than the simple “boy meets girl” love story implied by the trailer.

The music, as I mentioned, was by The Beatles, but the songs were deftly re-arranged by Elliot Goldenthal and sung by the characters/actors. Not only that, but the songs also tied-in to the events of the movie, similarly to the way that Orpheus in the Underworld (Can-Can) and Die Another Day, were used in Stardust and Die Another Day, respectively. I believe that my two favorite pieces were Let It Be and Come Together… so much so, that I might have to reconsider my choice for “The Best” from a few weeks ago.

At two hours and twenty-one minutes, the movie is long… without feeling long. The casting was good. The plots/subplots were good. And with one exception, the stories didn’t feel forced or contrived.

I give the movie an enthusiastic “thumbs-up with and okay.” And it has renewed my interest in seeing Cirque de Soliel’s Love.

Football Update
Just a quick hit here: Congrats to on his Browns 2.0’s win over the Ravens today. Operative words: “Beat down.”

Stray Toasters

• I still have three bags of cotton candy. I shall put a dent in that tonight, while I am saving the world.
• “Greenie Weenies”
• Sara’s Deviataion vs. Rob’s Deviation.
• Monkey of the Day: While in Dr. Volt’s, Perry and I were talking about our plastic crack purchase (part of which is supposed to be Kate’s Christmas present to him). We were tossing jibes back and forth when another customer decided to chime in with: “Wow, I can’t believe all the testosterone and posturing being tossed around over here…” I had my back to him, but Perry said that he looked at me and straightened up a bit when I saw my build; then he looked at Perry, who was wearing a his badge and his holster. The guy then said “But, since I don’t know either of you, I think I’ll just keep my mouth shut.” And he walked to another aisle.
• I’m thinking of rearranging the office. I might put my eight-foot table up in there… and possibly throw my LEGO train and the Rokenbok Monorail up on it.
• 

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Thursday: Coda
After staying at work far too late in the day, I escaped Happy Valley to run a few errands. Then… home. While I was mulling over what to pick up while grocery shopping, I had an epiphany: I had a few bratwurst left over from last weekend. That would make an exemplary dinner. And it did… along with some fries and one of the last Samuel Adams Summer Ales that lj user=”jennae” bequeathed to me.

While eating dinner, I watched the season premieres of Legion of Super Heroes and The Batman.

I was duly impressed.

Where Season 1 of LoSH was fairly light in tone, this one captured the dark mood of war against Imperiex, seen for the first time in the DCAU; he was last seen in the mainstream DCU a few years back, as a would-be galaxy conqueror in the “Our Worlds at War” crossover maxi-series. In the LoSH toon, he is standing in for Darkseid as the new threat the survival of Earth and the human race. Enter… Superman? But, not the Superman we have come to know. This Superman, cloned from the DNA of the original, comes from the war-torn 41st Century, a time ravaged by Imperiex and his forces. From what I’ve read, this season will span the 31st and 41st Centuries with the Legion and two Supermen leading the fight against Imperiex.

Next up: The Batman. This episode introduced Superman, Lex Luthor, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen to this version of the Batman mythos. Metallo, the man with the Kryptonite heart, even put in an appearance. It was interesting to watch this episode as I mentally juxtaposed it with 1986’s The Man of Steel #3, in which the post-Crisis Superman first met Batman. There was a lack of trust between the two, even though they were working the same case. And I still think that the model that they are using for Clark Kent was based, even loosely, on Brandon Routh.

And, both episodes were “Part 1 of 2,” so we’ll see how the stories conclude.

Stray Toasters

• I may polish off another bag o’ spun sugar confection tonight.
• Hand Soap
• 
• Preschoolers’ Feelings – a Flickr photoset.
• Salt Lick Art
• The Defuser, winner of the second season of Who Wants to be a Superhero, is a City of Heroes player. Go figure. The folks at CoH/CoV even congratulated him on his win. 🙂
  

And that will do it for tonight.

Namaste.

Wednesday: Coda / Thursday – 27 September 2007
Three down, two to go.

I cleared – or at least did some damage to – a few items on my task list today. Productivity = good. I had lunch with Jason (coworker) and Perry at Tres Hombres. It was a little more than I had planned on spending for lunch… especially since I had taken a lunch with me today, but it was good.

As I was winding up the day, Land called and asked if I was free this evening. I was, and told him to swing by the apartment and we could go in search of food-type items. We wound up at Cafe Rio. Dinner and a good conversation later, I wandered over to Office Depot to replace my broken architect’s scale. And then, on to Barnes & Noble, to introduce Land to Way of the Peaceful Warrior. He had heard of, but not seen, the movie; I told him that it was worth the price to purchase the book. He did. Mission: Accomplished.

When I checked the mail, there was a package from my father. Ô.õ I opened it to find sections from The Baltimore Sun about Cal Ripken, Jr.’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. There was also a letter in the package. An old letter. 30+ years-old old. And some note card-sized sketches. I didn’t quite get the gist of what they were for… so I called home. Dad said that they were ideas that he and a former coworker of my mother’s had come up with as a proposal for a set of stationery/seals with patriotic themes. They never really did anything with them, but he thought that I might be able to find a use for them. How cool is that?

Stray Toasters

• I still have four bags of cotton candy.
• A word and a movie
• 50 Years of ‘West Side Story’
• 26
• Titan missile silo for sale
• Wizard First Look: Millar and Hitch’s Fantastic Four
  
• 
• Why women read more than men
• A year of following all the rules in The Bible
• From the “Things We Don’t Need” file: NBC Revs Up New Knight
• Kurt Busiek on “The Third Kryptonian” and more
• …and, since we’re on the topic of Superman: Incoming: All-Star DC figures

And, with that… bed.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 25 September 2007
Last night, I stopped by to hang out with Perry and the kids. We watched Jeff Dunham: Spark of Insanity. Very funny.

called and asked if I had plans for the evening. She invited me to join her and Pat at Jitterbug for coffee.

Sidebar: I’m going to take a moment to toss out a/yet another friendly word out Jitterbug:

Jitterbug Coffee Hop
1855 South 700 East
SLC, UT 84105

Stop in, say hi to Bruce and get a cup of coffee, chai or a smoothie.
Have a sandwich, while you’re at it.

You can check out the menu here.

I told her I’d be there. The three of us sat around and shot the bull for a couple of hours… including an hour and change past the shop’s closing. Bruce came over and chatted with us for about the last hour-and-a-half.

Home again, home again. Jiggety-jig. I put together the second nightstand. It went considerably faster than the first one. While assembling it, I kept thinking: “I have a drill; why do I need a screwdriver?!”

Stray Toasters

• I have five bags of cotton candy.
• It’s 33° outside. Thirty-three. I call “bullshit.”
• Semaphore
• It’s Clobberin’ Time!
• From Wired‘s Games Without Frontiers: Halo 3 Balances Hot New Guns, Old-School Cool
• 
• Jonathan Coulton: Zombie-Fighting Troubadour
• What is your favorite article of clothing that you own?
• Steam-Driven Dreams: The Wondrously Whimsical World of Steampunk
• Steampunk Magazine #3
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Furries vs. Klingons bowling tournament this Saturday in Atlanta.

Time to hit the road and face the day.

Namaste.

Sunday – 23 September 2007
Another weekend draws to a close.

Sara got here as I was winding down cleaning mode yesterday. I finished up and we hung out for a bit before heading to and onlyaly’s, where I met (again, I think) ‘s mom, a very nice woman. I watched as introduced Chris to the joys of the liquor cabinet; I wonder what his head felt like this morning or if she was kind enough to tell him to drink lots of water before hitting the rack. All-in-all, ’twas a good bit of fun. By the way, : Who made that Merlot and the Shiraz?

This morning started lazily, as any good Sunday should. I called Perry to see what he and the family-unit were up to and tossed out the idea of meeting for coffee; he liked the idea and the day was set in motion. Introduced Sara to Perry, Kate and company. It was amusing to watch as the baby nearly leaped out of her high chair to jump into Sara’s lap. Followed very shortly thereafter by the middle boy. We hung out and chatted for a while…

…and when we left, I decided that it was time for a trip to CompUSAirways. I walked out empty-handed, although I was tempted to pick up a few items. One of the items was new memory for Intrepid, since I lobotomized it to up ‘Nine‘s memory. Something told me to hold off a bit, so I did. Then I saw the recently-reduced-in-price Mac mini. Mmmmm, Apple-y goodness. Again, I resisted. I also held off on a set of PC speakers and a secondary iPod speaker system.

From there, it was off to see if one of the seventy-leven area Barnes & Noble stores had a copy of The Prophet of Akhrahn. They didn’t have it. *shakes fist* I know that I saw it in one of their local stores around, I just have to remember which one it was.

Next on the docket: Follow-up ride up Emigration Canyon to see the foliage. There were more hints of reddish tones, but it still hasn’t changed much. It might be a little more vibrant in another week or so. Back down Parley’s and on to Jitterbug for lunch…. where we ran into Spydr and Uriah. Pleasant surprise, that.

Back home. I asked Sara’s opinion on the frames from yesterday’s Garden of Sweden excursion, since I was 50-50 on the matter. She thought the black one looked good with the pictures. I’ll probably wind up exchanging the silver frame for another black one. (And I still need to assemble the bedside tables.) Since, as lj user=”everydave” is fond of saying, I have the metabolism of a ferret on crack, I started getting hungry a short while later, so I started cooking dinner. And, I went at it in a two-birds-one-stone fashion: I grilled chicken thighs and then added some stir-fry vegetables to the pan and fixed rice in chicken broth, while I baked a couple of chicken breasts. Dinner. Lunch. Dinner(s) later in the week. Hoo-AH! Sara headed back to Cedar shortly after dinner…. and the bedside tables have still not taken the initiative to magically assemble themselves.

Football Update

• – Beat the Cardinals. At home. Selah.
• – Took it to the Hawks… in Atlanta.
• – Beat down the Lions. ‘Grats, !
• – Dropped one to the Sea-chickens.
• – Lost to the Raiders. The Raiders! C’mon, , what’s up with that?!
• – Lost to the Chiefs. Sorry, .
• – Scalped the Redskins. ‘Grats, !

Stray Toasters

• I just made a pretty damned good coffee milkshake. Then I spilled it all over the kitchen counter. *grblsnrkx*
• I just made another pretty damned good coffee milkshake. I did not spill this one all over the kitchen counter.
• “Madlessly.” I think this is my new favorite word.
• 
• Dr Volt’s is now open… on… Sunday?!
• “What’s a Nubian?” (NSFW)
• “Shower foul.”
• Someone with way too much free time compiled a list of Legion Action Figures., including HeroClix… although not all of the ‘Clix have been added, yet.
• Naomi Wolf on Colbert Report: 10 Steps to Fascism
• 
• From Worth 1000: Fake It Till You Make It
• HOW TO: Bleach-Stencil a Shirt
• Tyranist: Shaun of the Dead will be The Tower’s midnight movie on 12-13 October 2007.

Since the bedside tables don’t have the gumption to assemble themselves, I guess I’m going to have to do it.

Namaste.

Thursday: Coda
After work, I met Mary, Chris, and for tonight’s entertainment: Resident Evil: Extinction. Yep. Zombies-a-go-go. And Milla Jojovich beating ’em down. It wasn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, Oscar-fare, but it was a nice way to spend an evening with friends. And, it was fun.

After the movie, Nox, Lavynder and I headed to one of the local Sampan restaurants for a late dinner. The food and company were good, as was the conversation.

Stray Toasters

• Another glass of chocolate milk might be in order this evening.
• posted about her mother’s passing last year. It reminded me that my grandmother died four years ago, this past Monday. Last week, while moving things from LJ to WordPress, I took another look at the post I did on that day. It occurred to me that I hadn’t shown it my father; so I printed it out and sent it to him. He messaged me over the weekend to let me know that he received it… and liked it. That made me smile, although I felt a little bad about having not shared it with him before now.
• posted a link to the following video:
  
• …I cringe and pretend like it won’t peel paint.
• Acolyte Derek pointed me in the direction of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. I am amused.
  
  

Anything else can wait until after the sun has put in an appearance.

Namaste.

Monday – 17 September 2007
And so, another week begins.

Friday, I spent the early part of the day elbow-up in servers, wires and DDR RAM. Yay. The first few racks I checked weren’t too bad; but the last one…? Not nearly as fun as it could have been. When I finished, I called it a day… and a week.

I ran a couple of errands and hit the road.

Destination: Cedar City
Objective: Visit Sara.

As with any good road trip, there were plenty of road monkeys with which I had to deal. Natch. Fortunately, by the time I got out of Payson, they had pretty much disappeared. The trip was rather uneventful, with the notable exception of a 15-mile stretch heading into Scipio… where the road is narrowed to one lane, in each direction. And did I mention the 55 (at best) MPH speed limit through there? Yeah. Icing on the cake. Monkeys and construction aside, I made decent time.

Friday night, Sara threw a potluck dinner party/get-together. Aside from a lack of the usual Friday-night people-watching, it could have easily been a Clitorati-esque gathering. Oh… and substitute wine for the usual caffeinated beverages, too. And there was Guitar Hero II, at which I proved once again that I either need never play it again or play it a lot and master it.

Saturday was a relaxed day that included:

• …a trip to Cedar Breaks National Monument. We hiked the Alpine Lake trail, which divides into an “upper trail” and a “lower trail,” which meet at the aforementioned lake.
• …kite-flying. Well, “some” kite-flying – the kite kept wanting to nose-dive into the ground. It looks like a couple of the lines on the parafoil are twisted, so I’ll need to see what I can do about correcting that.
• …dinner at Casa de Don Miguel’s, a small Mexican restaurant in town. I had an enchilada and burrito combination plate that was pretty good.
• …a trip to the local Dairy Queen, where I sated my craving for a chocolate-dipped ice cream cone. A craving that I keep neglecting to appease in Salt Lake.
• …EuroTrip. (Damn you, Tyranist.)

Sunday was an equally-if-not-moreso relaxed day. Sara and I hung out, headed to Chili’s for lunch and then to see Stardust. Having seen it before, I wasn’t as shocked by Robert DeNiro’s performance, although I was just as entertained by it as the first time I saw it. I paid a little more attention to Michelle Pfeiffer’s performance this time; I feel like I slighted it in my first review. She did an excellent turn as Lamia, a witch in search of Claire Dane’s Yvaine. I remember thinking at one point,”Lamia… Catwoman… Lamia… Catwoman…” I had forgotten how well she portrays villains/antagonists. After the movie was homework (for Sara) and geekery (for me) followed by dinner. And an episode of Coupling. (Damn you, Tyranist. Again!)

This morning’s commute wasn’t bad. Fortunately, the monkeys weren’t out en masse. And the fifteen-mile crawl wasn’t unbearable. And I made it to the office in good time. Of course, I realized, a tad too late that I didn’t caffeinate myself before leaving, so I will have to tread lightly when dealing with the monkeys, as the blood content in my caffeinestream is higher than usual. I should check the break room to see if there is anything brewable in there.

Football Update
I missed the game, but I did see that the Ravens shot down the Jets. Two down, thirteen to go…

Additionally, Congratulations (and “Thank you”) to for the beatdown his beloved Browns gave to ‘s Bengals.

Stray Toasters

• I need to definitely get to the Garden of Sweden this week.
• , did you and onlyaly get your Recommended Daily Allowance of speed, loops and corkscrews during your excursion to Coaster-opolis?
• 
• Superman: Doomsday comes out tomorrow.
  
• HALO 3 comes out in eleven days.
  …of course, that also means that I’ll need to get a 360 on which to play it.
• 
• Two down, two in a holding pattern.
• Discovery paves way for gamma-ray annihilation lasers
  Gamma Rays?! Are they mad!? Didn’t they learn anything from Bruce Banner’s accident?!
• Another man dies after marathon gaming session
• *voop*

Namaste.

Friday – 14 September 2007
Last night, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do about dinner, so I decided not to make a choice… so to speak.

Instead, I rang up to see what her plans were. She had none. She asked if I had a taste for anything in particular and I answered with my generic response: “Food.” She said that didn’t help. *shrug* She threw out a couple of suggestions. The one that stuck was Olive Garden. And so, we went. I tried one of their new dishes: Chicken and Gnocchi Veronese, a chicken and dumplings dish in a garlic cream sauce. It was rather tasty, but there seemed to be a disproportionate number of dumplings to chicken bits. Oh, well.

The rest of the night was spent being rather aimless and taking care of a few things around the apartment.

This morning, I woke up, got ready for work and hit the road. Short commute today. I can tell that I am ready for it to be the end of the day because I didn’t notice that I was missing my ID badge until I was in the elevator, on the way up to the office. I toyed with the notion of running home to get it, but decided against it, as it would be “too much” effort. A guest badge would do. Today, I am #10. For some reason, I started thinking, “What if this wasn’t written in Base 10? What if it’s Base 2? Or hex…?” From there, it only got worse: I started thinking of how to write “007” in different bases.

Yeah… it’s Friday.

Stray Toasters

• I’m handling Day 2 of a server upgrade survey. I talked with the person responsible for these servers yesterday, in an effort to coordinate shutting them down without affecting too many people adversely. Overnight, he apparently forgot part of what we had discussed. *sigh*
• Happy ‘coastering (not to be confused with ‘Toastering) to and onlyaly.
• I caught this meme by way of :
  1. Go to http://www.careercruising.com/.
  2. Put in Username: nycareers, Password: landmark.
  3. Take their “Career Matchmaker” questions.
  4. Post the top ten results.

  My results:

  1. Multimedia Developer
  2. Electronics Engineering Tech
  3. Electrical Engineering Tech
  4. Website Designer
  5. Optical / Ophthalmic Lab Technician
  6. Industrial Designer
  7. Architect
  8. Computer Support Person
  9. Interior Designer
  10. Tailor / Dressmaker
• World’s Worst Poluted Places 2007
• Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Ko Bop
  Shimmy Shimmy Bop
• 
• Video for MC Frontalot’s nerdcore song about Zork

Back to the grind. Need to get this stuff sorted out and done so I can get on to my weekend.

Namaste.

Monday: Coda
The Ravens lost to the Bengals.

Okay. There. I said it. And with that, I’d like to offer a hearty “congratulations” to .

It was a “good” loss, though… despite some craptacular calls in the first quarter. And that’s not just my opinion: thought so, too. Some of the calls made us wonder what game the refs were watching. *shrug* Oh, well.

I don’t know who was suited up in the first quarter, but I don’t think that they were pro players. They couldn’t have been, given some of the mistakes they made. Both Nox and I were flummoxed by some of the blatant errors. Fortunately, the Ravens seemed to find their key players in the second quarter.

I’m going to armchair QB for a moment and say that I disagree with Brian Billick’s decision to keep Steve McNair in the game as long as he did… and then throw Kyle Boller in, with about five minutes to go, to try and pull it out. To his credit, Boller did a good job. He was shaky for about two plays and then settled in…

…but it was a bit late at that point. Granted, he engineered a good drive and some nice plays, but at the end, he was still “too fresh” on the field and fired a rocket shot at TE Todd Heap – at short range – that just bounced off Heap’s hands.

Oh, well. It’s the first game of the season. There are still 15 more to play.

Nox and I watched the game at Fiddler’s Elbow. Decent food. Good service. And, a decent crowd. Not too rowdy. Non-smoking. And just all-round “good.” Along with Guiness (on tap, no less) I tried their Cajun Chicken Sandwich. It was rather tasty. I tried their buffalo wings and barbecue wings, as an appetizer. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t quite as good as the ones at Moab Brewery.

Stray Toasters

• I messaged Kris, to see if she was watching the game. She wasn’t (she was in class), but she was recording it.
• Joust gets movie, graphic novel treatment… wait, what?
• 
• Batgirl concept, for .
• …speaking of whom, I talked with her for a little bit this afternoon. It was a pleasant surprise.
• “In the year 2000…”
• I’m not sure whether or not I want to give 300 pounds a shot tomorrow.
• Cogito Ergo Zoom

And now, to find some trouble to get into.
Or maybe I’ll just watch a movie.

Namaste.

Thursday: Coda
Post-work, I came home, took care of a few errands and headed to Jitterbug to have coffee – and a light dinner – with and . The food, drink and the company were all good.

After that, I came home to face a project – rearranging a couple of my closets – that I left undone last night. Well… “half-done,” I guess. Either way, there was a good bit left to do. It’s still going to take a bit of tweaking, but I’m happy with the preliminary results.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you come across something – or several things – that offer(s) up a glimpse at how good things are.

I had posted the following as a Toaster a couple nights ago…

I believe in what I see
I believe in what I hear
I believe that what I’m feeling
Changes how the world appears

…and didn’t realize that how fortuitous it was.

Tonight, while going through one of the closets, I found a few things that I had forgotten about. And they made me smile. Every last one of ’em.

Stray Toasters

• I have Black Cherry Kool-Aid…
• …but I think that I want some chocolate milk.
• By way of Dwim: Internet People! – The Meth Minute 39
• Because it pops up every once in a while (and I like it): An American Pantheon
• I’ve been reading Starslip Crisis… and enjoying it.
• William Gibson WashPo interview “one of the best ever”
• Road monkeys. *grblsnrkx* In the… roughly three miles from I-15 to Union Park Avenue, I believe that I hit my Recommended Daily Monthly Annual Allowance for road monkeys.
• This was me, two nights ago.
• “Conundrum.” (They really need to put 7 Days on DVD.)

Namaste.

Wednesday: Coda
I drove home from work with grand designs of taking a nap. After a restless night’s sleep, it seemed like a good way to go. I even planned it out so that I would start dinner (baked chicken breasts) and doze while they cooked.

Naturally, when I got home, I remembered a couple of things that I wanted to accomplish this evening and thus… pushed dinner and my nap onto the back-burner.

About an hour later than I had planned, dinner was under way and I prepared myself to visit Morpheus and the other denizens of The Dreaming. I was apparently more wiped-out than I had thought: My planned 30-minute nap stretched into an hour. I did wake up and turn off the chicken, but I stretched out on the couch again afterwards. When I roused myself, it was time to eat: chicken breasts, angel hair pasta and what would have been “stir-fry vegetables,” had I not put them in the oven alongside the chicken… and a glass of Gewürztraminer.

Four Color Coverage
There is an article on Broken Frontier about the 50th issue of (the current run of) Teen Titans. In it, it mentions how a number of writers and artists collaborated on the issue and how long-time fans would appreciate the four pages of work by George Perez, who pencilled the Titans’ adventures for many years in the 80s. In fact, many would say that he was the definitive Titans artist.

That got me thinking: Who are my “definitive” artists for given books? Whose style stands out when you picture a given title?

For me, the list includes:

• John Byrne – Uncanny X-Men and Fantastic Four
• John Cassady – Astonishing X-Men
• Alan Davis – Excalibur (I’m sorry… no one drew/draws that book like Alan Davis.)
• Keith Giffen – Justice League International
• Ethan Van Sciver – Green Lantern

I’m a little torn about the Legion: I grew up with Keith Giffen’s art, but I really liked Barry Kitson’s Threeboot run.

I’m sure that if I were to go through my collection, I’d come up with dozens more artists, but for now, this is a good start.

For those of you who read comics, who are some of your definitives?

Stray Toasters

• From the Broken Arrow file: Commander dismissed for nuclear mistake
• X-babies! (1,2)
• And, yet another addition to the Covet List: Phoenix
• , do I even want to ask about this: Nepal’s airline sacrifices goat to fix jet !?
• “A Wynn-Wynn situation”
• Psychological “torture bible” published in 1961 resurfaces online
• tried to kill me once again. This time, she tried with this. The even more odd thing: I had seen it, at behest, a couple of years ago.
• Thus, for Ms. Lightning: This.
• Or maybe…. this:

  

  (Yes, I did hear about Friday’s “Batman got beat up by a girl” conversation. Many thanks to for taking up the role of The Voice of Reason in my absence.)

• Dear Angie and John, a columnist’s introduction of a couple of friends to the world of comics.
• Partial Face Transplants – An advanced Photoshop pictures gallery
• I like Elton John’s Rocket Man; I also appreciate a good joke or comic that references it.
• COMIC URBAN LEGEND: Terra was created as a sort of parody of Kitty Pryde.
• Tyranist: It Came From the Quarter Bin: Star Brand #1
• The power just blipped out. Followed by a lovely reboot – my UPS needs a new battery or to be replaced. I thought that I had lost this post, as I hadn’t used “Save and Continue Editing.” Fortunately, Firefox somehow managed to save it. All.
• : Journey into Comics: Legion Season 2

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Tuesday: Coda / Wednesday – 05 September 2007
The post-work day has been… a bit… interesting.

I went to dinner with and a few of his friends and family. In and of itself, that’s not a bad thing. The problem was the storm that rolled in just as we were getting to the restaurant: Lightning. Thunder. Rain. Wind. Mayhem.

The mayhem came in the form of a blown transformer that took out power on 33rd South from just shy of 7th East almost all the way to State Street. So… dark restaurant. No food. Yay! We regrouped at one of the local Lone Star Restaurants. I haven’t eaten in a Lone Star in a couple of years – something about my aversion to what refers to as “cat in a dryer” (i.e.: “country”) music tends to keep me at bay. But, in the company of friends, what the Hell?! Why not? The food was good, as was the company.

From there, and I headed to Casa de for Game Night. Well, not really Game Night, per se, but we talked about where we’d like to go from this point (since we kind of, sort of killed/dispersed the major antagonist of the campaign). Nox has some ideas and we’re going to venture forth in two weeks.

Four-Color Coverage: Animated Edition
I borrowed the new Doctor Strange DVD (IMDb page) from Perry the other day. The good doctor has never been one of my A-list favorites, but I haven’t turned a title or story down just because he’s in it. I know the basics of his back story and that he’s Marvel’s Sorceror Supreme (read: “He’s the Grand Poobah of Magical Mojo in the Marvel Universe”). He’s been a part of the latest incarnation of The New Avengers, The Defenders… and he’s also part of Marvel’s Illuminati.

With that knowledge in mind, I sat down to watch the new release from Lionsgate and Marvel Entertainment.

The Stephen Strange to whom viewers are introduced is a brilliant neurosurgeon… who just happens to be aloof, arrogant and an all-around ass, quite frankly. He doesn’t have time to be “bothered” with things that aren’t going to bring a healthy fee and/or notoriety. He’s the walking epitome of hubris.Soon, he has a horrible automobile accident and loses the fine motor control of his hands, spelling the end to his career as a surgeon. From there, viewers see his descent into a broken man with no hope.

Enter: Wong, a disciple of a mystic known only as “The Ancient One.” With him, Wong brings the promise of healing for the former doctor. And hope.

And, from that point, the journey of Doctor Strange begins.

I have to admit that I was rather impressed. This movie, though given a PG-13 rating, wasn’t dumbed down. It was well-written, well-voiced and (with a couple of brief exceptions) well-animated. With the exception of young children, I’d say that this feature is something that the entire family could enjoy.

Stray Toasters

• I believe that I want to see Across the Universe.
• The word of the day, heard on Tuesday morning’s commute, is: “Superfunkycalifragisexy.”
• One of the ‘Little Rock Nine’ Looks Back
• When worlds collide, by way of Real Life Comics:

  

• Meat and greet – all the president’s lunch, by way of lj user=”dmmaus”
• “Mischief managed” and “Danger averted.”
• I believe in what I see
  I believe in what I hear
  I believe that what I’m feeling
  Changes how the world appears
• “Nucular toonami!”
• 
• Not one to avoid controversy, Whoopi Goldberg defends Vick’s dog-fighting role
• I noticed that the calendar in the… hmm, I can’t call it the HALO Command Center, as my Xbox is in the living room… “office” – a Marvel 2007 calendar, chock full o’ superhero goodness and given to me by Acolyte Derek – has September 11, 2007 noted as “Patriot Day.” I’m not going to go into my usual “Why the day shouldn’t be called that” rant here… but I thought about it.
• One of my KVMs is acting up; I can’t find all of the cords for the other one. *sigh*

It’s early and I have to get up later.

Namaste.