Random Access

Tuesday – 10 January 2023
Starting up again.

A new year has started. It has been good thus far. And really, that’s all one can ask for.

Stray Toasters

• This is Red Five. I’m going in…
• As the happy owner and user of Commodore 64 and 128 computers, I was intrigued by this movie. I haven’t watched it yet, but it’s on the near horizon.
• Can You Actually Live in a Hangar Like Maverick in Top Gun
• After a lot of searching, I managed to find an archived link to An American Pantheon, by Terry McCombs.

And, that’s a wrap.
(Which was almost “warp,” which would have been a totally different thing.)

Friday – 04 September 2020
Just posting a few things that have caught my eye, from various corners of the Internet…

• Wearing a neck gaiter may be worse than no mask at all, researchers find
  • A Supercomputer Analyzed COVID-19 — And An Interesting Theory Has Emerged
• She Explains ‘Mansplaining’ With Help From 17th-Century Art
  • Nicole Tersigni on Twitter
• How to Use OneNote for Taking Notes at School
• THIS IS IMPORTANT: Recognize Misinformation on the Internet
• Gravity Jet Suit

Friday – 15 May 2020
For the past seven or eight weeks, my manager has held “check-in” meetings with my team. These meetings aren’t so much about day-to-day business; they are more light-hearted and casual – just making sure that we are all maintaining our sanity during quarantine and working remotely.

One of the things that my manager is big on is having our cameras on during meetings. He thinks, and I agree, that it fosters a level of openness, bolsters the sense of community, and helps focus on the people in the meeting rather than just having disembodied voices in your ear.

We – the various IT departments –  have been expanding our use of Microsoft Teams as a collaborative and communication tool over the past year. We are in the middle of actively migrating everyone else over from Skype to Teams. There have been a lot of training sessions that have gone along with this. A LOT.

Our Service Delivery team has also been providing less formal, more conversational sessions, highlighting some of the features of Teams and showing how different departments can make use of Teams to be more efficient and effective. One of the features that seems to be a hit with most users is the ability to either blur your background or to upload your own backgrounds to be used during video calls.

During our last check-in meeting, my manager casually threw out the idea of having us joining today’s meeting using a background that represented us or something we enjoyed. Everyone said, “Okay,” and went about the rest of our day.

Challenge: ACCEPTED

I spent some time over the past few days looking for a specific type of picture. I didn’t find anything that sang to me in the way that I hoped, but I kept looking. I wound up using a background I downloaded a few weeks ago, which still suited my purposes just fine.

And that is how I wound up dressed as Nick Fury – complete with scars, eyepatch, and overcoat – “sitting” in a S.H.I.E.L.D. conference room during today’s meeting.

I regret nothing.

#cosplayatwork #dressforthejobyouwant #LifeInIT #ajobaintnuthinbutwork

Monday – 28 October 2019

Saturday was my 49th birthday.

CAKE!

I would like to thank everyone – and there were a lot of you – who took time out of their day to wish me well as I start another 2?93,000,000 mile trip around the sun. It made the day that much more special to know that people thought enough of me to write or call. So, a very heart-felt “Thank you” to each of you.

As my birthday was on a Saturday, I took Friday off. I even went to the gym. (WHAAAAT!?) Yeah, first time in [REDACTED] that’s happened. Friday night’s soreness spoke to that. Loudly. There was a trip to The Train Shoppe and I took myself out for Chinese food for lunch, as well. Later in the evening, I had dinner with Team DiVa – no SaraRules!, as she had to work – and a few friends.

Saturday included sleeping in, breakfast spaghetti (!), a VERY cool birthday present…

“In brightest day, in blackest night…”

…heading to a hobby shop to pick up more accessories for Action Figure Theatre, and then cake and ice cream with Sara and the ladies.

Sunday started with a dusting of snow (!), once again proving my statement that it usually snows in SLC before November.  There were chores to be done, but we also took a trip to the Clark Planetarium.

Not On My Watch

Any Landing You Can Walk Away From…

Into the Unknown

The night was capped with dinner with Sara’s side of the family, MORE cake and ice cream, and Hallowe’en cookie-decorating.

In all, it was an excellent start to 49. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings.

Namaste.

Saturday – 20 July 2019
Today marks the anniversary of man’s first landing and footsteps on the moon.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Rob (@shadorunr) on Jul 20, 2019 at 8:38am PDT

After being up and down all night – until 4:30 this morning! – with a sick Team DiVa, I think that the worst is behind them. They aren’t back to full steam, but they are far better than they were at this time yesterday.

Of course, Evie decided that since this isn’t Thursday, bad news was just fine. Today’s “bad news” came in the form of a VERY awake puppy at 6:45 AM. A very awake puppy who wanted to get out of her crate and have some human interaction. Therefore, I was up at 6:45, too. Yay. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve learned that Evie can be entertained/distracted by the early morning shows with animals on them. So, that’s what we watched until it was time for her to go outside and take care of her morning run around the yard/go to the bathroom time.

Once Sara and the DiVa were up, things were back to a greatly scaled-back form of normal. Fortunately, we didn’t have anything on the day’s agenda. This is good, as it gives the ladies more recovery time. And, despite tomorrow being National Ice Cream Day, we’re going to have to postpone our annual Ice Cream Social. Again, more recovery time and less chance for possibly spreading contagion… if whatever they had was contagious. *shrug* And, check out these freebies/discounts on ice cream, by way of USA Today:

Pet owners – PetSmart: This ice cream freebie is only for dogs. At stores with PetsHotel facilities, dogs can get a free 4-ounce serving of dog-safe ice cream topped with dog biscuit treats Saturday and Sunday, while supplies last.

It’s a little after 5 PM now. I’m basically awake through sheer willpower and the remnants of this morning’s caffeine infusion still coursing through my veins. I have no illusions that I’m going to crash hard tonigh, most likely while sitting in front of the TV, watching whatever show or movie Sara and I delude ourselves into thinking that we’ll finish in one viewing.

Namaste.

Sunday – 20 January 2019
Tonight, there was a lunar eclipse, visible from North America. The skies were clear enough that we were able to see it; we also let Team DiVa stay up to see it. Sara and the girls went outside a little before nine to see what it looked like. I opted for the warmth of “staying inside.”

We all went out around 9:20. A small crescent of the moon was still unobscured. The girls were also excited to show me the constellation Orion. (Hey, they’re not usually up and outside when it’s late enough to see it and they REALLY wanted to make sure I saw it. That was an easy “win.”) After looking up at the stars and moon, we headed back inside.

At 9:35, we ventured back outside. The moon had the tiniest of fragments that was still getting direct sunlight, but it was losing ground. Quickly. About this point Vanessa commented that the moon wasn’t really that red. (Tough crowd, what can I say?) Unimpressed, she decided to go in and finish getting ready for bed. Diana wasn’t far behind her. Sara and I followed.

After tucking the ladies in, Sara and I returned outside and looked at the moon – whose red had deepened a little – and appreciated the view for a few minutes.

Eclipse

Eclipse – EMBIGGENED!

And then, not surprisingly, we came inside.

Thursday – 17 January 2019
In my Instagram feed this morning, one company I follow posted a picture – over 100 years old! – of a rail line that passed through the town in which my father grew up and just shy of the town where my mother grew up. I decided to try and see if I could figure out where the picture was, by way of Google Maps. (Hint: I wasn’t quite, but I got close enough to sate my curiosity. 100 years is kind of a long time, after all.)

Something else happened however…

I wound up using Google Maps and Street View to “drive” down the road that I rode and drove on for decades to get to my grandparents’ house. It was interesting to see what was still the same and what had changed. In doing the math, I also realized that I hadn’t driven down that road since well before I moved out west. I followed the road all the way to the best view of the house that I could get. It was a nice nostalgic moment.

I “rode” further down the road, to find the house in which my mother grew up, but there was no Street View available for it.  I can’t say that I’m terribly surprised by that, though.

Still, I got to see a part of the country – and places that evoke a lot of good memories – that I haven’t been to in a very long time.

And that’s not a bad thing at all.

Tuesday – 15 January 2019
Today is the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.‘s birthday.

When Simon and Garfunkel sang about a Hazy Shade of Winter, they must have been talking about the Salt Lake Valley. The air here has been atrocious over the past few weeks.

There’s supposed to be a weather system moving through tonight that will hopefully help move some of the chewy air out of the valley.

Stray Toasters

• Team DiVa has decided to undertake “spy training.” Last week, they spent days working on “being stealthy” and “using camouflage” to hide from Evie. (I didn’t have the heart to tell them that she could see – and just as easily smell – them, all the same.) Last night, after getting home from school, they asked me how much a motorcycle costs… because they need two of them (with two seats) to be spies. When I showed them a couple of options from BMW and Harley-Davidson, they asked if they’d have enough to buy them if they sold our house.YeahbuhWHAT?!

  Sara and I told them that, while they’d have enough to buy the motorcycles, that they’d have no place to live. At this point, Kid Logic kicked in, as they told us that they didn’t mean right now… but in a few years.

• Men Are Mad Online Because of a New Gillette Commercial
• A Son’s Race To Give His Dying Father Artificial Immortality
• A friend asked me if, when I say that I am adding something to “The Covet List,” I am adding items to an actual list. I told him, “Yes,” and that there are actually two lists. (I really need to see to it that they mirror each other more accurately.)
• How Our Cruelty Killed Hootie and the Blowfish – and Damaged Our Souls

There might be a fair bit more that I could say, but for now… I’m ready to call it a night.

Saturday – 10 November 2018

I just did a thing.

Choo. Choo.

More accurately, I made a thing.

For my birthday, I ordered a new toy: A 3D printer. It arrived earlier this week. It sat in the box for a few days; Team DiVa would often ask, “When are you going to open your box?” Last night, I opened and assembled it. Then, I went to bed, because I was tired and that’s what you do.

This afternoon, I took a couple of stabs at figuring out how to use it – leveling the print bed, making sure the motors worked, figuring out how to feed filament to the extruder. Pretty standard stuff.

This evening, I decided to jump in and try my hand at making something. I loaded the test print object and hit the “Go” button. (Okay, you caught me. There’s not an actual “Go” button on the printer. But, you have to admit: You considered the possibility for a moment.)

Nothing. Went. Right.

I consulted the University of Internet for help/answers. I found a setup and initial print video that actually helped a bit. The one issue I had was poor camera angles for some of the things the videos maker discussed. Which led, in part, to a problem I encountered: The print head moved, but didn’t really DO anything. The leveling I had done, based on the video, didn’t put the print bed at the level for which my printer was calibrated. So there was a LOT of adjusting and swearing and more adjusting.

I tried again.

More swearing and adjusting.

I opted to try a different test print object. I went to Thingiverse and found the file for a locomotive. Because: Me. I hit the Go button again. Yes, there was more adjusting, but noticeably less swearing. I hit the Go button, yet again. Lo and behold… printing occurred! Unfortunately, about 14 minutes into the 20-Minute Workout with Joanie Greggains print job, I bumped the table and made things go all skewampus on the print.

*grblsrnkx*

Undaunted, I started a new instance of the print job. And was vewy, vewy qwiet… and still. Something – and I’m still not sure “what” – bollocksed up the cowcatcher on the front of the locomotive, but everything else printed just fine.

I’m not sure what’s next and in the future for the 3D printer, but I promise (to TRY) to use this new power only for (neutral to chaotic) good.

Saturday – 30 June 2018

Today was a “Divide and Conquer” kind of day. Sara took Team DiVa to their swim class, while I represented the family at Salt Lake’s “Families Belong Together” rally.

I got there a too late to march with the other event-goers, but I was there. It would be good if our elected officials actually listened to – and acted upon – Vox Populi, and not just to the talking heads of their respective parties.

That brings up a side note: I’ve recently noticed a fair number of posts going around that say something to the effect of “Neither religion nor politics have ever been a reason to turn my back on a friend.” Isn’t part of the reason that we choose people to be in our circles because they not only share some of our views and perspectives… but also because the have differing ones, as well? What happened to the ability to “agree to disagree?” Or even the seemingly simple ability to have discourse without it devolving into arguments or outrage?

It seems to me
As well make our own few circles ’round the block
We’ve lost our senses
For the higher-level static of talk
“Dog Years,” by Rush (from the album Test For Echo)

After that, I headed to Koko Kitchen to pick up some lunch. I love that place and don’t get there nearly often enough. Back in the car and on to Watchtower Cafe to pick up some liquid motivation. I chatted with Tui a bit about next week’s Salt Lake Gaming Con (Are you going?!) and some of the goings-on there. I’m looking forward to attending.

Back in the driver’s seat and (finally) headed home. Sara and the girls were working on an assemble-and-paint model of the solar system. When they’d finished, Diana and I talked about the planets and their orbits… which turned into us asking our Echo about the orbital periods (new phrase for D) of the various planets.

We all enjoyed some downtime and then headed to one of the local libraries and parks. I was thwarted in my attempt to acquire delicious confections from C. Kay Cummings (Curses, foiled again!), as they closed about 20 minutes before we got there. *shakes fist* I poked my head into Dr. Volt’s Comic Connection, but decided that I didn’t need anything today. From there, it was off to dinner.

Post-dinner, I “needed” to stop at one of the local Michael’s. I picked up some props and accessories for Action Figure Theatre. (What?! I put “needed” in quotes. Get off my case!) It’s fun when I go to an arts and crafts store and go to check out with miniatures, because I often get an odd look, raised eyebrow, or even a direct “What are you making with these?” When I explain how they will be put to use, the quizzical expressions usually turn into wide, surprised smiles or laughter. Totally worth it.

One of the books I picked up at the library was a “How to Draw Animals” book for the girls. V picked it up first, but D was the first one to actually put it to use. In the half-ish hour she had before bed for free time, she busted out nine or ten pictures. And, they were good. Really good, especially for first shots. V, not to be outdone, drew a quick picture right before bedtime, which was also very good.

Later? Who knows….? Possibly a movie. Possibly some Overwatch or some other game.

Stray Toasters

• Today’s rally reminded me of something my father gave me years ago. And gave me an idea. We’ll see where this goes.
• I listened to a lot of Prince yesterday. I regret nothing.
• Bruce Banner could have used one of these: The Belt That Protects Against Gamma Radiation
• Tin Machine
• Salt Lake City’s fireworks laws have been recently updated/amended. There’s a period of a few days around July Fourth and Pioneer Day that are designated as legal to shoot off fireworks. Someone needs to tell the people a couple streets over.  *grblsnrkx*
• I didn’t realize how anxious and excited I am for City of Titans to (finally) drop until talking with a friend about some of my old City of Heroes and City of Villains characters last night.

.eof

Saturday- 24 February 2018

I’ve been (somewhat) trying to write a post for a month now. Seriously. There have been fits and starts, but no finished product… until now. It’s strange to think that this is my first blog post (on here, at least) this year. But, here it is.

Today has been a good day. It snowed last night. It’s as if Mother Nature finally decided to remind people that “Yes, this is still Winter and I still have a few tricks up my sleeve,” and do it all in one week:

Oh, y’all wanted to call me out for not giving you any snow this winter?

BLAOW!

How ya like me now?

Said snow contributed to our decision to not venture out to Team DiVa’s swim class and, thus, gave all of us some prime sleeping-in time. Selah.

Next up: Ballet class for the ladies. Sara and I had supplemental breakfast and coffee while the girls were in class. From there, we headed down to Draper to catch an encore presentation of Mary and the Witches’ Flower. We’d wanted to see this a month ago, but it sold out rather quickly. Eagle-eyed Sara saw something a couple of weeks ago which noted another showing; we decided to make a family movie adventure out of it. The movie was quite cute and had a couple of take-away lessons. Even more importantly: Team DiVa liked it.

Next, back home for a hot minute so I could get my car and head off to record “a very special episode…” of Geekshow Podcast with Jay Whitaker (1, 2), Kiki Furia, Kari Keone, Dr. Paul White, and Stephan Watson, with Kerry Jackson as our host and moderator. The episode was about Black Panther and will be out Monday. NOTE: It’s heavily spoiler-laden and not exactly safe for work. You have been warned.

Now, I just need to finish this morning’s greatly-belated Instagram #morningcoffee post and all will be well with the world.

Stray Toasters

• An Artist Reversed The Gender Roles In Sexist Vintage Ads To Point Out How Absurd They Really Are
• Deep Space Nine Is TV’s Most Revolutionary Depiction of Black Fatherhood
• Illustrated Periodic Table
• Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
  Never ending or beginning on an ever-spinning reel
  Like a snowball down a mountain, or a carnival balloon
  Like a carousel that’s turning running rings around the moon
  Like a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes on its face
  And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space
  Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind
• Budgeting Doesn’t Have to Suck
• 21 Murphy’s Laws of Combat That Could Save Lives
• After 56 years apart, they rediscovered a love they thought was lost forever – The man in this article is my uncle (my step-father’s brother); I wasn’t able to make it home for the wedding, but this is a lovely story.
• The Tiahrt Amendment

Out.

Sunday – 24 December 2017
Last night, my gaming group got together for another Shadowrun session. It was a little touch-and-go as to whether or not the game would actually happen earlier in the day, but it did.

Game night!

I quite enjoy my group and running games for them. Most of my players are (relatively) new to the world of Shadowrun, while others have experience from the computer/console games. Watching them come together to experience the pen-and-paper world of the late 21st Century has been fun and occasionally highly entertaining. Case in point…

In our last session, the group had been contacted to find a missing person. And, as they were leaving the meeting, they were contacted by another agent to do a semi-related job, finding an item that the missing person was investigating. Serendipity AND more money. They followed some leads to the person’s last known location: A room in a fairly upscale hotel. They didn’t find the person, but another set of clues that led to a location in underground Seattle.

That’s where tonight’s game picked up. They walked into the location (see map)…

(c) Catalyst Lab Games

…and right into the middle of a gang war. Literally into the middle of it. So, they did what any intelligent adventuring party would do: Dove into the nearest cover – the ladies’ restroom. Or, rather, they tried. Two players had… issues: One stumbled and slammed into a wall, making her a target for getting shot. (Hooray for armored clothing!); the other… just… fell and almost got his head caved in by an exuberant – but very clumsy – ganger.

Members of the party, leaning out of the women’s room doorway, open fire on Gang #1 (on the right, near/around #1 on the map; Gang 2 was on the left, near the big red arrow)… just as the first wave of cops is hitting the top of the steps to the underground. Shots are exchanged to little effect. The team’s mage decided to cast a wicked stun spell on a massive radius, centered on the nearby gang. And she was SERIOUSLY successful. Five of the seven nearby gangers dropped. So did some tourists. Go figure. Then things got ridiculous:

• Stumblebunny finally makes it into the restroom.
• NEXT ROUND: More shots fired.
  • Decker (computer hacker) decides to hack the optics of the last two nearby gang members.
    With goatse. (DO NOT LOOK THAT UP)
    • He was successful and, not surprisingly, they stopped shooting, just as…
  • The cops arrive at the top of the stairs to the underground level.
  • Mage’s turn: She casts a spell on one of nearby gang duo, making him think that he’s COVERED in insects, even inside his clothes.
    • Again: Raging success. So… he starts stripping.
• NEXT ROUND: The cops hit the level where the fighting was going on.
  • So, a couple cops are like “WTF?! Why is he getting naked?!”
  • Three cops decide to head down the corridor and confront the other gang, who are still shooting. Because…  gang.
• NEXT ROUND: Mage decides to cast another spell. “Swarm,” making the cops coming down the escalator think that they are in the middle of a swarm of bees.
  • Again, wickedly successful – it hits most of the cops on the escalator.
    • They lost their shit…
    • …for about 5 seconds, until the cops’ combat mage dispelled it.
  • As the three cops head down the hall to the left (towards Gang #2), one of the party flips a flash-bang out the bathroom at them… as the mage is celebrating her success, like this:
    
    (click image)
    For clarity’s sake, I asked if that’s what her character was really doing. She said “Yes.”
  • Flash-bang goes off.
  • Cops – in helmets and riot gear – shrug it off. Two of the three cops head down to face Gang #2, Cop 3 throws a flash-bang into the bathroom.
  • I just looked at the group and told them, “I don’t even need to roll this. Everything goes black. For all of you.” For a moment, they thought I killed them.
• Eventually (20-30 minutes later), they all come to, surrounded by 20+ not-so-happy cops.
• …when a 3m tall troll (cop) walks up. The team’s negotiator decides to go kind of hard-ass, while the Infiltrator (stealth guy/think “rogue”) is basically, “Yep, we’re shadowrunners,” when the troll cop asks what they’re doing there.
  • The cop-mage was also casting “read thoughts’ and “detect truth” when the troll cop was asking questions.  He kept saying that the negotiator was telling “mostly truths, but there’s some… grey… in there.’
  • Wasn’t making troll cop overly happy.

The best part of the troll cop asking questions sequence was the out-of-character conversations going on around the table, because half the party was ready to throw the mage under the bus for casting the swarm spell on the cops. To be fair, in the first adventure we ran, the mage tried to use her stun spell to stop a magical creature from escaping a zoo enclosure. She put two of her teammates to sleep instead. There may be some lingering resentment about that. Oops.

As I said above: I enjoy my gaming group.

Wednesday – 17 May 2017
Stuff and Things.

This past weekend was… busy. But also awesome. Saturday saw the usual ballet and swim morning routine. I missed the swim portion, as I was judging a game tournament. Then there was a little break – filled by running a couple of errands. Next, early dinner and dropping Team DiVa off at their grandparents’ house, so that Sara and I could see Utah Opera’s Don Giovanni. Again. (We saw the final dress rehearsal, with the little ladies, but went back Saturday for opening night.) I enjoyed the production. They updated the sets and costumes to place it in a noir setting. This changed a couple of scenes, but worked for me on the whole.

Sunday, was Mother’s Day.  Sara had been wanting to go to Spiral Jetty for a while and Golden Spike National Historic Site is just a (long) hop, skip, and a jump from there. Thus, we were up early to pick up DiVa and meet friends at Golden Spike and Spiral Jetty. The first time we went to Golden Spike, the locomotives were in the Engine House for the season; that was not the case this time. We arrived just before the Jupiter made its appearance.

About half an hour later, No. 119 rolled up.

The presentation that the rangers provided also informed us that the engines were fired differently: Jupiter is wood-fired, while No. 119 is coal-fired. You could also tell this from the way they smelled as they approached – Jupiter smelled like a camp fire, No. 119 smelled like a coal-burning oven.

After a while, we made the drive to Spiral Jetty. Fifteen miles. Forty minutes. Over bumpy dirt road. The water level was a little higher this time – still not up to the jetty, but only 20 or so yards away to splash pools and just past that to deeper water.

All in all, it was good weekend.

Stray Toasters

• What is the measure of a life? My Family’s Slave
• 100 Must-Read Sci-Fi/Fantasy Novels by Female Authors
• Drunken Whiskey Review: Kirkland Canadian Whiskey
• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s fourth season was all about punching Nazis – and it was the best yet
• Coding Game for Critical Thinking Skills
• Background Paintings for Scooby-Doo Are Delightfully Creepy and Rather Beautiful
• This past Monday was Miracle Monday… and I missed it.
  • I wonder if watching Monday night’s Supergirl counts to some degree, as Superman was in the episode…?
• Are Pop Lyrics Getting More Repetitive?
• 
  • Why Does “K” Stand for “Strikeout” in Baseball?

And that’s a wrap.

Friday – 21 April 2017
Another week comes to an end.
And, apparently, it’s been a month since I dusted off the trusty blog. I really need to get better about this…

In short: It’s been a good – and eventful – month. The highlights of the month include, but are not limited to:

• Going on a business trip.
• Surprising my parents by showing up on their doorstep on the first leg of the trip.
• Meeting some new coworkers on the trip.
• Getting to visit with my uncle towards the end of the trip.
• Coming down with some travel-related bug that had me down for almost a week.
• The start of baseball season and the O’s getting off to a great start. Hopefully, they’ll keep some of this momentum through the season.
• Meeting a Twitter and Facebook friend.
• TRAINS!  Well, getting to head up to the train.. museum(?)… and one of my favorite train shops.
• Traveling to Boise to visit family and friends over Easter.
  

  Sara, Team DiVa, and Grandmother – Easter 2017

• Watching Team DiVa hunt for Easter eggs while we were gone and seeing their surprise at discovering that the Easter Bunny had apparently left Easter baskets for them at our home while we were out of town.

I’m sure that I’m leaving more than “a couple” things out, but all-in-all, it really has been a good month.

Stray Toasters

• Free Posters Celebrating Mighty Women in Science
• The Cult of Ignorance in the United States: Anti-intellectualism and the “dumbing down” of America
• 11 Stereotypical Roles Offered to Black Men in Hollywood
• I’ve been doing (almost) daily coffee pictures on my Instagram feed for the past few months. Friday, I posted this picture:
  

  Fearless Defenders

  which was 100% inspired by the cover of The Fearless Defenders #1:
  

  

  Fearless Defenders Vol. 1 #1 (c) Marvel Comics

  I don’t think that I can really claim not to be a comics/action figure geek – as if that was possible – but I was rather pleased with how it turned out.

• Have An Airline Complaint? Don’t Call the Airline – Tell the Department of Transportation
  • Airline Quality Rating
• The Incomparable Difference Between Whitewashing and Racebending
• These Rare Color Photos from the Second World War Are Incredible
• 13 Things LEGO Bricks Taught Us About Life
• The KKK and Baseball History

And with that…

So Long, Farewell, Goodbye.
(Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, not “The Sound of Music”)

Wednesday – 22 March 2017
Testing out connectivity between WordPress, JetPack, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+

Nothing to see here, Citizen. Move along.