Random Access

Thursday – 14 May 2009
Last night, SaraRules and I stopped by to see Jess’ (‘s)  parents for a while. It was nice to be able to visit with them. Jess’ obituary can be read here. Jenny and Julie, Jess’ sisters, have put together a memorial blog for her at: Jessie’s Memories. The family has asked that, in lieu of sending flowers, people make a donation to the Pulmonary Hypertension Association.

After we got back home, came over. She had dinner (chicken and dumplings) with us and we watched The Darjeeling Limited. It was… an odd movie. I don’t think that I’ve seen a Wes Anderson film before, but I’ve heard that The Royal Tennenbaums is possibly his best work, so I’ll give that one a try at some point.

Stray Toasters

• Star Trek-related geekery
  • Is the new Star Trek movie scientifically sound?
  • Can Young Kirk Really Survive the Car Jump in the new Star Trek?
  • Star Trek conventions in the 1970s (Thanks to )
• Pope preaches against prejudice
• Ben Franklin Death Ray
• Lunar Junk
• 
• What grown men do with their G.I. Joe action figures
• “Something” just went wrong around here. No answers as to “what” or “why” yet.
• Steampunk preschool TV show from Weta
• For those of you in the SLC metro area: Ruth’s Diner reopens on Friday, 15 May 2009
• Real Life Spy Gadgets

Back to it.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 13 May 2009
Thank you to everyone who extended thoughts, prayers and well-wishes. I appreciate your thoughtfulness and concern and I am grateful for your friendship.

Last night, SaraRules and I met , and Mr. and Mrs. for dinner/dessert at The Cheesecake Factory. It was nice to hang out with them. As I have said many times before: I have been blessed with many very good friends. I don’t think that it’s a bad thing to remember/rediscover that fact. (I also rediscovered the inherent problems of having cups of coffee shortly before going to bed, too… but that’s another story altogether. *sigh*)

Stray Toasters

• Exotic Star Trek Locales Are All Over the California Map (contains a few possible spoilers)
• EU slaps record fine on Intel
• From NPR Music:
  • Lady Sovereign: The ‘Biggest Midget’ Returns
  • Mozart’s Turbulent Final Symphonies
  • John Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’ Live, with Strings
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Jesse Ventura: I could make Chickenhawk Cheney confess to the Sharon Tate murders with a waterboard
• Lite Brite Cubed
• Slain Lawyer’s YouTube Video Plunges Guatemala into Crisis, Protests Form on Facebook
• Greece Halts Google’s Street View
• City of Heroes Is Going Rogue
• 220MPH Solar-Powered Bullet Train on Arizona Horizon

…and back to it.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 12 May 2009
Today is apparently Limerick Day.

Yesterday, loonybin88, Sean and I headed over to the driving range at Old Mill for lunch. I had a few good  drives, but it was apparent that it has been “a while” since I’ve teed off. I foresee more trips to the range in the next few weeks.

Last night, SaraRules and I played Trivial Pursuit. She kicked my trash, eight ways from Sunday. Seriously. In about twenty-five minutes. We both started off slowly… then, next thing I knew, she had four wedges. I managed to get four by the time she got her sixth wedge, but then she headed for the center space and wrapped things up.

Stray Toasters

• In Turnabout, Iran Releases U.S. Journalist
• Before yesterday, it had been a while since I’d been to Broken Frontier; they’ve had a facelift.
• Mountain Game: Craig Adams’ Kurosawa-inspired Artsy designed, Alpinist
  (I actually own the movie that this was based on.)
• Their Name Is Legion
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: 747 sucks a baggage container into its engine at LAX
• Dear Spike, by way of
• Rachel sent me a couple of amusing items:
  • A quote from QDB and
  • A Shortpacked comic strip
• Thanks to Dana, from Galaxy of Comics, for pointing this out: Fathers’ Day: 2 Legendary Comic Creators Proud of WOLVERINE
• For , a couple of New Mutants-related articles:
  • New Mutants: Birth of the X-Babies
  • Mighty Week of Marvel #29
• One shot: Harvard College founder, UNSC soldier, HALO destroyer
• By way of : Vitamins Found to Curb Exercise Benefits

Quote of the Day
From an IRC conversation:

[23:23]  : blizzcon 2009 noncombat pet reward : grunty, the space marine murloc.
[23:24]  :

[08:26]  : nah, not going to blizzcon.  i was planning on buying the PPV broadcast on directv anyway though – grunty is an excellent bonus to go along with that. 🙂
[08:30]  Ahpuc: “grunty” ?
[08:30]  : The 8th Dwarf
[08:30]  : He was sick on the main day of filming, so they cut him out of Snow White altogether.
[08:31]  Ahpuc: Huh. I always thought the 8th dwarf was Sodomy, and they had to censor him out.
[08:32]  : Sodomy, or “Dom” as he was known in some circles, was replaced by Dopey… in an effort to make the movie more “family-friendly.”
[08:33]  Ahpuc: Family-friendly, because sodomy == contraception?
[08:33]  : Family-friendly as in “less therapy-inducing for small children”

Attack the day
Like birds of prey

Namaste.

Monday – 11 May 2009
The alarm went off at 0620 this morning and I promptly turned it off, turned over and went back to sleep. My phone rang at 0650 (!), but it took a few moments to register that it was, in fact, the phone and not another alarm. Once that sank in, I looked at who it was (loonybin88) and answered it – it could have been a work-related “get into the office ASAP” issue, after all. It wasn’t. He was just calling to see if I’d be interested in going to the driving range at lunch… which does interest me. And that’s when I decided to go ahead and start the day.

Yesterday, SaraRules and I headed to the Garden of Sweden. We didn’t necessarily need anything, but it had been a while since our last trip, so we decided to head over and see what they had to offer. We wound up leaving empty-handed. Last night, after spending time with SaraRules’ family for Mother’s Day, we went home and watched Bullitt, starring the late Steve McQueen. It was good. It turned in a few directions that neither of us saw and thus kept us engaged. Good action. Decent acting. And a good high-speed car chase through San Francisco. I may have to pick up a copy of this movie for my collection. I give it… seven-and-a-half bricks.

Stray Toasters

• Don’t forget that US postage rates for First Class Mail goes up 2¢ today.
• ‘Star Trek’ maps out new frontier at box office
• The Truth Is Out There, and the Nation’s Maddest Scientists Are After It
• What would you have gotten if SimCity had been done in comic book style: Simsville
• How LEGO Bricks Are Made: The 80s Version

Namaste.

Thursday – 07 May 2009
Happy Anniversary to Adam and Chelsea:

After work yesterday, SaraRules and I met Bill Byrnes – Dean of the College of Performing and Visual Arts at SUU – for dinner. We went to Desert Edge at Trolley Squre. I had a rather tasty roast beef/French Dip sandwich, that had a little “kick” to it. Both the food and the company were good.

After dinner, we stopped in to say “H’llo” to SaraRules’ parents before heading home. Once at home, we watched The Dark Knight. It’s still a rather watchable – and enjoyable – movie. I still have some reservations about whether or not Harvey Dent/Two-Face is actually supposed to be dead (or just very broken) at the end of the movie.  Yes, there was a memorial… but they never showed a body or even a casket. Just sayin’.  (And, after all, it is based on a comic book – people in those come back from the dead all the time.) And, as I have said before: The late Heath Ledger provided the right Joker for that Batman.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules made brownies last night.
• NASA mission aims to revive Hubble telescope
• The Awesomer – Awesome Stuff
• Pullman Porters Helped Build Black Middle Class
• Duke Nukem Developer Shuts Down
• 
• Best worst Star Trek parodies
• The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite
• FDA is failing to meet its food safety inspection audit goals
• 100 Years, 100 Novels, One List

And, tonight: Star Trek.
Win!

Namaste.

Wednesday – 06 May 2009
Last night, SaraRules and I went to see Simply Ballroom, an exhibition put on by the Southern Utah University Ballroom Dance Company.

(Part of the reason we went is that the company’s director, Mark Baker, was in SaraRules’ MFA class.) It was a fun show – we’d seen some of the routines before, but there was enough new material to make it fresh. And, it was good to see Mark before the company sets off on tour.

Stray Toasters

• Apple Racks Up Gaming Patents
• For those of you who haven’t looked at “the fine print” in the “Legal Copy” Mac ad, here it is.
• Japanese mother seeks boxing record
• By way of comes: UK publishes list of ‘least wanted’ people
• Ginsburg: Court Needs Another Woman
• By way of NPR Music:
  • Mother’s Mix: It’s The Least We Could Do
  • Hard Up: Jazz For Empty Pockets
• From Trek to Terminator – Actor Anton Yelchin’s Big Month
• 
• Apple Snags Former XBox Exec
• I think that this is a pretty damned good review of Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds
• Tesla’s New York Laboratory Up For Sale
• A Conductor Arrives, With a Nymph Who Flees
• A History of Rogue

…right on to the friction of the day.

Namaste.

Monday – 04 May 2009
I slept in this morning. I was surprised to find out by how much I slept in, actually. But, it both felt good and I apparently needed the rest.

As I noted yesterday, we – and a few of the usual suspects – saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It was a good summer popcorn movie. Yes, they played a little fast and loose with some continuity, but not so much that it was disturbing to me; I found it a nice blend of comic continutity with (some of) the previously established continuity of the first two X-Men movies. I give it a definite thumbs up with an okay.

We then headed over to SaraRules’ parents’ for dinner and the start of a movie. Dinner was a very tasty beef stew; the movie was Catalina Caper. More specifically: The Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of Catalina Caper. While I realize that virtually any movie that wound up on MST3K was “bad,” this movie set the bar to an all-time… low, I guess. The most entertaining thing about the twenty or thirty minutes that we made it through was Little Richard, and he wasn’t even “all there,” it seemed.

Back home for a rather lazy evening: I played a little City of Heroes and worked on some props for my Heroclix City; SaraRules did some reading.

Stray Toasters

• Art student’s car vanishing act
• Supermen!: The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1939-41
  ::: adds to The Covet List :::
• LEGO Torture Scenes Protest Media Censorship
• 
• Photoshop Contest: Cartoon Ren 3
• NASA to begin layoffs as shuttle retirement nears
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” files: Warner Music to Warner Music: You are pirates!
• Free Range Kids author says: Raise kids without fear!
• Photos of food and their sugar cube equivalent
• Five years (FIVE YEARS!) after the “wardrobe malfunction” incident, it seems as though CBS is still under the gun and may still be fined for it.

And, as I’m taking the day off, there’s nothing officially on tap. I like that.

Namaste.

Friday – 01 May 2009
It’s May Day, but more importantly (to me, at least) it’s my friend’s birthday.

Happy Hatching Day, Bret.

Last night, SaraRules and I had dinner at the local Olive Garden. We both had the Chicken & Gnocci Veronese; we also both had the same opinion of it: It was good, but the dumplings left a little something to be desired. They felt/tasted “too doughy,” as though another few minutes of cooking would have firmed them up just a little more. Otherwise, dinner was good. Our waitress, Kyrsten, was good and rather attentive, which is always a plus.

We came home and had a laid-back evening, including reading this week’s comic book haul and watching CSI: and a good portion of Hellboy. I also built a bus, from the Bits of Mayhem set, for my city. We also watched The Late Show (Dave’s laryngitis was much better) and The Late Late Show, on which Craig’s monologue included an amusing bit about Olive Garden.

This morning has been quite lazy. Despite turning off my alarms, I was awake at 7:08 this morning. Fortunately, I was able to turn over and fall asleep again. After all, getting up that early is no way to kick off a long weekend, now is it? I’m not sure what’s on tap for the rest of the morning and afternoon, but I’m good with the idea of just being lazy.

Four-Color Coverage
This week’s haul was a bit of a mixed bag. But, by the numbers, the “good” outweighed the “bad,” fortunately.

• Green Lantern #40 – This was another “Prelude to Blackest Night” issue. We start with a look at Yrra Cynril, the Star Sapphire formerly known as the Green Lantern-killer, Fatality. From there, we move to Oa and witness the creation of the Fourth Law of the Book of Oa. And that leads to a run-in with the Orange Lanterns.
• Justice Society of America # 26 – This issue was a great example of what the JSA stands for: Family and legacies. We get to see this, in a unique way, through the vantage point of Stargirl. Though she’s one of the younger members of the team, we see the affect she’s had on her peers – older and younger.
• Uncanny X-Men #509 – Just when it looked like things were going (relatively) well for the X-Men and they were settling into their home in San Francisco, it seems as though someone wants to pass (yet another) new legislation limiting mutants’ rights. On top of all of this, Madelyne Pryor’s master plan is brought to light… and, she decides to pay the X-Men a visit.
• Wonder Woman # 31 – Former head of the Queen’s Guard, Alkyone, made a deal with [SPOILER DELETED]. Achilles paid a visit to the United Nations. Diana got a visit from [SPOILER DELETED] and learned a few interesting facts about Genocide’s origins. None of these came under the heading of “good things.”

…and, last, but far from least…

• Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #4 – I have been enjoying this series and will be sad to see it end. This issue bounced between the 21st and 31st Centuries… and the end of time. [SPOILER DELETED] is back and Superboy-Prime is not happy to see him; nor is he thrilled about seeing Sodam Yat, for that matter. The Time Trapper makes his move. Starman’s mission in the 21st Century is revealed. [SPOILER DELETED] joins the fight. And, in one of the best origin revisions I think that I’ve ever read, the true identity of [SPOILER DELETED] is revealed.

Stray Toasters

• I’ve been given the green light to post a link to robandsara.org
• Daily LEGO: Exterminate!
• Someone has created a papercraft Defiant…
• ArtWerk’s map of his “beloved Europe

  

• sent me the following: IKEA lover or hater? You’ll know soon enough
• Apple not paying iPhone developers, reports of lawsuits brewing
• Have you ever wondered “What if Cthulhu was a furniture-maker?” Wonder no more.
• The Mind-blowing World of Human Chimeras
• Can’t get enough of William Shatner? Shatnerquake might be up your alley.

Quote of the Day
From this week’s issue of Legion of 3 Worlds:

Brainiac 5 (Legion 1): Have you ever read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein?
Brainiac 5 (Threeboot Legion): Frankenstein? That book is for children.
Brainiac 5 (Zero Hour Legion): And incomplete. I followed it step-by-step with little success.
Brainiac 5 (Legion 1): You’re both missing the point.
Gates: What is the point?
Brainiac 5 (Legion 1): “The point is, with the right amount of genius and a touch of perceived insanity, science can conquer anything.”

Namaste.

Thursday – 30 April 2009
It’s another NBN Thursday and this one kicks off a four-day weekend. Selah.

Last night was a lazy evening in, which was nice.  SaraRules and I watched Tuesday night’s episode of NCIS, “Legend,” the first of two parts which introduces the “Office of Special Projects.” (It looks as though NCIS is about to spin-off a new series in the same manner in which it was spun-off from from JAG.) The new group features LL Cool J, Chris O’Donnell and Louise Lombard, late of CSI:. SaraRules made the observation that Lombard’s character, Lara Macy, was virtually no different than her CSI: character, Sofia Curtis – her hair, clothing and overall disposition was exactly the same.  (We also had an apparent age discrepancy issue… but that’s a story for another time.)

The episode took Gibbs and McGee to L.A., to work on a joint investigation with OSP, while Tony and Ziva remained in D.C. There were a couple of references to “Judgment Day,” the episodes in which then-NCIS Director Jeny Shepard took Tony and Ziva to L.A. and wound up getting killed; those scenes created a couple of tense moments, which I thought played well to character development. On the whole, the episode was good and it will be interesting to see how the new series does, if it gets off the ground.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules started setting up wedding registries last night.
• referenced an interesting comment on MetaTalk this morning:
  

  My favorite thought-piece about Ferris Bueller is the “Fight Club” theory, in which Ferris Bueller, the person, is just a figment of Cameron’s imagination, like Tyler Durden, and Sloane is the girl Cameron secretly loves.

  One day while he’s lying sick in bed, Cameron lets “Ferris” steal his father’s car and take the day off, and as Cameron wanders around the city, all of his interactions with Ferris and Sloane, and all the impossible hijinks, are all just played out in his head. This is part of the reason why the “three” characters can see so much of Chicago in less than one day — Cameron is alone, just imagining it all.

  It isn’t until he destroys the front of the car in a fugue state does he finally get a grip and decide to confront his father, after which he imagines a final, impossible escape for Ferris and a storybook happy ending for Sloane (“He’s gonna marry me!”), the girl that Cameron knows he can never have.

• Lose the Fish and Justice LEGO of America
• Obama “Pleased” But Says Much Work Remains
• For Free Comic Book Day, DC Comics is releasing Corps 101: The Sinestro Corps
• 
• Raising Katie: What adopting a white girl taught a black family about race in the Obama era
• For the fashionable gamer in your life: Wiimote Cufflinks
• Windows 7 Will Be Free for a Year
  • Microsoft To Disable Autorun
• Virgin America Now Serves Absinthe
• One Nation, Seven Sins

…right on to the friction of the day

Namaste.

Tuesday – 28 April 2009
First off, let me start by saying Happy (Belated/Early) Birthday to the following people:

• and

I didn’t want to forget (again) to do that. And now that it’s taken care of, we now return you to your regularly-scheduled post…

After work, I went home and took a brief nap while SaraRules did some errand-running. It was good enough to get em through the rest of the evening.

When she got back, SaraRules and I went with her family down to Red Rock Brewing Company for dinner, to celebrate her father’s birthday. I had a very tasty cream stout along with a French Onion Steak Sandwich (on sourdough bread), which was very good. After dinner, we headed back to her parents’ place for cake (which was a very good homemade coffee cake) and coffee.

We left there and headed home. I changed into comfy clothes and plopped down on the couch. We watched The Late Show and The Late Late Show, which featured a rather amusing take on the swine flu coverage in the news:

By the way, : Dolly Parton will be on The Late Show (Letterman) tonight.

And, most importantly: I got a good amount of sleep last night. I even slept in this morning and when I got up, I decided that I wasn’t really in a rush to get to work. It felt pretty nice, actually. Although, when I got to the office, one of the managers of the development team came over and congratulated/thanked me (for the IT Team) for getting everything done and back online without horribly impacting their productivity. That was a good way to kick off the morning.

Stray Toasters

• The wedding website is getting more content. I might even get the go-ahead to post its link later.
• Game Changers: Brainteasers for Hardcore Videogame Fans
• , you’ll want to take a look at this: Full of Pryde
• Mormon Crickets Dislike Led Zeppelin
• The Words in the Mental Cabinet
• HOWTO make edible circuit diagrams out of candy
• 
• Kevin Smith Explains What Happened to His Superman Movie
• Cool Tools: New Editor, Same Deal
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Michael Jackson’s weirdest detritus, a photoset

Namaste.

Monday – 27 April 2009
It’s almost 7:30 (at least it was when I started writing this)… and I’ve already been at work for over thirty minutes. And I spent most of my weekend here, as well. But, for the most part, the server room upgrade is done. Thank God… because we’re all beat. Dog tired. Worn out. We are the walking dead today. We’re expecting a few minor issues, but hopefully, no one will expect lightning response times. (Now, if I can just remember where the cots are stored…)

Stray Toasters

• This morning, I am thankful for a large frozen mocha with a triple-shot of espresso.
  (Whether they know it or not, so are my coworkers…)
• I have caught up with yet another schoolmate – and one of my favorite people from school – on Facebook.
• JoS A. Bank is having another sale.
• Apple and Verizon consider iPhone deal
• The NFL Draft is over.  USAToday has graded the teams’ draft picks as:
  • Baltimore Ravens: B-
  • Carolina Panthers: C
  • Cincinnati Bengals: B
  • Cleveland Browns: B
  • Miami Dolphins: C
  • Minnesota Vikings: C+
  • Oakland Raiders: F
  • Tampa Bay Bucanneers: D+
• G.E.’s Breakthrough Can Put 100 DVDs on a Disc
• 
• So you think you’re having a bad day?  Check out FMyLife.com… then reconsider.
• Chrysler and Union Agree to Deal Before Federal Deadline
• Enter Theatergoers, Gently Welcomed

Namaste.

Sunday – 26 April 2009
Day Three of the Great Server Room Upgrade Saga is going to begin soon.

<sarcasm>
WHEEEE!
</sarcasm>

Things are proceeding apace, but we still have “a few” hours’ work ahead of us. On the plus side, we made some serious progress yesterday and the server room – aside from being a bit cluttered and messy – looks like… well… a server room. However, that doesn’t mean that I won’t be happy to see this project in the rear view mirror.

To say that I was “tired” last night, would be something of an understatement. I came in and just collapsed on the floor. After a hot soak and bath (complete with a little bit of Queen & Country), dinner (Rumbi Grill) and dessert (Red Mango), I felt pretty close to “human” again.

Stray Toasters

• The Ravens picked up OT Michael Oher and DE Paul Kruger (thanks, !) in the first two rounds of the NFL Draft.
• Drug Company Merck Drew Up Doctor “Hit List”
• Maude and Golden Girls actress Bea Arthur died at 86
• 
• 4 Things to Consider Before You Try to Join the Amish
• The Making of the PlayStation

“Time to make the donuts…”

Namaste.

Saturday – 25 April 2009
It’s 7:00 and I’m already at work. Day Two of Server Room Weekend begins.  We’ll see how this goes…

Stray Toasters

• NFL Draft 2009
• Man, 84, fends off attackers
  It should pretty much go without saying that he’s my Human of the Day
• , this one’s for you: Your Day Can’t Possibly Be as Bad as Richard Simmons’
• Improving the Abilities of Bionic Arm Patients
• GM Ready to Scrap Pontiac Brand

And here we go…

Namaste.

Today was “Sushi Wednesday.” We took Chad (yet another coworker) with us; he’s been wanting to try sushi for a while, but the timing was never good for him.  Until today. He liked it, for the most part – there were a few things that he wasnt crazy over. That happens.

After lunch, loonybin88 and I took a field trip to pick up some supplies for this weekend’s server room work. If there’s a “plus” to working on Saturday (aside from getting paid), it’s that the weather is supposed to take a dive again. “Supposed to” being the key words in that phrase.

Stray Toasters

• While discussing lunch plans today, I posted “Red Five, standing by…” as a response. That led to Jeff posting a link to this. We all got a good laugh from it.
• Caution Signs Endangered Movie Characters Really Need
• I think I might take a post-work nap when I get home.
• Robert Rodriguez Confirms Predator Series Reboot
• Google Calendar + Calaboration + iCal = WIN!
• Woman thanks her lucky bra as it saves her from a bullet

Namaste.

Thursday – 23 April 2009
Another NBN Thursday begins. It’s not quite as bright and sunny as the past couple of days have been, but it’s supposed to get into the 80s. And, this morning’s commute started with Limelight… so, that can’t be all bad.

I picked up yesterday’s four-color haul after dinner last night; I haven’t read anything yet. I might get to that this evening, post-CSI:.

Last night, SaraRules finished a new quilt and I finished up both the Mayhem Rail platform and the WildWood Grove chapel. I stuck them both on the masterboard… and I took pictures. (Big surprise, I know. But, I did.) I still need to do some of the interior props for the chapel, but I’m happy with the way the exterior turned out. And, there’s something about having an 18 square foot play area that amuses me.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules made banana bread. (You can be jealous now.)
• Queen Rania: The World Cannot Afford to be Cynical
• The NFL Draft begins tomorrow.
• Could YOU Be Batman? Here’s How You’d Do It.
• Historic St. Louis Schools Face Uncertain Future
• 
• A Eulogy for the Boombox
• From the “Paging Mr. Cobblepot…” file: Bionic penguins take to the water – and the skies
• Pentagon Cyber-Command in the Works
• Star Wars cupcakes

Namaste.