Random Access

Monday – 18 August 2008
On the way to the office, Chiron Beta Prime started playing over iTunes. I’m not sure if Nomad was just mocking me through our technopathic link; I’m Ivory Soap sure that it knows I refer to work as “CBP.” As a follow-up, it played Inside Out’s Jackie Chan… and follwed that with Monty Python’s I Like Chinese*.

We finished Round Two of the server upgrades yesterday. We also noted a… discrepancy: There were nineteen servers for which we did not account. So, there will be a reckoning Round Three. Which is fine with me. It’s all part of the job. We had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. I had the calamari appetizer and the Cajun Jambalaya Pasta entree. Holy cow… it was GOOD. And, a piece of cheesecake followed me home.

I got home last night and considered rearranging the office. The fact that it was 10 PM didn’t phase me… at first. Eventually, I came to the realization that I had just put in nine hours of work and that I didn’t really feel like making that much more work for myself. Instead, I played City of Heroes.

This morning, I was back in the office at 7:40. Aw, yeah!

Stray Toasters

• WARNING (for Firefox users): Clipboards hijacked in web attack
• How to Be Good
• Is there a way to justify shuriken as an “office supply?”
• Pakistan’s Musharraf Steps Down
• Michael Phelps: 8 Gold Medals, 7 world records.
  He’s only 23. I think he’s got at least one more Olympic Summer Games in him
• How to Hypermile
• 
• Reasoning is partly insane
  Image just an eyeless game
  The night is turning thin
  The saint is turning to sin
• What was your videogame system of choice, back in the day?
  I was an IntelliVision and Sega Genesis kid.

…right on to the friction of the day.

Namaste.

Sunday – 17 August 2008
Happy Birthday to :

Last night, I was pretty wiped after getting in from breakfast, so I called it a (relatively) early night. I was awakened by a phone call at 9:00… no, “9:13,” I was corrected. I wasn’t very thrilled by it and made it rather plainly known. I slipped back into The Dreaming until a little after 10:00. Then, it was up, shower and prep for work and on my way.

I’ve stopped in at Bad Ass Coffee Company for the morning’s caffeine intake. For the past half-hour or so, there have been waves of motorcycle riders heading north on State Street. There is apparently a bike rally being held at/near the Capitol today.

I, on the other hand, will be elbow-up in servers again today: loonybin88 and I are doing what will hopefully be the last wave of test server upgrades this afternoon. I can’t complain too much, though – it means that my weekend starts Thursday.

Stray Toasters

• will be in town later this week, on his way to Vancouver. Bot and Bit will not be with him, though.
• By way of : Galactic Empire Begins Invasion of San Francisco

  (, do you have any on-the-ground news/information about this?)

• Why does living in Utah amuse me so much, sometimes? Things like this, would be one example:

  

  In case the amusing item is eluding you, take a look near the middle of the picture. That’s right: “White City.” I’ve seen buses heading there, but have never had my camera handy/ready to snap a picture before they had moved. “White City.” *snicker* Yet another thing to take with a grain of salt and laugh… kind of like they still refer to the southern portion of the state as “Dixie.” Go figure.

• Comic Book Legends Revealed #168
  • Writer/Artist John Byrne has been involved in an inordinate amount of eerie coincidences.
    (There are some odd disasters that have followed John Byrne’s art/scripts)
  • Billy Dee Williams was paid to NOT be Two-Face in Batman Forever.
    (He may have wound up better for not being in it!)
  • Grant Morrison intended for the Beast to be gay during his New X-Men run.

  Check out the article to find out the real stories behind these items.

• 10 Things We Didn’t Know Last Week

And with that, I’m off to work.

Hi-ho, hi-ho.

Wednesday: Coda
After work, I came home to see if my Dark Phoenix had arrived. It hadn’t.

Forlorn and dejected, I left to run some errands. When the errands were done, I headed to Dr. Volt’s for a little Wednesday afternoon retail therapy. Exerting near-Green Lantern-like willpower, I managed to avoid buying yet another brick. Actually, it wasn’t even that much of a challenge – I looked at the brick, shrugged and just walked on. But that doesn’t sound nearly as dramatic.

Before heading home, I stopped in to see SaraRules’ family. We talked about movies. And the upcoming camping trip. And laptops. And how to install RAM into Pegasus. And stuff.

Coming around I-215, I had an apostrophe epiphany as to what I wanted for dinner: Pizza. When I got home, I dialed up the local Papa Johns and ordered some bring-it-to-me goodness.

Stray Toasters

• I have started listing my extra HeroClix lots. Finally. We’ll see how they fare.
• Because it continues to make me laugh:

  What’s a Nubian?
  

• Both Dwim and sent me links to pictures and videos of Janos Baranyai’s unfortunate accident at the Beijing Olympics. They are NOT pretty. I asked if this qualified Mr. Baranyai to be the new face of “The Agony of Defeat.” He said that it did not:
  

  : no way
  : this is too short of an OW OW OW moment
  : the agony of defeat was more strung out and lasted a while as he plummeted
  me: Couldn’t they just show it over and over in replay?
  : think about it tho
  : have you ever thought “OW!!!” when watching the former? this one made me cringe
  : can’t have people cringing
  me: I don’t know that I thought “OW” for AoD.
  me: Definitely “Daaaaaaaaamn”
  me: And no cringing.
  me: http://www.b3ta.cr3ation.co.uk/data/gif/omnomnombleeahchav.gif
  : see now that guy just deserved it
  me: So, this is a case of “Double dumb-ass on you.”
  me: The lifter is… just “Oh, damn. Sorry, guy?”
  : on the first, yes, i agree with the colorful metaphor
  : on the second, it’s more of a DAAAAYUM…

  I then asked him about the lip-synching and George Lucas-esque “enhancement” of the opening ceremony fireworks display. He wasn’t surprised. He said that “…EVERYTHING is about image. It’s all about the collective face… everything has its base in ‘how will this look.’ And the thing is, they don’t care collectively how their own people view them, it’s all about everyone else.”

• CCI: Legion of Super-Heroes 50th Anniversary
• MarknTyme: Check this out. My friend, , just got back from the Level II course. I thought it looked like something that might interested you.
• 

Namaste.

I just learned a new word, thanks to TechTarget’s “Word of the Day”:

Honey Monkey

Okay, technically, that’s two words, but I’m writing this post and you’re not, so deal with it.
(and it’s an excuse to find a way to use my pic of a LEGO monkey, too!)

Tuesday – 12 August 2008
Happy Birthday to :

Last night, I stopped by Far West Comics (again) to talk with Matt and Nano about some suggestions I had made to changing their weekly update email and to bounce around a few ideas they had been asked me about for making some changes to the store. I even helped move a couple of fixtures into new positions, too. As a thank you for helping out over the past few days, they gave me a HeroClix figure.

A big one: Starro the Conquerer, the 2007 Fall Convention Exclusive figure.

That’s right, it’s an alien, evil, giant starfish.
Yes, I actually put “alien,” “evil” and “giant starfish” in the same sentence.
And, yes, that felt almost as ridiculous/ludicrous to say (or type) as it was to read it.
At least I didn’t even mention that it’s really a mind-controlling, alien, evil, giant starfish.
(My operational theory: I think a lot of people at DC enjoyed a few too many recreational drugs in the 60s.)

It’s roughly the size of the Phoenix and Dark Phoenix ‘Clix. It’s currently on the shelf with the Jean Grey Phoenix, but I’ll have to see how well it fits once the DP figure gets here.

After some errand-running, I came home and geared up for watching The Middleman. Last night’s episode featured Kevin Sorbo (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Andromeda) as a cryogenically frozen Middleman from the 60s. It was amusing to watch him not only play a MM whose style was so completely different than Matt Keeslar’s MM, but it was entertaining to see him in a role that afforded a bit of latitude with the tongue-in-cheek style of the show.

After the show I started taking pictures of the ‘Clix that will going up for auction on eBay. So far, I’ve got pictures of seven sets ready; I just need to set up the auctions themselves. We’ll see how this goes.

Stray Toasters:

• SaraRules: Apparently The Walking Dead TPB #8 is out… or will be out this week.
• For :

  

• By way of : Simpsonized Superheroes
• Gas price decline: Day 26 – Even though prices in the western states haven’t fallen quite as much as in the eastern states.
• Cops break into wrong house, leave note in magnetic fridge letters
  (But did they drink all the milk?)
• LEGO + Video game = LEGO Mindstorms Donkey Kong
• Yar’s Revenge
  (Hmm… maybe the folks at Atari found the DC Comics stash.)

I should finish getting ready and get out of here.

Namaste.

Monday – 11 August 2008
Belated Happy Birthday to :

I spent the latter part of yesterday hanging out with the guys at Far West for a bit before heading down to see Kate and Perry.

When I got home, I decided that it was time for to look in on Paragon City. I logged in (for the first time in THREE weeks!) and was invited to join a team for radio missions. I ran four or five missions and tacked another 2½ levels on Kurigari. Not too shabby for less than two hours’ work.

And today? Well, today is Monday. Selah.

Stray Toasters

• Lauren is right on the button with Team USA’s uniform
• Everclear. Can you call them “one hit wonders” if – despite the fact that many/most of their songs sound the same – they change the lyrics to the songs?
• First it was Michael Phelps.
  Now it’s Katie Hoff.
  Both from Maryland… more specifically, both are from the Baltimore metro area.
  Mm-hmm, that’s right.



• The Sartorialist
• That Time Is Now
• Peep this, Harry Potter and Susan Richards. I can (almost) be invisible, too.
• Here come old flat-top
  He come grooving up slowly.

Namaste.

Sunday – 10 August 2008

Last night’s breakfast was good. The people-watching was a little lackluster, though. But, came up with a cereal that could/should be marketed alongside Chocolate Jesus Crunchies:

Gettin’ Lucky Charms

It brought a lot of amusement from the table.

This morning, I met Shelley and Billy for brunch. Shelley is one of my oldest friends in Utah… but we haven’t seen each other in, at least, a few years. Thanks to the power of the Interwebs and the telephone, we do talk from time to time, though. Our original plan was to go to David’s Kitchen, but they are not open on Sundays, it seems. We wound up at Sampan in Sugar House. Good food and good company. I had the beef lo mein, with wonton soup and an eggroll.

I stopped into Jitterbug to get my daily dose of caffeine. Spydr and Uriah were there… and we started talking about The Dark Knight and other geekery. Uriah pointed me in the direction of Shaffer the Dark Lord’s Supervillain. It made me laugh.

Stray Toasters

• For SaraRules, Meliko and Tyranist (and others): Zombie Tools – Accessories for the Apocalypse
• First Bernie Mac died (complications from pneumonia), and now Isaac Hayes has died.
• I stumbled across this when trying to show something to Spydr. It made me laugh again; Spydr laughed, too:

  

• Hot Chicks: The Roleplaying Game
• Exclamation point.
• Superhero Fashion Emergency
  See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

• The Flat Earthers Are Still With Us
• From the “Where Does He Get Those Wonderful Toys” file: Shrinky Dinks As a Threat to National Security

This post brought to you by Spydr, a rocket, and the Angry Yellow Sun.

Namaste.

Saturday – 09 August 2008
I woke up this morning and took the leisurely path to getting ready. There was another sealed box Secret Invasion tourney at Far West, so I couldn’t be a complete slacker about the morning, however.

Breakfast.
Shower.
Dress.
Zoom.

I stopped for a frozen pick-me-up on the way to the store. Bonus: It was a free drink.

I got to Far West to find Matt (owner) and Keith (event judge)… and no one else. *sigh* I knew that Chris was out of town, but I expected to find at least a couple of other players there. Oh, well. So, once I again: Win, by default. Whoop-de-damn-doo.

I did play Keith and Matt. We played under the draft rules. I got (yet another) Iron Man and another Cloak and Dagger. I decided that they would be the overall best use of points and went with them as my team. Keith’s team consisted of:

• Clea
• Gamora and
• Namor

… with whom, he cleaned my clock – it’s amazing what happens when someone mind controls your figure and then proceeds to use them for target practice. Lemme tell you: It ain’t pretty. Iron Man folded more like Tin Foil Man. After that, his team just kind of… beat on Cloak and Dagger. But, I kind of expect that when playing a judge. Or Chris. (The experience is oddly similar.)

Matt and I squared off next. His team consisted of:

• Morbius
• Ms. Marvel (Skrull) and
• Tarantula

Once I got into position, I started picking on Tarantula. Hey, she was the easiest… and the only one I could see, thanks to Morbius and Ms. Skrull’s stealth abilities. *blah* Matt, with some helpful assistance from Keith moved Morbius in to melee range. Fortunately, his attacks missed. Mine didn’t. Scratch one vampire. That just left his all but invisible-to-me tank. Then, the unthinkable happened: Customers came into the store. So, Keith took over for Matt. And then the beatdown resumed. Ms. Skrull took out Iron Man… and then we played a game of cat-and-mouse until she finally felled Cloak and Dagger. So, I effectively lost to Keith twice.

In the process, I learned a couple of things about Duo-Attack and stealth, which should come in handy in the future.

Stray Toasters

• I talked with the parental units today. Both of them are doing well.
• I’m almost ready to start putting some of my ‘Clix extras up for auction on eBay
• By way of : The Amazing Wooden Mirror
• Spaghetti!

Tonight: Breakfast with the usual suspects.
Tomorrow: Brunch with Shelly and Bill.

Hoo-AH!

Friday – 08 August 2008
Eight-Eight-Eight.

The 2008 Summer Olympic Games have gotten under way.

Last night, I went to see The Knight (explanation) The Dark Knight with Perry. He’d never seen it and I was up for seeing again. Hell… I’d even see it again, in IMAX. It was a nice way to spend a Thursday evening.

I got home and found that I wasn’t very tired, so I puttered around the apartment for a bit. Then, I remembered that ‘Nine has been semi-lobotomized for a while and started to reinstall XP on it. Suffice if to say that it’s still dysfunctional. Around 1:00, I could tell that I was winding down, but not “sleepy,” so I got Wednesday’s still-unread comics and sprawled across the bed to read. And read I did. About 1:30, took my glasses off, to “rest my eyes for a minute.”

A few minutes after 5:00, I was apparently done resting my eyes.

It was still too early to start prepping for work, so I did the only logical thing: I finished reading my comics. That took another twenty or thirty minutes. Plenty of time to return to The Dreaming… which I did. When I finally woke up to face the day, I decided that I wasn’t in a big rush to get to the office – I have a short work day, as I put in some extra hours over the past few days – so, I lounged about for a while. It was nice.

The morning’s commute – without any input from me – was rather heavily comic-themed:

• True to Myself – Eric Benet (from the Batman and Robin soundtrack)
• Give Up the Funk – Parliament (adapted by Snoop Dogg for the Undercover Brother soundtrack)
• Supergirl – Krystal Harris

Yep, technopathy is a good thing.

And for those who weren’t aware of it: Undercover Brother began as a webcomic before being picked up and adapted into a movie.

Food for Thought: Chew on This
It’s been in the news that Morgan Freeman and his wife are preparing to divorce.

You know what?
I don’t really care.

For me, it’s like…

• Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s kids…
• Jewel eloping…
• Verne Troyer’s sex tape…
• Gwen Stefani being pregnant again…

What affect does it – or any of the above items – have on my day-to-day life?
Zip.
Zero.
Zilch.
None at all.

At most, I could say that I feel badly that their marriage has come to an end. But, I’m Ivory Soap sure that they didn’t just wake up one morning and decide: “Hey, you know what sounds like fun? Let’s get a divorce!” It seems to me that decisions like this take some time – and soul-searching – to reach. And, if they have come to the realization that the best of their time together has passed, then I wish each of them the best of luck and hope that they find the happiness that they seek elsewhere… assuming that they haven’t achieved that level of happiness and/or satisfaction already.

Stray Toasters

• Clitorati: Check your email.
• and I had a brief discussion about steampunk and LEGO computer case mods (1, 2, 3) this morning. Helluva good way to kick off a Friday.
• Thanks to for pointing out this Puzzle Calendar
• Intel and the (lack of) SATA controller recognition on their DG33FB motherboard can bite my entire chocolatey ass.
• By way of Coworker Drew: Star Wars-Coming to America mashup:

  
  Star Wars Coming to America – Watch more free videos

• From the “Kids Have No Fear” file: Video of Kid Climbing into a Claw Machine
• Reporters booted from Black Hat conference for hacking
  (Umm… isn’t that part of the whole “black hat” thing?! *blink blink*)

Namaste.

Thursday – 07 August 2008
Belated Happy Hatching Day to :

After work, and I headed downtown to have dinner at Poplar Street Pub.

We had barely gotten in the door when Kade came up to us and invited us to join him, his girlfriend Emily and Rob and Michelle K at their table. The atmosphere is rather Cheers-like. They have a full bar and offer a menu of fairly typical pub fare:

• Burgers
• Bratwurst
• Fish and chips
• Chicken sandwiches
• Pizza

The difference is that the food is made on-site… even the bratwurst is ground and packed in the restaurant. And the food is VERY good. I had a burger with fries, chased by a Guinness (on tap!), but I tried some of Michelle’s pizza, which was quite tasty. For dessert, I had a bowl of Guinness ice cream (yes, I said “Guinness ice cream”) and a chocolate chip and pecan cookie. And the prices were rather reasonable.

and Jack showed up a little before we left, so we hung out an chatted with them for a bit.

All-in-all, it was a fun evening. I recommend checking out Poplar Street Pub if you’re looking for someplace different to dine and/or have a drink. Yes, being Utah it is “a private club for members;” memberships are:

• $5.00 (USD) for a temporary membership
• $12.00 for a one-year membership

After dropping off I headed home… and found that I was winding down fairly quickly. I was showered and ready for bed before 12:30.

And I slept well. Very well, indeed.

Stray Toasters

• I just had a conversation with Meliko. That was a nice – and pleasantly unexpected – way to kick off NBN Thursday.
• Zombie Rhymes
• By way of Reverend Tom: Sorting Out Coffee’s Contradictions
• Cthulhu Fonts
• 
• Demographic landscape shifts across United States
• DC Comics has updated their website
• …speaking of which, I still haven’t read yesterday’s comics.
• Legion of Substitute Heroes
• What goes up must come down
  spinning wheel got to go round
  Talking about your troubles it’s a crying sin
  Ride a painted pony
  Let the spinning wheel spin
• By way of comes news of Colorware’s iPhone customization
• Another Police Raid; More Dead Dogs
• This Courting Disaster comic made me laugh:


(click image to go to the accompanying CD item)

Attack the day…

Namaste.

Wednesday – 06 August 2008
Sometimes, it’s amusing to realize what it is that breaks us out of our morning doldrums and gets us ready to face the day. For me, this morning, it was remembering that I was planning on trying a fruit smoothie recipe this morning before heading to work. And I did. And It’s pretty good.

Last night’s Scion game was good. I almost got half the party killed… all because an NPC didn’t like the answer I gave to a riddle. So, a few rounds later: Sphinx: 0, Us: 1… kind of. In the process of some rather fancy bow (archery) work, it seems that ‘s character has taken over the role that the Sphinx held. We need to find a way to liberate her from that so that she can come party adventure with us.

Stray Toasters

• Kris called me yesterday as I was leaving AF. The first thing she said was “You’re going to be an uncle!” After a couple seconds’ bewilderment/pondering/pause, I came back with,”Oooookay.”She’s getting a puppy.But, she said that the look on Mom’s face when she said it was priceless.
• Laurence Fishburne is prime CSI: suspect
• Port forwarding only works when you remember to set it up.
• The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away — story about geek monasteries for smart people who don’t fit in
• Paris Hilton responds to John McCain’s ad:

• Pulp City
• Guy gets locked out of all Google apps
• I’m sore from yesterday’s workout.
• I stumbled across this article on BoingBoing yesterday: How to give yourself elf ears. It’s a body modification how-to. The article was linked from an item on Instructables; I wasn’t aware, until yesterday, that there was a “Kinky” group on there – probably because I didn’t really care or even think about it. Learn something new everyday, I guess.
• *shake fist* at for getting Sir Mix-A-Lot stuck in my head

Namaste.

I spent the better part of the afternoon in the AF office today. I took care of a couple of items and wound up bringing one of the troubled kids back to the north office.

Workout
One of the benefits of being in AF, I was able to work out with Eric… and Dwim joined us, as well. Today’s routine:

• Leg Raises: 3 sets / 20 reps
• Pull-ups: 1 set / 10 reps
• Bench Press: 3 sets / 8 reps, 205 lbs.
• Curls (standing, dumbbell, crossover): 3 sets / 12 reps, 25 lbs
• Flys (Nautilus): 3 sets / 10 reps, 110 lbs
• Upright Rows (barbell): 3 sets / 10 reps, 50 lbs

Pre-workout weight: 173.2 lbs

Stray Toasters

• The World of Web Trolling
• By way of : Open Source Food
• VisionAire
• 
• “And I would have gotten away with it, if it wasn’t for you meddling kids and your pesky dog!”

I should probably pay some more attention to the game… as I’m being attacked by a Sphinx. Yay.

Namaste.

Monday – 04 August 2008
A new week is just starting… and I want it to be the weekend already. This isn’t to say that the morning has been bad. Far from it, in fact. I just find that today’s motivation is low. Despite this, I’ve already accomplished a few things and have lined up a couple of things for tomorrow.

This morning started off slowly. I turned off the main alarm… after I finally figured out what it was. I then drifted in and out of consciousness for another hour. I got up, got ready and hit the door in under 30 minutes. A quick stop for a frozen mocha jumpstart and I made my way to the office.

Stray Toasters

• I’ve been hunting for some old files for the past few days. I found them this morning… along with a few things that I had completely forgotten about.
• SaraRules sent me a link to the transcript of Saturday’s talk with Condoleezza Rice.
• Morgan Freeman injured in car accident
• 
• sent a link to Solar LED ‘Leaf’ Streetlights. They look pretty neat.
• LEGO Robot Sends Pictures from Space, Wishes It Had Lasers to Annihilate Us All
• 
• For Want of a Transporter
• I have Power Pack ‘Clix on my work monitor. This amuses me.
• How to Tell Time Without a Clock

I think I’ll be spending part of this evening’s pre-The Middleman time trying to wrangle some of my ‘Clix extras into eBay-able lots.

/lunch

Namaste.

Sunday – 03 August 2008
This morning, I was awakened (somewhat abruptly) by SaraRules’ roommate… at 8:00; her social skills occasionally leave something to be desired. I was “a tad” annoyed, expecting to grab another hour or so of sleep before rousing, but I did manage to wind down enough to finally knock off again.

After SaraRules and her mother got up, the three of us had breakfast and proceeded to lounge away the morning and early afternoon. I started packing the car around 2:00 and we hit the road about 3:15.

396 miles and six-and-a-half hours later, we were back in the Land Behind the Zion Curtain. The drive was good and pleasantly uneventful.

Although it was a relatively short trip, it was a great deal of fun and a pleasant change of pace.

Stray Toasters

• This time, I managed to mistype the title as “Starry Toasters.”
• Exploding Falcon 1 Rocket Scattered Scotty’s Ashes All Over the Pacific!
• Having just gotten back from the Aspen Music Festival, this is both entertaining… and a little scary:

• Video game quilts from Carolina Patchworks
• Lightsaber Chopsticks Lay Waste to General Tso Chicken

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Friday – 01 August 2008
Sun: Check
Coffee: Check.
Breakfast: Check.
Logged into work systems: Check (after taking too long to remember the proper credentials).

Happy Birthday to

Stray Toasters

• I left my highlighting markers in SLC. *BAH*
• By way of xkcd: “Frustration”

  

• Readercon’s steampunk panel – the podcast
• Sailors fighting in the dance hall
  Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
  It’s the freakiest show
  Take a look at the Lawman
  Beating up the wrong guy
  Oh man! Wonder if he’ll ever know
  He’s in the best selling show
  Is there life water on Mars?
• From the “You got your chocolate in my peanut butter” file: An Xbox 360 Controller Crammed into a PS3 Dual Shock Controller’s Body
• Your parents named you what? The pros and cons of ununsual names
• 
• Active Directory. *zzZZZzzzzzZZZzzzz*

I’m not sure if it’s the connection in the condo or what, but the ‘tubes are being ludicrously slow. And it’s getting a little irritating.

Namaste.