Random Access

Friday – 21 March 2008
Today is Good Friday.
And it’s a “good Friday,” to boot.
Win-Win.

This morning’s commute was to the tune of 2112: Overture and Temples of Syrinx.
At lunch, and I are going to Ye Olde Driving Range.
(Did you know that “Ye” is actually supposed to be pronounced “the?” It is.)

Stray Toasters

• The Red Balloon that’s a few doors down from Dr. Volt’s has gotten a new shipment of Rokenbok. In the shipment was Tower of Rok Mania. I deem that this shall be the next addition to my collection. (And, to be honest, I wouldn’t mind adding another Monorail Metropolis Start Set to the equation, either.)
• SaraRules is helping to… tame… the volumes of comics that I have – at least the ones here behind the Zion Curtain. Until a couple weeks ago, they were stored in seven long boxes in one of my closets. Currently, they are stacked – unboxed – in my living room. When stopped by yesterday to take SaraRules to lunch, he saw the stacks. After lunch, he asked me how many comics I have. I asked if he meant here or overall. “Both.” So, after a few minutes of mental gymnastics, I figured that I have:
  • UT: roughly 2500
  • MD: 1200 – 1400
  • NC: between 2000 and 2500 (probably closer to 2500)
• broke someone’s day; I am proud of her for the method with which she did so.
• Soft Pretzels: Round 2 – tonight.
• I was reminded of a tech fact about “cookies” that I had forgotten (and a fact of which most people are unaware):
  

  Cookies are a way for a server to store information about the user (on the user’s machine) so that the server can remember the user over the course of the visit or through several visits. Think of a cookie like a name tag: You tell the server your name, and it gives you a name tag. Then it can know who you are by referring back to the name tag.

  Cookies have gotten a bad rap because users believe cookies allow a server to know too much about them. However, a cookie can only be used to store information that you give it, so it’s as secure as you want it to be.

• This made me laugh.
  (It even made laugh, too!)
• David Letterman’s “Top Ten Reasons to Watch the New Season of Battlestar Galactica“:
  
• I have a possible new addition to the Covet List: Tetris Mirror Pieces
• if (!$error) {
  print ‘Looks like you might actually have SOME idea of what you’re trying to do!’;
  } else {
  print ‘You FAIL…’;
  }
• Why Pulling the Fire Alarm at the Gas Station Is a Bad Idea
• 

This post has been brought to you by the letters “C” and “Y” and the number 2112.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 18 March 2008
Last night, SaraRules and I joined and went to An Evening with Garrison Keillor at Abravanel Hall. It was a lot of fun. He talked, told stories, sang a few songs. It was like an extended version of “…the news from Lake Woebegon,” with a couple of sprinklings of personal connections thrown in.

After we got home, we lazed around watching TV and just hanging out. A little after midnight, I started getting really tired. REALLY tired. That almost never happens that early. But, it did last night. And I was in bed and knocked out before 12:30. That almost never happens, period.

I slept in a bit this morning. When the alarm went off, I wanted no part of that whole “being conscious” thing. The extra sleep was good. And the work day hasn’t been bad, either.

A little before lunch/gym time, I watched Sen. Barack Obama’s speech on race.

(read the transcript of the speech here, from The New York Times)

It was a very good speech. Aside from a a paragraph or two about 25 or so minutes into the speech, there wasn’t much politicking in it. There wasn’t, in my opinion, a lot of sniping or snarky remarks about his opponents. It was a solid discourse on his relationship with his former minister and why, despite the comments that Rev. White made, he is not “disowning” or disavowing his connection with the man. I don’t want to go into too much detail about it, rather I’d say watch the video or read the transcript (or both) and decide for yourself.

Workout
Today’s workout didn’t cover a lot of exercises, but it was good and tiring:

• Pull-ups: 3 sets/10 reps (2 unassisted sets, 1 assisted set @ 80 lbs)
• Leg Raises (full extension): 3 sets/20 reps
• Bench Press: 3 sets/8 reps (2 sets/225 lbs, 1 set: 225 lbs/6 reps, 205/3 reps)
• T-bar Rows: 3 sets/10 reps, 45 lbs
• Lunges (dumbbell, one-leg): 2 sets/10 reps, 15 lbs (each hand)

We tried – TRIED – max press again today… for the first time in far too long. Eric started at 300 lbs. Neither of us made it. I was able to lower the weight and get it to… 3 or 4″ above my chest, but at that point, I stalled. Eric lifted the weight before I could try it again. When it was his turn, he stalled at about the same spot. We’ll try again Thursday, I presume, but most likely with a little less weight.

The lunges were not fun. I was wobbly and winded after them. I guess that means that I need to either do more of them and get better at them and/or start doing more cardio.

Pre-workout weight: 174.4 lbs.

Stray Toasters

• I haven’t really drawn anything in months. But, I’m intrigued by Project Rooftop’s Iron Man Invincible Upgrade.
• I Am Legend and Enchanted hit the shelves today; I shall have to acquire both.
• Wooster Collective – A Celebration of Street Art
• Butterfingers® are tasty.
• The Wit and Wisdom of Prince Philip
• From xkcd: “Unscientific”

  

• Dream Girl and Star Boy seem to feature prominently in this weekend’s episode of Legion of Super Heroes. I wonder if the show will portray anything of their classic in-comic romance…?
• KidsWB is soon to be no more. The Batman ended two weeks ago. Legion will end on 05 April 2008. *sigh* It was good while it lasted.
• Comcast wants to put a camera in your cable box
• I haven’t acquired any cotton candy in a while. I should rectify that.
• Do doo do-do-do

Namaste.

Friday – 14 March 2008
First off: Happy Hatching Day to :

And, as made a post about it being Steak & Blowjob Day:

Now, on to our regularly scheduled programming.

After work, I stopped to say “Hi” to Kate, Perry and the kids on the way home. Then, it was on to Target to pick up a few things and then home. I got home a little after 8:30, figuring that I would catch the tail end of CSI: while I waited for dinner to cook. I need not have worried – it was a rerun. I channel-surfed while eating dinner. Then it was time to take it to the streets… of Paragon City. I ran a solo Vanguard mission and then joined an SG-mate and a few others for a 50+ mission. By the time I was done, I was over half-way to Security Level 47.

This morning, I got up to take the car in for an oil change and to get the driver’s side front turn signal assembly replaced. The first question Ian (the associate who usually handles my car service issues) asked was: “Can you leave it with us for a couple of hours?”

*blink blink*

The light assembly is mounted behind some restraining brackets and the bumper – which is why I’m not replacing it myself – but I didn’t think it was going to take quite that long. So, I rescheduled for tomorrow morning. Undaunted, I left the dealership and met Perry for pre-work coffee.

And it’s been snowing. Again. Yee-haw.

Stray Toasters

• was talking with Coworker DaveW about a new Pontiac commercial. I was intrigued because he said that it was a take on the old Spy Hunter game. So I checked it out for myself. The commercial is chock full of awesomeness:
  
• What are your operating system, web browser and email client(s) of choice?
  I’m an OSX and WinXP, Firefox (both platforms) and Thunderbird (bot platforms) user.
• Thanks to for the following:

  
  …and…
  
  A… cardinal… who wants to be….
  Oh, Hell… I if I have to explain it, just move 0n.

• From CNN: They would rather die than get help
• WOWIO
• PHP
• From xkcd: “Morning”
  
• This link leads to action-figure.com‘s coverage of Toy Fare 2008. It has MANY things that could be added to the Covet List there. Many, indeed.

And, thanks to putting in some extra hours on the front end of the week, today will be an abbreviated work day. Amen.

Namaste.

Thursday – 13 March 2008
Tomorrow is International Pi Day.
It is also Albert Einstein’s birthday.

<< Rewind <<
Last night, after work, I stopped at Dr. Volt’s for my weekly fix. I also treated myself to a box of ‘Clix from the Justice League set. I picked up a couple of boxes, but one “felt” better that the other (i.e.: “it was heavier”). It was a good choice, too, because waiting inside was:

That’s right: Batman and Robin. At 138 points, it’s a pretty economical figure for the punch. The rest of the pack was alright, but after this seeing this piece, I felt satisfied with the purchase.

I did laundry, had a bite to eat, watched a little television and even got in some time in City of Heroes. There was an announcement about Issue 12: Midnight Hour. Apparently, it will be live fairly soon. I ran a mission for Vanguard against the Rikti. I did fine… until just before I got to the boss. Then I died. It feels like a really bad, recurring theme, I tell ya:

• Solo a mission…
• Work through the lesser villians…
• Get to (or near) the end boss…
• Die.

*sigh*
The good thing about being an Amenti (from the background I created for Nefer-Tem) is that death is relatively transitory. I resurrected, re-entered the mission, and took down the alien. Neat as a pin.

> Play >
Today has been good. It was drizzling when I left home this morning, so I opted not to wear my brown suede jacket. (Something about not wanting it to get water-damaged…) I wore, for the first time in a very long time, my double-breasted trenchcoat. And my fedora, of course. I had someone ask if I was trying to go for a Dick Tracy look. That made me chuckle, especially as it had never crossed my mind.

Workout
Today’s workout was a rehash of Tuesday’s workout:

• Chin-ups: 3 sets/10 reps (2½ unassisted sets, ½-set assisted at 80 lbs)
• Dips: 3 sets/10 reps
• Leg Raises: 3 sets/20 reps
• Decline Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 185 lbs
• Bent-over Rows: 3 sets/10 reps, 35 lbs
• Tricep Press (dumbbell, overhead, seated): 3 sets/10 reps, 50 lbs
• “Good Mornings”: 3 sets/60 lbs

Today’s pre-workout weight: 174.2 lbs.

It felt good to be able to do the Decline Press at 185 pounds and not have to change weights on each set. By the time I got to the third set, my arms were starting to burn; the 8th-10th reps weren’t stellar, but I was able to complete them.

Stray Toasters

• I had the theme from Bonanza going through my head a little while ago. It amused me.
• Speed Up Your Mac
• Speed Up Windows XP and Speed Up Windows Vista
• From Questionable Content:

  

• Steampunk LEGO Mecha
• From the “No… you don’t say” file: Clinton apologizes to black voters
• Creator of ELIZA, Joseph Weizenbaum, Dead at 85
• This is an amusing mash-up: Bionicles of Narnia

That’s close enough for jazz.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 12 March 2008
Mid-week.
(As I typed that, I heard

Midnight, and it’s raining outside…

…the opening line from “Midnight,” by Yaz (Upstairs at Eric’s) run through my head.

I went to Chris and Mary’s, after work, to play dolls HeroClix with Chris. He wanted to test a couple of figures before he plays in a tourney next month; I wanted to try out a couple of new figures. He cleaned my clock, but I learned a few things about how to better use a couple of figures, including:

• Green Lantern (Guy Gardner)
• Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) and
• Time Trapper

Chris was a little disappointed with the way the new Kyle Rayner figure plays, but I thought that it was alright. And we both agreed that WizKids should do an updated (read: “less underpowered”) John Stewart figure. *shrug* Maybe in the next set…

Today has been good. Nothing out-of-the-ordinary to report.
No sushi today.
No comics. Yet. But, soon… Soon…

Stray Toasters

• I came home last night to find a package from my father waiting for me. Random assortment of things (no Butterscotch Krimpets, though), but some neat stuff, nonetheless.
• YouTube Everywhere
• Vih-Dee-Ohs
  • Star Wars, as described by a 3-year-old
  • Star Trek: Closer
  • Star Trek: The Wrath of Farrakhan
  • National Spelling Bee

  And, just for the record: “Closer” and “Spelling Bee” are quite NSFW. You have been warned.

• What Real-life Dungeon Exploration Might Look Like, Graduate Students in Tow
• I have been using this image as my desktop wallpaper in the SLC office for… three or so weeks now:

  

  I adapted it from this image, which is part of the cover for the Incognegro graphic novel. And here is an article on the book, from The New York Times.

• Southwest grounds planes, places three on leave
• Rock Me, Amadeus

  
  (click image for more information)

• Surveyor of the Superheroes: Kaveney talks new book
• ‘Oldest Profession’ updates to a wired world
• …and, in a related note, it seems as though David Paterson will be assuming the role of Governor of the State of New York as of 17 March 2008, making him New York’s:
  • …first Black governor
  • …first visually-impared (legally blind) governor and
  • …first disabled governor since FDR
• Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub
  

  * Why did Utah name its capital, Fillmore, after the president (and the county it is in, Millard, too)? The Mormons wanted to join the U.S. They wanted to be a state. Congress and the executive branch were nervous about taking in a state so large (at the time the state covered most of Nevada and chunks of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Idaho — larger than Texas as I recall) and there was active opposition to taking in a state run by Mormons. So the Mormons moved the capital to Fillmore — more centrally located, and out of Salt Lake City where the Mormons had their temple and a lot of people. Then they named the capital after the president, hoping to curry his favor and that of the Whig Party partisans. It didn’t work. The proposed State of Deseret was carved up, and Utah didn’t get statehood until 1896 — after even Nevada.
  (from the site’s “Sources on Millard Fillmore” page)

  Fillmore is one of the towns I go through on the way to/from Cedar City.

• PHP and arrays.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 04 March 2008
Sunny day here in the valley… but TWC warns of a threat of snow. 30%, but still…

We had a meeting/training this morning, but the videostream didn’t work – it had buffering issues and was thus quite choppy. So, it’s been postponed. It was actually rather amusing to me: It reminded me of the scene in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back where Darth Vader is having a holo-conference with captains and Moffs, but the feeds are laced with static and/or breaking up because of interference from being in an asteroid field. (Unfortunately, no one got struck by an asteroid in our meeting, though.)

Stray Toasters

• I discovered Waiting for Coffee this morning. And on there, I found this:

  
  …and this…
  

  I was greatly amused. And the post contents aren’t bad, either.

• Silicon Valley Losing Its Middle Class
• After 17 seasons, Brett Favre is retiring.
• 
• A Lesson in Internet Anatomy
• Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax has died.
  (…or, as a news headline read: Gary Gygax Fails Final Saving Throw)
• Chris just called. He’s having his plastic crack dealer hold a Dawnstar for me.

Quote of the Day
From a conversation with Dwim:

(11:09:00) Dwim: Flying’s for lazy pansies.
(11:09:15) Dwim: Real superheroes take long walks for their health.
(11:09:38) Me: Not even Batman walks – he swings from rooftop to rooftop.
(11:09:56) Dwim: Superman on Earth-105 jogs everywhere.
(11:10:01) Me: Oh.
(11:10:03) Me: Huh.
(11:10:18) Dwim: Blue and red leg warmers, baby.
(11:10:29) Me: *eyes burn*
(11:10:40) Dwim: Sewn by Ma Kent from the sweater he wore from Krypton.
(11:10:53) Me: Wow.
(11:11:03) Me: No amount of drinking will save me from that mental image.
(11:11:42) Dwim: Drinking’s for the lazy. Real superheroes take their liquor through their gills.
(11:12:01) Me: But, I wasn’t born in Atlantis.
(11:12:16) Dwim: As usual, Aquaman can’t hold his liquor. The guy’s a lousy drunk, frankly.
(11:12:39) Dwim: He… doesn’t get by on land as well as you get by underwater when he’s drunk.
(11:12:55) Me: I would imagine not.
(11:13:02) Dwim: Superman always has to jog him home.
(11:13:08) Me: In the ocean, you can just… drift along on the currents.
(11:13:13) Me: On land, you just… fall down.
(11:13:14) Dwim: It’s a long jog from the JLA orbital platform.
(11:13:31) Dwim: Easier just to drop him.
(11:13:47) Dwim: *plop*
(11:14:04) Me: Re-entry must be a right bitch, though.
(11:14:14) Dwim: Sucks to be Aquaman.

And that’s a wrap for now.

Namaste.

Monday: Coda
Ten-and-a-half hours.

That’s how long my Monday work day wound up being. Don’t misunderstand me: I’m not complaining. Sure, it was a long day and I had a fairly boring and rote task that took up the back half (or more) of the day, but I was not a bad day by any stretch of the imagination. Just… long. And, on the “plus” side of the equation: That gives me an “extra” two-and-a-half hours to play around with on this week’s schedule, if I want.

After work, I came home for a short bit and then headed back out to take care of a couple of errands before heading over to Mary and Chris’ so that Chris and I could play dolls HeroClix. As usual, he cleaned my clock, but I had a lot of fun. The first game (400 points), I tried a team with something of a Green Lantern focus:

• Green Lantern (John Stewart)
• Sentinel (Alan Scott, the first of Earth’s Green Lanterns)
• Star Sapphire (GL Hal Jordan’s ex-flame… and later arch-enemy)
• Hawkgirl (I needed to fill in the points. Sue me.)

This was something of a war of attrition, but Chris’ tactics and skill wore me down. We decided to play one more game (200 points) before calling it a night. I decided that I wanted a “fun” team, so I went with a Justice League International theme. (I deserved to get my ass kicked just on principle for that one.) This team’s lineup included:

• Blue Beetle
• Booster Gold
• Fire
• Ice
• Rocket Red #7

Chris brought out Nick Fury and agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. And Blade. Between some rather craptacular dice rolls on my part and some pretty good ones on his part, he picked my team apart. It was almost as funny to watch/play as the JLI comic series. Almost. But, again, it was fun.

We loosely talked about getting together again and playing in the not-too-distant future. I had a couple of ideas for themes, based on the point values we decide on: The Earth GLs, The New Mutants or the Captain Marvel family.

Stray Toasters

• By way of SaraRules: Adult Brains Wired to Go Ga-Ga Over Babies
• The 10 Coolest LEGO-Inspired Gadgets
• 
• pointed me in the direction of this article on BoingBoing: Interview with producer of swords and sorcery themed porn…
  • …which led to this article, The Magical World of Warcraft Erotica, in The Village Voice
  • …which included this gallery (some of which is NSFW)
• SIW
• 
• Alex Ross’ Age of TV Heroes cover (first look)
• Toll the bell
  Pay the private eye
  All’s well
  20th Century dies…
• Giant comic collection donated to U of Minnesota

That’s close enough for jazz for tonight.

Namaste.

Sunday – 02 March 2008
It’s been a quiet and lazy day.
And that’s not a bad thing.

The morning didn’t start (for me) with comics and coffee in bed. It did start with coffee – and SaraRules did read the most recent acquisition of The Walking Dead in bed – but we wound up in the living room listening to music and hanging out.

In the afternoon, we headed to Jitterbug for a coffee and a quick bite to eat with . Next stop, Toys R Us. After all, it’s “The World’s Biggest Toy Store.” It wasn’t the longest TRU excursion on record, but it was nevertheless fun. And I managed to find a Justice Lords (1, 2) 3-pack of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman.

From there, on to SaraRules’ parents’ house for dinner and to hang out. After dinner, we watched 30 Days of Night. During the first third to half of the movie, I multi-tasked and played City of Heroes while watching the movie. By the time I was done, I was three bars closer to Level 46. Not too shabby for 30-40 minutes’ work. After the movie – and talking geek with SaraRules’ dad for a bit – we headed home. Since it was still early, we decided to watch something fairly light before calling it a night. We agreed on Justice League: The New Frontier. SaraRules liked it, especially because of its different spin on the characters; I liked it because… well, yeah.. “just because.” Duh.

This morning came early. Very early. We got up, ready and out the door and had breakfast at Paradise Bakery and Cafe before SaraRules had to head off to pick up one of her roommates and hit the road for southern Utah.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
This I Believe – Leaving Work Early to Watch the Sunset

Stray Toasters

• A tip of the hat to for his considerate gift of a couple of tickets to see Garrison Keillor when he comes to Abravanel Hall in a couple of weeks.
• Thanks to SaraRules for reminding me that Daylight Saving Time starts 09 March 2008.
• Prince Defines Hip in a New Way
• 
• For gamers who want their old-school fix: Genesis emulation comes to the Wii
• Cal State University fires Quaker for inserting “nonviolently” into oath.
• I can actually see downtown – and across the valley – this morning. I have pictures to prove it.
• Steampunk Mac Mini
• And, in other old-school-meets-new(ish)-school news: Serial-mouse-driven Etch-a-Sketch

“…right on to the friction of the day.”

Namaste.

Saturday – 01 March 2008
Jason and I went to the driving range at Old Mill for lunch yesterday. It was the perfect day for it – not too warm, not too cool; sunny; almost no wind. I had a few good drives and a lot of “Why, yes it has been six months since I did this…” ones, too. It was a lot of fun and a great change of pace. If the weather holds, we’re going to go again next week; we even have a couple of other guys who sound interested in joining us.

Last night’s Clitorati gathering was quite good. Mary and Chris joined us. After last week’s adventures with Wolverine and Colossus, I decided to take my Sentinel a bag of LEGO bricks (and assorted pieces) with me.

Who knew that Sentinels could be left-handed?!

Holy cow! The LEGO pieces were a big hit! got some good-natured ribbing from OnlyAly about how quickly he opened the bag and started the play… until she grabbed some pieces and started build things of her own.

OnlyAly’s LEGO Condo

joined the building party, as did . All-in-all, a good time was had. And no coffee was spilled nor were any cameras dropped in the taking of these pictures.

I’m not sure what’s on tap for today. SaraRules and I have talked about heading to the State Fairgrounds to see the Sixth Annual Bellydance Spring Fest, so that’s a possibility.

But first up: Breakfast, coffee and cartoons.

Stray Toasters

• I found this on MacRumors, while looking up some information: Best Use for Apple Stickers?
• High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas: The Race to Save the Cougar Ace
• 
• From Wired: First Look – New D&D Stats Leak Onto Web
• I was talking with a couple coworkers about Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles the other day. This perfectly sums up part of our conversation:

  

• $31 million worth of lost valuables on the TSA’s watch
• As noted to me by last night: Family Guy spins off Cleveland

And with that… Long Live the Legion!

Friday – 29 February 2008
Happy Leap Day.

It’s early. I’ve been up since roughly 6:00 and I’m already in the office. Not a bad way to start the day, all things considered. And, hopefully, I’ll be over at Old Mill on the driving range at lunch.

After work last night, I watched CSI: and then headed to Paragon City. I joined an SG-mate on a team for some missions. Unfortunately, he had his missions dialed up to “Unyielding,” so there was a good amount of dying on our side. But, because of the XP we gained in fighting higher-level mobs, I was able to reach Security Level 45.

Stray Toasters

• I have frozen mocha goodness and a bagel sandwich.
• There’s a new trailer for Iron Man.  Check it out here.
• She’s a brick
  And I’m drowning slowly…
• Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi is the most hideous thing humans have ever created
• Rob Paravonian’s Pachelbel Rant
  
• 

  toothpastefordinner.com

• 400-thread count sheets
• Blue-Ray in laptops could be hard on batteries

Namaste.

Wednesday – 27 February 2008
Last night, I couldn’t find a team in City of Heroes – and I didn’t want to solo – so I called it an early (for me) night. I picked up Guards, Guards and managed to read a few pages before Morpheus bid me welcome to The Dreaming.

Today’s been rather good. For lunch, James, Jason and I went to ‘s to play pinball. That’s right: Pinball. He has a full-size Twilight Zone pinball machine. It had been a long, long time till touchdown brings me ’round again since I had played. And it was fun. A very pleasant change of pace. Of course, this meant that I missed out on Sushi Wednesday and picking my this week’s comics at lunch, but I think I’ll survive. And, I think that may just have to go to the driving range that’s across the street from the office for lunch on Friday.

The Best: Pinball Wizard
The Who vs. Elton John

As much as I enjoy The Who’s version of this song, I have to give props to Sir Reginald Dwight for some rather adept finger work and a fine cover of this song. Both versions have their own flavor and their own merits.

Verdict: Tie.

Stray Toasters

• showed us $240 Worth of Pudding before we started playing pinball. Comedy.
  
• PHP.
• By way of Coworker JoeT (not to be confused with ): Failblog
• Yesterday, showed me the site for LightTape.
• Today, I countered with Digital Tattoo Interface. That’s right, we’re all going to be cyborgs soon.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 26 February 2008
I woke up this morning and there was the sun. The actual, honest-to-goodness sun. And there was hardly any haze obscuring the view of the valley. Win-Win.

Clarity is a good thing.

And, in the interest of clarity, it has come to my attention that I apparently need to make a few points about the upcoming move of commenting from LiveJournal to Random Access:

• While I like the community of friends and interests on LiveJournal, I wanted to host my blog on my site. To that end, I have been using WordPress as my primary blog tool/repository since August of 2006.
• After I switched to WP, I found a plug-in that allows my posts to be automatically crossposted to LJ, eliminating a need to cut-and-paste or forget/neglect to make sure that a post made it from Blog A to Blog B.
• I was also able to use the LJ export function to export older posts into XML and a WordPress function to import the posts into Random Access.
• Neither the export nor import function transfered the comments for the older posts.
• The inherent problem that I found was that this split comments between the two sites – if someone posted a comment on LJ, I had to check it there; if it was on Random Access, I had to check it there.

So, that brings us to the past month or two. After some deliberation – and a few chats with as to why he forced comments to his WP blog – I decided to consolidate all commenting to Random Access.

I was recently asked why I assumed that some people ever look at the post on RA, if it is mirrored on LiveJournal. Valid question. My answer: I had not made such an assumption. I just decided that I wanted to have things “in one place.” To that end, I’m moving commenting off of LJ and on to Random Access.

What does this mean?

• There will no longer be a link for commenting on my posts in LiveJournal.
• In the “Originally posted at Random Access” banner at the top of each post, there will be a link to the comments page on Random Access.
• Due to some issues with spam/spambots, I “locked” commenting to authorized users only…. so, the first time (ONLY) that you move to RA to comment, you’ll have to “sign in.” After that, it’s click-and-comment.

If anyone decides to fore go commenting on future posts after 29 February 2008 because of the change, I understand, but I’d like to say “Thank you,” in advance, to those of you who are willing to accommodate my idiosyncrasy.

Namaste.

Monday – 25 February 2008
Back in the saddle again. The commute wasn’t too bad, despite pea-soup fog from Enoch to just south of Beaver and again from Scipio to Mills. They have apparently “fixed” the “NEHPI” sign…

…by covering the “HPI” with a “PHI” banner. Priceless.

Stray Toasters

• I joined LinkedIn this morning. *shrug* At least I still haven’t hopped on the FaceBook bandwagon. Yet.
• Second shot across the bow: I will be moving all commenting for this blog to Random Access as of Saturday, 01 March 2008.
• Justice League: The New Frontier and 30 Days of Night both come out on DVD tomorrow.
  
• Check out the papercraft artwork of Peter Callesen
• I’m diving into PHP again.  And, again, it’s for work.  Can’t beat that.
• Salt Lake City Weekly‘s Best of 2007: Food and Drink
• I was talking with Dwim, a little while ago, about some of the comics that we read.  He was saying how he felt that some heroes shouldn’t have secret identities.  Wonder Woman was one example.  Green Lantern was another.  I mentioned that while Hal Jordan does have a secret identity, John Stewart doesn’t – he hasn’t worn a mask in his GL identity since the 80s, I think.  Besides, would you want to be “that guy” who tried to hassle John Stewart in his civilian ID?  Let’s look at the deterring factors:
  • Ex-Marine.
  • Even more so: Ex-Marine sharpshooter.
  • Wears a ring (let’s call it what it is: “a weapon”) that can create anything he thinks of.  Anything.
  • Trained as an architect, so he can be… creative.  (Granted, Kyle Rayner‘s an artist, so he’s usually a little more creative, but that goes off along an entirely different tangent.)
  • Good knowledge of mechanics and usually “builds” his ring constructs “from the inside out.”
  • Has probably kicked more ass on – and off – Earth than you have.
  • Did I mention “anything he thinks of?”  I did?  Okay, just wanted to be sure.

  And, it’s not like he takes the ring off when he’s not on-duty.

• Visualization: Movie box office data
• 

Namaste.

Wednesday: Coda
I came home and cooked dinner. Not fish fillets and fries. Not ramen. Not soup. Not spaghetti. I actually fired up the stove and the oven. Tonight’s fare:

• Baked chicken
• Rice, cooked in cream of mushroom soup
• Corn
• And a glass of milk. (Milk, it does a body good. Pass it on!)

Not only that, but I watched last week’s CSI: (kind of hard to watch live at 35,000 feet) and tonight’s Law & Order (well, I’m watching it now). AND I read this week’s four-color haul. And I may still make a trip to Paragon City. All-in-all, not a bad evening.

Stray Toasters

• I found the following articles while looking up some completely unrelated information this afternoon…
  • How to Know if You Are Irritating
  • How to Not Be Annoying

  I hung a copy on my wall in SLC; I’m doing the same in AF tomorrow.

• I also want this bumper sticker. Lots of them.

  

• I found a home for Sao Paulo (the laptop formerly known as Defiant): It’s going to my father.
• Are you using Windows? You might want to check this out – Killer Download: The Big Three free security applications
• FAA investigates whether go! Airlines flight crew fell asleep
• Microsoft… makes… action figures. I think my world just collapsed a little.
  (But, you should read some of the character bios. Dear Lord…)
• CNN Fires Producer Over Personal Blog
• Is your King James or New International Bible too boring for you? Give The Manga Bible a try.
• Nautilus-themed steampunk home theatre
• Geek-to-Geek: ‘grats to on your new flying mount.
• Old school:

  

  

  If I need to explain this, you just need to skip on to the next ‘Toaster. Seriously. Right now.

• The Century’s Top Engineering Challenges

Time to go fight some evil.

Namaste.

Friday – 08 February 2008
The weekend steadily approaches. Selah.

I was up on-time this morning. “On-time” meaning that I didn’t ignore the alarm (multiple times). This doesn’t necessarily mean that I didn’t have a leisurely time getting ready… but I was awake and mobile, at least. And, I was still in the office by 8:15… with frozen mocha goodness and a bagel omelette sandwich, no less!

I took a few pictures of the mountains at sunrise. I made the gallery using iWeb, rather than iPhoto. It wasn’t quite as automatically intuitive as iPhoto, but it was still rather easy.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
Coffee, in its various forms, is not something that you buy.
You rent it.

The same holds true for alcohol.

Stray Toasters

• brought in the Dragonlance DVD for me to borrow. This should be… interesting… if not entertaining.
• Thanks to for making sure that I saw Super LEGO Mario.
• By way of Drive Thru RPG: Xpress Core System
• Eric mentioned that Top Gear did a show where the hosts drove a charity “rally” through the southeastern states. Part of the race was through Alabama. Click here to see what they did for this part of the race.
• 72 Tips for Safer Computing
• Martin Scorsese is gearing up to do a Bob Marley documentary.
• 
• At the beginning of A Show of Hands, Rush used The Three Stooges’ “Hello… Hello… Hello… HELLO!” as their introduction. Now, no matter when I hear it, I expect to hear The Big Money immediately afterwards. Every time.
• Millions of peaches, peaches for me
  Millions of peaches, peaches for free
• Compubeaver
• Seeing the root domain name of the Compubeaver site reminded me of Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About.

Namaste.