Random Access

Wednesday – 14 November 2007
It seems as though Scion will be an interesting game. I opted not to try a character based on Hand of Nefer-Tem’s concept. Instead, I chose to go with a voodoo pantheon. This should be… interesting, to say the least.

So far, the day has been good.  Let’s see if the trend continues.

Stray Toasters

• My complex has already strung up – and lit – Christmas lights.  *sigh*
• While clicking through some of the artists on Gawker Artists, I saw a piece by Julius Santiago. That, in turn, caused me to click through to his site, where I found – among other things – this:

  
  (click for larger image)

• …and, by way of his Flickr page, this sign from the Central Florida Zoological Park:

  

• Urban Art Warfare: Gallery
• By way of Gizmodo: Engraved iPods: Worst Gift Idea for Someone You’re Merely Banging
• The Future Soon (machinima video)
• Can Michelle Obama Be First Lady No Matter What?

You know… hitting “Publish” when you’re done writing a post makes it upload MUCH faster than just leaving the verdammt thing sitting on the “Write Post” screen.  *sigh*  I need to up the frozen mocha intake; there’s obviously too much blood in my caffeinestream.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 13 November 2007
So far, it’s been a decent day. It started with me being lazy and sleeping in a bit, but other than that… I can’t complain. Not that I’m really complaining about sleeping in. Short commute to the north office to drop off a few things and check on a couple of projects and then down to the south office, where it’s been pretty quiet. Selah.

Today’s workout was good, even though we got “a bit” of a late start. I was able to pull off two reps of 300 pounds. (It’s amazing what you can do when you don’t tire out your triceps right out of the gate.) The rest of the workout went well and served to remind me that I need to put a little more attention into curls – my biceps feel a bit weak/underdeveloped.

• Bench Press: 300 lbs / 2 reps
• Bench Press: 225 lbs / 3 sets, 8 reps
• Standing Curls (dumbbell, hammer grip): 25 lbs / 3 sets, 10 reps
• Cable Fly (Nautilus): 125 lbs / 1 set, 10 reps; 95 lbs / 2 sets, 10 reps
• Reclined Curls (dumbbell): 15 lbs / 1 set, 10 reps; 20 lbs / 2 sets, 10 reps
• Dips: 2 sets / 20 reps

Tonight is game night. We’re putting the D&D game on hiatus and switching to a new game: Scion. It looks interesting. I’m toying with a couple of ideas for characters, including a build to see if I can do a variation on Hand of Nefer-Tem. Just because I’m a geek like that. Of course, my inner anarchist thinks that it would be amusing to make a Cthulhu-based character, too. Go figure.

Stray Toasters

• I have no idea what I want to do for dinner. I want sushi… or spaghetti… or a sandwich combo from Jitterbug. Decisions, decisions…
• This weekend, Typing of the Dead shall be played!
• By way of Coworkers MikeP and DaveW: Microsoft iPod
• By way of Eric: Homestar Runner 2007 Costumes
• By way of Tyranist: Marvel launches digital archive
• Angular momentum.
• When I move, you move… (Just like that?)
  When I move, you move… (Just like that?)
  When I move, you move… (Just like that?)
  Hell, yeah… Hey, DJ, bring that back!
• Stormwinds – Flash-based Steampunk Defense Game

/lunch

And with that… Namaste.

Monday: Coda
The post-work day has been relaxing. I stopped by to say “Hi” to Kate, Perry and the kids on the way home.

Stray Toasters

• Ou.
• called me out on something: I keep congratulating/mocking on Bengals’ win/losses… but never give a shout out/raspberry to her, even though she lives in Cincy. Rest assured, it won’t happen again. Bank.
• LEGO steampunk creations:
  • Behold, the SteamWalker!
  • Steam-powered Flamethrower
  • Steam Tractor
• Lung-on-a-Chip Replicates the Tiny Explosions Inside Diseased Lungs
• Onion rings.
• Framed: A Heretic’s Guide to Suiting Up
• If you need me
  I’ll be downstairs
  With the shop vac
  You can call but I probably won’t hear you
  Because it’s loud with the shop vac on
• She kicked Batman’s ass (and Superman’s on at least two or three occasions), so this should be a walk in the park…

  

• By way of Eric: Renault F1 “plays” God Save the Queen (yes, a car playing a song… kind of. Just watch it.)
• Internet Porn: Worse than Crack?
• Defiant now contains all of the mp3s that I’ve ripped at work.
  Ripped from my CD collection. (That’s right… up yours, RIAA!)
• Speaking of “Up yours, RIAA” – and breaking my “No Christmas songs before Thanksgiving” rule – AND invoking Jonathan Coulton (again): Podsafe Christmas Song
• Atari 2600 enters Strong National Museum of Play’s Hall of Fame

Hm. Maybe I’ll take a little trip to Paragon City…

Namaste.

Friday – 09 November 2007
Going to bed at 3:30 isn’t terribly unusual for me.
Getting up at 6:40… and staying awake, that’s a little more rare.

But, that’s how the day started. When I got up and started moving, I had the “Get your sexy on….” line from Sexy Back running through my head on what seemed like an endless loop. It was almost as annoying as when I had the Pina Colada Song stuck in my head. Almost. Fortunately, it didn’t last very long. Up, ready, out.

Work has been good. Answered a few questions. Put out a few small fires. All-in-all, not a bad way to wind up the week.

Today’s workout was decent, as well. I tried doing a rep or two at 300 pounds today, despite the fact that I had done sets of dips just before attempting my bench press. My triceps were shot; I couldn’t get my upper arms much past parallel to the ground. Oh, well… another day. The rest of the workout was good, though:

• Leg Raises: 3 sets / 20 reps
• Dip: 3 sets / 20 reps
• Bench Press: 3 sets – 1 set: 225 lbs / 5 reps and 155 lbs / 8 reps; 2 sets / 12 reps, 155 lbs.
• Dumbbell Pull-overs: 3 sets / 15 reps, 45 lbs.
• Row: 3 sets / 12 reps, 120 lbs.

Tyranist brought in Infernal Contraption. While looking at it, I was reminded of the online CCG, Chron-X… which I hadn’t thought of in many, many moons. I apparently still have the old version of the game on ‘Nine.

Stray Toasters

• I have a slice of Turtle Cheesecake.
• In an after-story item from yesterday’s Human of the Day section: I now have the name of the “unknown Apple Store worker!” It is Lisa. I am drafting a thank you/commendation letter to the store for the associates’ help in what turned out to be a precarious matter; it would not do to simply refer to her as “unknown Apple Store worker” in the letter.
• One of the Coworker Marks told me about Steamtown.
• Mark also asked if I knew the origin of “The Real McCoy.” I didn’t. He, making a tie-in to Steamtown, pointed me in the direction of Elijah McCoy.
• Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials
• For the first time in a while, I had the opportunity to chat with lj user=”janietrain”. Along the way, we had the following exchange:
  

  [11:25] : So, I demand info.
  [11:25] : heh
  [11:25] : Who is SaraRules?
  [11:25] : Is this a new chick of interest?
  [11:25] : “Lord Praetor, on my ship, you don’t demand. You ask.”
  [11:26] : hahaha
  [11:26] : Ahh, dorky and evasive.

  I could remember where I got the “Lord Praetor” line – an issue of Uncanny X-Men – but I couldn’t recall the specific issue, nor the exact quote. A short search later, I found it: Uncanny X-Men #167:

  Cyclops and Corsair, having recently reunited for the first time in nearly 20 years, are having a talk… which is soon interrupted.
  Raza: Corsair! *arrives on the observation deck on a hoversled with Hepzibah and a member of the Imperial Guard*
  Corsair: So much for tender moments. What’s up, Raza?
  Raza: We have a guest, Christopher.
  Cyclops: That’s Gladiator, head of Lilandra’s Imperial Guard! What’s he doing here?
  Corsair: *to Cyclops* Good question, considering he swore never to walk these decks until he’d seen the Starjammers dead or enslaved. He isn’t a man to lightly break an oath.
  *calling down to Gladiator* You’re a long way from home. Is this a social call, or business?
  Gladiator: Pirate, I demand to see the Majestrix — Empress Lilandra — at once!
  Corsair: On my ship, Lord Praetor, you do not “demand” of me… you ask.
  Raza: Thou hast been ill-mannered, cousin.
  Gladiator: Have a care, renegade.
  Hepzibah: We like you, too, Imperial. Care to argue point?
  Gladiator: Another time, Lady Hepzibah, with pleasure. Corsair, I crave an audience with my empress.

• Is Apple Cashing in on iPod’s Missing Feature?
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Toilet sign in Korea warns to be on the lookout for sickos

Gone, baby… gone.

Namaste.

Thursday – 08 November 2007
Another NBN Thursday draws to a close. Work was good. Today was “Sushi Wednesday.” (Yes, I know it was Thursday. Deal with it.) I picked up this week’s four-color goodness. And, I have brand-spankin-new sexy black hotness.

Human of the Day
There are actually three HotDs today: Joanne, from the laundry where I get my clothes done and Jerry and an unnamed manager at the Apple Store.

I decided to kill two avians with a single piece of silicate tonight and get my laundry done while I was exchanging my MacBook. (Sidenote: One of the Coworker Daves, misheard Code Monkey and me talking about the laptop and thought that we had referred to it as my BlacBook. That amused me.) So, off I went in search of adventure to swap my BlacBook MacBook and to get some clean drawers…

• Joanne: I got to the laundry a little later than planned, but was still hopeful that I could get same-day service. Couldn’t hurt to ask, after all. So, I walked in… got up to the counter… and posed the question. Joanne looked at the clock, thought about it and said yes. When I went back later to pick up the clothes, she said that she basically did it because I’ve been a fairly regular customer and that she knew that if I said I needed them tonight, that I’d be back for them. (Truth be told, Joanne has consistently been the easiest-to-deal with person at that laundry in all of the time that I have been going there; I think I actually sigh in relief whenever I see that she’s working.)
• Jerry and the unnamed Apple Store manager: While waiting on the laundry, I took the old and busted MacBook to the Apple Store to trade it in for new hotness. An associate named Jerry came up to help me. Bang. Zoom. I summarized last night’s call to the store and told him with whom I had spoken. He said that he could take care of it; he took the receipt and the MacBook and headed to the Genius Bar. A couple of minutes later, he came back – he needed my password to get into the system. And then, he was off again. He returned with the old MacBook and a fresh-in-the-box new one.There was a slight problem in matching the receipt to the MacBook – there had been some arcane workings in getting proper credit applied when the purchase was made. Enter: Unnamed manager. She came over, sussed out the deal and got the proper ducks in a row. A few minutes later, Jerry returned and told me how much it would cost to complete the exchange.

  Cost? Huh…wha?!?

  When I called last night, that was one of the things that I specifically asked. The associate said that his manager had authorized a waiving of any restocking fee. Jerry disappeared again. While he and Managerette were trying to hammer out the particulars, I wandered about the store. I also made a discovery: Battlefield 2142 has been ported to the Mac. I wandered back to the front of the store, just as they were trying to figure out where another discount had been taken in purchasing the old MacBook. I tried, unsuccessfully to call (who picked up the MacBook for me) to help sort things out. But, Managerette came up with a solution and… no more than three minutes after that, I was walking out the door with the new system.

Stray Toasters

• I picked up a copy of Peaceful Warrior this evening. It was a good adaptation of the book.
• Ou.
• Apparently, the Chasing Amy “What’s a Nubian?” clip has been removed from YouTube. But, I found a link to a similar clip of it (minus about 30 seconds) on MySpace.
• Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros. Theme Are Unsurprisingly Awesome
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Teen Gets Strippergram at School
• Gawker Artists
• Zombeatles’ Hard Day’s Night of the Living Dead
• By way of Maddox: Fashion tips for women from a guy who knows dick about fashion and 9 things I learned about the world from anonymous stock photo models

Namaste.

Wednesday: Coda
I am tired. Not completely worn out and run down exactly, but I can tell that I should sleep well tonight.

On the way home, I stopped in to see Kate, Perry and the new baby. Cute. And tiny (but not toony). Both he and Kate are doing well, with no complications. Kate and Perry are now referring to me as the kids’ “bluncle.” That amuses me. I can live with that.

Human of the Day
Yep, this is another new item. Sometimes, you come across a person who is the polar opposite of a “monkey.” Since I so frequently mention (rant/rage/bitch about) monkeys, why shouldn’t I give equal time to people who actually are good and decent? Don’t they deserve a shout out, too? Of course they do. And thus, we have the “Human of the Day.”

Today’s (and the first) Human of the Day: .

I got the new sexy black hotness that is Defiant on 26 October. Leopard, the latest version of OS X, also came out that day. It wasn’t pre-loaded, but came packaged with the laptop. Win-win.

On 31 October, MacRumors.com began posting items about upgrades to the MacBook.

YeahbuhWHAT?!

• Faster processor
• New mainboard chipset
• Faster front-side bus
• Upgraded video card
• Added memory capacity

Yeah. All of that… at the same price point. *grblsnrkx*

For the past few days, has been asking me whether I had considered contacting Apple and asking a few pointed questions. Today was no exception. And, while I had planned on calling sometime this evening, I figured, “What the Hell…” and decided to call while still chatting with .

I called and after a little dealing with an IVR, got through to an associate in the store. I explained that I had just bought my MacBook and that I had even waited until Leopard was released so that I could have the new OS for the new machine… and that the new, updated hardware was released six days later. “So… what are my options to return or exchange my notebook for the newer hardware.” The associate said that he wasn’t sure, but that he would talk with a manager and find out.

He was gone for a few minutes. I listened to hold music – it was reggae. He came back to the phone and explained that there was a fourteen day grace/return period and that situations like mine were covered under that. All that I had to do was bring the notebook, box and all of the included accoutrements to the store… and I could exchange it for one of the new MacBooks.

Just. Like. That.

So, by this time tomorrow, I will have even newer, sexier black hotness.

So, once again, a shout out and a big thanks to for his persistence.

Stray Toasters

• Kate can sing the theme from The Snorks; I’m not sure whether to be impressed… or scared.
• Tossed-Out Electronics Are Reincarnated as Stop-Mo Animal Bots
• 
• The Ultimate Guide to Freezing Food

.eof

Wednesday – 07 November 2007
*WHEW* That’s really the best way to describe the past 36 or so hours, they’ve been something of a whirlwind.

Monday night, after football, I stopped to borrow a cooler from , more on the “why” below. I got to see and play with the cats for a bit. Lightning and Presto were moderate attention whores, go figure; Sissy was a little more low-key.

Tuesday was a quiet day in Cubeville. I didn’t have anything new in my task list, so I plowed through some more reading. Yay, reading! Actually, I really can’t complain: I am learning a lot (as dry as some of it may be…) and improving my skill set.

After work, the fun began…

I headed to Scandia, to pick up the cake that I had ordered for SaraRules’ birthday. A raspberry marzipan cake. A cake that needed to be kept cool/cold, hence the need for the cooler. I had ice. I had gel packs. As far as I knew, I was ready to rcok. Unfortunately, the cake box was significantly larger than the cooler. *grblsnrkx* This meant that some creative adaptation was in order. I wound up adding a half-gallon of ice cream to help with the cooling process. Grabbed a bag o’ clothes and headed out. Next, a stop to pick up to pick up some decorations and fill up the tank… then it was time to burn the breeze. Until I went to get onto I-15 South. Drive-time gridlock. yay (lower case intentional). I got through that and made it to Provo… only to hit two more pockets of resistance. >.< But, once I got down to Springville, things moved at a steady pace. Next stop: Cedar City.

One thing about the drive between SLC/AF and Cedar City, you have time to kill. A LOT of time. Last night and this morning, I listened to the (abridged) audiobook version of John Hodgman’s The Areas of My Expertise (iTunes Music Store link). It’s a fun read. Um, “listen.” Whatever. And, it features Jonathan Coulton, as well. Win-win! (All that and you learn about the 51st U.S. state!)

I made it to Cedar without any problems. And the cake survived the trip intact. Sara wasn’t in, which I was counting on – she was in a rehearsal for an upcoming production at the school. Perfect. I had conspired with her roommates to keep this trip a secret and so far, it was working out well.

That’s when I remembered that I had neglected to pick up birthday cards before I hit the road. Greeeat.

We put up the decorations and I made a mad dash to the store for cards. I got back to the apartment and signed the cards with plenty of time to spare – the rehearsal started late. Fortunately. So, I hung out with the roommates. Sara got in, saw the decorations and was met/accosted by her roommates; I was reading a couple of articles in GQ, in her bedroom (i.e.: “hiding”). The look on her face when she got to her door was well worth the trip. (And, of course, none of us thought to take any pictures.) We all went back into the kitchen. We sang “Happy Birthday.” We ate cake (which was quite good, I must say). And everyone went to bed.

This morning, back on the road and on to work. There have been a few questions/problems to deal with, but it’s been pretty quiet, overall. (Translation: “More reading!”) Today’s workout was short, but painful (in a more-or-less good way):

• Leg Raises: 3 sets / 20 reps
• Dip: 3 sets / 20 reps
• Bench Press: 3 sets / 15 reps, 155 lbs.
• Lat Pull-downs: 3 sets / 15 reps (sets 1 and 3 at 120 lbs., set 2 at 100 lbs.)
• Incline Press: 3 sets / 15 reps, 95 lbs.

Stray Toasters

• I had somehow managed to forget that I had Butterscotch Krimpets in my desk drawer.
• Dastardly pounce!
• William Gibson: The Rolling Stone interview
• Tyranist recently acquired Infernal Contraption. It seems like a “Rube Goldberg meets Munchkin” kind of game, from the information.
• That reminded me of – and I decided to show Tyranist – Sim City: The Card Game. I went to the Mayfair site, but didn’t find a link to it. I tried Google. Bingo. First result. And it was on… the… Mayfair site. *blink blink* Apparently, they didn’t remove it, they just buried it. Bizarre.
• Top Marathoner Collapses and Dies in Olympic Trials
• Wow. From BBC News: Girl separation surgery a success
• Georgia under state of emergency (The country, not the state)
• SaraRules and : Prince fan sites face legal threats
• Rune Olsen’s Twisting Sculptures
• Spooler. Processor. Monitor.
• Jason is buying an iMac… ostensibly, for his wife. (One of us… One of us…)
• City of Heroes “Thank You” goodies.

Like I said: *WHEW*

Namaste.

Tuesday – 06 November 2007
Happy Birthday, SaraRules:

Wait… I already called. Okay, disregard that last one then. Seriously, though, I hope that you have a wonderful birthday!

So far, the day has been good. And there is frozen mocha goodness to thin the blood in my caffeinestream.

There’s no game tonight, so I’ll have to find other ways to entertain myself; I’m fairly sure that I can come up with something.

Stray Toasters

• I have rediscovered the joy that is Indexed.
• SupercaliMACiliciousexpialidocious.
• 
• By way of and Gizmodo – Misnomers: Sony TWA/T Camera Case Is Unfortunately Named
• …and, Gadget Art: Pierre Matter’s Steampunk Sculptures Belong in Batman’s Art Gallery
• Comet surprise makes it visible to the naked eye
• By way of Jason: Flight of the Conchords – The Humans are Dead
• …which remined me of Jonathan Coulton’s Chiron Beta Prime and The Future Soon
• 
• The above picture reminded me of something: There’s an LDS Primary song called, Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam… which, for the past few weeks, has been getting reparsed in my head as Cthulhu Wants Me for an Appetizer

/lunch

Namaste.

Monday: Coda
After work, it was a quick stop at home to change clothes and then back out the door and on the way to Fiddler’s Elbow for tonight’s game: Baltimore at Pittsburgh.

I shouldn’t have been in such a rush.

The Ravens performed horribly. Or, should I say: They didn’t perform. At all.

I saw people in jerseys who were supposed to be the Ravens, but I think that they just grabbed some random strangers in the parking lot. I haven’t seen a game that painful in a long while. It was so bad that my uncle, a Steelers fan, called me before halftime to apologize. Yeah, it was that bad. I’m surprised – and rather grateful – that the score was “only” 7 – 38. It could have been worse: This could have been a Browns-Ravens game. (That’s coming up in two weeks.)

On the plus side, I had the good company of , , and SaraRules’ father to watch the game – and drink beer – with.

Stray Toasters

• I still have a plethora of candy left over from Hallowe’en. Good thing I got candy that I like.
• NY Jedi School Trains Lightsaber Enthusiasts (To Be Bigger Geeks)
• For the Mac users out there: What are some of your favorite applications?
• [message redacted]
• Giant Donkey Kong Game

Namaste.

Monday – 05 November 2007
And…. back in Happy Valley, again. Wahoo, or some madness like that.

Belated Happy Hatching Day to :

SaraRules and I played backgammon again last night. I won four games to three. I like winning. We also watched the Dallas-Philly game. What I want to know is: Who were the yahoos in the Eagles’ jerseys?! What happened to the real team? I saw Andy Reid on the sidelines. I saw Donovan McNabb on the field. I even caught a glimpse of Brian Westbrook. Hell, David Akers even put in an appearance or two. But the others?! No idea. Dallas just walked all over ’em.

The morning commute wasn’t bad… until I got just into Utah County. Then the monkey-rifficness started. And I can’t blame a Utah driver this time – it was a Canuck. He, his pick-em-up truck and a long trailer tried to squeeze an Acura off the road… right in front of me. *grblsnrkx* There were also the usual assortment of people who decided that the “left general purpose lane” was the ideal place to go the speed limit. Or less.

Stray Toasters

• I had a cheese steak sandwich for lunch; it was the last son of Krypton sandwich left over from the batch that SaraRules made for dinner last night.
• I shall probably have a Butterscotch Krimpet or two for dessert.
• Tabula Rasa Reinvents the MMO to Court Casual Gamers
• 
• Grace.
• 22… 23… 24… 25… Oh, Hell. I give up.
• Bumper Stickers Only an Infantile Boob Could Love
• From the “Unintentional Candy Porn” file: Chocolate Santa holding a tree or a sex toy?
• The Best: Obsolete Technologies, from the Sundial to the Laser Disc
• Wait. You mean that everyone doesn’t do this…?

  

Quote of the Day
Today’s gem was SMS’ed in by Land; he overheard it from an out-of-state man working for the pro-voucher campaign here in Utah:

I met a black man today. I win the scavenger hunt!

And with that… lunch is done.

And tonight, the Ravens take on the Steelers. Fiddler’s Elbow. Guinness. That’s all I’m sayin’.

Namaste.

Sunday – 04 November 2007
Sleeping in is even better with Daylight Saving Time. That whole “Fall back…” thing. It kicks grass. I woke up this morning thinking that I had fifteen minutes until the first round of NFL games. Wrong. I had an hour-and-fifteen minutes. So, that time was spent reading the two most recent issues of GQ, with a cup of coffee, while SaraRules read the latest Vogue. After checking NFL.com, I realized that there weren’t any games in the early set that I was really jazzed about watchng, so I was able to enjoy my reading time.

Last night, we went to see American Gangster. The movie tells the story of 1960s/1970s Harlem drug dealer Frank Lucas and New Jersey police office Richie Roberts, the man who brought him down. Wow. It was a very well-done piece of cinema. As usual, Denzel Washington did an excellent job, as did Russell Crowe. In fact, this movie did many great things to wash the lingering memories of Virtuosity out of my mind – the last picture in which I can recall both Washington and Crowe starring. I give this movie an enthusiastic thumbs-up with an okay.

Stray Toasters

• I played Backgammon for the first time in probably… ten years… last night. I lost fabulously.
• By way of : Shatner woo remix
• : Glad to see that you enjoyed Across the Universe. (Told ya so!)
• 
• Wal-Mart’s Terrible Nintendo Wii Knock-Offs
• By way of Slashdot: Elephants on acid – the 10 wackiest experiments of all time

*voop*

Namaste.

After lunch, I went on field trip to try and find a less-dry (and slightly more up-to-date) book to cover one of the things I studying. I went to the Barnes & Noble in Sugar House. It was nearby. It was a good-sized location. What could be better? How about the fact that I probably have a larger selection of technical books in my personal library than this store did? Okay, that’s a gross overstatement, but I was horribly disappointed at the store’s selection. I considered trying another location, but changed my mind and just decided to head back to the office.

As I’m in line, waiting to get out of the parking lot, a white Ford Expedition rolls past me, trying to cut me off. So, I moved up – cutting it off – and looked at the driver with a “What in the Nine Hells do you think you’re doing?!” look on my face. The driver rolled down the passenger window.

Have you ever had one of those moments where, after the fact, you wished that you had just let the stupid things that people do just… go… and move on with your life? This was one of mine.

The driver and passenger looked like they had been working on getting three or more sheets into the wind. She gave me a story about how she was “…so out of gas, so I was just going to cut you off so I can get to a gas station.” I waved her on ahead. I didn’t want any of the backwash of stupidity to splash over on me. *gah* With monkeys like these, who needs pets? And, might I add: The nearest gas station was about 300 yards up the hill. Yeah, waiting that extra seven seconds was going to make her run out of gas. *sigh*

Stray Toasters

• I had sushi for lunch.
• Boldly go where no corpse has gone before: Star Trek Coffin Warps Your Corpse to the Final Nerd Frontier
• Gawker Shirt-of-the-Day
• Top 10 Sexiest Hallowe’en Costumes of 2007
• just tried to decapitate me.
• 
• Western Digital rolls out 320GB 2½” Scorpio hard drive

Namaste.

Tuesday – 30 October 2007
After finally going to bed last night, I figured that sleep would come easy and I would almost immediately be welcomed into the gates of The Dreaming.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I think that I spent more time tossing and turning that I did sleeping. Therefore, when the alarm went off this morning, I turned it off and resolved to ignore the fact that it had ever sounded. When I finally felt rested enough to get up, I did and started the day.

Fortunately, the day has been pretty good… and pretty much monkey-free. Eric suggested a change to the workout:

• Dips, leg raises and pull-ups, alternating.
  • Dips: 3 sets / 20 reps
  • Leg Raises: 3 sets / 20 reps
  • Pull-ups: 2 sets, unassisted; one set – 6 (unassisted) and 5 (assisted, 90 pounds)
• Bench press: 155 lbs / 2 sets, 12 reps; 155 lbs, 9 reps; 135 pounds, 4 reps
• Rows: 120 pounds, 3 sets / 12 reps
• Lower back raises: 2 sets, 10 reps – reverse fly at the top, 5 pound weights in each hand

By starting the dips and pull-ups, our arms got a good pre-bench press workout… which is why our bench weight was so low. And, by the time we got to the third set, getting through half of the set felt like a major accomplishment.
Stray Toasters

• I have finally opened my first box of Butterscotch Krimpets. They make a tasty breakfast, with coffee.
• Golden introduced me to Top
  
  Gear today. Interesting. And quite fun.
• LEGO Key Rack. Why do I not have one of these?!
• For SaraRules, … and others, by way of Deacon Derek:

  

• 25 items to build an Apple Store
• Last night, I found a link to this Masters of the Universe video. (17 mb file, .mov format)
  Today, I found this webcomic.
• For the golfing and Star Trek geek on your Christmas list: Star Trek Enterprise Putter Destroys Romulan Birdies of Prey
• Recursive Queries. Iterative Queries. Inverse Queries. *ack-thbbpt*
• How things would be different on Earth without the Moon

Where does the time go when you’re reading a tech book?

Namaste.

Monday: Coda
It’s been a relatively quiet post-work day. And that isn’t a bad thing. At all.

After work, I came home and decided to spend a little time in Paragon City. I caught one of my Super Group-mates online, so I asked her about the Hallowe’en event – specifically, where were places that I could Trick or Treat. She (and one of our coalition members) hooked me up with the zones where I could knock on doors and hopefully not die.

So, I headed to one of the zones…

…knocked on a door…

…and received a Trick: A Fir Bolg, a Witch and a Zombie walked into a bar attacked me. Yay. I fought them and won. So, I tried again. Another Trick: A Witch and a Sorceress. Whoop-de-damn-doo. I beat them… but not before they landed a few solid hits on me.

About this time, I remembered a couple of real world things that I needed to take care of, so I logged out and handled them. When I came back home, I decided that “food” came under the heading of “good thing,” so I fixed something to eat.

And then I headed back to Paragon City. C’mon… it’s the Hallowe’en Event! And I haven’t really played much in the past few weeks. No sooner than I logged in and said “Aloha” to my coalition, I was invited to join a team. I did. We kicked some Council and Devouring Earth… um… well… robots don’t really have butts – with the possible exception of Bender – and I don’t want to think about the DevEarth having recta, either. So, suffice if to say: We whooped ’em. Soundly. After the team broke up, I did a little more Trick or Treating. This time, for my efforts, I scored a couple of temporary powers: Hallowe’en costumes. I’ll get a couple of pics up in the next few days.

Stray Toasters

• I almost mistyped that as “Stray Tiasters,” which (for some reason) made me think “Stray Tiamats.” And absolutely no good would come from that.
• Speaking of Stray Tiamats (but hoping not to see one), morrownight is Game Night: D&D.
• And, Wednesday night is Hallowe’en… which means that will be running his annual Hallowe’en Horror Game. This year, it’s Call of Cthulhu. And I get to dust off a character who hasn’t seen the light of day in some time… a character that I had a lot of fun playing.
• This one’s for SaraRules, Tyranist and Nox: From Wizard – The 21 Greatest Horror Movies of the 21st Century. Examine and discuss.
• “Thanks!” to and for their helpful hints in getting acclimated to the Mac way of thinking.
• This post is being written on Defiant, now that I seem to have it properly trained on the network.
• I need to remember that there is NO mouse attached to Defiant. Just the touchpad. *sigh* I keep reaching for ‘Nine‘s mouse when I try to move the cursor across the screen.
• I just described Defiant to Code Monkey BB as “Black as midnight, sweet as sin.” He got a chuckle out of it… as did I.
• Style is like a second cousin to Class…
• UK Minister detained at Dulles Airport
• While trying to see if someone had posted a copy of Joe Cocker’s performance of Come Together, from Across the Universe, I found this video of the cast singing Hey Jude in Central Park. It’s a little rough, but pretty cool… and you can see that they – and the crowd – were having fun.
• Steampunk Time Machine
• One of the Coworker Daves – I swear, I’m going to have to number them to keep “who’s who” straight – emailed a link to today’s post from The Best Page in the Universe to a few of us in the office. I was chatting with both of them at the time and mentioned to Maddox that the link was going around the office… and to Dave that Maddox is a friend of mine; Dave seemed surprised by that, even though he knows about my superpower of knowing just about everyone. On the plus side, this encounter reminded me that I hadn’t added Maddox’ page to Random Access’ blogroll – an oversight that was quickly corrected.
• “party representative submission position”
• Celebrate Halloween with Halo, Lord of the Rings Online
• From Wired.com’s How To Wiki: Shred Like a God in Guitar Hero 3

.eof

Monday – 29 October 2007
A new week begins.

Getting up and on the way wasn’t so bad this morning. I chatted with for a few minutes before hitting the street. It seems as though there was a 5.0 earthquake in Kathmandu this morning. Oddness. And here are some interesting stats about Nepal.

Stray Toasters –

• Defiant is now running Leopard (Mac OS X – 10.5). New hotness for the new hotness.
• By way of SaraRules: ‘Fall Trio’ at Bountiful gallery; Mössel’s magic realism at SUU
• 
• The 13 Scariest Things in IT in 2007
• My Green Lantern ‘Clix should arrive soon. Very soon.
• Preparing for Diwali
• 
• Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi…
• I feel yet another pilgrimage to the Garden of Sweden coming on.
• 
• Man place on sex offender register for sex with bike
• Driver denies threatening officer

Quote of the Day
Land called Saturday to share this gem, from a consultant (obviously not from Utah) with whom he was working. She had apparently asked about getting some coffee and, when met with odd/curious looks, spouted off this beauty:

Oh, that’s right… you don’t drink coffee. Something to do with the purity of your temple or some shit like that.

Yay for ignorant and insensitive monkeys!

Namaste.