Random Access

Wednesday – 13 April 2011
It’s midweek, which means that it’s also new comics and D&D 4.0 night. But, today is also my brother-in-law, John’s, birthday:

Yesterday, I got off work a little early, so I ran a couple of errands before heading home. For dinner, SaraRules! suggested Thai food, so we went to Pawit’s.  Por Pia Sod…. Mmmm.   After dinner, we headed home and vegged for the rest of the evening, catching up on the previous nights’ episodes of NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles.

Stray Toasters

• Today is a suit day. Another one, that is.  Today: black suit, white shirt, black/grey/pink tie and pink pocket square.
• NASA Announces Space Shuttles’ Final Homes
• Ex-Mafia Boss Breaks a Code in Telling All
• Air France A380 spins Delta regional jet in JFK collision
  • NTSB releases post-collision photos of JFK A380 incident
  • JFK runway collision spotlights dangers on the ground
• 
• Japan nuclear issue: PM seeks to calm food safety fears
• For Flip Video Camera, Four Years from Hot Start-up to Obsolete
• Miniature Town Brings Its Creator a New Life
• ‘Business casual’ causes confusion

And now, it’s time for a meeting. One that wasn’t on my schedule. WHEE!

Namaste.

Tuesday – 12 April 2011
Work week: Day 2

As Google’s “classic” home page reminds us: Today is the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin becoming the first man in space

…also known as “Cosmonautics Day,” as well as being Yuri’s Night.

Thanks to an early day in the office, I was off work at 3:30 yesterday. I popped in to SaraRules!’ office, to say “Hi” for a surprise. From there, it was on to The Train Shoppe; they had completed the coupler repair on my Chessie locomotive. Next, I met , Tina and Casey for a stroll around Liberty Park. We did a couple of laps around the park which, assuming that the info I found is correct, means that we did about three (3) miles. I’m calling that a workout.

I came home, just in time to see SaraRules! off to her Justice League Junior League event. That meant that I was a “bachelor for an evening!” My first conundrum set in fairly quickly: What did I want for dinner? I solved that riddle with a quick trip to the local Five Guys. I came home, plopped down in front of the TV and DVR and watched a pre-Christmas episode of Human Target. I followed that up with a bit of HALO: Reach. Yeah… it was a good way to spend an evening.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules! and I bought a pair of trebuchets last night.
  • It reminds me of the time I wanted to build a Mad Cat in the backyard, like Jim Martin did. I actually emailed him back in… 2003 or 2004; he was a nice enough gent.
• Human Spaceflight’s 50th: The Glorious Past and Uncertain Future
• Jerry Lawson, Inventor of Modern Game Console, Dies at 70
• Little girl joins the Dark Side

  
  EMBED-Little Girl Joins The Dark Side – Watch more free videos

• NFL, Players Ordered to Mediate
  • For the Panthers, a QB or no QB with first NFL draft pick?
• For SaraRules!: Rube Goldberg photobooth
• Minority business program to undergo changes
• 
• New York Airport Jet Clips Smaller Plane’s Tail at JFK Monday Night
• Gas Prices Rise, and Economists Seek Tipping Point
  • This Is the World’s Greatest Driveway
• Epsilon may have been tipped off that it was a target

Namaste.

Saturday – 09 April 2011
It’s snowing again this morning. I guess I could have just said “It’s still snowing.” It snowed, intermittently, all day yesterday; although, it tapered off and stopped last night. I guess that Mother Nature hasn’t finished saying all that was on her mind.

Last night, SaraRules! and I met up with , , Angy, and for our usual Friday night gathering. I have to say that the people-watching was pretty prime. (…and so was the running commentary.)

Stray Toasters

• I need to hit the local post office sometime this morning. An item that I was selling on eBay sold… to someone out of the country.  I have to find out what kind(s) of forms I need to include in the packaging, as well as how much it’s going to cost to ship — I was getting two different prices from the USPS and I’d like to be certain of the price I quote the buyer.
• For SaraRules!: Here’s a little Rob Base and D.J. EZ Rock:

• U.S. to issue terror alerts on Facebook, Twitter
  I actually don’t think that this is a necessarily “bad” idea…
• Astronomers may have witnessed a star torn apart by a black hole
• Wozniak: I Would Consider Returning to Apple
• By way of Project: Rooftop comes Kris Anka’s Wonder Woman and Michelle Sciuto’s Victorian Birds of Prey
• What If Your Favorite Album Was a Book?
• 
• Getting Animated: Fave Cartoon Themes from Bugs to Batman
• Jon Favreau Shoots for Western Realism in Cowboys &a Aliens
• 12 Cool Products Inspired by LEGO, by way of lj user=”duckspeaker”
• All Star Trek coming to Netflix, make it so
• Too Much Alcohol May Cause Cancer
• Friday most popular day for bank robberies

And with that, it’s time to think about finding some trouble to get into…

Namaste.

Thursday – 07 April 2011
It’s a new “No Bad News” Thursday in the valley. And this one comes to us complete with grey skies and impending storms. S’okay though, we’re still one day closer to the weekend.

Last night, SaraRules! fixed Pad Thai for dinner. To my understanding, it was her first time making it… and it was good. After dinner, I hit Pin-up Girl Espresso for a cup of game night go-juice and then it was off to Hastur Hobbies to meet up with and the gang for our D&D game. It went well, especially when you consider that we ignored the last item from the following “suggestion” from Shadowrun:

“Watch your back, shoot straight, conserve ammo, and never, ever, cut a deal with a dragon.”

Nevertheless, we walked away with our lives and the item we were searching for… without having to (try and) kill the dragon. Which was good for us.

Back at home, SaraRules! and I watched The Thomas Crown Affair. The original. With Steve McQueen. And Faye Dunaway. It was good. I kept juxtaposing it with the 1999 version (Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo), although they were different movies to some degree. Both were heist movies, but the original featured a bank heist, where the more recent one had an art heist. Both SaraRules! and I agreed that both movies were good and were representative of their respective times, but we appreciated some of the nuances and subtleties of the older movie just a bit more. For example:

• 1968: Faye Dunaway’s Vicki Anderson quietly – and quite effectively – seduces McQueen’s Crown over a game of chess, while investigating him in relation to a recent bank heist
• 1999: Rene Russo’s Catherine Banning shows up at an event at which Brosnan’s Crown is a patron, wearing a sheer (read: “pretty much totally see-through/non-existent”) dress, and rather overtly flings herself at flirts with him during a spicy tango… while investigating his involvement with a robbery at an art gallery

I first saw the 1999 version of the movie about… eight or so years ago; last night was the first time I’ve seen the original. There were similar elements in both movies, but there were enough differences to keep them distinct and fresh. But, one of my favorite similarities – and best surprises – was that the original movie also featured Windmills of Your Mind, which I count as a favorite song (although, I prefer the version by Sting to the Noel Harrison one).

Stray Toasters

• At California Mental Hospitals, Fear Is Part of the Job
• A Fixture of Hollywood’s Past, Now Tarnished by Strife
• Swords and battle-axes pushpins
• A slew of banks, retailers affected by Epsilon email breach
• 
• Spring 2011 Trends Without the Fuss
• The Disney Princesses: If They’d Had Mothers
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Adzookie will pay your mortgage in return for daubing your house with ads
  I suppose that I shouldn’t be so surprised by this, as I’ve heard of the same thing being done with automobiles…
• 
• Woman single-handedly cuts off two countries from Internet
• Police Lesson: Social Network Tools Have 2 Edges
• NASA Telescopes Join Forces to Observe Unprecedented Explosion
• 
• By way of Corey (and Tosh.0): Big Black Dudes Are So Polite…
• Maine ranked ‘most peaceful state’; Louisiana the least
• Tesla fires back at boss of BBC’s ‘Top Gear’
• From the “Well… DUH!” file: IKEA Is Designed Like a Maze So You’ll Buy More Stuff.

And for my next amazing feat: Three meetings in a row!

Namaste.

Wednesday – 06 April 2011
It’s mid-week again, which also means that it’s new comics day and D&D 4.0 night. I’m good with all of those.

Yesterday’s Utah County excursion wasn’t too bad. The monkeys were fairly quiet; I did, however, get a little tired of people asking me when someone else was going to be in that office. After the third time, it got harder and harder to retort with a smart-assed answer. *sigh* On the plus side, I managed to squeeze in a trip to The Hobby Stop during lunch. Hey… it’s train stuff. Go figure.  🙂

I got home a little later than I had planned, had dinner and was back on the road again. Last night was D&D 3.5 night with and company. We accomplished a few things which were good/necessary and have nominal plans for the next part of our adventure.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Personal Hygiene
When a person is getting ready for work in the morning – or even the night before – isn’t that the “ideal” time for them to take care of things like clipping their nails?

As opposed to, say, waiting until they get into the office…?!

There are a few possible exceptions to this:

• Salon workers
• Spa workers
• Veterinarians

I’m not someone who gets squidgy at the sound of someone clipping their nails, but it just seems that it is something best done at home. With that in mind, there are times when I think a quick trim/cut are acceptable, the prime example being when someone chips, cracks or tears a nail and needs to trim it down. But that’s (usually) just one nail. Not all ten.

I suppose that I should just happy that I have neither seen nor heard (that I know 0f) anyone clipping their toe nails on the clock.

Stray Toasters

• I’ve been really enjoying the Tony Toni Tone’ CD that I picked up earlier in the week.
• 57 Spectacular LEGO Scenes
• Bored with World of Warcraft? Make Your Own Fun
• 
• More Pupils Are Learning Online, Fueling Debate on Quality
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file:
  • Giants fan beaten at Dodgers’ Stadium appears to have brain damage
  • Girl Trains Cow as a Show Horse
  • Michigan couple to walk some 2,500 miles for wedding
  • 
• Firefox 4 is taking a little getting used to…
• CWA: Why should you care about species extinction?
• Queen Guitarist Shares Love for Astronomy Through Stereoscope
• 
• An Artist Takes Role of China’s Conscience
• Grand Jury Investigates Whether Apps Like Pandora Are Stealing Your Info
• Lawmakers tell Google to do more on antipiracy

Namaste.

Tuesday – 29 March 2011
It’s (so far) a bright and sunny day in the valley. I’m good with that.

Last night, SaraRules! and I opted for a quiet evening in. We ordered pizza and caught up on episodes of  NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles. After that, I played DC Universe Online ; I ran a couple of missions and felt super-heroic for an hour or so. I finally remembered to take a picture in front of the Bat-Signal, as well:

After that, we watched a bit of Top Gear, before calling it a night.

Tonight, I’m heading out with a few of the guys for a pre-moving send-off for Perry. It should be good.

Stray Toasters

• My Tuesday was meeting-free… until I had to call a meeting. *sigh*
• Gender and the Supreme Court’s Wal-Mart Case
• Michigan Cuts Jobless Benefit by Six Weeks
• Discovery heads into retirement
• iZombie: snappy, sassy supernatural comic
  I have been reading – and enjoying – this book since it began last year. This compilation makes an excellent jumping-on point for new readers.
• Players claim ‘irreparable harm now’ from NFL in court filing
• 
  …and, in a somewhat related note:

  

• Amber Waves to Ivory Bolls
• Oracle’s MySQL.com hacked via SQL injection
• 3-Month Nightmare Emerges in Rape Inquiry
• Mario Brothers 2 – Kong Country (another “Serious Mario Movie Trailer”)
• Fires could be extinguished using beams of electricity

Namaste.

Monday – 28 March 2011
Another work week begins. And this one comes complete with snow! (Well, flurries, but still…)

Yesterday was good. It was a mostly low-key day. I did head over to West Valley Hobbies for a bit, but didn’t buy anything. I also stopped at Dr. Volt’s, to pick up the Apocalypse ‘Clix that they had on display. SaraRules! and I had dinner with her family and, after dinner, we watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which I hadn’t seen in a while. Back at home, we watched last week’s episode of Fringe before calling it a night.

Today, we’re having issues in the office. And there have been many “Why” and “How” and “When” questions asked. We’re handling it as best we can. (Which, surprisingly, doesn’t include punching monkeys.)

Stray Toasters

• How to Raise the Status of Teachers
• World’s largest LEGOLand taking shape in Florida
• Mobile phones may rot your bones
• A couple of Star Wars-related items:
  • Distracted by Star Wars
  • Homages, Ripoffs and Coincidences: Star Wars
• 
  
• When test scores soared in D.C., were the gains real?
• Paul Baran, Internet Pioneer, Dies at 84
• Thanks to for posting a link to this video, which shows the pre-launch preparations for Discovery‘s last flight:

• The Nintendo They’ve Tried to Forget
• 12-Year-Old Rewrites Einstein’s Theory of Relativity

On to the rest of Monday…

Namaste.

Monday – 21 March 2011
It’s the second day of Spring. Here behind the Zion Curtain, it’s grey and drab… although the sun appears to be making some efforts at breaking through the clouds.

This past weekend was rather low-key, which wasn’t a bad thing. Saturday, I had breakfast with Chris before heading over to Dr. Volt’s, where I judged a HeroClix tournament. There was a good turnout, with nine players. As there was overlap between the last DC 75th event and the new Giant-Size X-Men release, I just combined the prize support for the winners. That seemed to go over fairly well. Saturday evening, SaraRules!’ parents and grandmother came over to visit for a bit. We capped off the evening watching Demolition Man; it had been many years since I had last seen it.

Sunday was another quiet day… or, at least, it started that way. Perry called in the late morning to elicit my help in moving some of his martial arts practice equipment. We headed over and chatted with Kate and him for a bit; then he and I set about the heavy lifting. After that, SaraRules! and I caught a matinee of Battle: Los Angeles. This movie’s been getting knocked around in the reviews, but it wasn’t all bad. In fact, it was decent.  About halfway through the movie, I realized what it reminded me of: Independence Day. The only things missing were The Fresh Prince, The Fly and a virus-uploading MacBook. It was still a decent popcorn flick.

After the movie, we headed over to the in-laws’ for a belated St. Patrick’s Day dinner of corned beef and cabbage. SaraRules’ grandmother was in town, so we hung out with the family for a bit after dinner. Then it was back home for relaxing with DC Universe Online and a couple of episodes of Mad Men.

Stray Toasters

• Smithsonian to keep meteorite that fell in Virginia
• 
• Diamond Comics’ Previews offered up this item: Adrianne Palicki Debuts as the New Wonder Woman
  • Dear NBC, I Fixed It For You, by way of Derek H.
• Gains, and Drawbacks, for Female Professors
• Abortion Foes Target Family Planning Program
• 
• Spectacular LEGO Reenactments of March Madness Classics
  • And now, a moment of silence for the Boilermakers, who were knocked out of this year’s March Madness by VCU.
• AAP: Toddlers in rear-facing seat until 2
• Where the Music Still Roils in a Critical Mass
• 
  • Also from xkcd: Radiation Dose Chart, which is rather informative… and BIG!
• The Tragic Story of the Russian Cosmonaut Who Was Sent into Space Knowing He Would Die
  • Cosmonaut Crashed to Earth ‘Crying in Rage’
  • It’s kind of odd, but if you consider the first two paragraphs of the NPR account, you can find a similarity to the story told in David Bowie’s Space Oddity, though as pointed out: In Space Oddity, the pilot – not the ship – was “broken.”
• AT&T to Buy T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
• The sun appears to have given up on trying to break through the clouds.

And that, I think, is a wrap.

Friday – 18 March 2011
It’s my 9/80 “off” Friday. So far, I’ve celebrated by sleeping in, having coffee with Perry and saying “Hi” to and . That’s not a bad way to start a day off.

I’ve also painted the last “new” piece of foamboard that I have for my railroad; I might just extend the city section a little this afternoon/evening.  Also, the newest addition to my fleet o’ vans showed up today… so I might have to look at reworking the roadways through my layout.  Just saying.

Stray Toasters

• For those of you who (still, for whatever reason) don’t know what a “Fastball Special” is, here’s a graphic representation:

  

• sent me this link: Satellite Photos of Japan, Before and After the Quake and Tsunami
  Use the slider to see an amazing “before and after” view of the Fukushimi Daiichi reactor destruction.
• What it’s like to be a black comics writer, a video interview with the late Dwayne McDuffie
• DC Comics’ “The Source” blog has posted the first picture of Adrianne Palicki in her costume for the upcoming Wonder Woman television series:

  

  It appears to be a melding of the traditional costume with the new comics version, as designed by Jim Lee. On the whole, I’m okay with it. I will agree with some commenters that the color palette for the pants may be a little “bright.”  But, it’s also a studio shot; it could look entirely different by the time the show hits the air.

• Thanks to MarknTyme for sending me the link to Marble Machine Chronicle.  Check it out.
• Trunk Club Men’s Outfitters: Hand-Selected Outfits Shipped to Your Door
• Thanks to , for remembering my affinity for Rush when he posted this picture:

  

• I have added these LED address lights to The Covet List.
• MESSENGER Enters Orbit Around Mercury

Time to find some more trouble to get into.
Or maybe even find some late lunch.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 16 March 2011
Apparently, it’s going to be a grey and rainy day. So be it. It’s midweek, it’s new comics day, and the new HeroClix set – Giant-Size X-Men – releases today. So there’s my ray of sunshine. In a bag.

Yesterday was The Ides of March… and it felt like it. I had an 11.5 hour day at work, thanks to a network traffic issue. I got so fed up at one point, that I went out for lunch and wound up going home, heading to the basement and running my train for a little bit of mid-day serenity. It helped. Fortunately, loonybin88 was still in town and helped sort through most of the issue. I still need to track down another (hopefully small) part of the puzzle.

When I got home, and after a late dinner and a little TV, I settled in for a hot soak and some light reading, Fables Vol. 14: Witches. That made for a perfect end to the day.

Stray Toasters

• Rapper Nate Dogg Dead at 41
  • Warren G (ft. Nate Dogg) – Regulate

• Train cars derail in Salt Lake City
• I don’t speak Russian, but Comics Alliance got their hands on the Russian preview trailer for the upcoming X-Men: First Class, which features some different footage than the American trailer.
• Mormon Politicians from Utah Feel Tea Party Heat
• Kids and Dead Tree Comics
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Powder at Kennedy Space Center tests positive for cocaine
• 
• N.J. agencies failed to wipe hard drives before resale
• What We’re Reading: March 15-21
• Remember the song, Brimful of Asha?  Meet Asha Bhosle: the voice of Bollywood
• Both of these go straight to The Covet List. Do not pass “Go.” Do not collect $200.
• 
• How Pee Helps Us Understand Social Media
• Threats to Traveling Data
• NASA: Japan quake shortened Earth’s day, shifted axis

Namaste.

Thursday – 10 March 2011
It’s a sunny and bright NBN Thursday, which is a very nice change of pace from the past few grey days.

Last night, I didn’t do a whole lot… and it was pretty damned nice. I think that the highlights of the evening were: A) sitting down to read yesterday’s comics haul and B) bidding on a new (read: “yet another”) van for my layout.

Stray Toasters

• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Man gets 25 to life for beheading wife
  I want someone to explain to me HOW he only got a second-degree murder charge for this.
• Most Public Schools May Miss Targets, Education Secretary Says
• Microsoft closes four vulnerabilities, including DLL issues
• 
• Thursday is, apparently, “Meeting Day.” Yay.
• Could new wireless network render GPS devices useless?
• The Style Blog
• From the “Say It Isn’t So!!!” file: Heat Damages Columbian Coffee, Raises Prices
• Dalai Lama ready to give up political power
• Shuttle Discovery Comes Lands on Earth After Final Voyage
  • Space Shuttle Discovery Lands for the Last Time
• Honda has had spider infestations like Mazda

Namaste.