Random Access

Tuesday – 25 December 2007
So the big man in the red suit with the magickal reindeer apparently showed up and dropped off goodies and whatnot. This year’s haul included:

• The Art of the Japanese Garden
• LEGO Key Rack
• Gift certificate to IKEA
• Gift certificate to Dr. Volt’s
• Metallic dice
• One World, Many Cultures CD
• Ocean graphic novel
• “Grow a Pirate” toy
• Little Flip Book of Crosswords
• Subscriptions to Esquire and GQ
• Green Lantern paperweight (…and it’s even John Stewart!)
• AoA Cyclops HeroClix
• The Superhero Handbook

There are still other goodies to open (they’re back at my place and there are couple of things that are in transit)… but this has already been great.

What did Sanity Clause bring you?

Tuesday – 18 December 2007
Last night, SaraRules and I had dinner with her family, including an aunt and uncle who stopped by on their way to visit family in Idaho. It was a nice way to spend the evening.

So far, it’s been a good day. In the words of the boys from Liverpool: “Nothing to get hung about.” The lunchtime workout included:

• Bench Pres: 3 sets/8reps, 225 lbs.
• Nautilus Cable Fly: 3 sets/10 reps, 110 lbs (hold for 10 seconds on 10th rep, each set)
• Tricep Extension (Rope): 3 sets/15 reps, 80 lbs
• Tricep Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 6 plates (60 lbs?)
• Overhead Tricep Extension (Dumbbell): 3 sets/12 reps, 35 lbs

I tried – operative word: “tried” – 300 lbs on the bench press again today. The problem was that I tried it after I had already done my three normal sets. Needless to say, the bar didn’t move. Oh, well… there’s always Thursday.
And tonight is game night; we moved it up a week as Christmas is next week.

Stray Toasters

• I have been reading – and enjoying – Hundred Dollar Baby, one of the newer Spenser novels.
• Brisa 2000 Fan Looks Crazy, Does the Job in Steampunk Style
• I managed to catch the Matriarch online… AND chat with her.
• bn.com and amazon.com == online shopping goodness
• PS3 Game Developer Claims to Have Crossed Uncanny Valley
• 
• Woman gropes mall Santa
• : Click here.
• For the Futurama and beer-loving fan in your life: Beer-Brewing Bender
• The Galactically Hot Women of Star Trek: TOS
• 
• I’ve found yet another something to add to the Covet List.

Namaste.

Friday: Coda
Sweet frozen zombie monkey-squeezin’ Jesus…

I’m in Cedar City. That’s a good thing. The trip down here was… not entirely hellish, but the Utah’s “It should be Winter now” weather was in rare form. It started drizzling this afternoon, around the time I got done with my workout. It continued through the afternoon. By the time I got between Filmore and Beaver, the rain decided to turn into snow.

<sarcasm> Yay. </sarcasm>

This, of course meant that most of the people on the road slowed down to a bit below the speed limit. The Council for Better Driving considers this a adherence to Rules #1 and #2. Nuff’ said. There were, however, a few monkeys who decided to roll the bones and drive at approximately the same speeds that they would in dry weather. The Fates must have smiled upon them, as I did not see any of them upside-down on the side of the road. After I got a little past Beaver, the snow turned into intermittent rain again.

I got to SaraRules’ around 6:30… and fell almost immediately asleep. Her parents got into town about forty-five minutes later and we went to dinner at Cafe Orleans. Tonight, I tried their crab cakes (they were “okay,” but I’m not sure that I’d order them again), a grilled chicken po’boy and the chicken and sausage gumbo, both of which were good. After dinner, we came back to the apartment and watched Blade: Trinity. It was alright, not “great,” but a nice way to kick back at the end of the day.

Stray Toasters

• I just learned that Evel Knievel died today. He was 69. If you were born after… 1980 or so, that name might not mean a lot; but if you were a kid in the late 60s/early-to-mid 70s, you are probably at least passingly familiar with his exploits. And the toy line that he inspired. (And I had quite a few of those toys, back in the day…)
• Did you know that Kris Kristofferson (yes, the country and gospel singer/actor) is a Rhodes scholar. He was also a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army. And, he dated Janis Joplin.
• 
• Uranium ore for sale on Amazon.com

*voop*

Wednesday – 28 November 2007
Midweek is upon us.
Snow is on the ground.

That’s right. Snow. It started last night. And, following tradition, I called my father to share the wonderful news with him. (He already knew – he watches The Weather Channel. A lot.) By the time I got to ‘ for gaming, there wasn’t much on the ground, but the streets were wet and starting to get slushy. By the time I left, there was slush and ice – the temperature had fallen – on the streets. This morning, there was more snow (and slush), but the streets had been decently salted. That didn’t stop some of the monkeys from driving a little more crazily than good sense would have deemed appropriate.

With this in mind, I reiterate the Council for Better Driving Rule #1:

Don’t be a fucker.

Given the way that some people were driving, I think that I will consider making Rule #2:

You might be immortal, but the rest of us on the road aren’t:
Slow down and let us get where we’re going in one piece.

Last night was game night. We started our new game – Scion: Hero. Our characters are the offspring of gods. Rather than try a build based on Hand of Nefer-Tem, I went with a character whose pantheon are the Loa. That’s right: Voodoo. The game was interesting – and fun – and would have been even more fun had I not left my character sheet… somewhere. I had thought that it was in my backpack (which I had), but it wasn’t. *sigh* I was able to wing it for some things, but others… no clue. Oh, well. I found the sheet when I got home. I shall be importing the data into a pdf character sheet.

Last night, I tried installing City of Crack Heroes on Defiant, under Parallels. When the installer finished, I tried to log in. I had forgotten one thing. One kind of critical thing: Patches. There were 1.7 gigabytes worth of patches. I wasn’t going to sit there, just to watch the bar crawl across the screen, so I left it and went to bed. When I woke up this morning, it was done. I tried logging into my usual server. No go. Server maintenance. *BAH*

Later, I was finally able to connect… but the graphics were not 100%. (Parallels doesn’t support DirectX 9 yet, so I’m not getting the full 3-D acceleration.) Basically, if I tried to play CoX on Defiant, it would look roughly the same as things would to Superman walking/flying around all day with his X-ray vision on: He could see shapes, forms and structures, but no details. Oh, well… I may look into setting up a Win partition in Boot Camp.

Stray Toasters

• I am trying to decide what I want for dinner. I do know that it’s not sushi, I fed that craving last night. Maybe I’ll hit up Jitterbug.
• Jitterati. *amused*
• Joysticks to the World: A Video Game Gift Guide
• G.I. Joe may have dominated the boy’s toy market of the 80s, but in the 70’s it was all about Fisher-Price “The Adventure People.” I couldn’t get enough of those. Or Micronauts.
• By way of : Precocious Kids Mess with Tracks of an Oncoming Train
• The entire run of Southern Knights is available at DriveThruComics, for 99 cents an issue. Hm…
• I’ve Got Billions, but I Don’t Like to Spend It
• There is a key chain on this page that I should get. (Go to the page and search for “Gordon” It should be easy to see why it amuses me so much.) This site also sells The Adventure People!
• Apple iMac Display Problems Reported and Some MacBook hard drives contain fatal defect
• Grape juice.
• Rock Band Leads to Eviction: Know Your Rocking Limitations
• “The Uncanny Valley”
• The Known World(s) – The List of DC Universes (definitive) and Wikipedia’s List of DC Multiverse Worlds

Quote of the Day
Today’s nugget of pure golden joy came from last night’s gaming session. One of the first things that I had my character do when he arrived in town was to acquire accommodations at a local hotel. After our group had gathered and we had finished the first of our tasks, we (meaning “they”) were deciding where to bunk up for the night. John chimed in with, “We can all sleep with you.”

I should note here that our group, at this point, consists of , , John and myself; a couple of other players were absent. Nyx looked at John and, in character, said: “What do you mean ‘we?’ I just met you three… and I’m not sleeping with any of you.”

John, after a moment’s thought, quipped back with:

“I party with the lotion.”

And much laughter ensued.

Namaste.

Saturday – 17 November 2007
As Bobby Darin sang, “What a difference a day makes…”

Last night’s drive to Cedar City was relatively uneventful, although long. I left SLC a little later than I had planned, thanks to some office monkeydom. Nature of the beast, I guess. Leaving late meant that I got caught in the Great I-15/I-215 Southbound Exodus crunch. It’s great when it takes you 20 minutes to go four miles. Once I got past 106th South, traffic wasn’t bad… until I got to Orem. At UVSC, I-15 turned into a parking lot again. A monkey-filled parking lot. And, that had barely cleared up when there was another clot around Center Street in Provo. Not so amazingly, when I got out of Utah County, traffic was (for the most part) fine. Although, there seemed to be more southbound traffic than I am used to seeing. *shrug*

When I got here, aside from seeing SaraRules, I was also reunited with my work ID badge, which had decided to stay here on holiday. SaraRules, Roommate Kim and I ate take-out from Wendy’s and watched Batman Begins, which made for a good way to end the day/week.

So far, today has been quiet and lazy. In true Saturday fashion, the morning started with breakfast and coffee and cartoons – a new episode of Legion; a rerun of The Batman. Now, SaraRules is knocking out some homework and I’m playing around on the Interweb. And deciding if I want to play around with Parallels. Tonight, I’m either going to a basketball game – which will get me back on track for my “Year of Sports” goal – or going to a Gershwin… opera-type-thingamabob.

Stray Toasters

• I have a taste for something sweet, but I haven’t pegged “what” yet.
• posted a link to this: Elise Hendrick’s piece Fuck Euphemisms. Go read it.
• LEGO Master Working on 100,000-piec, 21 foot long Battleship Yamato model
• I was showing a coworker the video for Weapon of Choice (which he had never seen) yesterday. That led me to look up Christopher Walken’s IMDb page. I noted that he had also appeared in Madonna’s Bad Girl video, which I had never seen.
• iStat menus
• 
• Automata for Sale – papercraft, DIY and wooden
• Typing of the Dead shall be played today (or tonight)!
• Best book covers of 2007
• Does anyone remember the game Marble Madness? Of course you do. You know that you spent quarter after quarter trying to get the damned marble to the bottom of the track/maze without getting eaten or crushed by the Steelie or just running it off the edge. But, I digress… check this out.

Time to find some trouble to get into…

Namaste.

Saturday – 03 November 2007
So far, it’s been, to quote Mr. Rogers, “…a beautiful day in the neighborhood.”

As with any good Saturday, it started with sleeping in. This was followed by breakfast and coffee (and college football) and then cartoons (Legion and The Batman, natch). After observing the necessary hygiene rituals, SaraRules and I headed out to check out the shops on Main Street. Highlights included a couple of bookstores (picked up a new-to-me Spenser book!), the kite shop and the sporting goods store. The latter store amused me because I noticed that the guy working the desk was playing poker on PokerStars; he seemed a little surprised when I mentioned it. Back home for lunch (and more college football) and some other random TV watchin’.

Tonight, we – along with a couple of the roommates and their S.O.s – are going to see American Gangster. We had considered making it a double-bill with Across the Universe, but the roomies’ schedules wouldn’t work with it. Oh, well.

Stray Toasters

• I think that I have found the perfect item for use in this year’s Christmas card. Perfect, I say!
• Duane “Dog” Chapman has had his show placed on indefinite hiatus, after a conversation in which he used racial epithets in trying to convince his son to dump his girlfriend was brought to light. But, he apologized. I would like to think that he apologized because he was sorry for what he said… rather than simply because he got caught.
• Whose Kingdome Come? Geoff Johns Talks JSA
• “What’s a Nubian…?”
• BBtv: American Furry – Life, Liberty and the Fursuit of Happiness
• 
• 8-bit retro game sound synthesizer
• I have been wanting to play some good, old school fashioned Lode Runner, lately.
• Impossible Mission, too.
• Steampunk Pac-Man
• From Baltimore’s City Paper: Hallowe’en Masks VIII… especially notable/amusing – the “Play Caller of Cthulhu” mask.
• Here there be zombies!
• For those of you who watch NFL on Fox, you’re familiar with “the Touchdown Robot.”  Well… guess who’s getting his (its ?) own action figure?
• Hot chocolate.  Boo-yah!

Namaste.

Monday – 22 October 2007
Another week begins. So far, it’s been good (despite a road monkey on the AF commute)… and it’s a short work week, so I’m not about to complain.

Saturday night, I finished watching Renaissance. It was good. I liked the feel and style of the movie. And I was pleased with the way it wound up; I was a little surprised by part of the ending, but in thinking about it – it made sense. I give the movie a thumbs-up with an okay.

Then, it was off to breakfast with the usual suspects… plus one: put in an appearance.

Sunday, SaraRules and I went to Temple Square to see Music and the Spoken Word – she plays cello, as does my coworker who performs with the Orchestra at Temple Square, so I figured it would be a “best of both worlds” kind of thing. So… off to the Conference Center we went. There were tons of people – far more than usual – also heading to the Conference Center. Odd, but I figured “Whatever…” When we got inside, they were handing out tickets for “Multi-Stake Conference.”

*blink blink*
Okay… definitely not what we’d gone for.

We decided to beat feet and make our way out. The problem: All of the primary entrances were being used for just that: Entrances. (After all, who would possibly want to leave when you could get a little bit o’ Jesus in your day?) So, we found an elevator bay that led to the parking garage and went out that way. Then we made our way against the tide of humanity back to the car. Along the way, we found a crosswalk that had a stone benches in the middle of the street. In case you got tired halfway across? *shrug* Who knows?

All gussied up and with no particular place to go, we realized that we were hungry. I checked the time and figured that Ruth’s Diner was going to be filling up with patrons. So, rather than sit and wait, I pointed the car to I-80 East. Park City. Cisero’s. Brunch. The food was good, as usual. And the drive, there and back, was nice.

Back to Salt Lake and on to the Capitol Theatre to see The Flying Dutchman. I enjoyed production. I was even able to restrain myself from making untoward comments to the lady who sat behind me and kept kicking the back of my seat throughout the performance. I was rather proud of myself.

From there, we headed to Sara’s parents for dinner and football. We watched the Broncos whale the tar out of the Steelers. I’m not really a Denver fan, but any team that plays the Steelers is my “favorite team” in that match-up.

Football Update

• The Ravens dropped a game to the Bills. Bah. *shakes fist*
• The Raiders lost to Kansas City.
• The Bengals beat the Jets.
• The Browns had a bye week.
• The Vikings got branded by the Cowboys.
• The Eagles lost to da Bears.

The Best: Come Together – Round 2
I put The Beatles up against Aerosmith in this match-up.

I picked up a copy of Across the Universe: Music from the Motion Picture a few days ago. I’m sorry, but Joe Cocker, singing an arrangement by Elliot Goldenthal, kicks the bejeezus out of both versions. Don’t believe it? Listen to it (unfortunately, it’s audio only – which is a shame, because the video portion of this kicks much grass) and tell me what you think.

Stray Toasters

• I had a cinnamon roll from the Garden of Sweden for breakfast, along with a large dose of frozen mocha goodness.
• Secret Agent, Salmon and 22 Seconds
• Plantation Dig Reveals Maryland Town’s Painful Past
• I am Ivory Soap sure that I will own new black hotness within the next few days.
• More US Warcraft Players than Farmers
• Salt Lake Gas Prices
• SaraRules, please show this to DJ Viking:

  

  Of course, I could have asked or (or a few others) to show it to him, too… Hm. Maybe I should make it a race: See who can get it to him first. Or, possibly even how many people can forward it to him. That would be amusing.

• By way of boingboing.net: Steampunk Shrew
• Luciana Souza: Revising Pop by Way of Bossa Nova
• 
• Anagram (for Mongo) from Mr. Shortz

And that’s that.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 17 October 2007
Midweek. Grey. Rainy.

Last night was D&D game night. We… kind of, sort of accomplished some things. In the grand scheme of things. We managed to uncover at least one new mystery. (We would have gotten away with it, if it hadn’t been for you meddling kids and your dog!) And, in the words of Jerry Reed, “We got a long way to go, and a short time to get there.” So, we’ll see how things progress.

I wasn’t in the mood to make a trip to Paragon City or the Rogue Isles, so I opted for a hot – and relaxing – bath, with a glass of Pinot Noir and Black Seas of Infinity. It was a good way to end the day.

Stray Toasters

• This morning, for the first time since God was a boy, I had breakfast from McDinkle’s: an Egg McMuffin. It wasn’t hellish.
• Marvel unveiled the new look of the new Captain America. Wizard also had a couple of items about it: 1, 2.
• 
• pointed me in the direction of this: Georgia Russel’s Book Sculptures.
• I have found a new – and horrible – new toy/distraction: IKEA Room Planner.
• Time Bandits map replication
• Sex, Nazi, Burrito and Viagra: Who Googles What?
• I found a community called Mock the Stupid, by way of . Holy monkeys on parade, Batman!
• 10 Wacky Wii Accessories
• “i think i just threw up my appendix”

Wheeeee!

Namaste.

Tuesday – 09 October 2007
Last night’s sleep was… broken. I was up and down all night. When the alarm went off this morning, it was immediately shut off, and I lazed in bed until the iPod started to play. Then it was time to face the day. Work prep was relatively quick and painless, but I had to skip the “Have a bowl o’ cereal” part of the agenda as I had neglected to pick up some milk. *shakes fist* I did brew coffee so that I could start thinning the blood in the caffeinestream.

The commute wasn’t painful and, so far, the day hasn’t been bad.

::: gym break :::

I hit a new max benchmark on my bench press today: 300 pounds. One – and ONLY one – rep, but I did it.

Stray Toasters

• I should start thinking about what I want for lunch.
  (EDIT: I figured it out – Fazoli’s Rigatoni Romano)
• There was an item on boingboing about this cutlery set. After seeing the boingboing article, I followed the link to the Flying Peas site. And there began the downward spiral into madness, culminating in: The Camo PeePee Teepee, for which I have no joke or punchline.
• M is for Monkey.
  C is for Cookie Chimpy.
• From NPR: Keeping Gospel’s Legacy Alive
• allmusic.com
• respond, vibrate, feedback, resonate
• Eve figure
• 

/lunch

Namaste.

Monday – 08 October 2007
Annnnnd, I’m back.

The trip, though short, was good. Saturday, the weather was intermittently craptastic… just the thing for a night-time drive.  Fortunately, there were clear patches on the way, and you could see stars.  LOTS of stars.  I don’t think that I’ve noticed quite so many stars since my last trip along I-80 on the way to Carson City.

Yesterday, Sara and I made a trip into Cedar Canyon, near Kolob Resevoir to the “C” Overlook (pictures to come in a follow-up post).  And, I had yet another encounter in “Why Rob Likes Roads with Guardrails.”  It wasn’t Butterfield Canyon bad, but I had a few moments of “Oh, look! No cars are coming the opposite direction, I can move to the inside a little. “  After that, we headed to a barbecue and I got to hang with some of the grad students I met a few weeks ago; they’re a fun bunch – I think that they’d fit in with the Clitorati gang fairly easily.  And the guy who hosted the barbecue…?  He is apparently very serious about s’mores.  He had at least four kinds of marshmallows, two or three kinds of chocolate, and two types of graham crackers.  Game on!

Last night, we watched the last quarter of the Bears-Packers game.  For 15 minutes, I was a Bears fan.  It was a good fight.  Of course, it’s easier to watch a close game when “your team” isn’t playing.  (And, for the record: The Ravens squeaked past the ‘Niners.)   After the game, we were going to double-feature Batman: Mask of the Phantasm with Shadow of the Vampire, but only made it through Phantasm when two of Sara’s roommates came in.  We decided to fore go Vampire and hang out with them; that turned out to be a fun option.

Today’s commute wasn’t bad.  Blue skies and light traffic.  I had no problems with road monkeys… until I got to Utah County.  Go figure.

Stray Toasters

• I have been receiving text messages from Adam about his exploits in HALO 3.  The boy cracks me up.
• Phone booth.
• Starfish Goldfish and Coffee
• “He’s still wearing his super-pants.”
• Glitter.
• I need to assemble my Stikfas ninjas.

That’s good enough for now.

Namaste.

Stray Toasters

• For (and/or anyone else who’s interested): Someone made a set of custom New Mutants figures.
• 68
• *cackle*
• Today’s workout was good. My flat bench was okay for the first two sets, but I had to break up the third set into: 9 – 1 (reverse) – 1 – 1. But, on the plus side, my pull-ups are getting better: I can do two sets, unassisted, without much problem. And today, I fought my way through the third set of ten, unassisted. It was closer to: 8 – 1 – 1, but I didn’t have to use the machine assist.
• After I got back from the gym, Acolyte Derek asked me to come join a push-up “contest” with some of the developers. (Why they keep deciding to do these challenges on the days when I work out is beyond me.) Oh, well. Mine “is not to reason why…” So, I went to that side of the office and joined in. I did 57, topping the then-leader by two.

Quote of the Day
I have the following picture set as my desktop (this size, centered) in the Salt Lake office:

I received the following message from Dave, who sits next to me, when I’m in SLC:

(10:48:00 AM) Dave: hey man
(10:48:12 AM) Dave: I got my 5yo here and I was wondering if he could use your desk to do some coloring?
(10:48:23 AM) Dave: and by coloring, of course, I mean cracking into your computers…
(10:48:25 AM) Me: Sure!
(10:48:30 AM) Dave: chewing on your stuff…
(10:48:37 AM) Dave: no, that’s the 3yo, sorry, he doesn’t chew anymore
(10:48:39 AM) Me: Well, that’s a given with a 5y0 isn’t it?
(10:52:23 AM) Dave: thanks alot, man.
(10:52:29 AM) Me: Anytime
(10:52:38 AM) Dave: btw, he saw your ‘cute little picture’ on your monitor and I think it left a lasting impression…
(10:52:50 AM) Me: Oh, dear…
(10:52:56 AM) Dave: 🙂
(10:53:03 AM) Dave: I’ll tell you about the nightmares later
(10:53:07 AM) Me: Please. 😀

.eof

Wednesday: Coda
Today was apparently “Have a Meal with a Cop” Day – Perry joined us for lunch and I had dinner with Pat.

I remembered to pick up birthday cards for my father; and I took them out to the AMF to get them in the mailstream tonight.

Four-Color Coverage

• Astonishing X-Men #22 – The X-Men face Danger, Kruun and a missile the size of a small moon. Think they’re getting out of this one without a scratch? Think again (spoiler warning). From the looks of things, it’s going to take a giant Band-Aid^® to make this better. The dialogue is solid. The situation is – in typical X-Men fashion – dire. Once again, Whedon and Cassaday bring an excellent story to the table.
• Countdown: 36, 35, 34, 33, 32 and 31 – Mary Marvel, spoiled brat. Eclipso, wearing a lovely Jean Loring skin. Karate Kid and Una, still in search of answers as to what’s killing the ‘Kid. All this, plus Klarion, Monarch and the return of the new – and expanded – Crime Syndicate Society of America. Some of the storylines are beginning to wear a bit thin for me; and I’m also starting to get… distracted… by the inconsistency of the artwork: Granted they are doing a weekly series, so they are distributing the art duties to different teams, but the artwork runs the gamut from “good” to “tolerable” to “I paid good money for this?!”
• Green Lantern Corps #15 and Green Lantern #23: The Sinestro Corps War – Parts 5 and 6
  

  War.
  What is it good for?
  Absolutely nothing.”
  

  Getting Lanterns dead, that’s what it’s good for. Readers are given a rather blunt example of what happens when an irresistable force (The Sinestro Corps) meets an immovable object (The GLC).

  In this issue, the battlefront has moved from Oa to Mogo, the planet-sized Green Lantern. Leading the charge is the SC’s answer to Mogo: Ranx, the sentient city. And what will Green Lantern Hal Jordan do when his power ring loses its charge? Oh… this.

  Sinestro: This is amusing. Hal Jordan struggling to access the power of fear.
  Jordan: I can thank you and Parallax for showing me how, Sinestro.
  Sinestro: Showing you how? You are only capable of opening the ring and releasing its energy. You have no idea how to manipulate fear.

  How bad do things get? Bad enough for the Guardians to rewrite the Book of Oa, including ten new laws:

  Guardian: Officers. We have all suffered a great loss during this horrific incursion of fear. Many are dead and wounded. Many more are missing-in-action. The Sinestro Corps fight without mercy. They torture those they capture. They revel in the pain they cause. And now they approach.We understand the limitations both our code of conduct and the power rings themselves have.

  It is for these reasons we have rewritten the Book of Oa. Rewritten it to include ten new laws effective immediately.

  The First Law of Ten within the Book of Oa…

  …the power rings are now authorized to used lethal force against the Sinestro Corps.

  And, it looks like the battlefront is moving. Again. The new front line: Earth.

• Justice League of America: Wedding Special #1 – Black Canary and Green Arrow are tying the knot. Fun, happy times and joy for everyone, right? Tell that to Firestorm, who’s getting the holy bejeezus kicked out of him. After a fight with Killer Frost, Firestorm hears the hum of a teleporter:
  

  Good evening, Firestorm. My associates are The Joker and Cheetah. And of course you know me, I’m Lex Luthor. Did you just wet your pants? I can’t say I’d blame you. We’re really quite terrifying.
  Firestorm: I’m supposed to be impressed? I was hoping you were Darkseid, so I could bust your skull.
  Luthor: You should perhaps consider working your way up to that. *blasts Firestorm*
  Firestorm: Uhnnn…. Okay. Caught me by surprise. But you can’t hurt me with that stuff…
  The Joker: You’re ruining the gag. You’re supposed to think it’s a regular flower. Or at the very least, just a gag flower with a squirt gun inside. *sprays Firestorm*
  Firestorm: AH!
  The Joker: But here’s the twist. It’s not harmless water. It’s my specially prepared venom.
  Firestorm: HA-HA-HA-HA… I can’t neutralize it… HA-HA-HA… but my powers…
  The Joker: See? Funny.
  Cheetah: *slashes Firestorm* You mean the same powers that should protect you from my claws? ‘Cause I don’t think they’re working.
  Firestorm: HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! HA-HA! Please, DON’T! HA! AHHH! HA-HA-HA!
  *off-panel slashing effects*
  The Joker: Life is all about perspective. If I get a hangnail, it’s tragedy. If you fall into an open manhole and die, it’s comedy.
  Firestorm: *screams*
  The Joker: Nobody gets me.
  Luthor: *to Cheetah* That’s enough.
  Cheetah: Matter of opinion.
  Luthor: *to Firestorm* You were helpless from my first shot. If you don’t want your enemies to neutralize your powers, refrain from publishing scientific papers explaining them.

  And where’s Wonder Woman? And Hawkgirl? And Geo-Force? (And Where’s Waldo, while we’re at it?!) And what happens when the rest of the League finds out what happens to Firestorm? Let’s just say that the phrase “Break one off…” comes to mind. To be continued in…

• Justice League of America #13 – Picking up where JLA: Wedding Special #1 left off, the JLA goes on the offensive. The teams split up, with Black Lightning monitoring the action from the Hall of Justice:
  

  Green Lantern (John Stewart): Team Two, checking in.
  Black Lightning: Roger that — I’m reading you loud and clear.
  Green Lantern: Have I mentioned that it’s good to be working with you again? Although, I do miss your afro.
  Black Lightning: Ho. Ho.
  Green Lantern: I’m serious. Why’d you cut your hair off?
  Black Lightning: I’m trying to be more contemporary.
  Green Lantern: Good move. Welcome to the Nineties. I know why you did it. It’s a negative combover.
  Black Lightning: A what?
  Green Lantern: You’re going bald and you’re hiding it by shaving your head.
  Black Lightning: I am not going bald. I happen to look good this way.
  Green Lantern: No, you don’t. I would, though. Maybe grow a little goatee to add a little funk…

  And more of the JLA fall to the Injustice League. And the hits keep coming as Luthor, in his battlesuit, teleports in to bat clean-up.

  What I love most about the Lantern/Lightning scene is that Dwayne McDuffie (1, 2) seems to be having fun with Green Lantern, a character for whom he wrote many episodes on Justice League, Justice League Unlimited and Static Shock. But, it doesn’t stop there: He seems to have a good handle on all of the characters – both in the JLA and the Injustice League – featured in these two books (Wedding Special and Issue #13).

• Justice Society of America #9 – Power Girl’s having bad dreams. The JSA helps out at a pancake breakfast/charity fund-raiser. And help put out a fire. And… who is the “strange visitor from another planet dimension” that just showed up? More importantly: Why is he here now?!
• The New Avengers #34 – After what seems like eleventy-seven issues of “Are you or are you not a Skrull,” Dr. Strange, Master of the Mystic arts that he is, finally pulls a rabbit out of his hat (apparently that trick does work when not being performed by a moose) and proves to himself and the rest of the New Avengers that none of them are Skrulls… just in time for the team to go up against [message redacted].
• Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #33 and #34 – The search for Cosmic Boy continues… and concludes. Brainiac 5 proves, once again, that he is the most intelligent sentient in the room. Tenzil Kem proves that Bismollians can – and will – eat just about anything. Atom Girl is on the hunt for a man. And we get a retconned origin story for a very pissed-off Wildfire.
• Tales of the Sinestro Corps #1 – Parallax: The Fall of Kyle Rayner – In the Ion mini-series, readers were introduced to a painting of a young boy in a field that used to hang in the home of a then-young Kyle Rayner. He and his mother would make up stories about the boy.That is where this story starts. Sort of.
  The painting is in a room.
  In Kyle’s mother’s house.In Kyle’s mind.YeahbuhWHAT?!Kyle is “riding shotgun,” as the Parallax entity uses his body, tearing its way through the Green Lantern Corps. An aspect of the entity pays Kyle a visit. And that’s where the fun starts.

Stray Toasters

• I like traffic lights, but not for the same reasons as Terry Jones.
  
• Asteroid renamed for George Takei
• 83 or 71
• I asked about sheets of comic book stamps while at the AMF. They were out, but should have some after the weekend.
• Richard Garriott owns a Sputnik
• Four tabs, not three.
• Learning about The War
• For – World’s worst Hallowe’en costume: “Poopie Shorts”
• By way of Applegeeks: Adam West as Batman, with dialogue from Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns.
• Toys ‘R’ Us 2007 Hot Toy List
• Sopapillas.

.eof

Wednesday – 03 October 2007
Mittwoch and all is well.

Game night was canceled last night, so I found myself faced with deciding what to do with my evening. After a bit of mental meandering, I finally decided to log into CoH/V and see what was happening in either Paragon City or the Rogue Isles. I checked to see if either of ‘ alter-egos were online. They weren’t, but he was. I mentioned a field trip to the Isles and he was down with the idea. A short while – and a few deaths – later, Dhoruba had hit Level 14. And with Level 14 came a (real) travel power: Superspeed. Thank God.

I had a couple of odd dreams last night. One of them included an… invasion/uprising (?) of crab-like robotic creatures, similar to Stargate SG-1’s Replicators. I woke up just as a wave of them was overruning me. There’s a great/weird feeling.

Otherwise, the morning has been good, relatively quiet and fairly uneventful.

Stray Toasters

• I finally got around to depleting my stores of cotton candy by one. Something about running a Council mission, beating on bad guys, well… “even-worse-than-me” guys, while eating cotton candy is amusing.
• Artist gets probation for building secret mall apartment
• No one gets to their heaven without a fight.
• By way of Disinformation: Everything You Know About God Is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide to Religion
• NCSoft has released information about the upcoming expansion: Issue 11 – “A Stitch in Time.”
• Snorg Tees
• The upgrade to WordPress 2.3 is complete and was rather painless.
• lj user=”lostbear” pointed me in the direction of a LEGO-built Serenity.
  
• Weirdest Sex Stories of 2007
• Stylized Star Wars line-art t-shirts

…and I had sushi for lunch, at a place that frequents. Not a bad place and the prices were good. AND, added bonus: It’s a few doors down from the good Dr. V’s. (And I escaped with only two pieces of plastic crack: Firehawk and Lex Luthor.)

Namaste.

Monday – 01 October 2007
New week.
New month.
T-minus 25 and counting.

This morning, after about ten seconds of thinking “I really could just lie here for a while,” I actually rolled out of bed after the alarm went off. Pre-work hygiene rituals went off without a hitch and I was out the door. I picked up a cup of frozen mocha goodness and was in the office by 7:40. Not too shabby.

With one exception, the commute wasn’t bad. Which brings us to the Monkey of the Day: I was heading up Traverse Mountain in the middle lane when a pickup truck, hauling a large horse trailer decided that he wanted to be in my lane. The fact that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time came to mind. *sigh* Physics, go figure. So, I put on my blinker, gunned it and pulled into the so-called “fast lane.” I apparently forgot that putting on a blinker in Utah means “Hey, I’m trying to move over, so speed up just enough so that I can’t…” to the nearest driver in the lane into which you’re trying to merge. The idiotstick in the lane sped up – but not enough – to try and block me out. Then, he proceeds to dog my six all the way to American Fork. Every lane change and speed variation. Some peoples’ children, I tell you.

Stray Toasters

• I chatted with Sib-2 last night; she’s doing well.
• Shakespeare and coffee. (Not to be confused with Starfish and Coffee.)
• pointed me in the direction of these items.
• M.C. Escher
• Dwim made this over the weekend. His brother, Acolyte Derek, submitted it to Digg. Start the clock on Dwim’s fifteen minutes, please.
• The World’s Languages Are Fast Becoming Extinct
• 
• HOWTO make a robotic ElmoSapien chimera
• What is your email client of choice? I have recently switched (back) to Thunderbird after years of Eudora use.
• Bose Founder Discusses Audio Perfection and Digital Music
• I gained a new-found appreciation for my car’s seat warmers over the weekend. The cold, wet, snowy weekend.
• The Adorkable Nizlee
• The Most Irksome Employee Poll, by way of TechRepublic

/hunger

Namaste.

Sunday – 30 September 2007
Yesterday’s move went well. And quickly. I believe that the “official” time was three (3) hours, start to finish. That doesn’t include unpack and organize time, but still… that’s pretty damned impressive. (And, it covered any “need” for a weekend workout, too.) After the move, we went out for brunch.

And it started to snow. Yes, snow. Not even in October. *grblsnrkx*

Came back home for a much-needed nap.

Sara and I went to see Across the Universe; more on this below. After the movie, we headed to Cheers: South for breakfast. The restaurant was rather busy, which made for some rather “interesting” people-watching.

Today started off lazily. When we finally got in gear, Sara and I met Perry for lunch at Jitterbug. Post-lunch, the three of us headed to Dr. Volt’s to pick up my four-color shwag and a half-brick of plastic crack… and a box of Stikfas that I had forgotten thatI had ordered. Next, a quick stop at REI to make sure that hadn’t fallen off the face of the planet. (He hadn’t.) And then, a trip through Parley’s and Emigration Canyons to see the fall colors. The foliage was making progress towards the red end of the spectrum… but it wasn’t as prevalent nor as vibrant as I had expected. Oh, well.

Reeling by on Celluloid: Across the Universe
Is there anybody going to listen to my story
All about the girl who came to stay?

There’s a saying that goes “Parallel lines meet at infinity.”
There’s a variation of it that says “Parallel lives meet at infinity.”

This movie is about those parallel lives, their meetings and is told through the use of the music of The Beatles. I was pleasantly surprised at how it all came together. I was, likewise, pleased to see that there was more to the movie than the simple “boy meets girl” love story implied by the trailer.

The music, as I mentioned, was by The Beatles, but the songs were deftly re-arranged by Elliot Goldenthal and sung by the characters/actors. Not only that, but the songs also tied-in to the events of the movie, similarly to the way that Orpheus in the Underworld (Can-Can) and Die Another Day, were used in Stardust and Die Another Day, respectively. I believe that my two favorite pieces were Let It Be and Come Together… so much so, that I might have to reconsider my choice for “The Best” from a few weeks ago.

At two hours and twenty-one minutes, the movie is long… without feeling long. The casting was good. The plots/subplots were good. And with one exception, the stories didn’t feel forced or contrived.

I give the movie an enthusiastic “thumbs-up with and okay.” And it has renewed my interest in seeing Cirque de Soliel’s Love.

Football Update
Just a quick hit here: Congrats to on his Browns 2.0’s win over the Ravens today. Operative words: “Beat down.”

Stray Toasters

• I still have three bags of cotton candy. I shall put a dent in that tonight, while I am saving the world.
• “Greenie Weenies”
• Sara’s Deviataion vs. Rob’s Deviation.
• Monkey of the Day: While in Dr. Volt’s, Perry and I were talking about our plastic crack purchase (part of which is supposed to be Kate’s Christmas present to him). We were tossing jibes back and forth when another customer decided to chime in with: “Wow, I can’t believe all the testosterone and posturing being tossed around over here…” I had my back to him, but Perry said that he looked at me and straightened up a bit when I saw my build; then he looked at Perry, who was wearing a his badge and his holster. The guy then said “But, since I don’t know either of you, I think I’ll just keep my mouth shut.” And he walked to another aisle.
• I’m thinking of rearranging the office. I might put my eight-foot table up in there… and possibly throw my LEGO train and the Rokenbok Monorail up on it.
• 

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.