Random Access

Wednesday – 07 March 2012
It’s the middle of the week. And it’s new comics day. And it may or may not be Pasta and Movie Date Night.

But, more importantly: It’s Diana’s 6-month birthday!

Both little ladies are doing well, despite long crying jags in the wee hours of this morning: Diana started around 2:30, Vanessa around 4:00. We’re trying to get the girls to learn to put themselves back to sleep when they wake up in the middle of the night, so we didn’t go immediately rushing in to comfort them…
…which made for a long couple of hours.

…which, in turn, led me to sleep on the couch downstairs so I could get my last few hours’ sleep (and not have an encore presentation of Monday).

But, by the time I looked in on them around 7:15, they were all giggles, grins and kicks.

Kids. Go figure.

Stray Toasters

• I just called SaraRules! to confirm that we were attending Utah Opera’s upcoming production Elixir of Love. She assured me that we were and then made a “get your towel/don’t panic” comment. I was proud, amused and a little scared (all at once) by this.
• Drug Policy as Race Policy: Best Seller Galvanizes the Debate
• Race and justice in America: inspiring Ted talk
• Rush flushes Rush!
• 
• My current lack of a model railroad is making me want to take my HO Scale train equipment and make a door layout.  And I just realized that I have some US HO train gear, as well as a fair bit of Marklin train equipment, that I inherited from a coworker of SaraRules. What does all this mean?  Simply put: I could do a double-sided door setup — US on one side; EU on the other.
• To Lose Weight, Just Drink a Gallon of Coffee
• Web Sites Shine Light on Petty Bribery Worldwide
• 
• Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent?
• Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Professional Football Club have called it quits. Kudos to Manning for his professionalism during the press conference. Also, I noticed something:  Peyton Manning and NCIS‘ Sean Murray look “a bit” alike…

    
  Peyton Manning (l) and Sean Murray

  …and I don’t think that I’ve ever seen the two of them in the same place at the same time.  Just saying.

• Astronaut’s photo of amateur astronomers “flashing” space station
• Toy Shining
• 
• Arrests Sow Mistrust Inside a Clan of Hackers
  • Anonymous hacker-turned-informant helps feds arrest five

Namaste.

Thursday – 09 February 2012
This NBN Thursday is a bit grey and hazy.  But, I started the morning with SaraRules! and the girls, so it was a good kick-off to the day.

Last night, we watched Killer Elite (not to be confused with the movie with almost the same title from 1975) for Movie Date Night. Robert DeNiro. Clive Owen. Jason Statham. All kicking ass and, in some cases, taking names. The premise was a little different than I expected, but not in a bad way. There were a couple of plot holes, but what movie doesn’t have those these days? In the end, it made for a decent night’s viewing.

Also, I tried out something different with my bike trainer: Disengaging the tension wheel, so that the back wheel spun freely. Works, but without any resistance, I was pedaling as easily in the higher gears (15 and up) as I was in the first three gears. Still, it’s an option.

Chew on This: Food for This – Black History Month
Today, you’re getting a double d0es of Black History Month goodness.

• The first person of note is James Weldon Johnson, author, politician, poet, songwriter, and educator, and early civil rights activist.James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 – June 26, 1938)  was born in Jacksonville, Florida, the son of Helen Louise Dillet and James Johnson. His brother was the composer J. Rosamond Johnson. Johnson was first educated by his mother (the first female, black teacher in Florida at a grammar school) and then at Edwin M. Stanton School. At the age of 16 he enrolled at Atlanta University, from which he graduated in 1894. In addition to his bachelor’s degree, he also completed some graduate coursework there.

  After graduation he returned to Stanton, a school for African American students in Jacksonville, until 1906, where, at the young age of 23, he became principal. As principal Johnson found himself the head of the largest public school in Jacksonville regardless of race. Johnson improved education by adding the ninth and tenth grades. During his tenure at Stanton, Johnson wrote Lift Every Voice and Sing — often called “The Negro National Hymn”, “The Negro National Anthem”, “The Black National Anthem”, or “The African-American National Anthem” — set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson (1873–1954) in 1900.

  In 1897, Johnson was the first African American admitted to the Florida Bar Exam since Reconstruction. He was also the first black in Duval County to seek admission to the state bar. In order to receive entry, Johnson underwent a two-hour examination before three attorneys and a judge. He later recalled that one of the examiners, not wanting to see a black man admitted, left the room.

  In 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him U.S. consul to Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, and in 1909 he became consul in Corinto, Nicaragua, where he served until 1914. He later taught at Fisk University. Meanwhile, he began writing a novel, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (published anonymously, 1912), which attracted little attention until it was reissued under his own name in 1927.

  In 1920 Johnson was elected to manage the NAACP, the first African American to hold this position. While serving the NAACP from 1914 through 1930 Johnson started as an organizer and eventually became the first black male secretary in the organization’s history. In 1920, he was sent by the NAACP to investigate conditions in Haiti, which had been occupied by U.S. Marines since 1915. Johnson published a series of articles in The Nation, in which he described the American occupation as being brutal and offered suggestions for the economic and social development of Haiti. These articles were reprinted under the title Self-Determining Haiti. Throughout the 1920s he was one of the major inspirations and promoters of the Harlem Renaissance trying to refute condescending white criticism and helping young black authors to get published.

  Johnson died while vacationing in 1939, when the car he was driving was hit by a train.

• The second person of note is Mat Johnson (no relation), an American writer of literary fiction.Johnson (born August 19, 1970) grew up in “racially stratified” Philadelphia. His mother is African American; his father, Irish American. After his parents’ divorce, he was raised by his social worker mother in a largely black section of the city, Germantown, where he often felt like a standout. “When I was a little kid, I looked reallywhite—I was this little Irish boy in a dashiki.”In his teens, he transferred to a private school, Abingdon Friends, in a more affluent neighborhood. “It was the first time I was around a lot of white people. I suddenly realized I had an ethnic identity, and started to think about race.” He listened to Public Enemy and devoured The Autobiography of Malcolm X and books by W.E.B. DuBois and Toni Morrison. “African-American literature felt like an intellectual home, this place where I fit and belonged,” he says gratefully.

  Like the late playwright August Wilson, Johnson seems to identify almost exclusively with the African roots of his biracial family tree. “African-American is a Creole culture. It embraces the mix,” he asserts.

  Mat Johnson attended West Chester University, University of Wales-Swansea, and ultimately received his BA from Earlham College, and in 1993, he was awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. Johnson received his MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts in 1999. Johnson has taught at Rutgers University, Columbia University, Bard College, The Callaloo Journal Writers Retreat, and is now a permanent faculty member at The University of Houston Creative Writing Program.

  Mat Johnson’s first novel, Drop (Bloomsbury USA in 2000), was a coming of age novel about a self-hating Philadelphian who thinks he’s found his escape when he takes a job at a Brixton-based advertising agency in London, UK.  Drop was listed among Progressive Magazine’s “Best Novels of the Year.” In 2003, Johnson published Hunting in Harlem (Bloomsbury USA 2003), a satire about gentrification in Harlem and an exploration of belief versus fanaticism. Hunting in Harlem won the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Legacy Award for Novel of the Year.

  Johnson made his first move into the comics form with the publication of the five-issue limited series Hellblazer Special: Papa Midnite (Vertigo 2005), where he took an existing character of the Hellblazer franchise and created an origin story that strove to offer depth and dignity to a character that was arguably a racial stereotype of the noble savage. The work was set in 18th Century Manhattan, and was based around the research that Johnson was conducting for his first historical effort, The Great Negro Plot, a creative non-fiction that tells the story of the New York Slave Insurrection of 1741 and the resultant trial and hysteria.

  In February 2008, Vertigo Comics published Johnson’s graphic novel Incognegro, a noir mystery that deals with the issue of passing (racial identity) and the lynching past of the American south.

  He was named a 2007 USA James Baldwin Fellow and awarded a $50,000 grant by United States Artists, a public charity that supports and promotes the work of American artists. On September 21, 2011, Mat Johnson was awarded the Dos Passos Prize for Literature.

Information courtesy of Chronogram.com, DCComics.com, matjohnson.info and Wikipedia

Stray Toasters

• I’d like to add this to The Covet List.
• …and an order of these, too.
• Retro Fitted
• I drew some tweets, by The Oatmeal
• Try Medieval Hot Pants? Surely, You Joust
  Well, I don’t… but it is my home state’s official state sport.
• 
• States Negotiate $26 Billion Agreement for Homeowners
• I like this Project: Rooftop redesign of the X-Men’s White Queen’s outfit.
• Steampunk Magazine is back!
• China police chief may seek U.S. asylum
• MINE!
  
  I had to order this. Compelled to, I say! It’s the location of Beth Steel that my father used to work for.
• US Approves Two New Nuclear Reactors
• The science-fiction effect
• Tai Chi May Help Parkinson’s Patients Regain Balance

Namaste.

Tuesday – 07 February 2012
Today, Diana turned 5-months-old:

Today also finds me in the south 40. So far, it hasn’t been too painful an experience. And, it’s even been somewhat productive. I consider that combination a good thing. (The doughnuts and the frozen mocha didn’t hurt things, either…)

Last night, and Mr. and Mrs. came over for a visit. As it was the first time any of them had met the girls, there was a bit of surprise of just how big they are — granted, it is kind of hard to tell from just pictures. There were also a few questions about parenthood and life changes, too.  I must admit that I was a little surprised – pleasantly so – at how well the girls took to hanging out with and at how comfortable he seemed with them.  (MENTAL NOTE: Keep this in mind for future babysitting needs!)

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
Today’s person of note is Benjamin Hooks, an American civil rights leader, who also served as executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1977 to 1992.

Benjamin Lawson Hooks (January 31, 1925 – April 15, 2010) was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He was the fifth of seven children of Robert B. Hooks and Bessie White Hooks. Young Benjamin’s paternal grandmother, Julia Britton Hooks (1852–1942), graduated from Berea College in Kentucky in 1874 and was only the second American black woman to graduate from college.

In his youth, he had felt called to the Christian ministry. His father, however, did not approve and discouraged Benjamin from such a calling. Hooks enrolled in LeMoyne-Owen College, in Memphis, Tennessee. There he undertook a pre-law course of study 1941–43. In his college years he became more acutely aware that he was one of a large number of Americans who were required to use segregated lunch counters, water fountains, and restrooms. After graduating in 1944 from Howard University, he joined the Army and had the job of guarding Italian prisoners of war. He found it humiliating that the prisoners were allowed to eat in restaurants from which he was barred. He was discharged from the Army after the end of the war with the rank of staff sergeant. After the war he enrolled at the DePaul University College of Law in Chicago to study law. No law school in his native Tennessee would admit him. He graduated from DePaul in 1948 with his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree.

From 1949 until 1965 he practiced law in Memphis. He participated in restaurant sit-ins of the late 1950s and early ’60s and joined the Board of Directors of Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, among many other civil-rights and public-service organizations. He was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1956 and began to preach regularly at the Greater Middle Baptist Church in Memphis, while continuing his busy law practice. He joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (then known as Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration) along with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In July 1972 Hooks was appointed to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and became the first black FCC commissioner. As a member of the FCC, Hooks addressed the lack of minority ownership of television and radio stations, the minority employment statistics for the broadcasting industry, and the image of blacks in the mass media. Hooks completed his five-year term on the board of commissioners in 1978, but he continued to work for black involvement in the entertainment industry.

He resigned to become executive director of the NAACP on Aug. 1, 1977, succeeding Roy Wilkins. Hooks also served as the chairman of the board of directors of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis and helped to found the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis in 1996. Hooks stressed the need for affirmative action and pressed for increased minority voter registration.

Hooks received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush in November 2007.

Information courtesy of biography.com, FactMonster.com and Wikipedia.

Stray Toasters

• Last World War I Veteran, Florence Green, Passes Away
• Rail’s handling of TSA should be a model
• 
• How Paranoid Should I Be About Trusting Companies With My Personal Data?

Wow… just ran into a wee bit of monkeydom. It’s lovely when the answers you get don’t quite fulfill the questions you ask.

Namaste.

Monday – 06 February 2012
Not only is today the start of a new work week, but – more importantly – it’s my niece, Grace’s, birthday:

This past weekend has been good. It has included, but not been limited to:

• Hanging out with the twins.
  

  Diana (l) and Vanessa

• Playing HeroClix: Star Trek Tactics with the guys.
• Judging a tournament for Dr. Volt’s Comic Connection.
• Tracking down (after THREE attempts!) and watching Contagion.
  
• Taking the girls to their third train show!
• Watching the Super Bowl.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
It’s catch-up time for our Black History Month items:

• Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was a poet, novelist, and playwright of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, born in Dayton, Ohio.
  
  Both of Dunbar’s parents were former slaves; his father escaped to freedom in Canada and then returned to the U.S. to fight in the Civil War. The young Dunbar was the only black student in his Dayton high school, where he was both the editor of the school newspaper and class president, as well as the president of the school literary society. Also of note: He was a classmate of aviation pioneer Orville Wright.Dunbar wrote a dozen books of poetry, four books of short stories, five novels, and a play. He also wrote lyrics for In Dahomey – the first musical written and performed entirely by African-Americans to appear on Broadway in 1903; the musical comedy successfully toured England and America over a period of four years – one of the more successful theatrical productions of its time.^[12] His essays and poems were published widely in the leading journals of the day. His work appeared in Harper’s Weekly, the Saturday Evening Post, the Denver Post, Current Literature and a number of other publications. During his life, considerable emphasis was laid on the fact that Dunbar was of pure black descent.

  Dunbar became the first African-American poet to earn nation-wide distinction and acceptance. The New York Times called him “a true singer of the people — white or black.” Much of Dunbar’s work was authored in conventional English, while some was rendered in African-American dialect. Dunbar remained always suspicious that there was something demeaning about the marketability of dialect poems. One interviewer reported that Dunbar told him, “I am tired, so tired of dialect”, though he is also quoted as saying, “my natural speech is dialect” and “my love is for the Negro pieces”.

  In 1900, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and his doctors recommended drinking whisky to alleviate his symptoms. He moved to Colorado with his wife on the advice of his doctors. Dunbar and his wife separated in 1902, but they never divorced. Depression and declining health drove him to a dependence on alcohol, which further damaged his health. He moved back to Dayton to be with his mother in 1904. Dunbar died from tuberculosis on February 9, 1906, at age thirty-three.

• Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974), composer, pianist, and big band leader,  was born in Washington, D.C.
  
  Ellington grew up in a secure middle-class family in Washington, D.C. Daisy, his mother, surrounded her son with dignified women to reinforce his manners and teach him to live elegantly. Ellington’s childhood friends noticed that “his casual, offhand manner, his easy grace, and his dapper dress gave him the bearing of a young nobleman”, and began calling him “Duke.”His family encouraged his interests in the fine arts, and he began studying piano at age seven, but his first piano lessons came appeared not to have had that much lasting effect upon him. As Duke’s piano lessons faded into the past, Duke began to show a flare for the artistic. Duke attended Armstrong Manual Training School to study commercial art instead of going to an academics-oriented school.

  Duke began to seek out and listen to ragtime pianists in Washington and, during the summers, in Philadelphia or Atlantic City, where he and his mother vacationed. While vacationing in Asbury Park, Duke heard of a hot pianist named Harvey Brooks. At the end of his vacation, Duke sought Harvey out in Philadelphia where Harvey showed Duke some pianistic tricks and shortcuts. Duke later recounted that, “When I got home I had a real yearning to play. I hadn’t been able to get off the ground before, but after hearing him I said to myself, ‘Man you’re going to have to do it.’” Thus the music career of Duke Ellington was born. Duke was taken under the wings of Oliver “Doc” Perry and Louis Brown, who taught Duke how to read music and helped improve his overall piano playing skills. Duke found piano playing jobs at clubs and cafes throughout the Washington area. Three months shy of graduation, Duke dropped out of school and began his professional music career.

  Ellington made his first professional appearance as a jazz pianist in 1916. By 1918 he had formed a band, and after appearances in nightclubs in Harlem he became one of the most famous figures in American jazz. Ellington first played in New York City in 1923. Later that year he moved there and, in Broadway nightclubs, led a sextet that grew in time into a 10-piece ensemble. Extended residencies at the Cotton Club in Harlem (1927–32, 1937–38) stimulated Ellington to enlarge his band to 14 musicians and to expand his compositional scope. He selected his musicians for their expressive individuality, and several members of his ensemble were themselves important jazz artists. Ellington’s orchestra, playing his own and Billy Strayhorn’s compositions and arrangements, achieved a fine unity of style and made many innovations in the jazz idiom.

  He wrote nearly two thousand compositions before his death in 1974 – among his best-known short works are “Mood Indigo,” “Solitude,” and “Sophisticated Lady.” He also wrote jazz works of complex orchestration and ambitious scope for concert presentation, notably Creole Rhapsody (1932), Black, Brown and Beige (1943), Liberian Suite (1947), Harlem (1951), and Night Creatures (1955), and composed religious music, including three sacred concerts (1965, 1968, and 1973). Ellington made many tours of Europe, appeared in numerous jazz festivals and several films, and made hundreds of recordings. In 1969 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

  Ellington died of lung cancer and pneumonia on May 24, 1974, a month after his 75th birthday

• James Leonard Farmer, Jr. (January 12, 1920 – July 9, 1999) was a civil rights activist and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement.
  
  Farmer was a child prodigy; at the age of 14, he enrolled at Wiley College, where he was the captain of the debate team. While there, a professor of English, Melvin Tolson, became his mentor. Farmer earned a Bachelor of Science at Wiley College in 1938, and a Bachelor of Divinity from Howard University School of Religion in 1941. Inspired by Howard Thurman, a professor of theology at Howard University, Farmer became interested in Gandhi-style pacifism. During the 1950s, Farmer served as national secretary of the Student League for Industrial Democracy (SLID), the youth branch of the socialist League for Industrial Democracy. SLID later became Students for a Democratic Society. Farmer talked to A. J. Muste, the executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation(FOR), about an idea to combat racial inequality. Muste found the idea promising but wanted to see it in writing. Farmer spent months writing the memorandum making sure it was perfect. A. J. Muste wrote him back asking him about money to fund it and how they would get members. Finally, Farmer was asked to propose his idea in front of the FOR National Council. In the end, FOR chose not to sponsor the group, but gave Farmer permission to start the group in Chicago. When Farmer got back to Chicago, the group began setting up the organization. The name decided upon was CORE, the Committee of Racial Equality. The name was changed about a year later to the Congress of Racial Equality.In 1961 Farmer, who was working for the NAACP, was reelected as the national director of CORE, at a time when the civil rights movement was gaining power. Despite the Irene Morgan Supreme Court decision and the Boynton decision, interstate buses were still segregated. Gordon Carey proposed the idea of a second Journey of Reconciliation. Farmer jumped at the idea. This time, however, the group planned to journey through the Deep South. Farmer coined a new name for the trip: the Freedom Ride. The plan was for a mixed race and gender group to test segregation on interstate buses. The group would spend time in Washington D.C. for intensive training. They would embark on May 4, 1961 half by Greyhound and half by Trailways. They would go through Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and finish in New Orleans on May 17. For overnight stops there were planned rallies and support from the black community. There were usually talks at local churches or colleges.

  Growing disenchanted with emerging militancy and black nationalist sentiments in CORE, Farmer resigned as director in 1966. He took a teaching position at Lincoln University, a historically black college (HBCU), and continued to lecture. In 1968 Farmer ran for U.S. Congress as a Liberal Party candidate backed by the Republican Party, but lost to Shirley Chisholm. His defeat was not total; in 1969 the newly elected President Richard Nixon offered him the position of Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (now Health and Human Services). The next year, frustrated by the Washington bureaucracy, Farmer resigned from the position.

  Farmer retired from politics in 1971 but remained active, lecturing and serving on various boards and committees. In 1975 he co-founded Fund for an Open Society. Its vision is a nation in which people live in stably integrated communities, where political and civic power is shared by people of different races and ethnicities. He led this organization until 1999. From 1984 through 1998, Farmer taught at Mary Washington College (now The University of Mary Washington) in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where a bust of him now stands on campus and the multicultural center is named after him. They also named a program after him that encouraged minority students to enroll and enter college. It is the James Farmer Scholars program.

  In 1998 President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

  Farmer died in 1999 in Fredericksburg, Virginia of complications from diabetes.

• Grambling State Universityis a historically black, public, coeducational university, located in Grambling, Louisiana, United States.
  Grambling State University opened on November 1, 1901 as the Colored Industrial and Agricultural School. It was founded by the North Louisiana Colored Agriculture Relief Association, organized in 1896 by a group of African-American farmers who wanted to organize and operate a school for African Americans in their region of the state.

  In response to the Association’s request for assistance, Tuskegee Institute’s Booker T. Washington sent Charles P. Adams to help the group organize an industrial school. Adams became its founding president.

  In 1905, the school moved to its present location and was renamed the North Louisiana Agricultural and Industrial School. By 1928, after becoming a state junior college and being renamed the Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute, the school began to award two-year professional certificates and diplomas. In 1936, and the curriculum emphasis shifted to rural teacher education; students were able to receive professional teaching certificates after completing a third academic year. The first baccalaureate degree was awarded in 1944, in elementary education.

  In 1946, the school became Grambling College, named after P.G. Grambling, the white sawmill owner who had donated the parcel of land where the school was constructed. In addition to elementary educators, Grambling prepared secondary teachers and added curricula in sciences, liberal arts and business, transforming the college from a single purpose institution of teacher education into a multipurpose college. In 1949, the college earned its first accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).

  In 1974, the addition of graduate programs in early childhood and elementary education gave the school a new status and a new name – Grambling State University. The university expanded and prospered between 1977 and 2000. Several new academic programs were incorporated and new facilities were added to the 384-acre campus, including a business and computer science building, school of nursing, student services building, stadium, stadium support facility and an intramural sports center.

  Alumni of Grambling State include: Willie Brown (Green Bay Packers), eight-time Mr. Olympia winner Ronnie Coleman, Grammy-winner Erykah Badu (although she began concentrating on music full-time and left the university before graduating); former NFL quarterback and Super Bowl XXII MVP Doug Williams, who currently serves as the Tigers head football coach. Award winning and world renowned jazz artist Michael Thomas is a Grambling alumnus and he was a member of the Tiger Marching Band along with jazz artists Lovett Hines and Bob French. The writer Judi-Ann Mason was a double major graduate of Grambling.

Information courtesy of AllAboutJazz.com, Biography.com, FactMonster.com, the Grambling State University website (www.gram.edu), PBS.org and Wikipedia

Stray Toasters

• Brown student uncovers lost Malcolm X speech
• 100 Random Observations from Super Bowl XLVI
• Utah Symphony has announced their 2012-2013 season.
• Boundless information: Mining social networks
• Austrian Law Student Faces Down Facebook
• 
• Today’s out of context phrase that made me laugh: “orgy spork”
• FBI call gives clues into Anonymous, Lulzsec probes
• Top 10 list of ugly cars includes Ford Mustang, BMW
• 
• 17 and sudoku clues
• Art History Through Sci-Fi Colored Glasses

Namaste.

Friday – 03 February 2012
It’s my 9/80 day off with the girls.

Diana (l) and Vanessa

I’m trying to decide what we should do. There’s an offer on the table for a short road – and hobby shop – trip that’s sounding more and more appealing. On the other hand, we’re already planning to hit the World’s Greatest Hobby train show on Sunday, so I’m (somewhat) less inclined to buy something today.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
Today’s person of note is: Don Cornelius

Donald Cortez “Don” Cornelius (September 27, 1936 – February 1, 2012) was an American television show host and producer who was best known as the creator of the nationally syndicated dance/music franchise Soul Train, which he hosted from 1971 to 1993.

Originally a journalist inspired by the civil rights movement, Cornelius recognized that in the late 1960s there was no television venue in the United States for soul music, and introduced many African-American musicians to a larger audience as a result of their appearances on Soul Train, a program that was both influential among African-Americans and popular with a wider audience. As writer, producer, and host of Soul Train, Cornelius was instrumental in offering wider exposure to black musicians such as James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and Michael Jackson, as well as creating opportunities for talented dancers that would presage subsequent television dance programs. Cornelius said “We had a show that kids gravitated to,” and Spike Lee described the program as an “urban music time capsule.”

By way of NPR’s Dan Charnas:

Don Cornelius proved a truism about America and race that so few people, even today, understand: Black culture, expressed in undiluted form and unapologetically, will by virtue become accepted by the American mainstream. It’s something that future rap moguls like Russell Simmons and Jay-Z understood instinctively. So it’s a tragic irony that Soul Train‘s decline came with the dawn of the hip-hop era.  Last year, the set and memorabilia of Soul Train landed at the Smithsonian’s Museum of African-American History and Culture.

In the early-morning hours of February 1, 2012, officers responded to a report of a shooting and found Cornelius with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead by the Los Angeles County Assistant Chief Coroner. According to former Soul Train host, Shemar Moore, Cornelius may have been suffering from early onset of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease and his health had been on the decline.

Information courtesy of NPR, The New York Times and Wikipedia

Stray Toasters

• Baratunde Thurston Explains ‘How To Be Black’
• I Love Ya But You’re Strange – That Time Batgirl and Wonder Woman Both Fell in Love with Batman
• Jailbreaking Is Not a Crime: An Interview with Bunnie Huang
• 
• Congratulations, University of North Carolina – Charlotte, you now have your very own SWAT team

And tonight, I’m playing HeroClix: Star Trek Tactics with the guys…

…just before the HeroClix: ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ event that I came up with and am judging tomorrow.

Weekend full of tabletop gaming goodness. Aw, yeah…

Namaste.

Wednesday – 25 January 2012
It’s the middle of the week. So far, so good.

Last night was a fairly low-key night around the household. The girls wound down a little early, but we managed to keep them awake until their normal bedtime. Even so, we managed to get a couple of pre-bedtime pics of the little ladies:

Me with Diana:

Sara with Vanessa

Groove. Boogie. Sway.
Today’s musical theme: “Songs from the Ghetto”

• Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem) – Jay-Z
• Ghetto Superstar – Pras (ft. Mya and Ol’ Dirty Bastard)
• Ghetto Gospel – 2Pac (ft. Elton John)
• Ghetto Heaven – The Family Stand

Stray Toasters

• In Address, Obama Makes Pitch for Economic Fairness
• President Obama’s Fourth State of the Union Speech
• While I don’t regret taking down my layout – in the name of getting the basement finished – I’m missing the ability to run my trains.
• The 5 New Trends to Emerge From Fashion Week
• 
• Twitter acquires web malware fighter Dasient
• The Next Xbox Could Be Six Times as Powerful
  But, will it be backwards compatible!?
• Space Adventures planning for lunar tourism
• What goes on in the mind of a sniper?

Namaste.

Tuesday – 24 January 2012
For a day that started off grey with low clouds, it sure is sunny and bright out there. Of course, that’s a marked improvement over yesterday evening’s snow, so I’ll not complain.

Yesterday morning:

This morning:

Last night, came over. The original plan was for her to help me get the girls to bed while SaraRules! attended a Junior League meeting… but the meeting got rescheduled. So, she just came over and hung out with us, instead. She also tried to teach Diana to do The Time Warp, but it didn’t go so well. (I attribute it to the fact that the twins can’t stand yet, let alone dance.) But, I applaud her effort.

And, here’s a shot of the girls from this past weekend:

Stray Toasters

• Chaotic Start to Egypt’s First Democratically Elected Parliament
• Funny Ad for DC’s New Logo Parodies Fan Backlash
• This article is about a young lady that some friends of mine know: Colorado Teen Girl Recalls Train Accident: “I was watching my legs get crushed by coal cars.”
  Click through to The Times Call interview/article.  It’s worth it, for many reasons.
• Ex-Stanford Prof Starts a Totally-Free Online School
• Carroll Shelby marks 50 years with 800 hp Super Snake
• Yeah… add this to The Covet List.
• I got to spend the day surrounded by “quite a few” Shelbys when I went to Miller Motorsports Park a couple of years ago.
• 6 Made Up Nerd Words That Made It to Common Usage, and 8 That Should
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: In Police Training, a Dark Film on U.S. Muslims
• Strongest solar storm since 2005 hitting Earth
• Solar radiation storm sweeps over Earth
• Storms in the Void: Space Weather and Childhood’s End
• Not Quite Smart Enough

Monday – 23 January 2012
It’s another day in the valley as a new work week begins.

Trying to kick the last remnants of the cold-like-thing that the girls gave me, I took some NyQuil this morning around 2:00 AM. It’s not hard to understand why I decided to forego the 6:30 alarm…

… and the 7:00 alarm.

…and the 7:10 alarm.

I finally managed to drag myself out of bed at 7:50. Fortunately, I didn’t have to be into the office early, so it wasn’t a big deal. (And I was still in the office by just after 8:30.)

The weekend, on the whole, was good. I took the girls to their second train show on Friday. It was at Thanksgiving Point. I was a little disappointed by the show; maybe it’s just because they didn’t have much in O scale that I was interested in. Maybe it was that it felt like I’d seen everything that they had to offer before. Still, it was nice to be able to attend a train show and see that the hobby is doing well.

Saturday, I judged a ‘Clix tournament for Dr. Volt’s Comic Connection. We had a rather decent turn-out, which was a very pleasant surprise. (It also snowed Saturday, as well. That was not as pleasant a surprise.) We had a player drop out between the second and third rounds, so I wound up playing a bye round. I threw together a team that I thought would be fun:

• Aquaman (hey… this one does more than just talk to fish),
• The Question,
• Superman Beyond and
• x-23

…and went up against a team of Lord of the Rings ‘Clix. My team did well. I hadn’t used the Aquaman figure before, but after seeing how dangerous he can be, I think that he might just become one of my new “go-to” pieces. He works well with The Question and I think that he’d be similarly effective with the LE Harvey Dent from the Arkham Asylum set. Or Psycho-Pirate. Or even an Atlantis-themed team.

Yesterday, aside from watching football, was mostly a stay-at-home and hang out with the family kind of day.

Instant Replay: Football

Baltimore Ravens at New England Patriots
20 – 23
The Ravens traveled to Foxborough, Mass. to take on the Patriots for the AFC Championship. It was a rough game. Both teams got off to slow and rocky starts. Then the Pats put up a field goal. Eventually, the Ravens got an FG, too. And it was game on. The teams traded blows through the rest of the game and it looked as though Baltimore might have put the final nail in their own coffin when QB Joe Flacco threw an interception late in the fourth quarter… …but, the Patriots couldn’t capitalize on it. With 27 seconds left in the game, WR Lee Evans dropped what would have been a game-winning pass in the end zone. And, finally K Billy Cundiff missed a 32-yard field goal that would have tied the game, sending it into overtime.

And, with that, the Ravens season came to a screeching halt. I was understandably disappointed at the game’s end. I tried to determine which was more disappointing: Evans’ drop or Cundiff’s shanked kick. I decided that it was the dropped pass, because Cundiff has missed many clutch kicks this season — this was just another one to add on to the tally.

Oh, well, at least there’s next season to look forward to. (Until the Ravens-Raiders game, that is. My marriage may come under siege over that game.) But, I’m still proud of the way the team played all season and I’m still proud to be a Ravens fan.

Stray Toasters

• Our office Property and Assets Manager, Julie, sits across the cube wall from me. She’s a Patriots fan. I (still) like her, despite this obvious shortcoming. A little while ago, I had to ask her for a piece of software and the software key. She handed me the software CD and emailed me the key… along with a picture of the Patriots logo.
• Supreme Court: Warrantless GPS Tracking Is Unconstitutional
• 
• Anonymous shutters government, music industry sites
• Anonymous: Facebook is next, on January 28
• Geothermal test will pump water into volcano to make power
• ComicsAlliance Design Critique: The New DC Comics Logo
• 
• The 18 Things You’ll Want to Wear Next
• Cameras May Open Up the Board Room to Hackers
• Khaaaaaaaaan!

Tuesday – 17 January 2012
It’s Day One of the work week for me. And, it’s my short week, to boot. AND, there’s a train show on Friday. Triple score!

Yesterday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Like last year, I took the day off of work and volunteered at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. And it was good. After that, I stopped at RubySnap and picked up a few cookies before stopping in to say “Hi” to SaraRules! at work and making a couple more stops before heading home. Yes, one of those stops was The Train Shoppe. No, I didn’t get anything. (Besides, I just ordered a new switching engine online a couple of days ago.)

The girls have been a little under the weather. According to the pediatrician, they don’t have colds, but a “respiratory illness” that has the earmarks of a cold, minus the runny noses. All I know is that they’re congested and a little irritable. Hopefully, they’ll be over it soon-ish.

Instant Replay: Football

Houston Texans at Baltimore Ravens
13 – 20
Sunday, the Ravens hosted the Ravens for the Divisional Playoffs… …and won. It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t easy. But, it was a win. And, a little fun fact: Ravens Not Penalized For First Time Ever Next stop: Foxoboro, MA.

Stray Toasters

• Happy Birthday to The Greatest, Muhammad Ali Is 70 Today
  
• Black Voters Are Wary as Hopefuls Seek Kinship
• Predictions Of What 2011 Would Be Like From A 1911 Newspaper
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file” Taco Bell’s Stupidly Exploitative MLK Day Tweet
• U.S. to Force Drug Makers to Report Money Paid to Doctors
• 
• More schools likely to lose accreditation, experts say
• Oversight of Cruise Lines at Issue After Disaster
• The Wreck of the Costa Concordia
• 
• Burger King tries home delivery
• Artist Builds a Six-Million Matchstick Monastery
• Zappos breach affects 24M, opens door for more attacks

Namaste.

Thursday – 12 January 2012
It’s another NBN Thursday in the valley. There’s sun, but it’s still quite cold outside. But, my morning started out with cuddles from both girls, so I got a good kickoff to the day.

And, speaking of the little ladies, this picture was taken during last night’s “tummy time:”

Vanessa (l) and Diana
(*waits to see how long before this picture appears on my mother’s Facebook page…*)

Last night was also “Pasta and Movie Date Night” at our house. SaraRules! picked up a movie on the way home: Tangled. It was a cute – and rather fun – movie, putting a slightly different spin on the Rapunzel fairy tale.

Before bed, I read a little more of World War Z. I’m still enjoying it. After turning out the light and calling it a day, I was treated to a few hours of zombie-infested dreams. Go figure. But it wasn’t all The Walking Dead. It was more like “The Walking Dead meets Resident Evil (movies) meets S.H.I.E.L.D. meets The X-Men.” Yeah, it was that weird. Suspenseful. Action-packed. Slightly frenetic. And I think it is that combination of things that kept it from being outright scary/fear-inducing.

Stray Toasters

• I was listening to Huey Lewis and the News yesterday (thanks, Spotify!) and realized something: They made a lot of fun/amusing videos and it was pretty easy to see that the band just really seemed to have fun playing music.
• Author of SOPA Is a Copyright Violator
• Survey Finds Rising Perception of Class Tension
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file:
• Oh My Fucking God This Woman Coughed Up Her Own Tumor
• Man Killed in Train Accident Sued By Woman His Flying Body Parts Injured
• Religious Groups Given ‘Exception’ to Work Bias Law
• Miss. judge blocks release of 21 convicts Barbour pardoned
• I still haven’t seen a purple cow.
• Spam with QR code targets mobile users
• Cremation, Burial or Body Farm?

Namaste.

Sunday – 08 January 2012
Sunday afternoon quick hit while the ladies of the house are napping…

This morning (after a not-so-great-night-of-sleep-for-the-girls), we all went out for breakfast at Millcreek Cafe and Eggworks. The girls, as usual, were little centers of attention. And with outfits like these, courtesy of their Aunt Kristen…

…how could you expect anything less? Diana has pink boots, like Vanessa’s white ones, but kicked them off before we got the picture.  Oh, well.

It’s been a good weekend, so far. Yesterday, I judged a ‘Clix tournament (with a rather good turnout) for Dr. Volt’s Comic Connection, had a RubySnap Josephine cookie, (finally) got around to watching Moon, which was:

1. not what I expected, and
2. very good.

…and, like sprinkles on an ice cream cone: The Texans beat the Bengals, meaning that the Ravens will face the Texans at M&T Bank Stadium next weekend. And, to be honest, I would rather face the Texans than the Bengals.

Stray Toasters

• Go, Broncos!
  
  Hey, I have no great love for Tim Tebow and company, but I think that it would be uproariously funny if they beat the Steelers.  Just saying.
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Lamar Smith: “If you oppose SOPA, you don’t matter”
• I packed up two of my three train sets the other night. (Yeah, it was a bit sad…) I also packed up some of the accessories and rolling stock. All of this is in anticipation of beginning work on finishing the unfinished areas of the basement. (Although, if it doesn’t happen “soon-ish,” I may just wind up with a floor layout for a while.)

Okay, sounds like someone is waking up.  Time to go.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 03 January 2012
I’m still trying to train my fingers to type “2012” rather than “2011.”  (Or “2112,” for that matter.)

It’s the first day back at work in two weeks. I won’t lie: There’s been some struggle in getting back into “work” mode. But, there strides have been made. I’ve even managed to accomplish a thing or two.

Yesterday afternoon and last night were – as I suspected they might be – long. After the girls’ four-month checkup (which went very well), SaraRules! and I headed to Black Water Coffee Company, to say “Hi” to Jim — our former neighborhood coffee shop owner.  BWCC is the second location of Pin-up Girl Espresso… which makes it (currently) the only location, at least until IHC finishes construction of a new facility in our neighborhood. It was good to see Jim and to catch up on a few things. And, getting a frozen mocha didn’t hurt, either. As the girls started to rouse, we headed home.

Diana and Vanessa were cranky, thanks in no small part to receiving their immunizations. After trying to get Vanessa to nap around 3:00 PM, she finally nodded off around 4:30. Of course, she refused to lie down, so I wound up with on my shoulder.

On the couch.

For an hour.

Although, I was glad that she slept. She needed it, as did Diana. On the back side of the nap (and before bedtime), they were intermittently happy and fussy. And there was little to no warning as to when their moods would change. Bedtime was a welcome thing. Fortunately, the little ladies headed to The Dreaming without too much ado. They slept until almost 5:00 AM this morning, which was also quite welcome.

After feeding the girls, I went back to bed. For reasons that I have yet to figure out, let alone explain, I had Will2K stuck in my head.

Yeah. Didn’t make it easy to fall asleep. But, I did and when the 6:30 alarm went off… I ignored it.  And the 7:00 alarm. And the 7:10 snooze. I finally got up at 7:30. I was good with that.

Stray Toasters

• My model railroad layout lost another 48 square feet last night. At this point, I’m not sure that I can still call it a “layout” as opposed to “that sheet of 4×8 that has a bunch of my train stuff on it.” Oh, well. This gives me an opportunity to verify all of the track sections that I have and get a better handle on what it is I want to do with it when I rebuild.
• Baby’s First Flowchart
• For SaraRules!: The Zombie Hammer, Now With Skull Ejector
• Wrong on so many levels, but funny:

  

• Physicists Seek to Lose the Lecture as Teaching Tool
• Genome Study Points to Adaptation in Early African-Americans
• I’m not a fan of bobble-heads, but I’d be willing to make an exception for this:

  

• Once the province of whites, Black South Africans embracing wine
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Sketching not permitted
• Hey, Anti-LEGO Feminists, “LEGO For Girls” Actually Kicks Ass

Namaste.

Thursday – 29 December 2011
Another NBN Thursday is under way and I have already been to – and returned from – the airport. My uncle came to town Tuesday night for a post-Christmas visit and to meet the new additions to the family:

It was a short visit, but a very full one. The girls, who’ve been a bit fussy with new people lately, took to him fairly quickly; he took to them immediately. It was fun watching the three of them interact.

We also managed to squeeze in a trip to see the Lights on Temple Square last night. We bundled the girls into their bear suits and car seats and set off for downtown. We got there around the time that the girls are usually beginning to wind down before bed. But, with so many things to see – and all of the sounds – they were awake and staring at all the sights. About two-thirds of the way through our stroll, Diana started to fade; Vanessa was still going strong… until we got to the car. Then they traded: Diana woke up and Vanessa napped. We got home, changed and fed them and put them to bed. Diana faded out somewhat quickly; Vanessa, however, got a second wind and decided that bedtime was the perfect time to tell SaraRules! all about the adventures she had during the day. It took her almost an hour to wind down and fall asleep. On the “plus” side: They slept until almost 5 AM.

After the girls went to bed, my uncle and I went to Pawit’s to pick up dinner. He, SaraRules! and I ate and we introduced him to TopGear (UK). It was a good way to wind down the day and his visit.

Stray Toasters

• For SaraRules!: Not sure where this rates on your “uncanny valley” scale, but it has graffiti: Robot that paints random graffiti
• While I haven’t gotten in a lot of play time, I’ve been enjoying CoD: MW3
• I also realize that I still need to go back and finish three HALO games: 2, 3, and Reach.
• Young girl rages over pink toys and gendered play-choices
  This reminds me of of this post from my brother-in-law, about my niece, Grace:

  Yes lady, I’m aware that the “space explorer” pajamas were in the boys section. I’m also aware that my child is a girl. No, she wouldn’t rather have the pink princess ones. And yes, I can assure you that she picked them out on her own, so wipe the condescending look and eye roll off your face. My little girl can be a space explorer if she wants to, so suck it, wench.

  Amen.

• And, as a corollary to the above: Gamer Girl Manifesto
• A Brutal Chapter in North Carolina’s Eugenics Past
• Thanks to Keith for (re-)posting this picture:

  

• Disney Princesses as Street Fighter-style warriors
• Instead of Work, Younger Women Head to School
• Thanks to Corey for this: Photos of the Steam Festival at Golden Spike Historical Site
• Scheduling Partnership Links Pac-12 and Big Ten
• 
• Sears, Kmart to close up to 120 stores
• From the “What’s Wrong With This Picture…?” file: Police storm Church of the Nativity to break up brawling priests

I just put the girls down for a nap. Let’s see how this goes.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 27 December 2011
Our first Christmas as parents has come and gone. And it was a good one. We spent the holiday with Sara’s family and, as usual, it was a lot of fun. Added bonuses: I was able to video chat not only with my mom and uncle, but also with Rana, John and the girls, as well. Win-Win.

Because I didn’t consider what scheduling a post for midnight on Christmas might mean for “getting it lost on Facebook,” here’s this year’s Christmas card:

The picture was taken by Jenny Porter of Serendipity Photography.

And pictures of Christmas day can be found here.

Diana and Vanessa made out like little bandits. Lots of clothes, a few books, and even some toys. Granted, they’re not really “up” on the whole idea of Christmas, so it was just another day for them… aside from the fact that we hung out with their grandparents and aunts and uncles for the better part of the day.

I was able to surprise SaraRules! with a couple of gifts this year. (Go, me!) She had asked for one thing – which I got – but I had remembered that she had shown a particular interest in a letterpress kit we saw a few weeks ago. I found the kit and got it for her. What I didn’t know was that she had gone looking for that same kit elsewhere… just before Christmas. (That would have been awkward.) Fortunately for me, she didn’t find it. Again: Win.

I also was very fortunate in the gifts that I received. As I noted a couple of weeks ago, I got myself the 12-pack of Legion action figures for Christmas. It showed up on… Thursday, I think. I didn’t even bother wrapping the shipping box; I just wrapped a ribbon around it and called it good. SaraRules! got me a bike trainer, which is great — I’ll be able to actually get some cardio conditioning in while I’d otherwise be sitting on my butt, watching TV or playing video games.  (Oh, yeah, we bought a new 360 to replace “old and busted.” I didn’t realize how much smaller and more quiet the new models are.) Among the other things I got were:

• The MTH DCS Remote Set for my model train layout
• A couple of calendars — one Green Lantern calendar and one of train paintings
• The Anniversary Edition of Roots
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
• A nice cologne set
• A set of Lord of the Rings ‘Clix, and
• A GL action figure (Hal Jordan: Test Pilot)

Like I said: It was a good Christmas.

Another “gift” that SaraRules! and I got (from her sister and mom) was the ability to go out for a movie date on Saturday. We saw Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. It was a good bit of fun. Lots of action. Decent enough plot. Although, we both agreed that the female lead seemed kind of “just there to be there.”  If there’s an M:I 5 and she’s in it, hopefully, she’ll be fleshed out a bit more.

We also finally got around to seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 last night. Long movie. But, it was good. Of course, knowing how it turns out didn’t hurt.

Sounds like little ones are safely abed, so I should head on to Guys’ Night Out!

I hope that everyone had a safe and merry Christmas.

Happy Kwanzaa for those who celebrate it.

Namaste.

Saturday – 24 December 2011
It’s Christmas Eve. Over the past few days, I’ve taken some pictures of the way that our Christmas decorating has shaped up… and I thought I’d share:

Click here to see the rest of the pictures.

I hope that everyone has a safe and merry Christmas!