Random Access

I spent the better part of the afternoon in the AF office today. I took care of a couple of items and wound up bringing one of the troubled kids back to the north office.

Workout
One of the benefits of being in AF, I was able to work out with Eric… and Dwim joined us, as well. Today’s routine:

• Leg Raises: 3 sets / 20 reps
• Pull-ups: 1 set / 10 reps
• Bench Press: 3 sets / 8 reps, 205 lbs.
• Curls (standing, dumbbell, crossover): 3 sets / 12 reps, 25 lbs
• Flys (Nautilus): 3 sets / 10 reps, 110 lbs
• Upright Rows (barbell): 3 sets / 10 reps, 50 lbs

Pre-workout weight: 173.2 lbs

Stray Toasters

• The World of Web Trolling
• By way of : Open Source Food
• VisionAire
• 
• “And I would have gotten away with it, if it wasn’t for you meddling kids and your pesky dog!”

I should probably pay some more attention to the game… as I’m being attacked by a Sphinx. Yay.

Namaste.

Sunday – 03 August 2008
This morning, I was awakened (somewhat abruptly) by SaraRules’ roommate… at 8:00; her social skills occasionally leave something to be desired. I was “a tad” annoyed, expecting to grab another hour or so of sleep before rousing, but I did manage to wind down enough to finally knock off again.

After SaraRules and her mother got up, the three of us had breakfast and proceeded to lounge away the morning and early afternoon. I started packing the car around 2:00 and we hit the road about 3:15.

396 miles and six-and-a-half hours later, we were back in the Land Behind the Zion Curtain. The drive was good and pleasantly uneventful.

Although it was a relatively short trip, it was a great deal of fun and a pleasant change of pace.

Stray Toasters

• This time, I managed to mistype the title as “Starry Toasters.”
• Exploding Falcon 1 Rocket Scattered Scotty’s Ashes All Over the Pacific!
• Having just gotten back from the Aspen Music Festival, this is both entertaining… and a little scary:

• Video game quilts from Carolina Patchworks
• Lightsaber Chopsticks Lay Waste to General Tso Chicken

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Friday – 01 August 2008
Sun: Check
Coffee: Check.
Breakfast: Check.
Logged into work systems: Check (after taking too long to remember the proper credentials).

Happy Birthday to

Stray Toasters

• I left my highlighting markers in SLC. *BAH*
• By way of xkcd: “Frustration”

  

• Readercon’s steampunk panel – the podcast
• Sailors fighting in the dance hall
  Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
  It’s the freakiest show
  Take a look at the Lawman
  Beating up the wrong guy
  Oh man! Wonder if he’ll ever know
  He’s in the best selling show
  Is there life water on Mars?
• From the “You got your chocolate in my peanut butter” file: An Xbox 360 Controller Crammed into a PS3 Dual Shock Controller’s Body
• Your parents named you what? The pros and cons of ununsual names
• 
• Active Directory. *zzZZZzzzzzZZZzzzz*

I’m not sure if it’s the connection in the condo or what, but the ‘tubes are being ludicrously slow. And it’s getting a little irritating.

Namaste.

Stray Toasters

• I picked up another brick of ‘Clix over lunch. Hopefully, I’ll be able to round out my set… and/or find some eBay-worthy figures.
• I also picked up the three trade paperbacks of The Middleman.
• Other Middle-stuff
  • Javier Grillo-Maruach has a LiveJournal.
  • The Middleblog
  • The non-ABC Family Middleman site
• By way of : Al Gore Places Infant Sun in Rocket to Escape Dying Planet
• I took a look at the stats for the Invisible Woman and Susan Richards (Skrull) ‘Clix figures. Wow. They’re getting used in a game soon, I think.

  

• 10 Things to Scratch from Your Worry List
• Back in the day, I bought The Typing of the Dead for my DreamCast. Until today, I had simply thought that it was a port of The House of the Dead. I had no idea that there was an actual arcade version of TotD.
• Just as a point of reference, Google Maps “doesn’t understand” the following phrases:
  • “Nuke this location”
  • “Bomb this location”

  It does, however, recognize “Target this location”

• Looking for a place to get away from it all? Try Private Islands Online, they offer islands for rent and for sale.
• Maybe I’ll actually buy some eggs so I can (finally) make some brownies tonight.

*voop*

Tuesday: Coda
After work, I made haste to get to Far West Comics for the HeroClix tournament. Keith, the judge got there just after me. And no one else did. Fortunately, Matt and Nano (the store owners) were playing in the event, so it wasn’t a complete wash. I got my two boosters and pulled the following figures:

• Iron Fist
• Yellowjacket (Skrull)
• Arachne
• Captain America
• Kristoff
• Dum Dum Dugan (Human)
• Iron Man
• Doom
• Super Skrull: X-Men
  
• Impossible Man

I was very pleased to pull the Dugan, Doom and Impossible Man figures… very pleased, indeed. The others were all duplicates of figures that I got in my brick. I constructed my team of:

• Arachne
• Dum Dum Dugan
• Iron Fist and
• Kristoff

I used a Feat card – Loner – on Dum Dum, which gave him a bonus to his defensive value. And then, we went to work.

My first match was against Matt, he also fielded four figures:

• Clea
• Iron Fist
• Speedball
• Thor Girl

I split my force and moved to positions that afforded me decent lines of fire, while still providing cover. The first game went fairly quickly. I took out two of Matt’s pieces without losing anyone. Next up, I fought Nano. He brought

• Mole Man
• Spider-Man
• Spider-Slayer
• Tombstone
• Yellowjacket (Human)

I divided my force again, but in a slightly different pattern – I remembered to array my figures in a pattern that allowed the ranged members of each team to provide cross-field support to each other. That came in pretty handy. And some really good dice rolls didn’t hurt, either. I was able to eliminate Mole Man and the Spider-Slayer and was working on taking out Spider-Man when time ran out. Once again, I was able to keep everyone on my side alive, although Kristoff took a couple of solid hits.

For going 2-0, I got an Illuminati event dial, a Nowhere to Hide battlefield condition card and a map.

After the tourney, I came home… and had a lazy evening. Me, the couch, the TV and a crossword puzzle book. Mm-hmm, that’s right. And it was good.

Stray Toasters

• It’s almost 1:00 AM. I am craving brownies. I would be making them now… if I had one more egg.
• George W. Bush as The Joker
• 
• This cake, however I don’t think would be more delicious than carrot cake.
• 85 Works of Art ‘Improved’ via Modern Technology
• Comedy Central is having a roast for Bob Saget. In honor of that, I give you Rollin’ with Saget

• Laurie Anderson interview from Smithsonian.com
• Rocket Racers: Like crazier NASCAR in the sky

And that’s all.

Stray Toasters

• House to apologize for slavery, Jim Crow
  • My first inclination was to think: “Thanks… 150 years after the fact.” I’m not a reparationist. To be honest, I don’t really care about them, let alone want them. It’s great that there’s being recognition of the problem… but I think it’s a bit “too little too late.”
  • My second inclination was to change it to mean Dr. House, from the Fox TV show. That made the whole thing play out differently in my head… in a far more amusing manner.
• I’m not entirely sure if it’s jumping the shark or not, but apparently Clark Kent will meet three teens from the 31st Century on Smallville this season. I may have to tune in for that.
• Baltimore Business Journal
• I apparently have a version of Do Ya Think I’m Sexy… by The Revolting Cocks. That amuses me greatly.
• 
• The Obama Veepstakes
• Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew
• Tonight’s ‘Clix tourney is a 300 point sealed box draft. This means that each entrant has to purchase two boxes and construct a team from the figures he just purchased. I’m both intrigued and concerned about this: I’m used to being able to select the figures I want. This will prove very interesting. In order to get a rough feel for what it’s going to be like, I did a mock draft. I asked SaraRules to come up with ten numbers, from 1 to 60. Based on the numbers she gave me, I used the figure numbers to come up with a couple of options for teams.
• Carlin gets last laugh on death
• Just when you thought the three seashells was bad enough comes this.
• Tor.com
• Active Directory

Monday: Coda
This evening has been low-key. I ran a couple of errands… including taking back the USB adapter for the iMac. I considered picking up a new one while out, but I’m not that pressed about it. For now.

I watched some TV.
I played some Poker… and lost some fake money.
I watched The Middleman.

Stray Toasters

• I just noticed something on the M&M’s Addams Family commercial: The Wednesday M&M is carrying a “beheaded” M&M doll. That made me laugh.
• Why do I enjoy The Middleman? Like I’ve said before: Because it’s just damned fun. But tonight, I was even more entertained when they managed to slip a reference to The Spirit of Radio in an exchange between Wendy and Noser.
• 15 reasons Mr. Rogers’ was the best neighborhood ever
• Thanks to for pointing out Bush or Batman?
• White House projects record deficit for 2009
• 
• pointed out the very wrong (yet amusing): Sarah Jessica Parker Looks Like a Horse
• SDCC: Starship Smackdown
• posted a link to this picture.
• The Bud Ice Penguin
• Famous historical beheadings recreated with mantises

*voop*

Namaste.

Monday – 28 July 2008
You know that it’s going to be an interesting day when you wake up and the first question that pops into your brain when turning off the alarm is:

Who put all those giant marshmallows in the alarm!?

Seriously. That’s what went through my head as I rolled over. I actually laid in bed and pondered the question for a moment, before I began to ponder its absurdity. *shakes head*

That was the cap on a strange trip through The Dreaming, which included a visitation from an odd – and highly unexpected – Ghost of Christmas Past. Weird.

Last night, I spent a couple of futile hours trying to get a certain USB wireless networking adapter to work with the iMac. After checking a number of forums, I found that this model – mainly due to lack of fully functional drivers – doesn’t work with Panther (OS X 10.3.x)… Oh, well. I found one that does. And it’s locally available, I think. I’ll find out after work. (EDIT: Turns out that it’s on order.)

Benefit of being the first one in the IT area: I can listen to 2112 – loudly – on my speakers.
I just made a reference to “Raiders of the Lost Arcade,” since I’m listening to Rush. The person didn’t get it.

Stray Toasters

• I stopped in and chatted with , freshly back from the Left Coast, for a few minutes yesterday. Among other things, we talked a little about The Dark Knight, about which she raved. Speaking of which:
  • The Brave and the Bold trailer

  • Neil Gaiman writes Batman
• Thanks to Drew for linking me to video of Rush on The Colbert Report. I only watched the first, second and fifth sections… but they made me laugh.
• For :

  

• I’ve got the brains
  You’ve got the looks
  Let’s make lots of money…
• How many children in your state are in foster care (.pdf)
• There was a road monkey in one Hell of a hurry this morning. In the… mile and half to two miles that I was around her, I saw her nearly cause two accidents – both of which involved her cutting people off. Idiotstick.
• There’s a new episode of The Middleman tonight.
• Where are the new movie themes?

Back to it.

Namaste.

A few minutes ago, Rock Me Amadeus popped into my head. I’m not really sure “why,” as the song playing on iTunes had nothing to do with it. Thanks to Paul, a friend in a former D&D group, ever since… freshman year in college, I think… when I hear Rock Me Amadeus, it often gets reparsed in my head as “Rock me, Asmodeus.” (1, 2) *sigh* Thanks, Paul.

Anyway…

I was looking at Gizmodo when, like a bad Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercial, the two items came together in my head:

“If Asmodeus were the Demon Lord of Technology, what would his name be?”
Asmodo?
Gizmodeus?

That’s right… I’m thinking the big, world-changing thoughts here.

God help me.

Wednesday: Coda
After work, I headed to Dr. Volt’s to pick up this week’s comics haul and my brick of ‘Clix:

It’s a fifty-five piece set, of which I pulled 42 unique figures.
76% of the total set in one swoop. That’s not bad.
And, I got 11 pieces that I wanted, including:

• Captain America (Isaiah Bradley)
• Cloak and Dagger
• Hawkeye (Kate Bishop)
• Howard the Duck
• Iron Man
• Nick Fury
• Power Pack
  • Energizer
  • Gee
  • Lightspeed
  • Mass Master
• Super Skrull: X-Men

And, since I got the brick, I can send in for the Super Skrull: Illuminati figure.

On the way home, I stopped in to visit SaraRules’ family. And, I picked up the “new” iMac. Now come the two most difficult parts: Figuring out where it’s going and deciding on a name for it.

Stray Toasters

• Science!
• I’m still on the fence… but leaning towards wanting to play DC Universe Online.
  When it goes live, that is.
• This amuses me not only because of the caption, but also because the kitten reminds me of Lightning… when he was still tiny.



• A live-action Cowboy Bebop movie? Could be.
• Motorist draws gun at ‘Grey Poupon’ question

I should probably give some thought to calling it a night.

Friday – 18 July 2008
Welcome to the weekend.

This morning’s goal was to sleep in. Apparently, my body had other ideas: Despite turning off the alarm, I was up a little after 7:00. And 8:15. And somewhere around 9. I got a call from Perry at 9:15 and decided to finally take the hint that I wasn ‘t really going to get much/any more sleep. He asked something that made me laugh though: “Did you take the day off because of [City of Heroes‘] Double XP Weekend?”

I’ll try the sleeping in thing again tomorrow.

Assuming I get in gear and out the door in short order, I’ll probably head up for a cup o’ Joe with Perry before heading to lunch with and Steph (former coworker of his). Maybe I’ll just go post-lunch.

This afternoon’s agenda includes (but is not limited to) some cleaning… although, I may sneak in a little game time, too. And the idea of hitting some balls at the driving range isn’t entirely off the table, either.

To paraphrase Samuel L. Jackson, I’ve got “nothing but air and opportunity.”

Stray Toasters

• 12
• Just Put a Walkie Talkie in His Hand!
• Watchmen Trailer-to-Comic comparison
• I just chatted with ; she’s having a good time in The Big Easy.
• Keeping His Eye on the Ball
• It’s been a while since I’ve linked to this: Best of Craigslist
• Imposter
• 
• YouTomb: Where copyright-clobbered YouTubes go to die
• From The Brothers Brick: Darth Vader has a tough go of it in Gotham City

Quote of the Day
From a conversation with SaraRules about Mamma Mia!, a movie that she wants to see… and that I’ve agreed to sit through:

SaraRules: Entertainment Weekly called Mamma Mia! “exuberantly vapid”
Me: Yeah…
Me: I saw something along those lines online last night
SaraRules: Awesome. I can’t wait.
Me: hahaha
SaraRules: Dude, I’m sorry, but it’s a hollywood move musical based around the music of ABBA. How can anyone expect it to be art?
Me: High hopes?
Me: Wishful thinking?
Me: Miracle?
SaraRules: Pshaw. Delusions
SaraRules: Pshaw, now i have ABBA running through my brain.
Me: I’m sorry.
SaraRules: Hell, I’m not. Finding it on iTunes right now. 
Me: I love you… but sometimes, you scare me.
SaraRules: Because I like ABBA?
Me: No.
Me: Because you’re actively seeking ABBA out on iTunes. 😉

Time to start/finish getting ready to jet.

Wednesday – 16 July 2008
Last night’s Scion game was good. We met a sphinx… were asked a riddle… and didn’t die. Helluva combination. We wrapped up the adventure that we’ve been on for the past couple of months and will start in on something new next week.

I had a couple of errands to run after the game, which took me in the opposite direction of the gym, so I went home without working out. I must have been far more tired than I thought, because shortly after talking with SaraRules, I nodded off while surfing the ‘tubes. When I regained nominal coherence, I decided that calling it a night was a good decision. I wish I knew what triggered them, but I had some BIZARRE dreams. I woke up from a couple of them trying to piece together what was real from what was heard/seen while dreaming.

I may be picking up a new (to me) iMac from SaraRules’ father this evening. At SaraRules’ suggestion, I’m getting the Graphite colored one. The reason behind that choice of color:

Hmmm. I have a pink macbook and a pink iMac. Since Rob has a black macbook I humbly request the graphite iMac for him. Just so that we can continue to match. 🙂

Works for me. I think that it may replace ‘Nine as my desktop/server, as it has never really recovered from its last OS installation.

I haven’t decided whether or not I want to pick up comics today or wait until tomorrow…

Stray Toasters

• By way of and CNN: Black in America
• July 16, 1945: Trinity Blast Opens Atomic Age
  
• Take the last train to Clarksville
  And I’ll meet you at the station
• Natalie Cole say she has hepatitis C
  When I read this, it reminded me of a story from either freshman or sophomore year at Purdue:

Jim, one of the guys in our group of then-usual suspects, was from a small town in Indiana. One Saturday, while some of the other guys were working on a project, we were hanging out watching MuchMusic (think “Canadian MTV”) when a Natalie Cole video came on. We watched it for a couple of minutes before Jim blurted out the following gem: “She’s pretty good looking for a black woman.”

I couldn’t have heard what I thought I heard: “What..?!”

“Natalie Cole. She’s pretty good looking… for a black woman.”

I now had confirmation that he had just said what I thought he said. *sigh* Jim, while rather intelligent, wasn’t the smartest guy. Had he been, he would have (possibly) remembered that it had taken Herculean self-control (and three of our friends) to keep me from trying to cave his head in a few months before when he had carelessly tossed a “less than socially acceptable” racial epithet in my direction. Before choosing to belatedly follow-up on that instinct, I decided that it might be prudent to find out what he meant with this new nugget of wisdom. So, I asked him.

His response: “Well, with white women, you get blue eyes, green eyes, brown eyes…. blonde hair or brunette… or red. With black women, you just get dark hair and dark eyes.”

In his mind, his logic was flawless.
In my mind, I was trying to figure out places where I could hide his body that would take campus police weeks, if not months, to find.

Instead, I just got up and walked out of the room.
We never really talked much after that… for some reason.

• , if you happen to have a spare $25k lying around: Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s typewriter for sale
• Pope Benedict. Koalas. Eco-Disco.
  We shall not speak of these things, in conjuction, again.
• Hall and Oates. Yep, I like ’em.
• The art blog of Lauren Montgomery

Namaste.

I had to survey 15 servers today. For the most part it went without any hitches… aside from taking down two servers out from people who were working on them: I felt bad about one of them; the other was Chimpy.

Human of the Day
Today’s Human is for the reasons posted below.

Stray Toasters

• had to help me recall the proper syntax for using Web Sharing to find something on Defiant. I felt like a complete n00b when I finally remembered it. To make me feel better, showed this to me:

  

  …and all was better with the world.

• For : Wizard Magazine’s Greatest Bond Villain Poll
• How would you pronounce “ghoti?” (Answer below)
• In the words of Jude: Rick James was the original Superfreak.
• Thanks to for pointing this out:

  

• By way of Drew: Pickens Plan – Boone Pickens’ idea for weaning ourselves of our dependence on foreign oil.
• Science of becoming Batman

And the answer to “How do you pronounce ‘ghoti'” is “fish.”

::: vapor trail :::

Tuesday – 15 July 2008
“Sleeping in” is what occurs when one decides to ignore alarms in order to spend more time in The Dreaming
“Oversleeping” is what occurs when one fails to awaken at or by a certain time to begin the day.

Three guesses as to which one I did this morning.
Hint: I was up until 2:00 this morning watching The Middleman and stumble-dragged myself into bed when it was over and alarms were deemed “evil” in my sleep-addled brain.

After work yesterday, I headed home changed clothes and waited for Chris to show up… and then we headed over to play HeroClix with Perry. We played a 2-on-1 game – Chris versus Perry and me; 300 points, unrestricted. I played with the team I used in Saturday’s tourney and Perry used the Abomination and the Super-Adaptoid. Chris used Magneto and an assortment of mutants (with a couple of human Paramedics). And, as an added bonus: We played on a map that I have learned to hate. With a passion. And Chris beat us down. Soundly. We did manage to take out Wolverine… and nearly defeated Cyclops. But, it was fun.

Stray Toasters

• I have to keep reminding myself that today is “Tuesday” and not “Wednesday.”
• Cyberbullying grows bigger and meaner with photos, video
• I think I’m going to get a Rikti Monkey for my Veteran Rewards pet:



• By way of ThinkGeek: Under Construction t-shirt
• Chicago is seeing the dearth of the blues
• 
• From the “Grace Under Pressure” file: ‘It was like I was on rollerblades,’ says Miss USA
• From ‘untouchable’ to role model
• Vegan Zombie t-shirt



• Server room: Day 2
• Wes just bowed out of today’s workout. *sigh* Maybe I’ll hit the gym on the way home from tonight’s Scion game.
• I need to pare down some of the music in my iTunes. I have far too many duplicate entries…

Ka-POW!

Here’s another selection from The Thin White Duke – Thursday’s Child: