Union Pacific's Great Excursion Adventure

Tuesday Night Randomness…

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I’ve been tooling around the Topless Robot site for the past couple of days.  I’ve been highly amused by a few things, including:

Yeah.  Madness.

“Day by day, the seasons pass…”

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Tuesday – 05 February 2008
So far, it’s been a rather decent day. Nothing really out of the ordinary to report… other than Deacon Derek brought me a tub of spun sugar confectionery goodness as recompense for letting him jump-seat to Cedar City with me this past weekend.

Workout
Today’s workout was… abbreviated, but still decent:

  • Leg Raises: 3 sets/20 reps
  • Pull-ups: 3 sets/10 reps (3rd set done with 80 lbs. assistance)
  • Bench press: 3 sets/10 reps, 205 lbs.
  • Lateral Raises (standing, dumbbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 10 lbs.
  • Curls (standing, barbell): 3 sets/10 reps, 60 lbs.

Today’s weight: 169.6 lbs.
Stray Toasters

  • I stumbled upon a new-to-me site today: Top Secret Recipes.
  • The name – and buy-out – game!
    • MicroHoo!
    • Yahoogle or Goohoo!

    Round and round and round it goes! Where it stops… nobody knows!

  • Sam Adams: Patriot. Brewer. Homeboy.
    Jackie Chan: Martial artist. Actor. Tea maker…? When did this happen?!
  • …and, speaking of beer, as seen in Cedar City, UT this past weekend:


    That’s right… they are passing on that whole 1¢ savings on to YOU!
    (Don’t spend it all in one place!)

  • History of conjoined twins
  • I have replenished my stores of Twix and Butterfinger in the AF office!
  • Is the GameBoy the toughest product ever made?
  • What is – or was – your favorite console gaming unit?
    I love my 360, but the Sega Genesis still has a warm place in my heart…
  • “Honey, have you seen my super-suit itch-free pajamas?!”

And tonight: Scion.

Namaste.

“Relate to me as me, not what you see on TV…”

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Friday – 01 February 2008
Welcome to Black History Month.


(from http://pioneer.utah.gov)

Last night, I had dinner with Land at Biaggi’s. I haven’t eaten there in… over a year. I had the Chicken Marsala entree; it was quite good and very filling. I think that I saw the waiter who waited on us the first time that and I ate there… I think. But, I’m not sure. Fortunately, we had a different waiter and he was good – he was a little slow in bringing our drinks at first, but once he got going, he was rather attentive. After dinner, I ran a few errands then headed home.

I slept in a little this morning. Not much. Just enough. And it was good. A quick stop at the SLC office and then I was on my way to AF.

Things were fairly quiet in AF. Selah.
The lunchtime workout was a repeat of Tuesday’s workout.
I weighed in today at 172.0 pounds. (Wow.)

City of Heroes: The Hand of Nefer-Tem
I put in a couple of hours in Paragon City. Not quite enough to hit Security Level 40, but it got me a good portion of the way there. I should – hopefully – be able to get there by the end of the weekend.

Next weekend is another Double XP Weekend event. Double XP == good.

Stray Toasters

  • I need to replenish the Twix and Butterfinger stores in my AF desk drawer o’ goodies.
  • Eric and I just figured out who one of our coworkers reminds us of: Homsar.
  • The Internet may (or may not) be a series of tubes, but this is.
  • With John Edwards out of the race, commentators on this morning’s Diane Rehm Show speculated as to whether we could possibly see an Obama/Clinton or Clinton/Obama ticket in the Fall…
  • Microsoft wants to buy the flagging Yahoo! Interesting.
  • Microsoft is also doing a webcomic: Heroes Happen Here
  • Frozen Grand Central – the latest prank from Improv Everywhere.
  • sent me a link to this. O.o

Time to make like the cast of The Wiz (Broadway) and Ease on Down the Road.

Namaste.

“Open up your mind and let me step inside…”

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Wednesday – 30 January 2008
The morning started. I wish I had something more to say about it than that… but that’s what you get.

I did have a couple of things happen this morning that made me go Ô.õ though:

  1. As I was getting ready for work, I had a random mash-up thought go through my head: “Welcome Back, Potter,” a cross between the 70’s TV show Welcome Back, Kotter and the Harry Potter stories, wherein Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts to teach remedial magic to “troubled” students… and hilarity ensues.
  2. I made a small pot of coffee this morning, to bring to work. While it was brewing, I set out my travel cup and even put milk and sugar in it, so I’d be go to go when the coffee was done. As I was only making 4 cups of coffee, it finished brewing before I was done in the kitchen. I turned off the coffee maker and wandered out of the kitchen to finish getting ready.And I never went back into the kitchen before leaving for work.

    So, I have a lovely cup with milk and sugar and a pot of brewed Vanilla Bean coffee waiting for me.

    Unfortunately, I didn’t remember this until I got about halfway to work. Thus, I had to stop at the local Beans & Brews to acquire frozen mocha goodness to thin out the blood in my caffeinestream.

And that’s the morning, so far.

How’s your day?

“No more kings…”

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Tuesday – 29 January 2008
Last night, after the ordeal of the afternoon commute – it took about 75 minutes to get from AF to SLC – thanks to post-storm, near-whiteout conditions – and finishing out my day I went home and watched the State of the Union address. I had a few things go through my mind as I was watching:

  1. When GW turned his head a certain way, he reminded me of Johnny Carson.
  2. I don’t get why the Peanut Gallery Congress feels the urge/need to give a standing ovation for some of the most mundane bullet point items in a speech. It reminded me more of a pep rally than a presidential speech when they did it… even though I’ve seen it many times before.
  3. I wound up watching the C-Span broadcast, because I got tired of the way the networks would always try to find Senator X, Y or Z for a “reaction shot” whenever GW was applauded for a particular note – especially Senators Obama and Clinton.
  4. I want to download a transcript of this speech and – over the course of the next year – see how many of the stated/proposed items come to fruition.

After the speech, I took the Hand of Nefer-Tem on a field trip to Paragon City. I hooked up with members of my SG and we took on The Council and the Circle of Thorns. Over the course of the next couple of hours, I not only racked up the points I needed to make Security Level 39, but got about… 4.2 bubbles on the way to Level 40.

I stopped playing a little before midnight. I stretched out on the couch with the intent of watching a little TV before calling it a night. I was out in less than ten minutes. I’d be willing to bet that it wasn’t even five minutes.

Next thing I know, it was 5:00 AM.
I stretched… and nodded off again.

Phone alarm. 6:15. Ignored.

I finally managed to leave the gates of The Dreaming at 8:00. I got up and started the day.

I headed to the SLC office to take care of a few things. Then on to the AF office… and the gym. Today’s workout was good (but a little short):

  • Bench press: 3 sets/8 reps (2 sets @ 205 lbs; 1 set/7 reps @ 205 lbs, 3 reps @ 185 lbs)
  • Rows (cable): 3 sets/12 reps @ 120 lbs
  • Shoulder press (seated, dumbbell): 3 sets/12 reps @ 40 lbs
  • Bent-over row: 3 sets/10 reps per arm @ 35 lbs
  • Curls (cable): 3 sets/10 reps @ 50 lbs

And, when I did my weigh-out: 169.4 lbs, which is down from Thursday’s 169.8. I’m not necessarily trying to hit 170 lbs, but I won’t cry if I do.

The Best: I Heard It Through the Grapevine
Gladys Knight & The Pips vs. Marvin Gaye vs. Creedence Clearwater Revival vs. The California Raisins.

The song was originally performed by Gladys Knight and, shortly thereafter, by Marvin Gaye and in the nineties, it was used by the California Raisin Advisory Board (no, I didn’t make that up) to promote… well, if I really have to tell you what it was for, you should just turn off the computer now. Seriously.

In my book, it comes down like this:

  1. Marvin Gaye
  2. Gladys Knight & The Pips
  3. The California Raisins
  4. Creedence Clearwater Revival

I don’t really have anything against CCR, but I don’t particularly care for their cover of this song… hence, the Raisins knocking them out of the Number Three spot.
Stray Toasters

Namaste.

“…and the sky is a hazy shade of Winter.”

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Thursday – 24 January 2008
So far, so grey. I mean,”So far, so good!” Yeah… “good.” That’s the ticket. Even if I can barely see across 215 from the office window.

I have hot chocolate. I’m willing to bet that most of you don’t. Pity.

The morning started off slow and leisurely, and included a quick chat with . Then the short trek to the north office; I’ll most likely wind up in the south office a little later, but for now… I’m here.

Stray Toasters

  • I meant to post this yestermorn… but forgot it: The Weather Channel’s Epic. Check out the “Dangerous Drop” video.
  • TheAtlantic.com has dropped the fees for access to their online content.
  • As much as I enjoy a good episode of Justice League and/or Legion of Super-Heroes… or even reading my weekly four-color goodness… or even having my GL costume for Halloween 2004… or even playing City of Heroes, I don’t think that I’m quite this far gone: Superheroes in Real Life. More power to ’em, though. 🙂
  • , this might be up your alley: CoolMiniOrNot – Hot or Not site for sculpted, painted miniatures

And, that’s a good start.

Namaste.

“All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey…”

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Wednesday – 23 January 2008
Mid-week and all’s well… if grey, gloomy and generally “blah” can be considered “well.”

I got a decent start on the morning… even after someone dialed my number at 5:45 AM. No idea who it was, because no number came up on the Caller ID. Monkeys. I was up and nominally mobile a little after 7:00 this morning and out the door, caffeinated (and bagel-laden) and in the office by 8:30. As an added bonus, the first song on Nomad’s shuffle play was Big Daddy Kane’s A Job Ain’t Nuthin’ But Work. Nice way to kick off the short commute.

Mo’ money, mo’ money, mo’ money got get made
To get paid in this trade
And I believe that I can acheive
To make ends meet like a hair weave

Survivin’ in this economy people in the world wanna be
Stayin’ in the upper class so you’re the path
The rich gets the most and the poor gets so little
And only Monie Love can make it in the middle

The work day wasn’t too chaotic. Fortunately. I was asked to check out a problem with a server… which not only was not having a problem (today), but was also in the middle of running some tests for one of our engineers. So, that got downgraded from “Put this at the top of today’s to-do list” to “Keep an eye on this.” I’m okay with that. I’ve also managed to work in some hardware testing… which means that I have been able to clear stacks of dysfunctional machinery out of my work area. I actually found some work space under all of the dreck!

Sushi Wednesday.
New Comics Day.
‘Nuff said.

Genius that I am, I left the power cord (POWER CHORD!) for Defiant at work. *sigh* This meant that – rather than go buy a (“yet another”) new one – I had to go back to the office to retrieve it. This was good on a couple of counts… as I also forgot that I needed to pick up a few things at the store, too. So, I headed to the office to find…

…neither of my badges worked on the main doors of the building. *grblsnrkx* Fortunately, I had messaged Code Monkey BB to see if he was still at work before leaving home. He was. I called him and he brought my cord down to the lobby. We chatted a bit before I took off to run some more errands and he went back upstairs to sling some more code.

After errand-running, I decided to see if was in. She was. I told her that I had her Trader Joe’s shwag with me and would drop it off, if that was alright. Not only was it alright, she asked if I’d mind lending a hand to , who had been helping her resurrect her PC – at this point they were having a problem getting her mouse to respond and needed to rejoin the PC to the wireless network.

No problem!
Piece of cake!
We’d have it back online and humming in no time!

An hour and a half later, we finally had things up and running again. Just like Tom Tom the Piper’s Son… but without the pigs.

Stray Toasters

I’m sure that there was probably more that I was going to add to this… but all I want to do now is save the world (if I can find a team) and read the rest of this week’s four-color haul.

Namaste.

“City lights stretch out before us…”

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Friday: Coda
Annnd, we’re here. Long Beach. SoCal. According to Weather.com, it’s 49°F here. Forty-nine. At almost 10:00 PM. SLC won’t see the other side of forty for the next couple of months, probably.

The trip was fun. Long, but fun. We stopped in St. George (so I could pick up my camera – kudos to online shopping/in-store pick-up). While we were off the interstate, we decided to pick up lunch at the nearby Burger King. This was… entertaining.

We pulled up to the drive-in and SaraRules started to place our order. I think that it took four tries to get the first part of the order in and have the person on the mike actually get it right. Then, SaraRules put in the second part of the order. That was, comparatively, a piece of cake – she only had to repeat herself once.

And, just as we were about to add an extra order of onion rings to the mix, we were cut off, given a total and told to drive around.

*blink blink*

We drove up to the window… and added in our onion ring request. Because, as SaraRules put it: “We already had food and knew that they would not spit in our onion rings.”

So, the whole exchange – which should have taken about… four minutes – took nearly ten. Wow. Talk about “fast” food.

We drove through Vegas and the NV/CA state line and on to Baker, CA. If you’ve never been to/through Baker, you’re not really missing much: A few gas stations, some restaurants (mostly attached to the gas stations) and a buttload of mobile homes. Oh, and the world’s tallest thermometer. On the plus side, they did have a Dairy Queen, so I was able to sate my chocolate-dipped cone craving.

On the road again and on to Long Beach! Tally-ho!

As we dropped through Cajon Pass and into San Bernardino, the traffic picked up… the way that traffic does when you’re entering a major metropolitan area. It reminded me of the traffic on 495 in/around DC.

We made it to Meliko‘s. When we got there, Jeff and Adrienne – friends of theirs, were there. We said our “hellos” and then decided to head off to get something to eat. We went to a place called Marri’s Pizza and Italian Restaurant. I had the chicken alfredo. Good stuff. By the time we got back, Meliko’s roommate, Cat, was home. SaraRules and I hung out while the four of them (Meliko, Cat, Adrienne and Jeff) practiced a song.

Stray Toasters

  • Right after this afternoon’s post, pointed me in the direction of 25 Amazing Photos Taken at the Exact Perfect Time
  • : I got ya covered. There’s actually a TJ’s just around the corner. Literally.
  • How bad-ass is Wonder Woman? Not only did she whoop Batman’s ass, but she’s a therapist: Ask Golden Age Wonder Woman
  • The newest “Sneak Preview” from the upcoming HeroClix release Crisis: The Flash. The Barry Allen “I’m going to run myself to death” Flash.

And, since I’m on vacation… I’m done.

Namaste.

“Our great computers fill the hallowed halls!”

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Tuesday – 15 January 2008
Although it won’t be observed for another six days, today is the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.

This morning, I managed to sleep through my alarm. Fortunately, my internal clock tends to awaken me around 8:00 AM. I got up, ready and out the door in fairly short order.

It was snowing earlier. Fairly heavily, in fact. But, you wouldn’t know it to look outside now: Blue skies with a few high clouds. “Welcome to Utah: If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.”

MacWorld was held this morning. Among the announcements came news of the newest Mac hotness: MacBook Air. It looks like a rather slick machine. The other announcements included:

  • Updates to the iPhone software and a software developer’s kit
  • Updates to the iPod Touch software
  • iTunes movie rentals
  • Updates to AppleTV

So, it would seem as though yesterday’s “leaked” list for the keynote address was bogus… although it did hit on a couple of items. Imagine that.

City of Heroes
Last night, after I settled in – and had a bite to eat – I paid a visit to Paragon City with the Hand of Nefer-Tem. I ran a couple of in-game errands and was soon invited to join a team for some mid-40s missions. I wasn’t about to turn down higher-level missions, so I joined the team. We fought The Council, which on the whole isn’t a “bad” thing… but The Council also tends to have Void Stalkers and Quantums hanging out with them. Voids and Quants tend to have weapons that are anathema to Kheldians – on the order of one- or two-shot kills. Fortunately, we had some heavy-hitters and good healers on the team. By the time we were done, I had earned over 500,000 XP and was only 300K away from Security Level 38. Not bad for roughly an hour’s work.

Stray Toasters

  • I just had a craving for Dunkin’ Donuts. Too bad there aren’t any behind the Zion Curtain.
  • Stay the Night, by Chicago
    • Bonus Question: Without looking it up, what was the band’s first/full name.
  • LEGO geodesic dome
  • LEGOland… this weekend… *genuflect*
  • A fella really got to eat
    And a fella should eat right.
    Five will get you ten
    I’m gonna feed myself right tonight.
    I don’t want fish cakes and rye bread,
    You heard what I said.
    Waiter, please serve mine fried
    I want the frim fram sauce with the ausen fay

    With chafafa on the side.
  • Most users of Microsoft Windows-based systems are probably familiar with Remote Desktop and/or Remote Assistance. For those of you who aren’t, it basically allows users to “share” a computer’s desktop – with one user remotely accessing the desktop from another computer. (Mac OS offers the same thing, as do any number of VNC clients, but I digress…)As I’ve noted before, I’m studying Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment, for Exam 70-290. I’ve been going back over some things I read before Christmas and just got back to the Remote Assistance section. I came across the following passages:

    Remote Assistance provides a way for users to get the help they need and makes it easier and less costly for corporate help desks to assist their users.With Remote Assistance… an administrator or support representative can connect remotely to a user’s computer, chat with the user, and either view all the user’s activities or take control of the keyboard and mouse.

    It goes on to say…

    To receive remote assistance, a client must issue an invitation and send it to a particular expert. The client can send the invitation to the expert using Microsoft Windows Messenger or email, or he or she can send it as a file.

    Now, we get to the heart of the matter…

    To use the Windows Messenger service for your Remote Assistance connection, you must have the expert’s Windows Messenger user name in your contact list.

    For a successful request through email, both computers must be using a Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI)-compliant email client.

    As a third option, you can save the invitation as a file and transfer that file to the expert through removable storage media or as an email attachment.

    That’s right. “Removable storage media,” like a flash drive or disc. Now, correct me if I’m wrong (which, in this case, I don’t think I am) but if you’re putting on media like that, is it just going to magically “appear” at the tech’s desk? No, I think not. What does that mean?! You – or a lackey unwitting dupe coworker – have to take it to the tech.

    Granted, the expert can still use Remote Assistance to access the client machine, but doesn’t using Sneakernet to deliver the invitation kind of defeat the purpose?

  • I heard a cool version of On the Good Ship Lollipop, by The Persuasions, this weekend in St. George. I think I’ll have to track down the CD it’s on.

And now it’s time to save the world. Again.

Namaste.

“In brighest day, in blackest night…”

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Wednesday – 09 January 2008
This morning started early. 6:15 early. All things considered, that’s good for many reasons, not the least of which was that I was able to chat with Mom for a few minutes before I headed off to work. And when I stepped outside… I saw that it had snowed. And it continued to snow, intermittently, throughout the day.

The work day has been relatively quiet, allowing me to dive back into Win Server 2003 reading – which at this point includes a lot of going back and taking some notes on things I read before our Winter vacation. But, it’s proceeding apace.

Today was also Sushi Wednesday (Oh Sushi, the restaurant formerly known as Go Sushi) and Four-Color Crack Day. Due to the holidays – and some delays from Diamond – shipments for the past two weeks have been a little “off.” So much so that last week, Dr. Volt’s had two shipments: One on Wednesday (the previous week’s shipment) and one on Friday (last week’s intended shipment). Since I worked out of AF – and headed south – on Friday, I missed out on getting the second day’s haul until today. And even with the today’s new arrivals, the haul was fairly light. So, I made up for it by picking up this and this, after all…

  1. It’s a John Stewart figure. (If I need to ‘splain beyond this, just stop reading now.)
  2. They’re more X-Men Minimates for my “Sentinel Attacks!” scenario. ‘Nuff said.

I neglected to cover yesterday’s workout in yesterday’s post. Let me start off by saying that it hurt. A lot. Something about “not going to the gym for three weeks” comes to mind. The overall workout was light and more of a “getting back into the swing of things” routine:

  • Pull-ups: 3 sets/10 reps (on the last set, the last half were done with my feet braced against the back of the Roman Chair)
  • Leg raises: 3 sets/20 reps
  • Dips: 3 sets/15 reps
  • Bench press: 3 sets/10 reps, 135 lbs. (Like I said: “Getting back into it”)
  • Nautilus Cable Fly: 3 sets/10 reps, (2 sets at 95 lbs, 1 set at 80 lbs)
  • Seated dumbbell curls: 3 sets/10 reps, 25 lbs.

Like I said: It hurt. A lot. Yesterday. Today. And maybe even tomorrow.

Tonight, I think that I shall spend some quality time in Paragon City… or the Rogue Isles. I’m not quite sure “which” locale sounds more appealing.

Stray Toasters

  • Rather than going to bed at a nominally reasonable hour last night, I took time to set up my LEGO train alongside the Rokenbok Factory. I’ll have to take some pics of the “new” setup at some point.
  • Speaking of LEGO: SaraRules and I are looking at the feasibility of visiting LEGOland: California in a couple of weeks, while in Lost Angles.
  • Yes, I know “Los Angeles” is misspelled above.
  • My Favorite James Bond portrayers, in descending order:
  1. Sean Connery
  2. Daniel Craig
  3. Pierce Brosnan
  4. George Lazenby / Roger Moore (tie)
  5. Timothy Dalton
  • I went the high-tech route an text messaged (rather than call) my father to tell him it was snowing. Again. He asked that I keep the snow out here and not send it eastward. Again.
  • Falafel.  Black Ops.   Back, Crack and Sac Wax.
  • From Wired: Best Vintage Tech Commercials
  • For an as-yet unexplained reason, I had the chorus from Wake Me Up Before You Go Go stuck in my head this morning.
  • I’ve been spending time on the Rokenbok site. Sweet, sweet ‘bok goodness…
  • I got a call from this evening; she needed help troubleshooting a computer problem. A little mental “elbow grease” and a short time later, we sussed it out.
  • From Reuters: Election 2008 – The Latest on the Leading Candidates
  • By way of Craigslist: Halloween Observations
  • PokerStars makes a Mac client.
  • Yet another item to add to the Covet List.
  • It’s a REALLY quiet night in Paragon City.
  • Chocolate Jesus Crunchies.

*BAMF*

“Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…”

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Sunday – 06 January 2008
It’s snowing. And not just a little bit. It’s supposed to snow through some time tomorrow. That should make the morning commute… interesting. Let’s hope that UDoT gets a handle on the situation early enough to make sure that I-15 is more than just “passable.”

Today has been quiet and relaxed. After sleeping in and coffee, we met up with Steve and went to lunch. After lunch, we headed over to Rachel’s and hung out with her and Tyler. Back to SaraRule’s to return Steve to his truck and then we were off to the grocery store. In the seven minutes that it took to do shopping, the snowstorm started. There was enough snow on the windows that I had to use the snow brush/ice scraper. In seven minutes. Unglaublich! Fortunately, we don’t have anyplace to go this evening.

Four-Color Coverage

  • Action Comics #860 – The Superman and the LSH story continues. We are reintroduced to a few more Legionnaires and the Legion takes on the Justice League again. Where’s Brainiac 5? Wasn’t bringing Superman to the 31st Century his idea?! Shouldn’t he be around to explain “why?”
  • Green Lantern #26 – The Second New Law of the Book of Oa is written: The Creation of the Alpha Lanterns. Who are they and how is their mission different from the rest of the Corps? Hal Jordan has a talk with an imprisoned – and oddly… smug – Sinestro. We see John Stewart, dealing with the his greatest failure.
  • Green Lantern/Sinestro Corps Secret Files #1 – DC updates the information on the Green Lantern Corps, including updating the bios of some of the GLs. One of the updates was John Stewart’s bio, to include his stint in the Marine Corps, as first noted in Justice League.
  • House of M: Avengers #3 of 5 – I know… I know… I wouldn’t have expected to ever have something with the words “House of M” to appear in FCC, but here it is. This series focuses not on mutants, but on the humans living in the world of the the House of M. This issue introduced a certain FBI agent named Frank Castle.
  • JLA Classified #49 – This was a well-told story called “To Live in Hearts We Leave Behind.” It looks at a day – a busy day – in the life of the Justice League… from the point of view of their loved ones. Lois Lane and Alfred Pennyworth serve as the anchors for this story, in which the League is off-world and the world awaits news of their mission. I don’t usually collect Classified, but this was a nice addition to the collection.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes #37 – This issue marked Jim Shooter’s return to the Legion. I think that this was more of a “setting the stage” issue. Lightning Lad deals with the mantle of leadership and Princess Projectra deals with a a blow to her royal status.
  • Mythos: Fantastic Four #1 – This is a/another retelling of the FF’s origin… but from the point of view of a congressional inquiry.

Stray Toasters

And that’s it.

Namaste.

“A working class hero is something to be…”

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Wednesday – 02 January 2008
The year is another day older.
A new work week – and work year – began this morning.

Wahoo.

Yesterday, SaraRules and I headed over to her parents’ to watch the Rose Bowl (Illinois and USC) and just… chill. It was nice. The game, not so nice. The Fighting Illini got their midwestern hindparts handed to them, eight ways from Sunday. TLC would have called it “Unpretty.” (It’d make you feel unpretty, too…) After we turned from the game – somewhere in the third quarter – we watched Resident Evil: Extinction. I had seen it before, but it was a fun way to spend the evening.

We left, and came back to the apartment and decided that we weren’t tired enough to call it night, so we watched Superman: the Movie. At SaraRules’ request, not mine, believe it or not. *jawdrop* Wow. And, again, for two-and-a-half hours, I was a seven-year-old kid.

This morning, I don’t know if the alarm went off. If it did, I turned it off in my sleep. I woke up a little bit later, performed the hygiene rituals and hit the bricks. A week-and-a-half vacation is hard to recover from. But I – and everyone in the office – managed to pull it off. At lunch, SaraRules came to the office (she wanted to say “Hi” to ) and we met shockpuppet, and Joe for lunch. Sushi. Go-Sushi. Post-lunch, I picked up last week’s four-color shwag and then headed back to work.

After work, I came home and hung out with SaraRules before she headed back to Cedar City. After she left, it was time to have a bite to eat and then head to Paragon City with the Hand of Nefer-Tem. I was invited to join a team. We fought the Council of Thorns. And the difficulty level was cranked waaay up – we had our virtual hindparts handed to us, eight ways from Sunday. (It made us feel unpretty, too.) But, the experience was good, so I can’t complain too much.

I just got a call from SaraRules: She made it back to southern Utah without any problems.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
A commercial for Staples just came on and made me think of something: You see all of the ads for “Back to School” buys and whatnot in August. Every August.

And, because every year people apparently forget that they need to by school supplies – until they see those ads – there’s a bit of a rush at the stores to get supplies for little Johnny and Susie.

My question: Why not buy some/all of the supplies sooner? I mean, it makes sense… but it’s not something that you really think about – or want to think about – until you need it.

Kind of like buying a plunger.

Stray Toasters

  • I have a taste for… some… kind of dessert, but I’m not sure exactly what.
  • Thermochromic Toilet Seat
  • The Electric Company. Mm-hmm, that’s right… Easy Reader.
  • Proving that he really is 2 Legit 2 QuitMC Hammer’s Next Act: Tech Entrepreneur
  • I’ve been rather vocal – at least to comic-reading friends – about how completely asinine I think the resolution to Marvel’s “One More Day” and “Brand New Day” storyline in the Spider-Man books is/was. (Short version: Joe Quesada and company have retconned Peter Parker and Mary-Jane’s wedding right out of existence. By making a deal with the devil – okay, technically it’s Mephisto, but come on… he’s as close as you’ll get to Old Scratch in the Marvel Universe.) I found a few blogs on Comics2Film that sum things up nicely:
    1. One More Day: One Less Reader
    2. One More Day: The Right Way to do a Retcon
    3. One More Day: The Art of the Swerve
  • The Men’s Warehouse is having their Winter Sale. Hmm…
  • IKEA is also having their Winter Sale. Hmm…
  • Goats.
  • Bruce Springsteen was right: “57 channels and nothing’s on…”
  • Keys to the Kingdom

Namaste.

“All systems check, T minus nine… as the sun and the drama start to mount…”

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Monday – 31 December 2007
I just upgraded to the latest and greatest version of WordPress…

…and managed to overwrite all of the theme and plugins settings that I had changed.

I have spent the past hour correcting that. Most of that time was trying to figure out what names I had given icon pictures in WordPress, as I had modified many of them from their LJ equivalents. Yay. But, it seems as though I’ve gotten most of them fixed. I’m sure that I’ll notice a couple of odd/missing settings down the road, but for the moment, I’m good.

Today will most likely be rather lazy.
Tonight, we shall ring in the New Year.

Stray Toasters

  • I’m watching CSI: on Spike while SaraRules is reading I Am Legend. Then, this… commercial… came on. Funny thing: When I was growing up, we just called them “purses.” Watch the mini-video in the upper left corner. Comedy.
  • The Ravens fired Brian Billick. Now the question becomes: “Who will replace him?” I talked it over with :

    : ravens just fired billick
    iiiiiiiiiinteresting
    Me: Yeah… I caught that around noon local.
    : how long has he been around now?
    superbowl was 2000…so at least 7?
    Me: 8yrs
    : ah well…merry new year to billick
    Me: indeed
    Any ideas on who they’ll get to replace him?
    I don’t think that any of the assts. were up for it
    : rex ryan seems to be the leading candidate, they seem to think he’ll be gone for another job if not
    Me: Maybe they’ll bring Jim Fassell back.
    : i just want someone who will give us at least one solid coach meltdown like dennis green
    or even a weenie white man one like jim mora
    PLAYOFFS?!?!
    what can i say, i love the trainwrecks
    Me: SaraRules: “Excellent.”
    : ahh she enjoys the trainwrecks too? winner in my book
    i have an audio of a college div1 football coach i should send you
    best meltdown ever

  • And another thing: Spike just ran an ad for an arts & crafts cutter. Okay… first that “purse” commercial, and now this?! Now, is it just me or doesn’t Spike tout itself as “TV for guys?” If so, what’s up with this? Are they subtly changing their demographic?

I hope that everyone has a safe and happy New Year’s Eve and wish the best to you in 2008.

Namaste.

“Hot, like wasabi, when I bust rhymes…”

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Friday – 28 December 2007
Yet another lazy day about town. I have to say that the downtime has been nice.

I woke up and puttered around the apartment for a bit this morning and early afternoon, while SaraRules went to lunch with an old friend. I was nominally productive though: I hung the LEGO key rack she got me for Christmas.

After she got back, we headed out for a bit to get lunch (for me) at Go Sushi. I had their Teriyaki Rice Bowl Combination (with chicken). It was just the right mix of food:

  • Miso soup
  • Teriyaki chicken and vegetables over rice
  • Gyoza (potstickers) and
  • California roll (half order)

I had a couple of pieces of Ika nigiri and some green tea to wash it all down.

Next, over to Dr. Volt’s… only to find that the shipment that should have been in yesterday was delayed again and now most likely will not be in until next Wednesday. And that’s on top of the already scheduled-to-be late shipment that’s due next Friday. To console myself, I got a couple of boxes of ‘Clix and the hardcover edition of The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes, to replace the (signed) softcover edition I can’t find. *shakes fist* Although, I was able to find it with the last printing’s cover, so it matches the softcover copies of Dream Country and The Wake that I have. A few pieces of note from the plastic crack haul include:

Then, we popped over to see SaraRules’ parents for a bit. We’re having brunch with them tomorning. Now, all we need to do is figure out “where.”

Back home for a bit… and some time in Paragon City.

Stray Toaster
Just one thing, for the moment: Solid!
(Click on the picture… you have to see the larger version. Comedy.)

And now… off to Clitorati!

Namaste.

“Look around… leaves are brown and the sky is a hazy shade of winter.”

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Thursday – 27 December 2007
Another lovely day in the valley. It’s a tropical 24°F outside, but there are partly cloudy skies, which means that the sun is putting in an appearance.

Last night, SaraRules and I watched Mirrormask. She liked it, overall, but thought that the story was a bit weak. She did like the visualizations, though.

Today, we’re still deciding what to do, but heading up to Ogden and making a pilgrimage to Mecca (known to the locals as “The Bookshelf”) may be on the docket. And there will also be a trip to Dr. Volt’s, as today is new comics day; the shipment is off by a day because of the holiday.

And tonight: I Am Legend.

Stray Toasters

  • Benazir Bhutto killed in attack
  • Online games battle for top spot
  • From the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot file: Jackson has ‘surgery’ after [being] hit by son

    Michael Jackson reportedly underwent emergency surgery after his young son accidentally punched him in the face. The Thriller hitmaker – who has undergone multiple cosmetic surgeries on his face in the past – was recently photographed in a Los Angeles bookstore wearing numerous bandages around his mouth. But sources tell Finditt.com the singer’s son, Prince Michael II, caused the injury: “He was whacked in the face accidentally by his younger son Prince Michael II while playing around and part of Jackson’s upper lip collapsed. “That mishap led a hysterical Jacko to make a beeline for the plastic surgeon for a bit of quickie repair work.”

  • …and keeping it in the family, somewhat:

    (For those who don’t remember: Michael and Lisa Marie Presley were married for almost two years in the 90s)

And that’s a wrap for now.

Namaste.