Random Access

Friday – 11 July 2008
After leaving work yesterday, I was off to Ogden to go to Corps Encore with Nizlee’s stepdad, Jeff:

Of the groups scheduled to perform, I had seen Blue Devils, Blue Knights, Phantom Regiment and SC Vanguard before. I may have seen Troopers, at some point, too.

Getting there was… less than a treat: We encountered northbound rush hour traffic on I-15. There’s also a lot of construction along I-15, from Centerville to Layton, with the construction of the “Legacy Parkway.” That didn’t help, either. It took nearly two hours to go roughly 40 miles.

We got to Weber State around 7:15, which meant that we missed Spokane Thunder‘s performance. But, we got into the stadium as the Velvet Knights were taking the field. (: They wore red and black Chuck Taylor Converse – you would have loved ’em.) Their show was entitled “The Inferno.” They started with what sounded like a New Orleans funeral procession. We hadn’t gotten to our seats yet, so we couldn’t quite make out where things were heading. Had we been able to see the color guards’ outfits, we would have had a clue: They were decked out like zombies. While I recognized most of the music they played, I can’t place the names of some of the songs they performed, but I caught the middle piece in two notes: Thriller. As in “Michael Jackson’s Thriller.” Cool, in itself, but when the horn line joined color guard for a dance breakdown, the crowd went nuts. (Pictures)

Next up: Troopers, from Casper, Wyoming. Their show was titled “The Iron Horse Express.” It opened with the drumline sounding exactly like a steam locomotive. The show was western themed. (Pictures)

After a twenty-minute intermission, the Blue Knights took the field. Their show was called “Knight Reign.” (Pictures)

The Phantom Regiment‘s show was “Spartacus.” In less than eleven minutes, they performed an abbreviated version of the movie. The Regiment marched in all-white uniforms, with silver/blue sashes; the color guards were in tattered slave garb. The most interesting/shocking moment of the show was when one of the secondary drum majors walked through the horn and drum lines to “slit the throat” of one of the color guard members. There were many “Oh, my…” and “Wow” and gasps heard in the crowd. (Pictures)

The Blue Devils (no relation to the NC school) did a show called “Constantly Risking Absurdity.” It was an interesting performance, the most… unusual part of which was the neon-bright magenta and orange color guard uniforms. (Pictures)

Santa Clara Vanguard was the last corps to take the field. Their show was called “3hree: Mind-Body-Soul.” MarknTyme, you were right: They had a Philip Glass piece… and I picked up on it as soon as they started to play. (Pictures)

The scoring for the event:

1. Blue Devils
2. Phantom Regiment
3. Santa Clara Vanguard

After the scores were awarded (awards pictures), the Blue Devils’ and Blue Knights’ combined horn lines did a rendition of America, the Beautiful. Having not attended a drum corps show in ten or more years, I had forgotten about the closing song. The two corps’ lines blended nicely and they did a helluva job. Ray Charles’ version is still “The Best,” but this was a worthy top contender.

Of tonight’s performances, I think that Phantom’s “Spartacus” was my favorite.

This is the only Utah stop in all of DCI’s tours, so I’m glad that I had the opportunity to go.
Many thanks to Jeff for inviting me.

For more information about drum corps, see the Drum Corps International page.

This morning, I overslept a bit, but that’s okay: I can still be in the office a little after 8:30 or so.
And, I only have 4.5 hours left on the week. (I think that I can handle that.)

Namaste
.

Until last night, I had forgotten that this is a short work week.  I apparently forgot it again this morning… until I started thinking about how I wanted to spread out my work hours – I was planning on working a bunch of 9- and 10-hour days and taking off early on Friday again, when it dawned on me that Friday is a freebie.  Had gone with my original plan of pulling 10-9-10, I would only have two hours of work on Thursday.  I may still do that.

Stray Toasters

• Michael Turner, artist and President of Aspen Comics, passed away Friday night.  He was 37.
• Wizard has a 6-page preview of Astonishing X-Men #25, Warren Ellis’ first issue on the title.  Page Four alone is reason enough to buy the book.
• Walk Score
• In the same vein as someecards comes WrongCards.  They even have an “In event of zombies” section.
• There are rumblings of Frank Miller working on some sort of sequel to 300.  I feel about this the way that I feel about The Dark Knight Strikes Again, his follow-up to The Dark Knight Returns:  You captured lighting in a bottle the first time around.  Don’t force it.  And, more importantly, why screw up a good thing?!
• Wizard, in their “Corps Curriculum” column, posted this picture… with the caption: “Yoda couldn’t have done it better.”  The funny thing is, you could actually overwrite Luke and Yoda’s X-Wing raising dialogue from SW:TESB on this page… and have it fit perfectly.

All that and a new episode of The Middleman tonight.

Huzzah!

Friday – 20 June 2008
The end of the work week is at hand. Thanks to putting in a few extra hours, I’m done and gone at 1:30 today. That’s worth skipping lunch for. I’m going to run a few errands and enjoy the early start to the weekend.

Last night, I watched Fear Itself, the new anthology horror/suspense summer series on NBC. Thirteen episodes, each done by different directors. Last night’s episode was “The Family Man.”

Family Man – A likeable family man switches bodies with a serial killer during a near-death experience. Now he must keep his loved ones from being added to the long list of the killer’s victims.

It wasn’t bad; it reminded me of a modern Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits. I’m going to have to investigate the previous three episodes.

I also listened to the new Duffy CD, Rockferry. You may remember that I posted the video to Mercy a few weeks back:

The whole CD is good. It has a definite British soul feel, with a number of songs making nods to the 60s style of Brit soul/pop. I give it an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

Stray Toasters

• I chatted with a little while ago, he has left Nepal and is currently enjoying a layover in Bangkok. He should be home tomorrow evening. More on his travel adventures below.
• After sending her a link to zombie drawings on DrawerGeeks, I just typed “Zombees!” to SaraRules… which made me think “zombie bees.”
• By way of BBC News: One tonne ‘Baby’ marks its birth
• Drawn! (Which I had once again forgotten about…)
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: The Baby Borrowers
• 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 ice on Mars?
• I found this by way of DeviantArt:


(click for more work by DarkAngelDTB)

• Auto Test Tracks Revealed From Above
• 
• Puzzle Calendar Is Not LEGO Compatible
• …however, this is pretty cool: LEGO Employees Have Minifigs As Business Card
• I think I’ll treat myself to either The Incredible Hulk or Get Smart after tomorrow’s ‘Clix game.

Quote of the Day

From this morning’s conversation with …
He was telling me about an email that he sent to Bot and a couple of his brothers:

I had to go through multiple roadblocks, burning tires, and brick throwers to get to the airport this morning. Today’s asshole Kathmandu protest is brought to you by students, who are demanding that fuel prices come down. Took us 90 minutes to get to the airport.

Anyway, I’m here, I’m in the Thai Airways lounge, and all is well. See you soon…

Then he added:

I almost went with the sesame street theme and said “today’s asshole kathmandu protest is brought to you by the letters AMF” but i think only andrew would’ve understood it

…where “AMF” stands for “Adios, motherfucker.”

I think that he should have added it.

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Friday – 06 June 2008
This morning started off with the alarm going off… and me waking up with a headache. I didn’t consider that the most auspicious start to a Friday morning, so I stayed in bed for a bit. I should have gotten up then, because I wound up in an odd, rather disturbing corner of The Dreaming.

The second go-round of waking up went considerably better. I hit B&B for a large cup of frozen, triple-shotted goodness and Einstein Bros. for a bagel sandwich. Add to that having some decent commuting tunes and Bob’s your uncle, as the saying goes.

The Best: Sugar Sugar
The Archies vs. Mary Lou Lord (with Semisonic)

This song was originally done by The Archies in 1969.
It was covered by Mary Lou Lord in 1995 for Saturday Morning Cartoons’ Greatest Hits.

It’s a bubblegum pop song at heart – and one that I’ve liked since I was a kid – but the edge that Ms. Lord gives it, pushes it ahead of the original in my book.

Winner: Mary Lou Lord

Stray Toasters

• Would LeVar Burton have had Windows Server 2003 books on Reading Rainbow? Should he have added them to the line-up?
• Cosby sweaters for auction
  I just want to know if you get Jell-O Pudding Pops and/or a TI-99/4A with each sweater?
• Jon Favreau on Iron Man 2 and Beyond
• Would X-Men: The Last Stand have been a better movie had Jon Favreau been the director, rather than Brett Ratner?
• All we hear is…

• New club drug: Preparation H?
• They were singing
  Back to back
  Belly to belly
  I don’t give a damn, ’cause I’m stone dead already
  Back to back
  Belly to belly
  A zombie jamboree
• Speaking of zombies: Blog Like It’s the End of the World Day is coming up next Friday.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 07 May 2008
Midweek. Grey and Rainy.

Vacation starts tomorrow. Or tonight, depending on your point of view. Florida. Forecast is sunny and hot (upper 80s). Yeah, I think I can deal with that.

Stray Toasters

• Pink Floyd’s Money just turned up in my iTunes rotation. I like have liked this song for many years. I even used it as the theme for my radio show in college.
• In order received, , and got the right answer.
  (Technically, only got half of it, but she still got her half right.)
  The answers were: Vasco da Gama and Amerigo Vespucci.
• loonybin88 pointed me in the direction of Not on the Test. Amusing… and sadly true, in many cases.
• Duck season!
  Wabbit season!
  DUCK season!
  WABBIT season!
  Zombie season!
• Yay for Windows Server 2003 manuals! ZzzzzzzZZzzzzz…
• Webcomic WTH takes an amusing look at City of Heroes.
• I haven’t played City in… at least a week. *taps vein*
• While I’m happy with Senator Obama’s performance in last night’s primaries, I’m not so naive as to think that he’s an automatic shoe-in for the Democratic Party nomination, as some news sources seem to be reporting. The race isn’t over and there is still a long way to go.
• I ‘Toastered Isabella Rossellini’s Green Porno yesterday; the link led to stills from the videos. The Sundance Channel’s website has posted the videos.

Quote of the Day
has been chatting with one of our robot overlords (Did I say “overlords?” I meant “protectors.”) about an email issue. This was part of the conversation:

Robot Overlord: “I’ve sent your request on to Adam and Jamie to see if they know the right people to contact.”
: “You sent it to the Mythbusters guys!? How can they help with an email forward problem??”

He didn’t get a reply. Sad. Humorless robot overlords.

Anyway…

I just got back from lunch with SaraRules and Perry. While out, I took a couple of pieces of equipment to be exchanged for an RMA. I went to a new place to take care of this. The young lady at the store, God bless ‘er, didn’t quite understand what to do. So, what normally took about five (5) minutes to do took on the order of twenty-five. Yay. But, it’s done.

Back to the grind.

Namaste.

Sunday – 13 April 2008
The Ballroom Dance Concert, Swing, Swing, Swing!, was fun. More fun than I expected it to be.

After the concert, we came back to the apartment and watched The Last Man on Earth, the first adaptation of Richard Matheon’s I Am Legend, starring Vincent Price. Granted, it was… dated… but it was a much closer take on the story than the recent Will Smith.

Today’s been quiet and lazy. We caught the last part of Silverado… which I have never seen. Next up was Die Hard: With a Vengeance – not the greatest movie, but it has one of my favorite dialouges:

Zeus: Why do you keep calling me Jésus? Do I look Puerto Rican to you?
John McClane: Guy back there called you Jésus.
Zeus: He didn’t say Jésus. He said, “Hey, Zeus!” My name is Zeus.
John McClane: Zeus?
Zeus: Yeah, Zeus! As in, father of Apollo? Mt. Olympus? Don’t fuck with me or I’ll shove a lightning bolt up your ass? Zeus! You got a problem with that?
John McClane: No, I don’t have a problem with that.

Then the power went out. At first, we thought that it was just in the complex. Turns out that it hit a good portion of town. SaraRules, Tyler and I suspect zombie polygamist aliens as being behind it. Of course, that didn’t stop us from going to Dairy Queen for chocolate dipped cones and an Arctic Rush.

Stray Toasters

• Tonight, I’m teaching Steph how to make s’mores brownies.
• sent new pictures of Bit. You can see a few of them here.
• Charlie Daniels apparently has… an issue… with the way The Devil Went Down to Georgia is used in Guitar Hero III.
• By way of Intelligent Gamer: African Americans and the video game industry.
• Intellivision

Now, it’s time to see if I can find a workaround for getting to Paragon City.

Namaste.

Thursday – 03 April 2008
I tacked one more bar onto Nefer-Tem’s experience. Six more to Level 50.

I woke up around 7:00 this morning, but decided that consciousness wasn’t for me. I think that the head cold I’m developing may have had something to do with the “No, I don’t want to get up yet” factor, too. Either way, 8:30 felt much better.

We had an hour-and-a-half long meeting to introduce one of our new robot overlords. (Did I say “overlords?” I meant “protectors.) Then, a group of us went to Taste of Punjab for lunch. I’ll be spending the rest of the day trying to get PHP and MySQL to play nicely together on Defiant so I can make some progress on this database. Wahoo.

Stray Toasters

• I bought Twix and Butterfingers at the store last night… but neglected to bring any with me to work this morning.
• Daily Caffeine Protects Your Brain
• : I couldn’t find a video for No!, but this will hopefully suffice…
• From the “Go, Boilermakers” file: Transparent Computer Monitors? Engineers Make First ‘Active Matrix’ Display Using Nanowires
• The other night, Markin’ Time and I were talking about different possible scenarios for Marvel’s “Secret Invasion.” One of the theories he threw into the ring was that they would basically pull a “Brand New Day” scenario, using the Batch SW6 method for replacing the heroes. He posed this because he saw it as the perfect way to piss off whatever remaining fans Marvel had following Civil War and/or One More Day/Brand New Day. Damned if he wasn’t right.
• 
• How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse
  (Good information, indeed, but I think I’ll also rely on the wits/skills of SaraRules, and Tyranist to see me through.)
• I am really liking WordPress 2.5
  (“Save” is still one of my favorite functions.)
• Five Myths about Drinking Water

Back to it.

Namaste.

Friday – 28 March 2008
I don’t know what came over me, but I was completely wiped out by midnight last night. I think that I was actually in bed by 12:15 AM. And I didn’t wake up until 8:00 this morning. Egad!

At least it’s Friday, though.

After work, I made a few stops before heading home with the intent of watching CSI:… but once again, I forgot that we’re smack dab in the middle of March Madness. One of those stops was at a comic shop in West Valley. Chris had them hold a piece of plastic crack for me. A big piece of crack:

That’s right, True Believers, Galactus. 1800 points (and 19-clicks!) of world-devouring doom. I think that he’d make a nice counterpart for Phoenix. I mentioned it to Don; his comment:

“So if the regular ones are plastic crack, that one must be plastic Crystal Meth”

Yeah, I’d say that’s about right.

I also picked up Master Chief and Cortana figures from McFarlane Toys’ HALO 3 collection – as this seemed to be the only place in town that still had any of them. Not… that I’ve… looked. Much. Or anything like that.

Stray Toasters

• I baked corn muffins to go with dinner last night. I had two for breakfast this morning. They were just the right thing to kick off the day.
• SaraRules can solve a Rubik’s Cube. But, can she do it in 25 moves?
• Rock Band Rock-a-Thon – This sounds like a fun and entertaining way to raise money for the Fine Arts.
• For :

  

• Humans vs. Zombies
• Rob’s refrigerator != got milk
• BrikWars
• How to Acquire the Taste for Wine

Namaste.

Monday – 24 March 2008
Monday, Monday (dah-dah… dah-dah-dah-dah…)

All-in-all, not a bad start to the week.

• Breakfast with SaraRules, before she headed back to the southlands.
• Blue skies.
• Warm weather.

<< Rewind <<
Yesterday, we went to Easter Mass at the Cathedral of the Madeleine. I believe that this year’s service was even more crowded than last year’s, but it was still a very nice service. It was SRO… and there wasn’t very much room for standing, at that. I was intermittently amused by a lady standing near me who gave just about everyone the fashion police once-over as they walked past; she wrinkled her nose at more than “a few” people.

After Mass, we ate a late breakfast at The Other Place. I hadn’t been there in many rains. Decent food at a good price. I’ll have to remember to keep it in mind when looking for places to eat downtown.

Back home for a quick change and then we were off to “…a land where the furniture folds to a much smaller size.” I’ve been wanting to do… something… different with the office for some time. There’s a lot of dead/wasted space in there. One of the biggest things that would help would be to replace my monstrous desk. So, it’s on the short list of things to be vaporized. In its place, I’m looking at a Vika Amon table top with a Galant frame and legs. And, with a couple of relatively minor adjustments, the room will be opened up nicely.

After stopping in to say “Hi” to Perry, Kate and their kids, we headed to SaraRules’ family’s house for dinner. Dinner which included Black-and-Tans to wash it down. We followed up dinner with Enchanted. After the movie, it was time to head home to unwind (and do some laundry) before calling it a night.

> Play >
After work, I did a little errand-running.  When I was done, I stopped into the local Best Buy.  I picked up copies of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and Memento.  Not too bad.  I picked up a bite to eat and headed home.  I checked out the new Fox series New Amsterdam.  Kind of like Highlander… if Connor McLeod had been a police officer.  Connor, not Duncan.  ‘Nuff said.  But, I digress.  The show wasn’t too bad.

I followed it up with an episode of JLU that I hadn’t seen before: “Chaos at Earth’s Core,” featuring Travis Morgan – The Warlord.     I used to read The Warlord back in the 80s and this episode was a very nice nod to the Morgan and the lost world of Skartaris.

In the savage world of Skartaris,
life is a constant struggle for survival.
Here, beneath an unblinking orb of eternal
sunlight, one simple law prevails:
If you let down your guard for an instant you will soon be very dead.

They covered a lot of ground in twenty-two minutes… and it was good.  It made me smile.

Stray Toasters

• I have new pics of Bit, eyes open and all.  I may (re)post a few later.
• LEGO Futurama fan set, LEGO Noir and Mmm, zombies
• I heard Counting Crows’ Mr. Jones on the radio this evening.  When I hear it, it often reminds me of Heidi, an old coworker of mine.  Around the time that this song came out, Us3‘s Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) was also on the air.  Heidi and I would argue (friendly banter, really) about which group would stay in the charts/be more popular longer  – I chose Counting Crows, Heidi chose US3.  Looks like I was right… at least on this side of the Pond.
• Top 10 Software Easter Eggs
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!?” file: Transgendered Man Is Pregnant
• Astro City.

  

  I’ve started collecting the trade paperbacks.  If you haven’t read it, give it a shot.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that SaraRules liked it.

• Slash-Proof Armored Tee Is Lightweight, Machine-Washable

That’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Saturday – 08 March 2008
When I got home from work yesterday, SageWater was done.  Completely.  Down to the repainting.  If I hadn’t seen the holes in the walls and ceiling, I wouldn’t even know that work had been done.

Clitorati was very small last night.  Intimate, even.  But, still quite fun.

I slept poorly last night.  *shrug*

The morning started off well, though.  New episodes of LSH and The Batman… and it was the series finale of The Batman, as well.  After toons and breakfast, SaraRules and I watched last year’s college dunk competition and 3-point shootout (won, overall, by Katie Gearlds… from Purdue!) and moved some of the furniture back to their prior positions.  A few of them found new positions.  We also found a home for the artwork that I bought in Cedar last year.

Off to see Kate, Perry and the kids.  And to do some minor network maintenance.

Next up: Dinner with SaraRules’ family.

Back home for comics and TV.

Stray Toasters

• I need to pick up a new Robin to complete my original Teen Titans set.   Maybe I’ll swing by Dr. Volt’s tomorrow and pick one up.
• I’m listing my 17″ and 21″ CRTs on Craigslist tomorrow.
• Teller survives zombie uprising with conjuring and sniper rifle
• 
• Steampunk animal skull sculptures

Next on the docket: Breakfast with the usual suspects.

Zoom.

Monday – 11 February 2008
This morning started early. 5:10 AM early. And, after a night of not sleeping well, that’s pretty damned early, indeed. But, it was worth it: SaraRules and I had breakfast at Paradise Bakery & Cafe before she headed back to Cedar City. We’ve been trying to go there for a few weeks, but never managed to get there during breakfast hours. It was pretty good and not too terribly priced; more than fast food, but a bit more substantial, too. We also discovered something else: That has to be the safest place in Cottonwood Heights at 6:00 AM — there were six or seven sheriff’s deputies there. And, it’s not the first time that I’ve noticed that.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
I’m willing to bet that this has been tossed around the Internet and other media before, but it just dawned on me: Lost is basically Gilligan’s Island with more people.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules pointed out Yes We Can (by the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am) to me this weekend. Check it out.
• Barack Obama won a Grammy Award (his second) for “Best Spoken Word Album” for The Audacity of Hope. Among the nominees he beat: former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.
• shockpuppet pointed me in the direction of The Superest. Start at at the bottom and work your way up.
• 
• I don’t have incredibly high hopes for the potentially upcoming live-action Justice League movie, but I think that it’s cool that they cast Common as Green Lantern.
• I like this take on Wonder Woman, even though I’m not crazy about the sandals.
• Collateral damage.
• I picked up Across the Universe, Blazing Saddles and The Invincible Iron Man (animated) this weekend.
• Roy Scheider – possibly best known for his roles in Jaws, All That Jazz, Seaquest DSV or my favorite: Blue Thunder – died this weekend.

Quote of the Day
I received a random text message from Adam yesterday:

I’ll call you when I get back, I just set sail with the Captain.

I haven’t heard from him since. I just hope that it wasn’t one of those proverbial “three-hour tours.”

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

• I got a call from Land this afternoon. Turns out he’s still in town. We may do dinner this evening.
• Coworker DaveW mentioned The Power of Two: A Twin Triumph over Cystic Fibrosis to me this afternoon. Turns out that he grew up with the authors.
• Bug (be sure to hover over the image for “ALT” text)
• Sock Zombie: Like a Sock Monkey, but undeader
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Apple Prohibits Movie Rentals on Recent iPods
• Eight promising games for ’08
• “the return of the revenge of the son of jones”

  

• Video Games Live is coming to Utah Symphony in March. I think that this would be a lot of fun. And, I want to go.
• “Wii the people, in order to form a more perfect union…”  (Sorry.  It slipped.)
• Casas’ ballpoint pen artwork

Namaste.

Thursday: Coda
SaraRules and I headed up to Ogden this afternoon. We were going to The Bookshelf… or, if was right, to where it used to be. The store was still there. But, they are in the middle of a “quitting the business” sale. This is a shame, as it is the overall best used book store that I have found, so far, in Utah. (There’s a much smaller, but decent, store in Cedar City called Braun Books.) We went… we looked around… we bought a few things. I may head back up there in a few weeks to see what’s left and if they’ve upped the discount on merchandise; they are currently selling things for 20-25% off and up to 50% on videos (VHS). All-in-all, it was worth the trip up there… and it was nice to get out of SLC for a bit, too.

We came back to town and after an unsuccessful trip to Dr. Volt’s – the new stuff isn’t coming in until tomorrow – we had dinner at Spaghetti Mama’s. Quite good and very filling. And, we got to see Kate, though only for a couple of minutes.

Next, we met , , , Jana and Chris for I Am Legend. It was good. I knew that it had been adapted from a book of the same name, but I had forgotten that it had also been adapted twice before as a movie: The Last Man on Earth and The Omega Man. Will Smith did a very good job. And they did a very believable job of rendering “The City that Never Sleeps” into a quiet, desolate and very lonely place. I definitely recommend the movie.

Monday – 24 December 2007
Yet another reason that I appreciate :

: Are you fully armed, armored and supplied for the coming invasion tonight?
Me: Indeed
: Every year on this night the Zombie King Claus and his legion of undead come down from the north to feed.
Me: The entries are all fortified and braced.
: Or is it Klaus? hmm.

And to all, a good night…

Saturday – 15 December 2007
Last night, rather than the usual Clitorati gathering, a few of us headed to and onlyaly’s for “Nightmare before Christmas” movie night. But we didn’t watch The Nightmare Before Christmas – they were just co-opting the name to have a pre-Christmas horror movie night. Instead, we watched Alien and 28 Days Later. (And, watching onlyaly jump at the scary bits was almost as entertaining as watching the movies.)

Another lazy (so far) day in the valley. It’s not going to stay lazy though, I have errands to run and shopping to do, both online and in brick-and-mortar stores. Oh, well… no rest for the wicked. The morning has been nice, though. Despite an early morning tug from the Leash (yep, it’s once again my week to be on-call), the morning has been rather quiet. There were cartoons and coffee and SaraRules made sauteed pasta for breakfast. Today’s episode of LSH was a rerun, but The Batman was new.

Time to get a wiggle on… lots to do and whatnot.

Veni, Scribi, Vroom!
“I came, I wrote, I’m a vapor trail!”

Namaste.