Random Access

Thursday: Coda
After staying at work far too late in the day, I escaped Happy Valley to run a few errands. Then… home. While I was mulling over what to pick up while grocery shopping, I had an epiphany: I had a few bratwurst left over from last weekend. That would make an exemplary dinner. And it did… along with some fries and one of the last Samuel Adams Summer Ales that lj user=”jennae” bequeathed to me.

While eating dinner, I watched the season premieres of Legion of Super Heroes and The Batman.

I was duly impressed.

Where Season 1 of LoSH was fairly light in tone, this one captured the dark mood of war against Imperiex, seen for the first time in the DCAU; he was last seen in the mainstream DCU a few years back, as a would-be galaxy conqueror in the “Our Worlds at War” crossover maxi-series. In the LoSH toon, he is standing in for Darkseid as the new threat the survival of Earth and the human race. Enter… Superman? But, not the Superman we have come to know. This Superman, cloned from the DNA of the original, comes from the war-torn 41st Century, a time ravaged by Imperiex and his forces. From what I’ve read, this season will span the 31st and 41st Centuries with the Legion and two Supermen leading the fight against Imperiex.

Next up: The Batman. This episode introduced Superman, Lex Luthor, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen to this version of the Batman mythos. Metallo, the man with the Kryptonite heart, even put in an appearance. It was interesting to watch this episode as I mentally juxtaposed it with 1986’s The Man of Steel #3, in which the post-Crisis Superman first met Batman. There was a lack of trust between the two, even though they were working the same case. And I still think that the model that they are using for Clark Kent was based, even loosely, on Brandon Routh.

And, both episodes were “Part 1 of 2,” so we’ll see how the stories conclude.

Stray Toasters

• I may polish off another bag o’ spun sugar confection tonight.
• Hand Soap
• 
• Preschoolers’ Feelings – a Flickr photoset.
• Salt Lick Art
• The Defuser, winner of the second season of Who Wants to be a Superhero, is a City of Heroes player. Go figure. The folks at CoH/CoV even congratulated him on his win. 🙂
  

And that will do it for tonight.

Namaste.

The inbound commute was relatively painless. There was a PoW monkey that I got stuck behind from Lehi to just shy of my exit, but she was able to intermittently find the skinny vertical pedal with her right foot, so I didn’t have to run her off the road. (Although the temptation was there a couple of times…)

Stray Toasters

• Happy Birthday to

  

• By way of : “Sabbasattā bhavantu sukhitattā” — May all beings without exception be happy — Metta Sutta
• By way of : World Clock – “…shows current statistical figures for world population, births, deaths, deforestation, and much more.”
• NASA’s Dawn takes off for asteroid belt
• By way of Eric: Picture of the Day
• Happy SGN Thursday to !
• From the “Nucular Toonami” file: First New Nuclear Power Plant in US in 30 Years
• 
• I’m sorry, but whenever I think about this article, my first thoughts are either:
  • Take the Lobster-heads Bowling
  • Take the Skin-suits Bowling
• LEGO Millennium Falcon goes on sale

Quote of the Day
The following was sent to me in a text message, it was the perfect way to start an NBN Thursday:

May the crabs of a thousand whores infest the crotch of the person who fucks up your day and may their arms be too short to scratch.

Namaste.

Wednesday: Coda / Thursday – 27 September 2007
Three down, two to go.

I cleared – or at least did some damage to – a few items on my task list today. Productivity = good. I had lunch with Jason (coworker) and Perry at Tres Hombres. It was a little more than I had planned on spending for lunch… especially since I had taken a lunch with me today, but it was good.

As I was winding up the day, Land called and asked if I was free this evening. I was, and told him to swing by the apartment and we could go in search of food-type items. We wound up at Cafe Rio. Dinner and a good conversation later, I wandered over to Office Depot to replace my broken architect’s scale. And then, on to Barnes & Noble, to introduce Land to Way of the Peaceful Warrior. He had heard of, but not seen, the movie; I told him that it was worth the price to purchase the book. He did. Mission: Accomplished.

When I checked the mail, there was a package from my father. Ô.õ I opened it to find sections from The Baltimore Sun about Cal Ripken, Jr.’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. There was also a letter in the package. An old letter. 30+ years-old old. And some note card-sized sketches. I didn’t quite get the gist of what they were for… so I called home. Dad said that they were ideas that he and a former coworker of my mother’s had come up with as a proposal for a set of stationery/seals with patriotic themes. They never really did anything with them, but he thought that I might be able to find a use for them. How cool is that?

Stray Toasters

• I still have four bags of cotton candy.
• A word and a movie
• 50 Years of ‘West Side Story’
• 26
• Titan missile silo for sale
• Wizard First Look: Millar and Hitch’s Fantastic Four
  
• 
• Why women read more than men
• A year of following all the rules in The Bible
• From the “Things We Don’t Need” file: NBC Revs Up New Knight
• Kurt Busiek on “The Third Kryptonian” and more
• …and, since we’re on the topic of Superman: Incoming: All-Star DC figures

And, with that… bed.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 26 September 2007
Yesterday was pretty good, all the way around. No real problems. I had to demonstrate my technopathic abilities to a new coworker. And, I had cotton candy. How can you beat a combination like that? You can’t.

Yesterday’s workout was good, too. My sets of 215 (10 – 10 – 9 and a reverse) were decent. My pull-ups (the exercise, not the training pants) are getting better, too: I did two-and-a-half sets (10 pull-ups, each) with no assistance. That’s a nice – and noticeable – improvement. And then, there were the side bends. *urk* Good for the obliques… in theory. I woke up this morning to pain, which is pretty normal the day after doing side bends. I keep trying to convince myself “It’s good training” and “It builds character.”

Last night was zombie-killin’ game night. We came. We saw. We dropped grenades and retreated made a hasty advance to the rear. We lived, which is a good thing… but we returned to base tas it was about to be overrun by the Chaos-infused armies of the damned. Yeah, we are screwed. Who wants to live forever?

Stray Toasters

• I talked with Adam yesterday. He pre-ordered the limited edition of Halo 3. *genuflect* And, as with almost all of the limited edition copies, his was scratched beyond the ability to be played.
• Thirty-eight degrees. That ain’t right.
• Back to the Future: Shooter talks Legion of Super-Heroes
• I’m nearly done reading V for Vendetta. I like the graphic novel, but I can appreciate the cuts that were made in the screenplay. They were necessary, to fit time constraints, and didn’t detract (too much) from the overall story.
• List of the “World’s Weirdest/Stupidest Conspiracy Theories”
• 
• Oliver Sacks explains how your brain does music
• Okay… you’re the Master of the Mystic Arts, do you really need to peep in on women in tanning booths to get your jollies?

Time to go “politely explain” why my someone needs to come take a look at/fix my furnace -  today – to the lovely ladies in the leasing office.  *sigh*  No rest for the wicked, I tell ya.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 25 September 2007
Last night, I stopped by to hang out with Perry and the kids. We watched Jeff Dunham: Spark of Insanity. Very funny.

called and asked if I had plans for the evening. She invited me to join her and Pat at Jitterbug for coffee.

Sidebar: I’m going to take a moment to toss out a/yet another friendly word out Jitterbug:

Jitterbug Coffee Hop
1855 South 700 East
SLC, UT 84105

Stop in, say hi to Bruce and get a cup of coffee, chai or a smoothie.
Have a sandwich, while you’re at it.

You can check out the menu here.

I told her I’d be there. The three of us sat around and shot the bull for a couple of hours… including an hour and change past the shop’s closing. Bruce came over and chatted with us for about the last hour-and-a-half.

Home again, home again. Jiggety-jig. I put together the second nightstand. It went considerably faster than the first one. While assembling it, I kept thinking: “I have a drill; why do I need a screwdriver?!”

Stray Toasters

• I have five bags of cotton candy.
• It’s 33° outside. Thirty-three. I call “bullshit.”
• Semaphore
• It’s Clobberin’ Time!
• From Wired‘s Games Without Frontiers: Halo 3 Balances Hot New Guns, Old-School Cool
• 
• Jonathan Coulton: Zombie-Fighting Troubadour
• What is your favorite article of clothing that you own?
• Steam-Driven Dreams: The Wondrously Whimsical World of Steampunk
• Steampunk Magazine #3
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” file: Furries vs. Klingons bowling tournament this Saturday in Atlanta.

Time to hit the road and face the day.

Namaste.

Monday – 24 September 2007
You know that the week can only get better when you nearly launch yourself out of bed as the morning alarm goes off. And, yes, I do mean “launch.” I don’t usually have a problem with simply reaching over and turning it off. This morning…? I have no idea.

Other than that, the morning prep went fairly easily. I had the forethought of checking weather.com to get an idea of what to wear. It was in the mid 40s. Mid. Forties. *sigh* It’s too damn early in the year.

City of Heroes/Villains: Dhoruba
That’s right, … I took a trip to the Rogue Isles with the gay Mr. T. 😛

had Giroux and his mob o’ zombies running around Sharkhead Island and took me on as a lackey. We ran a mayhem/bank heist mission. I remembered how much I hate rent-a-cops and Longbow (at least on this side of the CoH/V line…) I also remembered how badly I need to get Mr. Dhoruba to level 14 so that I can get a decent travel power. Fortunately, I’m about halfway there… minus some debt.

Stray Toasters

• My left eye (not to be confused with My Left Foot) is being… bothersome… today. So much so that I’m actually wearing my glasses.
• One bedside table down, one to go.
• Superman: Doomsday review, from Comic2Film’s SuperNaut (chock full of spoilers)
• Taxicabs and the ‘bot.
• Copyright and tattoos: Who owns your skin?
• Simpsons scenes and their movie references
• Take a look at this picture of Clark Kent from this weekend’s episode of The Batman. Is it just me or does it look like they tried to make him look a bit like Brandon Routh’s Clark, from Superman Returns? (more stills from the episode)
• Poster of recommended and forbidden words for Chinese store clerks
• 
• Ass-kicking, watercooled steampunk PC

/lunch

Namaste.

Sunday – 23 September 2007
Another weekend draws to a close.

Sara got here as I was winding down cleaning mode yesterday. I finished up and we hung out for a bit before heading to and onlyaly’s, where I met (again, I think) ‘s mom, a very nice woman. I watched as introduced Chris to the joys of the liquor cabinet; I wonder what his head felt like this morning or if she was kind enough to tell him to drink lots of water before hitting the rack. All-in-all, ’twas a good bit of fun. By the way, : Who made that Merlot and the Shiraz?

This morning started lazily, as any good Sunday should. I called Perry to see what he and the family-unit were up to and tossed out the idea of meeting for coffee; he liked the idea and the day was set in motion. Introduced Sara to Perry, Kate and company. It was amusing to watch as the baby nearly leaped out of her high chair to jump into Sara’s lap. Followed very shortly thereafter by the middle boy. We hung out and chatted for a while…

…and when we left, I decided that it was time for a trip to CompUSAirways. I walked out empty-handed, although I was tempted to pick up a few items. One of the items was new memory for Intrepid, since I lobotomized it to up ‘Nine‘s memory. Something told me to hold off a bit, so I did. Then I saw the recently-reduced-in-price Mac mini. Mmmmm, Apple-y goodness. Again, I resisted. I also held off on a set of PC speakers and a secondary iPod speaker system.

From there, it was off to see if one of the seventy-leven area Barnes & Noble stores had a copy of The Prophet of Akhrahn. They didn’t have it. *shakes fist* I know that I saw it in one of their local stores around, I just have to remember which one it was.

Next on the docket: Follow-up ride up Emigration Canyon to see the foliage. There were more hints of reddish tones, but it still hasn’t changed much. It might be a little more vibrant in another week or so. Back down Parley’s and on to Jitterbug for lunch…. where we ran into Spydr and Uriah. Pleasant surprise, that.

Back home. I asked Sara’s opinion on the frames from yesterday’s Garden of Sweden excursion, since I was 50-50 on the matter. She thought the black one looked good with the pictures. I’ll probably wind up exchanging the silver frame for another black one. (And I still need to assemble the bedside tables.) Since, as lj user=”everydave” is fond of saying, I have the metabolism of a ferret on crack, I started getting hungry a short while later, so I started cooking dinner. And, I went at it in a two-birds-one-stone fashion: I grilled chicken thighs and then added some stir-fry vegetables to the pan and fixed rice in chicken broth, while I baked a couple of chicken breasts. Dinner. Lunch. Dinner(s) later in the week. Hoo-AH! Sara headed back to Cedar shortly after dinner…. and the bedside tables have still not taken the initiative to magically assemble themselves.

Football Update

• – Beat the Cardinals. At home. Selah.
• – Took it to the Hawks… in Atlanta.
• – Beat down the Lions. ‘Grats, !
• – Dropped one to the Sea-chickens.
• – Lost to the Raiders. The Raiders! C’mon, , what’s up with that?!
• – Lost to the Chiefs. Sorry, .
• – Scalped the Redskins. ‘Grats, !

Stray Toasters

• I just made a pretty damned good coffee milkshake. Then I spilled it all over the kitchen counter. *grblsnrkx*
• I just made another pretty damned good coffee milkshake. I did not spill this one all over the kitchen counter.
• “Madlessly.” I think this is my new favorite word.
• 
• Dr Volt’s is now open… on… Sunday?!
• “What’s a Nubian?” (NSFW)
• “Shower foul.”
• Someone with way too much free time compiled a list of Legion Action Figures., including HeroClix… although not all of the ‘Clix have been added, yet.
• Naomi Wolf on Colbert Report: 10 Steps to Fascism
• 
• From Worth 1000: Fake It Till You Make It
• HOW TO: Bleach-Stencil a Shirt
• Tyranist: Shaun of the Dead will be The Tower’s midnight movie on 12-13 October 2007.

Since the bedside tables don’t have the gumption to assemble themselves, I guess I’m going to have to do it.

Namaste.

Saturday – 22 September 2007
The day’s been good… and nominally productive.

I started the day off over coffee with and Perry and his kids. From there, it was off to run a few errands – including a trip to the Garden of Sweden. *genuflect* I went with the intention of getting a couple of bedside tables and wound up picking up frames for a couple of my railroad pictures.

And that’s when a problem reared its ugly head: I had originally thought that I’d just get black frames for the pictures; when I got to the store, I saw some pretty snazzy metal frames. I liked the metal frames because they might add to the retro look of the railroad pics – the pics are of trains from the early to mid-20th Century.

Conundrum.

I compromised: I got one of each. I will see which looks better with the pictures and proceed from there.

And now, it’s time to deal with the ugly beast known as “cleaning” so that I can chill for the rest of the day and weekend.

…and I even remembered (although, just barely) to record the season premiere of Legion of Super Heroes. Go, me!

Namaste.

Sweet, sweet plastic goodness…

Wait…

Sweet, sweet, expensive plastic goodness…

Yes. Much better.

• Motorized Walking AT-AT
• Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon
• Imperial Star Destroyer
  

Yes, they would go nicely on the Covet List.

Happy Birthday to !

I hope that you have a wonderful day!

Cheers!

The Best: Under the Boardwalk
The Drifters vs. Bruce Willis with The Drifters vs. Rockapella with True Image

The Drifters.  No contest.

However… there is one version that I didn’t list that always brings a smile to my face: This one.  I just wish that I could find a video of it.

Stray Toasters

• Alexandra and her Uppity Bitch Stick
• Darth Grom
• Yar!
  • Revenge!
  • Tasha!
  • Ishara!
• 
• Fates of real-life advertising icons
• By way of Bunny: IKEA – universal furnishings

Back to it.

Happy Birthday to !

Have a fantastic day!

All the best to you.

Friday – 21 September 2007
It’s Friday. Which means that the end (of the week, that is) is in sight. That’s a beautiful thing.

I had a couple of weird dreams this morning. One of them had a few friends and me examining/exploring a house, for reasons that I’m sure only make sense in dreams. The house had an odd architectural feature on the second floor: There was a huge, open-to-the-first floor gap in the floor between the landing at the top of the stairs and the master bedroom. I tried to leap the gap and check out the master bedroom… and underestimated the distance.  I landed on a ledge, but still about 10-12 feet above the first floor.  It took me a few seconds to realize, “This is only a dream” and wake myself up.

Stray Toasters

• Rolling Rock may have the mysterious “33” on their bottles, but I’ll take the enigmatic “36” right now.
• I may have to stop for a cup of frozen mocha goodness this morning.  And maybe even… a bagel.

Zoom.

Thursday: Coda
After work, I met Mary, Chris, and for tonight’s entertainment: Resident Evil: Extinction. Yep. Zombies-a-go-go. And Milla Jojovich beating ’em down. It wasn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, Oscar-fare, but it was a nice way to spend an evening with friends. And, it was fun.

After the movie, Nox, Lavynder and I headed to one of the local Sampan restaurants for a late dinner. The food and company were good, as was the conversation.

Stray Toasters

• Another glass of chocolate milk might be in order this evening.
• posted about her mother’s passing last year. It reminded me that my grandmother died four years ago, this past Monday. Last week, while moving things from LJ to WordPress, I took another look at the post I did on that day. It occurred to me that I hadn’t shown it my father; so I printed it out and sent it to him. He messaged me over the weekend to let me know that he received it… and liked it. That made me smile, although I felt a little bad about having not shared it with him before now.
• posted a link to the following video:
  
• …I cringe and pretend like it won’t peel paint.
• Acolyte Derek pointed me in the direction of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. I am amused.
  
  

Anything else can wait until after the sun has put in an appearance.

Namaste.

Stray Toasters

• I checked my mail this morning, on a whim. (Mostly because I couldn’t remember whether I checked it yesterday…) I’m glad that I did – there was a letter waiting in there that made for a great start to the morning.
• Sara posed an interesting – and somewhat unusual – question last night: “What is your favorite texture?”
  My counter was “Tactile or other, such as ‘food texture,’ for example?”
  “Tactile.”
  So, I started thinking about it. The one that I’ve come up with so far is: Skin. It is common and similar… yet it can also be so varied: rough, smooth, calloused, pitted, wrinkled.
• Last night, I continued my reading of the graphic novel V for Vendetta, on which the movie was based. I had the iPod playing in the living room. I was reading the scene where Evey is being tortured in “prison” and Madonna’s Die Another Day started playing. It reminded me of the opening scenes of Die Another Day (the movie), where Bond is being tortured in time with the song.
• Along those same lines, I had forgotten that the fight between the pirates and Prince Septimus’ guard in Stardust had been choreographed against Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld (“Can-Can”), until seeing the movie again this past weekend.
• By way of CNet: Blocking memorable scenes with LEGOs
• The drive-time commute included Van Halen’s Dreams. I like the video for the song, it features the Navy’s Blue Angels. The song started playing just as I was coming to the summit of I-15 on Traverse Mountain. When I looked to my left, there were paragliders floating around the ridge. Sure, they aren’t F/A-18 Hornets, but the overall effect was good enough for me.
• , Comics2Film has a few stills from the upcoming season of Legion of Super Heroes.
• If you haven’t heard about Warner Brothers upcoming adaptation of New Frontier (1, 2), a graphic novel by Darwyn Cooke, check out this teaser/preview.
• Tonight, God willing and the creek don’t rise, I’m going to a preview of Resident Evil: Extinction. Zombies!!!

Quote of the Day
I responded to a department email with lyrics from Working in a Coal Mine, by Lee Dorsey:

Working in the coal mine
Going down down down
Working in the coal mine
Whoop about to slip down

This was the IM response I received from :

(10:38:03 AM) : Oh LORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD.
(10:38:12 AM) : I am SO TIRED.
(10:38:20 AM) : 🙂
(10:38:21 AM) : How long can this GO ON?
(10:38:41 AM) : Good morning, Mr. B.
(10:38:53 AM) : (ps- damn you for getting that song stuck in my head this early.)
(10:39:07 AM) : Could have been worse.
(10:39:13 AM) : I could have gone with Sixteen Tons.
(10:39:15 AM) : …or…
(10:39:20 AM) : The Pina Colada Song.
(10:39:21 AM) : 😀
(10:39:24 AM) : eh, sixteen tons wouldn’t have been…. FUCK YOU

Back to it.