Random Access

Thursday – 03 May 2007
Down to the hours now.

Someone asked if it’s hard being at work, knowing that I’m going to be on the Right Coast tomorrow morning.  Nope.  It’s not.  “SSDD,” as my father would say.  Just another day in Paradise… this is the Land of Zion, after all.

Yesterday ended quietly.  Me, sitting at home… avoiding packing through modern technology.  That’s right, boys and girls: City of Heroes.  More importantly, Issue 9: Breakthrough went live yesterday.  There are now crafting skills and auction houses in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles.  So, the Hand of Nefer-Tem went to the University to learn about making new toys.  I still need to take Corvus Nox and Indi through the course, but that will wait until next week.

After leaving Paragon City, I decided to distract myself with a little poker.  That was a joke.  My game was off.  Way off.  Far enough off to be measured in astronomical units.  It wasn’t pretty.  Fortunately, the Fates decided to stop using me as their whipping boy and show me a little favor.  Things turned around.  Quickly.  I decided to stop while I was ahead.

Then, I packed.  Zaz!

I also wound up at The Clone’s V.I. last night.  This time, she was there.  It took her a moment to recognize/remember who I was – you could almost see the disk access light blinking.

Stray Toasters

• I had I Don’t Need Anything But You, from Annie, running through my head a little while ago.  I don’t know why.
• News about Jon Favreau’s upcoming Iron Man movie here and first look at the official site here.
• Redirect your animal instincts with a French letter
• From boingboing.net – Petition to restore habeas corpus
• 
• Design a Counterstrike mod, get expelled from school
• So, maybe he wasn’t quite as tarnished as we were led to believe: A look at the upcoming Booster Gold series from Wizard.
• Cover art from 52: Week Fifty-Two… which makes a nice bookend piece with the art from 52: Week One
• For , and – Faces of Guitar Heroes

Namaste.

There was no way that I could not post…
I couldn’t not…
I had to…

Oh, Hell… just click: LOLTrek.

By way of Derek:

1. Hi, I’m a Marvel… and I’m a DC
2. Social Networking (from The John Stewart Show)

And, at no extra cost to you: A non-sequitur, out-of-context Stray Toaster

• A steampunk crocodile, a giant fly swatter and Kenneth Branagh

And that’s that.

Wednesday – 02 May 2007
Yesterday wound up being a fairly quiet day at work.  Not about to complain on that score.  The lunchtime workout was good; Eric and I decided to do some exercises that we don’t usually/often do.  “Good training… Builds character.”  Of course, in the words of Mary Prankster: “I’ve built up so much character, I’ve got an alter-ego.”

Post-work, being both hungry and lazy, I fixed spaghetti for dinner.  Simple and quick.  And I still had sauce left over from last week, so that was easily taken care of.  The night wrapped up with and I watching a couple more episodes of The West Wing‘s second season.
Stray Toasters

• I have discovered a new amusement:
  
• For , Tyranist and whomever esle is interested: The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft
• Note to Self:  Convince Don and/or William that Sunday evening would be the perfect time to see Spider-Man 3…
  
• By way of : Paleo-Future
• David Oakes’ LEGO Art Page (check out the gallery)…
• …which included a dead link to Dennis Chidley’s old LEGO figure page.  However, Google was able to find a new URL for Mr. Chidley’s handicraft.
• An American Pantheon
• 
• I will be out of town for Free Comic Book Day… but I sent an email to my local purveyor of four-color crack and asked that some of the event’s free titles be placed in my hold box for pick-up when I return.
• Counting Crows – Hanginaround

Zoom!

Namaste.

…oh, never mind.

Just click.

• Item One
• Item Two

Tuesday – 01 May 2007
Last night’s D&D game set many wheels in motion.  We finally remembered to ask some of the important questions that we had neglected.  We also made some decent in-roads to accomplishing some of the major campaign items that have been looming over our heads for months.  And, we didn’t get eaten by a dragon.

Stray Toasters

• Note to Self: Call Bret.  Today.
• Justice League: Countdown – an animated parody of DC’s Identity Crisis
• Since won’t play along when I say “Mahna Mahna…”
• Big Mac, Filet-o-Fish
  Quarter Pounder, French fries
  Icy Coke, thick shakes
  Sundaes and apple pies!
• Dell wil pre-install Ubuntu Linux
• 
• Steampunk Mouse
• The Refreshments – Banditos
• Wizkids is showing more of the upcoming Legion of Super-Heroes HeroClix set.  They’re going with the v5 Legion, to boot!
• – Catwoman Vinyl Statue
• Date Night – Nightwing and Batgirl, by way of the Comics2Film DCG
• Tyranist, this one is a fastball down the plate for you: Three screams for these stars
• USPS Star Wars Stamp Pre-Orders

Namaste.

A couple of quick things that have put a smile on my face:

1. I have a Blow-Pop.  (And, I have more in my desk drawer!)
2. There are no ordinary moments.

That’s it.

As you were.

Monday – 30 May 2007
And so, another week begins.

Fortunately, it’s a short week… and a week that will end with me on the Right Coast – Kris (Sib3) graduates from law school this weekend.  Of course, that also means that it will be a busy weekend.  Oh, well… no rest for the wicked.

Yesterday, I made it to the second game of Patryck’s double-header.  The umpire was ludicrously inconsistent with his calls – one pitch would be a ball; another, in the same spot would be a strike.  It wasn’t pretty.  But, Patryck’s team won, so I guess that’s all that really matters in the long run.  After that, I stopped in to see and Matt.  Enchiladas!  Homemade enchiladas, at that!  TASTY homemade enchiladas, even.  Then, home to take care of a few things… including making a mess of my kitchen, because it’s much better to pour rice all over the stove and floor than into the pot of near-boiling broth.  *sigh*

Stray Toasters

• I just caught myself humming the theme to Spider-Man.  The 60’s cartoon theme, that is.
• The Spidey saga suits Sam Raimi
• I’m still taking suggestions for the next lyrics-to-drawing and webcomic I should be reading.
• How the Internet took over
  (“Skynet is now online…”)
• Tyranist is/was right: There are no more – or at least very few – big surprises in comics anymore.  Publishers just seem to give away the big reveals… sometimes, even before the series is released.  Although, I will admit that DC has done a good job of leaving some mysteries in 52.
• Pro-coffee tee tweaks Mormon Church, Church responds with trademark threat
• I unintentionally started a mini-flame war yesterday.
  …and then fiddled while Rome burned.
• One more day until Snakes & Arrows is released.  Officially.
• The Black Crowes – Sometimes Salvation
• I am actually starting to look forward to Jon Favreau’s Iron Man.  Weird.
• I am looking forward to Spider-Man 3 and FF2.
• Other Heroes: African-American comics creators, characters and archetypes

Namaste.

Sunday – 29 April 2007
Coffee…? Check.
Honey Bunches of Oats…? Check.
Interweb connection…? Check.

Let’s get this thing moving, then.

So far, it’s been a quiet morning. I’ve been up a little longer than I would have expected – since a little before 9 AM. Yet, miraculously, I haven’t done much. Oh, sure, I have observed the rituals d’hygiene and made a pot of coffee, but other than that…? Bupkis. And I’m okay with that.

I’ll be getting out of here shortly to check out Patryck’s team play some baseball. That will get me out in the sunshine for a while. Gotta work on getting a good base for my tan, after all. Beyond that, I’m not sure what kind of trouble I’m going to get into. But I’m pretty sure that I can find something.

Stray Toasters

• For the first time in a LONG while, I actually went top-to-bottom through the list of webcomics in my bookmarks… and read them all. I need to eighty-six Megatokyo, I think. I haven’t read it with any regularity in at least six months. On the converse, I need to go back and fill in the gaps in my The Gods of Ar-Kelaan reading. The Tao of Geek? Hit or miss.If anyone has a suggestion of a good webcomic that I should check out, please let me know.
• From the City Paper: Social Studies: “Ho Down” and The Cool of Birth
• May the Farce Be With You – a look at the upcoming Robot Chicken/George Lucas collaboration
• Silly song? Yeah… maybe.
  Silly video? Yeah.
  But, damn and a half if I still don’t like Walk the Dinosaur. It makes me bum wiggle.
• OldSuperstitions.com – The Largest List of Superstitions on the Web
• By way of The Guardian Unlimited: Fascist America, in 10 easy steps
• Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! is coming to Salt Lake City in June. Details here.
• To seek the sacred river Alph
  To walk the caves of ice
  To break my fast on honeydew
  And drink the milk of Paradise…
• Steampunk guitar
• From the “Things that make you go ‘Hmmm’ ” file: Satan responsible for illegal immigration, saysUtah delegate

Out-of-Context Quote of the Day

: You don’t need lube for grab-ass.

Namaste.

This post is going to be full of comic-related items – and a few other things – so, if that’s not your particular cup of tea, roll on.

• Two words: The Brood.
  Five more words: “I think I covet this.”
  Additionally, Tyranist thinks that X-Men 4: The Brood would be a good idea.  I agree… as long as they don’t let Brett Ratner helm it.  When I asked him who should direct, he said, “[Bryan] Singer.”  When I mentioned that I thought that Mr. Singer’s plate is a little full at the moment, he suggested Joss Whedon.
• For and Tyranist: Zombie Stilts
• Zeroes
• 18 September 2007.  That’s the release date for Superman: Doomsday (trailer), the animated adaptation of “The Death and Return of Superman,” from the early 1990s.  Given a couple of scenes in the trailer, I don’t know how – if at all – this is supposed to tie in with the rest of the DCAU; hopefully, that will be answered in time.
• And since I’m on the subject of Superman: How It Should Have Ended Comics: “Frustration“
• For , and : “I challenge you!”
• From Campbell’s Condensed Newspaper – First Look: Downey forges a bond with Iron Man role
• ::: INTERMISSION :::
• Who is Ronin?
• Derek: Do you know anything about Matt and Kim?
• Peter the Pirate Squid
• Fruit snacks!
• Gail Simone talks about Wonder Woman and Birds of Prey

And that’s a wrap… for now.

Namaste.

Saturday – 28 April 2007
“Sundown”

It’s both the name of a Gordon Lightfoot song and today’s episode of Legion of Super Heroes. But, since this is my blog – and it’s a Saturday morning – it’s a fair bet that this post will have very little to do with the song (even though it is a pretty decent song).

This was the first of a two-part episode. It opened strongly, with the Legion taking on the Fatal Five… and getting trounced. While newly-elected leader Bouncing Boy is still reeling from this, an emergency alert is broadcast: The Legion is called to a weapons depot to keep a weapon from being released. No one, not even the guards, know what the weapon is; they just know that it can’t get out. The LSH arrives on the scene and searches for the weapon – which is trying to break free of the facility. Artificial intelligence, go figure. After the weapon goes a couple of rounds with various Legionnaires, Brainiac 5 identifies it: A sun-eater. The sun-eater breaks free and begins a journey towards a nearby star to feed. One problem: It’s a red star, meaning that Superman will be powerless. Undaunted, the LSH pursues and takes on the sun-eater again. The fight was well-choreographed and the characterizations were pretty solid, too. We also got to see Sun Boy in action – for the first time that I’m aware of.

The conclusion airs next week; the previews show a LOT of LSH-related characters engaging the even more-power sun-eater.

As long-time Legion fans know, the sun-eater crisis also involved the death of a Legionnaire: Ferro Lad. In the original comic story, Superboy was going sacrifice himself to detonate a bomb in the sun-eater’s core. He was subdued by Ferro Lad, who carried the bomb to the sun-eater. I will be interested to see if the next episode follows through with this and, if so, how they will treat it.

Long Live the Legion!

…and I don’t mean the Mormon Pope, either.

Good work and good scouting to Derek for pointing this out.

His Chocolate Holiness,
Pope Groovalicious

Friday – 27 April 2007
This is it.  The end of the week.  Amen.

So far, the day’s going fairly well.  I am thinning out the blood in my caffeinestream.  I didn’t have to wrangle road monkeys – PoW or otherwise – this morning.  There were people paragliding off Traverse Mountain.  And it’s been quiet here at the ranch.
I spent a portion of last night hanging with Kate, Perry and the kids.  It was a nice way to wind down after work.  Then I went home and vegged.  And it was good.  I even managed to catch the rare and elusive online; we chatted for a bit.  She makes me laugh… even if she did say that the outfit that I (currently) have Dhoruba in makes him look like a gay Mr. T.

Winged Justice
After that, I took Corvus Nox to Paragon City.

You know it’s hard out there for a pimp Level 10 hero.  I couldn’t find anyone from my supergroup online, so it took some time to find a team.  I was invited to join a group for missions in The Hollows.  My big complaint about The Hollows: They expect low level characters to run – RUN – across the zone to a mission… and avoid higher-level bad guys in the process… and not die.  *sigh*  Or in my case: Hover.  We had a member with teleport for one of the missions, that was a boon.  WHen he left, however… it was back to hover-ifficness.  Wa.  Hoo.
The team – actually “teams” – I was on was/were good.  I was worried in a couple of cases because we were heavy with Tankers and Defenders… and only one blaster, at one point.  Typically, you want to have a well-rounded team – especially one with members who can do some ranged damage, hence my concern.  I shouldn’t have been quite so worried – we did pretty well.  Yes, we died a few times, but not as frequently as I had originally feared.

I even managed to add a couple more levels and make it to Security Level 12 before I logged out.

Stray Toasters

• I am craving something.  I think it’s cotton candy.
• Why isn’t the new Legion set of ‘Clix out yet?!?  Oh, wait… it’s not June.  *sigh*
• Super-Ventriloquism.  This may actually push Hover out of the “second most-stupid superpower ever” slot.   Tyranist disagrees; he thinks it is the – and I quote – “Worst. Power. Ever.”
• Speaking of Tyranist, he introduced me to a song from EuroTrip called Scotty Doesn’t Know.  It cracked me up.  Even worse: About halfway through the song, I started picturing Cyclops as the Scotty in the song… and Jean and Logan as Fiona and the lead singer.  That made me laugh even more.
• 301 Useless Facts (not all of which have been verified, so take them with a grain of salt)
  I found these most interesting: 11, 20, 29, 37, 49, 53, 92, 104, 111, 117, 124, 126, 145, 149, 168, 175, 176, 179, 183, 204, 246, 256 and 289.
• By way of Wired: Is ‘Internet Normal’ the New ‘Sex Normal’?
• – Jack Valenti dies at 85
• I was able to find (because I finally remembered to look for) the long video for Janet Jackson’s Alright, featuring Heavy D.
• Chuck Berry’s My Ding-A-Ling makes me laugh.  And sing along.  Every time.
• The 52 Most Important Video Games of All Time

Back to it.

Namaste.

Wrapping up Suit Week with a bang.
Black suit, the black shades, the black shoes
Black tie with the black attitude
New style black ray bans I’m stunning man
New hotness pitch black 600 hundred man

(click for full-sized image)

Show love to the black suit tux…
Cause that’s the Men in…
That’s the Men in…

Wednesday: coda
I spent more time than I really care to admit trying to bend the Wireless Network Connection settings in MicroSquish Vista to my will… and that of ‘s network.  I swear, setting that thing up was like going around your ass to scratch your nose.  I finally got it set up… I think.  Of course, I thought that I had it set up once… and it wound up dropping the connection a short while later.  *braincramp*   I need to take some time and tinker with Vista more.  But it will be a long while before it winds up on any of my boxes as the standard OS.  I may be getting a chocolate cake out of the deal, too.  That ain’t bad.

After Vista-aerobics, I hung out with Liz for coffee.  Unfortunately, B&B was closed so I had to fall back on one of the local embassies of the Seattle Coffee Empire.  Beggars.  Choosers.
Thursday is the last day of Suit Week… because we can’t justify suits on Friday.  Not that we really need to justify them, but we’re talking Friday.  If ever there was a “not a suit day” day, it’s Friday.  So, to cap off Suit Week: Tuxedos.  And, we even talked one of our other coworkers into joining us.  Yowza!
Stray Toasters

• I am taking suggestions for lyrics to use as the basis for my next few drawings.
• I also need to make some time to get in some freehand drawrin’ practice with my Wacom.
• For some reason, Signe – the opening track from Eric Clapton: Unplugged – is running through my head.
• 
• …and we’ll throw in a “Felgercarb,” at no extra charge!
• By way of Slashdot: How Wii Is Creaming the Competition
• 
• , this one’s for you: Amateur Batman movie destined to become cult favorite
• “I… I… I… want the knife!”   *spin prayer wheel*
• – Australia bans Snoop Dog
• Tom’s Diner, the way it was meant to be… and with an introduction by Suzanne Vega

Namaste.