Union Pacific's Great Excursion Adventure

Jan 16

“Attack the day like birds of prey…”

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Tuesday – 16 January 2007
And so, the work week begins.

This morning’s fight with the road monkeys wasn’t bad. Traffic flowed pretty well. NPR’s Morning Edition kept me company. And, despite the onset of an inversion, it was a sunny day. Not at all bad for a “Monday.”

The weekend, on the whole, was good. I…

  • …had a good time at Clitorati. Jason (a coworker), his wife and one of their kids joined us. Hopefully, they’ll come back again.
  • …slept in Saturday morning and then met Perry for coffee.
  • …picked up this week’s four-color crack. I also picked up X-Wing and Y-Wing miniatures from the new Star Wars collectible game. The clerk even threw in four minifigs from the SW Miniatures game.
  • …looked at some furniture (and came to the realization that some people on commission sales don’t quite grok the concept of “Leave the potential customer alone…”)
  • …finally picked up Rush in Rio and Marvel Ultimate Alliance
  • …introduced to Rush, by way of the aforementioned RiR, and to the joy that is 24.
  • …played a few hours’ worth of Utlimate Alliance with Chris.
  • …patrolled Paragon City, cleaning up the criminal element.

…and just had an all-around good and restful weekend.

The High-Flying Adventures of Indigo Bolt –
While fighting crime in Paragon City yesterday, a funny thing happened…

I hit Security Level 50.

It was a good feeling when I went to Luminary, to train up to my new level and she said, “There is nothing more I can teach you.” That and the fact that I have now unlocked the epic archetypes: Peacebringer and Warshade. Next, I’ll create the character whose concept I’ve been pondering since I created Indi’s Hallowe’en costume (1, 2, 3): a Warshade whose human host is the hereditary champion of one of the Judges of Ma’at, adapted from Egyptian mythology and White Wolf’s Mummy: the Resurrection. I just have to determine which of the judges he will represent.

And with that… back to the work-a-day grind.

Namaste.

Jan 15

“I know you’re different, you know I’m the same…”

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Monday – 15 January 2007
Today is Martin Luther King Day in the U.S.
(Previous MLK Day-related posts: 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002)

I am taking the day off from work. I joked with (or “teased” or “taunted”) some of my coworkers that I was taking “I’m Black, You’re Not Day” off. I said it mostly to see their reactions; I wasn’t disappointed – it disarmed and confused them for a few moments. There was, however, more of a reason behind it than just trying to catch them off-guard: I did it to make them think.

A couple of them actually got it.

I am the sole Black employee – and one of a few (less than five, I think) non-LDS employees – in our office. There are times, I think, when some of them fail to consider the impact of being so much of a minority in an environment: Most of the employees in our office are, to quote Ben Folds: “…male, middle-class, and White.” And LDS. It’s Utah… that’s to be somewhat expected. I have been told, point-blank, that there are times when some of them don’t really think about what it means to be an “outsider.” I find this odd and somewhat amusing since many of these people – or members of their immediate families – at one time served a mission for the LDS Church, which made them a distinct minority in whichever community/state/country they served.

Do I wish to be treated differently or preferrentially because I am different? No.

Do I think that the differences between us should be swept under the rug or ignored? No.

Do I think that that we should be comfortable enough with each other to accept and appreciate the things that make us different? Yes.

To that end, I talk with my coworkers about things that I don’t understand about the local culture. Some of them, in turn, feel comfortable to ask me about things they don’t know/understand about my background. That’s a good thing; I actually enjoy that kind of dialogue. I wish that more people were able to do that.

What am I going to do with my day? I don’t know.

Thanks to the efforts of Dr. King – and many others who do not have holidays named in their honor – I am free to do whatever I choose. I can spend it in the company of friends. I can go out and enjoy the City Library. I can… just go for a drive (too cold to go for a walk or a bike ride), if I choose. If I choose to do nothing, I’m free to do that, as well.

If you have never had to worry about the freedom to do these things, why not take a moment to consider what it means to live in a country where people have had to fight for their freedoms and equality.

Be good to yourself.
Be good to others.

Namaste.

Jan 12

Late afternoon randomness

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Friday – 12 January 2007
So far, it’s been a rather decent day. The road monkeys didn’t have me swearing every epithet known to man, Winathian or Daxamite on the way to work. I consider that a “good” thing. I have been able to track down most of the problem children in one of our inventory databases. Also a good thing. One not-so-good thing, however, was the condition in which an allegedly working system was brought to me. Parts missing. Some parts broken off. *sigh* Did I mention that it was “allegedly working?” I did? Okay. Just wanted to be sure. *rolling up sleeves* Time to do my Geordi LaForge impression and (try to) bring this pile of parts back to life.

I’m still not sure whether or not I’ll have to replace Intrepid‘s drive, but I have been fairly successful at migrating all (to this point) of its data to another drive. I may wind up losing a few things, but that’s better than having it be a complete wash. I also discovered that its video card had stopped working. More specifically, the fan on the card seized up. I was afraid that I’d have to buy a new card. Fortunately, it seems as though I can get a replacement fan for it for a fraction of the cost. I think that I’ll follow up on that option.

This evening holds the promise of a little time in Paragon City before heading to Clitorati.

Tomorrow, the Ravens take on the Colts… or, as might put it: “Baltimore 1.0 versus Baltimore 2.0” Although, I wonder if the Ravens would actually be “Baltimore 3.0,” since they had a USFL team after the Colts snuck out of Baltimore in the middle of the night and relocated to Indianapolis. Thanks to a timely reminder from , I remembered to dress appropriately for Purple Friday.

And with that… back to the grind.

Jan 11

Late-day musings…

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Thursday – 11 January 2007
Yesterday wasn’t bad, but I wound down kind of early.  After I made it home (with a Barbacoa steak burrito in hand) I made a drink and my way to Paragon City.  I teamed with a few Super Group members and we took on a couple of Praetorian Arch-Villains, Marauder and Nightstar.  We experienced multiple casualties, but made it through… finally.  By the time I finished the last mission, I was half-playing the game/half-studying my inner eyelids.  I called it a relatively early night.

This morning I was up fairly early.  I started brewing hot caffeination, observed the hygiene rituals and started getting under way… when I realized that Intrepid wasn’t on.  õ,Ô  It was on when I went to bed.  *headscratch*  So, I tried rebooting.  No go, Flight.  Again.  Nothing.  So, I brought it to work so I could try a few things on it.  It’s still kaput – and it may be a problem with the hard drive.  The less-than-a-year-old hard drive.  *sigh*  I’m running tests to see if it’s recoverable to any degree.  This isn’t “bad” news, per se… but it is somewhat annoying.  Most of the things on the drive are easily replaceable, but I have a few things – mostly audio and video files – that may not be quite as easy to recover.

The rest of the work day – including the workout – has been good.

And it’s snowing.
Again.

Back to the grind.

Namaste.

Jan 10

“Walk without rhythm, you won’t attract the worm…”

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Today’s groove break is more like a groove-a-thon: I’m playing music videos on one of my monitors.

Fatboy Slim’s Weapon of Choice was just playing.
Oingo Boingo’s Dead Man’s Party is on now.
Gorillaz’ 19-2000 was on a couple of videos back.

Today is a good day to make like Al Jarreau and get your boogie down.

Jan 10

“Electrical storm in your veins…”

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Tuesday – 09 January 2006
Today was rather quiet at work.  And, as I mentioned in my last post, the lunch time workout was very good.

After work, I had dinner with , and Chris before we tonight’s game.  A game which we didn’t wind up playing because we were sitting around gabbing.  No harm, no foul.  Instead, we watched a few episodes of Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles and talked about comics, movies and other bits of geekdom.

The High-Flying Adventures of Indigo Bolt
Following the game, I made a stop in Paragon City.  The night was young-ish and I was only 480,000 points away from Level 49.  I spent a lot of time waiting for someone with whom I could team; I wound up getting messaged by an old partner.  She and I started out on a Praetorian Arch-Villain mission… and shortly after we started, we realized that we would need a little more help.  So, I recruited my Super Group’s leader (not to mention a regular teammate of mine).  We didn’t exactly waltz through the mission, nor was it exactly the Electric Slide, but we made it through.  We followed this up with another AV mission.  This time, however, we bolstered our ranks a bit.  By mission’s end, I had made it to Security Level 49.

Stray Toasters
Check back tomorrow.
Namaste.

Jan 09

“Try to deny the weight of the load…”

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Guess who bench pressed 205 lbs. at the gym this afternoon.

I did.

I only managed to get five (5) reps out of it, but I picked the bar up and put it down. Five times.

The measure of the moment
Is a difference of degree
Just one little victory
A spirit breaking free
One little victory
The greatest act can be
One little victory

   “One Little Victory” by Rush, from the CD Vapor Trails

Jan 09

“Monday, Monday…”

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Monday – 08 January 2007
Today started the first full work week since before Christmas.  I’ll have to see if I remember how they are supposed to go.  Today wasn’t bad, though.  I started it with frozen mocha goodness.  Then, it was time to fight the road monkeys on the trek south.   The work day was good, too.

After work, I ran a couple of errands, picked up something to eat and headed to ‘ place for tonight’s D&D game.  We finally completed our quest.  We had some help.  In fact, we used a rather unique solution that satisfied the conditions of our goal.  And each of our characters learned a little – and I do mean “little” – something about our futures.

Home to unwind and get in a patrol in Paragon City.  Security Level 49 is only 489,000 away.

Stray Toasters

  • I found a site called Emerald Dawn this afternoon.  Dedicated to all things Green Lantern.  It reminded me that I neglected to note one of my Christmas presents: got me a Green Lantern ring.  My inner comic geek was tickled pink… um… “green.”
  • : Would you tell Chris that Frank Welker may be in talks to provide the voice of Megatron, please?
  • M. Night Shyamalan and Paramount are teaming up for a big screen adaptation of Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender
  • A few weeks ago, I mentioned the Sith Pope and the Iron Prophet and my regret that they were never billed together as a cage match in Vegas (MORAL KOMBAT!!!!)  What I didn’t know was that there was another potential contender: Pat Robertson – The Bionic Evangelist.  How he slipped under the radar – and remained there for so long – is beyond me.  Watch as the 74-year-old televangelist leg presses 1,000 lbs (454.5 kg).  What is the secret of his strength? Could he be a modern-day Samson… or is there something more sinister going on behind the scenes?
  • is still not allowed to buy/play with Superman and Batman figures.
  • Dracula’s Castle for sale in Romania
  • Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?   And, while we’re at it… Where’s Waldo?  Are they together?  Are they “together?”  You never see – or don’t see, as the case may be – the two of them together.  Hell… are they the same person?!  If so, it would be one of the greatest secret identity coups since Jonathan Kent taught Clark just how effective a pair of glasses can be as a disguise.

Quote of the Day
From tonight’s game session:

: “I can fondle it, I just can’t stare at it…”

Namaste.

Jan 08

“Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

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Sunday – 07 January 2007
Today was a good – very relaxed – day.

I didn’t get to sleep in this morning, as I was meeting and some others for brunch at Ruth’s Diner.  “Some” of the “others” were unable to join us, so it wound up being , Fiona and me.  Brunch was good.  We whiled away the time talking about things from religion to news coverage versus human interest stories to what are the problems with reality/feel-good TV shows like Extreme Makeover, The Swan and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

After that, I headed to downtown SLC to run a couple of errands… and to check out the local CompUSAirways and Best Buy.  I walked out of both stores empty-handed.  I did see a couple of things that caught my eye, but there wasn’t anything that I couldn’t live without.

On to finish up the networking project at ‘s.  What should have been a proverbial piece of cake wasn’t.  I couldn’t figure out why I was having a problem getting her sister’s computer to install the wireless NIC without trying to do its best impression of an Ourbouros.  I consulted the NIC’s installation guide.  I was following all of the steps.  It should have been working properly.  Then I happened to look at the system requirements for the card.  *sigh*  It requires a Pentium III (or equivalent) system.  That computer was a P-II.  *grblsnrkx*  So, I’m going to take one of my wired NICs over and deal with it that way for the time being.

invited me over when I was done playing tech support.  I went over and hung out for a while.  Aside from the new ep of Makeover: Home, we watched a program on The History Channel called Rome: Engineering an Empire.  It was very cool.  A man named Peter Weller was one of the commentators.  When I first saw him (and his name) on the screen, I wondered if he could possibly be the same man who starred in such movies as Robocop and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.  I consulted IMDb.  I mean, really… where else would you go?!  Turns out that the commentator and the actor are one and the same.  Mr. Weller “…holds a Master’s Degree in Roman and Renaissance art” and is a professor at Syracuse University, teaching courses in literature and fine arts.  After that, we watched the new Without a Trace.

Home.  Shower.  Paragon City.  I am now a bubble-and-a-half (roughly 700,000 points, for this level) away from Security Level 49.  Which means that I am that much closer to my Warshade.
Stray Toasters

  • I talked with my mother this afternoon.  All is well on that side of the family tree.
  • Broken Frontier review of All-Star Superman #6
  • 40th Anniversary “Landing Party” Kirk Statue
  • Hiro for Hire – Wizard’s interview with Masi Oka, who plays Hiro Nakamura on NBC’s Heroes
  • Speaking of “…for Hire,” most people know that I’m a fan of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser, as seen on the ABC series Spenser: for Hire and the A&E movies.  I’m currently reading Cold Service, the 32nd book in the Spenser series.  It was during the run of Spenser: for Hire that I first became aware of the man who would become Captain Benjamin Lafayette Sisko – Avery Brooks.  I still contend that I am going to be Avery Brooks when I grow up… if I ever manage to grow up.
  • :  You might be interested in this week’s 52 Covers Blog

Goodnight, Moon.

Namaste.

Jan 07

“”

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Saturday – 06 January 2007
Today has pretty much run the gamut: Lazy.  Busy.  Fun.

I crashed pretty hard Friday night, after running a few missions in Paragon City with Indi.  In fact, I was fighting my eyelids as we finished off our last mission.  But, this morning, I was awake at 7:40… for reasons that I have yet to discern.  Fortunately, I was able to override the urge to stay awake.  I nodded back out until 8-something.  I hit the mental “Snooze” button and returned to The Dreaming until a little after 9:30.  I made coffee, showered, dressed (to some degree) and then returned to Paragon City with Corvus Nox.  I wound up on a couple of teams and managed to break through Security Level 6… which means that I was able to acquire the second most-stupid superpower in the world: Hover.  As I’ve said before, it’s a stupid power, but it works.  And, like Bloom County’s Opus,  it’s answered A Wish for Wings that Work.  Guess who’s flying.  Mm-hmm.  That’s right.  Like Ray Charles used to say, “You got the right one, baby!”

After a few hours’ worth of beating on some of Paragon City’s seedier citizens, I headed over to set up a wireless network for and to help configure a computer for her sister.  Neither went quite as swimmingly as I had hoped, but I should be able to knock out the last of the kinks tomorrow.  had invited me to join her and her boys for dinner… and I did.  Back home for a bit and then off to breakfast with Brent, Pat, Staci and one of her coworkers.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

Jan 05

“We’ve taken care of everything: The words you read, the songs you sing…”

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Friday – 05 January 2007
So far the worst thing about this morning was getting stuck in traffic at the county line. There was an accident just south of the line that tied up traffic in both directions – a dump truck crossed the median (a walled median, at that) and three other cars were involved in the resulting mess. This caused about a fifteen-minute delay. I sat through it singing along with the radio. Perhaps the Utah Council for Better Driving should make a PSA about the perils of crossing the median in heavy traffic and in inclement weather.

Yesterday was not too bad… aside from the fact that it snowed. It wasn’t too bad in American Fork, but the Salt Lake City area got 3 – 6 inches. This time, UDoT was on the ball and actually plowed the streets and roads before they got too bad.

Post-work, I picked up and we headed to Dr. Volt’s. I picked up this week’s shwag; Nox picked up a few HorrorClix figures. He headed back to his place and gabbed for a bit while he tried to suss out a potential problem with his video card and/or monitor. From there, I headed to hang out with and watch CSI:. A month without Grissom. This will be interesting. Did anyone else get the impression that there was “something more” that he wanted to say to Sarah before he left? And the contents of the mysterious box that showed up at the end…? I thought they wrapped up that particular subplot a couple of weeks ago. *shrug*
Stray Toasters

Back to it.

Namaste.

Jan 04

Finally! Someone who understands!!!

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Lore Sjöberg is a writer for Wired Magazine.

He is also a coffee drinker.

In his column, “All Hail the Mighty Coffee Bean!” he prognosticates on the future of art of making coffee.

I look forward to the arrival of our robot masters new coffee providers.

Jan 04

“On the edge of sleep…”

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Thursday – 04 January 2007
I didn’t sleep well Tuesday night – when the alarm went off yesterday, I turned it off and proceeded to get another hour’s worth of sleep. It helped.  Apparently, this caught up to me last night: I was nodding off at the computer and wound up crashing.
Yesterday wasn’t bad. It was somewhat busy, but not horribly so; that helped the time seem to go by even more quickly.

I came home and just… wanted to stay in. I wasn’t too sleepy/tired, but I was a little weary. So, I locked the door and battened down the hatches. Okay… truth be told, there was more “sitting around” than “battening down.” But, I did get the wild hair to clear some of the mess and clutter out of my office. That was a grand undertaking. I’m still not done, but there is a very noticeable difference in how it looks now than it did when I started.

The Adventures of Indigo Bolt
I teamed up with some members of my Super Group and a few other friends for some missions tonight. Carnies on one mish. Black Swan on another. Babbage in the last one. I died a few times, but the missions were of high enough levels that I didn’t stay in debt very long.

I hit Security Level 48 towards the end of the Black Swan mission. Finally!  Two more levels – two more very LONG levels – to Warshade.

Stray Toasters

Time to get up and get out.

Namaste.

    Jan 03

    “You can carry that weight with an iron will…”

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    Tuesday – 02 January 2007
    First work day of the new year. And it wasn’t bad. I was up early this morning… but that didn’t preclude me from enjoying the warmth of the bed for a while, as the iPod played in the background. Then it was up, prep and out the door…

    Work wasn’t bad. The lunchtime workout was good, too. Last week, I set a new goal for myself: Being able to consistently bench press 185 lbs for three sets; Wes and Eric are stepping up their weights, too. Today was the first day to try it. We warmed up with 135 lbs. Then I did a set at 185. It wasn’t horrid. After the guys worked through their weights, I did another set at 185. It got a little ragged at the end, but I got all ten in. I only made it through six reps of the third set, but I polished off the last four reps at 135. And I did a “cool down” set at 135. It felt good. Post-gym, Georgia invited me to lunch… so I went. The back half of the work day was a little long, since I stayed to make up for the extra time I took at lunch.

    I came home and made a side trip to Paragon City. I teamed up with some members of my Super Group and we went on an AV mission. This was good because I still had roughly 100k of XP debt to work off. I worked off that debt and the debt that I accrued from a painfully stupid death during the mission, too.

    Game night. I headed to Chris and ‘s for tonight’s gaming session. Tonight, we were deciding whether to keep the current Robotech game going or to switch to something else that Chris wants to run. The final tally: We’re starting up a new game.  It will be set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe… with zombies.  (All we want to do is eat your brains…)

    Stray Toasters

    Namaste.

    Jan 01

    5…4…3…2…1…

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    Happy New Year 2007.

    2006 was ushered out in the company of friends.

    I hope that everyone has a safe, happy and prosperous new year. All the best to you.

    Namaste.

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