It's funny how music can take you places into your past. While I listened to music in my childhood, and I still listen to some of those songs, I don't consider myself to having had any personal musical taste until 8th grade. Prior to then, I just listened to whatever was on. (This completely absolves me from any responsibility of owning those 3 albums of New Kids on the Block.)
In 8th grade I discovered Heavy Metal. My entry into this realm of music was Metallica's Black album. Some people would say that it was the Black album that Metallica jumped the shark. While they may have had the shark in their sights, I don't think they truly jumped it until Load. I don't think I ever listened to St. Anger all the way through, I deleted those MP3s probably 30 seconds into the first song.
A friend told me that their new album wasn't bad, and that I should check it out. So I did. When I heard the first licks from the guitar on
"That Was Your Life" I was taken back to Matt Davis's living room. I was wearing a denim vest over a black tshirt and I wore Lee jeans with giant holes in the knees. My hair was shaggy as I had just decided to grow it long, and we were listening to ...And Justice for All on his dad's stereo system. That's the same living room where I first learned to play D&D and Magic the gathering. I can still clearly remember the smell of that house.
Next I jumped to my own bedroom, sitting on the edge of my bed listening to the Black album with the inside cover in my hands reading along with the entire album trying to memorize the lyrics. The music was coming out of my little black boom box with the tone knob turned all the way to treble.
A flood of other memories followed. First hearing Ride the Lighting on a church trip to Denver. Looking at the albums that I didn't yet own in the little music section that the grocery store had. Recording hours and hours of Metallica specials that aired on Mtv. Drawing stylized M's on my notebooks in school. Listening to my friend Tony try to play Anesthesia on his bass guitar.
I'm not going to make any great claims about this album. Older fans may want to give this a listen before dismissing it. If nothing else it makes for good reminiscing, and something to write about.
Monday, September 08, 2008
Friday, September 05, 2008
Challenging myself
I think it's time for a new writing initiative on my part. I'm challenging myself to write something every day. Some days I'll write a post to this blog, some days I'll write some fiction. I may even find some new venues for writing, but I need to be writing more than I am now. So, starting with this here blog post, I am writing daily.
When I get to November, I'm going to participate in the NaNoWriMo. The idea behind NaNoWriMo is that as a participant you write a 50,000 word novel within the month of November. The goal isn't to write a quality piece of work, but to just get the words out. November 1st you have to start from scratch, and you have 30 days to do 50,000 words. To get it done that quickly while still working a day job there really won't be any time for editing. This gets aspiring authors to get over their fear of writing garbage.
As I think about it a bit more, I think I can liken writing to sketching. I don't know when I figured this out, but artists start with a really really rough drawing and just keep adding lines that are close to what their looking for until they have a complete picture. Only then do they go back and try to get the exact lines that they are looking for. Writing like this will be very similar. All I need to do in November is break the word count. I can go back and edit it and make it good after November is over.
Also, I'm going to move the blog in a slightly different direction. Since I pretty much post all of my life happenings as they happen on twitter, putting them on here would be a little redundant. I started this blog to document my transition from city life to rural life. I've been here close to 2 years now, so that transition is mostly done. I'll focus more on the technology/futurism commentary that I occasionally do. Major life events will still get posted here, but just not very often. That's why my PAX decompression post focused on how twitter usage affected the weekend.
When I get to November, I'm going to participate in the NaNoWriMo. The idea behind NaNoWriMo is that as a participant you write a 50,000 word novel within the month of November. The goal isn't to write a quality piece of work, but to just get the words out. November 1st you have to start from scratch, and you have 30 days to do 50,000 words. To get it done that quickly while still working a day job there really won't be any time for editing. This gets aspiring authors to get over their fear of writing garbage.
As I think about it a bit more, I think I can liken writing to sketching. I don't know when I figured this out, but artists start with a really really rough drawing and just keep adding lines that are close to what their looking for until they have a complete picture. Only then do they go back and try to get the exact lines that they are looking for. Writing like this will be very similar. All I need to do in November is break the word count. I can go back and edit it and make it good after November is over.
Also, I'm going to move the blog in a slightly different direction. Since I pretty much post all of my life happenings as they happen on twitter, putting them on here would be a little redundant. I started this blog to document my transition from city life to rural life. I've been here close to 2 years now, so that transition is mostly done. I'll focus more on the technology/futurism commentary that I occasionally do. Major life events will still get posted here, but just not very often. That's why my PAX decompression post focused on how twitter usage affected the weekend.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
PAX decompress
I don't know if this post is going to be more about PAX, or more about Twitter. Twitter really changed the way the entire weekend worked.
Thursday night about 9:30, I got to the hostel my group was staying at. I met up with the rest of the group and headed to the pre-pax meetup at Shorty's bar. We got there, but didn't immediately see anyone I recognized, so we just got a booth and hung out. At one point I decided to put twitter to the test and posted that I was there and described what I was wearing. It took roughly 5 seconds for @Tajah to find me and tell us where the rest of the PAX people were. Our group was a bit big to intermingle with the other groups that were there, but we found a table that was at least closer to them. A couple people recognized me as the Omeganaut who went to the same shindig last year, and said hi.
Friday morning, our group opted to not stand in the huge line, and went sightseeing around Seattle a bit instead. We checked out Pikes market and walked up to the Sci-Fi museum. Whenever I could find open wifi, I checked up on twitter with my ipod. This let me keep tabs on what was going on with the line at PAX without actually standing in it. We made it over to PAX shortly after the doors opened, and we got right in. (The line is really just for concert wristbands, and for the social aspect of it). Shortly after our group got into the expo hall, we split up and went on our own ways. We used Twitter to keep track of where we all were.
After checking out the expo hall, I went over to a D&D mini 200 pt sealed tournament. I took 3rd place out of 5 people, then rushed back to the main convention hall to meet up with the group for the Dawn of War II panel. After the panel we grabbed dinner across the street, during which twitter let me know about a Cryptic party that I was missing out on. Rather than searching for the party, we went over to the convention center, and stood in the back of the concert where I bounced between twitter and pictochat while the Freeze Pops played. I have now seen that band in concert twice, and I still don't know what other people see in them. Most the people in Pictochat weren't impressed either. I spent a lot less time looking at twitter while Jonathan Coulton was on stage, although it was cool to see updates from Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton from backstage. Felicia Day even posted moments after she got off the stage.
I spent a good portion of Saturday in the Annex hall which did not have wifi, so twitter didn't do much for me that day. I started out the day walking down to the waterfront and relaxing a bit with Joe before heading to the show. Walked the expo hall a bit, and tried out WoW Minis (which is amazing) and ate lunch at one of the malls not too far away. Joe, Jason, and I also did the little games for the X-Blades booth. It was a fun little quest that they sent us out on. Ended the day playing tabletop games in the free-play area.
Sunday morning I headed straight to the convention and pretty much went straight to the Serpent theater to get a seat for Wil Wheaton's panel. Had there been wifi in that section, I would have known about a few other people I knew sitting in there. After Wil's panel, I rushed back to the signing area, and got in line to buy his book. A restroom stop delayed me a bit and I ended up in the back of the line. I met @ay1ene in the line and we pretty much spent the whole hour and a half in line, checking twitter, posting to twitter, and talking about twitter. After I got the book from Wil, I spent a couple hours going through the Expo hall making sure I saw everything that I wanted. Jason and I then went to find a very late lunch before the final round of the Omegathon. The lunch went even later than thought, so I kept tabs on the Omegathon through twitter since there was wifi at the mall. The rest of our group took off at some point during Wil Wheaton's panel and headed home.
After dinner we spent some time back in the hostel relaxing and playing DS games. Through twitter we found out about a PAX Twitter meet up at Bell Town Billiards. Since we had no other plans for the night, we hit that up, and I am very glad we did. Roughly 30 twitterers showed up. It was fun to be able to put faces to some of the accounts that I've been following for a few months now. The place got very loud, so when we were trying to get people to go somewhere else, twitter became the easiest way to tell everyone.
Monday was dedicated to going around and being touristy. We got a late start so we were a bit rushed to get checked out of the hostel. I posted to twitter that we were off. Luckily @j0z1e replied and offered to let us leave our crap in her room while we toured about. We hiked over to her hotel (damn near the opposite end of downtown) and left our stuff there. The three of us walked down to the Greek place where we had lunch on Friday and ate there again. Bumbershoot was going on across the street, and that provided us with interesting people to watch, and some music to listen to. After lunch, we went to the top of the Space Needle where twitter was updated and DS games were played.
After the Space Needle we pretty much just bummed around until it was time to catch the bus for the airport. All in all, it would have been a fun weekend either way, but the ample usage of Twitter really helped to make it an awesome weekend.
Thursday night about 9:30, I got to the hostel my group was staying at. I met up with the rest of the group and headed to the pre-pax meetup at Shorty's bar. We got there, but didn't immediately see anyone I recognized, so we just got a booth and hung out. At one point I decided to put twitter to the test and posted that I was there and described what I was wearing. It took roughly 5 seconds for @Tajah to find me and tell us where the rest of the PAX people were. Our group was a bit big to intermingle with the other groups that were there, but we found a table that was at least closer to them. A couple people recognized me as the Omeganaut who went to the same shindig last year, and said hi.
Friday morning, our group opted to not stand in the huge line, and went sightseeing around Seattle a bit instead. We checked out Pikes market and walked up to the Sci-Fi museum. Whenever I could find open wifi, I checked up on twitter with my ipod. This let me keep tabs on what was going on with the line at PAX without actually standing in it. We made it over to PAX shortly after the doors opened, and we got right in. (The line is really just for concert wristbands, and for the social aspect of it). Shortly after our group got into the expo hall, we split up and went on our own ways. We used Twitter to keep track of where we all were.
After checking out the expo hall, I went over to a D&D mini 200 pt sealed tournament. I took 3rd place out of 5 people, then rushed back to the main convention hall to meet up with the group for the Dawn of War II panel. After the panel we grabbed dinner across the street, during which twitter let me know about a Cryptic party that I was missing out on. Rather than searching for the party, we went over to the convention center, and stood in the back of the concert where I bounced between twitter and pictochat while the Freeze Pops played. I have now seen that band in concert twice, and I still don't know what other people see in them. Most the people in Pictochat weren't impressed either. I spent a lot less time looking at twitter while Jonathan Coulton was on stage, although it was cool to see updates from Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton from backstage. Felicia Day even posted moments after she got off the stage.
I spent a good portion of Saturday in the Annex hall which did not have wifi, so twitter didn't do much for me that day. I started out the day walking down to the waterfront and relaxing a bit with Joe before heading to the show. Walked the expo hall a bit, and tried out WoW Minis (which is amazing) and ate lunch at one of the malls not too far away. Joe, Jason, and I also did the little games for the X-Blades booth. It was a fun little quest that they sent us out on. Ended the day playing tabletop games in the free-play area.
Sunday morning I headed straight to the convention and pretty much went straight to the Serpent theater to get a seat for Wil Wheaton's panel. Had there been wifi in that section, I would have known about a few other people I knew sitting in there. After Wil's panel, I rushed back to the signing area, and got in line to buy his book. A restroom stop delayed me a bit and I ended up in the back of the line. I met @ay1ene in the line and we pretty much spent the whole hour and a half in line, checking twitter, posting to twitter, and talking about twitter. After I got the book from Wil, I spent a couple hours going through the Expo hall making sure I saw everything that I wanted. Jason and I then went to find a very late lunch before the final round of the Omegathon. The lunch went even later than thought, so I kept tabs on the Omegathon through twitter since there was wifi at the mall. The rest of our group took off at some point during Wil Wheaton's panel and headed home.
After dinner we spent some time back in the hostel relaxing and playing DS games. Through twitter we found out about a PAX Twitter meet up at Bell Town Billiards. Since we had no other plans for the night, we hit that up, and I am very glad we did. Roughly 30 twitterers showed up. It was fun to be able to put faces to some of the accounts that I've been following for a few months now. The place got very loud, so when we were trying to get people to go somewhere else, twitter became the easiest way to tell everyone.
Monday was dedicated to going around and being touristy. We got a late start so we were a bit rushed to get checked out of the hostel. I posted to twitter that we were off. Luckily @j0z1e replied and offered to let us leave our crap in her room while we toured about. We hiked over to her hotel (damn near the opposite end of downtown) and left our stuff there. The three of us walked down to the Greek place where we had lunch on Friday and ate there again. Bumbershoot was going on across the street, and that provided us with interesting people to watch, and some music to listen to. After lunch, we went to the top of the Space Needle where twitter was updated and DS games were played.
After the Space Needle we pretty much just bummed around until it was time to catch the bus for the airport. All in all, it would have been a fun weekend either way, but the ample usage of Twitter really helped to make it an awesome weekend.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Dungeons and .... Horses?
I made it to the D&D game day yesterday in Worland. I played the cleric for the adventure. We didn't have time to do the skirmish, but we did the trivia. I did horribly at the general trivia, but did fairly well with the family feud questions. The best part of the day was meeting some nerds in the area. They play every Saturday all day. I'm hoping to join them as often as I can. I also found out that one of the teachers is interested in starting a group. Hopefully we'll get something together this summer and play every couple weeks. So I possibly just went from a strong desire to do some pen and paper gaming to having 2 different groups to game with. This will make living in Wyoming a lot better.
Sarah and I went out riding this morning. It was the first time I rode our new horse Moon (who may be re-named shortly). He behaved well for me. We're definitely going to keep him. The two of us just rode down the driveway and down a dirt road a little way. Maybe a mile round trip. Now we need to buy a saddle that fits me better, and probably some boots. (If you don't know, cowboy boots are pointed so that it's easier to get your feet into stirrups.) I refuse to get a cowboy hat, although I may get more of an Indiana Jones style hat to keep the sun off.
Sarah and I went out riding this morning. It was the first time I rode our new horse Moon (who may be re-named shortly). He behaved well for me. We're definitely going to keep him. The two of us just rode down the driveway and down a dirt road a little way. Maybe a mile round trip. Now we need to buy a saddle that fits me better, and probably some boots. (If you don't know, cowboy boots are pointed so that it's easier to get your feet into stirrups.) I refuse to get a cowboy hat, although I may get more of an Indiana Jones style hat to keep the sun off.
Monday, May 26, 2008
A Memorable Memorial Day Weekend
If you're following my twitter, you got some bits and pieces of my weekend. I figure I better fill in some of the details.
Friday night, we took off for Rapid City at about six o'clock. We got about halfway to Worland when we heard a whining sound coming from the engine, which was shortly followed by me noticing that the car was running really hot. We pulled over, and popped the hood to find that the coolant reservoir was empty. After discussing what happened, we decided to fill it (fortunately there was half a gallon in the back of the car) and see how it ran for a few more miles. We checked it a couple miles further down, and it seemed OK, so we kept going. Just before Worland, it did the same thing, so we pulled over and found that it was bone dry again. Fortunately we pulled over into a mechanic's parking lot. After some discussion, we called Sarah's Dad to come pick her up, take her back to Thermopolis to get my car. So we hung out for about an hour and a half waiting for my car to show up. We ended up getting to Rapid at about 2:30 in the morning. The roads were crap with slush and rain, so it was slow going.
The rest of the weekend was good. We got to take Nico, the French exchange student up into the hills, showed him Mt. Rushmore, Keystone, and Hill City. We also were able to do quite a bit of shopping, see a couple movies (Indiana Jones and Iron Man), and eat at Ichibans (our favorite Rapid City sushi resturaunt) twice. Today we drove back via Devil's Tower. It was the first time I got to see that up close.
The shopping resulted in us getting a new set of pots and pans. Which is something I've wanted pretty much since we got married 6 years ago, but just hadn't gotten around to getting. The new ones are all stainless steel, so we won't be eating teflon flakes any more. We also got some glass Pyrex containers so we can move away from using our cancer causing plastic ones. On a personal success note, I stayed within my blow money budget.
Friday night, we took off for Rapid City at about six o'clock. We got about halfway to Worland when we heard a whining sound coming from the engine, which was shortly followed by me noticing that the car was running really hot. We pulled over, and popped the hood to find that the coolant reservoir was empty. After discussing what happened, we decided to fill it (fortunately there was half a gallon in the back of the car) and see how it ran for a few more miles. We checked it a couple miles further down, and it seemed OK, so we kept going. Just before Worland, it did the same thing, so we pulled over and found that it was bone dry again. Fortunately we pulled over into a mechanic's parking lot. After some discussion, we called Sarah's Dad to come pick her up, take her back to Thermopolis to get my car. So we hung out for about an hour and a half waiting for my car to show up. We ended up getting to Rapid at about 2:30 in the morning. The roads were crap with slush and rain, so it was slow going.
The rest of the weekend was good. We got to take Nico, the French exchange student up into the hills, showed him Mt. Rushmore, Keystone, and Hill City. We also were able to do quite a bit of shopping, see a couple movies (Indiana Jones and Iron Man), and eat at Ichibans (our favorite Rapid City sushi resturaunt) twice. Today we drove back via Devil's Tower. It was the first time I got to see that up close.
The shopping resulted in us getting a new set of pots and pans. Which is something I've wanted pretty much since we got married 6 years ago, but just hadn't gotten around to getting. The new ones are all stainless steel, so we won't be eating teflon flakes any more. We also got some glass Pyrex containers so we can move away from using our cancer causing plastic ones. On a personal success note, I stayed within my blow money budget.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Life out West
Went horseback riding today. First time since I moved from Rapid City, so probably first time since 2003. Having a pasture of horses that I have to feed occasionally has really help build my confidence around horses. It made riding a lot easier than it was previously.
I think I'm going to try to build a home arcade cabinet this summer. I don't know if this is one of those ideas I get that never pan out or not. But, for the first time in my life, I have space where I could work on such a project, and it's not financially infeasible. I'll have to start working up some plans. I'm more concerned with the physical details of the cabinet right now. I can work out what hardware and software will run it later. This is more of a carpentry thing right now.
p.s. new story up on ficlet.
I think I'm going to try to build a home arcade cabinet this summer. I don't know if this is one of those ideas I get that never pan out or not. But, for the first time in my life, I have space where I could work on such a project, and it's not financially infeasible. I'll have to start working up some plans. I'm more concerned with the physical details of the cabinet right now. I can work out what hardware and software will run it later. This is more of a carpentry thing right now.
p.s. new story up on ficlet.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Too much free time
I've been spending a lot of time lately thinking about my personal cognitive surplus and how I use it. I obviously haven't been spending much of it by writing, which is what I should be doing with it. Really, I think I have been wasting it. I watched 2 entire seasons of Babylon 5 this week. Granted I was sick for most of that and couldn't accomplish anything with that time. At least I'm more aware of it than I was before. Now I can't sit down and watch an hour of TV without feeling guilty. The result is that I spend a lot of time watching TV and feeling guilty about it.
Spring Cleaning
I'm doing a bit of site re-design. Those of you who view my blog via RSS feed, which I think is pretty much everyone, won't really notice a change. I'm trying to make it kind of a central portal of all things Steve. Basically, getting links from there to other places that I lurk. I may look into pulling in the RSS feeds on the side instead of just linking to the items.
I've been spending a lot of time on twitter lately. If I'm awake, I'm usually logged into it either with my ipod and hahlo our with digsby. So, if you're keeping up with my sparse blog posts, and want more steve in your daily life, then get on to twitter.
I've been spending a lot of time on twitter lately. If I'm awake, I'm usually logged into it either with my ipod and hahlo our with digsby. So, if you're keeping up with my sparse blog posts, and want more steve in your daily life, then get on to twitter.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Brian Dump from Today
I'm sitting in a hotel room in Casper. I'm here for a Tech conference/sales pitch that is put on by one of our vendors. They're promoting VMWare, and I'm very interested. I really like the idea of being able to move virtual machines from one physical server to another while the machine continues to run. I'm seeing that they have a 60 day trial of the server platform on their website. I have some other projects at work I need to get moving on before I can spend much time playing with this. Hopefully I can play with it before the new budget hits in July. It would be nice to virtualize some of our less mission critical servers just to get a feel for it.
Today was definitely worth the trip down to learn more about these technologies. I wouldn't be surprised if we had some major virtualization going on within a couple of years.
Today was definitely worth the trip down to learn more about these technologies. I wouldn't be surprised if we had some major virtualization going on within a couple of years.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
An Apology
Dear Blog,
I've been neglecting you for several months. I know you probably think I'm a horrible person, and you'd be justified in your opinion. 4 months is a really long time for blog neglect.
I bought a new car. I got it back in November, and I wanted my next post to be about it, but I had to take it to a mechanic for 2 months, and I couldn't get a picture of it. I know that's not a very good excuse, but it's the only one I have. To make up for it, here's a picture of the car.
It's a 1994 Nissan Pathfinder. I mainly bought it because it has 4wd and it was very cheap. It's really fun to drive. The gas mileage hurts a bit though. I'm estimating that it costs $4 each round trip in to town.
Work has been pretty crazy lately. We're right in the middle of standardized testing on the computers. It's been a lot of stress trying to keep it running correctly. The side business has slowed down quite a bit, which I really don't mind as I'm now the advisor for the High School Key Club, and I'm teaching a computer club on Monday nights. Add to that I'm still doing Karate twice a week, and I'm a pretty busy guy.
Well, blog, that's it for now. I promise I will give you more attention from now on.
I've been neglecting you for several months. I know you probably think I'm a horrible person, and you'd be justified in your opinion. 4 months is a really long time for blog neglect.
I bought a new car. I got it back in November, and I wanted my next post to be about it, but I had to take it to a mechanic for 2 months, and I couldn't get a picture of it. I know that's not a very good excuse, but it's the only one I have. To make up for it, here's a picture of the car.
It's a 1994 Nissan Pathfinder. I mainly bought it because it has 4wd and it was very cheap. It's really fun to drive. The gas mileage hurts a bit though. I'm estimating that it costs $4 each round trip in to town.
Work has been pretty crazy lately. We're right in the middle of standardized testing on the computers. It's been a lot of stress trying to keep it running correctly. The side business has slowed down quite a bit, which I really don't mind as I'm now the advisor for the High School Key Club, and I'm teaching a computer club on Monday nights. Add to that I'm still doing Karate twice a week, and I'm a pretty busy guy.
Well, blog, that's it for now. I promise I will give you more attention from now on.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Moleskine
I bought a moleskine this weekend while I was in Sioux Falls. My plan is to fill it with fiction. I don't know for sure right now if I'm going to put short stories into it, or one long story, but I am going to just keep writing. One thing I've heard said over and over again is that if you want to be a writer, then you need to write. I decided to try writing in a moleskine is so that I can't change what I've written, I can only keep going forward. I started writing something that is steampunk. So far all I really have is a character and a little bit of the world. This might be something big, or it might be a short story. I kind of like the idea of writing a series of short stories about the same character. I may post some of the stories online, who knows.
Life Out West
If you've watched a lot of old westerns you might be familiar with the term water rights. Put simply, water rights determine how much water you can take from a lake/river/stream/creek for your use, or for use in your land. This is something that people out where I live are concerned about. Today I went in and registered to vote. Once I proved that I did live in the affected area, I got to vote on the Owl Creek Water District. Basically this was a vote to either form or not form a water district that would bring in potable water through pipes. Since it's a small group of people who are allowed to vote on this, my vote had a bit of meaning. Of course, if we get water from pipes, then our water rights from Owl Creek will probably be reduced.I just hope that no one starts shooting at their neighbors over this.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Men with Guns
From a Digg Comment:
"everything the government does is with the barrel of a gun. Drive too fast? A man with a gun will pull you over. Don't pay your income taxes? Men with guns will come and take your freedom. Try to protest in the same location as King Bush? Men with guns will take you away. Get arrested without charges and thrown into a hole for months to years on end? Yep, that's the work of men with guns.
If you don't vote the right people into office, the only way to get the wrong ones out will eventually be with guns helping you. Why do you think there is a second amendment? It ain't for shooting squirrels."
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Idiosyncrasy
Even though I know better rationally, when I get forwarded emails I frequently don't read the instructions to forward it on on the basis that the horrible things won't happen to me if I don't read it.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Walmart Failed
I went to pick up a little notebook thingy to use as a planner. They had nothing. Well, they had pre-printed planners, and they had spiral bound crap. So I'm trying out a hipster PDA. Basically it's just note cards with a little clip. I'll let you know how it goes.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Getting organized
Not blogging is a vicious cycle. When you go a while without blogging, then you feel like there's a lot that needs to be blogged. This makes me feel like I have a lot of catch up to do, and makes me not want to blog. So, to avoid this, lets just pretend that nothing happend.
At the end of this week I am closing my physical business location in favor of just doing on site work. The advantage of this is that days I don't have any side work, I can just go home. I'm having my office phone number forwarded to my cell phone full time, so people can still get ahold of me. I will most likely not answer the phone when I'm at work and make them leave a message. The one thing I am going to need is some sort of portable scheduling system. Right now I keep my schedule on my desktop computer in the office. I've thought of a few different solutions. One is getting an iPod Touch and using that. A more sensible one is getting my little Dell PDA working again (haven't touched in a couple years). However, I think I'm going to use just a basic notebook. I found http://www.plannerhack.com/ and really like the system laid out in there. The thing that really attracts me to it is that it's a durable solution. No worries about dropping or breaking the thing. This weekend I have a meeting in Riverton, so I am going to pick up a notebook at Walmart. If I like the system, I'll get a moleskine next time I'm in a big city.
Now that I type this out and put a little more thought into it, I may have to modify the system for my own use. When someone calls and schedules an appointment, and I'm not by a computer, I need to be able to record their name, the time of the appointment, their address, phone number, and problem description. That's a little more information that that is designed to handle. Maybe I'll have to have extra pages in the back for more of that information. Once I get it figured out, I'll have to post my solution on here.
At the end of this week I am closing my physical business location in favor of just doing on site work. The advantage of this is that days I don't have any side work, I can just go home. I'm having my office phone number forwarded to my cell phone full time, so people can still get ahold of me. I will most likely not answer the phone when I'm at work and make them leave a message. The one thing I am going to need is some sort of portable scheduling system. Right now I keep my schedule on my desktop computer in the office. I've thought of a few different solutions. One is getting an iPod Touch and using that. A more sensible one is getting my little Dell PDA working again (haven't touched in a couple years). However, I think I'm going to use just a basic notebook. I found http://www.plannerhack.com/ and really like the system laid out in there. The thing that really attracts me to it is that it's a durable solution. No worries about dropping or breaking the thing. This weekend I have a meeting in Riverton, so I am going to pick up a notebook at Walmart. If I like the system, I'll get a moleskine next time I'm in a big city.
Now that I type this out and put a little more thought into it, I may have to modify the system for my own use. When someone calls and schedules an appointment, and I'm not by a computer, I need to be able to record their name, the time of the appointment, their address, phone number, and problem description. That's a little more information that that is designed to handle. Maybe I'll have to have extra pages in the back for more of that information. Once I get it figured out, I'll have to post my solution on here.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Pax
PAX was awesome. It was seriously one of the best weekends of my life. It's the biggest convention of any kind that I've been to. There were about 40,000 people there all said and done. I heard someone say that geek conventions are how they recharge their batteries for the normal world. That definitely holds true for me. If anyone wants to know how I manage to live out in the middle of nowhere, I go to 2 conventions a year.
So, as you know, I was an Omeganaut for the convention. Not only did I get to compete for a pretty sweet prize, but I also got an all access pass to the convention. I was able to get into the exhibition hall before anyone else all three days of the weekend. I was also able to cut to the front of every line. I didn't cut in any lines that had less than 1o0 people in them. I did however get to the front of the concerts and a couple panels.
I also got to meet Wil Wheaton, and get his autograph. I only wish I wouldn't have been overcome with "ZOMG I'M MEETING WIL" and had been able to have an actual conversation with him. I didn't really get a chance to meet Gabe and Tycho, but that's ok.
As far as the Omegathon itself went, I played a mean game of Jenga in the first round. There will hopefully be video of this by the end of the week. It's a bit surreal to play Jenga with a large audience. When you get your piece pulled out, you get a nice golf clap. If you make the tower sway, there's a large gasp. The second round was "Calling All Cars" which is a playstation 3 game. I didn't get a chance to practice this game, so the competition was the first time I had played. This lead to my defeat. I'd say next time I'll try harder to practice everything, but there probably won't be a next time for this.
I absolutely plan on going back next year. I'm hoping to get as large of a contingent of friends going along as possible.
So, as you know, I was an Omeganaut for the convention. Not only did I get to compete for a pretty sweet prize, but I also got an all access pass to the convention. I was able to get into the exhibition hall before anyone else all three days of the weekend. I was also able to cut to the front of every line. I didn't cut in any lines that had less than 1o0 people in them. I did however get to the front of the concerts and a couple panels.
I also got to meet Wil Wheaton, and get his autograph. I only wish I wouldn't have been overcome with "ZOMG I'M MEETING WIL" and had been able to have an actual conversation with him. I didn't really get a chance to meet Gabe and Tycho, but that's ok.
As far as the Omegathon itself went, I played a mean game of Jenga in the first round. There will hopefully be video of this by the end of the week. It's a bit surreal to play Jenga with a large audience. When you get your piece pulled out, you get a nice golf clap. If you make the tower sway, there's a large gasp. The second round was "Calling All Cars" which is a playstation 3 game. I didn't get a chance to practice this game, so the competition was the first time I had played. This lead to my defeat. I'd say next time I'll try harder to practice everything, but there probably won't be a next time for this.
I absolutely plan on going back next year. I'm hoping to get as large of a contingent of friends going along as possible.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Pen and Paper Geekery
Warning: if you are not a complete nerd, you might not want to read this post.
Iron Kingdoms is a pen and paper RPG that I have gotten into. It calls itself "Full Metal Fantasy" It's basically steampunk, which is a blend of steam technology and magic. The one thing I don't like about Iron Kingdoms is that it's using the D20 rules which is derived from Dungeons and Dragons. It's a good beginner rule set, but for me combat takes entirely too long, and there's not enough flexibility in the system. For instance, if you had a simple baker in the game, someone who isn't an adventurer, they just bake bread. That baker would be so focused on baking, that he wouldn't be able to find his house after dark.Savage Worlds is a new(ish 2003) RPG system that is really lean. It's a generic system (like D20) and can be applied to any setting. It doesn't use character classes or levels at all. The characters just train what they want. Of course many of the edges that you train have prerequisites. So you wouldn't want to be a jack of all trades.
There is already a complete conversion to Savage Worlds for Iron Kingdoms. The Savage Worlds main core book very well might be my next RPG purchase. (along with the Monsternomicon II for Iron Kingdoms.)
With this new system, I'll have to start running a game of it online again.
Weekend Activities
Friday night, sarah and I drove up to cody to meet some friends for Sushi. I had driven past the sushi place a couple times, and there's just a little neon light that says "Sushi". I really didn't have very high hopes for the place, and expected it to just be california rolls. It was actually really good. I had a rainbow roll which is basically a california roll with tuna, salmon, and something else on top of it. Sarah had California rolls, and we shared some potstickers. No one in our group went for the big platter of raw fish, but now that I've eaten there, I would be comfortable getting that next time.
Here's something to try if you ever get bored. Get 1000 rubber ducks. Put them in big garbage cans, and dump them in a river. Then go a mile downstream and try to fish them out with little nets. Well, out here they used rubber turtles, and they called it a turtle race. People "adopt" a turtle, and if their turtle is one of the first 10, they win a prize. I spent about an hour wading/swimming in the river trying to catch little rubber turtles. This was all a fundraiser for the local Rotary club of which Sarah is a member.
Here's something to try if you ever get bored. Get 1000 rubber ducks. Put them in big garbage cans, and dump them in a river. Then go a mile downstream and try to fish them out with little nets. Well, out here they used rubber turtles, and they called it a turtle race. People "adopt" a turtle, and if their turtle is one of the first 10, they win a prize. I spent about an hour wading/swimming in the river trying to catch little rubber turtles. This was all a fundraiser for the local Rotary club of which Sarah is a member.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Creativity
I've been inspired to create things lately. The casemod that I did is from that energy. I also created a pair of these laptop stands. I pretty much copied the design from lifehacker, and I really love them. Sarah is a big fan of them as well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
