I have been published again... sort of... (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

This time, in Dark Horse! In hard back, no less.

Actually, I have had several of my dream submissions published in Jesse Reklaw's new book, "The Night of your Life," published by Dark Horse Books. It's the second collection of his comics, as seen on the Internet, the City Paper, and so on. FOUR of my dreams made the final cut!

Jesse sent me a personally signed copy (and I sent him a copy of my book, The Punk Walrus Saga), and my stegosaurus dream* was the last page conclusion! Funny, that dream is one of my few "reoccurring dreams" I have had since childhood. When he signed the book, he drew a stegosaurus, and if you look elsewhere in the book, I have a tee-shirt with a stegosaurus on it (the soccer champ video game dream).

Neat!
_______
*No, sorry, not you stegosaur, but maybe someday! With sax and violins! Posted in: book , me , publish , slowwave

i went to the woods… (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

I’ll admit that I am not a fan of Henry David Thoreau. He was one of those authors that we were required to read in high school, and at the time I found him to be terribly boring. However, he may have been onto something with this retreating and living deliberately thing.

To be perfectly honest, my life is suffocating me right now. Why? Well, much of it I can’t blog about, but it involves a lot of sleepless nights and worrisome thoughts and general unhappiness. My house was starting to feel like it’s too crowded (it really isn’t), and I had nowhere to retreat to. So I made a place for me in the basement. It’s wall to wall carpet remnants and the furniture that has been amassed down there makes it look like a poor college student’s living room, but it’s my “alone space”. I’ve moved the majority of my crafting things down there, as well as some books and journals. The unspoken rule has been established that if the door to the basement is closed, I’m to be left alone.

Sounds good, right? A place that I can go and be by myself without the worries of distraction? Well, not entirely. The problem is that I’m retreating too much, both physically and emotionally. In recognizing that, I’m aware that this could become an issue, but I also know that if I’m forced to not retreat, I’ll become more and more uptight. This is where the juggling act of feelings and propriety comes into play. I don’t juggle well.

Yesterday I found a journal that I had written a little over two years ago. A lot can happen in two years, and a lot has happened in two years. But I think what sent me over the edge was that in reading the words I wrote two years ago, I saw that nothing has really changed. The words I wrote then could have been written last week.

Someday, I hope to leave the woods for as good a reason as I went there…. but for now, I’ll be in the basement.

Posted in: me

september? already? (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

I swore I wasn’t going to let summer fly by this year, but evidently I failed at that (yes, I know fall doesn’t technically start until September 22… smart butt). Labor Day came and went without any major fanfare around here, the way it does every year. I was too desperate for a day or two of not being immediately responsible for anything else to “do something” for Labor Day.

Did the “me” time help at all? Somewhat. The biggest downside of having half a day to myself was that I realized how much time I don’t have to myself on a daily basis. I also came to accept the fact that even though I’ve somehow managed to convince myself that I’ve got a hold on my anxiety issues, I really don’t. Add in constant sleeplessness, and I’m on edge a lot… but there’s not much I can do about either factor except lift it Heavenward.

And so we keep moving forward as best we can. Summer’s pretty much wound down and on its way out the door, but fall is typically a more enjoyable time of year for me anyway. September’s always transition time and a chance to breathe before we head into the “fall rush”: starting mid-October, there is a family birthday or anniversary every week right up through Thanksgiving, and then we run into the holiday season. Now if only we can do something to make the first half of the year interesting…

Posted in: family & friends , me

“me” time. (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

There have been several ideas for blog posts bouncing around in my head for the past week, but I have yet to get them out of my brain and onto the screen. Part of the reason for that is because of the nature of the events that led to those ideas - things that I don’t necessarily need broadcast to the world at large. Maybe I need to dig out the old paper and pen journal again :P

I woke up this morning feeling more refreshed than I have in about a month, which was a pleasant surprise. I’m planning on taking advantage of this almost relaxed stupor that I’m in and taking some time off for some “me” time away from the house. As much as this house is my home and my safe place, it’s also the place where I am in a constant state of worry and concern. Even when the kidlet is at school for eight hours a day, I’m still never able to feel that I’m alone. There are always concerns about her that naturally come along with being a Mom, but there are also concerns that, due to various circumstances, complicate the “normality” of teenage life. I am perpetually wondering “What if/How can I/Why is it that” regarding a multitude of things, and unfortunately, I can never come down from the anxiety enough to just… relax. Plus, I always feel guilty for wasting time doing nothing.

But see, therein lies the problem…. eh, challenge. I can’t be the person everybody else needs me to be in whatever capacity they need me to fill if I don’t take time out for me. To re-center myself and to get myself back on track with God. In order to do that, I need to let go of the guilt and realize that it’s okay to put as much emotional energy towards myself as I do towards everybody else.

Becoming a full-time stay-at-home Mom wasn’t ever anything I ever had in my plans for my life, but apparently it was for God. I trust Him… but I still have to question His logic sometimes :P I happened to peruse a book last night about the Christian enneagram (I’m a five with a six wing), and while skimming through the section about Fives, I came across an interesting paragraph. Fives tend to shy away from a parenting role because it forces them to sacrifice their own space, but yet one of the strongest biblical Fives was Mary. And you know what? If Mary could handle being the mother of our Savior… I think I can handle one extraordinary teenager.

Posted in: me

wait, it’s not friday. (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

random excuses
This is where I won’t patronize you with pathetic reasons as to why I haven’t been blogging except to do the Friday Fill-In.

reasons why i need to find my journal
Blogging used to serve as a form of catharsis for me. It still does, except that a lot of what needs to come out of my head and onto paper (virtual or otherwise) is stuff that shouldn’t be broadcast to an audience of every human being on the planet. There are actually a few issues about which I need sort out my thoughts, all of them having a common denominator of “relationship”. Interesting how that word keeps making itself present to me… same thing happened when I was working through forgiveness. I think Somebody is trying to tell me something.

priorities
I’ve been noticing lately how the priorities in my life have drastically shifted over the past few years. Granted, a lot of that has to do with the significant life change of getting married, and even moreso now that the kidlet lives with us. I can’t say I was ever one of those people who judged how other parents treated their children or told them that “if that were my child, I’d do blahblahblah instead” in an unsolicited manner. I can, however, relate to the sentiment of how one’s outlook on parenting changes once you have one of your own. Frankly, if you’re selfish enough to believe that children shouldn’t be one of the main focuses of your life, then you shouldn’t have them. Kidlet certainly isn’t biologically mine, but in every other aspect she is, and her needs come before mine.

similarly…
Along with a priority shift, I’ve also noticed that the things I value have changed. I don’t care if I have name brand clothes or luxury cars or the latest and greatest gadget or a membership at the country club. To be honest, I never have. Would it be nice? Eh, maybe. Materialism doesn’t equal happiness, though. Sure, the decision to essentially homeschool my child has made a huge impact on our budget, but see above. I don’t need a bunch of “stuff” to be happy. Besides, I don’t want to raise a materialistic child, either.

that having been said
We finally managed to buy our Christmas present to ourselves: a Wii. It’s a little odd for me, as I’ve always been the only one in the household who cared about video games. The husband and the kidlet played with the DS every now and again, but I’d hardly call either one a gamer. They both have gotten into the Wii, though, because it’s truly interactive. Added benefit? Family togetherness time :)

Posted in: family & friends , gaming , me

So, you remember how I have weird dreams? (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Remember this entry?

Well, Jesse of Slow Wave cartoons printed it out, almost a year to the day after I submitted the dream to him. Again, my dream will appear in alternative papers across the globe, and will also be in his new book.

Muppet PDA (may be NSFW, contains concepts like muppets pleasuring themselves) Posted in: cartoon , masturbation , me , muppets , sex , slow wave

Fixing Broken Windows (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

The "broken windows" theory comes from a 1982 Atlantic Monthly article on strategies to reduce vandalism.

Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside.

Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or breaking into cars.

My theme for January (and possibly February as well) is to fix broken windows (or as GTD puts it, open loops). That is, to clean up all the half-finished miscellanea in my life. This ranges across everything from finishing books I've started to cleaning out that last box from my move six months ago to ongoing things such as not letting dishes, garbage, and laundry pile up for too long. Having broken windows not only draws energy, but also subconsciously let's you know that it's okay to not finish what you've started. Starting with a clean slate is a necessary condition for success in any new endeavors. In addition, the tiny successes brought by fixing broken windows create a positive feedback loop and it helps you complete even larger projects.

For the transition period, I think it's probably a better idea to save New Years' Resolutions until March. Take the first couple of months of the year to patch up anything left outstanding from the previous year(s) and start fresh, even if you are a few months late. I'd love to hear what other people think about this approach, so if you've had experience doing something like this, drop me a line in the comments or via email.

Technorati Tags: broken windows, lifehacks, GTD, Getting Things Done, open loops, New Years Resolutions

Posted in: gtd , me , productivity , thoughts

Producing/Participating More and Consuming Less (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

43Folders had a post about re-evaluating one's online commitments, something I've been trying to work on for a few months now, ever since the Media Fast Experiment I did back in September.

Google Reader is perhaps my most time consuming "commitment" and so it's the one I'm scrutinizing the most. Since starting over yesterday, I've read close to 300 items, have 60 unread, of which I'll read 20 or so. Over 10% of the content that comes passes through my brain is content I don't want. I've become especially adverse to the big group blogs that put out 10+ posts a day of things I'm only tangentially interested in. I'd much rather follow 5x more personal blogs and have more varied and more authentic posts, even at the same volume.

I also want to eliminate Digg from my life. Most of the stories I read on Digg are mildly entertaining but ultimately mindless. The community is fairly bottom-of-the-barrel in terms of intelligent conversation and the comment system itself doesn't help any even there was good conversation.

On the flip side, I'd like to spend more time on Flickr. My Flickr usage pattern has me posting a ton of photos over a concentrated period of time. Part of the reason is that most of my photography has been from vacations and I'm too OCD to leave gaps or upload them out of order. Now that that's slowed down a bit (I have <100 photos from South Africa left to post), I can go through my backlog of random shots and start uploading those in less quantity but far more often. Hopefully with more frequent posting I'll be more likely to participate in the great community that exists on Flickr.

As I said yesterday, I'd also like to spend more time blogging. With this post, I'm 2 for 2 which puts me on pace for 366 this year :-) Along with more blogging, comes more participation. I hope to do a bit more connecting with my audience via posts and connecting with other bloggers via comments and link love. The same goes for Twitter. I don't want just more tweets, I also want more conversation.

To reiterate what I mentioned yesterday, it's all about producing (and participating) more and consuming less. Just a warning: posts here might be a bit repetitive over the next week while I force this stuff to stick.

Technorati Tags: blogging, commitments, producing, participating, conversation, community, consuming

Posted in: blogs , conversation , me , social networks , twitter

First Post (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

I found myself starting a lot of blog posts with "It's been X days since my last post…" followed by some excuse as to why I hadn't posted anything in a while. It's really a shame how little I blog considering how much time I spend on the computer, so in 2008 my goal is to produce more and consume less. I've written around 330 posts in the 3 years I've been blogging, which is about 100 posts a year (though only 70 in 2007). My very lofty blogging goal for 2008 is to double the number of posts here by posting something at least once a day. Here's #1 of 365.

Technorati Tags: blogging, goals, 2008

Posted in: blogs , me

Eulogy for CompUSA (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

Word came last Friday that all CompUSA stores will be closing. While some have some horror stories about their experiences at CompUSA, I've never had any bad experiences. Looking back, however, CompUSA was the place where I had my first experiences with Macs.

The only place to really play with Macs back in 2001 was at CompUSA. At the time, there were few Apple Stores and the only one in South Florida was at The Falls, about an hour drive from me. So CompUSA was the first place I laid hands on an iMac, the G4 Cube, and others. It was the first time I played with OS X - I was amazed with it even though it was in it's terrible Public Beta/10.0 stage. I bought my first Mac at CompUSA - a 700 MHz G3 iBook, and my first iPod - an open-box 1st Generation 10gb iPod. Since then, Apple Stores have sprung up and I've only made smaller purchases at CompUSA, a memory card here, a hard drive there. I have memories dating back even further - I remember buying a 4mb stick of RAM and a 14.4 modem for our 386.

Despite being one of the recent contributors to CompUSA's demise, it will still be sad to see it go. I have a MicroCenter fairly close by, but Best Buy and Circuit City don't have anything on our dear old CompUSA.

Goodbye.

Technorati Tags: CompUSA, Mac, Apple, stores, out of business, closing

Posted in: business , me , news , thoughts

Guess who? (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

Yeah, that's right: me. Me, the fifteen year old, scrawny kid with big-ass glasses and an unkempt mullet-alike. ^_^ And judging by the waterdye effect on the shirt, that's my Dr Dre, "skull with hemp" shirt ^_^;

The Kijk op leerlingen course on children's identity development is awesome. Our first assignment was to look back on our own childhood and the various developments we went through. My biggest conclusion: I never granted myself the time or the opportunity to simply screw around. Ever since my sixteenth (in the final year of high school) it's all been about work, work, work.

Luckily things are changing little by little these days.

Let me say though that I'm enjoying the crap out of the book for this course. Identiteitsontwikkeling en leerlingbegeleiding by van de Wal, de Mooij and de Wilde is the shit. Seriously. The title, which translates as Identity development and student counseling may sound dreary or even patronising, but it doesn't do the book justice.

Even for me (who's still young considering most of my classmates) this book provides great insights into what it's like to be a kid these days. You'd think I still remember, but no...

@ Menno: I'm quite sure you'll enjoy this book as well, given your broad interests in psychology and personal relationships.

Posted in: guess who , me , thomas sluyter

More on The Media Fast Experiment (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

Today should be day 5 of my media fast experiment, but as I predicted/promised in my previous post, I would sneak a peek on Sunday. And so I did. In about an hour and half yesterday, I made it through 182 posts in Google Reader, less than half of the ~400 a day I was averaging prior to the experiment. Still, despite only lasting three days into the experiment, I've come away with some valuable insight.

First, and perhaps most importantly, bumming around the internet is no longer my go-to action when I've found myself with nothing to do. Even yesterday, when I spent time in Google Reader, I also found time to catch up on some posts for my other blog and even process and upload some photos to Flickr from my trip to Puerto Rico last March.

Google Reader's expanded view, which shows full posts in a river of news format, is a great way to sift through a bunch of garbage while finding the few gems you really enjoy. In an effort to be more selective, I've switched to list view, which shows me headlines for about 25 posts in a way similar to Gmail. Picking and choosing is much easier when you've expanded the number of headlines visible on screen 15-25 times.

The only thing I wish I could do was mark items as read without giving them credit for being read. There's a bunch of stuff in there that I will probably never read, and it looks like it'll build up unless I do choose to mark it as read. A minor complaint, but on the bright side it should make unsubscribing from low signal-to-noise ratio feeds much, much easier (Engadget and the rest of the Weblogs, Inc sites, I'm looking at you).

In response to William's comment, I do think he's right to a degree. If your job is news-driven (you work on Wall Street, in PR, in journalism, etc), then you do have to keep up with the news. Even still, not every news item you come across is 100% relevant and the experiment helps to make that clear. And for those of us whose jobs aren't exactly news driven, much of it isn't relevant - we simply consume it for enjoyment. For most, consumption is way out of balance with production. As with any habit-altering experience, we must often go too far in one direction in order to ultimately end up in the middle.

Technorati Tags: 4 Hour Work Week, Timothy Ferriss, media fast, experiment, productivity

Posted in: books , lifehacks , me , news , productivity

The 4-Hour Work Week Media Fast Experiment (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

I recently began listening to Timothy Ferriss' 4-Hour Work Week. The book proposes many interesting ideas, but by far the most immediately applicable are his productivity tips. The one I want to highlight in this post is the media fast experiment, which forces participants to avoid all news for a week. Instead of being the one to relay news to others, be the one asking others what's in the news.

I'm on my third day of the experiment. I've avoided visiting Digg and reading feeds on Google Reader. In an effort to be completely honest, I will admit that I did hit Techmeme yesterday and CNN today for about 5 minutes. I felt guilty both times and that feeling a good sign.

The effects have been moderate, but promising and encouraging. I've been getting more done at work and completing more personal to-do items out of work. Wasting time online is a slave to Parkinson's law (which Ferriss mentions in his book), which basically states that a task will grow to fill the time allotted to it. This is especially true for my RSS subscriptions, which are literally never-ending. Since I wouldn't allot a set time limit to my time-wasting (by definition), my time-wasting would grow to fill time until I got bored or tired.

Depending on how comfortable I feel with being able to control myself, I might allocate (by alarm) an hour or so sometime this weekend to go through Google Reader. Even though the experiment calls for a complete fast, an hour a week is a huge improvement over the multiple hours a day and I should be happy that I haven't gone mad yet with all this newly-recovered spare time.

And I just came across this blog post with a great summary of the book. Check out the productivity tips under Step II: E is for Elimination.

Technorati Tags: Timothy Ferriss, 4 Hour Work Week, news, experiment, media fast, wasting time

Posted in: books , lifehacks , me , news , productivity

yay, i’m not gonna die! (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

An update on the whole emergency room visit:

A few days after my initial visit to the ER (Friday), I had a follow up with my family doctor (Wednesday). He was able to more accurately pinpoint what was going on with me - kind of. He suspected it was pleurisy, although the lung scan from the hospital showed nothing to support this. However, he prescribed me antibiotics for it anyhow along with an anti-inflammatory and sent me off on my merry way. End of story? No. By the Monday after the doctor visit, things were definitely not getting better. Doc got another call, and I was told to go back to the ER… so that’s where the husband and I spent Tuesday evening. This time around, they did a CT scan and several other unnecessary (in my opinion) tests. Final ruling: definitely pleurisy. The bad news was that since the antibiotics aren’t working, it appears to be viral. I’m doing a little better now, aside from the muscular aches from compensating for sore areas. Still have a hard time being in one position for very long, whether it’s sitting or standing or sleeping.

This weekend will be interesting because we’re leaving in a few hours to go to DC to visit an old friend of mine. It’s a dual-purpose visit - wedding celebratory and plain old haven’t-seen-each-other-in-two-years-best-friends-since-8th-grade reunion. Anyway, I know we’re going to be doing a ton of walking, because we hardly ever drive anywhere in DC. Follow that up with prepping and serving the church’s Fellowship meal on Sunday and then worship team practice Monday night… well, let’s just say I’ll be more than a little sore.

I’ll end with a random odd thought here…. Does the phrase “better would have” make sense to you? As in “she better would have brought that with her”? Is it just a local thing?

Posted in: family & friends , lancaster county , me

just an ordinary friday… (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

Y’know, payday and end of the week and all that, right?

Wrong.

Fridays are pretty slow at work, and I was looking forward to getting caught up on some simple little things. Great plan, except I started having some major chest pains of the sharp, stabbing variety and I couldn’t breathe. Toss in the shakiness and numb/tingly feeling in my arms, and I was on the phone with the husband telling him to come get me. Convenient that our places of employment are 10 minutes from each other. I was perfectly fine with going home and resting, but his gut was saying to go see a doctor. I didn’t have the energy to argue, so off we were to the ER.

They admitted me to the ER around noon, and we didn’t leave until almost 4. Obviously I’m fine, although they have no idea what’s wrong with me. I played lab rat and let them take countless vials of blood, did a chest x-ray, had an EKG and a lung scan, and got poked with entirely too many needles… for nothing. Everything came back normal, which is great, except we have no idea why I’m still in pain. The discharge papers give a diagnosis of chest wall something (I left the papers in the car), and they gave me a script for Darvoset with instructions to follow up with the family doctor in a few days if it doesn’t get better.

I’m still in a fair amount of pain, and I can’t lay flat on my back… which means I got very little sleep last night. Never mind the fact that the Darvoset makes me a little more than the “slightly nauseous” that they warned me about.

At least yesterday was payday…

Posted in: me

wherein i beg for your help (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

Something has happened to my hair. It’s all… funky feeling. We went swimming last Sunday (Father’s Day), and even with daily showers and shampooing, my hair still feels gross. The best I can describe it is like when you don’t completely rinse the conditioner out of your hair, or how your hair feels when you take it out of a salon’s updo with all that crap they put in your hair. I’ve tried 3 different shampoos, and I’ve tried rinsing with lemon juice. Nothing’s worked so far :( At this point I doubt it has anything to do with the chlorine from the pool. There’s a distinct possibility that there’s something odd going on with our water heater, but what I don’t get is why my skin hasn’t been affected if it’s a change in our water quality.

*sigh*

Yucky hair makes me want to cry, so I’m open to suggestions. That and Mike’s tired of hearing me talk about it :P

Posted in: me

Quick Update (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

I've been back in Philly since last Wednesday, but Verizon won't activate my DSL until this Wednesday, so I've had very limited internet access. Work starts tomorrow, but once things get settled, I'll be posting more frequently. With WWDC starting tomorrow, I'm sure there will be plenty to talk about too.

Technorati Tags: Philly, Verizon, WWDC, Apple, blogging

Posted in: internet , me , philadelphia

it’s. so. SHORT. (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

First, the before pictures:

I drove up to visit Mike at work before heading to my appointment so he could take the before pictures because I got tired of trying to do the whole “take a picture while looking in the mirror” thing. And THIRTEEN inches later…

I can’t get over how short it is. My stylist, who happens to be a coworker’s wife, kept saying, “I can’t believe how much hair you have left!” while I kept saying, “I can’t believe how SHORT it is!” I love the cut, but it’ll take some getting used to, that’s for sure. This will be so much nicer for the warm weather, though. Plus it’s a lot lighter :D

Posted in: me

it DOES grow back. (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve entered summer here in the good ol’ northern hemisphere. That means it’s hot. Around here, that also means it’s humid. Combine those elements with the fact that my hair is both incredibly dark brown and exceedingly long, and you get, well, a very hot head. Come summertime, I always entertain the thought of cutting my hair. I haven’t had it chopped for a while now, so I’ve made the decision to not only majorly cut my hair, but to donate it to Locks of Love. Their minimum donation length is 10″, although anything they receive between 6″ to 10″ will be sold to help offset costs. A coworker measured my hair this morning, and with 10″ gone, it’ll still be below my shoulders.

Something to know about me - I haven’t had hair shorter than my shoulders in over 15 years. I also refuse to have hair that short again… at least for the time being. This is the shortest I’ve had it in those 15 years, and that picture was taken almost two years ago. I’m not dragging my feet at the thought of losing so much hair - it’s the thought of having short(er) hair. And no, those aren’t the same thing in my head :P But like the title says… it’ll grow back. Plus it’ll be nice to not have my ponytail sticking to the back of my neck in the summer.

In other news, I’ve been shuffling links around over there in the sidebar. Some new ones to note:

• Zoidland is a webcomic that’s written by my friend Jeff. It’s quirky and fun and go read it NOW or I’ll stab you in the face. Ok, maybe not. Just do it because you like me.
• Shelfari. What is Shelfari? According to their website, it is “a place to find new and interesting books that might not otherwise come up in general conversation with your friends.” The link there takes you to my own bookshelf, which is by no means near complete. Those were just the books I remembered off the top of my head when I was setting up the account.
• NYC Shiba Rescue is run by my blog friend Jenna. Like me, she’s also owned by a Shiba (two, actually), and she’s working her butt off to help out the breed.

edited to add: Apparently I’ve confused some people with this entry. I’ve NOT cut my hair yet, but don’t worry, I’ll be sure to post when I do. :D

Posted in: links , me

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

It's been a little under a month since my last blog post. I've been busy this past month, mainly taking care of the transition between college and the real world. Instead of blogging I spent most of my time being anxious/preparing for graduation and securing a new place to live. I graduated on May 13th/14th and since then I've been finding a new place to live. I picked up the keys to my new place last Thursday and today I bought some furniture from a former California gubernatorial candidate.

In the past month, I've split my time online mostly between Craig's List and Desktop Tower Defense. Much like I used to wonder how college kids lived without Facebook, I wonder how the world survived without Craig's List. I think I will eventually do a couple of blog posts about my apartment hunting experience and the college-real world transition in general.

The small time I had between graduation-related activities, I worked on a redesign of this site. A stupid oversight on my part (I hadn't installed the widgets plugin) kept me from launching it earlier. I tried to keep it as simple as possible, but I realized that there's I know very little about the science of design (if that makes any sense). I've always been interested in user experience/user interaction, so if anyone can point me to good resources on the subject, it would be greatly appreciated.

Now that I've got this "I'm back" post out of the way, I'll go back to posting some real content (the 22 tabs I've got open in Firefox will certainly help).

Technorati Tags: UPenn, University of Pennsylvania, graduation, commencement, Craig's List, Desktop Tower Defense, redesign, user experience, interaction, design

Posted in: design , me , penn , school

Twittering (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

I am on Twitter, but I don't know why. At least for me, Facebook status updates are much more convenient and more readily accessible to anyone that would care to know what I'm doing, if not equally useless.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, SMS, email, phone, IM

Posted in: email , im , me , mobile , sharing , snarky , social networks , web 2.0

2007 (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

I'm back and settled in for my last semester of school. Needing only two credits to graduate, I am only taking two classes, which means I have class only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I realize many people would kill to have this much free time, so I'm forcing myself to take advantage of it.

My first project for this semester will be sorting through, processing and uploading the 1500+ photos I took on our 10 day trip to Spain over the holidays. It was an action-packed trip, and we were exhausted most of the time, but we saw a ton of stuff, had a wonderful time and met some great people! Definitely something I won't forget for a long, long time.

Being free five days a week means I'll have little excuse to not blog. FWIW, here are my blog stats for 2006 and 2005 (thanks to Alex King for the SQL queries).

					2006		2005
					====		====
	Number of posts: 	 	 162 		 100
	Posts per day:			 .44		 .27
	Days between posts:		2.25		3.65

	Average post length: 		1428 		1362
	Total length of all posts:   231,413  	     136,295

I almost doubled my frequency on 2006 and I think I can definitely double it in 2007.

More goals/projects as they come up. Talk to you soon!

Technorati Tags: blogging, 2007, stats, vacation, trip, Spain, photography, photos, family, school, college, graduation

Posted in: blogs , family , me , school , spain , travel , vacation

1st and 10 (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

1st and 10

Originally uploaded by Martin Gordon.

As part of the Line (for Basketball season tickets), we went to Princeton last Saturday to watch the Quakers suffer their third OT loss in a row.

The rest of the photos from the game are here and some other photos from Friday night at the Line are here.

Technorati Tags: Penn, UPenn, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Princeton University, photography, football, Ivy League, Quakers, Tigers, Flickr

Posted in: flickr , me , penn , photography , school

10 Days! (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

It's been 10 days since I posted. Last weekend was fall break so me and my roommate, Adam, drove up to Boston for the weekend. Boston is a pain to navigate, and the recently released Google Maps for Palm OS was a real time saver — when I got cell phone service. It's astonishing how such Cingular doesn't provide adequate service in such a large metropolitan area. I get great service anywhere else I've been but Boston seems to be a black hole of Cingular coverage.

A bunch of things just bunched up on this short week, including a reaction paper to Fred Brooks' The Mythical Man-Month (which coincided almost perfectly with 37signals' release of a free online version of their software development book, Getting Real). and a bunch of group meetings. I've been re-inspired by Marc Canter's post on "the amount of automation, modernization and catch-up that the health and medical professions require," as it relates to one of my group projects related to his conclusion (which I won't disclose publicly in case we decide to take it further than just a pedagogical exercise).

Technorati Tags: Google, Google Maps, Palm OS, Treo 650, Cingular, Boston, Fred Brooks, Mythical Man-Month, 37signals, Getting Real, software development, Marc Canter, health care, medical, modernization

Posted in: books , boston , cingular , development , google , me , technology , travel , treo