Exploring the Northwoods (Stonetable) by Adam

Dogs #1 and #3 survived their visits to the vet yesterday, so armed with canine antibiotics we’re packing up the truck and heading to the Northwoods of Wisconsin to visit family for the holiday. It’s been nearly 10 months since we’ve seen my Dad and more since I’ve seen the rest of the clan. Andrea hasn’t met any of them yet.

I expect to fall behind on email, twitter, and LiveJournal. Don’t have too much fun without me.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating it. Give your loved ones a big hug and pay remembrance for those you can’t. Life is too short to waste it on tomorrows.

Posted in: life , travel , uncategorized

Home Again (Stonetable) by Adam

Home from New York City. Short trips like this are always a little tiring. So much activity crammed into a short period of time. This was my second trip to Ad Tech. I’m a techie at heart and don’t consider myself much of a salesman. That puts me in the minority at a trade show like this.

I’ve always had an eye for business. When I wrote software for the tanning industry, I would often talk to salon owners about what they did and what they needed. I even spent several nights working behind the counter, so I understood how their business worked.

Over the years, I’ve become a little more comfortable stepping out of the technical role. It helps that I’m passionate about the work I do and firmly believe we have a technically superior system. I designed it from the ground up and for the last four and a half years it’s been my baby. As the company grows and I step into more of a management role, I delegate more and slowly put the tools into the capable hands of the team we have built and continue to build.

I met many of my clients/partners at Ad Tech or the after party. It’s always a pleasure to put a face to the name. In some cases, there were people I’ve been working with for nearly five years that I met for the first time yesterday.

A good trip, good food, and good people. I passed Diane Neal from Law & Order: SVU on 7th avenue (I’m such a L&O fanboy). I had my first New York style hot dog. I ate my first (and possibly last) oyster. I celebrated Obama’s win in Times Square.

Posted in: travel , uncategorized , work

In the Big Apple (Stonetable) by Adam

I made it to New York City with minimal difficulty today. Court went smoothly and traffic was light, so I made it to O’Hare with enough time to catch an earlier flight. One shuttle and subway ride later, I found the Westin and checked-in.

I met my co-workers for dinner at Quality Meats, followed by 40/40, where we co-sponsored a VIP party for the trade show. A fun night, and I got to meet several people I’d only known via email or instant message.

Feeling a little dead tonight. My original flight was canceled and American Airlines decided they needed to call me at 4:15AM and 4:45AM to make sure I knew about it. Between that and the flight I managed about four hours sleep today and tomorrow’s going to be another busy day. Here’s to hoping the beds here are comfortable.

It also looks like I’ll be staying over an extra day, so home again on Wednesday. I’m already missing Andrea and our menagerie of pets. I hear the dogs have been camping out at the front door all day and night, waiting for my return.

I sent in my absentee ballot a couple weeks ago. If you haven’t already, please go vote and make your voice heard. I think we’re on the brink of seeing some real change happen and that makes me feel pretty damn good.

Posted in: politics , travel , uncategorized , work

In the Big Apple (Stonetable) by Adam

I made it to New York City with minimal difficulty today. Court went smoothly and traffic was light, so I made it to O’Hare with enough time to catch an earlier flight. One shuttle and subway ride later, I found the Westin and checked-in.

I met my co-workers for dinner at Quality Meats, followed by 40/40, where we co-sponsored a VIP party for the trade show. A fun night, and I got to meet several people I’d only known via email or instant message.

Feeling a little dead tonight. My original flight was canceled and American Airlines decided they needed to call me at 4:15AM and 4:45AM to make sure I knew about it. Between that and the flight I managed about four hours sleep today and tomorrow’s going to be another busy day. Here’s to hoping the beds here are comfortable.

It also looks like I’ll be staying over an extra day, so home again on Wednesday. I’m already missing Andrea and our menagerie of pets. I hear the dogs have been camping out at the front door all day and night, waiting for my return.

I sent in my absentee ballot a couple weeks ago. If you haven’t already, please go vote and make your voice heard. I think we’re on the brink of seeing some real change happen and that makes me feel pretty damn good.

Posted in: politics , travel , uncategorized , work

Sweet canine justice (Gibberish is my native language (DrFaulken)) by drfaulken

Yesterday I rode Raider, my BMW R1150R down to Savannah, Georgia to hang out with some friends of mine. I took I-95 for most of the way. Eventually I will take a less-traveled route and enjoy myself, but I like making this trip all in one day. I have been pleasantly surprised at how courteous cars [...] Posted in: georgia , motorcycling , r1150r , ride report , travel , winter miles

HE’S OFF HIS MEDS!! (Gibberish is my native language (DrFaulken)) by drfaulken

That’s about the last thing you want to hear on an airplane, right after “ALLAHU AKBAR” and the sound of a dead man’s switch being activated. My co-worker Jumbotron and I were in Charlotte, our connecting point to our flight to San Francisco. Tropical storm Fay was dumping a shit-ton of rain in the area, so [...] Posted in: flying , gibberish , mutant insects , travel , work

bi-monthly update (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

I’m nothing if not consistent about not being consistent. With the annual camping trip, new geek gadget, and now Vacation Bible School at church, blogging’s been the last thing on my mind. Actually, that’s not true. There have been several instances when I’ve thought about it, but have been too lazy to follow through with it :P

This was probably the best year so far for our camping trip - six families from church, kids that all got along, perfect weather, and plenty of food. It took a little longer than usual to get completely set up due to one of our sites being occupied until 2:30 (checkout is 2:00), but by the time we were all situated I was definitely ready to slip into camping mode. Friday was (mostly) a chill out and do whatever kind of day, with the entire group going down to the amusement park after dinner. After a Saturday morning session of laser tag for half the group, everybody headed over to the pool. I was perfectly content to just relax in the water, but the husband had fun dunking all the teenagers (who still think they can sink him) and generally acting like, well.. a kid in a pool :P The plan was to stay around for most of Sunday, too, but we ended up heading out around noon. Overall, it was one of the better group vacations I’ve ever been on.

I say Friday was mostly a chill out day because the Friday we were gone was also iPhone 3G release day. The husband was nice enough to be dragged away from the campsite before 7am so I could go park myself in line. Truth be told, the wait wasn’t nearly as horrendous as I expected. The campground is in a tiny town, so there just weren’t many people around - probably 20 people in line, total. It took longer than it should have because of all the activation issues that have been written about time and time again, but at least the store employees were nice about everything and came outside to talk to us every now and again. At some point they decided that they were going to stop activating in store, so I ended up leaving with a totally non-functional phone and was completely disconnected for the rest of the weekend. Kinda nice, actually.

Yesterday was the husband’s birthday, which we will celebrate once VBS week is over. I don’t know how we did it last year without the week-long break between camping and VBS. It’s only Wednesday and I’m already tired :P At least with this year’s Western/Cowboy theme, I don’t get picked on for saying “y’all” all the time. Now if only I could get them to learn that the plural form is “all y’all”…

Posted in: birthday , family & friends , tech , travel

today today today (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

We leave TODAY for our little weekend getaway, and all I have to say about that is: THANK. GOODNESS.

I suppose I should get packing, starting with crafty supplies first :P

(ignore this)
camera
spare battery and charger
bag with food
pillows
iPod
iPod speakers
chix strog recipe
book
cell chargers
tomtom(?)
crate
food
leash
bowl

Posted in: travel

More Video from Shanghai: Josh’s IDF Video Diary (Tiny Screenfuls (JoshB)) by Josh Bancroft

Here’s another collection of video clips from the two days of IDF Shanghai. Highlights include a look around the IDF venue (Shanghai International Convention Center), the Huangpu riverfront at night (gorgeous!), a peek at Chinese TV in my hotel room, a look at what websites are blocked in China and which aren’t, some “man on the street” video with Intel’s new Mobile Internet Devices, a look at the terrifying chaos that is pedestrian and vehicle traffic in Shanghai, and a cameo appearance by Celene Dion.

Like the walkabout video I posted before, these little clips were all shot in HD on my little Aiptek Go-HD video camera, then pieced together in Quicktime Pro and rendered down to 640×360 on my Elgato Turbo.264. And then converted to low quality Flash by YouTube. The video is about 10 minutes long, and I’ll probably post a higher quality version than what I can get from YouTube when I get home.I’ll probably keep shooting and posting these while I’m in Shanghai. I’m here until next week - going to spend a few days working with some of the Intel Software Network team here at Intel Shanghai. And I kind of like the style/technique of these videos. I’ve had lots of people ask me how I’m doing this. It’s very simple: I turn the screen on the camera so I can see myself, then hold it out at arm’s length, pointed at me, and pivot around in place to show what’s around me, while keeping myself on screen. Kind of fun to shoot, and I like the results.You know the drill - leave me a comment and tell me what you think. Want to see more like this? Hate it? Have something about Shanghai that you want me to shoot? Drop me a line, and let me know. And thanks for watching!

Posted in: blog , china , conference , developer , events , idf , intel , shanghai , travel , video

A few iPhone photos from Shanghai (Tiny Screenfuls (JoshB)) by Josh Bancroft

It’s been a whirlwind two days. IDF just got over, and for the last two days, I’ve been shooting video of keynotes, sessions, demos, and other interesting stuff. Since all my video gear is kinda heavy to lug around, I haven’t bothered taking my Nikon D40 DSLR with my, to take many photos. Now that I’m done with the heavy duty video stuff, I’ll have my camera with me much more while I’m here in Shanghai, and will take and post some more photos.

In the mean time, here are a few that I’ve managed to shoot with my iPhone. Some of these turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. As always, I love it when you comment on my stuff, so let me know what you think, and enjoy!

You can, as always, see all of the photos I share on Flickr.

Posted in: blog , china , idf , intel , photos , shanghai , travel

Video: Josh’s Shanghai Walkabout (Tiny Screenfuls (JoshB)) by Josh Bancroft

I’ve been in Shanghai for about a day and a half now, for the Spring 2008 Intel Developer Forum conference. I’m here to shoot video of stuff that’s interesting and useful for software developers and generally cover the event for Intel Software Network.

Yesterday was “Day 0″ of the event - badge pickup, etc., but no real events scheduled. I took the opportunity to escape my hotel, and do a little walkabout exploration of my surroundings in Shanghai. I’ve been shooting tons of pictures and video, and I could write thousands and thousands of words about how cool Shanghai is. For now, enjoy this little video I put together of my “walkabout” in Shanghai.

Features include: about 100 people offering to sell me a “Rolex”, some of the great Shanghai architecture, exploration of the “Super Brand Mall”, including the Chinese versions of McDonalds and Toys R Us, a supermarket, and more.

Later that evening, my ISN China colleagues (and Shanghai natives) Richard and Welles basically showed me the town. They took me to PC Mall, which is a 5 story mall full of nothing but computers, electronics, cameras, and games. It’s like Fry’s on crack, and I’m DEFINITELY going back there before I come home. There’s a bonus clip of PC Mall at the end of the video.

I also ran into my first “blocked in China” site while trying to upload this video - blip.tv. I love Blip, for lots of reason - video quality being one of the top. So I was bummed to not be able to use it for this video. Instead, it’s on YouTube (strange that Blip is blocked but YouTube isn’t - what’s up with that?), with the accompanying quality loss. But at least you can see it. And the quality isn’t super high anyway - it was all shot handheld in HD on my Aiptek Go-HD, then reencoded to 640×360 on my trusty Elgato Turbo.264. I’ll put up a high quality version when I get home.

Here’s the video - enjoy!

Posted in: blog , china , conference , developer , idf , intel , shanghai , travel

I’m in Austin, Texas, for SXSW Interactive (Tiny Screenfuls (JoshB)) by Josh Bancroft

I arrived last night in Austin, Texas, for the SXSW Interactive conference. I’ve watched this event from afar for a couple of years, and it always seems to be an awesome mix of fun, cool web technologies, and community. So this year, I decided to come.

Slightly off topic, I had an amazing view of Mt. Hood as we flew out of Portland yesterday. Sadly, my D40 was stowed, and I couldn’t get to it in time, but I did have the little Aiptek Go-HD, so I shot some HD video and a couple of the 5MP stills that it can do. Not the greatest quality, but hope it communicates how amazing the view was:

The actual SXSW event hasn’t even started yet - I’ll head over to the Austin Convention Center across the street in a little bit to pick up my badge, and attend one or two of the opening panels. There’s so much stuff going on at any given time that it’s kind of intimidating to decide where I should be at any given time. Not only are there actually three components to the SXSW festival going on at the same time (Interactive, Film, and Music), but each timeslot has like ten panels, all of them sound great, and there are tons of “extracurricular” events going on, like the Screenburn gaming festival, film premiers and screenings (I want to go see “Nerdcore Rising” and MC Frontalot!). Oh, and BarCampAustin. And lots and lots of friends that I haven’t seen for a long time. And tons of parties (which I probably won’t go to - I’m not much of a party person. Downside of being a true geek, I guess.) It’s so hard to plan ahead that I simply decided not to. There are a few things that I want to be sure to see, but I’m mostly playing it by ear.

I’ll be taking photos and shooting video, and posting real blog posts, but mainly, you can expect to keep up with what I’m doing via my Twitter microposts. You’ll find a daily summary posted here to the blog (but not in the feed), or you can see it all as it happens in my lifestream at www.joshbancroft.com, or follow me on Twitter. And if you’re in Austin and want to get together, just D me on Twitter, or email me (jabancroft@gmail.com). You can call me at 503-334-1889, but you’ll probably get my voicemail.

I’m going to head out, get some lunch, then go over and pick up my badge, check the place out, and sit in on a panel or two. Catch you later!

Posted in: austin , blog , conferences , sxsw , texas , travel

Tab Dump - Long Overdue Edition (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

Too many tabs sitting open for far too long. Here we go:

Hugh Macleod on Applying "Creativity" to Your Professional Life Etc. Some nice tips, especially for those of us just starting our professional lives. Not really much to say about this, but a lot to think about. I'll probably keep this open and glance at it every once in a while despite having linked to it. (Note: This was posted on January 9th so I've had it sitting in my browser for a month!)

Andre Torrez's first Django app is a simple random color generator that is absolutely amazing and beats any other "Hello, World" I've ever seen. I'm a Rails guy and this is so cool I might just try writing my own just for kicks.

Today Is The Day is a really weird and creepy one-post blog about a day in the life of a styrofoam man. Really can't say much else about it, but it's worth checking out.

Air Traffic Controller Don Brown on air traffic safety vs. capacity. Quite an interesting and enlightening read, though probably not the best thing to read two weeks before boarding a 17-hour flight (granted I read this before I knew I'd be going back to South Africa).

I will keep doing this periodically, but it's worth noting that I'm sharing a lot more of what I come across over on Google Reader. Check out my link blog or add me as a friend directly from Google Reader/Google Chat (martingordon at gmail).

Posted in: design , development , google , inspirational , sharing , south africa , travel

Coke Light Sango (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

On my latest trip to South Africa I flew through Paris where I discovered the best variation on Diet Coke (Coca-Cola Light in most other countries) I've ever had - Coke Light Sango. It's Coke with blood orange flavor (sango as in sang, the French word for blood) and much better than the Diet Coke with Lemon or Lime we have here in the States. A little bit of Googling revealed the Wikipedia page for the drink which states that Sango was the first variation on Coke developed outside of the company's Atlanta headquarters, in Belgium, the country with the largest Coke Light/Diet Coke consumption per capita. If a half-liter bottle didn't cost me €3.80, I would have brought some back with me. For now all I can do is hope that Coca-Cola decides to bring this over to the states.

Technorati Tags: Coca-Cola, Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Light, blood orange, drinks, soda, soft drinks, Coke Light Sango, Coca-Cola Sango, France, Belgium

Posted in: misc , travel

Notes from Joburg (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

I'm leaving South Africa today after a week-long business trip to Johannesburg and I've finally had some time to collect my thoughts. In no particular order:

• Security is a big deal here. All residences from middle class up are surrounded by 8 foot fences upon which are electric fences. Signs announcing "armed response" are all over the place. Radio advertisements for homes note electric fences as attributes of a home as matter-of-factly as the number of bedrooms and bathrooms.
• I posted about Vusi Mahlasela recently but I didn't appreciate his lyrics (the ones in English anyway) until visiting Soweto (the South Western Township where blacks were forced to live during apartheid) and reading about the anti-apartheid struggle.
• Soweto was not quite the ghetto I pictured. I did see the tiny 100 sq ft homes and tin shacks (comparable to Brazilian favelas) I was expecting, but I also saw larger homes with BMWs and Mercedes parked in front of them. There is much more social stratification in this so-called slum than the names used to describe it suggest.
• The weight of an empty Coke can is so deeply ingrained that I keep thinking there's soda left in the heavier SA cans when there's not.
• Before my plane left the US, flight attendants sprayed the plane. I still haven't found the reason behind this.
• The 16 hour flight here wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Whether my fatigue was due to jet lag or waking up at 6:30 every day is debatable. Regardless, the 7 hour time difference makes any sort of discussion with people back in the US extremely difficult. SA is almost a full business day ahead of New York and since things start winding down at 4:30 here, it makes any overlap in work hours miniscule if not nonexistent.
• My iPhone gets no service here. When I took my Treo to Spain last winter, I was able to roam there with no problem. A possible explanation might be that international roaming was disabled when I switched to the iPhone but something more nefarious might be at work.

Technorati Tags: South Africa, business trip, travel, thoughts, Joburg, Johannesburg

Posted in: south africa , thoughts , travel

Recovering from jet lag (Stonetable) by Adam

I'm home, safe and sound, and mostly recovered from the trip. The flight from Southern California to Chicago smooth and productive. I splurged a little and upgraded to first class (my first time riding up front). Overall, it was what I expected it to be. Squishier seats, more personalized attention, and better food. Warm chocolate chip cookies, you say? Yes please. For all of the security measures taken, I find it humorous that they still serve drinks in first class in a glass. I mean, I guess if you're flying in style, you must be a sane, stable person, right? I finished my last revisions to the first two scenes of "Wholesale Goods" during the flight. I think this story is wrapping up more or less the way I intended. Once this revision is done, I'm sending it off to the Writers of the Future contest and getting back to work on other stories. Two more to revise, lots more to create. I think I've finally figured out what Jim Gunn meant when he talked about presenting a story dramatically. It's one thing to hear the words and 'get' the concept, another thing entirely to understand it in a way as to put it into practice. I've internalized it, as I'm wont to do. The newest story I've been working on has, I think, really worked well in that regard. Now I need to keep putting it to practice until it's as natural as breathing and send more stories out! Posted in: travel , writing

Some days you ride the bear, other days the bear rides you. (Stonetable) by Adam

Despite careful planning and the best of intentions, yesterday's travels turned into a comedy of errors. Flav and I planned our flights so we'd arrive fairly close together. From there, we'd pick up the rental car reserved by work and make our way to the hotel. I woke up at 5:30 and jumped in the shower. By the time I made it downstairs, I had three messages on my cell phone, all from American Airlines. My flight was canceled. They rebooked me on a new flight that left an hour later but had a layover in Dallas. The extra hour gave us time to stop for breakfast on the way to the airport. At the airport, check-in goes smooth. I get to the gate with plenty of time. I sit and write. The plane at the gate, going to Boston, hasn't moved. They announce maintenance is looking at the brakes. Then they announce the plane is grounded, and my flight is now changing gates. Run across the terminal to find new gate. Flight to Dallas is smooth. I have five minutes to run across the terminal to find my connecting flight and get a seat assignment. The only food vendors nearby are Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. I pass. The trip from Dallas to Orange County goes smooth. I break down and spend $5 on a "turkey wrap" in-flight. All told, I added a new scene to "Wholesale Goods" and read about half of Nebula Awards Showcase 2007. Lots of good short stories in there. In Orange County, Flav finds me and we head to pick up the rental car. We go to the pickup area and are sent back to the airport to the service desk to "check in". Back in the airport, we find out that the person who made the reservation made it for a day earlier, so the reservation is automatically canceled. After a half-hour I finally wade through the red tape and have a car. By the time we get to the hotel, it's 5PM local time, 7PM for my body and with the exception of what passes for an airline snack, more than twelve hours since I had any food of substance. We checked in, freshened up and grabbed dinner. We get back and plan to meet, to prepare for the meetings today. I'm checking my email, news, etc., when I find the news about Robert Jordan. That puts a damper on what's left of my mood. Here's to a better day. Posted in: travel , writing

Quick updates (Stonetable) by Adam

Another week of work is finally over. It feels like the last couple weeks have been hectic and stressful. Things are looking up, though. I'm flying to California on Sunday, for a few days of meetings and planning. We're just about to start rolling out new products that will make my life much easier. I've managed to do a bit of new writing through all of this, both pieces of Flash Fiction during the weekly challenge. It's been fun experimenting with dark fiction/horror and exploring some background for a future story. I have one more piece of that story to write and then revise to be one complete short instead of three connected pieces of flash. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that yet, but it's been a very fun and useful exercise. The deadline for the Writers of the Future contest is coming up at the end of the month. I'm going to make a batch of revisions to one of my stories and send it off to that. I wasn't sure if that contest was worthwhile, but I've done a bit of research and spoken to a few people about it and it looks like the general consensus is that it is a good thing I've been switching back and forth between new stories and revising old. At some point it's time to either toss it in a drawer because I don't know how else to fix it or send it out into the world and hope it sticks somewhere. I've got a pretty clear idea of what's broken and how to fix it, so I'm going to make one more pass at the current drafts. Posted in: contests , flashfiction , travel , writing

Southern island getaway (Durf.org (Durf)) by Durf

Kagoshima resident Turner has blogged a trip to the island of ??? (Iôjima). Not the island that was a battlefield in the war, but part of the Mishima village island group. The photos of the hot springs make it look like a fantastic place to visit, if you’re in Kyushu with time to spare.

Added bonus: the island group also contains a ?? (Takeshima), in case you needed any more potential geographic confusion. I guess it’s only to be expected that this country would have multiple places named “bamboo island” and “sulfur island.” Japan is all about the volcanos and bamboo and stuff.

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Posted in: japan , travel

camping wrapup (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

We survived the annual Knoebels trip once again - even with ten teenagers. Perfect weather, with only one rain shower that barely lasted five minutes. I think we’ll book the same sites again next year since they were in a pretty good location. Not too far and not too close to either the bathrooms or the amusement park, plus roomy enough to hold all the people (and dogs) who were along. Due to the generosity (or insanity, we’re not sure which) of one of the families that came along, we had 14 loaves of bread, 12 pounds of bacon, at least 120 hot dogs, and I don’t know how many hamburgers. Guess what we ate for most of the weekend :P

The doggies had a good time once we figured out who needed to be separated from who. Dakota and Kaiser were obviously way excited to see each other and had a grand old time entertaining the group with their antics. I think the only disappointment there was that Kaiser never did sit on Dakota :P As usual, my little white dog came home an ugly shade of gray-brown. Nothing a good bath couldn’t take care of, but it was still kind of scary to see the bath water running black off of him. Added benefit of taking the dog camping? He’s pretty much been asleep since we got home Sunday afternoon.

The husband and I spent more time away from the campsite this year than in previous years between visiting the pool and wandering around the amusement park with the kids. It’s kind of nice having all the kids be old enough that they can go off on their own with means of communicating back to the adults - camping wouldn’t be nearly as fun if it was one big baby-sitting venture.

Now to try to get back into non-vacation mode…

Posted in: travel

calm before the storm. (multifarious miscellany (kitters)) by ami

It’s going to be a busy next few weeks, most of which I’m looking forward to.

First up is the much needed and highly anticipated annual Knoebels camping trip. We’ve got a huge crew going this year (18 definites and a handful of “maybe we’ll come up for a day”s), and it should be an interesting challenge to figure out how 4 tents, 2 popups, and 6 cars can be arranged on 3 campsites. This will be my 3rd year doing this trip, and hopefully it won’t be nearly as eventful as the first two. I just want peace and quiet for 4 days. Well, as peaceful and quiet as 10 teenagers will allow. We’re all packed up and ready to go (save for a few articles of clothing and pondering craft choices) - and the weather gods seem to be playing in my favor :)

Right on the tail end of camping is VBS at church. The husband and I have been decorating the hallways over the past couple of days and we’ll be continuing to volunteer in the kitchen throughout the week, and the kidlet will be helping out with the mini kidlets. It’s going to be a long week, but at least we’ll be able to wind down a bit before gearing up for the thing which I cannot speak of just yet.

*sigh*

Is it Thursday yet?

Posted in: travel

Who stole my space? (Stonetable) by Adam

Ham Radio

Last weekend, I finally went and took the test to upgrade my amateur radio license from Technician to General. That means I can now broadcast on a new range of frequencies that allow for longer-distance communication.

Grammar

I’ve been more aware lately that the current trend is to leave a single space after a period. This feels completely unnatural to me. I’m not that old, but I did learn to type on a typewriter where two spaces following a period was the status quo. Some even pointed out that web browsers only render a single space unless specifically told to do otherwise. It’s going to take me some getting used to this concept.

Writing

The current WIP is complete, coming in a few hundred words over where I wanted to be. Doing some chopping and revising before the workshop. I have another story in my head that I want to get started on, so the sooner I finish the current WIP the better.

CSSF SF Writers Workshop

Two weeks from today I’ll be loading the truck and driving down to Kansas for the workshop. I’m frantically finishing edits for the remaining two stories that I need to submit. Need to finish all the clerical details, plan my route, etc. I do plan on blogging regularly from the workshop. I don’t know if any of my classmates will be blogging but I will post links if I have them. So far I have only talked to one other attendee, who I will be sharing a room with.

Posted in: life , travel , writing

A beautiful start to the week (Stonetable) by Adam

I’m in southern California this week for work. I flew in to San Diego on Sunday and met up with some friends from AbsoluteWrite. We spent the day hiking in the mountains east of the city. Exhausting but fun. That evening, after dining on Tapas, I made the drive up to Orange County, where I’ll be until Wednesday.

I’m working from the corporate office, a pair of rented offices in a business park near the Irvine Spectrum. I’m training someone, showing them how the business works and how they’ll be able to help me manage the workload. Delegation, as I am discovering, is a wonderful thing.

We went to the Yardhouse for an absolutely yummy lunch (Mac and Cheese!). When we returned to the office, I found an e-mail from James Gunn waiting for me. I have officially been accepted into the CSSF Writer’s Workshop! I am extremely excited about the opportunity.

I’ll be flying home on Wednesday and sleeping until Friday (or so I wish). These trips to the home office are always productive but tiring.

Posted in: travel , work , writing

Penguicon 5.0 (Stonetable) by Adam

I’m home from Penguicon, weary and sleep-deprived but feeling positive. It was a great weekend. I met many new, interesting people and forged what I hope will be long-lasting friendships.

I got to hang out with all of my friends from Ars Technica, too. We cooked out on the grill and played poker Thursday night. I doubled my money. I ate way too much (which was probably a good thing considering how poorly I ate through the weekend).

Writers Workshop

The first workshop event was a meet-and-greet. We were given a bound copy of our submitted stories, formatted and printed through Lulu. The idea is to give us a taste of what seeing our name in print is like.

We were given access to the green room, a smaller room for staff and guests of the con. It gave us a quieter place to congregate, discuss writing and get critiques of our stories.

I received some good feedback on the story I workshopped, “Recycled Dreams”. After the next round of edits it will go out as my first submission in more years than I care to admit.

Posted in: penguicon , travel , writing

On the road to Penguicon (Stonetable) by Adam

I’m leaving bright and early Thursday morning (6am-ish), to meet Jorge and crew prior to Penguicon. It’s a six hour drive so I expect to roll in to Troy mid-afternoon to hang out, bbq, play poker and xbox. Everyone else, I’ll see you friday at Penguicon

Posted in: friends , penguicon , travel

De 7 A 11 Y De 15 A 17 H (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

De 7 A 11 Y De 15 A 17 H

Originally uploaded by Martin Gordon.

Posted in: flickr , photography , spain , travel , vacation

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

The Illusionist (Stonetable) by Adam

The in-flight movie during our trip to California today was “The Illusionist”, starring Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, and Jessica Biel. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, so all I will say is that you need to see it. It’s one of the best movies I’ve seen in recent memory.

Posted in: reviews , travel

Viva Las Vegas (Stonetable) by Adam

Dena and I went to Las Vegas last weekend for a mini-vacation and to meet with some of the supportive folks from Calorie Count. We’ve been to Vegas once before, but that was a one-night layover on our drive from Chicago to Los Angeles (and we stayed at a cheap motel). We stayed on the strip this time, at the Luxor.

Talk about a mish-mash of people! Las Vegas is one of the biggest tourist spots in the world, and the strip is the heart of that activity. There’s a lot to do and see, but we chose to watch Penn and Teller at the Rio Hotel. The show was fabulous. Afterwards, the cast hung out in the lobby and signed autographs and shook hands. It was pretty cool.

It was a little creepy to see the men and women handing out coupons for strippers and escorts to everyone walking by.. and I mean everyone. I saw them try handing them to men, woman, (young and old) and children. Next year we’re going to have a contest to see who can collect the most coupons, for the most services.

There’s a ton of shopping to be done. Walkways connect the Luxor, New York, New York, and the MGM Grand. We also walked through Caesars and a few other random hotels. I think I wore a hole in my shoes from all of the walking we did. That’s probably a good thing, given the food we ate. We didn’t have a single bad meal while we were there. We originally tried to get reservations at Emeril’s New Orlean’s Fishhouse for dinner one night but it was booked up. We went to Wolfgang Puck’s Bar and Grill in the MGM Grand instead and it was the best food we’ve ever eaten. Their Truffled Blue Cheese Chips were unbelievable and the Bread Pudding was to die for. Highly recommended.

We finished up on Monday, tired and poorer. We headed to the airport nice and early. Our flight ended up being delayed a few times. We eventually got home at 3AM Tuesday morning. I’m still catching up on sleep. I could never live in Las Vegas (my mom and brother used to) but it can be a fun place to visit. Next time I’m going to play some poker.

Posted in: general , travel

First Wii Kiosk Is In South Florida (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

Well how about that! A Gamestop in practically my backyard (well, some 20 miles from my backyard) is the first Gamestop in the country to set up their Wii Kiosk. It's too bad I won't be back in Miami until Thanksgiving, after the Wii comes out, or else I'd go check it out.

Now to convince myself that taking the Wii home for Thanksgiving is a good idea, despite the hassle TSA might give me ("Uh, sorry, sir, this is a, uh, banned substance. We're gonna have to confiscate it." Five minutes later: "Hey, Bob! I just scored a Wii! It'll go great with my collection of 50,000 lighters and 20,000 bottles of shampoo!"). Although it would be great to get some impressions from my family - who are far from being even casual gamers (well, except my mom, who loves FreeCell).

Technorati Tags: Wii, Nintendo, Miami, Florida, South Florida, GameStop, kiosk, TSA, security, games, video games

Posted in: florida , games , miami , nintendo , travel , wii