Chin chin 2 for lunch.

Mmmmm. Table mustard.

I saw Michael Shermer!

Neato! He signed my book.

Saturday @ DragonCon2007

OK - There is so much going on at Dragon*Con - and I'm all over the place in my interests, but I've sort of narrowed things down to these choices. This of course ignores stuff like wandering around in the Dealer's room (where I got 20 D&D minis for $1 each!!!).

Jref presentation.

Neat! Be a psychic and win a million dollars!

Mur Lafferty reads.

I pretty much missed this entire thing trying to get across three hotels.

MBA

www.miniaturebuildingauthority.com

Made of resin - not plaster!

Hey curtis!

Last little bit

Almost up to the badge dude.

Registration 1

Harry potter 7 party

Testing autopost of pix from my treo.

Extending Firefox to include D20 search

One of my favorite websites is the D20SRD site - http://www.d20srd.org. They've got a nifty plug-in for the little search drop-down window in Firefox.

Get it here:
http://www.d20srd.org/browserGoodies/index.htm

Nice.

Will we finally see the full Wicker?

According to the BBC website, they are finally releasing the "FULL VERSION" of the classic British horror film, "The Wicker Man." This in contrast to the brutalized 80 minute American release and the previously released 100 minute "director's cut."

Apparently - at least according to actor Edward Woodward - the new version is closer to two full hours. I've been unable to find the specs on it so far, but I'm excited. I love British horror from the 1960's and early 1970's - and this is an exemplary piece with its weirdly behaving discordian villagers, the strangely hip Christopher Lee, and the sexually and religiously repressed Woodward as the cop looking for a missing girl.

This ain't a happy fun-time film. But I like it better than Race with the Devil. (LOL) (Which, by the way, appears to be in re-make mode according to IMDB.)

D&D 4th Edition

Could this be the e-tool I've been waiting for? I'll have to wait and see, but I'm already disappointed to hear they want a subscription based service fee...

Yet, it looks cool in some ways.

Part 1


Part 2


By the way, this makes my June 14th post seem a lot more prescient.

20,000 Words

Well, I made it to 20,000 words. I think I'm still on track to get to a "full Novel" before September 11th.

If I don't here's what happens: I have to put up a Billy Bass on my wall for 30 days.
This "bass of shame" will sing (to my utter humiliation) every time I enter my office, reminding me that I should have worked harder towards reaching my goal.

I really don't want that...

OMG - An actual post about gaming!

A funny thing happened at my most recent gaming session. I forgot about the movement rules in D&D 3.5 - and when one of the other players tried to explain it, I just sat there unable to "get it." Sad. I knew it was a basic geometry principal at work, but I couldn't remember which it was.

First, let me remind you of the movement rules. When you are making diagonal movement the first diagonal step counts as 1. The second counts as 2. The third counts as 1 again. The pattern repeats.

But at first glance, the distance between the diagonal of the square shape compared to the vertical or horizontal size didn't seem different enough to count for anything, and my gut instinct was to count all movement as 1 point. Then, I pulled out a pencil and measured the straight distance across 5 grid squares. And then I measured the distance across 5 grid squares diagonally, and could see the diagonal distance was greater.

Here in this illustration, we see Howard the Kobold who wants to run up and shatter the big jade throne before the golem guards can activate. Howard moves 1 space forward, then 1 diagonal, then 1 straight across, then 1 diagonal. The movement costs are 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 because the first diagonal costs 1, and the second costs 2.Of course the geometric principal that was floating around helplessly in my brain was the Pythagorean theorem. This rule states that relationships of the sides of a triangle are a ² + b² = c². More to the point, it means that the relationship between the length of the sides of the square and the diagonal of the square is that diagonal length is going to be equal to the square root of 2.

We can solve for c using the formula squareroot(a² + b² ) = c
(I couldn't figure out how to make the square-root symbol cover the a & b... Sorry!)
But it always ends up being the square root of 2, which is an irrational number.
Still, if you use a calculator to solve the value, you get something like 1.4142136 - which is slightly less than 1.5.

Since there is no half-square movement in D&D, the rule of diagonal movement costing first 1, then 2, then 1 again is a rough mathematical equivalent to having it cost 1.5 movement to move diagonal. If you end on a 1.5 it costs 1. But if you go two diagonal spaces, it costs (1.5 + 1.5) a total of 3.


Oh Geometry, why did I forget so much of you? And why don't schools use gaming to teach math? Doesn't troop and unit movement seem more fun than just solving problems?

I still remember physics from Nuclear A-School in the Navy - we always dealt with the terrible fates of metaphorical cats. Though we never really shot a cat out of a cannon into a brick wall, we certainly knew how to calculate the theoretical velocity of the cat at the moment of impact. (assuming a vacuum through which to fire said feline, a device to measure the speed of the cat, and somebody to keep the animal rights people from stopping the important experiment!)

Mage Knight Happy Luck Auction

Wow! I won an e-bay auction for a Mage-Knight sample set. It was closed-box and there were no indications what it would contain. I was hoping for some floor-tiles and wall-tiles for the 3-d dungeons - but was blown away to find 110 figures (mostly very useful ones) and a bunch of treasure chests too!

Delight ain't in it. I'm overwhelmed with auction-bliss! At $20 - what a bargain for me!

Postcards from the center of the Earth!

I buy a lot of used books. Sometimes I find stuff in them. I always think about trying to get this detritus back to its original owners, though I rarely find myself able to do so.

In this case, I bought a copy of E. R. Burrough's hollow earth stories - an omnibus edition with "At the Earth's Core," "Pellucidar," and "Tanar of Pellucidar." Inside was a post-card from 1977. It was a guy named "Rob" and sent to Mr. Jim Boudreau in Albany.

I bought the book at a used bookstore in Rochester in 2002.

Here's what the postcard said:

22 Jan 1977
Dear Jim,

How were your holidays? Mine were
great. I'm here in Austria with my girl-friend Martha. I've spent
the last couple of weeks job searching in Vienna with little luck.
Foreigners aren't needed in the labor force! But Martha and I have been to
see many old friends here as well as to the theater and an operetta. Write
soon and let me know if you have a job.

-Rob.

Sent to:
Mr. Jim Boudreau
10 Beach Ave. Apt C
Albany, New York
USA 12209

Anyway, I've included scans of the postcard front & back. If you find this postcard, Mr. Boudreau - I hope you've found work somewhere since 1977! I wonder about you. Did you get to see Star Wars? I heard it was quite the thing that year. And did Rob and Martha ever get work in Austria?

Who knows?

OMG - Talisman!

Finally they are re-releasing one of my favorite board games of all time. Yes, Talisman is coming out again. The new version looks much more like 2nd edition, and is being simultaneously released with a video-game version being distributed through CAPCOM.

Hey - watch the cool trailer with soundtrack!

Gleemax - the huh? An opinion piece.

OK, for a while now I've been watching WOTC's massive license pull with growing interest. I noticed they even pulled the electronic licenses for the e-tools and PCGen community authorized D&D content. Then I saw they were hiring a ton of web developers and artists, and I started speculating that they were going to make their own electronic gaming toolset. That may be true some day, but for now it looks like a lot of that talent was working on this: GLEEMAX

According to the site's first announcement, they will be hosting a lot of things that exist already on sites such as ENworld... but, this will be funded by WOTC - and therefore could look really cool because the artwork and tools are being done for hire instead of as fan-work. BUT, and like the posterior of the great wrestler Yokozuna, this is a big but - unless there is a profit/revenue source for the site I predict nothing much will come of it. There are already more than enough sites out there for fans of gaming, including WOTC's own site at www.Wizards.com.

So what will it be?
We'll wait and see.

Ill Conceived? Or Pure Evil???

I saw Spiderman 3 last night. Ah, movies. I love movies.

In this film (in case you didn't know) Peter Parker deals with the alien symbiont that changes him into a dark version of himself, and which eventually spawns the entity known as Venom. I love Sam Raimi and trust him - but when he tried to show Parker as the "dark" version of his psyche - why did he have to base him on Chris Gaines??? We may never know. Still a brilliant load of fun, but Garth's alter ego should never be used to template popular comics-based heroes in film. That's my 2 cents worth.

Before the Navy...

I found this picture again. It was taken before I joined the Navy - which would make it some time in 1990 - perhaps September or October? These were my friends then - and I'm still in touch with most of them. Surprisingly, everyone in this picture looks healthier, younger and happier now! (hahaha!) I'm just amazed how many of the guys in this picture are now "follicle-challenged."

Success - and just in time for the rain storm

Well, there is still some landscaping to do - but the plants are in. And they sky has clouded up and looks like it is going to rain. Whew! Just in time.



Now I just need to put some mid-sized pea-gravel down on the bottom and do some herbs around the edge of the drain hole itself (on the upper part). But the plants are planted, and nature will do its thing now. (Which probably means that the dang rabbits will eat all my plants down to the little plastic ID tag by tomorrow morning.)

Closer to the Happy Ending

I got the dirt in now - and it is possible that I could have my plants in place as early as tomorrow night. Woo-hoo!

Seperated at Birth - by another time machine?

I've been doing research on John C. Calhoun for my novel. I kept thinking he looked familiar - and not just because I'd seen him in history books. Then it hit me. He looks a lot like Don Imus. Don't you think?

It's not exact - and I have no idea what is up with JCC's hands. I just suggest you don't stare at them, for they may gesture you into madness.

Fiasco or World Wonder?

I'm still working on a project I conceived more than a year ago. A drain hole exists in my backyard that lets water from the neighborhood pour down a long subterranean tunnel into a retention pond at the far end of my 'hood. When I had no kids this was no problem, but after my first was born I got to thinking that if a kid got in the hole it would be bad... so I covered it with a steel grid to keep people out, but let water in.

The hole itself was surrounded by an impenetrable wall of blackberry bushes - which made it less subject to kids, but more dangerous if a ball went over this hedge and needed to be retrieved. To shorten this tale, I conceived of a way to convert the weed and thorn filled hole into a tiered vegetable garden.

At long last I'm making progress. Here are some shots of "before" and current work on the project.

I intend to re-do this in stone at some point, but doing it with lumber is about $300 cheaper than the dry-stack masonry I prefer.

This is a BEFORE view of the project after a neighbor kindly used a bobcat and took down the blackberry bushes for me. I installed the silt fence and began to contemplate what I could do with this. You can get a more detailed picture by clicking on these. My plan was to setup two tiers of garden rows, and then setup some stairs opposite the drain hole. This crude drawing is what I've been working from.
Here you can see the wooden structure. Those walls are 8 foot long 2x4's which gives you some idea of the scale of this earthwork project.
Here's a view of the before state, facing the drain hole. When I'm done, this photo would be taken from the top of the stairs.

Here's the "current" view of progress. I should be able to get plants in within a week barring unforeseen circumstances.
The steps themselves may be the hardest part - but if the Egyptians could do it so can I. Because I've seen dozens of documentaries and I know that when I'm ready, UFOs will appear and beam the steps into place - then give me secret knowledge. And tomatoes. Just in case they don't show up, I'll keep working using shovels, picks, and gloves. (But I just know they will. Aliens love tomatoes.)

MoneyPenny

My son ate a penny. Here is the hilarious picture.
In theory, he understands not to do this again.

Procrastinatus is my Roman Name

It's sad that when I had all the time in the world to write, I hadn't the skill to do it as well as I can now. Yet now when I have the skill, and even when I make the time, I find the world full of distractions - a carnival of minutiae that makes the most banal entertainment seem infinitely more interesting than working on my own book.

I'm certain this is the kind of self-destructive, auto-sabotage that makes most people stay wannabes. The skilled craftsman who never builds, the talented singer whose audience is only the empty car seats on the way to work, and me - a union of wasted potential if we keep up to our old tricks...

I want to finish my book. I'm going to finish my book.

Seperated at Birth - by a Time Machine!?

They favor. The similarity ends there.

No, I ain't dead...

Been working on my book and at the same time trying to do a bunch of corporate work, freelance work, and selling off CONSIGNMENT stuff. Sadly I wasted a lot of time (in an enjoyable fashion) playing a video game.

But let's be honest. I don't want my tombstone to say, "He played some video games."

Wrote a new "Movies for Gamers who like movies" review. As always, I hope you enjoy it.

------------------

Updated 3-21 to point out that despite my perceptions, a Consignment Sale is not a Yard Sale. Even though you get rid of junk... (But there is no haggling at a consignment sale, AFAICT.)

NPR Pod-casts

Well, it had been a while since I'd checked, but three of my favorite NPR programs are now doing podcast editions:

1) The Writer's Almanac - Garrison Keillor talks about writers and reads a poem.
That doesn't do justice to this inspiring and informational 5 minutes of daily support. It's like an artistic devotional, a sermon on the accomplishments of others with the unspoken but repeated message, "You too can contribute to the collective works of man."

2) This American Life - a collection of radio essays, usually bound to a theme, introduced with wit by Ira Glass. To create your own T.A.L., turn on some jazz instrumentals and speak aloud about the time you did something interesting. Can't think of anything? Listen to this show.

3) Fresh Air - host Terry Gross interviews people. There was a naive time when I believed that a person had really "arrived" when they got to be on Fresh Air. This was before I'd heard of press junkets and book tours. I thought, "Man - what a rush it must be when Terry calls you up and says, 'come be on my show!'." But she doesn't do that.

Anyway, of these shows, Fresh Air has a huge archive of previous episodes in either Real or Windows Media format. So the podcast isn't so important on that one, but Writers Almanac - that's like waking up to biscuits and fresh made coffee with a little homemade peach jelly and soft butter.

The magic of B-flat.

Have you heard about b-flat?

This is an NPR story that is sung,
so best listened to instead of read.
But then it's National Public Radio,
not National Public Book.

Make sure your speakers are working and then click the listen button on the NPR page.

Sixty bucks. Hmmmm.

I had no idea.

Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock

Well, I had a good time playing City of Villains last weekend. But I have to put that on hold until April. This is amusing. If I finish my novel in the appointed two months (Feb/Mar) I'll be done on April 1st.

That seems apropos.

I'm leaving my team-speak server up for my friends to use in my absence. Have fun. I sure hope Robyn Graeves will wait for Dead Wreckoner to come back and play...

Need to find a Death Certificate?

The Center for Disease Control has a great resource for every state.

Georgia
Event: Birth or death
Cost of copy: $10.00

Address:
Georgia Department of Human Resources
Vital Records
2600 Skyland Drive, NE
Atlanta, GA 30319-3640

Remarks: State office has records since January 1919. For earlier records in Atlanta or Savannah or other cities or counties, write to the Vital Records Office in county where event occurred. Additional copies of same record ordered at same time are $5.00 each.

Money order should be made payable to Vital Records. Personal checks are not accepted. To verify current fees, the telephone number is (404) 679-4701. This is a recorded message. Information on how to obtain certified copies is also available via the Internet at http://health.state.ga.us/programs/vitalrecords.

The requestor must provide a photocopy of a valid photo ID.

I had forgotten about this.

Sometimes when I'm surfing I crash into rocks that I really ought to have remembered.



This is an ad from the game Dai Katana. (That means "The Katana".)

Why I've Moved My Deadline

For those of you interested in my progress on my Southern Knights project, here is an update. In November after NaNoWriMo, I decided that I should work on a project that I felt had real fiscal viability. I love writing, but I'm all my dreams and goals in writing involve me making money. I had anticipated taking the month of December to work on all the necessary background work so that I could start writing in January and push on through February and be done without having to spend any time stopping to do research.
But it turned out that December was a month of sickness and biblical plagues around here, and since I forgot to put blood on my doorway we got nailed by the Angel of Flu. I am stubborn, and decided that even though I didn't have time to do all the prep work I'd wanted that I would press on, but when I started work in January I found about 70% of my time was being spent going back to my research material because I didn't have the notes I needed.
Also, my book's one important female character wasn't important - and that needs to be fixed. She either needs to have some reason to be in the book, or she needs to pick up her stuff and leave. (And she really ought to have some reason...)
But I'm not giving up on this. There is a fish at stake.
Instead, I've decided to move my start date out to Feb. 1st, 2007. My new "finish" date for the first draft will be March 31, 2007. I will spend the rest of January getting my notes & research in order, and feel better already about the viability of the project.

The End of 2006

I spent a few hours yesterday running through some gaming tests with my friends to figure out what system I want to use for the upcoming 1200AD campaign I'm starting. The tests were interesting, comparing the "A Game of Thrones d20" with "D&D 3.5" in producing the same battle.

Tomorrow is January 1st - and I'm going to start working on my "real" novel in the morning. I've done a lot of pre-work, defining characters & plot elements. Today will be a real slogger for me as I have to finalize some of the work.

The most important thing is that I don't get bogged down on some of the details, but just keep going. I think momentum will be very important to me for the first draft, which I want to have completed by Feb 28th. When I get my chapters all done I hope to have a word count around 90,000.

I spent about two weeks trying to get my story, "The Angle of Incidence" ready to become a novel - but in the end realized it just didn't have enough material in it. I hope to turn it into a long "short story" and submit it in the future. I really like the story it tells, but to make it into a novel would require troweling on a lot of stuff that might not stick, and might look artificial.

So instead, I'm working on a non-supernatural Thriller. My working title is Southern Knights - and it is the Red-Neck DaVinci Code.

My first chiken tikka masala

This is a photo of my first ever effort at cooking my own Chicken Tika Masala. It turned out pretty darn good. I wish I'd used more yogurt so there'd been more sauce for the rice.

Now I just need to figure out how to cook my own Naan bread, and I'll be able to make one of my favorite meals at home.

Look out General Tso, you're next!

Merry Christmas

I was working on a special geek-christmas card, but due to family illness didn't get it finished in time for the date. Perhaps next year, or perhaps I'll just post it out of holiday sequence. That'll teach 'em.

Waiting for santa

I can't catch up with the past

I'm a gamer. You either identify yourself as a gamer or you don't.

I do.

I've been in a love-hate relationship with computer games since they first became available to me through the VIC-20 and the Atari 2600 Video Computer System Console. On the one hand, I love the way the games let you simulate battle without keeping track of mathematics or having to keep track of hundreds of counters, yet on the other hand the rules of the computer limit your ability to innovate or question the rules as implemented.

The classic example is in Computer Role Playing Games where either the storyline is on a "rail system" where you can only act towards the completion of the programmed plot, or the limitations of the mechanics don't allow you to innovate in your problem solving. For example, if you're playing a rogue in a D&D style computer game and you suspect that one of the King's council is actually going to betray him there is no way to (a) accuse him until the game lets you, (b) poison or otherwise dispose of him to protect the king, or (c) blackmail and/or collude with him to overthrow the monarch.

Or for a more simple example, in Neverwinter Nights (v1) the maps of the inside of buildings are completely different areas than the outside so you can't look out the window and see who is coming because even though you're supposed to be in the same area, you're not.

Anyway, limitations aside, I'm still amazed at the evolution of gaming. Text adventures and arcade shooters have evolved to an astounding degree in the past 30 years... at least on the outside.

But how much have the "GAMES" themselves evolved? Don't be fooled by smoke & mirrors. Yeah, thanks to the work of the graphics card industry, you can now get 3D models with astounding textures, and the computing power to render nearly photo-realistic environments. But if the game is still just a 3D shooter, is it really "better" than Duke-Nukem 3D? Do new weapons and better looking models really make a difference?

Eventually the rendering is going to be irrelevant and what will drive the success of a game will come down to three factors.

1) Marketing: There is a segment (a really big segment) that will buy anything if a hot commercial pushes it. They don't get repeat business this way, but sometimes can clear a lot of inventory.

2) Story: If the game is competently built, an excellent story will sell itself. Games with superb stories and these modern engines can essentially become interactive movies. Half-Life 2 has a great engine and an interesting story. It is essentially an action film where you play the MUTE hero and everybody else yaks all the time giving you the plot through voluminous expository speeches. I wouldn't pay $.50 to see it in theatres, but I happily dished out $50.00 to play the game.

3) Gameplay: If the story is crap and the marketing is crap - the game can still be successful if the GAMEPLAY is awesome & addictive. If you can tell me the narrative of Tetris, Bejewelled or Pac Man, well then you're some kind of very special idiot. Nobody cares about the story, they're just fun to play.

I was originally just going to post a link to the granddaddy of all adventure games , which - just like real casino games - you can now play ADVENTURE online!

My Secret Obsession - very tiny cars

I love little cars. I'm WAY too big to actually fit into one and ride around, but I just love tiny machines that get great gas mileage and yet would fit neatly in the back of my enormous pickup truck.

Lucky me!

While doing research on the ISO Isetta, I found a really neat micro-car museum. I decided to see where the museum was, figuring some day in my travels maybe I could make my way to The Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum if I ever made it all the way to MADISON, GEORGIA!!!

Yes:

The Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum Inc.
2950 Eatonton Road
Madison, GA 30650

Merely an hour and a half drive from my house. Oh, boy! If I didn't have the flu I'd probably go today. But a trip of 90 minutes takes a little planning. Maybe I'll make an event of it.

And I could go check out Crowe's Open Air BBQ, just up the street from the museum. Hmmm. BBQ and tiny little cars - that seems like a good idea for a nice afternoon.

The website says:
Museum Hours:
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
1:00pm to 4:00pm
closed Nov 21,22,23 (Thanksgiving week)
closed the week Before and 2 weeks After Christmas
closed the months of JUNE & JULY


That's a small window of opportunity, but it might be doable. I'd just have to burn a vacation day. Though it sounds like it'll be next year before I make it. Oh, 2007 - you're such a temptress with your little cars and BBQ...

Life is Astounding

We are so amazingly privileged in America. I try to never lose sight of that. While I've never "lived off the grid" I am certain that I could survive thanks to my country-ish upbringing. Like the song says, I can lay a trot-line. I believe I can also hunt, grow food, find shelter, find water, etc...

But I can also sit in my bed (like now), write on a laptop which is wirelessly connected to a broadband Internet connection, watch a DVD of "Kolchak - The Night Stalker", and struggle to survive the flu.

I suppose I could also struggle to survive the flu without electricity, but this is more fun. In fact, I just found a nostalgia factory in the form of a website that lets me play classic commodore-64 games through my browser. Now I don't even need an emulator - it's Java, baby!

Still, I wish the flu would leave me and my wife. At least the kids seem to be faring well, though I suspect their inoculations led to my infection.

Remove "UnDock" from your START menu

I am a corporate laptop user. We have docking stations. There is an annoying little menu option when I click START that is perilously close to the shut-down option. It says "Undock Computer" and it annoys me to a terrible degree.

There is a registry hack to get rid of it. Here it is if you want it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoDriveTypeAutoRun"=dword:00000091
"NoStartMenuEjectPC"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\RestrictRun]

Save that code as "no-undock.reg" and then run it to get rid of that pest.

Humans - a lossy format

You may know by now that James Kim, an editor at CNet, died this week in the mountains of Oregon after he and his family got snowed in on a mountain pass. This story troubled me on so many levels.

Let me tell you my tenuous connection to James. I'm a fan of Tech-TV's Screensavers. Note that I don't say I "was" a fan. I "am" a fan. When Tech-TV merged to form G4, I quit watching because they canceled most of my shows and fired a lot of the people I really felt a kinship to. There was nothing like Tech-TV's shows that really called out to me. There were no regulars on The Screensavers that I didn't feel like would be welcome in my home.

I moved on when that show was canceled, but always kept a place for it in my heart. I had met Pat & Leo at various tours they did here in the south, and in person they were as affable and easy to like as they were on television. Plus, they usually knew what they were talking about, which is a trait that I really prefer.

After The Screensavers ended, I felt a little lost - but had a lot more free hours on my TIVO. Recently I discovered that Leo & Pat (And John C. Dvorak and frequently Jerry Pournelle, plus others) had a weekly podcast called This Week in Tech (or TWiT). On the show I found the same sort of lively, friendly tech-savvy discussion that had made The Screensavers so cool. In many ways, this seemed to be the pod-based resurrection.

Then this past week, tragic news came as Leo & Pat told that James Kim, a mutual friend of theirs, was missing along with his family. My first thought was that they were probably murdered by a wandering serial killer. It never occurred to me that they might have become snowed-in on a rural mountain pass.

Now comes the tragic news that James didn't make it. Going back to look at a video montage over at Cnet I realized that James was very thin. Going for seven days with no food and then setting out on foot to try and hike 30 miles for help in icy weather when you're skinny - that's a formula for trouble. Sadly, James wasn't fat and reportedly didn't have the kind of training and equipment that would serve him well in icy weather.

But fortunately his family was found and his wife and daughters will be OK. I wish he had made it. I'd have much preferred a Reader's Digest style "Drama in Real Life" where James walks 30 miles to get help - only to discover that his wife and kids are already rescued. Sadly, that's not what happened. Whatever caused Jame's death, he was doing the thing he thought most important - risking his own life to try and save his family.

I feel sad for his family, for Pat & Leo, and for Cnet. He seemed like a really nice, funny guy.

A Series of Unfortunate Events - the Music

The Tragic Treasury is out on i-tunes and provides many songs from the audio versions of A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Dungeons & Dragons - The Complete Series DVD

The Dungeons & Dragons cartoon series from the 1980's is available for pre-order and will be released December 5th! Wow! This was a cartoon I totally had to sneak around to watch because it was about Dungeons & Dragons. Sort-of.

The guy at the video store showed me the box but couldn't sell it to me - but it is cheaper at Amazon (CLICK HERE TO BUY - AND DON'T FORGET TO BUY ME ONE TOO).

guess where I ate breakfast

Another "Movie for Gamers Who Like Movies" review

I finally finished my review for Dungeons & Dragons : The Movie. I think it speaks for itself; it just doesn't link for itself.

Peace, out.

Where's the Love?

NaNoWriMo is not just a crazy idea; it is also a charity non-profit which uses its funds to build libraries in Southeast Asia. This year the target goal is $200,000. You don't have to be a writer to help out. Just hop on over to the NaNoWriMo store and make a donation. You can even use PayPal to do it!

Why not turn some of your e-bay cash into a place that will help kids read?

Cream of Coconut

Here's a bit of cooking advice. If you decide to make some kind of beef-curry dish with a Thai flair, be sure that the coconut milk you're adding to the delicious vegetables, peppers, pecans and smoked beef is actually coconut milk. Because if it is cream of coconut and you pour it into your cooking food, it is a sad, sad thing.

Yuck.

I just turned ten bucks of delicious ingredients into smoked-beef-coconut-candy. I can't even phonetically spell the noise I made when I tasted that mess.

Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross. As Anita Blake (no relation) would say, "Gag me with a spoon." Or, just gag.

Why I Like Writing

Although nobody ever asks me why I want to be a writer, I actually know why. I remember as a child being an avid reader from the first grade. My mother had taught me to read before I started school, and the stories in the first grade included a magic car - which I vaguely remember being driven by a curly haired gentleman and the car may have flown. (That's a bit sketchy... Mr. Fig was it?)

We didn't have the plethora of entertainment options then that kids have now, and my mother needed to give us something to do besides watching daytime television. (Daytime TV was geared towards the home-bound housewife at the time, and my sisters and I did enjoy the game shows, but at some point the soaps would come on, and my interest waned.)

Mother would sign us up for the summer reading program at the city library. We would check out books and read them, and sometime around the 3rd grade, I began to read anthologies of science-fiction stories. I read novels too, some of them classics of literature and others classics of children's literature. But it was the science fiction stories that really captured my imagination. Stories about people with time machines, ray-guns, rocket ships, and hyper-intelligent monkey side-kicks were my ticket to other worlds. As a reader, I sought the ambulatory effects that reading such works brought me. But at some point I realized that the stories themselves - though clearly magical works - had been created by mortal men, and that I could become such as them if I wanted to.

I could read these old anthologies, and smell the age on the paper. The fonts were different. The copyrights were from the 30's, 40's and 50's. Some of the stories had illustrations, and many had twist endings that rivaled those on the Twilight Zone. But what really struck me was that this sensation I got from reading these tales made me think that these old men, these dead men, had the same sorts of sensibilities that I had. They had the same sense of wonder, and imagination, even though they were really old - which meant that not just their stories had been captured on the paper, but also a snapshot of their thinking process. They had achieved a sort of immortality through being in print, and I liked the idea of that. I liked it a lot.

A more refined understanding of my feelings came in high-school when I learned more about Aristotle and the Aristotelian rules of drama. On the one hand, there was this famous guy named Aristotle who had produced rules for art. On the other hand, there was this guy named Aristotle who is arguably more well known now than he was 2300 years ago. And that's the magic of writing. You write to some imaginary audience and if you're published, it is possible that two thousand years ago some people may read your words and say, "Neato!"

Insanity. Insanity,

I'd say writing 12,000 words in a day is insanity.
Blogging about it later - even more insanity.
Believing anything in the last 4,000 words is even going to make sense tomorrow?
Insanity.

Punchy. I'm quite punchy now.

Making things fit

I've recovered nearly all my lost word count from losing a day doing tech work. This brings me back close to an average of 2000 words per day, not counting today. That's about what I can expect to accomplish in 90 - 120 minutes, assuming the words will come. If I averaged 1800 words for every 120 minutes that would be 15 words a minute. If I could magically avoid eating, sleeping, pooping, showering, or any other distraction and just keep up that pace I could knock out a 90,000 word book in just under 5 days. But I suspect that it would suffer slightly as my rational thinking wanes a bit after the first 48 hours of no sleeping and no pooping - something I learned in boot-camp.

But 120 minutes is 2/24ths of a day. That made me think of the way my days really play out.
Here are some things I do every day, and some time allocation:
Sleep - 6 hours (25% of my day)
Eat - 3x @ 45 min each. This will be rounded up to 2 hours. (8% of my day)
Work & Drive - 9 to 10 hours deducting lunch in the previous item. (37% - 41% of my day)
Kid time (for me this is playing, homework, diapers, etc...) 2 hours dedicated, and nickel and dimes throughout my waking hours. (8 - 50% of my day depending on circumstances.)

The point here is that the two things I know I ought to be doing are WRITING and EXERCISING. And those are the two things that if I do them give me the most satisfaction emotionally and physically - yet which I find hardest to make time for.

NaNoWriMo has reminded me that getting up at 5:00 am to do stuff is the best way to accomplish things. You only have time for stuff if you MAKE time for it. So combining the military saying of "If you have time to sleep then you have time to work" with the knowledge that if I go to bed at 10:00 pm I can get up at 5:00 am without suffering much, I've been able to meet my goals so far.

The only problems have been getting a virus which weakened me one day and emptied me the next, and trying to squeeze in some computer work. If I don't write in the morning it is terribly hard to get it done during the ensuing day. But I'm betting my best editing work will be done at night, should I ever get that far in the process.

34,000 NaNoWriMo

Well, I caught back up again. Finally. Once I get to 50,000 I think I may just collapse. Now 3/5th of my family is sick with some kind of stomach virus. I say stomach, but that's just the start of the problem.

Maybe this weekend will be very productive in writing - either way, I'm sure using a lot of paper.

An Interesting Windows XP Issue - Part 2

A few months ago I saw an article in Information Week's Langa Letter column on performing a "No Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option" refresh of Windows XP. This article is about an interesting problem I ran into while running the refresh trying to fix a problematic XP system.

The system I was trying to repair had been subjected to numerous internet game installs, and was running rather sluggishly. It also had problems staying connected to the Internet, and getting e-mail. Both of its browsers (IE and FIREFOX) were out of date, and the anti-virus software was expired. There was also a serious problem with the file system permissions. There were two user accounts on the system with similar names, but one was a "user" and the other was an "admin" account. However, when trying to use the admin account many of the desktop items couldn't be deleted and software couldn't be installed because the system said that the installation required administrative permissions - which it should have had, but didn't. I tried creating a new account and moving files to the new profile for the administrator. This resolved the installation issue, but not the files that couldn't be deleted. I decided it was time to run the refresh install.

The refresh went smoothly until it got to screen 17 in the process - where the system required reactivation. However, when I tried to reactivate the system an error popped up saying that the internet could not be reached. Then another message popped up saying that I had zero days to get the system registered. Then the installation was complete and the machine rebooted.

This is where the fun began. The system was configured to use the "Welcome Page" login screen. It was XP Home edition, so that's fairly common. When I clicked on the icon for the primary user (with admin privileges) I got an error message:

A problem has prevented windows from accurately checking the status of the license for this computer. You can not log on right now. Please ask a computer administrator to activate windows on this computer.

The error message flashes for a moment, then the system logs back out to the Welcome Screen. Nice. This account had administrative privileges so it seemed like that should have worked, but no. I did some research on Microsoft's Technet and came up with article 306081 which advised that with activation issues, sometimes the activation software can get corrupted. It talks you through the process of using the recovery console and expanding the activation software off the install disk to refresh it.

That didn't work.

Other websites strongly advised doing a refresh install - like the one I just did. Doh!

(Just to be safe, I did re-refresh install, but same issue.)

I went back and re-read the error message and decided that maybe it didn't want me to login as a user with administrative priviledges - but as THE ADMINISTRATOR ACCOUNT. Only problem there is that the administrator account doesn't show up on the Welcome Screen unless you boot in safe mode.

So I booted into safe mode (with and without networking) and discovered that the Administrator account gave me the same error. In my line of work - and at home, I almost exclusively use a domain and therefore the domain login screen instead of the Welcome Screen. But when I called a friend to describe the problem he mentioned that it was possible to change from the Welcome Screen to the domain login screen - if I could get logged into the system. Which I couldn't.

So I did more research and many sites out there advise that if this happens to you the best solution is to back up your data and just blow the whole system away. But I wasn't prepared to do that - I had one more thing to try. (And it works - so keep reading.)

Here is the actual solution to the problem:
1) Boot the system into SAFE MODE WITH COMMAND PROMPT. This mode of booting works and does not generate the annoying lockout error.
2) At the command prompt type "EXPLORER.EXE" This will launch the windows desktop and allow you to get to step 3.
3) Go to the CONTROL PANEL -> USER ACCOUNTS -> CHANGE THE WAY USERS LOGON. Change that disable "Use Welcome Screen" then save your settings.
4) Reboot. When the system comes up you should be able to login with the Username/Password dialog box. Use "Administrator" as the user, and whatever password your administrator account has for the password.

Now you should be logged in as administrator and able to re-run the ACTIVATE WINDOWS WIZARD and successfully get the system authorized.

I hope someone will find this information useful. I would post it at one of the myriad "Windows Tech Forums" but I'm too lazy to fill out another friggin forum sign-up even to help people.

An Interesting Windows XP Issue - Part 1

A few months ago I saw an article in Information Week's Langa Letter column on performing a "No Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option" refresh of Windows XP. Having experienced some of the results of doing reinstalls with Windows 98 and 2000, I was dubious but was able to successfully use the technique multiple times to clear up issues with Windows Genuine Advantage errors. As long as you have a valid CD-Key and don't mind calling India to get the approval code from Microsoft the refresh install can really do wonders for clearing up all kinds of registry problems, pesky spy-ware issues, and other sundry ailments that a non-refreshed XP is heir to.

The first problem I ever ran into with this kind of repair was when I tried to fix my sister's machine - a fairly new Dell - whose chief symptom was "slowness." As most IT Pro's know, slowness is a relative term and is very subjective based on the experiences and perception of the user. Unless the user has done benchmarks on the machine in the past and can compare them to benchmarks in the present, it is difficult to objectively say whether or not a system is really slow. But when she gave me her machine and it took me nearly two minutes to reach a non-hourglass desktop I figured that was slow for a 2.5Ghz system. The first step was to remove the cancerous "Norton System Works."

[START RANT]
Currently - in my mind - "Norton System Works" is the worst piece of software out there for home users. Users recognize the "Peter Norton" name and think they're getting something really good. But Pete's been gone for a while, and "Norton System Works" is the equivalent of tying a cement block to the back of your bike before you go out for a ride. Does it work? Does it protect you from evil? Maybe, but your system might run faster if you just turned it off and unplugged it.
[END RANT]

After cleaning her system of spyware, removing the Norton System Works and adding memory things were running faster, but I thought I would run the refresh install from the Langa Letter - but I couldn't. New Dells include a special repair partition on them and this allows Dell to do "rollback" fixes to their systems which restore it to a pristine state. That is probably very handy for modern computer users who don't want to know how to fix their system and would prefer to just back up their data and start over. However, it prevents a refresh install because the XP installer thinks you want to make the system multi-boot. In the end, I made the improvements I could and did not do the refresh install on that system. It is much faster, but I regret not being able to do that little bit extra.

The second issue I had running the refresh install came on the 17th. I'm going to make that its own post - a part II to this entry.

My First Zero-Count Day

Day 14 was my first zero word count nanowrimo day.
A long delayed opportunity to fix a PC for a family friend turned horribly wrong - and will be the subject of another posting in the future. For now, it is the 15th and I've got to get a lot of writing done before I can go to sleepy land.

-B.

We're having a fairy over tonight...

My son lost his first baby tooth today. It was kind of funny. He came into my office while I was writing on my nanowrimo project and said, "Daddy, my tooth is broken."

I stopped writing and turned around to look. I wasn't sure what he meant because he uses the word "broken" to mean a lot of different things.

He grinned a big wide grin and showed me that his lower incisor was wiggling back and forth. I immediately turned back to the computer to see if I could find out when a kid's teeth are supposed to start falling out.

He said, "I want to pull it out."

I said, "Wait, Daddy needs to find out if your teeth are supposed to come out yet. "

He said, "I did it! I fixed it. All done!"

I turned around and he had pulled his tooth out by himself. He handed it to me and told me he was going to go play trains.

The visions of having to tie a string to a doorknob stooges style, evaporated.

The tooth looked great, with no sign of decay. And it was complete, not chipped. The average age for kids to start losing their teeth appears to be around age 6. He's 5, and got his teeth at 18 weeks, so I assume he's just going to lose them early too. One down, nineteen to go.

Looks like somebody's getting a visit from the tooth-fairy.

Sprint Employee Referral Discount

OK - I've got a lot of friends who use mobile phones. If you're not stuck in some contract, here is a chance to get a special discount. Although this blog and my website are my own creations - and have nothing to do with Sprint - I know some of my friends drop by from time to time. Since by day I work at Sprint, they sometimes have special deals that I'm eligible for as an employee.

If you're one of my friends you can sign up for a Sprint Employee Referral Discount for mobile phone service.

Just go to this website: http://www.sprint.com/sero
On the site it will ask for a name and e-mail address.

Sprint Employee Name: William Blake Smith
Sprint Work E-Mail Address: Blake.Smith*sprint.com (replace the * with an @).
I'm beginning to suspect that the web-scrapers out there looking for spam addresses now look for "something at something dot com" and parse that to e-mail addresses as readily as the true-format ones. But maybe the * will slow them down a little.

This makes you eligible for either the NEXTEL or SPRINT plans, but you can check it out yourself.

To the best of my knowledge I get nothing if you sign up for this, but you get good discounts - so enjoy!

Special mention to A.V. who was the first to spot my misuse of "their" in today's posting. He wins the complimentary issue of Granny Grainer's Grand Grimoire of Grammar.

Separated at Birth?

Ok - so I'm watching "The Sword and the Sorcerer" last night. (Recharging my NaNoWriMo batteries, if you will.)

And one of the characters in the movie is clearly the guy from "Will & Grace." And after just a second I though, hmmm. How is that possible? Of course it isn't possible - but look at these two! It is freaky! (I believe if you click on the picture you get the "zoomed" version.)

And thanks to observant reader A.B. who observed that I misspelled separated in the original post. I wonder why Firefox 2 caught it in the text of the blog, but not in the Title field? Maybe I need to learn to spell better myself.

15K - at last!

I broke 15,000 today on nanowrimo! Not bad for day 7.

I like to see the profiles of the other participants and track how they are doing. It helps me work better.

It is just like John F. Kennedy wrote: Profiles Encourage!

Don't forget to vote today!

Zaruba wedding

It is done.

Cleanup Underway

The house, mind you. Not the writing. I hit around 1500 this morning, bringing my a.m. total to 6501. My p.m. total should be higher, barring unforeseen circumstances. It's getting exciting for me now because three of my characters have cliff-hangers going on, two of them more pressing than the third. These mid-nanowrimo blog-entries may be more terse as I save my letters for the project.

Observation the first: Having an outline, some simple character sketches and a map has been an absolutely different experience than any other writing project I've done. Wonderful.

Observation the second: It takes me about 20 minutes to hit the zone where the words just flow and flow. In that first 20 I hop around a bit and stare and sometimes mis-align my hands to the home keys.

Observation the third: I read that everyone who finishes this year will have their project added to Oprah's book club!!! I wrote it, and then I read it. Just now.

10% Done - 5000 word mark crossed.

If I can keep up this pace I'll have met my 50K words in 20 days. But I aim to do better than that by doing a marathon session on Saturday night and Sunday night. I'd say Friday too - but I've got to get the house cleaned up for Maddie & Sophie's first birthday.

All you Nano-Buddies out there keep up the good work! You can do this! Work hard, and edit later. Edit later. Edit later.

Work hard and edit later.

What are you doing reading my blog when you should be typing?

Mars 30+ Years Later

When I was seven years old Americans landed a spacecraft on Mars. Even though I grew up to love science fiction, this major hurtle towards our eventual colonization of the red planet had already been jumped before I read "The Martian Chronicles" or any other work on the subject. But here in the 21^st century I fail to be able to fly my car to the office. Yet I can telecommute if the boss allows it. I don't remember telecommuting being a big theme in sci-fi, but it is a real accomplishment based entirely on geek-tech.

I digress.

This is about Mars. I heard that NASA is planning a Martian "plane" mission where they'll send a plane to mars (via rocket) and let it fly around the surface of the planet taking pictures. A plane can get low enough to get very detailed photos and look for "life signs."

Which brings me to my point: Who cares?

I don't care if there was microbial life on Mars - even if it seeded Earth. What I do care about is that we should be trying (as inexpensively as possible) to seed Mars with earth's bio-matrix. By that I mean that we should scour the earth for hearty bacteria suitable for the Martian environment and dump it all over that little planet in an effort to make Mars a viable backup planet for Earth.

I think about 50% of Mars missions fail - but if the mission was a planned crash to eject bacteria everywhere, we might get better results. If I was rich (really, really, really rich) I think I'd try funding something like this. We are never going to get astronauts to fight Martian dinosaurs if we don't start working on this kind of project now!

NaNoWriMo - Wordcount

Well, I got up at 5:00 am and started writing (after the requisite cup of coffee and bowl of cereal). I hit 1500 words before my wife had to leave for work, and according to the "official" wordcount software, I broke 1700 this morning.

Track my progress here:
WBlakeSmith's nanowrimo status

I like the flash software they have for viewing your work - BUT, it cuts off the sentence at the bottom of each page, which is why I'm linking to the non-flash version. As weak as a non-edited word vomit may be, I think it suffers even more when you're missing a sentence or more every page.

But so far I'm pleased with me progress! Argh!