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Filters and YOU [May. 23rd, 2019|12:18 pm]
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I don't really have any posting filters, so far. Anything either private, or related to sex, I tend to post friends-only, or not at all.

However, I think it's time I created a Diary filter for myself, to serve as a simple book of days, a record of what I did, where went, and what I thought, each day. More and more, my memory keeps drawing blanks for what happened to me even as little as a week ago, even the really fun stuff that I want to retain! So I need a place to record my days (and from which to summarize monthly scrapbook entries). And I don't want to just post it on my regular journal -- most of the daily things are of interest only to me.

The filter is opt-in. I don't expect it to be interesting for anybody except my family and a few friends, but if you're curious, it's there for your stalkery pleasure.


Edit: Poll is closed (since I don't want to keep refreshing it to find new people).
To be added to the filter, leave a comment and you'll be added.
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Diverse Tuesdayry [Feb. 3rd, 2009|10:03 am]
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Who can resist 'if operating systems were like airplanes'-type comparison lists? [info]yuki_onna and I certainly can't. Therefore:
Programming Languages Are To Literary Schools As...

--

We went to an Introvert Party at [info]kythryne's house this weekend. Those are a profoundly good idea. An introvert party is where people get together, bring some craft or project to work on, and just hang out and knit or spin wool or draw or paint or write or program, and there's no pressure to be shiny and social. So the activity part is taken care of, and you'd be surprised at what a cool conversation starts up around it, ebbs and flows. Also, [info]kythryne was spinning wool yarn on an actual dark wood spinning wheel, and it was incredibly soothing and hypnotizing. And there was a fire.
I enjoyed it greatly (and it was good seeing a bunch of out-of-town peoples, like [info]weds, [info]emilytheslayer and [info]yakavenger & [info]blazepoet, and meeting various others).

--

I came down with a cold yesterday. Cat followed suit last night, but not before managing to completely astound me.

Earlier that morning, Cat: "Ack, I'm way behind! I still have the Omikuji story to write, and I don't even have an idea, and my daily novel wordcount to catch up on, and more Palimpsesty stuff to finish!"

I'm thinking, gah, poor thing, how are you going to come up with a story and write it, while overwhelmed with how much you have to do, and all before the coffee shop closes in the early afternoon?

Cat: *goes off to coffee shop* *comes back with an ASTOUNDINGLY good Omikuji story, one of my favorites, just out of nowhere, plus a bunch of other writing*

Me: What the..! How in the world can you DO that, on a random busy Monday? Where did you come up with that idea? It's beautiful!

This happens all the time around here. She is frighteningly good.

--
I am:
* Sending out more resumes.

* Working on various coding projects.

* Considering dipping my toe into bid-for-project sites like RentACoder and eLance and such. Does anybody have experience or wisdoms with those?

* Quietly scheming to organize some sort of Project Weekend, like a low key micro-BarCamp, like Build Something Cool in 24 hours, where a group of people would get together for a weekend (here on Peaks Island, or in NYC, or in Boston, depending on logistics) in a startup incubator kind of atmosphere, with the express purpose of having deliverables (or a whole lot of fun and learning) on the other side of it.
But how many programmers do I know on the East Coast? Not many. I can think of like 4. Would non-programmers be interested in, or helped by, the concept? Must ponder.
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[Diary] A Monday [Jan. 12th, 2009|12:45 pm]
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The first Monday after being laid off from my full-time job feels.. like a busy Sunday.

The heating oil ran out yesterday. This is highly displeasing -- we just put in $200's worth, a quarter of a tank, the day before we left for Cleveland. Two weeks later (with us away for the holidays), the oil is completely gone.
The main culprit is the fact that our landlord (who is well-meaning but not exactly on top of things) was installing a pellet stove in our fireplace. He was unsuccessful in his installation (so now we have to hunt down contractors or dealers who will service it), and it left a gap the width of my arm to the open chimney, through which warm air whooshes out. Plus the thermostat is old, and I suspect runs the heater longer than necessary. Plus the windows are un-insulated. We'll solve all of these problems and soon, but for now it's very aggravating.

So I scrambled to get new oil delivered, the pan drained and the heater restarted. Before that, I had some serious overdue work that I owed to [info]tithenai, making the layout for the Winter issue of her zine -- check it out, btw, Goblin Fruit Winter 09 issue. And of course the house needs to be cleaned in preparation for guest (Cat is out doing the shopping and picking him up at the airport).

[info]passionandsoul is coming to visit, staying with us before Arisia. (When Cat wrote her post about arete, I cast about in my mind for other people who I know that are like that. Lee is the first one that came to mind. (The other one would be Avi Bryant, creator of DabbleDB and the insanely good Seaside framework)). I miss him, and am looking forward to it.

There's a long list of leads, suggestions and resume links from all of you amazing helpful people that commented on both Cat's and my "Ack I'm laid off!" posts. Thank you, everybody! I have much resume-updating and emailing to do later today.

There's so much I want to say, about being at sea, career-wise, at this moment. I have plans, ideas, many projects to work on. I have a hopeful and humble attitude. I need and want.. for this to transform me, a sea-change, for this event to help spring me to the next level, work-wise. We'll see how I fare.
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Heading Back to Maine [Jan. 9th, 2009|05:19 pm]
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We've left the demesne of our wonderful hosts, and are heading out back east to Maine.
We'll be driving tonight and tomorrow.
And of course, there's another snowstorm.
I suspect [info]blazepoet is somehow involved.

Talk to you soon!
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Be-snowed [Dec. 22nd, 2008|10:47 am]
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Having spent a week in New York hiding out from the ice storm and power outtages (once again, HUGE thanks to [info]regyt and [info]novalis for taking us in!), it was time to head home.
After two days on the road (snow storm got us on the way out of NYC, so that it took 5 hours to drive 45 miles), we got back to the island just in time for [info]chang3002's excellent birthday party Saturday night.

All through Sunday, the snow fell and the wind howled, turning to thunder snow during the night. I cannot tell you how grateful I am to have electricity and heat at the house, to be able to watch the snowstorm outside while cuddled up comfortably.

Snow Storm
The camera flash on the falling snow makes it look like midsummer night's fairy motes.

Snow Storm
This is main street, looking towards the water and the ferry, at about 2:00 pm in the afternoon as I walked to the store. (Store was closed for a christmas party, sigh. Uphill, through the snow, and no antelope to bring home).

Snow Storm - Morning After
The morning after. The dogs approve, once again. I'm grinning just thinking about having to dig out the mountain of snow that the plows have piled at our front gate.

Xmas tree!
Oh, we finally got a chance to put up the Xmas tree last night! Mooohoohaahaa, I love it.
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Regarding the last week or so [Aug. 14th, 2008|09:09 am]
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Cons:
* I've been sick with a cold/flu for an entire week now. Coughing and feverish at nights, and keeping Cat up with tossing and snoring. Crouching around poorly like a lightly poisoned housecat.

* Various fights and low-grade fighting with my loved ones. don't ask.

* The DSL at the house is completely on the fritz. Works for a couple of minutes here and there, followed by long stretches of downtime. I'm wrangling tech support at the moment, they should be sending out a technician to the house today.

* Behind on my projects, on housework, everything.

Pros:
* [info]yuki_onna has been taking care of me and feeding me soup, and [info]transfiguration has been doing random sweet things like stopping by with vitamins.

* I got to watch a lot of Farscape, not being able to do much else. I'm towards the end of season 2, currently.

* My new phone, a Palm Centro, has finally arrived. Vital software and handheld net access in the palm of my hand once again!

* Visited Ferrett&Gini's place yesterday, for movie watching with Josh. Ferrett's back from Clarion, yeyy! Had delicious dinner, an astoundingly cheezy sports/karate movie (The Best of the Best) (though I fell asleep towards the end, ack). Stopped by Lissa's place on the way back, dropped of some munchies for her finals & term-end papers.

So it goes.
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Back from Philadelphia [Jan. 28th, 2008|03:12 pm]
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Rivers catch my eye like a pretty girl across the room.

Early Friday morning, I was on a plane to Philadelphia for a business trip. The Technical Papers Sort Meeting for ACM SIGGRAPH was that weekend, and we who wrote the electronic submission software for that conference this year had to be there to work out any emergencies and bugs that might pop up.

The plane flies low, and I have to lift my eyes from reading Henry and June to gaze at the landscape.
But especially at the rivers.

What is this gorgeous wide river we're passing over? Is that the Ohio River? No, we're too far north still. At best it would be the Allegheny River, and that's probably too narrow for this.
No, that's the Susquehanna River! Oooh, is that navigable? How far (up) can you go? (A: Not far at all. It's fast and shallow, not navigable past its mouth in Chesapeake Bay. I bet it'd be really nice by canoe, though I hear it's polluted).

We're coming in for a landing. Huge body of water -- is that the ocean (yes, my idea of where Philadelphia was located was quite fuzzy at that time)? No, the plane turns, there's the other shore. That's quite a river! That's the Delaware River, in fact! The driver tells us that cruise ships leave for the Carribean and New England regularly, out of Philadelphia. How far up can you take the Delaware? (A: Past Philadelphia and up to Trenton, NJ.)

The weekend itself goes smoothly, although it's a lot of work -- leave the hotel in the morning, and return late at night. I feel recharged -- though it's the same kind of coding, maybe just the change of scenery makes me relaxed.

Philadelphia itself surprises me. I expected it to be a lot more industrial and wasteland-y, like Detroit, no idea why. It's beautiful, though, the downtown area well-lit and bustling even on a weekend night, and of course there's the river right there with its beautiful bridges.

Now I'm back, and there's much code to write. [info]yuki_onna is in the page mines all week -- her new novel's deadline is this Friday. I think I'll take this opportunity to get closer to finishing up the bathroom remodeling.
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Back from ConFusion 2008 [Jan. 21st, 2008|03:11 pm]
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ConFusion reminds me of LunaCon, in all the best ways. It's a small-to-medium con, which makes it personable and cozy, but with the clout to get some excellent scifi guests of honor. Good kids track, some interesting panels and programming, and a well-stocked con suite.

We're fairly conservative with our con-going budget for this year, but since [info]theferrett was already headed there, and [info]yuki_onna was invited, we decided to drive down there. And I'm very glad we did.

Fri: Arrived after a leisurely and fun drive (Ferrett car pooled with us). Checked in, had quick dinner with a newly-met-through-Ferrett [info]rbradakis (who, along with his wife [info]sheryl67, was delightful company through the con). And then headed out to..
Cloverfield! Yes, the entire movie is done on shaky-cam, Blair Witch Project style (but worse, because the protagonists of this movie, and hence the camera, get knocked about quite a lot), so it's not for the easily motion-sick. That said, IT IS MAGNIFICENT. Cat and I were both dubious of J.J. Abrams' ability to follow through, to not drop the ball at the ending. What we got, however, was an incredibly tight and innovative film, with a solid ending.
Also? Scary as hell. And I don't say that lightly -- I usually take horror films pretty calmly. So yes. Go see it if you can.

Sat: Saturdays at cons are the usual multi-variable problem -- maximize entertainment value and socialization, get some sleep, go to the must-see panels, and check out the dealer's room.
The Feminist Science Fiction panel was mildly entertaining (mostly, because the panelist line-up was Cat Valente, Patrick Rothfuss, [info]theferrett, and a couple of diehard feminists), though I wish the panel topic was more focused from the get-go.

The Science Fiction Gaming panel was also pretty entertaining and illuminating (the panelists included the fairly hardcore gamers Ferrett and John Scalzi, with Tobias Buckell and Karl Schroeder to round it out and provide perspective), especially Karl's mention of Cognitive Narratology studies and the tantalizing possibility of scientifically studying and manipulating variables of plot and storytelling to make games mythically/psychologically satisfying.

Dinner was fantastic. We went out to a nearby Bahama Breeze with a bunch of authors and other awesome personages. (I remember being amused and impressed at the restaurant since Tobias, having grown up in the Carribean, even mildly approved of the food). I was secretly thrilled to have a chance to sit near Tobias and hear some of his stories about sailing in the Carribean (even though he does not consider Lake Erie to be real sailing, he does admit that it can get just as dangerous there as on the ocean). We also got a chance to talk with John Scalzi and [info]earthgoat, always a pleasure.

After that came time to hit the party floors. The pre-Penguicon party plied us with liquid nitrogen ice cream, coffee and good chocolate. The Elven Toast party sent up toasts and libations for favorite gods, dearly departed, for hopes and boasts. I discovered that Lingonberry concetrate mixed with good old fashioned vodka makes for a stupidly delicious drink. As often happens, good conversation and mildly tipsy antics ensued late into the night.

We got to meet some wonderful people on Saturday -- [info]fortuna_juvat and [info]jer_ and [info]ellalthea and [info]somegoddess and various others who's LJs I didn't catch.

Sun:
Sunday is mostly a blur -- trying to dazedly grab breakfast, checking out, one last panel for Ferrett and Cat on using the Internet to help a writing career, saying good-byes, driving home (afire with a truly brilliant and ridiculous idea, which Cat and Ferrett are turning into a webcomic; I cannot wait!), going to [info]katspaw156's annual soup party to meet up with local friends, then finally going home and crashing and watching Superbad for the first time (what an odd movie. I liked it, but I did not expect it to have such sad undertones).

It really sounds like we should hit Penguicon this year, too. Must plot.

Loot: We picked up the Lunch Money game, which by all accounts promises to be awesome. Ferrett also bought us a copy of Munchkin (which I really liked the couple times I got to play it on Game Night, so I'm really looking forward to it).
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ConFusion, Bookstore, Boat Show [Jan. 17th, 2008|05:29 pm]
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Random thoughts:

* What not to do: Do NOT pour windshield wiper fluid into the brake fluid container. Especially while trying to suavely show a new car owner ([info]grailquestion) how easy and safe it is to refill one's wiper fluid.

If you do (aside from trying to minimize the damage and sop up the windshield fluid with gas station paper towels), this means that you will need to flush all the fluids from your brake system. No joke, look it up -- wiper fluid is a solvent, and will fuck up your entire brake system if left untreated. Get your car to your favorite repair shop (in my case, the Lusty Wrench in Cleveland Heights, who do fantastic, award-winning work at insanely reasonable prices) immediately.

* We went to the IX Center indoor Boat Show last night. It's always fun to look at sailboats and the various random vendors. But the show has diminished so much over the last several years! Possibly because of the economy, and the vicious circle of high exhibitor prices and not much sales resulting in less exhibitors coming the next year, which results in less attendees, and so on. But there were only two sailboat exhibitors (showing a tiny handful of Hunter, Beneteau and Hanse sailboats) -- gone were the (local!) Tartan, C&C, Island Packet, and so on.

If it wasn't for the fact that we get free tickets from our marina each year, and that it's kind of a tradition now -- we've been going almost every year since like 1990, and it's something bonding to do with my dad, I would not readily go.

Now, the Annapolis Boat Show, that's another matter. That, I would love to attend this year.

* This weekend, Cat, Ferrett and I are heading down to ConFusion 2008. If you're attending, see you there!

* The The Secret Headquarters, an L.A.-based comic book store, is one of the best combinations of concept, web site design, and physical store design that I have ever seen.

See also the even more mind-bogglingly beautiful Boekhandel Selexyz Dominicanen, an 800-year old church converted into a bookstore (found via [info]regyt's post pointing to a Guardian article about the Top 10 Bookstores In The World).
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Post Thanksgiving [Nov. 27th, 2007|06:51 pm]
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Back from Denver, CO, visiting [info]yuki_onna's aunt and uncle over Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving itself was... just remarkable. Very relaxing and free of stress; our hosts were incredibly hospitable and kind. (Also, a gamer family, from the youngest to the oldest. Incredibly soothing.) I ate like the Tasmanian Devil.

I saw the Rockies up close for the first time. I loved them, though I could sense the lack of large body of water nearby. Denver itself is nice and everything, but the mountains were just gorgeous.

I'm way behind on my LJ (and on housework). And am ready for winter.

Saw a whole bunch of movies over the last couple of weeks, and tried out some video games.

Ocean's Eleven and Ocean's Thirteen -- were mainstream and fun in the best possible sense of the word. Just... solid, I'm really glad I saw them.

Beowulf -- Was incredibly cheesy, and somewhat fun. Though very many of you will feel otherwise, I kind of liked it. They could've done Grendel's Mom better (less high heels, more non-barbie-doll nudity), and the end scene is annoyingly ambiguous (and I like ambiguity at the end of things).

School of Rock -- just fucking rocked, ok? I absolutely love painful awkward sincere intensity, and Jack Black certainly delivers on that.

Mystery Men -- (we showed it to Cat for the first time) is a movie I love with an unholy passion. Unholy, I tell you. Probably for the same reason that I liked School of Rock.

Enchanted -- is.. surprisingly good. I loved it, for reasons it would take me too long to explain (but make me wish I could draw a webcomic).

--
Guitar Hero -- I played this for like the third time (after trying it out at Ferrett's house) over the weekend, and am liking it more and more. And am eyeing Rock Band with some hunger (and [info]theferrett's rave reviews of it are not helping).

World of Warcraft -- I saw this played for the first time, up close. Looks very well done, it's no surprise it's so popular these days.

Viva Pinata -- WANT! I cannot believe how cute and interesting and satisfying it is! Dear gods.

Wario Ware -- incomprehensible. What is the point of this game? Why? No.

Mario Party 8 -- solid and fun, like the other ones in the series.

(In other news, I want a Wii. But first will work on getting a PS2 in an operational state).
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[Diary] 2007-10-15 [Oct. 16th, 2007|12:55 pm]
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[Current Mood | action-packed]

Dear Diary,

This past week finds me working furiously on fixing up our bathroom. It needed remodeling for a while, but drastic events - a drain clogged by 50 years of mineral deposits and hard use, and a rusted out shower drain pipe, has forced us to SPRING INTO ACTION!

This is what we have so far:

Vanity area
(This is where the two vanities will go -- wait till you see em. I have never lusted after random-ass pieces of furniture so much as when I saw these at the store.)

Shower Area
(Preparing the shower area -- this is where the old bathtub had stood.)

Mostly, it's been behind-the scenes work. We tore off all the old drywall and incomprehensible wooden enclosures that the previous owners built. We ripped up the old floor and put in a new one. And most of the work has been on the piping under the floor -- replacing the old lead and iron pipes with the new plastic ones.

There's a little bit more pipework remaining, then we can put in the tile, the showers and vanities, and the glass blocks. I hope to finish everything by the time [info]s00j and Kevin roll in!

While resting from remodeling, I've also been working with [info]yuki_onna on Invisible Games, making a new front page for CMV.com, and especially coding up a Bibliomancy module for it. It's a small piece of code that displays a random paragraph from the full text of her first 5 books, and I'm quietly proud of it (especially of the text processing that went behind the scenes to upload the .doc text to a machine-readable format).

So that's pretty much my entire last week, except for a brief coffee date with Cat, and a brunch with Liss on Sunday.

Oh! And the Loreena McKennitt concert in Lakewood on sunday evening! Which was ridiculously more awesome than I expected from her. I mean, she is one of my all-time favorite musicians, but I just didn't expect her to rock the hell out in concert, nor for it to be so atmospheric and well-lit and well-staged and everything. Complete with a mad fiddler (picked fresh from the Mad Fiddler Cabbage Patch), a hot cello player, a drummer that threw horns and looked like a blond long-haired [info]theferrett, and a bald guy who just jammed wildly on the hurdy-gurdy (my new favorite instrument, btw). Just.. wow. I am definitely going to see her again if she comes into the area.

Now, I only wish Lisa Gerrard was touring. She's the only one left on my must-see-before-die concert list.
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[Diary] Week Of 2008-08-12 [Aug. 13th, 2007|09:06 am]
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Fri 8/3 - San Diego bound! We headed down to the airport afer work, successfully avoided a full cavity search, and shortly arrived in San Diego. [info]owlswater kindly picked us up from the airport, and off we went on an evening of hunting for milkshakes in the downtown Gaslight district, videogames, japanese food, and talking.

Sat - Siggraph 2007 begins. Or at least, preparations and meetings. I spent most of the day in meetings with the various involved parties. We're writing a conference management system for them (starting with the 2008 conference and beyond), and as you can imagine, it takes a lot of feedback from the clients to keep it on track.

In the evening after dinner, I met up with David and Cat and we went down the UCSD campus to take a look at Cat's old haunts. The campus was something else entirely (really, guys? you have a movie theater and bowling alley, a thai and sushi restaurant, an arcade, and several organic food coops, right in your campus student center? and talking robotic trees, and a Space Academy-looking library/temple of knowledge that's slowly sinking into the swamp? Now that I've seen it, I get to tease Cat about the fact that she had such a miserable time while going to such a fabulous campus. But of course I know how circumstances affect so much of one's perception, and that it was a really rough time in her life.)

Sun - In the morning, con programming was just beginning to ramp up, and I sat in on some Sandbox (a mini video game conference held onsite at Siggraph) demos and papers. Noon to evening was more meetings (which went well, everybody seemed pleased with the work).

I had a chance to check out some of the Art Gallery and Emerging Technology exhibits, which were just amazing. Haptic interfaces, robot breeding, Minority Report-like touch screens, full 3d holograms (which you could see from all angles), and lots of crazy input devices -- scent (which turned, say, perfume samples into graphical auras), wind (for instance, if you waved a fan towards the screen, the person at the other terminal could feel the breeze), and skin as touch-screen input device.

At night, David and Belle drove us down to Mount Soledad, where Cat performed a short ritual for divorce and closure for her previous marriage, while the nighttime San Diego spread out all around us.

Afterwards, more talking and good food and games and M:tG with David. He and Belle were fantastic hosts for the weekend, I miss them already.

Mon - Headed down to the airport in the morning. Siggraph was fantastic, but too too short. I had to take off just as it was beginning, to get back to the office and man the fort.

The entire day was spent in flight (crossing against the time zones, layover in Houston). I love flying. I could be a traveling salesman or an on-site technician, how much I love it. Even with all the institutional indignities of airports. I finished The Crying of Lot 49 on the way back.

This is my second book by Thomas Pynchon, and as if I didn't love him already for Mason & Dixon, he has just become another one of my favorite writers. This book is so well-put together, short, and lyrical (but not dense!). It's easy to read, but you still read it slowly, because each sentence is precise and beautiful.

Tue - movie night. We finished the second half of The Lost Room series -- still fantastic, a good solid ending.

Wed - Stayed home, did householdly stuff.

Thu - Cat and I dropped by Lissa's place after work, then went home for dinner.

Fri - We stayed home this weekend, much-needed. The boat is on the St. Lawrence river already, with dad.

Friday night, we watched Sex and Lucia. Which, if asked to pick one, I would say that is my favorite movie. Subtle, alive, beautiful, sexy, wise. I cannot recommend it enough.
The rest of the night was for rum and hentai.

Sat - We worked the first half of the day, and in the evening, went out with [info]vrax and Margaret for dinner (they took us out to an amazing little place in Little Italy) and board games (I won with a lucky guess in Clue, and greatly enjoyed playing Settlers of Catan).

Sun - a HUGE branch fell down from the oak in front of the house, and narrowly missed smashing the roof. I'll have to chop it up for firewood.

Also Cat and I finally joined ChoreWars, and gleefully claimed our housework for the weekend.
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[Diary] Chicago'd! [Apr. 12th, 2007|09:16 am]
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Argh. And yet.

So, in dropping off [info]yuki_onna at the Megabus stop, I turned the wrong way off the exit Downtown, got a little bit lost, and as a result got there late (well, ok, exactly when the bus was supposed to be leaving. But it already left. I kill.) Her having not slept the previous night and planning to sleep on that bus, I decided to make up for the missed bus and drive her to Chicago. I'll have to come in and make up for lost work this weekend, and of course there is no rest for the wicked.

But! I got to be at the reading (the venue was lovely -- an incredibly stylish and cozy Chicago bar, complete with old anti-Prohibition posters on the walls), got to see, however briefly, Leah (and her crew) and [info]scathedobsidian and [info]jaded_dreamer, and of course there was lots of excellent drivetime conversation.

Boo ya, grandma.
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[Diary] 2007-04-09 - Tennessee Trip [Apr. 10th, 2007|02:05 pm]
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Back from a trip to Tennessee (part of a Valentines day pressie for Cat). The last four or so of my days featured:

* A little less than two thousand miles of driving.

* Hanging out in the shadows of beautiful Tennessee mountains (and in the psychic shadow of Dollywood). It's funny, I feel as if an entire section of the country (Tennessee, Arkansas, around St. Louis) just lit up, and feels benevolent and friendly. Rolling over the state lines, I thought to myself, "ahhh, we enter the land of the traveling court of S.J. Tucker. All is well with the world".

* Obscene amounts of fried catfish, fresh coleslaw (why is that so hard to find in the restaurants back home?), and Waffle House waffles.

* A Sufjan Stevens concert. Sufjan himself is fast becoming a new favorite artist of mine, with every song that I hear of his. And he is fantastic live (you know how it is, how much closer you feel to a musician after seeing them live for the first time). But it's the opening band, an obscure (Czech?) duo -- Irena and Vojtech Havlovi, that absolutely blew us away. Apparently, the organizer of the Music Now festival heard of them first from the streets of Coppenhagen, and had tried for years to contact them and bring them over for a concert. They are... just insane. I apologize, I have no idea how to describe them, except as incredibly minimalist, imaginative, and godlike in concentration. They started on two mini-cellos (and I had no idea one could evoke such an alien range of sounds from cellos), through Irene's ghostlike vocals, and ended in an amazing duo on the piano (with Irena playing the center of the keys, and Vojtech, his arms reaching around her, playing the left and right extremes). We got all of their CDs, and I can't wait to discover more.

* Finishing reading Peter Pan (well, having [info]yuki_onna read it to me, she does fabulous voices). I still don't know how I feel about Peter Pan, Barrie's women issues, etc, but I'm shocked at what a well-written book this was.

* Walking along a river in a pleasant spring forest, and then less than a day later digging out a stuck car from under two feet of snow.

* Our golden retriever running away. After much stress and sadness, ads in the paper and flyers on stopsigns (it's the flyers that did it), she was found, and after paying an exhorbitant ransom fee to Animal Control, we got her back. Whew!

* Mad dreams about Odessa (and you know how dream cities are, all crazy and dark and golden and full of longing, half-forgotten streets, ancient temples to Zeus complete with shabby soviet-era golden statues), and about Sage (the golden retriever, before we finally found her).

Book Log
Finished:
Pratchett's Interesting Times
The Care and Feeding of Your Brain: How Diet and Environment Affect What You Think and Feel
Lost In A Good Book (Thursday Next series, book 2)
Finder - Talisman (vol. 4) graphic novel
Peter Pan

Currently reading:
Hogfather
Y: The Last Man (vol. 2)
The Crying Of Lot 49
Through The Looking Glass (read to by Cat)

Coming up:
Tarot series by Piers Anthony
Atlas Shrugged heheheheh.
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LunaCon 2007 [Mar. 20th, 2007|07:18 pm]
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Back from LunaCon 2007.

Why LunaCon is a great convention: It's old and has much tradition behind it, has good programming and panels, and is a great mix of fans and industry professionals.

What I wish for them in future years (and this holds for many cons): Have less panels and events (certainly less similar or almost identical ones), possibly make them longer, but above all focus them on tighter, smaller topics. Large topics like "How To Write Fairy Tales" or "How To Write Young Adult Literature" and such, are way too broad to receive proper treatment in the alloted time. They barely manage to cobble together a semi-decent definition of what the topic is, let alone do it justice. If possible, include recommended book lists made by each panelist (since listing various books on the topic invariably takes up a lot of panel time).

Also, get almost fanatically devoted to courting the nearby New York scifi/fantasy publishing industry professionals, and more writers and creators. They're doing good in that department now, but could be even better. Magic happens when the pros and the fans get together.

Things that I probably won't have time to discuss in detail, although I should:
* [info]s00j's stellar performances, and how damn cool her and [info]yuki_onna's mini-play rendition of a slice of the Orphans Tales. Nor what a creepy Thing 1 and Thing 2 [info]omnisti made in our awesome rendition of The Cat In The Hat.

* How much I liked everyone there. From the brilliant [info]2muchexposition who shared a room with us, to the valiant and beleaguered [info]murnkay, to the generous hosts of the various parties ([info]rosefox, [info]sinboy, [info]amalthya, Susan and her emerald tango partner), to [info]xoder's and [info]shoujo_mallet's epic marathon of post-Your-Mom-ian jokes, to all the cool and smart and precise people I met - Phil, [info]sunspiral and his partner, and many many others.
As usual, the cons are made by the people there, and fortunately most of them attract the very best kind.

* My own sci-fi and fandom related projects (separate posts).

Heading down to NYC this weekend with [info]yuki_onna. I'm quietly excited - I love that city, and know very little about it.

P.S. Sooj? I'm STILL listening to We Are Shangri-La almost continuously. That is a hell of a song.
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[Diary] Wintersome [Feb. 13th, 2007|12:32 pm]
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Fri - Rum & Hentai night (tm).

Ok, didn't have actual hentai this time. But there was lots of delicious rum.
Instead, we watched H.P. Lovecraft's From Beyond for the first time (it was one of those "they didn't let me see this movie when I was little, so let's see what it's got" deals). And part of Prospero's Books -- it looks amazing, and demands more attention than we had.
Now, I ask you, dear reader. What is the point of a cheesy Lovecraftian horror flick, where you set up the premise that a deranged scientist's sinister device enlarges people's pineal gland (thus making them both see into the horrors of the astral, and inflaming their Ids out of control), that has no sex, or much skin, or anything? Why have a stereotypical 70s-movie black male cop running aroung in a G-string, and the main female lead get so addicted to the Resonator's libidinous radiation as to dress herself up in fetish gear and also tie herself up
(ostensibly so that the crazy-eyed Weyoun from ST:DS9 can have his way with her)... and then for nothing to actually happen?
You lose, From Beyond!
All half-hearted setup and no exploitation (not even of the implied off-screen kind).

Sat - Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls, in winter, half-frozen, is gorgeous and breathtaking. We'll be back next winter.

We decided to go a couple of days ago, on a whim, but with excellent advice from the Lazyweb (and especially from [info]gieves and [info]darlox, who were just there several weeks ago). We breezed through the immigration checkpoint (the guy in the booth, suspicious: "You came all the way from Ohio just for a daytrip?" You got us, officer! We're actually smuggling illegal donkey kidneys, but your astute and vigilant question has unmasked us!), found good parking, and strode through the freezing and windswept streets.

The Teslatron fountain in the casino lobby? Awesome and giddy-making. When I Am King, I'm having one just like it built in my audience chamber. Filled with Sprite. (Or the blood of the innocent).

The trees and victorian lampposts by the side of the waterfall? Encased in thick, clear ice, perfect Narnia-style. The waitress at the Table Rock restaurant (huge glass windows looking right over the falls) told us that people actually call there and ask, "Are the lampposts frozen yet?".

The thick white mist? Rising straight up in a column (a fat albatross-looking seagull soared on the strange updraft. What are you doing? You'll get ice on your wings!) from the base of the falls. A semicircle of rainbow cuts through it, and when the sun shone just so, two rainbows.

The falls themselves? The American side is half-frozen, right next to a majestic white icy forest that would do H.C. Andersen proud. The Horseshoe Falls, though diminished from their summer flow, roar down into the jumble of ice floes below. The upper half of the river, before the fall, is green and fast and mighty and completely entrancing. I stared at it for hours. The little island right before the falls looks like a twisted and sterile futuristic city, all ice. The lower half, frozen and chaotic and buckled, all white except for two blue pools.
When night comes, the falls light up, first bright white, then various acid neon colors. Odd and beautiful. But in two hours or so? The lights are turned back off. Weirdly frugal.

The tourists? Surprisingly numerous, for this chill afternoon. I'm sure it's packed, in the summer. (The casino was full of people even now).

The giant ferris wheel, atop the cheezy wonderful wax museum-bestrewn Clifton Hill? Its cars mercifully enclosed and heated.

Thomas Edison? An utter bastard. Jaques de MolayNikola Tesla, thou shalt be avenged.

Late in the evening, we decided to head home, partly to conserve funds, partly because our hungry eyes have seen all they wanted to, for this first time. The incoming immigration checkpoint officer sounded even more hostile ("Where do you work and what do you do?" "How do you know all the people in the car?" "What's your wife's date of birth?", all in a brisk somewhat angry tone), probably because my passport photo looks so shifty.

Also? I want to see Wonderfalls now.

Sun
Rested, worked, watched the new Battlestar Galactica miniseries.

A perfect hard scifi show so far; love at first sighting. I was struck by what a similar premise it was to the Robotech anime - the sudden devastating alien attack, a single huge clunky ship humanity's only defense, the rescue of civilians, the alternating focus on the bridge crew and on the hotshot fighter pilots, the spies aboard, the alien obsession with love and emotions. Galactica of course being much less silly and much higher budget than Robotech. As always, I wonder about influence and causality -- were the anime's creators inspired by the original Battlestar series (of which I know nothing about; maybe it wasn't as similar as this new one is)? Is the new series even remotely inspired by Robotech? Is it just a coincidence, a tapping of common archetypes?

Mon - Sledding!

We all went sledding at Cain Park with [info]khiron1416, [info]vrax and Margaret.
Ridiculous amounts of fun. With proper hot chocolate afterwards and everything.
Why have I not gone sledding for so long, before this?
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Pan's Labyrinth [Jan. 24th, 2007|12:39 pm]
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Saw Pan's Labyrinth on Friday.

It's amazing and bloody. With proper fairies and fauns and nightmare monsters. And fascists and partisans. Highly recommended.

If I don't ever see another "but perhaps this was all just a dream" ending, I'll be thrilled. And I mean, ever. Just gird up and make a movie about the fantastic, people, without cringeing copouts.
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2006 in review [Jan. 19th, 2007|12:18 pm]
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Read: 34 books (6 printed and 28 audiobooks). Up from 22 (2 printed), last year, but still nowhere near what I want. Also a little bit more comics than last year (more Aquaman!, some Usagi Yojimbo, Dr. Fate, Rai). Way more comics needed.

Watched: about 28 movies, 3 anime series (Witch Hunter Robin, Samurai Champloo, and Snow Fairy Sugar), more Buffy, the first season of the new Dr. Who, some Farscape, and some Six Feet Under.

Met (in person) for the first time: Partial list: [info]s00j, [info]omnisti, [info]inkygrrl, [info]erzebet, [info]vrax, [info]khiron1416, [info]murnkay, [info]mightywombat, [info]silvermoke, [info]exceptionshift, [info]nocturne2615, [info]rosefox, [info]sinboy, [info]d_aulnoy, [info]celtic_elk, [info]otterkin, [info]kenllama, [info]squirrel_monkey, [info]ksp24, [info]jackofmany, [info]saraphina_marie, [info]amalthya, [info]xtatic1, writers [info]ozarque, [info]cmpriest, Diane Wakoski, Theodora Goss, George Zebrowski. Rob Balder of Partially Clips. Many others.

Births/Deaths/Weddings: 1 (my cousin Rimma's baby), none, and 3 (Kevin & Theresa's, Ryan and Cassandra's, Audrey and Matt's)

Vitals: gained weight (I think, have been holding around 195 steadily. Started on a workout / weightloss plan). health ok. money - about same as last year (more loans paid off, but bought new car).

Travel:
All over the place, for conventions and to see friends. Saw Wisconsin Dells, Ann Arbor, Orlando, for the first time. Sailed up the Mississippi river from St. Louis to Hannibal MO, and back.

Moments and Firsts:
* Got eyeglasses (long time needed)
* Trailered the boat all the way over to St. Louis, lowered, raised, and rigged it myself. First time on Mississippi, and on a river in general.
* New job, second since college.
* Saw Turandot at the opera
* First Great Big Sea concert, first time live S.J. Tucker, Jonathan Coulton
* First bike in 10 years or so
* New cons: Confluence, Lunacon, SalonCon
* New car (VW diesel Bettle)
* New PDA (Treo 650)
* [info]yuki_onna's / [info]s00j's Halloween book and album launch
* Hosted Thanksgiving for my family for the first time. Also, first Christmas with Cat, with Victorian goose and everything.
* First PS2 console, thanks to [info]vrax
* New authors read for the first time: Virgil, Brooks Hansen, David Bowman, Margaret Atwood, James Joyce, Stephen King / Peter Straub, Geoffrey Landis, Trevanian, Aldous Huxley, Ovid.

Status of Previous Resolutions (accountability):
* Prom: Thrown. Hells yes.
* Mississippi trip: Yes!
* Linux server: Yes. Set up, full LAMP + SVN + Trac stack). Windows 2003 domain server: No. Decided didn't need it.
* Geocaching: No. Want to do it this year.
* Bike: bought. Walk To Rivendell Challenge: not even close. Sigh. Elliptical machine: yes! Very happy about this.
* Origins: didn't go (even though bought tickets and everything). Schedule didn't work out, didn't feel like it at the last moment.
* Read more books, printed and otherwise: Success. Want even more this year.
* Software map: tried and learned the core tools (version control - SVN, javadoc - phpDocumentor, unit testing - phpUnit, modelling - ArgoUML, DBDesigner). Ongoing project.
* Going to bed early: Nope. Not feasible.
* Nourish the soul: started on sporadic meditation. Played more videogames - good, need more. Started Yoga. So, partial success.
* Work from home at least one day a week: No. But got new job!
* Spend more time on the West Side: Yes, actually :)
* Release GeekTribes social software project into public beta: No. Deadline slid. Still working on it, hoping for a Feb 1 milestone.

Things I want from 2007:
Steve Pavlina talks about setting your primary focus for a New Year, instead of traditional resolutions -- picking one or two things to focus on improving.
I want to focus on three things:
1) Body - I've coasted way too long on residual fitness from highschool. The office/programming lifestyle catches up with you sooner or later, and it's easy for techies to live in their heads. I'd like to lose about 15 pounds or so, build some muscle, and develop a regular exercise routine beyond that. I have all the equipment (elliptical machine, weight bench, yoga mats), and a plan. Bah, it's so about time.

2) Programming - This is my craft and profession and passion, for now, and worlds more for me to discover. So much more to learn about Smalltalk (libraries, advanced unit testing, database interfaces and frameworks, source control and packaging and deployment). The whole world of Python to learn (I have a decent grasp of the language, but all the tools, libraries and frameworks are still before me). I'd like to try Ruby (and Rails specifically), just to see how that other world is doing. Would like to learn C# and Visual Studio 2005, as well.

3) Writing - While I'm not about to become a novelist (legions of shockingly talented people are already on that one, I consider it well handled), I very much want to improve my blog, review and essay writing skills. More importantly, I'd like to take my LiveJournal to another level. I've started it a couple of years ago very new to blogging; my journal tends to be distant and formal, for the most part, and doesn't often reflect my personality. There is so much more of me and my life I want to express. So, I plan to, by slow degrees, get more bare and personal on here.
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First Snow [Nov. 3rd, 2006|12:05 pm]
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We were sitting at Panera, enjoying the simple and absorbing bliss of hot sandwiches on a cold evening, talking of good things (like Burning Man), when the first snowflakes started drifting down.

We mocked them at first, I think, but very shortly they turned into a rather impressive snowstorm. First heavy snow of the season! I kept grinning with recognition and festive winter rightness. We crawled home, highway snowed over, to drink tea (I had to miss our weekly Magic game at [info]theferrett's).

Our dear gypsies, [info]s00j and [info]omnisti have now left, continuing on their East Coast tour. I've had her music stuck in my head for days now, and not even the Bollywood Thriller music video can unseat it.

Incidentally, S.J. is disturbingly good. She is one of the most casually aware people I know of, and sometimes her precise turns of phrase just stun me. Her guitar is direct and beautiful, and her voice dances from giddy and playful to just slap-upside-the-head chill-the-spine passionate and otherworldly, sometimes within the span of one song.
If you have any inclination towards female guitarist/singer/songwriter folk sort of music, check out her CDs. Better yet, see her live, she puts on a hell of a show.
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[Diary] 2006-08-12 Weekend + Wedding [Aug. 14th, 2006|10:05 am]
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Ok, weddings rule.

I'm sure they're a lot of work and stress for the organizing couple, but damn, are they a lot of fun for the guests. When done properly. Which all of our friends' so far have done, and Ryan and Cassandra's wedding this weekend was no exception.
The wedding ceremony (performed by our very own [info]mysterg) was short, elegant and heartfelt. The reception had great food, an excellent mix of music picked out by the couple; I never dance so much or with such pleasure as at weddings. Plus, it was great to see old out-of-town friends.

I am so glad to see those two together!

Also, we caught the last showing of [info]mishamish's play, Sunday evening. I know I have the friend bias, etc, etc, but I am more and more impressed with Misha's acting, with each play I see him in (especially from this one, and from Sylvia).
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Wedding and WisCon [May. 25th, 2006|09:07 am]
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Last weekend was Theresa's and Kevin's wedding -- bright, beautiful, traditional like in good romantic comedies. Those two are perfect for each other. O Shieldmaiden of Westpark, may your house be blessed and warm, may you be happy with your Knight for the rest of your days, and rule over your newly adopted realm of Akron as benevolently as your homeland.

The week found me coding and web designing frantically, celebrating at a triple-birthday family dinner, and, oddly enough, doing data entry in Russian.

This weekend, WisCon 30 looms, and we head out there (along with [info]erzebet) early Friday morning. ([info]sovay, I'm so sorry to hear you can't make it! You will be missed.) Also, I'm growing quite fond of Madison, more so every time I come back there.
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[Diary] Mars [May. 15th, 2006|01:10 pm]
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As the alarm clock chirped me awake this morning, I was dreaming about Mars.

Dreaming hard, completely immersed even though the dream was morning-vague. Inside the dream, I spent most of it sobbing.

I don't know how I got to Mars, a school trip of some kind. It was colonized and semi-developed, but like a newly built resort, in that off-season before the grand opening, when finishing touches are being put on everything, and the proprietors are there, but not yet the tourists. "Where are the airlocks? Why is this just a normal Earth-style door opening onto the harsh martian street air?", I asked the barista of a martian Starbucks. "That's just temporary, they'll put in real airlocks right before the tourists arrive."

It's the coins that got me, for some reason. They had metal coins for all the denominations, vaguely Canadian in feel. Mars coins. The 1 dollar coin had some kind of note stamped on it, I forget what, something on the fake nature of money, and it being tied to strange contracts between governments and big banks. Something about repression. I looked at the coins in my hands, and couldn't stop sobbing.

Partly in recognition, partly in relief, partly in disbelief that something was denied to me for so long. I cried the same way as I did at 11, when I first saw a toy store (was it in Vienna?) window, having just crossed the Soviet border in immigration.

Only just now do I realize that the dream might have been partially triggered by me finishing Bradbury's Martian Chronicles over the weekend. I don't know what's with me.
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[Diary] Last week of April [May. 1st, 2006|10:51 am]
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* Went to Toronto for the Smalltalk Solutions/Linux World conference, my third one, and probably the most exciting yet. Toronto was beautiful and rainy and windy, and the schedule was packed (apologies to [info]epi_lj -- I didn't even have net access either at the hotel or the con to drop a line. Which is a separate topic in itself -- shouldn't all major hotels and technology conventions have free wifi by now?). The session on GLORP, an Object-to-relational-database mapping framework, was fascinating. But the talks on Seaside (a revolutionary continuation-based web application framework), Pier and Magritte held me riveted -- these Smalltalk frameworks, in a sense the answer to Ruby on Rails, were exactly what I was looking for. I can't wait to experiment more with those.

* On Saturday, we stopped by [info]theferrett's and [info]zoethe's house, and chatted -- law school and webcomics and object-oriented programming in PHP. They had to run out to dinner, so we headed to...

* For [info]mishamish's birthday, which started at our local beloved Mom's Diner, and ended up at a Laser Tag place which turns out to be a couple of blocks from our house. w000t! Brings back high school memories, and makes me want to get a laser tag set together among our group of local friends, to play in the park. I remember having links to do-it-yourself plans for a good laser set, somewhere...

* My Palm PDA broke! Fortunately, I managed to get one last backup out of it. But the display is shot -- just a single band of yellow light. Let's see what the options for fixing and replacing are. Maybe it's time to try out the paper-based Hipster PDA.

* Watched, for the first time: Camelot, Auntie Mame, and Dr. Strangelove -- all wonderful, especially the last. Is it too late to ditch computer science, go into particle physics, and grow up to be a grinning maniacal doctor with a robotic hand?

* Listening to: Talisman -- my first Stephen King book. Very archetypal fantasy; pretty compelling so far.
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[Diary] Stephenson's Quicksilver and MtG [Apr. 14th, 2006|11:11 am]
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Stayed out till 3am last night, playing Magic: The Gathering with [info]theferrett, [info]shaxper20, and [info]owlswater (who is in town briefly, and going back to San Diego this weekend). I love these games! Yes, Magic is immense and kind of overwhelming, and expensive if you let it, and has many problems as a game, nor have I found my peace of mind or state of grace within it... But damn, there is nothing quite like it, with the right group of friends that aren't completely out of your league, nothing quite like the craftiness and subtlety and strategy and dumb luck.

Before that, Jeff took me and Ferrett to check out Astound, his favorite comic book store. The owner wasn't there -- I look forward to meeting him next time -- but I liked what I saw; the store was well-lit and clean and organized.

I'm also currently reading (listening to) Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver, book one in his Baroque Cycle. And just like when I was reading Foucault's Pendulum and Mason & Dixon, I'm giddy with historical glee and passion. There's... post-Cromwellian London! And the New Model Army! And English pirates at Cape Cod! And the Siege of Vienna! And alchemists, and philosophers, and street urchins! And the origins of Calculus, and Newtonian physics, and the modern financial systems! And much, much more -- the book is hefty, and Neal likes to stuff everything in. I admit I secretly love learning history like this -- in bits and pieces, looking up names and concepts and movements while following a compelling narrative.
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[Diary] Turandot and Miscelany [Apr. 10th, 2006|11:43 am]
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* As an early birthday pressie for [info]yuki_onna, we went to the opera (only the second time ever for us, and her first) to see Turandot this Saturday. (Much thanks to [info]zoethe about giving us a heads-up that it was playing!) Okay, I have no words, that was the most beautiful and compelling show I've ever seen (helped by the fact that we lucked out and got good seats). I felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, and I wasn't even expecting to like it that much. The setting and production was absolutely lavish, and the music and the libretto were (please forgive my ignorance of opera, here) stunningly accessible and compelling.

* Speaking of fantastic productions, [info]mishamish's play (playing Lysander in Midsummer Night's Dream) is going on through this coming weekend (we'll probably catch it on Friday) -- see his post for showtimes and details.

* [info]owlswater is coming to visit sometime this week. w000000t!

* Also, I have a bike now, for the first time in over 10 years. I went with to a bike shop rather than WalMart (partly because of [info]zoethe, [info]sclerotic_rings and [info]epi_lj's advice, and partly 'cause WalMart didn't have anything close to what I was looking for) . I got the simplest one there, a hybrid mountain- and road-bike (although I loved the looks of the road bikes there) -- hey, it'll be mostly for exercise, and riding around in the park. I've been out on my first couple of bike rides already, and I love it. I can't wait for Liss and Cat to get bikes, too.

* As part of my birthday loot haul, I picked up a copy of Neverwinter Nights, as well as my perfect keyboard, the Logitech S 510 (cordless, sleek and clicky).

* I've been gradually catching up on Schlock Mercenary, which [info]theferrett raved about a while back. I'm quite liking it -- it's like Sluggy Freelance crossed with solid Larry Niven- and Iain Banks-inspired space opera.

Life is good.
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[Diary] Yeyy Guests! [Mar. 30th, 2006|09:55 am]
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[Current Mood | w00t]

Tuesday - Had a small birthday (mine) dinner with the family, the typical russian zastolye, got to see my aunt and uncle, and my adorable little niece(-once-removed?), Nika, who always wants cartoons and fairy tales when she comes over. And then...

The circus rolled into town, in the form of the incredibly sweet, fiercely smart, and likely road-weary, [info]s00j and [info]omnisti, on their way from the east coast to Springfield, OH. We had a late night "Z Household Breakfast Special" (had to use cilantro instead of basil in the pesto for the eggs... barely noticed and still tasty. eeexcellent), stayed up talking and scheming, and then grabbed a little bit of sleep.

Liss and I took the next day off work (half day, in my case), went out to lunch at Mom's Diner (S.J. gave an impromptu performance of her Wendy Saga, which still makes me want to cackle with glee, and cry), and saw them off on their way. Hey you two, you've always got a place to stay when you're in this part of the country!
(Breaks from work rule -- I got more coding done and more bugs closed in that half a day than either of the previous two days, must keep this in mind).


Wednesday - watched Everything Is Illuminated, which I absolutely loved. Had a long discussion/argument about ethnicity vs culture vs national identity, and how the various American ethnic groups (Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, etc) get no respect, and barely get any claim to the heritage, while in Europe, even though the cultural identity is so important to them back in the States. Also, I miss Odessa.
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Birthday and Mirrormask [Mar. 27th, 2006|02:37 pm]
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[Current Mood | cheerful]

Level Up: Twenty-eight years old, as of Saturday! One step closer to becoming a dirty old man. (That's a hint, O Fates -- I'd rather live long than not, if it's all the same to you).

The birthday party Saturday night was a combination LAN party (Diablo II) and 80's movie night (MST3K, Ferris Bueller, etc) -- much fun, and cozy. We have to do this again (both in the 80s movie marathon sense, and in the LAN party sense, although with a little more time set aside for preparation, and a nice multi-port gaming router)!

Also, saw Mirrormask yesterday. I am still slightly in denial mode. Neil Gaiman, you are better than this! I don't remember the last time I was so profoundly bored with a movie (and written by an author I love, to boot). This is much worse than Kaena: The Prophecy -- at least that was original and intriguing, if awkward and heavy-handed and slightly preachy. But this -- completely derivative! It's as if somebody took the worst elements of Labyrinth, Legend, City of Lost Children, Alice, and Neverending Story, and stuffed it into a barely comprehensible movie that I couldn't care about, try as I might. Arrrrrrgh.
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Weekend Miscelany [Jan. 30th, 2006|11:23 am]
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* I got an old computer to dual boot MSDOS/Windows 3.1, and Windows 98, using the Extended OS Loader. For retrogaming. And Might and Magic: World of Xeen is up and running! Which probably means nothing to anybody except Ryan, who doesn't have an LJ, but damn, it feels good. Up next: the entire Ultima and Wizardry series, and many more.

* The basement flooded! Arrrgh, stupid pump sensor failing to trigger... Note to self: self, do not keep magazines and books in cardboard boxes on the basement floor.

* In addition to opening a second checking account, we opened a 3.8% APY savings account from ING Direct. Where to open this account was a tricky decision. I chose ING over:
- PayPal Money Market (4.3% APY), since PayPal is not FDIC insured, but moreover is notorious for seizing accounts with no notice or recourse, whenever their 'fraud detection' algorithms misfire.
- Sharebuilder money market. Now, Sharebuilder, in general, is an amazing service for inexpensive long-term stock market investing. They allow partial purchases of shares, which enables dollar-based investing: for example, you can put aside $50 a month, to purchase $50's worth of Microsoft stock, even if a single share is worth a lot more than that. And the commission cost is much lower than even Ameritrade. And they offer an interest rate (via the money market). But I couldn't figure out how the rate compared to the other banks, since they only quoted a 7-day yield. How the hell do I convert to annual? Whatever, people.
- Emigrant Direct (4.0% APY). There are many rumours of horrible customer service at that bank.
- HSBC direct (4.25% APY). This was the hardest decision, between ING and HSBC, due to the latter's much higher interest rates. In the end, I chose ING over HSBC because of superior web interface, a much faster signup process with less paperwork, and the fact that ING allows you to open easily labeled sub-accounts (so you can track savings for things like 'Vacation' and 'Car Repair', in your main account). For the amount of money we'll be keeping there, for emergency funds, the 0.45% difference in interest rate will be barely noticeable.

* The car is still at the dealers, for maintenance and repair. Short-term transportation and finances are iffy. But we'll live.

* We got to see Ryan, Cassandra and Dan over the weekend; muchly needed - we haven't seen 'em in months.

* Also, because To Be Tagged Is To Obey, 7 things that piss me off:
1) Tailgaters. Awaken murderous urges in me, and make me want to reach for my laser cannon controls. And then I remember that I have no laser cannon, and if everybody was allowed to have one, the roads would be a horrific war zone. And maybe if only I was licensed to carry and use one, I would still feel bad, eventually, for the tailgaters I gunned down and asploded. But probably not. In any case, I have no cannons, and therefore have to resort to gypsy curses. And await the time when AIs control our cars for us.

2) Computers. There's nothing quite like hardware or software problems (or just plain installation) to make your time, sanity, and calm, disappear. Perhaps I'm in the wrong industry.

3) Despisers of the Body. And of women (the two beliefs often go hand in hand). This covers most of mainstream Western and Eastern civilization.

4) Censorship. Of any sort, aside from the obvious and prudent "don't publish crucial and easily duplicatable military secrets that will destroy us all".

5) The belief that there is One Right Way To Live.

6) Genocide. And lazy and careless world hegemonies such as ours, who fail to do one of the only things that hegemonies are actually good for, which is to prevent horrific genocide.

7) Stale coleslaw at restaurants.
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2005 in review [Jan. 5th, 2006|12:50 pm]
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Read: 22.5 books (2 print and 20.5 audiobooks, ok, plus some Ebooks) and 0 comics. Watched: 54 movies and several anime series, plus all of Firefly and Season 1 of Buffy and Futurama.

Met (in person) for the first time:
[info]yuki_onna, [info]caudelac, [info]lechevaliervert, [info]scathedobsidian, [info]jadeddreamer, [info]sovay, [info]pleasekillmel, [info]literatim, [info]loreleif, [info]shellefly, [info]godsdaisychain, many people from [info]tyedie's wedding ([info]cheerfulchaotic, [info]postgoodism, [info]arilinn, [info]antioch523, [info]kendellsquare, [info]steckland and [info]naufiel), and a whole bunch of LJers during various cons. Probably others that I'm missing.

Births/deaths/weddings: None, none, and 2: [info]tyedie and [info]kmanista got married, as did my cousin Rimma.

Travel:
Whew, lots! Visited, for the first time - California (San Diego, specifically, to attend ComicCon with [info]owlswater), Madison WI (WisCON and WorldFantasy), Chicago, Norfolk VA, and French Lick IN.

Vitals:
Gained weight (office lifestyle catching up to me, need to start exercising), slightly richer (more debts paid off, but bought a house), health seems to be ok.

Moments and Firsts:
* Assembled a computer from components
* Bought a house
* Went spearfishing and shot my first big fish!
* Visited California. I have wanted to, for a long time
* Went camping in the Hocking Hills state park. Just beautiful...
* Spent a night on anchor, on our sailboat. A small thing, but makes me happy (all our previous trips, we were moored or docked somewhere).
* Many cons! Much good time with friends.
* Acquired my first consoles since the NES (GBA, SNES, Dreamcast)
* Saw the Decemberists and Dresden Dolls in concert! I think I'll always associate their music with 2005.

Things I want from the New Year:

* To throw a Prom, with friends, sometime in late winter (when is the official prom season, anyway)? Complete with cheesy prom music, the whole bit.

* To complete my Software Map (find missing software for categories, try it out. Ones I tried out are in green.)
Especially the programming tools: Subversion for version control, javadoc-style tools (phpDocumentor), unit testing frameworks (phpUnit, sUnit), modelling software (ArgoUML and DBDesigner).

* Set up a Windows 2003 domain server, at home, as well as a Linux development server (with the full LAMP environment, plus Trac and Seaside).

* Go geocaching.

* Buy a bike. Also do the Walk to Rivendell challenge. Save up for an elliptical trainer, or rowing machine or treadmill.

* Go to Origins game convention for the first time. Buying my tickets tomorrow.

* Sail down the Mississippi river! The trip is planned for mid-June, about two weeks. Now, to pick an interesting and navigable stretch of the river, and to practice trailering the boat... Also, take a trip to Serpent Mound.

* Read more printed books! At least one a month. Maybe even the 50 book challenge. Also, read more comics!

* Start getting to bed at 10pm on weeknights. I hear it's good luck...

* Nourish the soul: I've started meditating daily, and playing a little bit of video games. This must continue. Add Yoga.

* Arrange to work from home at least one day a week, at my day job.

* Release my GeekTribes social software project into public beta.

* Spend more time on the West Side :)
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Weekend - Apples, Peter Pan and The Decemberists [Oct. 17th, 2005|02:43 pm]
[Tags|, , , ]
[Current Mood | autumnal]

That was a perfect autumnal Saturday.

First, we woke up and headed to the Patterson Farm for apple-picking, with [info]owlswater and his mom (we were sadly late -- an unfortunate incident involving a rubber band, a staple gun, a decommissioned Soviet diesel engine and an expired immortality elixir; I hope he can forgive us). The sun was out, the wind was chill, the white white clouds raced across the sky in that auspicious and epic way. We breakfasted on cider, apple pastries and mind-bogglingly fresh donuts (and I'm not a fan of the donut artform, usually), and went down to the orchard.

It felt like a treasure hunt, loping about the orchard's maze, looting the golden and ruby and garnet apples from the branches, standing on tiptoe to reach that perfect cluster, keeping an eye out for guards, fire-birds and golden nets.

We said a hurried goodbye to [info]owlswater, then, who is once again being spirited away to the sun-drenched barbarian wilds of San Diego. (Thank you for the books, and the (*heart skips beat*) Super NES -- I can't believe I finally own one!).

In the afternoon, we hung out with the dogs in the back yard (and the sunlight falling just so, and the golden and fiery leaves on the trees having been burned onto my mind's eye), listening to [info]yuki_onna read Peter Pan (never read it, I have to admit, nor really watched the movies or cartoons, though I know the general premise).

Evening came, and we geared up and headed to the Odeon for the Decemberists concert. As we drove by the Cuyahoga river, steely black and wind-rippled, I realized that, for various reasons (is it because of the guests?), I've been feeling a growing kinship to this city, especially the Downtown and Flats district, of which I know sadly little but want to redress that.

The concert? Best live show I've ever been to, period. Three remarkable things about the Decemberists:

* The band feels both elitist, and down to earth humble -- a combination of geeky intellectual lyrics (ballads! pirates and giant whales! chimney sweeps and ghostly barrel boys!) and a nasal northwestern singing voice (they remind me very much of They Might Be Giants), and vibrant live performance energy and ordinary grad-school-garage-band looks.

* Aside from the requisite hipster contingent which filled the club, there were also working class looking families with children among the fans; two little girls stood on chairs and sang along with the concert.

* They engaged the energy of the crowd in a way I've never seen before. They teased and crescendoed, broke into funky interludes JUST before a well-known line in a song, filling the room with an almost tangible anticipation, sitting us all down on the floor with a gesture in order to deliver the quiet, haunting verses and then explode with energy again, and making us scream as if we were eaten by a giant whale during the Mariner's Revenge song (and the cardboard whale jaws!!). I walked out of that concert and was all, whew, I need a cigarette!

In short, it was pure fanboy bliss for me (like the Evanescence concert, but better and with a more intimate and smaller venue). And I now own my very first band t-shirt.
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