Lunacon HO!

I’m at Lunacon this weekend in Rye, NY. It’s a very relaxing, enjoyable event we’ve been going to for years. Unfortunately, this’ll be the last time at this hotel (a hotel referred to as the Escher Hilton, due to it’s odd floor arrangements). Lunacon has simply outgrown the space.
It’s sort of odd going to an event thatt I’m -not- working at. I’m relaxing, enjoying company, and basically having a nice time. How strange!
At the moment I’m in fair-geek-heaven. I’m sitting in the pool area, watching Zach play in the pool with some other kids. I’m on the laptop (alas, plugged in – battery power is not so hot), with reasonable wireless coverage. On the one hand, I’m such a geek. On the other hand, I’m getting some things done, and enjoying it. I even got some Real Live Work [tm] done prepping some artwork with a designer for an event coming up.
Should be back in Boston tomorrow [Sunday] afternoon, then an event meeting Sunday evening in town (at the infamous Boston Park Plaza!).
More good geeky stuff to come 🙂

Good music hit.

Another good music track on the drive home from Lexington where I attended a Center for Entrepreneurial Growth meeting. Nice folks there, got some good networking time.
Anyway, on the way home there was a block of ZZ Top, and man I forgot how much I like their stuff. I only caught their last 2 tracks, but they were La Grange and Cheap Sunglasses – two pieces with some great grooves.
Cheap Sunglasses has a mean bassline in it.

Semantics debate.

So apparently I’m out on my own here, but to me, when someone says “next Saturday”, they are talking about the very next Saturday that will occur.
Apparently I’m in the minority here. When someone tells me, on Wednesday, “Hey, we’re doing something next Saturday” – I naturally assume they’re talking about the day 4 days hence. Nonnon! They’re talking about the day 11 days hence! The one in 4 days is ‘this’ Saturday.
Who thought up this goofy plan? Days are individual entities. If I say ‘take the next thing in line’, you pick up the next available thing, right? You don’t ‘skip’ one and go for the next one after that, do you?
Is this a Boston regionalism or something? Was my brain just counter-programmed when growing up in New Jersey?

Snow day!

You call that a snowstorm? There were noises of this snowfall being somewhat dramatic, with forecasts of up to a foot of snow, yaddayadda. Total snowfall ended up being about 5 inches. Enough to cover the ground, and enough to need snowblowing,
Ahh, the snowblower! What is it about working with machinery that’s so satisfying? I mean, granted, it’s no backhoe, but it’s a lot of fun. This is a Craftsman ride-on tractor, with a 42″ blower on the front of it. We add about 100lbs of weight to it for winter use, with wheel weights and a large bucket o stones on the back.. This, combined with my own not-exactly-insubstantial mass made the whole thing easy to navigate in the snow. The little 18hp engine doens’t have any problems doing the work, the trick is always the traction.
Anyway, snowblowing was successful, the driveway is again safe for navigation (we have a pretty steep hill, it really does need to be cleared).
On to work!

Fun Flash games.

Folks on IRC pointed me at ‘Grow’ today, and I spent probably more time than I should ahve playing it. I’m still fiddling, I’m up to 9000pts, with 8 maxed. I’ll amend this if I get better.
‘Grow’ is available here.

And on the other side of the desk…

Remember that Thinkpad I just bought? Well, the drive is… well, iffy on it. 20gig 9.5mm laptop drive. It’s whining something fierce. A little birdie reminded me that IBM warranties are totally transparent to who owns the laptop. So first checking in on IBM’s website, SCORE! It’s still under warranty! Off to IBM’s tech service, get a human being within 2-3 minutes, and he has me remove the drive, give him the part number, and a replacement drive should be here tomorrow, all free of charge.
Kewl. Once again, my opinion of IBM’s laptop division goes up a notch.

Would you trust these people?

From The Progress Report on www.americanprogress.org….

RUMSFELD DISHONESTY CAUGHT ON FILM: The most vivid display of the Administration’s widening credibility gap came when CBS’s Bob Schieffer asked Rumsfeld “If Iraq did not have WMD, why did they pose an immediate threat to this country?” Rumsfeld retorted, “You and a few other critics are the only people I’ve heard use the phrase ‘immediate threat.’ I didn’t…It’s become kind of folklore that that’s what happened.” Schieffer repeated his question but Rumsfeld challenged the reporter saying, “If you have any citations, I’d like to see ’em.” At that point, NYT columnist Tom Friedman read Rumsfeld his own words, pointing out that the Defense Secretary had told Congress on 9/19/02 that “No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people” than Iraq and that “some have argued that the nuclear threat from Iraq is not imminent [but] I would not be so certain.” According to the transcript of the show, Rumsfeld replied “Mm-hmm. It–my view of–of the situation was that he–he had–we–we believe, the best intelligence that we had and other countries had and that–that we believed and we still do not know–we will know.” American Progress has posted a video clip of this exchange.

Other entries follow… I challenge anyone to read this simple summary page, with citations, supporting information, transcripts, and facts gathered together… and contine to have faith that the Bush Administration is worth the American people’s trust.

Continue reading “Would you trust these people?”

Working from home…

Ahh, day 1 at home full time. Work is getting done, UPS is delivering and picking things up, I’ve had my coffee, and I’m going to get lunch shortly. Clients contacted, emails exchanged, contracts negotiated.
AND 5 FRIGGIN TELEMARKETING CALLS IN THE LAST 3 HOURS!
I responded to every one of them with “Take me off your list”, we’ll see if it helps. Have folks signed onto the National Do Not Call list, and has it worked? This is gonna drive me batshit.

Good business news.

On Friday I got a verbal agreement from an angel investor who has agreed to finance Stonekeep‘s operations at least for 6 months. We’ve agreed on financial arrangements and other details necessary to make this work. This will allow me to focus completely on Stonekeep’s client base and systems and build the company up into a self-sufficient business.
I’m hyper-excited about this. I’ve got great expectations now that I have the opportunity to really build CONGO (and to some extent Keystone) back up into the high end systems I think they can be.
Exciting times ahead!

That’s no boat. That’s a SPACE STATION!

When a J-Class Racing Sloop just isn’t enough. A company has almost completed the largest sloop-rigged sailboat ever.
The Mirabella V is 246ft long, sports a carbon fiber mast 300′ high, carries a 29′ 400hp tender in a special ‘garage’ in the transom, as well as a full complement of jetskis, laser racing boats, and zodiacs.
Personally, I think the boat is ugly as sin, but it -is- enormous. Make sure you check out the gallery.

Guilty pleasure

I have to admit, I’m a big fan of Dance Dance Revolution, or just ‘DDR’ for short. In premise, it sounds like a bad joke. “Okay, so you stand in front of this computer, on these pads, see, and it shows you the steps to make in time with the music. When it lights up, you step on the arrow. Keep up with the music and the steps, and your score goes up. You get scored on timing. You can compete against someone else at the same time, too!”
Wow, how… uninviting-sounding.
But in reality, this game is a -hoot-. It’s far more social than I expected (as in, it’s a lot more fun to play when either you’re playing with someone else, or with a group of people). It’s a helluva lot of exercise. A half hour of playing and you’re generally drenched with sweat. Fortunately we have a big room wit a big TV in it, so folks can sit around and watch and have fun, as we did last night.
Arora and I just took a midday break and played for about 45 minutes. Fun! It’s great when the two players are in sync, and keep up with each other and the game.
Now, back to work, but I’m sure we’ll hit it some more later.
For folks who know this game, we’re playing Konamix on a Playstation 1. Absolutely prehistoric by DDR standards, but for us newbies and wannabees, this is just right.

Listening to Schooner Fair with Zach…

From Schooner Fair — Alive!
MAN i wanna get sailing again…..
THE MARY L. McKAY
Frederick W. Wallace / Arr. & Adapt. Schooner Fare
We first heard this song in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Later we found it in a North American folk collection. The story is unchanged but the rhythm, melody and chords have been rewritten. It’s the story of a record-setting voyage between Portland, Maine, and Yarmouth, N.S., with a little help from Portland bootleg rum.

Continue reading “Listening to Schooner Fair with Zach…”

A… Not so productive day.

Boy, nothing like having a couple really busy days, then when finally sitting down for First Day On the Job, you don’t get diddly done. *sigh*. Today was nutty with a dentist appt this morning, and 2-3 hours of aftermath where I was hurting a lot more than I normally do after dental work, then a rapid fire series of visits from various in-laws.
Durn. Maybe I can get some quicky code done tonight.
Just ranting. Back to blogland…