I’m posting this from a Wii video game system. Why not? Granted, the WYSIWYG editor refuses to work. I’m cool with that. I know my way around (x)html enough to not break my site.
Archive for the ‘Nightly Update’ Category
Only Because I Can
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011Screaming In Code
Saturday, September 17th, 2011At an early point in my professional life, there was a near-parable floating around the Internet. According to this tale, there was a programmer at a job interview. This programmer told his potential employer, “I dream in code.” Those four words were said to have set him apart from his competition and won him the job.
I have been pushing myself to remember things. These things were lost to the day-to-day life of being a grown-up. They were lost to my regrets of having not acted in favor of what I believed was a more patient, long-term commitment to myself. So I have been trying to remember.
I remember one year, the thing I wanted more than anything else for Christmas a copy of Borland’s C+ Compiler. I lost many Friday nights to a beat up, cigarette-stained computer and learned to chip away pieces of code, one function at a time. (more…)
A Handwritten Bible of an Apocalypse
Monday, September 12th, 2011I re-started some notes. I’m surprised he isn’t dead after everything they did to him.
I had a nightmare around two years ago. In this dream, I beaten and arrested over something trivial. Nothing this depraved has ever actually happened to me. Situations close enough to it have occurred. The police did not join in the festivities, but they did nothing to stop them.
Two years ago, that nightmare inspired my first vision of this Apocalypse. That bad dream would not only inspire a lot of notes for a story that never took off but would be a crucial element of this adventurer’s journey. The only problem was that it was an aimless journey. I knew what I wanted to say but had no reason to say it through this character or the world built around him.
The time between that first attempt and now has been wonderful in that I have made a lot of great friends. I have been finding strengths I thought were lost to the worst of times. (more…)
Don’t Call Me Sweetie
Tuesday, March 29th, 2011I am having a problem with women I don’t know calling me “sweetie.” For reasons entirely my own, I am uncomfortable hearing such an appellation from strangers.
So, I am compiling a list of acceptable times to call me sweetie.
It is okay to call me sweetie if:
- You are my wife.
That one is kind of important. I’m married, which means that I am my wife’s “sweetie” alone. It also means that my wife has gotten to know me and entered into the comfort zone where that is a compliment.
However, my tolerance for that word can be bought under the following rules.
You can buy the privilege if:
- You took me out for coffee and paid for it. This only lasts as long as the coffee is still hot.
- You are presently tattooing my skin.
- You are performing a necessary medical procedure for which I am awake and in pain.
- You have just shoved ten or more dollars down my shirt.
- You are famous.
In all cases, you should be physiologically at least 75% female. Moobs do not count.
What a Weekend!
Monday, January 31st, 2011Well, I want a place other than Facebook or Twitter to let this summary go. Facebook will eventually pull this post into my Notes on their site, but that really doesn’t phase me right now. I just have to get it off my chest.
What a weekend.
My USB MIDI interface arrived on Friday. By Saturday night, I had drum patterns going from FLStudio to my electronic drums in real time. Thus, the $8 cable allowed my existing equipment to turn into a rather nice sounding if slightly dumb drum machine. So, now I can have drums, Kaossilator, and Monotron all going at the same time to improvise electronic music.
Also, I can still play the drums while the MIDI information is being fed into it. Awesome. Just remember that you can’t say “polyphony” without “fun.”
Arts and crafts in the real world! I stopped by the big-name chain store on Saturday for supplies. Felt, fabric cloth, and (supposedly) clear blank stickers for my printer. I printed up four copies of my Riddle symbol. One for my drums, two for my electronic music toolbox, and one for my laptop. I also made a copy of that symbol on felt to hang during my video / horror show.
The video show was fun for me to do this week. I had the compressor working really nicely, but the software lied about just where my volume levels were. The software said 60%. The truth was more like 120%. Damn it all. But, the story meant a lot to me in a lot of ways, and I took my first step toward bringing conceptual continuity into the project.
Told everyone on Facebook that I was happily re-watching Necromentia. The director commented to say thanks. I now suggest you watch both Necromentia and the Gene Generation.
I also started work on finishing the human figure in a current project to draw the Major Arcana in my own sort of interpretation. There is no overriding theme. Simply trying to draw them as they might apply to my own life and journeys.
Been chatting with Lords of Acid on Twitter about seeing them in March. At the same time, a former co-worker texted me about seeing Lords of Acid in March. I might have to go see Lords of Acid in March. Now the question is: do I dig my “Our Little Secret” tour shirt out of storage?
Anyway.. wow. What a weekend.
Impromptu Balloon Gig
Saturday, October 2nd, 2010The neighbor invited us to a birthday party that he was throwing for… well… I don’t know. But the kid looked to be younger than 10.
Having no present but wanting to contribute, I brought my bag of sculpting balloons and both of my travel pumps. They both broke. I ran back to the house to get my Coleman air-mattress inflating pump. Hey, whatever works.
At one point there were about two dozen kids in a moonwalk laughing and playing with balloon swords that I made for them. It felt GREAT. The neighbors asked if I wanted to be paid for it — no. I wanted to make the kid’s party better. I wanted the experience of working in front of a crowd. I spent about $4 on balloons to do both, and a fun time was had by all.
I also practiced doing magic in the main lobby at the Texas Association of Magicians conference about a month ago. It’s an ongoing fight against stage fright — and one I think I’m winning very well.
Updates
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010Alright. I haven’t dear-diaried in a while. Here goes.
Magic
I enjoy stage magic a lot more. I still suck at the pass, but I can do one well enough. More importantly, I can pull one off for an audience of just one person. But that’s not what’s important.
I really finally feel like I’m making friends through the magic club. Last year I was able to attend the Austin Magic Auction and purchase a good deal of “bigger” magic. No sawing women in half big, but some good foundations for stage work. I’m edging closer to the things I loved watching as a kid. I’m happier this way, too.
Music
This site used to be a showcase for my music ! Well, here goes!
The above was conceived, composed, and filmed in a 24 hour span. Some of it sucks. I’m strangely proud of the rest.
Fiction
Every time I finish a story, the market for that genre closes due to an overabundance of submissions. That’s alright. I’ll just stockpile the finished pieces and submit when the chances open up again.
Perversions of Reason
I like tarot cards. I don’t believe in any forces behind them. To me, they are 78 or so beautifully crafted pieces of pasteboard given really vague adjectives. I like to use those adjectives to pick my own brain when writer’s block strikes.
Tarot cards also seem to make some happy balance between my vices. Magic (cards). Fantasy (divination). Creativity (writing tools).
In summary
I don’t even remember the last time I tasted a drop of alcohol. The only TV I watch is boxed sets of Friday the 13th: The Series to help me fall asleep. It’s not that I don’t have any vices. Mine just happen to be very productive vices.
Nightly Update April 29, 2010
Thursday, April 29th, 2010Well, I’m writing about these William Malone movies. It’s becoming clear to me that I know nearly nothing about writing a readable review.
Learning how to do it properly can simply be the next great adventure. That is, I mean, between the family, job, magic practice, and writing fiction.
What Evil Done
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010Steve Jobs has apparently, under some disputed but strong words, stated that Google has done evil by introducing a smart phone to the market. Apparently, the man wished to compound the embarrassment of his iPad release by reminding us that he mixed a Blackberry with the touch screen on the interactive catalog at JC Penney. Or maybe I should have forgotten that whole Xerox/PARC debacle.
By the end of the month I’ll be ready to put down good cash money toward a new phone. It will not be an iPhone. For one, I disliked Quicktime very much. It looks nice and all, but that ugly blue Q loads up whenever I restart my computer. It eats up system resources just to remind me that our lord Jobs, who art in Cupertino, reinvented RealPlayer, and that too was not evil. I do not like Quicktime. I do not want Quicktime installed on any of my computers eating up system resources for no good reason. Without Quicktime, the extended features of an iPhone would be almost entirely useless to me.
In fact, I like to fool with my gadgets and customize them when possible. Jobs, however, thinks it would be evil if I were allowed to do too much of that with an iPhone. My investment would be turned into an unusable brick should I treat the device in any manner which might incur His mighty wrath. Any money I may spend on an iPhone will have been in vain if Saintly Jobs does not approve of my wishes. If I recall correctly, however, the evil competitor has an Open-Source operating system.
Free markets and competition are not evil. Closed systems run by angry, power-hungry elitists are evil. Arbitrary rules set out be these elitists with no room or concern for an individual’s wish to improve his station are evil. If this word is going to be dragged out into the daylight, then I would propose that whoever masterminded the iPhone has done a lot more evil than Google.
Competition gives us choice. It pushes those people who want to trade for our money to offer a better value – be it in service, product, support, or any combination of offerings. A lot of people love their iPhones. I want them to love their iPhones. Those things aren’t cheap. Apple has done a good job satisfying their wants and needs. That was not evil. I do not have any desire for an iPhone for many reasons of my own. It is not evil for me to want a product that is more in line with my temperament, goals, and abilities. It is not evil for a competitor to offer such a product to me.
Apple had no issue trying to upstage other manufacturers or developers. The Blackberry was offered just about five years before the iPhone. Their direct attacks against competing personal computing platforms are a part of American pop culture.
As if the Quicktime and Bricking issues weren’t enough to drive me away, this rant put me in the improbable position of actually wanting an iPhone even less. Now not only does the phone not fit my needs, but the company has proven its complete lack of ethics or common sense. Jobs just called the practices of his own company evil as well, and the Apple employees are said to have cheered. I can not in good conscience trade money with them.
At the Magic Club
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009Last night was magic club night.
Wow. There were performances last night the likes of which I have not ever seen — the likes of which most of the club was astounded by. Not only is this a very talented club, but the people are just amazing to speak with and be around.
I learned a new effect and had a prop passed on to me, with the promise made that one day when I was a seasoned member that I help another new member with advice and a new tool. The member who helped me had been given the same chance years ago, and passed that on to me along with the new tools.
I hope to do him proud both with the effect and with my future help of a future member.
I would like to point out as well that this is an effect I have wanting to study for quite some time. And now it will be one that I study and enjoy practicing for some time. My oldest is already astounded by my less-than-polished efforts.
I can only hope that my future recipient is as happy when I pass whatever it is I can offer on to him or her.
