Through Summer's heat, a shadetree pool...

Is Twitter for old farts?

ljsam@technozoo.org — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:00:54 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

I suspect that Twitter is more for old farts than anyone else.

I recently had the opportunity to meet about 80 newly minted college grads. These folks were close to the top of their class, and in the process of interviewing them about their IT needs, the session leader asked them about Facebook and Twitter.

Apparently everyone in the audience "had a Facebook" in the parlance that was used, but when they were asked about Twitter, there was a lot of groaning and grimacing. I was quite amazed to see such a negative reaction. My expectation after listening to podcasts and reading LiveJournal was that nearly everybody loved Twitter, but apparently not among successful college graduates with Bachelors of Arts and Science degrees here in Georgia.

Now I realize that Clay Shirky says that social innovation can only take place on technology that is so commonplace that it's boring. These days, that means blogs, email, forums, and the like. Getting into Facebook and Twitter is still such a weird thing for a lot of people.

My mom's on Facebook, though. And, I wonder, how many of these students' parents are on Twitter? Older, hipper brothers and sisters?

Of course, I realize that I am in the heart of Atlanta. So maybe this is just an East Coast - West Coast thing. I'm really sorry that this group of bright people have seemed to completely reject Twitter and I wonder what it is that drives them away. Perhaps it is that Britney, Oprah, and Fitty have arrived there before them? Perhaps they're just tired of hearing about it and they've never actually given it a try.

I had a conversation with one of them, where they were talking about why they couldn't understand Twitter, couldn't get why people would want to talk about their lives 140 characters at a time. I asked her if she ever updated her status on Facebook, and she said, "Yeah, all the time. But that's different."

There's no difference, really, between the two. In fact, the TweetDeck program allows one to post directly to both at the same time.

I'm wondering now if we'll even have a Twitter this time next year. We'll see. In the meantime, I'll keep up my Friendfeed, my Tumblog, my Twitter, my Facebook, Goodreads and everything else. I love this stuff - don't plan to stop any time now.

I'm sambearpoet most everywhere, if you want to follow / read me

This is not a healthy cow….

ljsam@technozoo.org — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:32:40 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

Every time I see this logo, I get a shudder. Cows are not supposed to be this skinny, so a skinny cow is a sick cow.

What's next? The Scabrous Pig?

It just drives me crazy.

Yet Another Coffee Post: Additives!

ljsam@technozoo.org — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:58:38 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

A meditation on coffee fixings:

I've visited a lot of coffee shops in Atlanta. Not every one of them. Not yet. But I have done it as much I could on my budget and with the time allotted to me, and keeping in mind that my life partner, Cynthia, and my step-daughter, Katie, don't really drink much in the way of coffee. OK, I take that back; Cyn loves herself a good ol' raspberry vanilla venti mocha when the mood sets. And Katie has been known to partake of The Chai, as they say. However, I don't think it really occurs to Cynthia to actually make a coffee shop as a destination; it's more of an add-on to any other activity. For me, though, going to a coffee shop is a treat.

It is a bit difficult to judge the coffee shop. I've written a few reviews on Yelp (and plan on writing more later), and I notice that other people write a lot about the coffee and the snacks they serve. To me, though, the snacks are secondary and the coffee and service are noteworthy but not the primary thing.

The thing that really gets me is how the establishment lays out fixings for the coffee. I can immediately tell a lot about a coffee shop from just that.
First question: do they have half and half? All health considerations aside, half and half is the stuff I put into my coffee. If they don't have it readily available, then I might as well not even order coffee.

Second is their sweetener assortment. In most of the indie coffee shops around Atlanta, I am used to seeing things like sugar syrup (which apparently is cane sugar boiled into water?), raw sugar (which is sugar with the molasses unextracted), stevia or its commercial equivalent, honey, and sometimes arcane and mystic sweeteners that may have been decanted in some unholy but satisfying process birthed in the lower depths of the abyss (like, say, sweet n' low).

Then there's the Stirring Mechanism. Stirring is a vital step in doctoring any drip coffee. One cannot just dump their sweetener and cream into the stuff and have done. So, I've noticed a range of means to address this problem. The spectrum goes from incredibly environmentally unfriendly to extremely environmentally friendly. On the unfriendly end of the spectrum we have ittle wooden stirrers that are undoubtedly rendered from Amazon rainforest trees. It is impossible to stir one's coffee with one of these things, so it requires three or four or more bundled in one's fingers just to get enough surface area to stir, which just exacerbates the fact that more precious Amazonian rainforest is needed per cup of coffee. Next to that are plastic coffee stirrers; once again, one stirrer is not enough to do anything with, and as an added benefit the billions of them will still be around 20 years from now, making a kind of plasticky thatch somewhere in a landfill. Still a bad solution, in my opinion.

As are plastic spoons, for roughly the same reason.

One very intriguing solution to this problem I found at Danneman's in Old Fourth Ward district. They make available to their patrons long sticks of dried plain fettucini as a means of stirring. The stuff biodegrades, it's cheap, it doesn't change the flavor of the coffee, and the blades of fettucini make for a better stirrer than the rainforest-wood kind or the plastic. I still needed three of them to get any motion going in my coffee, and I started having fantasies about coffee-flavored fettucini, perhaps served with a bit of sun-dried tomato and pesto. I suppose it is a bit of American arrogance to use what is effectively a food product to stir our coffee and throw it away, but at least it is better than plastic-thatch.

Getting close to the other end of the earth-friendly spectrum are spoons. The only downside to spoons is the disposal of the dirty spoons. Now, most places have clearly labeled bins that say "CLEAN" and "DIRTY", and at that point you need to just depend on the intelligence and / or literacy of your fellow coffee drinker that they understand the concept. I find spoons with clean and dirty bins to be the best of all stirring worlds; I use one spoon, I get my coffee stirred, and I put it in the dirty bin, and at some juncture a nice person with hot and soapy water cleans the spoons, and nobody has to put up with anything in the landfill. I would think that the cost of doing this alone would be a no-brainer for any coffee shop owner, but I'm still amazed to find rainforest sticks and plastic stirrers everywhere.

I realize that washing the dirty spoons must be a pain, and that, probably, not everybody gets the whole "clean/dirty" thing; a few times I've had to transfer a potential spoon from clean straight to dirty, without touching the coffee.

Still, I am certain that the cost of 40 metal spoons is not as much as the boxes and boxes of plastic and wood stirrers people use.

There are other coffee shop considerations. I like places that use fair trade coffee. I enjoy places that offer big ol' coffee mugs instead of paper cups as a first option. Drinking coffee out of a mug is infinitely preferable, if you can afford the time to wait, than drinking out of a paper or plastic cup.

The worst places I've been to really don't care about their fixings. They put out non-dairy creamer powder, or just 2% milk, or whatever. Or, like one coffee shop, they don't bother to refrigerate their dairy and the half-and-half is sitting out in a box on the countertop, getting warm. When I asked the barista about this, he admitted that he didn't think there was anything wrong with it, and that he rarely has to throw out any, but I like my half-and-half to be cold and reasonably free of bad bacteria.

As I mentioned in my Method Coffee post, if the coffee is good you really don't need any additives. But I love them - they help make the whole experience.

A beautiful, delicious Method: Method Coffee

ljsam@technozoo.org — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:32:04 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

Method Coffee. What can I say about this place that has not been said? Well, one thing I know is this: the place is clean. The place exudes this simplicity, this cleanliness that makes one feel calmer already. It is, really, coffee for OCD people. I don't mean that in a bad way. The way that attention is paid to small details, it's wonderful. The way that everything has been measured to within certain parameters, it's perfect.

Along the back of the counter are these curiously shaped brewing flasks. Someone took a cone and stuck it point-first into a fairly normal-looking coffee carafe. When you examine it you notice that it is all one piece of glass, continuous. They use oxygen bleached filter cones. They have small glass pitchers that are just exactly the right size, so that the volume of water they hold is exactly the right amount of water for the brewing process. They have small airtight glass containers into which they have measured exactly the right amount of beans per cup of coffee.

One container, one cup's worth of beans. They grind it right there, they put the grounds into the cone, the cone into the brew flask. They then pour hot water, flash-heated by an element to the precise necessary temperature, into the flask's cone. They do it in a circular motion, slowly pouring the hot water so that the cone's contents are equally saturated. The water drains through the filter and the grounds into the brew flask.

They have coffee mugs that are exactly the size necessary to handle one cup of perfect coffee. Prior to pouring the hot coffee, the barista pours hot water from the same source into the mug, and lets it sit, so the mug will be hot enough to accept the coffee. Then the coffee is decanted into the mug, and you have an amazing cup of coffee there.

How amazing? Is it really any different from a drip coffee maker? Yes. Yes, it is. Definitely. This method creates a flavorful cup of coffee that tastes pure. Normally I get a burn in the back of my throat from coffee a little while after ingesting it, I didn't get that this time. There is the "coffee" flavor, yes, but the tastes are complex enough so that if you swirl it around on your tongue you will get hints of all kinds of other flavors. It's like holding a prism up to a light and realizing the full spectrum of possible color.

Yes, the coffee is expensive. Yes, it is worth it.

I can imagine that some people might be intimidated by going in to a place that is so passionate about coffee, but please don't be. If you don't want to coffee geek, you don't have to. In fact, I had no idea what to order, and I just said, "I'd like something that's smooth and doesn't have much acidic taste." I was mentally adding, "Unlike Starbucks'," and maybe he picked up on that. And the barista knew what to do, where to guide me, and he gave a good choice.

Katie had a cup of La Parisienne dark sipping chocolate and seemed very, very happy with it. Just watching her as she excavated every last chocolate molecule from the small sipping-chocolate cup was a delight. She makes me smile when she's so happy. She also took the lovely picture you see here!

Now, to mention the surroudings, etc. They exist in the same location as Caribou Coffee used to be in Emory Village, right next door to Everybody's Pizza. The staff are pleasant and helpful, and like I said, the place was clean. I would love to see what they do with tea.

The price is not cheap, but it is worth it. Lots of value here for your money, in my opinion, but your mileage may vary.

Bing…what is it good for?

ljsam@technozoo.org — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:02:20 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

Doing an ego search on Bing.com, I am finding the top five results amusing. Wikipedia, my home page, fireheart foundry, Heart of the Hunter, all OK. But onelook.com ? WTF? And that just redirects to Wikipedia.

So what exactly is revolutionary about Bing? Looks like Just Another Broken Search Engine, to me.

Oh, and by the way, microsoft? If I type bing.microsoft.com, I damn well expect to get Bing. Will you fix that?

Modified RE: Your Brains. Awesome.

ljsam@technozoo.org — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 02:37:55 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

This here's a rework of RE: Your Brains by Jonathan Coulton. Check out Jonathan's wonderful music here.

I think Mur should use this for her Zombie Takeover podcast, only I think it's wrapped already. Oh, well.

It’s Working, Y’all

ljsam@technozoo.org — Tue, 26 May 2009 11:38:20 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

In case you were wondering whether all this booty-shakin' in the podcastosphere on behalf of our favorite podiobooks.com authors is working, certainly Amazon has figured it out! Woot!

I love Wolfram Alpha….

ljsam@technozoo.org — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:17:21 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

http://bit.ly/O9rgE

Happy First of May!

ljsam@technozoo.org — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:31:14 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

Happy First of May, everybody. While not an astronomically appropriate holiday, May 1st is one of my favorite Pagan holidays, Beltane. Beltane isn't the most spiritually fulfilling of holidays, but it is fun.

Flirty goodness, love, mischief and beauty is in the air. Time to be and feel alive and awake and aware of your own energy, and if you are an adult, to own your senses and your passionate power. Mmmm. Good holiday. Happy Beltane!

Anyone play NERO Atlanta?

ljsam@technozoo.org — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:17:12 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

Hi there, friends list and all the ships at sea. Is there anyone reading me who knows a thing or two about NERO Atlanta? Not NERO in general, but the chapter here in Atlanta. I'd love to know one of my friends / contacts who already plays with them.

Thanks in advance for your help!

(BTW, I found their website already, I'm just looking for people who can speak to the experience and who may even be attending this weekend's event)

Who are our fathers and mothers?

ljsam@technozoo.org — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:55:48 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

This is something that I've been thinking a lot about lately. In fact, I've done a lot of thinking about this over the course of my life. As an adopted person, I frequently wonder about who my parents were. Did my biological mother even know who the biological father was? Could it have been one of a number of people? In the Sixties, there was some experimentation with free love in hippie society, and when people experiment with relationships, this kind of uncertainty can definitely be introduced. Maybe she couldn't really tell without DNA testing, which wasn't available in 1967. Truth be told, I have no idea: I was adopted as an infant, so I never knew her.

Because I am adopted, I have a lot of deeply felt emotion regarding these people, my bio-mom and bio-dad; but it is so deep that it has taken years of introspection and therapy to get through to it, and I really don't want this to be a post about my biological parents. (I've done that, here. It's very emotional and very intense, so you've been warned.)

So, who are my father and mother?

One theory is, "My father and mother are the people who are biologically related to me." Well, that is true in a scientific sense, I suppose. But those people, whomever they are, had very little to do with the person I would later become.

Another theory is, "My father and mother are the people who cared for me and adopted me. The people who reared me." And that is true too, very true. More true perhaps than the first idea. My adopted Dad died in September of '08, and I have yet to truly process what all that means. I'm still grieving for him. I feel this grief no less because he was someone who chose me, rather than someone who got my mother pregnant. My adopted mom, whom I basically just call "mom," and I are rebuilding our relationship after a lot of estrangement. I am thankful for this, because in my head she fits the slot of "mom" more than anyone. She is my Mother, and I love her dearly.

And then there is, "My father and mother are the people who nurtured my soul, guided my path, gave me inspiration and beautiful dreams." This is also true. So, I can name many fathers and mothers then. I name Barbara Jean Fant, I name Robert Heinlein. I name Gary Gygax. I name Starhawk and Luisah Teish. There are many, many others I could name. I'm grateful for them all.

That leaves the question, "Who are you nurturing and guiding, who are you a mother or a father of?"

I have the kids I have claimed as my own: G and Rowan. Certainly the States of Georgia and California think they are my children, as I paid child support for them and continue to pay for G. And, truth be told, it doesn't matter what the State or anyone else thinks: they are my children, plain and simple.

As a younger man, my life was very strange and many things were completely chaotic. But I reared my kids, and, even if we have been distant since they left my house, I still love them without reservation or condition as my daughter and son. If you are a guy and you change a person's diapers, hold them when they cry, discipline them, and take care of their boo-boos, and you do this every day until they can stand on their own two feet and take care of themselves, I truly believe that you are that person's Daddy.

I was there for them, and I would never give up those memories and those times; they are precious to me.

I have Katie, who is my step-daughter-in-heart (the daughter of the woman I'm life-partnered to), who lost her own biological father and came to live with us and has now lived longer with me as her male-authority-figure than she did with her father.

And then there are other more nebulous children: the children of my mind and spirit. Who are they? I have no idea. But I would love to know if I do.

And, speaking of nebulous children, if I knew that I had a biological child out there in the world, I would want to at least acknowledge him or her, and do what I could to show them love due to our tie of blood.

Certainly, I am the proud father of two novels, two games, many podcasts, and several blogs, and what are they if not children of my mind and spirit? I have hope that something I do in this lifetime will spawn life, love, hope, and future for other people.

So I invite you to ask yourself, "Who are my fathers and mothers? Who am I a father or mother to?" and think outside the normal definitions. You might be surprised who you name, or who names you.

Food Dreams and Nightmares

ljsam@technozoo.org — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 09:06:01 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

One of my dreams has always been to open a restaurant. The idea of being open for business, of creating wonderful experiences for people, of making a whole lot of people happy with food, this really excites me. Right now, I'm far, far too thin skinned to go into the business, but I hope to one day get the kind of training necessary to be able to stand on my own two feet and face the public with my food.

I don't have aspirations to be some kind of incredible chef, however. I just want to take care of people, feed them, give them a place where they can get out of the world for a while and enjoy an experience that lifts them up out of their noise, trouble and stress.

People who know the business tell me that I am describing a sure fire method for losing a lot of money: the best way to get more bucks in the food business is to move people through as fast as you can.

I have to believe that there is some happy medium between that model and the concept of people enjoying a meal, taking their time.

Anyway, I am hoping I will have time to realize this dream. In the meantime, I am always learning, as much as I can, about the restaurant business. I've even thought of taking a job as a busboy on the weekends so I can learn the business from that angle.

That brings me to talk about Hell's Kitchen. I don't usually watch Reality TV shows. Something about them really ticks me off, but that's a different rant for a different post.

However, Hell's Kitchen season 5 has caught and keeps my attention. On one hand, I am constantly astonished by the amount of emotional and mental abuse Ramsay levels on his participants. The entire show seems to be designed to put him in situations where he freaks out and screams. Like a bad, rage-a-holic father, Ramsay continues to berate people, push their buttons when he can find them, and does everything he can to increase the stress and pressure in the kitchen, in order to cause other people to freak out. Time and again, I heard the chefs saying that they didn't know why they were making dumb mistakes. A fellow who works in a steak house couldn't even grill steaks right!
This guy reminds me of a person I worked for once. By yelling and screaming and threatening people in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, he manages to put everybody off their A game. It's not surprising that people who cope best with his management style are people who were themselves abused as children; in an abusive relationship of any kind one learns the necessary skills to deal with irrational people.

So why do I keep watching? I think it is partly a therapeutic experience. Exposing myself to this kind of abusive situation lets me tell myself how I would respond in the situation. I can talk back to the feelings created. I can root for individuals who are competing and empathize with them. At the same time, some of it is truly informative.

It's possible that I will drop this pastime pretty soon, but for now I think it does provide both entertainment and an opportunity to recognize the craziness and flaws of management through rage and destruction. The show is about shredding 16 potential chefs, and in the end, there is only 1 who emerges victorious. That's a 6.25% success rate, which is a terrible statistic if you think of the show as a teaching experience. If we could replace Ramsay with a chef who cultivates, not eliminates people, how many awesome world-class chefs would be created? It would be more than just 1, but I think that the main problem is that building people up is not as interesting television as breaking them down.

A side note: I see that most, if not all, of the restaurants Chef Ramsay has helped in his other show, Kitchen Nightmares, have all but failed. The shows seem to represent him as being a godsend, but ultimately I feel as though his ideas and "help" are just as toxic as his personality.

Bad MARTA, good Fantasy Beverages

ljsam@technozoo.org — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 21:50:36 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

I've not made it a secret that I live near the Kensington MARTA station, and I travel through there on a fairly irregular basis.

Lately, they have been undergoing a thoroughly mystifying infrastructure upgrade. They are resurfacing the bus intake area, where the buses drop off and pick up passengers. This means they've had to create a completely separate bus transfer area.

They did a pretty good job of crafting a bus shelter out of PVC pipe and plastic sheeting. They sunk PVC pipe into buckets of cement, and used those as the supports for the structure. They kitbashed a single line as a support for the top. All of this was set up in an adjacent parking lot.

The asphault in this area is abysmal, however. I don't know enough about things like asphault, so I can't really tell you what is wrong with it. Suffice it to say that the surface in the parking lot is eroding away at an alarming rate. In order to address this problem, many large steel plates have been put down over the surface wounds of the parking lot. You've seen these plates in cities covering potholes. They look as though they would make great armor for personnel carriers as well. Anyway, the net effect of these plates is that the bus sways like a schooner on the high seas whenever the driver drives over them. It is a sensation one is not accustomed to when riding a bus, but it is an interesting feeling nonetheless.

All this to say this: whomever got the contract to originally surface this parking lot must've been related to someone important. That's all I have to say about that.

I am constantly and continuously surprised at the total lack of entrepreneurship in and around train stations here. Why doesn't MARTA have little kiosks for people to have a cup of coffee or whatnot while they wait for their train?

Of course, I've been stuck on a train a few times with some individual who had liberally interpreted the gray area between "Transporting Food" and "Consuming it on the Train," so I understand the urge to not make food and drink too available. However, for the most part, the land around most train stops is mostly devoid of restaurants. There are a few notable exceptions, and I'm going to post a link to this really cool website that talks about those exceptions.

I remember when I was living in New York that there was this coffee stand on the street. All you had to do is have a dollar bill ready, walk up to the window, say, "Cream and sugar" and hand them the dollar bill. Or two dollars, I can't remember how much it was, but it was a fairly negligible amount of money. This was a very cool, simplified business. They took beans and water and made coffee. They sold the product plus dairy and sugar, and no BS. If you wanted this stuff, you would go to that window, you would get it. There were no lattes, no half-cafs, no double-cafs, no mochacinno java chips. This was serious coffee for serious people who wanted to get it fast. You could obtain coffee in just about as much time as it took to decide to get some. In fact, if you were walking down the street and saw the coffee stand you could just turn that direction with money in your hand and, in mere seconds, be on your way with a fairly amazingly perfect cup of coffee. Now, realistically these guys did not care about coffee prep technique and I would hate to see the interiors of their urns, but the coffee was good, hot, relatively fresh, and not too bitter. And it was frickin' fast.

That's what I want. Coffee that's a heartbeat away. Not to put down my little French press, which is super delicious, but really, having someone else go to the trouble is very compelling.

That reminds me. I have been thinking about the kind of beverages people find in fantasy and science fiction, the wakeful beverages of those genres specifically. The Liaden books have a lot to do with wine and tea. These people drink an awful lot of wine, and they seem to also imbide a great deal of specific kinds of tea. Really, what you drink in the Liadenverse is very important. It's almost like it's a mini-personality test: are they going to choose the red, the white, or the green? And the fact that the nasty bad Liaden traders make their crew drink fake coffee....*shudder*. That tells you everything you need to know about their inherent evil.

And coffee is a big theme in the stories of Nathan Lowell, Quarter / Half / Full Share, etc. It's coffee making that sets our young Ishmael apart from his crewmates.

In the fantasy realm, klava is a drink that seems to be based on hungarian coffee, the preparation and ingredients of which are not to be believed, really. It is intriguing, however, and I think I might like to try it someday when I have regular coffee close at ready hand and I want to waste some ingredients.

I've made some reference in my gaming and my fiction to some special drinks, but I have not yet put down any recipes. There is a hot Amishkan drink called kafva or kav, which is of course very much like coffee. The Lunargenti and Sydalians love their cider, hard or soft. Distilling alcohols is a favorite pastime of alchemists and sorcerers, and places where magical people are welcomed will have these spirits in bars and the like. I've yet to come up with something truly fantastic, however.

All this talk about drink is making me thirsty. I wonder if there are any fantasy or science fiction drinks I'm missing? Ok, yes, the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. Anything else?

Note: Since I first wrote this, it has been announced that MARTA will possibly start doing concessions in some of their stations. More on that as it develops.

Joe Day

ljsam@technozoo.org — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:58:27 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

I never met Joe Murphy in person, but I did hear his voice on various podcasts. He was a cool guy, and he died this day in 2007 of cancer.

I post this in memory of him and offer these links for those who are unfamiliar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Murphy_(podcaster)

Edited to add: If you are moved to contribute, please visit the Leiomyosarcoma Direct Research Fund site at http://lmsdr.org

(Thanks, PG!)

Ada Lovelace Day!

ljsam@technozoo.org — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:31:36 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

Check out http://www.pledgebank.com/AdaLovelaceDay for more information about this post and about this wonderful day!

I want to write, today, about my co-worker Olga. She came to America from the Ukraine, and when I first got to know her, she was not an expert in technology. However, over the course of time she has both taught herself (through experience) and learned (in college and from reading) from others to the point where, now, she rightfully can claim the title of computer technician in her own right.

This woman can troubleshoot a laptop problem in a heartbeat, and every new angle she learns to repair, reform, or cleanse a machine of its imperfections she retains seemingly effortlessly. She grabs bright shining facts and holds on to them like a magpie; that she can correlate a lot of disparate elements and keep them all in her head is of major benefit. She follows processes and always has suggestions for improving them.

Although she told me that she worries about an excess of automation in the future (so do I), she said that she enjoys having the wealth of knowledge available to her through the Web.

I asked her what, if anything, she has to say to girls about technology. Here's what she said:

"Technology field is no longer for man only. Being a network or computer engineer was not considered a job for a woman, but I believe that if this is what interests you and where your heart is, go for it."

Go for it, indeed, Olga. You and Ada share a great deal of sisterhood.

Thanks for lending us your skills, your intelligence, and your knowledge at work!

What makes for a valid community?

ljsam@technozoo.org — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 23:04:39 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

(Note for my boss & other interested parties: This was written over the course of many days, just pulling the trigger on it now)

I have recently begun playing City of Heroes again after several years' off. I still have my old, old characters that have been idle, it says, for over 728 days, and I have not recently logged them in.

City of Heroes / City of Villains is a game where you play a super hero or a super villain. As a hero, you have super powers, you run around and beat up (incarcerate) bad guys, and you have missions in place of what is normal for this genre of computer game, "Quests." Instead of gold pieces, we get a currency called "Influence," which enables us to buy cool gadgets and add-ons to our characters. Characters get experience points which add up to more and more levels, as you get levels, you get more super powers, and so on.

The same thing is done with villains, only the villain stuff is branded for them. So, instead of Influence they get Infamy. Some of the powers are the exact same, except that, for example, Villains don't get to use a power called Empathy which is all about healing and helping people (they have a similar power set called Pain Domination, which is not as powerful as Empathy in my opinion), and heroes don't get to use powers like Poison, which is available to a villain character.

Surprisingly, there are a number of co-op areas in the game where heroes and villains can fight a greater bad guy together, which is interesting.

Anyway, back on track here. I've been playing City of Heroes, and in that game, I have come to know some folks who have become increasingly special to me, that is to say, they are my SuperGroup.

Yeah, I'm part of a super hero group like the Justice League or the X-Men. I'm a member in good standing of ICONS. Yes, we have a super base. Yes, we have a cool costume. But the most important thing about ICONS is the community it represents.

We all chat verbally online with each other using software called TeamSpeak. My microphone is set up to detect my voice and go "live" in time to catch what I'm saying, so all I have to do is speak and my team-mates will hear me.

This helps us when we are fighting bad guys. We coordinate our attacks and the powers we use so that we are more effective.

But more importantly, we have social time, too.

Let me be clear, I haven't met most of these folks in real life, but I feel as though I know them, and they are serving, for me, as a social outlet.

This is ideal for me because I can be at once both "at home" and in "social space." I don't like to be away from home much; my family needs me. This means that I can be social in a positive way without being totally unavailable to my family.

Now, time will tell. But I extrapolate this concept of a group of people, loosely connected through the power of our voices, and I see all sorts of interesting possibilities for the future.

In a short story I wrote recently, I was adamant that some people we meet and know online are just as real to us as people we meet in person. Over time, we in the super group come to know and trust each other. We know what's going on with each other's lives, we pull together like a family does. If one of us is sick, we'll yell at him until he gets help. We offer support and understanding to each other, and honest critique; something I've come to really value over the course of years.

I think the time is past to redefine what it means to have an affiliation with someone. If the word "tribe" applies, what does that mean?

I think that it's important to think about this and to be conscious of it. So much is just disregarded because it is not face-to-face, and I feel that is egregious.

"There's not a word yet / for old friends that just met." - says Gonzo from The Muppet Movie.

I love that idea.

Online gaming wasn't nearly as fun until people like the ICONS, and my friends the Old Fartz, started meeting regularly to play.

P.S.: Wanna see my oldest City of Heroes characters? Click to see the gallery.

eSet is not fair!

ljsam@technozoo.org — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:04:35 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

I've been using eSet's "Smart Security" for nearly a year now and I really like it. It protects my family's PCs from virii and malware and other nastiness, doesn't seem to slow us down any, and runs without a hitch. The icon sits in my systray and turns orange if there's a problem. Usually it's just a nice teal color. Right now, though, it's orange.

Did it have a problem with downloading a virus definition update? No.

Did it catch a nasty virus? No.

Did it detect someone 0wnz0rring my PC? No.

It is detecting that there are 14 days or less left on the year license I bought.

That's just not fair. I have become conditioned that Orange Eset icon = bad. Now every time I look at it, it looks orange and that just bothers me.

I think they should be required to just pop up a little notice and go back to blue. After all, there's nothing altogether wrong. I have time left on the license.

I've sent a bunch of people their direction, and I'll still stay by them as the anti-virus and anti-spyware of choice.

But I'm not happy about the "false orange" thing.

Help name the new ISS module! Name it Serenity!

ljsam@technozoo.org — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 01:39:47 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

From here - please vote for the name "Serenity"!

Contemplation…

ljsam@technozoo.org — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 22:03:49 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

This week has left me feeling contemplative. Nothing specific doing it, just taking a moment. You know, writing is frickin' hard. I've been sitting and staring at a cursor a lot on the train.

I know the words will come. Just takes some time and focus.

I find that, as I grow older, the stuff that I used to get up in arms about still ticks me off, but I don't get as upset. I would prefer to wait and see what happens, and learn from the outcome.

Anyway, that's pretty generic. And it is Friday. I try not to fall into the trap of worshiping Friday, but I gotta say this is a very welcome one.

I'm looking forward to the weekend; spending time with Cyn, playing some great Ravensong with her, and some City of Heroes with my old and new friends.

BTW, if you play City of Heroes, you should listen to the City of Heroes Podcast. Just sayin'. It rocks.

(And I have a total platonic voice crush on Viv! *blush*)

Free awesome RPG!

ljsam@technozoo.org — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 20:51:01 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

I interviewed Rob Bohl on Episode 45 of The Bear's Grove and he's now releasing the game we discussed, Misspent Youth, as a free roleplaying PDF!

So, I would encourage all of you of a roleplaying bent to go out and get this game, play it, and feel its awesome.

Here's the link:
http://indie-insurgent.livejournal.com/39752.html

The Red Baron of Failure and “Consider the uses of adversity….”

ljsam@technozoo.org — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:52:35 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

I used to do Rune readings using Ralph Blum's system of runes.*

One of the reading elements that used to come up a great deal for me was a rune that meant "Consider the uses of adversity." Something I always took as a euphemism for "you're screwed!" But lately I have begun considering it as a literal concept.

Ryan Macklin was on a podcast I enjoy just recently (no, not his own, although I like that one too), one called Stabbing Contest where he talks about failure in game design and how it's a good thing.

I think this dovetails also into the rather poignant interview Jeff and Judd had on their podcast Sons of Kryos with the folks who did the Ashcan Front this year. The AF guys were reporting that sales of ashcans were down, and that designers who weren't at the Front didn't sell as many games as those who were willing to sell the ashcans in person. What was also discussed was that only one of the 20 or so games that have gone through the ashcan process has "graduated" into a published game. (I suspect that Rob Bohl's game "Misspent Youth" will be the next game that graduates, but that's just me.)

What struck me was that the Ashcan Front people say that they don't count success as being that 1 game, rather, they won a mental victory by getting people to agree to draw out their game design process and craft a complete, well-put-together game instead of rushing it to completion before Gen Con.

I myself feel shot down quite a bit when either a.) I find out that the idea that I had spontaneously and was in love with has already been done by people like Luke Crane in "Burning Wheel," Vincent Baker in "Dogs in the Vineyard, or Fred Hicks et al. in Spirit of the Century and b.) when a line of design just doesn't go anywhere useful or c.) I get told that the game I made wasn't a game even though I think it's perfectly playable.

Getting shot down means you failed, and you have to take off again to the skies to try again. I hear a lot about the idea of "Fail Early, Fail Often," concept and, at least, I can be assured that I am following this maxim!

I am still, however, committed to bringing the visions I've had of games to come to life. I've made a good effort in good faith. If I hear the Red Baron of Failure's bullets rip apart my engine, if the black smoke of failure starts billowing, that just means that I've just got to learn from that impact, and try again.

So here I go again...wish me luck, I'm off to find another Sopwith Camel.

*Now, Blum created that system out of whole cloth, utilizing other oracles like the I Ching to help him figure out what each of his 25 runes meant. I've had practitioners of Asatru tell me that his rune interpretations are full of crap; however, I think that what I've learned from interacting with all such oracular systems is this: Tarot, astrology, I Ching, etc. - these are all just means for the subconscious mind to talk to the conscious mind. All mysticism aside, this is a psychological tool for me to get at deeper structures in my brain.

Huzzah!

ljsam@technozoo.org — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:03:03 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

I'm quite happy that the man I voted for got elected, and now, today, he's going to take office. As much as I don't believe he's a miracle worker, I think he is the best choice for the job today, and I'm heartened by his intelligence and his drive.

I hope all the naysayers will give him a honeymoon period to prove himself before they weigh in against him.

I'm picturing in my mind the same scene that happens at the end of The West Wing TV show, where Bartlett leaves the White House for the last time while the new president moves in. This is going to be a great day for the nation!

Non Sequitur: Sixteen Things

ljsam@technozoo.org — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 05:23:41 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

I have been tagged by Mr. Kris Johnson of http://kjtoo.com to write sixteen random tidbits about myself. So here we go.

1.) I was in an adult production of "Godspell" on a military base in Atlanta when I was 8. I sang the song that started "On the willows there, we hung up our lyres..."

2.) I was in a terrible car accident when I was 16, and broke my nose so badly that I had to have plastic surgery to restore it to anything that looks like a nose. The surgery freaked me out so badly that I never went back under the knife to have it further corrected, which is why my nose looks like I've been beaten in a boxing match.

3.) I once bought a $200 down overcoat for $50 in the Empire State Building, thanks to the intervention of my then-soon-to-be-ex.

4.) I once spent an entire day riding rollercoasters at Six Flags Great America with the guy who did the Friday the 13th movies (Sean S. Cunningham) and my best friend.

5.) I ran a LARP for 40 kids at an expensive new age summer camp in upstate New York.

6.) I was part of the recruiting team instrumental in hiring a Vice Chairman for Ernst & Young.

7.) I love to make peanut butter sandwiches from toasted bread so that the peanut butter liquefies from the heat. If I can have this with freshly brewed, ice cold sweet tea, I am in heaven.

8.) I once used an Excel spreadsheet to plan my romantic life. Not any more, mind you!

9.) I have travelled through many of the American states. I've ridden horses in the Colorado mountains, seen the Grand Canyon from a helicopter, been propositioned in Las Vegas, had a fantastic hot tub in New Mexico, and I saw the King's house in Memphis.

10.) I walked in a protest march in Forsyth County, GA, back on January 24th, 1987 along with 20,000 other civil rights activists.

11.) Many of the dishes I can make that I love to eat have been taught to me by lovers of mine: biscuits and baked ziti, for example. And yet, before 1986, I had no idea how to cook anything, even boiling water was a mystery to me.

12.) Among my Facebook friends are friends I've known since I was in kindergarten, including more than one childhood sweetheart.

13.) I have been growing beards since I was 17 and in a production of "Man of La Mancha" in high school. We had to grow out our beards because we were all supposed to be prisoners. I played "the Governor" or "the Innkeeper," and my solo song was "Hail, Knight of the Woeful Countenance"

14.) I am totally mesmerized by redheads, especially redhead women - but my life partner Cynthia is a brunette, and I actually prefer her that way.

15.) I once put a three year old to sleep by reading aloud the environmental hazard rules in the 3rd edition D&D Dungeon Master's Guide. In fact, I am known in my family as the baby whisperer, because I can make just about any baby go to sleep safely and peacefully.

16.) I am hell on earbuds. Despite trying to be careful, I always end up catching them in car doors or something, even though I've bought doodads to help me keep the cords tight. So I go through about one pair every two to three weeks. It's ridiculous. One day, I hope to have a bluetooth transceiver so I don't get my cords tangled in everything.

Sixteen people to tag? OK. Technomom, Katie, Hope Evey, Waya, Redcub, James, Amazon Blonde, Bill, Cunning Minx, Debbie, Eddy Webb, J.R. Blackwell, Natalie, Ebony Pearl, Rikibeth, and Wendi

Please don't feel any obligation to do so: this is all in good fun.

Obamicon Me!

ljsam@technozoo.org — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:44:02 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

Get yours here.

Happy birthday, Genevieve!

ljsam@technozoo.org — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:31:14 GMT

Originally published at SambearPoet's Rambling + Podcast. You can comment here or there.

My beautiful, talented, and creative daughter, Genevieve, has turned 17 this day. I remember that cold December night she was born; how her mother was in labor for a long time over the evening, how we walked and walked and walked during the labor, stopping every so often to press hard into her mom's back to relieve the back labor pains. The Chieftains' Christmas album played over and over and over on our little CD player and I was so glad I was able to be there to help. I welcomed my daughter into the world that night. She was the sweetest baby in the universe!

I hear from her mostly though Facebook these days, she's living with her mom in the Bay Area, but I am very happy to have that Facebook thread. I hope she has a most excellent day. She was a wonderful Solsticetide gift to us, and I love her so much, no matter where she is in the world.