Category: Weblog

The prolific Trott’s have taken the time to write up the canonical reference: A Beginner’s Guide to TrackBack.
It does the topic much more justice than I did in my attempt to explain TrackBack simply.
Heaven help the blogging community if Ben & Mena ever decide to have kids. I can envision a nanny being paid for bloggers so that the Trotts have more time to work on MT. 🙂
I guess I could offer them free entrance to Disneyland…

First of all, I gave into desire and purchased a large number of Japanese iced coffees. I was driving by the Mitsui Japanese supermarket and felt the cans calling to me.

Hopefully these will last a while.
LotR:FotR discussion group
At the office, the group I work with are mainly geeky guys. We chat about computers as often as sports. When sci-fi and fantasy movies come out, it a topic of discussion and debate.
A couple of the guys are bonafide Tolkein geeks. They’ve read the Silmarillion and even the book of letters Tolkein wrote about his ideas. A few of the guys have never read the books and have only seen the movies.
After seeing the second movie, Michael “Mister P.” Pajaro asked, “Why were there four hobbits? I thought there were only two.”
Upon hearing this, Brad & Travis were aghast. They are the Tolkein geeks and couldn’t comprehend how Mister P. could not have understood this basic plot point.
At this point, a plot was hatched to teach Mister P. the finer points of Tolkein. The plan was to watch the extended DVD version of Fellowship of the Ring with Mister P. and stop the film whenever a point needed clarification. I had questions too and was invited to the discussion.

Travis volunteered his home as the location of the viewing. Kim, Travis’s girlfriend, graciously allowed this to take place in the house and even let this map of Middle Earth be taped to the wall. I must say, the map made things a lot more clearer.

Travis and Brad prepared 26 sheets of information on the characters and places in the movie for Mister P. to peruse during the film. Quite a resource if I do say. They were quite nice with pictures and text.

Here you see Mister P. (center) listening to Travis (right) explain a detail. Look at the suspicion on his face.

After spending about five hours watching the movie, Brad was shown the beauty of the LotR video game on the X-Box.
Overall, it was a fun time. Watching movies with friends and agreeing to stop the movie and discuss points is a lot of fun. I can only imagine it is something like film school.

audblog audio post

I wrote up a brief explanation, with pictures, about what TrackBack is and how you use it.
Let me know if you have more questions.

My good buddy Martin has undergone the unkindest cut. His story is all too familiar and true. I know from personal experience.
His weekend will consist of sitting on an ice pack and watching TV.

I had heard that people were encountering ‘Live Chat’ interactions where they had trouble determining if there was a person on the other end or a clever bot.
I had such an encounter tonight.
Please enjoy My Chat with Nathan Corbis

Last night instead of doing much productive, I ended up watching Dogtown & Z-Boys, a documentary about the early skateboarding scene in Santa Monica in the 70s. Amazing stuff. Lucky for the world, Craig Stecyk and Glen E. Friedman were there from the beginning with the Z-boys, armed with film and movie cameras to record everything. It’s an impressive glimpse at the crew that brought the world everything we consider to be an Extreme Sport. It’s on cable, so set your Tivo to snatch it up. It’s also on DVD if you want to Netflix it.
After the movie, I got into my Nazi Killing groove. I understand some of you don’t understand what I mean when I say that. There is a game called Battlefield 1942 in which you play the role of a WW2 soldier circa 1942. You can use a multitude of weapons, including tanks, artillery, and even aircraft.
Here’s a picture:

Here you can see me about to execute a knife kill. In this type of game, getting close to the opponent and scoring a kill with a minimal weapon like the knife is a mark of skill.
Getting into the world of BF1942 makes me focus on the game and let’s the other stress in my life fade in the background. Michele doesn’t like the killing aspect of the game, but I find that it is a definite pressure relief for me.
In other news, some the people I met at SXSW have introduced me to Friendster. Friendster looks like it’s orginally intended as a dating/match-making service but is being used now as way to keep track of friends and see the inter-relations between circles of friends.
I haven’t spent alot of time examining the details or even writing about others yet (sorry Mike & Rannie), but it looks to have potential for fun. SO don’t be suprised if you get a Friendster invite from me someday soon.
OK, time to get ready for work. I’ve got a thrilling 9AM kickoff meeting about Forecast & Planning Software. Woo hoo! Who needs coffee when you have a meeting like that?

Salon has an excellent article on Dani Bunten. Dani was the creator the best computer game I ever played, M.U.L.E. She also made Seven Cities of Gold, a revolutionary game for the time that was the forerunner for all the RTS games that followed.
It is truly sad that a woman that brought so much innovation to gaming was stuck by cancer just as the internet opened up a whole new world of gaming.

I feel like I’m at low tide of the day.
Usually I get up pretty energized in the morning. Today I’m not. My back is sore, sinuses hurt, and my body is pinging me regularly for caffiene.
Last night I went to bed at 10:15. That’s about 3 hours early compared to my normal schedule. I think I am suffering from too-much-sleep syndrome. It’s the only answer.
Four meetings today at the office. Joy.
There are plenty of things I’d like to be doing like sorting the pictures from SXSW, clearing up my desk, and going through my mail, but it will have to wait.
Hopefully the drive to work will wake me up a get me rolling for the day.
Have a good day.

I’m sitting on the couch with the laptop. Zoe is playing a game on the gamecube and Mira is playing with paper & scissors.
I’m feeling more together today than yesterday. Yesterday, my eyes were bothering me quite a bit and I had to take out my contacts. We went over to the Diggs for Audrey’s 1st birthday party. It was one of the first time I’ve worn my glasses out in public in recent years.
Thanks to the Andersens, we had a bottle of Bushmill’s Irish Whiskey to celebrate S. Patrick’s day with group shots. Between the glasses giving me a headache, the 4 shots of whiskey and the slices of pizza, I was hardly the energetic life of the party.
After we got home and put the kids to bed, I tried to watch some TV. The rain was so intense that the signal from DirecTV was blocked. I went to bed to get some sleep, hoping that the signal would clear up later and Ali G would get Tivoed.
Today I’m feeling better and having fun with the girls. Michele is off to do some knitting thing somewhere. We are watching the Inspector Gadget 2 movie for the 5th time in four days.
Politics
We saw the President speak from the Azores. It looks like we will be at war soon. Nothing will convince him to wait on the attack. Everything is in place and ready to move out.
I predict that he will attack tomorrow. Probably around 3PM Pacific. That’s 2 AM in Baghdad. They will launch the attack in the middle of the night.
I hope as few people as possible will die as a result. Unfortunately I fear that many, many people will die.
We need to remember this when it comes time to vote for President in another year. Our President is shredding the Constitution, ignoring America’s problems, and going to war without the support of the American people or the rest of the world. We can do better than this. We need a President who believes in the values in our Constitution, not in the words of chickenhawks looking at the world as a game of Risk.