guskintelligence

Dave's Thoughts and Plans

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I Can Sleep When I’m Dead

Feb 13

Posted by davetron in Blog2010 | No Comments

Just got back into Ft. Lauderdale this morning for a bittersweet end to the journey of the Carnival Freedom and our 2nd Magic Cruise. I’ll be spending the week writing up the feature for the website about it (due in a week! :o ) and also collecting my thoughts about the experience in blogarated format.

The reason I am not starting now, with this entry, is whoo boy am I tired. Going out for the last three nights on the ship and drinking/dancing/debauchering them away, I am now suffering from a bit of sleep deprivation. That’s the trouble with hanging out with so many awesome folks – even when you have to get up at 6:30a, you don’t want to leave to get any sleep!

Here at the airport, it is both crowded and uncomfortable. I’ll be happy to return to my own bed – the Freedom was pretty great comfort-wise, but there’s a particular… ennui, I guess, that creeps up on you when you’re away traveling for too long. Also I miss little Maxwell and uh, clean clothes. :)

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Catch Up

Feb 6

Posted by davetron in Blog2010 | No Comments

I procrastinate.  A lot.  So like, right now, where I am trying to juggle all of the things I am supposed to do today, on the day before I leave for a vacation on a cruise, I am stressed out – and this could have been easily avoided if I had done work earlier in the week rather than goofing off.

It’s like I have a hidden meter in my brain and it (my brain) waits until it’s the point-of-no-return for getting everything done (having subconsciously calculated the amount of work remaining to be done) and then pours on the stress.  Which is quite effective at focusing me toward getting stuff done.  But it does often feel like the calculations my brain is making don’t incorporate a bunch of other factors: other schedule-based events that I might miss when I leave work to the last window of time available, for example

Oof.  Annoying.

So anyway, I’m leaving today to go on vacation, with a rendezvous with Mick in San Fran before heading all the way across to Florida.  We opted to take the overnighter, which will probably end up having been a mistake, when we crash into bed Sunday evening rather than hang out with other cruise dwellers.

I’m not planning on having internet access while on the cruise (a true vacation: freedom from being bothered by the regular world) but that also means blog posts might not get up on time.  I’ve got about five in the can (and more to write) and I’ve recruited Bill to help out with posting them each day, but I’ve also decided that if I just post two-blogs-a-day on the week after I will have still satisfied the essence of my resolution.

Back to packing!

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Packing Problem

Feb 5

Posted by davetron in Blog2010 | 2 Comments

Yesterday, Kelly, Monty and I were chatting about travel and packing for said travel.  Monty’s thought was to have a packed set of clothes for a week away at all times.  As I was thinking about it later, it jogged my memory that I once endeavored to reduce my worldly possessions to what I could carry in a suitcase or two.

This was in college, so I didn’t really have much stuff, but it was still exceedingly difficult.  Especially when some of the stuff you own is like, a computer monitor or a TV.  However, as time passes, the technology bits get miniaturized.  And some of the media that was once bound to large-volume objects (TV and movies, for example) is now available on miniaturized technology (laptops, iPhone via Netflix).  Is the dream of being completely mobile still possible?

I can see one major problem: living space.  When you live in an apartment or dorm where the place is furnished, this isn’t a big deal – you just drop the existing furniture (which you don’t own) and move on.  But in most places, and everywhere you have a contract for payment, getting up and walking away is not really an option.  Maybe in the future we’ll have a miniaturized version of furniture (a chair that turns into a tiny parcel?) or digital adaptive futuristic material that makes furniture out of the fabric of the home (a souped up version of the furnished apartment, with all of the conveniences of “your own furniture”).

Why did I have this dream?  I enjoy travel, and sometimes it bugs me that I can’t do as much as I want, not because of money but because of fixedness.  I’ll keep my eyes peeled for solutions to the problem of “stuff” – technology has been doing a lot of heavy lifting (har har) in this respect for quite a while.

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Month in Review: January

Feb 1

Posted by davetron in Blog2010 | No Comments

Well, a month done – how am I doing?

I feel like I have accomplished something pretty great for myself in actually getting a blog done a day.  Creating and sticking to a routine, even with its ups and downs, has been pretty great — and in no small part to all of you who read my ramblings!  So thanks!  For February, with so much travel on the docket, I plan to make my routine more refined — getting blogs done in advance, thinking about some series of blogs that will help me get off to a good start when I’m stuck on ideas, and most importantly, picking a time to write and sticking to it.

Although I’ve missed some of the monthly goals required by my resolutions, I feel like I’m still in the race (just on the slow side, to extend the metaphor).  I went out twice (as opposed to thrice) and it was great – I’m certainly looking to improve on that number in upcoming months!  I’ve been cooking for myself and even bringing lunch some days to work, but not really the 7x times a week I was hoping.  One of my February goals is to actually get my place “moved in” — meaning I set up the second bedroom and the living room as I want them.  I suspect having a more structured home will result in a more structured routine day-to-day, although I can’t really explain why I feel that way.

In non-resolution aspects of life, I feel like January was mostly treading water.  I spent a lot of time at work this month, and as a result, didn’t really get much done in my “free” time.  I’m going to have to reevaluate how I am spending my time, hopefully with an eye toward investigating other career paths so that I can combine some real information with my intuitions.  I’m also going to have to get down to business finishing up some game plans and incorporate my friends into them so that I can rejoin the ranks of having fun with people outside of work! (I know, crazy!)

Overall, a good start to the year, but definitely there’s room to grow!

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Review: Sci Fi and Fantasy Film Festival

Jan 31

Posted by davetron in Blog2010 | No Comments

Joe gave me the heads up on a Sci Fi and Fantasy Film Festival happening at Seattle’s Cinerama yesterday evening, and after examining their website, it appeared that I would have to go to the theatre at noon to get tickets.  Jason agreed to come with me to the event, but when I got the will call, all the tickets were sold out!  Luckily, for cold hard cash, they still had some session 2 (the latter half of the evening) tickets left.

The presentation was about 10 short films (none longer than 15 or so minutes, I think) ranging over a variety of science fiction and fantasy premises.  I learned some interesting things about what I like and don’t like through watching these:

  • I really enjoyed the funny ones – the ones that had some amount of sci-fi or fantasy content but were also portrayed humorously.  I think this might be particular to short films; with not much time to set up setting or characters, falling back to humor does a wonderful job of getting me involved in the action.
  • One of my favorites was “Singularity,” about a scientist attempting to transfer his memories to an android.  This one had really great production values, which definitely added to the effect for me.  It also was just the sort of creepy future plot that doesn’t need a ton of explanation up front for the viewer to get involved.  Other short films that were low on special effects definitely felt like they were missing them – with the notable exception of some of the humorous ones!
  • I hated the abstract piece that had no plot or characters, just tone and animation.  Blerg!
  • There were a couple (one about two kids going to an underground hangar and finding huge sentry robots guarding gold, and one about an alien sent to Earth to watch over people but who is then ordered to stand by as humans are exterminated) that were definitely setting up for a feature length film, and I really enjoyed them… provided that there was ever any payoff.  I guess part of the payoff is being able to imagine “what’s next” in my head, but I would still appreciate follow up.

Overall, a great time.  I would definitely recommend it to others who have a sci-fi and fantasy bent, and should have bought tickets much earlier so that I could have attended both sessions (I heard from Joe that he and Karen really liked some of the ones in the first session, further cementing my “oops” in not getting tickets to that).

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Worldwake

Jan 30

Posted by davetron in Blog2010 | 1 Comment

I don’t often post about Magic stuff here because a significant portion of my readers (friends) don’t really care.  But about four times a year, something Magical happens that I am bouncing up and down about – the releases of our new expansions!  Today is one such release, and here’s the plan for the day:

  • Go to work and print out my profile sheet.  I made this myself – it says a little bit about me, what cards I helped design, and what I do at Wizards.  It helps break the ice for people who want to come play against me (not that I’m any big name, but I am wearing WotC wear so it can be a little uncomfortable for people).
  • Collect the remainder of the cards I need for my casual decks.  This mostly involves raiding our company store of the new expansion since those cards aren’t really available widely yet.  I am finished with my normal deck and mostly finished with my crazy fun deck.
  • Go to Seattle Center and watch people play for a bit.  It’s still a bit early to start gunslinging, but I might start doing that right away.
  • Gunsling – as in, fight allcomers – as in, play Magic against them and talk to players, gathering opinions and thoughts on the new set, and answering questions that they have.  Also, I give out a booster pack as “prize” to anyone who plays me.

After playing Magic for some hours, I want to try to make it to a Sci Fi and Fantasy Film Festival in Seattle, which Joe told me about.  The tickets aren’t actually on sale until noon today, but luckily the box office and theater are very close to the location in Seattle Center where we’ll be playing Magic.

It’s one of the few times I get to play real Magic these days!

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House Plans

Jan 24

Posted by davetron in Blog2010 | 2 Comments

I want to have a dinner party over at my place, sometime within the next month or two, but there are a few things that have to happen before I can do it.

Firstly, although I really like the new 2/3bd house I’m renting, and it has quite a bit more space than the 1bd apartment I used to have, the space for dining is not well arranged.  The kitchen is sort of a U-space around the oven, and there’s no dining room per se.  I think the best plan I have come up with is moving my futon into the 2nd bedroom and making that a combination guest room / entertainment room / office.  Then, I’ll get a smallish couch for the living room part of the living room space, and get a new dining room table for the half-or-so part of the living room adjacent to the kitchen.

Whew.  That’s a plan, alright – I’m not particularly thrilled it requires buying more furniture, but that’s the way it goes.

Where’s the old dining room table?  I like that down in the “3rd” bedroom, in the basement, which I’ve converted into a gaming room.  If it weren’t so out of the way, I would just move the TV down there too and make that the game/entertainment zone.  I think the better plan is to keep it for gaming only, and hook up my old projector so that it projects down onto the table for exciting board games and role playing games digitally plastered on the table.

And finally, I need to figure out what I will cook for the first of said dinner parties, and who to invite.  I think keeping it to 10 or less people is ideal, and depending on the number of vegetarians, a simple Italian dish might be best.

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Avalanche of Tasks

Jan 11

Posted by davetron in Blog2010 | 2 Comments

Borrowing a bit from Wedge’s bag o’ tricks, here’s a brief list of the stuff I need to get to this week.  This day is covered in meetings, so I am barely finding time to make this post, much less to get to anything on the list.

  • call PSE and tell them to stop charging me for my old place! >:(
  • same for AUM (the incidentals bill)
  • get a new formal shirt for Friday’s company party (new shoes?)
  • get suit dry-cleaned for above party!
  • talk to mattress place about delivery timeframe for a new mattress, if I were to buy one
  • send out emails about drafting this weekend – need Magic fix!
  • schedule cruise excursions and let Mick know, since my cruise in the Caribbean is in early Feb
  • bone up a bit more on Art of Game Design and related before Wednesday
  • set up in-Washington Bank of America account so that in-California one stops charging me ridic fees
  • meet with Bill about his site, also set up doing lunch w/ him and Zac
  • figure out a routine schedule that lets me workout in the morning (or afternoon before leaving work?)
  • clean up place and replace lights in the game/3rd-bed room downstairs
  • investigate couch / dining table options for living room

Haha, brief!

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Early to Rise

Jan 4

Posted by davetron in Blog2010 | 1 Comment

I woke up around 3am this morning.

This happens to me a lot when I am at boundary point; that is, moving from one day-to-day routine to another, or like, moving off of a routine into a travel schedule. I don’t really enjoy it, being sleepless, but it does allow me to have more time to “wake up” and sort of prep myself to get into the new mode.

So anyway, Max was no help since he just fell asleep again on top of my legs. Luckily, unlike every morning during the vacation, I got up and made it into work early early.

I really enjoy getting to the office when nobody is around. I get to work on my own with no interruptions, and get into the flow of things. That was especially important today, to refresh myself on all the proejct code I left behind two weeks ago.

So the early start, plus a good lunch out with some R&D guys and some (gasp!) productive meetings – quite a good day!

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