Education2024-03-27T17:39:22Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/categories/education/D. MoonfireCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 InternationalTaking it easy today2009-10-10T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/10/10/taking-it-easy-today/<p>Still have a little more work to do for the release. I managed to clear out my queue for a short period of time, but I took two more defects from a co-worker to help him get closer to finishing everything by the cut-off (officially late Sunday). I'm not going to do a 12-15 hour day again, but I'm going to try resolving those last nagging issues hanging around.</p>
<p>College started this week and I'm also struggling to finish that. It is a simple one, I'm just viewing the class with dread and trepidation. I know it is only ten weeks and I finish, but it will be a long ten weeks and an even longer forty page paper by the time it ends. Well, one day at a time.</p>
<p>Not that anyone needs to be told, but feel free to ignore the posts starting with Oile. I wanted to write, so I decided I was going to just do it. I don't know how long it will last or what will happen, I just wanted to write and maybe do a little world development.</p>
And life continues...2009-10-07T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/10/07/and-life-continues/<p>After a hellish week of 80+ hours of working, filled with self-doubt and wondering if I was doing the right thing, I finished. And got boss kudos so I'm all warm and fuzzy, but very tired. I'm also somewhat burned out since when I stop moving, I also stop thinking (normally I have something go on in there). It will pass. I'm very glad I did it, just wish it wasn't as frantic. But, push came to shove and I just bit the bullet and did it.</p>
<p>Started my college course today also. Didn't really like the introduction to the class. I felt like I was being treated as a 15 year old, which shouldn't be the case for a master's final project. I'll do it, just not holding my breath at all. I'm waiting for this part of my life to be over, I want to do something new.</p>
<p>At the cabin, me and my dad talked (a lot) about college. It became pretty obvious that I don't need a feather in my cap from going on. So, after I finish this course, I'm going to focus more on something I do want to do, like write and program. No clue if anything will come of it, but it was nice in this last week just... making things. I solved puzzles, I created minor miracles, and I don't get that feeling from academia. Too much structure and too many limitations for me.</p>
<p>Well, off to watch a bloody movie and cuddle with the kitties and puppy.</p>
Four more days2009-09-16T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/09/16/four-more-days/<p>Four more days until the end of class and I'm excited about that. I also got the notice for my petition, which was accepted after the responses. Thirty seconds later, I was on the phone with my academic adviser who got the same email only a few minutes before me. So, I'm now one class and one week from my masters and I'm very excited.</p>
<p>Work is relaxing a little bit this week, but I'm still not over the major hump I'm working on. I try so hard to get things done, and it is nice I get the impression that I'm appreciated and wanted. Call is self-esteem but I worry about those type of things. I also want to be the best employee I can be.</p>
<p>I've been obsessing about two things for no reason. One is a little <a href="http://kingdomofloathing.com/">Kingdom of Loathing</a> script. It is turning out to be a tad more difficult than I expected; I know I can do it, I just can't get the bits and bytes to shift the way I need them too.</p>
<p>I've also been working on world development for my steampunk world. Partially scripts, partially language. Messing around with the map and trying to figure out how much history is important to the story. I mean, I know that some of the history is important since it shows up in <em>Flight of the Scions</em>, but how much is enough. I think I could spend months coming up with the history, mainly because I have so much fun.</p>
<p>... though, I really need to get to the "do" part of those things again. Right now, I have the following on my radar:</p>
<ul>
<li>Scroll of the Lands</li>
<li>Unit Performance</li>
<li>Flight of the Scions</li>
<li>My Father's Bike</li>
<li>DG</li>
</ul>
<p>I know there are more to consider, but those seem to be the ones I want to play with now. Well, and making a font for the lovely scripts I found. *sigh* More projects than time. And I seem to love it.</p>
Getting up to speed2009-09-10T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/09/10/getting-up-to-speed/<p>I miss my vacation already. I had to plan out the rest of my vacation days yesterday. I went with the one day every couple weeks which means I spammed my coworkers with seven vacation notices in one shot. Hopefully, won't be a problem, but I couldn't figure out a better way of doing it.</p>
<p>Worked a bit on college. Found out I only have two weeks of this class which means I need to get my petition out <em>soon</em>, so that's going to be my priority first thing this weekend. Or tomorrow, depending on energy levels. I need to get some stuff up at work.</p>
<p>Sadly, added 0.3 kg to my weight from this weekend. I made... poor decisions both before and after the weigh-in, which I'm not proud of. A moment of weakness, I know, but it gets so frustrating when I spend dozens of hours doing rather heavy activity to gain weight. I also suspect that any weight I did lose got negated by the liters of diet coke for the all-nighter drive home.</p>
<p>Helped a co-worker over a problem in his code. But, I'm having one of those at home, trying to figure out something that <em>should</em> be simple.</p>
<p>But, ended up working on <em>My Father's Bike</em> at the cabin. Not sure how it is going to work out, nor the exact tone of the story, but I noticed I stole an idea from <a href="http://mdhenry.livejournal.com/">Mark Henry</a>. The footnotes idea, since it seems like an absolutely great way of having a sarcastic commentary to my writing. Still not sure, but I'm enjoying it right now.</p>
The end of the weekend2009-09-09T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/09/09/the-end-of-the-weekend/<p>Somehow, I lost an entire day watching twelve episodes of Eureka since the idea of getting on my computer just left me feeling a bit cold. When I finally dragged myself on the computer, I found out that my petition was initially rejected. A bummer, but it seems like I formatted my answers wrong so I have a week to fix that. I can do that.</p>
<p>I had fun on my trip. Managed to get my laptop working at the last minute (the latest version of grub lost the boot sector, rolling back to an older version seemed to have fixed it). I'll write more about my trip later, since I should be heading to bed.</p>
Blocks of time2009-07-31T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/07/31/blocks-of-time/<div style="padding: 2px;float: right">
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<p>Been a busy week this week, mainly because of a self-inflicted need to do better at work. I hate putting in estimates for 100+ hours on a single task when everyone else is putting in 8, 12, even 40. But, having the only one over 50 and having it so much higher gives me a tiny little lurch in my stomach. More so when I'm justifying to the VP of Development. It doesn't matter that it is an honest estimate, and probably a bit low, it still sucks when I have to do it. True, the 100+ hours is broken into a rather impressive WBS, but still.</p>
<p>I like breaking things into smaller blocks. Most of my personal projects are done that way. The MfGames.Tools is just one step toward my current programming goal of having a new version of CuteGod out. I just need to get the command line tools, unit performance, updater, BooGame, and a ton of other things. I decided I need to really focus on a single programming project, so the "main goal" is getting CuteGod polished. Then I'll play with Tablet of Words (WordPlay, my other "official" game), Ceimaha and other ideas.</p>
<p>I don't expect any of those to be done before GenCon, which I'm seriously looking forward to. I think the next week or so is going to be dedicated to working on homework and finishing up the petition which I promised by Auguest 9. I'm thinking about also stopping doing book reviews from GenCon this year, or at least just doing it when I feel like doing reviews. I don't know if they are helpful in general, but I feel bad since I don't give glowing reviews... ever. I don't even give glowing reviews to my own book. Like the review my brother did of MG (rated 4 out of 5 stars), I really try to be brutally honest but I hate the imagined conflict I get when I do them.</p>
<p>While I'm not entirely sure <em>why</em> I did it, I finally joined Twitter. Amazingly, my account is the same almost everywhere else: <a href="http://twitter.com/dmoonfire">dmoonfire</a>. No clue how long I'll use it, it seems to be as unfocused as everything else in my life. But, that is who I am. I don't focus on one thing in general and I kind of like it that way.</p>
The good and the bad2009-07-12T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/07/12/the-good-and-the-bad/<div style="padding: 2px;float: right">
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<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">Weight Loss (6.4 of 14.7 kg)</div>
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<p>Been a rather interesting week of ups and downs. But, most of the downs, I'm not suppose to talk about because of various reason. They are things I can survive, but I can't honestly say the next three weeks are going to be pleasant at work and, to a smaller degree, at home.</p>
<p>But, there is positive news in there. I hit my one year anniversary work and got a cute paperweight for the efforts. It doesn't seem like much, but I really like working where I work and I want to keep on doing it.</p>
<p>My third college petition also got accepted this week. That gave me a wonderful surprise, I was worried about that and now I'm not. Only one more to go, then I'll have all the petitions out of the way. And class starts on Monday, hopefully the second to last class for my masters. Still can't decide on the entire doctorate thing. Since I can't figure it out, it probably means the answer won't really matter in my life. Which is probably true, a doctorate opens some doors and closes others.</p>
<p>All that has given me a bit of a creativity block. I didn't really want to work on anything really important. So, I just putzed around on the computer. I submitted a patch for KoLmafia for some features I happen to want. Nothing major, but something for my own curiosity. I also ascended again in the game which is always fun. Sticking with the Sauce class, mainly because I have a few more things I want to pick up, then probably wander over to Seal Clubber or Pastamancer. I should focus on getting the Olfactory skill, but... I keep getting distracted with ascending. It is fun and is a little sense of accomplishment.</p>
<p>The "MfGames.Tools" is a programming project. A small little library for creating command-line tools, MSBuild, Ant, and probably other things. I wouldn't be surprised if I also try to figure how to get it working with PowerShell, but it is one of those things on the dependency graph for the projects I want to work on.</p>
My greatest vice2009-07-08T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/07/08/my-greatest-vice/<div style="padding: 2px;float: right">
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<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">Weight Loss (6.4 of 14.7 kg)</div>
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<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">Commission (0 of 15,000 words)</div>
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<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">Petition #3 Responses</div>
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<p>Ended staying up to nearly midnight last night to finish up the responses for the petition. Even though I felt pretty comfortable with the answers, I'm still uncomfortable with what they were asking. I had one other petition rejected in the same way, for the networking class. The first round came back with a comment that my resume didn't show heavy networking experience. So, I added five pages on the various networking I did for SIL. It came back again, with show more information about networking skills. I had no clue what they were talking about. I told them I did it, I explained all the cases where I used networking. I also couldn't figure out <em>what</em> part of networking they wanted, and they wouldn't tell me.</p>
<p>So, I went with one of my vices: wordy. A thirty page paper on how to do networking. It included the basic process of wiring RJ-45 plugs, including the differences between the A and B style wiring. I had tips on wiring houses and buildings, including the cases where you use PVC verses plenum wires. I went with configurations on Linux, Mac, and Windows. Basics of software firewalls and using `tcpdump` to track down errant network usage. I also even included the IPv4 firewall configurations to handle things like SYN and smurf attacks (the two I dealt with personally). Which naturally required a discussion on IPv4 and IPv6 packet headers.</p>
<p><em>As a note, I really do try to be a jack-of-trades in life.</em></p>
<p>I got it, but I still don't know what they wanted. I just info-dumped on them and hoped it work. I did something similar to this petition, which I'm not entirely happy with. I gave them how I would honestly use the PMBOK from the view of my experiences and my own style. I gave links to where my discussions in my previous answers correlate to the PMBOK bullet points and expanded with specific examples. The one thing I didn't do was use the section numbers and exact names of processes to describe what I did.</p>
Petition denied2009-07-06T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/07/06/petition-denied/<div style="padding: 2px;float: right">
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<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">Weight Loss (3.3 of 14.7 kg)</div>
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<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">Petition #3 Responses</div>
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<p>My third petition got rejected "as it stands". This means I have one chance to expand on the entire thing and hopefully prove that I deserve not to take the class. It is frustrating though, not only for their comments but also what they are looking for.</p>
<p><!--more-->The entire prior learning assessment process to allow people who have a lot of experience to bypass trivial classes. In this case, it is a project management class which I thought made sense because I've been doing PM for quite a while now. They reviewer also noticed that:</p>
<blockquote><p>Learner showed substantial experience in the area of project planning, but want to also see what knowledge that he has in this process of project management. In so many words, explain how he would foresee project planning for a particular venture according to PMBOK.</p></blockquote>
<p>So, basically, I have the experience, but could I prove that I know the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)? PMBOK is one methodology for doing project management, there are others and not everyone uses a formal system for managing. I know the school uses PMBOK in their classes, but neither the petition questions nor the class description actually refer to PMBOK even once (which is all you get when preparing for the petition). If it did, then I would have gladly written in terms of the PMBOK.</p>
<p>And the last part of their response is the frustrating part. As I read it, they want a textbook answer as part of my proof of prior experience?</p>
<p>I can also see their point of view. They want to prove that everyone who has credit for the class actually knows PMBOK. I just wish it actually said "Project Management Body of Knowledge" instead of say... CMM and CMMI (which I know both), Phaser and Lazer (Pearson's and Lucent's project management systems, which I know both), or the hodge-podge that I figured out through "trial by fire". "Project Management" includes a lot of things beyond PMBOK and what I feel comes with my "substantial experience".</p>
<p>I'm not too worried, though. Every reviewer is different, just as every instructor is different. I've gone through nine petitions so far with this school without ever needing this specific level of textbook knowledge, but I have the book and I understand it. I'll just come up with something and hopefully that will give them the proof that I know PMBOK as well as I would coming out of the class.</p>
<p>Obviously, this is my priority this week since I only have 10 days to complete it. I'm also shifting the priorities on the DG edit since I have a commission due and I really should never have two writing projects on my priority list at the same time (commission and DG are both writing projects).</p>
Salmon Pink Shinesman... away!2009-06-28T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/06/28/salmon-pink-shinesman-away/<div style="padding: 2px;float: right">
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<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">Weight Loss (4.1 of 14.7 kg)</div>
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<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">College Petitions #3</div>
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<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">DG Edit (3 of 34 chapters)</div>
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<p>Okay, completely and utterly obscure reference. If you like parodies, check out the Power Rangers parody, Shinesmen. Wonderful little sense of humor with quotes like:</p>
<blockquote><p>Business cutter attack! Ineffective as usual!</p></blockquote>
<p>Well, I just sent out the third petition for college. Only came out to 28 pages but still a pretty solid example that I know project management. Or, I hope it will be a pretty solid example. We'll find out in 3-4 weeks. I'm not planning on waiting for this one to be accepted before finishing up number four. I want them off my priority list and to work on other, more enjoyable, things.</p>
<p>Speaking of enjoyment, tweaked my <a href="http://d.moonfire.us/">website</a> design a bit further. Uses a bit more dividing lines and I got this really cool watercolor effect with some alpha channel PNG's. It also broke up the side navigation bar from the main. I did that so I could put a textured background on the main block of the page. Normally, I'm not fond of image backgrounds at all but I think the mass of black on white needed a bit of structure.</p>
<p>I'm struggling a bit with the first three chapters of DG. I found some of the things that bothered me from the original draft, but my writing skills have changed since I wrote this. The introduction, which I liked before, I felt is a bit too... bland to be a good novel. So, I'm using this as a chance to clean up my beginnings and see if I can make this one really grab the reader.</p>
Chattering monkeys2009-06-26T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/06/26/chattering-monkeys/<div style="padding: 2px;float: right">
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<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">Weight Loss (4.1 of 14.7 kg)</div>
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<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">College Petitions (2 of 4)</div>
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<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">DG Edit (0.5 of 33 chapters)</div>
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<p>Having trouble sleeping tonight. Part of it comes from the drugs flowing through my veins. Drugs for pain and ones to prevent infections. The aftereffects of surgery were not too bad; Fluffy said was I all cute and groggy when I finished up. I managed to sleep better part of fifteen hours today, which also contributes to the lack of sleeping and me making a blog post at two in the morning.</p>
<p>The rest of this is just a list, probably not interesting for most people.</p>
<p><!--more-->One of the major things keeping me up in just me reviewing things I want to get done in general. Not in the next week, but in the next month, year, or even an indeterminate periods of time that will be disrupted by the rest of life. I could say that most of my life is broken into function areas: writing, programming, and gaming. I like to say writing is the best, but I honestly couldn't chose between those three. They are my <em>Big Three</em>.</p>
<p>Writing:</p>
<ul>
<li>DG editing: I want to get this self-published and out the door. There are a few things that will slow it down, mainly because I am using someone else as an artist both for the full-color covers and the chapters per page.</li>
<li>DL + DL editing: This will be two novels. I wrote the first draft last year and it stands as the only novel I've written that got fan art and people still asking for it a year later.</li>
<li>HSASC: This is a book of poetry that I've been working on for a while. One of those little things that I just want to get done.</li>
<li>My Father's Bike: This is a gift for my father. I wrote the first draft but it didn't quite come out the way I wanted it to. I'm going to rewrite it, just need to find time.</li>
<li>Morning Zombies: I like the idea of the book, just need to rewrite it to see if I can actually do it justice.</li>
<li>Flight of the Scions: Been working on this one for a while, better part of a few years. I have one more rewrite planned (again).</li>
<li>Peg and Sue: This is the novel I planned to write this year. Haven't really started it, to be honest, just making up the time.</li>
<li>Commissions: I like making money writing. I haven't honestly had a lot of luck with submitting stories to places but I have with people asking me to write stories for them. So, I'm going to keep on doing that in my quest to be a honest writer.</li>
</ul>
<p>Programming:</p>
<ul>
<li>MfGames.Tools CIL: Library for making command-line tools that can also be used to create MSBuild and NAnt tasks. (Requires MfGames CIL)</li>
<li>MfGames.Template CIL: Templating library that I created some years back. I just need to bring it up to speed with new command-line tools. (Requires MfGames.Tools CIL)</li>
<li>MfGames.Updater CIL: Software updating library, this seems to be one of those frequently implemented things and I haven't found a good managed version that would let you update data files and software (i.e. for games) or even allow for addins and plugins. (Requires MfGames.Tools CIL)</li>
<li>MfGames.RelaxNG CIL: I haven't found a library for this. There are ones that handle XSD schemes, but I think there is some advantage to having one that works with C# and makes generic lists. This will make MfGames.OpenDocumentFormat CIL <em>much</em> easier. (Requires MfGames.Tools CIL)</li>
<li>MfGames.SqlDom CIL: This is something that comes up from when I did my work at my last job. Basically a CodeDom that is for SQL scripts. I want to be able to parse and write them out, not to mention convert from one DDL to another. (Requires MfGames.RelaxNG CIL).</li>
<li>MfGames.OpenDocumentFormat CIL: When writing Balance, I liked the idea of writing in ODF (i.e. OpenOffice.org) and putting in sections that could be substituted with out the output of text. I wrote the basics in a few week and it really made some components really useful (like list of skills are ensuring consistent formatting within the game). I want to polish this out and do it properly. (Requires MfGames.Tools CIL and MfGames.RelaxNG CIL).</li>
<li>Unit Performance CIL: One of those "big libraries" ideas. This is actually at the tail end of the dependencies but I think it has some merit of being useful to a large number of people, so I want to do it to contribute to the community. (Requires MfGames.RelaxNG)</li>
<li>MfGames.Input CIL: Generic input library for handling GUI's and other useful eventing. I like keyboard chains (C-c C-x to quit) and I want it generic for BooGame. (Requires MfGames CIL)</li>
<li>MfGames.Scene2 CIL: A 2D scene graph library with some C# things.</li>
<li>MfGames.Scene2.Gui CIL: Like CeGUI# or other graphical GUI systems, I want something I can write good game interfaces with. (Requires MfGames.Scene2 CIL)</li>
<li>BooGame: BooGame is a library that I "inherited" but still try to maintain. It is rather specific, OpenGL and CIL code, and there are alternatives, but this one fits my programm style at this point so I keep on working on it.</li>
<li>Prebuild: I got control of this, mainly because I still have some interest in it. So, I should produce a release sooner or later. Even if it is a complete re-vamp of the project.</li>
</ul>
<p>Gaming:</p>
<p>Most of these are out there, because it would be interesting and I like the idea. I really want to see at least one of them get into the "polished" state; you know the entire reason for Moonfire Games.</p>
<ul>
<li>Scroll of the Lands</li>
<li>Pirates CCG with Exalted</li>
</ul>
<p>Computer Games:</p>
<ul>
<li>CuteGod</li>
<li>Baby Squid God</li>
<li>Ponies Among Us</li>
<li>Wordplay</li>
<li>Ceimaha</li>
</ul>
<p>There are a few other catch-all items that are out there, waiting...</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://gs.mfgames.com/">Glorious Saber</a>: The top item to finish the fourth arc of the story. Ideally, I'd like to learn a new graphical style, but it also ties into some of the game projects I have in mind. I feel uncomfortable finding someone else willing to do graphics for me. I can work purely on the need to finish something in hopes that someday, just someday, it might turn out to be something more... commercial.</li>
<li>Finish my masters: I'm 2 classes and 2 petitions away from this.</li>
<li>Decide if I want a doctorate. Obviously, I have a lot of things going on, and if I do the doctor route, it will slow everything else down. But, I still can't honestly decide if I want to do it or not.</li>
</ul>
<p>Well, that is my list of personal projects. Most of these won't show up on my TODO list at the beginning of my posts. I'm going with only listing the three most important items on the list up there, so if I want to do more, I need to finish the ones already there.</p>
Mothers, writing, and documentation2009-06-18T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/06/18/mothers-writing-and-documentation/<div style="padding: 2px;float: right">
<div style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;width: 20em;margin: 2px 5px 2px 0;padding: 1px;clear: left;float: left;background: white;height: 18px">
<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">Weight Loss (4.8 of 14.7 kg)</div>
<div style="font-size: 10px;background-color: #d8e4a8;height: 18px;width: 32.65%"></div>
</div>
<div style="border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;width: 20em;margin: 2px 5px 2px 0;padding: 1px;clear: left;float: left;background: white;height: 18px">
<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">College Petitions (2 of 4)</div>
<div style="font-size: 10px;background-color: #e3d1a8;height: 18px;width: 81%"></div>
</div>
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<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px"><a href="http://tracker.mfgames.com/roadmap_page.php">MfGames CIL</a> (9 of 22 tasks)</div>
<div style="font-size: 10px;background-color: #bae3a8;height: 18px;width: 40.9%"></div>
</div>
</div>
<p>(I know I said I'd talk about <a href="http://gs.mfgames.com/">Glorious Saber</a> and artwork, but I decided it sounded too whining so I just canned it.)</p>
<p>My mother came into town this weekend on her way up to teach a class. I was hoping it was for her other company, but... oh well, it is here life. Nice visit though, mainly talking about random things while plate after plate of sushi showed up at our table. She ordered about 30 pieces too many for the group of four, including Fluffy. I try not to over-order on sushi, mainly because the flavor changes so much overnight and my contribution to the order ended up being exactly what I could eat. Except there was only one sushi chef and they were swamped. So service took three hours for our food to show up. That gave us a chance to talk.</p>
<p>Nothing really meaningful, but she made a joke that actually got me worried. She's been falling a lot. She didn't come out and say it, but she jokes about a few nasty falls and Fluffy said that a friend of ours (who works for her) said that she is falling more often. It isn't normal of her to keep secrets like that but in other ways, I'm not sure how much I'm going to really worry about it. I'm trying to pull away from her to get a clear head, but it is something I'm going to keep an eye on. You never know if falling turns into something worse.</p>
<p>In more cheerful news, I got a 93% or A on my college course. Only two more to go, including the capstone project, and I should have my masters by the end of the year. I'm still hoping to get my petition out by the end of the weekend, but I suspect the <a href="http://mfgames.com/mfgames-cil">MfGames CIL</a> release won't be until next weekend. It is all those documentation steps I want to get done before I finish.</p>
<p>Technical writing is an interesting best. It is far different than writing fiction and very different from my non-fiction writing. I have a separate voice for all three types of writing, just as I have a fourth for academic writing. It is hard, actually, to write documentation for libraries like this. Mainly because it is done last, but also because it sometimes is really hard to explain <em>why</em> you did something that works well in code. "Just because" is a horrible thing to write in documentation. For some, I reverted to just explaining how to use it, but for others, I explained why I use it, so people understand the decisions behind what I wrote.</p>
<p>So, programming and writing and school this week.</p>
Happily moving forward2009-06-16T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/06/16/happily-moving-forward/<div style="padding: 2px;float: right">
<div style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;width: 20em;margin: 2px 5px 2px 0;padding: 1px;clear: left;float: left;background: white;height: 18px">
<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">Weight Loss (4.8 of 14.7 kg)</div>
<div style="font-size: 10px;background-color: #d8e4a8;height: 18px;width: 32.65%"></div>
</div>
<div style="border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;width: 20em;margin: 2px 5px 2px 0;padding: 1px;clear: left;float: left;background: white;height: 18px">
<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">College Petitions (2 of 4)</div>
<div style="font-size: 10px;background-color: #e3d1a8;height: 18px;width: 81%"></div>
</div>
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<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px"><a href="http://tracker.mfgames.com/roadmap_page.php">MfGames CIL</a> (2 of 22 tasks)</div>
<div style="font-size: 10px;background-color: #bae3a8;height: 18px;width: 9.1%"></div>
</div>
</div>
<p>There is something to be said about hearing the weight loss for the entire room and getting ten percent of it. Lost about 0.8 kg last week, mostly I suspect from happily obsessing about programming and playing games that I forgot to eat. That means this week will be even harder because I need to maintain the weight loss into next week.</p>
<p>Found a neat feature on my <a href="http://tracker.mfgames.com/">tracking system</a> for <a href="http://mfgames.com/">Moonfire Games</a>. It lets me see the progress toward a release. Since I was hoping to do a <a href="http://mfgames.com/mfgames-cil">MfGames CIL</a> release this weekend, I decided to put in all the tasks that I need to complete and use that roadmap to show my progress. It is in the progress bar, for those who are interested.</p>
<p>It looks like a lot, at first, mainly because I didn't enter what I completed. But, my major goals this week are to work on the petition and get MfGames CIL out the door. As soon as I get this release off my progress reports, then I'm planning on switching back to a writing project. I have two commissions sitting on my plate now and one of them is due in three weeks.</p>
Making the bits all shiney2009-06-12T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/06/12/making-the-bits-all-shiney/<div style="padding: 2px;float: right">
<div style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;width: 20em;margin: 2px 5px 2px 0;padding: 1px;clear: left;float: left;background: white;height: 18px">
<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">Weight Loss (4.1 of 14.7 kg)</div>
<div style="font-size: 10px;background-color: #d8e4a8;height: 18px;width: 27.8%"></div>
</div>
<div style="border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;width: 20em;margin: 2px 5px 2px 0;padding: 1px;clear: left;float: left;background: white;height: 18px">
<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">College Petitions (2 of 4)</div>
<div style="font-size: 10px;background-color: #e3d1a8;height: 18px;width: 81%"></div>
</div>
</div>
<p>Late night because of work. I don't mind the occasional extra hours helping customers, mainly because I know I can help and, in most cases, they'll be much happier when I'm done. Still makes it a tired night though.</p>
<p>Didn't do much beyond that, though. I finished most of the cleaning on <a href="http://mfgames.com/mfgames-cil/">MfGames CIL</a> library and shuffling things around. I'm more comfortable with it now, which is good. Now, I can focus on MfGames.Settings and MfGames.Tools which will let me do the Unit Timing reporting tool.</p>
<p>I also finished my college course for this semester. This weekend, I'm going to work on getting the third petition out and try to get some pretty graphics out of my unit timing library.</p>
<p>That will lead nicely into the growing desire to actually write some more. I found taking a week off after a commission helps a bit with the creative juices and I'm still bribing myself with a new project or playing this computer game with getting unit timing generating useful data.</p>
<p>And, that nasty, icky documentation process going on. It's taking a while, mainly because it requires a different set of gears. But, I want to get all of this nicely documented.</p>
<p>And, in the last little bit, I'm starting to work on a new style for <a href="http://gs.mfgames.com/">Glorious Saber</a>. It is still a lot like the old one, but it does more with arms and legs, which are the two things I've always struggled with. I think I'm pretty decent at backgrounds already, though I'm going to try making it look a bit more polished. And, I seriously forgot how lousy I'm at limbs; the main reason I loved the Thing Thing style, but that is me being lazy. Right now, my sketches seem a bit <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_deformed">super deformed</a>, which is fine. While I do have a few serious things, I want to be "not serious" about the strip and SD works nicely for there. And, like the other little bits of the comic, I'll probably use the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio">golden ratio</a> (body is 1.618 the height of the head) for the main characters.</p>
<p>Yes, I'm a geek.</p>
Doctors and insurance2009-06-09T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/06/09/doctors-and-insurance/<div style="padding: 2px;float: right">
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<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">Weight Loss (3.7 of 14.7 kg)</div>
<div style="font-size: 10px;background-color: #d8e4a8;height: 18px;width: 25.17%"></div>
</div>
<div style="border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;width: 20em;margin: 2px 5px 2px 0;padding: 1px;clear: left;float: left;background: white;height: 18px">
<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">College Petitions (2 of 4)</div>
<div style="font-size: 10px;background-color: #e3d1a8;height: 18px;width: 81%"></div>
</div>
</div>
<p>I noticed something about the doctors in the Iowa area. They are a lot more obsessed with money and procedures than the doctors both Fluffy and I had in Illinois. Things that would take only a visit seem to take two or three. And there are more tests needed to make even a basic decision. I don't know why this is, but it really isn't that fun. I don't think we are really having that many more medical problems but I do think it is a reflection of the medical insurance ecosystem.</p>
<p>And that is kind of depressing.</p>
<p>Now that I'm on a HSA with a high deductible, I'm suddenly noticing that doctors really charge a hell of a lot of money to do even the most basic of things. And, since they need more visits, it is more large chunks out of my HSA because they are doing what they have to do to get the money they think they deserve. I can't really say if they do, but it feels like a war between insurance and doctors, with the ammo being people like me.</p>
<p>Some of this is related to my dentist visit today, which required four signatures to explain that "yes, you must pay this bill, immediately!" and "insurance going slow is not an excuse to not pay the bill" and a few others to that same line. And this isn't the first dentist here that is saying that.</p>
<p>In other, more cheerful news, my second petition got accepted, so I only have two more to go. And only a week left in class. So, that is a little spot of sunshine.</p>
A sigh of relief2009-05-27T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/05/27/a-sigh-of-relief/<div style="padding: 2px;float: right">
<div style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;width: 20em;margin: 2px 5px 2px 0;padding: 1px;clear: left;float: left;background: white;height: 18px">
<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">Weight Loss (4.1 of 14.7 kg)</div>
<div style="font-size: 10px;background-color: #d8e4a8;height: 18px;width: 27.9%"></div>
</div>
<div style="border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;width: 20em;margin: 2px 5px 2px 0;padding: 1px;clear: left;float: left;background: white;height: 18px">
<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">College Petitions (1 of 4)</div>
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</div>
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<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">Commission (1,300 of 10k words)</div>
<div style="font-size: 10px;background-color: #bae3a8;height: 18px;width: 13%"></div>
</div>
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<p>I just got back from the doctor's office. It wasn't a fasting blood sugar test, but the pin prick and the ac3 tests were both positive. After eating less than a half hour before, my blood sugar was 102, which is very good for my situation. The 126 is still the magic point and the doctor apologized about the expensive tests from last month and suggested I come back in three months to see how the ac3 trend is doing. The ac3 test was also positive, 6.0 when 4.5 to 5.5 is "normal". So, slightly elevated, like the 102 mg/dl glucose results.</p>
<p>I'm very relieved about this. I was terrified that it would come out at 10+ for the ac3 and 130+ for the stick test. Having those somewhat sane levels means I'm doing the right thing: exercising and eating healthier.</p>
<p>In other news, I submitted my commission to the person asking for it and immediately put the one I've been stalling for the last nine months on the list. I need to finish this one, if anything because they pre-paid me. It doesn't help that they keep telling me "whenever" but this is something I need a structure for.</p>
<p>I'm also dropping one petition since I don't have enough time to get it done before my classes. So, I'm going to take one of the classes properly and just do four petitions instead. It's frustrating, mainly because it puts me more in debt and takes longer, but I'm still on track for graduating with my masters this year.</p>
Come, weekend, throw me what you shall2009-05-22T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/05/22/come-weekend-throw-me-what-you-shall/<div style="padding: 2px;float: right">
<div style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;width: 20em;margin: 2px 5px 2px 0;padding: 1px;clear: left;float: left;background: white;height: 18px">
<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">Weight Loss (4.1 of 14.7 kg)</div>
<div style="font-size: 10px;background-color: #d8e4a8;height: 18px;width: 27.9%"></div>
</div>
<div style="border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;width: 20em;margin: 2px 5px 2px 0;padding: 1px;clear: left;float: left;background: white;height: 18px">
<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">College Petitions (1 of 5)</div>
<div style="font-size: 10px;background-color: #e3d1a8;height: 18px;width: 70.7%"></div>
</div>
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<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">Commission (2,943 of 10k words)</div>
<div style="font-size: 10px;background-color: #bae3a8;height: 18px;width: 29.43%"></div>
</div>
</div>
<p>There are days when I hate to walk alone.</p>
<p>Yesterday became one of those days. I didn't bring Inigo out on a walk because of the temperature. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeshond">Keeshonds</a> are absolutely adorable dogs, but they also have huge furry coats and can suffer from heat exhaustion. The last time I walked Inigo, alone which means about half again faster than Fluffy, he got so hot that I saw drool pouring out of his mouth. When he got home, he pretty much collapsed. When it gets hotter, I can't walk with him, not and feel that he will be safe.</p>
<p>Fortunately, Fluffy walks him in the morning, where it is cooler.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Inigo doesn't understand the connection between so hot that he almost collapses and walking outside. So, five minutes after staggering home, he is ready to go again. Pretty, but not so bright.</p>
<p>That means I walked alone.</p>
<p>It gives me a chance let my mind wander. Which usually means thinking about some story I'd really like to write if I wasn't walking. Actually, it was nice, I got to work out the entire plot and realize that, somewhere around chapter 15, I simply couldn't get it to work. That is the nice part of walking, getting to work out those story ideas and filter out the ones that won't.</p>
<p>The hard part is when I get a story I want to write. Like <em>Flight of the Scions</em>, <em>Peg and Sue</em>, and everything else. Ideas get ironed out faster than I can write them. Then again, I always had that problem, so I can't honestly blame college, exercising, or anything else. In fact, it just seems to be who I am.</p>
<p>I have a busy weekend planned. I'm late on my major homework and I need to compress 38+ pages down to 20 or so, plus include my own work. I also need to do all that icky lawn stuff, get more boxes out of the garage, repair the electrical on two outlets, and finish my commission. It is also the weekend we are celebrating our anniversary.</p>
<p>I really, really need to finish that commission.</p>
<p>What else does a boy need?</p>
Progression! Progression...2009-05-17T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/05/17/progression-progression/<div style="padding: 2px;float: right">
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<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">Weight Loss (2.6 of 14.7 kg)</div>
<div style="font-size: 10px;background-color: #D8E4A8;height: 17px;width: 17.9%"></div>
</div>
<div style="border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;width: 20em;margin: 2px 5px 2px 0;padding: 1px;clear: left;float: left;background: white">
<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">College Petitions (1 of 5)</div>
<div style="font-size: 10px;background-color: #e3d1a8;height: 17px;width: 64.8%"></div>
</div>
<div style="border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;width: 20em;margin: 2px 5px 2px 0;padding: 1px;clear: left;float: left;background: white">
<div style="font-family: Tahoma, sans;float: left;margin-left: 2px">Commission (589 of 10k words)</div>
<div style="font-size: 10px;background-color: #bae3a8;height: 17px;width: 5.89%"></div>
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<p>Doesn't quite sound as good as "tradition", one of my favorite songs, but I had a very productive weekend so far. One of the main things is that I finally cut over the new theme to <a href="http://mfgames.com/">Moonfire Games</a>. The theme is growing on me, though I don't have the extra flair stuff, I do have all but one thing up and running. I still need to migrate the online Map of Creation but that is going to take a bit more than a few hours to get that running. Apparently, it broke badly in the last year and no one told me until recently.</p>
<p>I'm also changing my formula for petitions. I haven't sent out any, but if I count the answered questions and the ones I'm looking for supporting documentation, I'm much further than 20% done. So, I just came up with one point for answering the question, one point for evidence, and one point to submit to come up with the new formula. Sadly, at nearly 70%, I really, really need to get off my ass and finish them. I'm going to send one out tomorrow, at least that is the plan.</p>
<p>Mowed the lawn... sort of. It's a free lawn mower, so you can't expect much. If I keep up with it, I'll be able to do it on two charges, but right now it should take me a few more days to finish up. The charge on the mower only lasts about a half hour with the tall grass and an hour and some with the short grass. Obviously, it will inspire me to actually keep up with the lawn work.</p>
<p>Gave up on getting subtitles to work with the movies. Just too hard at this point, but I do have a nice copy of <em>While You Were Sleeping</em> for Fluffy sitting on the MythTV box. I'll rip a few more movies, like <em>Princess Bride</em> and <em>Juno</em>.</p>
<p>Except for a walk, which I haven't done in three days due to being sick, I'm pretty much just going to blow the rest of the day on Fluffy, writing, and maybe programming.</p>
It nets out to neutral2009-03-20T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/03/20/it-nets-out-to-neutral/<p>Today has been a relatively good and somewhat frustrating day at the same time. A bit long and wandering though, both the good, the eh, and idle thoughts.</p>
<p><!--more-->I decided to mark my <a href="http://critters.org/">Critters</a> membership as inactive, which I hate doing. I like critiquing, but I feel that if I'm not posting something new at least every few months and letting my critiques slip, I'm not really participating. I figured once I get back into writing heavily into topics they deal with, I'll active my membership and get right back into the mix.</p>
<p>I also sent a letter to my landlord telling them I'm leaving in a month or so. I don't feel I have to, we have a legal contract and it ends in 40 days. There is no auto-renewal clause, there is nothing beyond it. But apparently it's one of those excuses the landlord takes for not giving back a deposit. It doesn't matter if it is polite or not--I already planned on doing it--I don't like when I <em>have</em> to, despite the fact my understanding of legalese says I don't.</p>
<p>Oh well.</p>
<p>I also talked to my brother. In these discussions about what we would do with the economy, one of my opinions is that the auto makers (and their unions) should be reminded that they have a business model that needs to drastically change. One of the consequences of this, sadly, might result in one going under or really close to it. It is hard when you have family in that industry, more so when you find out they were laid off. Me and my brother both like plans. We have our "master plans" for the future (though he doesn't call it the Salmon Plan like me). Both of us have been hit with some really nasty distractions on that aspect (one of them has the potentially of <em>really</em> throwing a wrench into my plan). But, when compared to my misery of the flood in Iowa, being laid off in Detroit is devastating. I really hope he gets back on his feet and his wife, also in the car industry, manages to survive this.</p>
<p>Even with all that, it didn't really temper the email that gave me the results of my first college petition.</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>One down, four to go. They accepted it without any comments, which makes me feel really damn good about it. Apparently, I write at an appropriate level of a master's course and I can prove it with supporting documentation and well-reason arguments.</p>
<p>Yah, me!</p>
<p>I've been focusing on this move in the next two weeks. Instead of relaxing and playing a video game, I ended up filing the last of my DVD's into the filing cabinet. I know have just about every DVD I own entered into the computer... for the week at least. I'm also working on getting my finances entered into the computer, sorting my LEGO toys, and generally knocking things off my TODO list.</p>
<p>I did do one naughty thing today. For the last few (i.e. five including all my commission income) months, I didn't spend my entertainment fund because I kept using it to pay bills. With the refinance and everything, I actually got it back and decided to blow it on something I wanted: a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N810">Nokia n810</a>. No, I don't need it. But, I know I'm beginning to forget what books I really want to pick up, what DVD's I'm missing (like having 1-5 and 8-10 of a series), and a list of addresses. It's a little PDA, a bit pricey, but I think I could use it. Plus, it would be just like Fluffy when she plays Scrabble in bed on her phone... I too shall have a hand-held computer to play games. And mine will be Linux! Bwahahaha!</p>
<p>Yeah, I want to write a game for it.</p>
<p>Speaking of games, I'm beginning to want to write a game. A massively single-player online RPG (MSPORPG). This is frustrating, mainly because I had that self-imposed desire to finish CuteGod and Baby Squid God. Not sure of those really should just be trunked or not, though. I want to finish, but you know what, I should also learn when to let things go.</p>
Surprise! No sleep.2009-03-10T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/03/10/surprise-no-sleep/<p>Fluffy has a job interview later today. Last night, while we were talking, she mentioned that she might come last night instead of today, mainly so she doesn't have to rush around.</p>
<p>Somehow, I thought she would be coming, so I ended up staying up later than I normally do (23:00 three nights in a row, bad Dylan) and had trouble sleeping. I managed to drift off around 00:30 or so.</p>
<p>Near 03:30, Fluffy came through my door. I suspect she hung around for a few hours, trying to make a decision, then finally decided to head on over. I could never do that, midnight driving isn't for me.</p>
<p>I'm always happy she is here. We didn't really talk at all, mainly because I had work in a few hours, but it woke me up enough that I didn't get back to sleep until 05:00 or so.</p>
<p>It's going to be a tired day.</p>
<p>I managed to finish the second draft of my commission last night. I'm not exactly happy with it, but for this commissioner, I'm never happy with the story but they are. I sent it out, with the usual offer to expand on it. Hopefully they'll enjoy it.</p>
<p>Knowing I have to move in four weeks is pushing me to finish all those little things that I've been stalling on. I still have a few more hundred DVD's to enter, a dozen books to finish reviewing, and petitions to blow through. I finished sorting through my LEGO blocks last night; I need to not buy any new toys until after the move.</p>
<p>It is change.</p>
<p>Not fond of it, but it is what it is, so I'm going to do it.</p>
Scary baby steps2009-03-05T06:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/03/05/scary-baby-steps/<p>Yesterday, we took one of those really scary little steps toward me moving out of this apartment and into some place I can have all my family visit: we applied for a new rental house. Not really that impressive, my lease is up April 21 (I've been here almost a year, wow...) and it's about time to step up and not have Fluffy visiting every week or so.</p>
<p>When we first started, it was every two weeks, alternating between Iowa and Illinois. Through various factors, she is coming more often and staying a week at a time.</p>
<p>Which is lovely except I simply can't get anything done. No homework, no commissions, hell even the thirty minutes for my Critters obligation is a struggle. Couldn't even consider homework. I can't wait until we get into the same house, where we have a nice schedule and life turns into, well, a rut. Because I like having a schedule I can commit to. When I can plan more than four weeks ahead, I can get into a RPG game or plan out my writing night since I have a novel coming up.</p>
<p>We don't know if we'll get the house yet. The landlord had multiple applicants, so its ass-kissing and buttering up that will decide who gets it.</p>
<p>Here's hoping I kiss good ass.</p>
Monday morning *yawn*2009-02-23T06:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/02/23/monday-morning-yawn/<p>Another Monday has rolled around, surprising me with a cat who wanted attention and that sharp burst of "oh shit" as I accidentally turned off my alarm clock. Fortunately, I could reset the alarm and go back to sleep for my precious nine minutes.</p>
<p>Actually, a very productive weekend. I wrote about 10k words on my serial, 5k words to finish the first draft of my second commission, and did two <a href="http://critters.org/">Critters</a> critiques. Oh, and taxes, dishes, most of a petition, my resume (for the petition) and playing with my LEGO pieces. I also managed to watch six movies. I also found a <a href="http://evilmadscience.com/tinykitlist/100-meggyjr">toy</a> that I really want now. Do it yourself hand-held gaming... yummy.</p>
<p>I like being productive. It will make up for my complete lack of productivity when Fluffy comes into town in a few days. My life is ebbs and flows when it comes to writing. Something I'm sure will normalize at some point. I also got to thinking about my novel for the year. What topic to write? What tone? Should I go with the cowboy in the fairy land that I wrote a short story idea previously? Peg and Sue go into space? Another steampunk? Does it have a chance to get published? You know, the usual.</p>
<p>When I finish my serial (technically about 10 weeks from now, but I doubt it), I'm either going to finish the <a href="http://gs.mfgames.com/">Glorious Saber</a> arc out or work on the novel. Just not sure.</p>
Sylvan Learning commericals2009-02-15T06:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/02/15/sylvan-learning-commericals/<p>I've noticed the new Sylvan Learning commericals have a very interesting message in them. The one I just saw showed a boy playing with a soccer ball outside. Enjoying himself.</p>
<p>"You see a son who doesn't get his kicks from algebra. Sylvan sees..."</p>
<p>There was another:</p>
<p>"You see a daughter who would rather go on a walk than work on math."</p>
<p>Um... shouldn't we be seriously trying to get our kids outside and doing active things instead of letting them playing video games (though it does improve reflexes) and turning into a couch potato? Yes, education is very important, but they could have least picked something that <em>wasn't a healthy activity</em> to put in contrast with math and science. Yes, because we should discourage our children from going on walks and working on sports and really have them focus on just math.</p>
<p>I have expect the next one I see to be:</p>
<p>"You see a daughter who enjoys mountain climbing instead of calculus."</p>
The problem with sleep2009-02-11T06:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/02/11/the-problem-with-sleep/<p>The problem with sleep is probably not actually a problem, but a perception of a problem. I'm always trying to do more and that nasty old sleep thing just keeps getting in the way. I mean, why do I need eight hours? Why do I want thirteen before I actually feel rested? Damn it, I have things to do.</p>
<p>But, that is part of the obsession. Getting things done. I have work, college, and writing and they all take time. And I always seem to waste a few hours doing that "eating and other crap" thing.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I'm a lot more awake when I actually go to bed at 21:00 instead of 01:30. Of course, that means I'm actually <em>in</em> bed at 22:00 because somehow, in a 43 square meter apartment, living alone, it takes me a full hour to brush my teeth (2 minutes) and shower (10 minutes).</p>
<p>Every. Single. Time.</p>
<p>Only got one thing done last night: homework. Wanted to play with websites or move <a href="http://mfgames.com/comics/glorious-saber/">Glorious Saber</a> to its new home, or even get the VPN working on Linux, but no... I wanted to sleep and get rested.</p>
<p>This is one of those I hate that I'm glad I did it thing.</p>
Websites2009-02-06T06:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/02/06/websites/<p>In my master's class, something about communication, I'm doing a <a href="http://vle2.capella.edu/1068135">new</a> website for <a href="http://mfgames.com/">Moonfire Games</a>. It's a fun little thing, but it got me to thinking. Organizing websites.</p>
<p>I have all these ideas of how to set up a site, what it should include, what it shouldn't include. The hard part is, I'm never sure what should go where. For example, should I put the world settings in the same site, along with the forum, or use the domains I have to set up a <a href="http://forum.mfgames.com/">forum</a> and a dedicated site for a <a href="http://fedran.moonfire.us/">single</a> <a href="http://sepia.mfgames.com/">world</a>?</p>
<p>Even for the Moonfire Games site, I'm trying to figure out where I put Exalted or HERO stuff, where the software libraries should go, and everything else.</p>
<p>I think part of the answer is that I need to have a clear idea of what I want a site to be. It's pretty obvious that <a href="http://d.moonfire.us/">my personal site</a> is mostly about writing. The same for the Moonfire Games site is mostly about games and programming. Though, I can't describe how much I want to mix these two up.</p>
<p>I want a good writer's site for my personal one. Part of me thinks I should first get to be a better writer before I worry about these things, but I like web design and playing around with sites. I also haven't found the "Making Flawless Author Sites in 103 Easy Steps" at my local bookstore.</p>
<p>Just something to think about.</p>
Writing and Classes2009-01-14T06:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/01/14/writing-and-classes/<p>Doing a bit of writing. Last week, I had a few seriously down parts and it managed to pretty my lynch my creativity for the week. But, this week, I got a bit of writing done and things are moving forward nicely.</p>
<p>I finished my commission. It came with the best payment ever--money from PayPal and another request. Yah for another commission. I'm working on a prepay commission and it reminds me exactly why I hate being prepaid for my commissions. Knowing I would get paid at the end is one of those motivators and when I don't have that, I find myself working on other things instead.</p>
<p>Classes started last week. Compared to the struggles I had before this, I'm not having a lot of trouble with this one. Week one... make a website. Week two? Make a website with <em>multiple</em> pages and <em>links</em>! *squee*</p>
<p>Overall, I'm having a good week this week. I won't be blogging probably as frequently as before (last week again), but I'm hoping to get into "real" writing (i.e. stuff that might get me published). I'll see, these first few months of 2009 are going to be transitional.</p>
Good thoughts2009-01-07T06:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/01/07/good-thoughts/<p>I had a terrible bout with depression last night. A bit of talking with Fluffy helped a little bit. So did the somewhat high maintenance cat--well the cat who wants to be petted all the time but I still love her--helped with pulling me out of my dark mood.</p>
<p>This morning, it was better. Could be the decision I wasn't going to stress out about work or money today probably helped.</p>
<p>I also <a href="http://koldb.com/player.php?name=cakyrespa">ascended</a> today on the one and only online game I play, <a href="http://www.kingdomofloathing.com/">Kingdom of Loathing</a>. KoL was driving me nuts actually, since I was getting upset about missing out on an once in a lifetime event because I jumped the gun with the last ascension. I know it was a game, but it took me a few days to just let it go (a skill I'm normally really good at). In the end, I missed out on a bunch of loot, but it wasn't too bad (if I ascended two days earlier, I would have made it). Oh well, I had my fastest speed run ever (14 days from end to end, because I missed out on the once in a lifetime event, go figure), bought the once in a lifetime event item from the store, and rolled into the next round.</p>
<p>I also solved a major problem at work with a customer, got everything off my plate, and basically managed to take a long, deep breath.</p>
<p>When I get home, I start my college class.</p>
<p>Today is going to be good.</p>
Goals for 20092009-01-05T06:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2009/01/05/goals-for-2009/<p>Every year, I believe the year with a bunch of new goals. My record for achieving them isn't the greatest, but I'm usually pretty good at least making a few of them. This year, after some playful ribbing from Fluffy, I have five:</p>
<ol>
<li>Writing: Finish <em>Flight of the Scions</em>. This was last year's goal also, but I hit writer's block for most of the year. I'm not including writing a novel this year, because after so many years of doing it, it's more of a "well, duh" item instead of something remarkable. I'm going to write a new novel this year, it just isn't a goal.</li>
<li>Programming: Join and complete 4E7. I've had a nasty time with game writing contests last year. I'm going to not join any game writing contests until 4E7, then work on that one. I want to finish, damn it. Now, that said, I'm still going to work on CuteGod, Baby Squid God, and Wordplay when I want to write a game.</li>
<li>Health: Lose 16 kg (35 pounds). I need to loose some weight. This is actually the hardest one on the set. I'm not going to set a goal of a certain number of miles on a bike or walking, or the stairs or anything. I just want to be 16 kg lighter by the end of the year (and ideally not through projectile vomiting or amputation).</li>
<li>Family: Be living with Fluffy, our cats, and dog in the same house by the end of the year. I'm tired of living across two states, really, really tired of it.</li>
<li>Education: Graduate with a master's. I'm on track for this one, but I need just a little push...</li>
</ol>
<p>I do have some secondary goals. These are goals that I want to get done, but I won't feel guilty of I don't:</p>
<ul>
<li>I have a second novel that needs an edit round and self-publication. I won't get the artwork done in a reasonable time, but I can everything prepared for the artwork.</li>
<li>Get at least one story published.</li>
<li>Finish up the book of poetry I've been working in my spare time for two years.</li>
<li>Finish Baby Squid God.</li>
<li>Finish CuteGod.</li>
<li>Finish the <a href="http://mfgames.com/comics/glorious-saber/">Glorious Saber</a> arc and get closure on that project.</li>
<li>Get more commissions.</li>
<li>Stop being a wanna writer and programmer.</li>
<li>5 ascensions on <a href="http://www.kingdomofloathing.com/">Kingdom of Loathing</a>.</li>
</ul>
I love writing and movies2008-12-29T06:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2008/12/29/i-love-writing-and-movies/<p>Just finished a four-day weekend. Yeah, it involved holidays, but I only had to do two family things. One of them I actually did, though I was a bit late. The other is deferred for a few weeks to let the weather get better. Fluffy also pushed back her visit so instead of a Christmas wife, I got one one for the weekend. And, since we didn't have any family things, it pretty much consisted of lying on the bed and watching movies. All four of them.</p>
<p>I enjoyed a lot of movies. A coworker who has managed to borrow about half my entire collection since I started working there in April gave me the gift of 10 movies from the pawn shop. $3 each. That was fun. I like pawn shop DVD's. I don't care about cases since I transplant them to slim-line CD cases anyways. Which means, if they play, I'm happy. And I love bad horror movies. And I got a lot of those.</p>
<p>A very happy boy.</p>
<p>Between the movies, entering about 90 DVD's in the computer, playing on the PS3, and sleeping, I also got lots of writing done. I finally opened up my petition questions for college, then made a very high-pitched eek noise. They changed a lot in a few years, and I'm actually struggling to write out something useful for the 23 questions. I'll do it, just takes a bit of time. And a lot of screaming.</p>
<p>I also got feedback on my commission. Two sentences: "rewrite this sentence" and "expand these four sections". Oh, and a "I love it" comment which always makes me all happy inside. I finished the expansion, added another 3k words to the length, and sent it back. If things go well, I'll either get a bit of money in a few days or another short request.</p>
A hermit emerges2008-12-15T06:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2008/12/15/a-hermit-emerges/<p>I had a very busy and interesting weekend, filled with in-laws, programs, and getting my grade in college (an "A").</p>
<p><!--more-->Most of Friday and Saturday ended up being for the in-laws. On Friday, spent a few hours with FiL talking about everything and nothing. He made a really good pork roast and I did laundry. On Saturday, I helped my aunt-in-law set up her new Vista machine and help her learn the changes in Windows since we gave her a computer 5-6 years ago. Just a few little changes. :) It also reminded me, dial-up sucks when you are used to a cable modem.</p>
<p>And on my side of the family, starting the planning for the holidays thing. A couple good hours with my dad on holiday plans and how to render things in <a href="http://www.blender.org/">Blender</a>. It's interesting that he and I both like the program, but we have completely different goals of what we want out of it. He wants realism, I want abstraction (line drawings are love...).</p>
<p>Beyond that, I did some work for <a href="http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/dnpb/">Prebuild</a> and got a bunch of patches put into the system. Minor little things, but I'm aiming for a release next Saturday.</p>
<p>I also got <a href="http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/boogame/">BooGame</a> to compile and run under Linux. I honestly thought it would be a lot more work, but it just took a couple minor things and `mdtool`. Very cool since it means that I'm still on track for making Baby Squid God and CuteGod both multi-platform with a minimum of work.</p>
<p>Beyond that, not much more. I spent all of Sunday in the apartment, so I missed the notice to park on a lower level to avoid the -30 C tempatures that hit the city; I had the joys of scraping off my car in <em>really</em> cold weather this morning.</p>
<p>I should probably get gloves. Or, more importantly, more than a single glove.</p>
<p>This coming week should be mostly a writing week. I'm hoping to do a bit more programming in the latter half, but I want to write a short story (maybe two), do my <a href="http://www.critters.org/">Critters</a> obligations, work on my commission, and write another chapter for my serial.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, and a petition. I really need to get off my ass and write my college course petitions so I can actually graduate next year. This is a Good Thing™ with our future plans.</p>
Two of my favorite things2008-12-12T06:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2008/12/12/two-of-my-favorite-things/<p>This last week, I've been doing two of my favorite things: writing and programming. Got chapter three done of a new novel and worked a bit on a commission. On the other side, interested started up on <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/dnpb/">Prebuild</a> and <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/boogame/">BooGame</a>, so I was inspired to work on those. I'm also in the last week of my classes for this quarter, so I'm looking forward to that final discussion post.</p>
<p><!--more-->This novel is sci-fi and it is much different than writing fantasy or steampunk. I'd like to say easier, but it isn't. I feel more required to create a plausible world based on our own, as opposed to be able to build it from the ground up. This makes it actually more of a challenge. The fact I'm trying to also make certain points non-obvious increases the difficulty, but I'm really enjoying the entire process.</p>
<p>Writing romance (not Romance, by the way) is fun, regardless of the genre. I love how you set up the characters and you let them grow emotionally together. There are some wrenches of course, and I honestly haven't decided who is going to "win" in this story. I mean, the story is from one point of view, but the other... well, I still don't know yet. And that's the fun part of the entire process.</p>
<p>This isn't a pre-planned novel. Like DL's from earlier this year, I only have the next few chapters in mind and a couple disconnected plot "chains" involved. A chain looks suspiciously like a <a href="http://www.webservicessummit.com/images/UML_modeling_figure1.gif">UML use case</a> in my mind. Most of them are "after even X, A and B do 1, 2, 3". Later, as I build up the chapters, I'll integrate those chains into an actual plot. Its different from how I wrote my other novels. It also, I noticed, ends up with longer stories instead of shorter ones. DL's ended up being 180k words, mainly to finish the plot but also because of the encouragement. The killer will be cutting it down by 40k words and splitting it into two novels. I blame the encouragement and the pressure to finish before Iowa for it only taking two months.</p>
<p>I also found that there are aspects that writing style I really like. In specific, writing out something and then trying to make sure everything fits with what you did previously with what you are doing now. Little things and details, like remembering eye color or perfume or what brand of shoes the heroine wore. I should be creating a <a href="http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page">FreeMind</a> map for the novel, but I haven't yet. Sooner or later, Google will make one and then I'll be completely doomed.</p>
<p>Despite the horribly wonderful sounding game contest TIG is holding next, I'm going to stay true to my word and not work on another game project until 4E7. To my surprise, two people are paying attention to my work on BooGame, so I'm working on cleaning it up, making it cross-platform again, and basically working on it.</p>
<p>There was also some prebuild work that needs to be done. I'm not really using it at the moment, but I have developer rights on the project and there are 2-3 year old patches that really should be integrated. So, I'm going to do that and "catch it up" before ignoring it again (maybe). Related to that, I noticed that <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/msbuild/">MSBuild</a> is looking pretty sexy on the build front. Yeah, it isn't <a href="http://nant.sourceforge.net/">NAnt</a>, but there are some aspects of development I like standardization. Not to mention, <a href="http://monodevelop.com/Main_Page">MonoDevelop</a> actually uses the MSBuild files properly, which means I have a build system for Linux.</p>
<p>On the college front, if I finish my five petitions, I'm actually on track for graduating with a masters next year.</p>
<p>Its a good week and I'm pretty cheerful. I feel creative and excited.</p>
Grades2008-06-20T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2008/06/20/grades/<p>Well, checking out my final grades for the class, it looks like I managed to pull down a B in the class from hell (hand calculated, not reported). I got 7 points knocked off from the last week, most likely because I didn't respond to anything past Wednesday night (when I abandoned my apartment and computer because of flooding), but that is only 0.7% of my grade which isn't enough to push me into the A range even if I explained the flooding problem.</p>
<p>I'm unhappy with the grade, being somewhat of a perfectionist, but I don't think this is really worth the battle. I filed my complaints about the teacher in the post-class survey and I think that is enough. No one will win if I keep hammering it and it wasn't my best class anyways; most of it didn't apply to my life up to this point and I seem to cruise in classes if I've already experienced it in "real life". So, a B is good enough for me and I'm glad that my first half of the class (99% for the first half of the class) managed to help me.</p>
<p>Means I'll probably not graduate with a "summa cum laude" but... oh well. I still have 6 more of these classes and I'll get A's in most of them (I hope). I'll just avoid the teacher in general and just put it behind me.</p>
10 things I did right and wrong...2008-06-18T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2008/06/18/10-things/<p>I know I haven't entirely recovered, but I figured I might as well talk about some of the things I realized in the last week. Some of this is just to get it out, others is because I'm looking at getting into my apartment in a few hours (it opened up yesterday, so I'm doing a field trip today). This is just the things I did right and wrong with this flood.</p>
<p><!--more-->As some of you might know, I last saw my apartment on Wednesday. I had the opportunity to go there Wednesday night, but I thought there was already too much traffic in the area and didn't really want to add to the situation, plus it would have been about 2 hours from reports to just go back for one thing (my laptop). So, instead, I just headed straight to my awesome in-laws who held me up for the last week (and in father-in-law's (FiL) words, "go quietly insane").</p>
<p>When I was leaving Wednesday morning, they were still talking about closing the bridges on Friday. I didn't really think much of it, but I felt a need to pack at least a small emergency pack. Even as I was doing it, I felt that I wouldn't need it and would feel foolish for bringing it back in that night. Probably a very smart thing, since it meant I didn't have to spend hours getting back home after work and I ended up being a <em>lot</em> less stressed than I could have been that day. Which leads me to this:</p>
<blockquote><p>1. Make an emergency pack when they start to tell you things might get serious. If they say "in a few days" they <em>lie</em>. Well, they don't, but prepare for things to go to hell a lot faster than they plan.</p>
<p>1a. Bring a towel, always bring a towel.</p></blockquote>
<p>Now, I should have packed my laptop. :) At this point in my life, I'm a bit too dependent on the damn thing that I felt somewhat lost without it. Even without an Internet connection (Wikipedia will still be there, I know), it was the simple fact that my primary stress relief is writing. So, I managed to leave probably the single thing that would have helped the most behind.</p>
<blockquote><p>2. Do not leave your stress-time toys behind.</p></blockquote>
<p>I also didn't pack enough, three shirts, three sets of underwear, and a pair of shorts. I thought I would be out for 2-3 days at most but I did have all my bathroom stuff (I'm obsessive about brushing my teeth as part of my wakeup), but I forgot shampoo. I didn't need any of them (I used FiL's).</p>
<blockquote><p>3. Bring bathroom stuff including shampoo, conditioner, and soap. Also bring the cell phone charger, put it in the bathroom stuff.</p></blockquote>
<p>I also had my password and account USB with me, but I'll go into that in another day. Its a topic entirely on its own. :)</p>
<blockquote><p>4. (Insert tomorrows rants, observations, and comments here)</p></blockquote>
<p>Remarkably, one thing I did notice was that a bike would have been very helpful. Not for work, of course, but getting around your current town of refuge or if you insist on sight-seeing. In my case, I'm a comfortable bike rider and it could have saved me about $60 in gas money if I just rode it. I did walk around a lot, which was good since I brought my tennis shoes and business shoes. Related to that, I wish I brought my gloves to help more with the sandbagging; gloves would have been helpful in my car and I need to add that to the vehicle emergency kit I use.</p>
<blockquote><p>5. Take your bike and good walking shoes.</p>
<p>6. Put gloves in your car emergency kit.</p></blockquote>
<p>Overall, if you can't tell, I seemed to have done things mostly right. I missed a few things, nothing critical, and I think I was a lot less stressed than I thought I could be. One of the things that helped was my daily call with <a href="http://darkfluffy.livejournal.com/">Fluffy</a>, long conversations with MiL and FiL. I had no reliable Internet access, so I didn't have my minor support structure there.</p>
<p>I will admit, I did get stressed and I found out a lot of things about me in stress situations. Mainly I bitch too much, not about the current situation, but it brought up a lot of stuff I've been going through in the last year or so kind of bubbled up with the sewage. :( Not happy with it, and I don't envy MiL. Actually, I'm annoyed it happened, but it I couldn't really stop. I did get a computer game from a friend (Ack!, that's his nickname) and that helped. I also got stressed a couple of times really badly, which is why I went on the walks and played games.</p>
<blockquote><p>7. Bring entertainment.</p>
<p>8. Be prepared to be depressed. Also, do not watch the news for more than an hour. Yes, there is 24 hour news coverage of your current crisis but you get DEPRESSED! They even have studies about it, but its amazing how hard it is to just force yourself to turn the damn thing off.</p></blockquote>
<p>And there were a few things that I did do <em>very</em> right. These were just observations I saw on the television.</p>
<blockquote><p>9. Don't go wandering in the middle of it, just to look at things. There were people wandering threw the sewage and water, standing in way of cops and emergency crew and things would have been a lot easier if they didn't have a hundred people on the bridge taking pictures or... stopping on the side of the Interstate, getting out and, gawking at the city! *sigh*</p></blockquote>
<p>And finally...</p>
<blockquote><p>10. Pay attention to the rules they give you and do it gracefully. There were so many people ignoring the "right lane is for emergency vehicles only". And also people who took advantage of most of the people following the rules to be asshole-like to floor it until the last minute, then jamming themselves in and slowing down EVERYONE behind them. Not to mention, ignoring mandatory evacuation and requiring rescue by boat. Or leaving your cats in a Rubbermaid container in the house about to be flooded AND THEN LEAVING THEM BEHIND (I'm *still* pissed about that one, it was on TV). And then, as the TV crew is there, not making the comment, "Wow, they are still alive, I thought they would have died." *deep breath* Or going around barricades. Or swimming in the river. Or looting. Or a ton of other things. So many people seemed to think that the rules didn't apply to them for some reason and people got hurt (and one person I wish would get hurt for the cat thing).</p></blockquote>
<p>Probably not important for most of you, but I think these were some pretty good lessons for what I already saw.</p>
Why I'm frustrated2008-06-11T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2008/06/11/why-im-frustrated/<p>On Sunday morning, I sent an email:</p>
<blockquote><p>
I would like a bit more detail on how to recover my grade. Up to three weeks ago, I had everything right, but I seem to be missing some set of critical details that is causing my grade to plummet. Could you please give me some suggestions on what I need to do to rewrite this to fit the assignment better?</p>
<p>Also, how do you want me to handle the fact I work for a company with no training budget and has never made any effort to train its employees. I also don't understand how you want me to handle that the lack of budget to hire new employees, which would be the bulk of the training expense even if we have it.</p></blockquote>
<p>Two days later, after the assignment was due and it was too late to change anything. Only one sentence.</p>
<blockquote><p>All companies should have training for new employees.</p></blockquote>
<p>And then she gave me a D for the entire week. No explanation, just simply 60% for the entire week.</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>You know what? This has probably been the worse college class I have had in my entire life. I managed to get through every class in this school with a 100%, had teachers that were wonderful and helpful, actually answered the questions I asked and I didn't fail. Then I get this. It comes down to math, 6 weeks of 100% and then this crap. I rewrote my entire final AGAIN (since she gave me even less of a score this time) and submitted it. Now, I can only hope since obviously I didn't learn a damn thing in the last three weeks.</p>
<p>I know I did something wrong. I have a good idea but for the last two weeks, I simply had no feedback to explain what I was doing wrong. And, I probably bombed the class because of it. I feel impotent and frustrated, because my grade is dependent on some teacher who simply doesn't care to even read my emails.</p>
Academia verses Real Life2008-06-08T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2008/06/08/academia-verses-real-life/<p>Today, I have a major struggle with one of my assignments. The assignment was to create a project for your current employer or a fictitious company and write out a QA plan. Since I was employed, I picked my current employer and wrote up a project. Six weeks into the ten week project, I started getting incredibly low grades because I was writing what my company would have done (i.e. not train their employees, very little validation, and I wrote it up as a low priority plan to work around our heavy schedules), but the teacher wanted me to write a "perfect world" QA plan.</p>
<p>Apparently, I needed to actually read all ten weeks of the assignment instead of just doing my homework because looking back, it was pretty obvious that the project I picked wouldn't fulfill the last weeks of the assignment, but the instructor didn't even mention a single thing about this when she was reading it every week of this class. And this is for a class dealing with risk analysis; you would think that she might have realized when I spent weeks setting up this project with a specific goal that it wouldn't be appropriate for later. I, of course, thought it would be sufficient to give a 3 paragraph reason on why there is no training, but nope. Got a zero because I just said why there was no training, instead of writing up the massive amounts of certification and special training needed for the project (when our employees were self-trained).</p>
<p>And the last assignment I got a nearly failing grade because she basically just wanted me to copy what I wrote weeks ago and add a few words here and there. Instead of, "as described in section five" which I wrote. So, I just spent the last four hours rewriting the entire project to fit with a perfect world case that isn't based on any company I've worked for.</p>
<p>But, I don't think I'll be able to recover my grade.</p>
<p>I'm cranky and I hate failing.</p>
Boiling Pots2008-02-03T06:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2008/02/03/boiling-pots/<p>Woke up yesterday thinking about Itrifore, Fedora, both of my unpublished novels, and everything else in the world. Stress is a really crappy thing, you know?</p>
<p><!--more-->I need to work on some resumes, mainly to create variants that won't scare the hell out of people seeing exactly how many different things I've done in my life. It's a lot, I've been a very busy beaver these last twenty years. Tomorrow, I should have a pair of development resumes (C# and web in general). And then to poke the recruiters.</p>
<p>This is coupled with work itself. My boss is demanding I work overtime to get something done. This is not something I'm looking forward to. One, because I'm afraid I'll burn out with 2-3 weeks of 60-80 hour work weeks to get something done. And it is the project that I feel is a complete waste of money for the last three years and killing everyone to get it done in three weeks won't change that fact. It's important to her, and from my impression, it is more important than anything else in the world right now, including paying her employees on time.</p>
<p>As she announced to the company:</p>
<blockquote><p>"If you want to get paid on time, you are in the wrong company."</p></blockquote>
<p>But, I have college to work on and I won't have the energy or time to write my papers if I'm working every damn moment of the night.</p>
<p>I'm getting a hankering to write again. <em>Ponies Among Us</em> isn't going to make it. If I'm looking and 2-3 more weeks of overtime, which means I have no creativity left to write or program, I lost any and all chance to actually complete the game on time.</p>
<p>This. Royally. Sucks.</p>
<p>Yeah, I might have no made it, but I would be willing to do overtime to try getting it at least minimally working. This is what happened last year, maybe I'm not ready to make a game yet. Well, I've been thinking about <a>CuteGod</a> as well. I'm going to try really hard not to get any new projects and just work on things for a while. Give up on 4E6, I mean really give up the hope and just work on little things to get them done.</p>
<p>I'm not going to drop Ponies though. I love the idea too much. I'll just let it get in the boiling pot of ideas and interests. That is related to Itrifore. I like the HERO system and the more I use it, the more comfortable I'm with it. And I really want to write up <a href="http://fightertype.livejournal.com/">Fightertype</a> world in the system; if only to make her play the game again.</p>
<p>This is a year of transition for me. I'm planning on it. I'm planning on quitting my job and finding a new one in efforts to be happier with my bankroll and myself. I don't want to be upset at my boss, I don't want to be this personally involved with the company and be so utterly helpless at the same time.</p>
Sick, sick, sick...2008-01-25T06:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2008/01/25/sick-sick-sick-2/<p>There are things I hate about being sick. It is one of the few times I am simply incapable of doing high level thinking. No notebooks dripping with ink, no code laid out in poetic meter, and sure as hell no fascinating writing. I managed to get most of my college work done this week, but other than that, I've been staring at the same game code for three days and not getting a single useful thing done with it.</p>
<p>I have managed to watch over three dozen episodes of Kim Possible though. I really like the last season, fifth I believe. The plotline, for a Disney comic, was actually well done and something those in the Writer's Guild should be proud of. We also saw Spiderman 3, one of the few movies were <a href="http://darkfluffy.livejournal.com/">Fluffy</a> begged me to fast forward through the boring bits. Not a good sign... I like some of the special effects, but it really wasn't that good of a movie.</p>
<p>I'm probably going into work tomorrow, just to get out of the house, but also because I suspect there might be Internet problems and I want to find a mp3 that I apparently lost when I wiped my laptop the last time. Which is a damn shame, since apparently no one heard of the skit on Kingdom of Loathing.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/100" alt="" /> Kitteh Braik (18%)<br />
<img src="/assets/100" alt="" /> <a href="http://mfgames.com/exalted/scroll-lands">Scroll of Lands</a> update (38%)</p>
The Threshold of Faith2008-01-02T06:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2008/01/02/the-threshold-of-faith/<p>I start college tomorrow. I'm terrified and excited at the same time. I need eight classes to get my Masters in IT and eight petitions. Naturally, the petitions will be in the areas that I have a lot of strength in (programming and databases) while I focus my classes on the stuff I want to get great at (management).</p>
<p>Well, on Monday, I managed to pry <a href="http://darkfluffy.livejournal.com/">Fluffy</a> out of bed and into a car to visit my dad for the holidays. Fifteen miles later, I was on the side of the road with a smoking engine, a temperature gauge beyond the high mark, and deciding that it was time to retire my twelve year old car. I am less than happy. Actually, I'm quite upset as I try to figure out how to juggle a new car payment.</p>
<p>We also had a talk with one of our good friends. She wants to buy our house when we move to Iowa, and it would be great if she did. But, there are enough things hanging out that will require a bit of expert level juggling. One of the suggestions was to let her move in early, help cover some of the payments and work on paying for the house long before she has to get a mortgage. I've done this before and it will require a lot on all three of our parts, but if it works out, then everyone wins. She knocks money off the payment of the house to make it easier for her to get a mortgage and we have a bit of money going on to help even the inconsistent incoming we get from work. Plus, I really need to pay down some of my debt before the house thing.</p>
<p>It also means, baring me getting a great job in Iowa, the move itself probably won't happen until 2009. I'm still going to look, but if I do find something, it just means I'll have to get an apartment in Iowa for a few months while also paying for the house. Um, basically been there, did that, it just isn't fun.</p>
<p>So, 2008 is already looking to be an interesting year.</p>
<p>Saw a little speed typing test on <a href="http://liz-dejesus.livejournal.com/85723.html?view=200923">liz-dejesus's</a> journal. Had to do it myself and I actually got a pretty good score: 93 words per minute.</p>
<p><a href="http://speedtest.10-fast-fingers.com">93 words</a>
<p><a href="http://10-fast-fingers.com">Touchtyping</a></p>
<p>(Second try, of course, first was 85 wpm).</p>
<p><img src="/assets/100" alt="" /> Character Builder (91%)<br />
<img src="/assets/100" alt="" /> World Builder (2%)<br />
<img src="/assets/100" alt="" /> Kitteh Braik (7%)<br />
<img src="/assets/37" alt="" /> <em>Case of the Morning Zombies</em> (Edit #1, 0 of 37 chapters)</p>
Looking Back and Forward from 2007 to 20082007-12-29T06:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2007/12/29/looking-back-and-forward-from-2007-to-2008/<p>Hard to believe I've been blogging for two years now. I started this journal about a month after my other, in-character one. Originally, it was just there to comment on friends, but I started posting one or two things on occasion. Now, as my brother said, "I'm a pretty good blogger." Or at least I do it fairly consistently and I've gotten a few compliments on letting everyone in on the trials and joys of my life.</p>
<p>This year is probably the year I started to really blogging on two of my major themes of life: writing and programming. I will, of course, blame the <a href="http://eyezofwolf.livejournal.com/">the other Dylan</a> for getting me into writing about writing. After meeting with him at GenCon 2006, it really pushed me to finally take that step toward trying to be a "real" writer again instead of just hanging my hat on my one relatively minor success. I've been a lot of really cool writers in this last year and I'm pretty thankful for making that step. Now, I just have to follow their footsteps and get published again. On the programming/gaming side, I haven't really done much with networking, but I blog about it almost as much as my writing. Even if I occasionally give "too technical" details as more than one said. Oh well, just who I am.</p>
<p>The end of the year is the time when I look at my major projects for the year. I plan them ahead of time, sometimes even figure out when I'll work on it, but mainly it is a framework for my personal projects throughout the year. I also like to remember what I have succeeded at.</p>
<p><!--more-->Probably the largest accomplishment this year is that I wrote a game. After my father taught me to program at the age of six, I've been trying to finish a computer game since. At the age of thirty-two, I actually got close to succeeding at that goal with <a href="http://mfgames.com/games/cutegod">CuteGod</a>. Yeah, someone else came up with the design document and the graphics, but I actually sat down and started to write it. And I got it to a playable state. For something I've been struggling with for over twenty-six years, I think that is a major thing.</p>
<p>Following up, I'd have to say <em>My Father's Bike</em> and <em>Case of the Morning Zombies</em>. I manages to get a first draft on two novels this year, one that has had major significance in my life already even though it never got published and the other because I wrote it for <a href="http://nanowrimo.org">NaNoWriMo</a>.</p>
<p>Everything else was kind of minor compared to those: friends, games, and novels. In this next year, I have quite a few plans and it is going to be a very rough and packed year:</p>
<ul>
<li>The Master Plan: This is the year where <a href="http://darkfluffy.livejournal.com/">Fluffy</a> and I finally get into the end of the plan. In the following year, I'm going to try finding a job in Iowa, move to Iowa, and start to have a family. This is the part that has terrified me for the last five years and it is finally time for it to happen.</li>
<li>College: I start college for my Masters in five days. Eight classes and eight 30+ page essays before I get it. Then the joys of deciding if I want to keep on going to finish up a doctorate, which I'm also considering.</li>
<li><em>Ponies Among Us</em>: This game is due by April 2 and I'm hitting the struggle point. Only three more full months of working on it and I'm nowhere near the completion point or even the midway point for that project. Related to that is <em>Kitteh Braik</em> which is a proof-of-concept game that I'm suppose to have done by the end of January or thereabouts.</li>
<li><em>My Father's Bike</em>: At this point, I think my dad knows that this book exists, but I don't think he knows what's really in it. I don't keep secrets in general, but I want to give it to him for his birthday in January 2009. So, I have to find a new way of organizing it and finally finish it and get it bound for him.</li>
<li><em>Case of the Morning Zombies</em>: I want this story to succeed, so I need to edit it and clean it up. That way, I can start the submission grinder on it and hope that this one will also succeed.</li>
<li><em>Muddy Reflections</em> and <em>Wind, Bear, and Moon</em>: I got some really good feedback on both of these novels, but I've been sitting on them. So, in the next couple of months, I need to polish them off and get them back out.</li>
<li>Somewhere in the middle of all this writing, I plan on writing another novel of course. It's initials are QoF, and the first draft is already done, but I want to polish it up and get it out. This is for my other byline.</li>
<li>Stories: I want to write 24 short stories this year. Half for each byline. This is including commissions, but I want to write six to publish directly on <a href="http://brokentypewriterpress.com/">http://brokentypewriterpress.com/</a> and the other six for submissions. It was a really nice feeling to get <em>Thomas the Baker</em> published and I want to do it again.</li>
</ul>
<p>And that is my goals this year. Some of them are huge, like the Master Plan, while others are relatively minor, but its going to be a very busy year for me. And it doesn't even talk about my Debian work or the games I run. It also doesn't talk about my web comic. I'm not sure how I'm going to juggle all of this, but at least I have a goal.</p>
<p>Obviously, I'm not planning on putting a progress bar for each one on my postings. That would be silly and they wouldn't change nearly enough, but I want to figure out something to poke me every time I post that I need to keep moving forward.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/100" alt="" /> Character Builder (91%)<br />
<img src="/assets/100" alt="" /> World Builder (2%)<br />
<img src="/assets/100" alt="" /> Kitteh Braik (7%)<br />
<img src="/assets/37" alt="" /> <em>Case of the Morning Zombies</em> (Edit #1, 0 of 37 chapters)</p>
$21.43 to Level2007-10-11T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2007/10/11/2143-to-level/<p>$21.43 later and I am happy once again.</p>
<p>After a couple rounds of phone calls between the insurance company, the doctor's, and the collection agency, I have been completely absolved of my debt. The culprit was the fifth player in this drama, the processing company for my doctor's. They apparently had a typo and <em>all</em> of the doctor's patients in the last six months have not had their claims sent to my insurance company. As the accountant said, "I think you are the first of many and I'm truly sorry."</p>
<p>As a minor note: always be nice to people. Don't bother yelling and don't start of with accusations and you can resolve these things in no time flat. The hard part is, though you are stressed as all hell, don't take it out on them. People being yelled at cannot be counted on for giving their full attention to any problem.</p>
<p>After the flush of one mighty enemy defeated and me gaining 225 experience toward Resolving Money Problems, I focused on my next goal of a flat tire. 30 minutes and $21.43 later, I earned myself 51.43 experience toward Car Maintenance. I'm almost leveled up there.</p>
<p>I polished up the round of opponents by finishing my application process for starting college in January 2008. Needed a phone call to figure out something, but all I have left is for me to finish the student loan applications and I'm pretty much set. That is going to be a counter for a long time, 120 weeks worth of classes, including petitions that would be stupid not to send in. Call is 120 experience to Getting A Masters; I'm sure it will be going up over the next few months. :)</p>
<p>So, I feel much better.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/400" alt="" /> Summer Biking: (346.7 of 400.0 km)</p>