lionsburg

I'm trying to compile a list of social scenes out there, and failing with The Google on The Internets.

Social scene is defined in the context as someone who primary hangs out or drawn to a particular group.

Off the top of my head I have (some are social settings others are music/dance scenes):

Home, Geek/Techie, Goth, Rock, Punk, Cyber, Tribal, Hippy, Rave

And for The Gays (male - tends to be sexually oriented):

Bear, Leather, Twink, Jock, Muscles, Drag, Cowboy,

Of course, I'm drawing a complete blank for wymmin scenes..

I know there are more other there -- can you name a few?

-- Michael

johnromkey emailed me and Bob about this io9.com/5088014/costume-designs-and-storyboards-from-the-dune-that-never-was

Here's what I wrote back:

The costumes look to be a cross between Yellow Submarine and French Renaissance with a dash of LSD.

Quote:
"I did not want to respect the novel, I wanted to recreate it. For me, Dune did not belong to Herbert as Don Quixote did not belong to Cervantes . . ."

Translation:
Snorts line of coke. "Yah, I sorta like the book", rub nose, sniff quickly, "but Dude! I've got some FUCKIN' AWESOME ideas to make it way better... " Proceeds to the next line.

Pink Floyd would have definitely been a better choice than Toto.

-- Michael

I've been stuck in a SciFi/Fantasy book mode for a while and want to break out of that habit.

So, what recommendations do you have for books that are non-SciFi/Fantasy?

My only request is the book should not be ergodic literature - i.e. books like Infinite Jest or House of Leaves where multiple bookmarks and folding space-time are required to read.

-- Michael

Ha! Now that I have your attention..

There's been a theory floating around my head for a few months now. Some friends have heard this story already.

So, lets just say we end up McCain/Palin administration. Here's a scenario that could possibly play out:

1. President McCain dies a few months into his term. He's had several rounds with health problems in the not so distance past, particular with four bouts of skin cancer. Statistically going through cancer treatments does lower your life span. He's been through four. While such treatments are very mild in relative comparison to say something like breast, ovarian or prostate cancer. It still has an effect on your body.

2. Palin, the VP, becomes President. Everything in her behavior suggest she's prone to abusing her position and easily makes enemies. She also seems very ill prepared for the "big boys" up on the hill, let alone deal with the normal demands of the office. She ends up foobaring one too many times, and pisses off the wrong people (i.e. a House and Senate that are on track for to hold a true major this election cycle). The House decides to step in and impeach her. The Senate up holds the House's decision, and goes for conviction. She is sent off packing back to the meth capital of Alaska.

3. So, who takes office next? The Speaker of the House - Nancy Pelosi, Democrat, the second female US President.

So maybe it won't be too bad, not great, but hey.

-- Michael

PS. As I said in a twitter posting - Is Palin really Ned Flanders in drag?

Does anyone have the pointer to a website(s) which breaks down Barack's and McCain's proposed policies that are not loaded with bipartisan crap and spin?

Me feels a week bit ignorant on their supposed solutions....

I managed to get off my butt and upload some photos from the Santiago and Easter Island trip:

Easter Island:

http://www.flickr.com/gp/89082093@N00/h618nr


Santiago:

http://www.flickr.com/gp/89082093@N00/KzL49Y

-- Michael

Easter Island is . . .

- Full of Maoi (aka The Heads)
- Lots of Germans who insist on smoking, drinking and talking very loudly right out side your screen door that is ajar for ventilation
- Stocked with wild horses, chickens, and dogs who roam as they please. (Its very cute.)
- Scorching hot with a very cool tropical breeze to dupe you into thinking naw, you really don't need the sun screen.

More detail report to follow once this blogger and his laptop has reached a reliable Internet router.

Starting Point: Kansas City, MO
Ending Point: Indianapolis, IN
Roads: I-70
Distance Travelled: ~485 miles

The adventure is winding down! Only 2 days left before hitting home now...

Our big distraction today was stopping in St. Louis, MO and seeing the great Arch. This thing was built in 1946-1947-ish time period, just a couple of years after War World II. Mostly its a concrete frame with a stainless steel skin. Of courses photographs were taken outside and from the top. I'll want to get one or two shots developed into 10x15 or larger.

The arch sits in a park on the west side of the Mississippi, with an underground complex of tourist shops, bathrooms, and a tram system below ground. You decent underground and of course go through metal detectors and x-ray luggage scans.

To get to the top of the arch, tickets are purchased for $10 per adult (*cough*) and you head to the "north" or "south" end of the complex and descend further underground. For today, only the north side tram was running. The tram consists of eight cars. Each cars is circular disc on its side, very cramped and seats 5 very intimately if you are a normal sized American. The car looks like a cross between a 1920s modern style travel pod updated with 1990s amusement theme park engineering (fiberglass seats, and indirect lighting). The ride takes about 3 minutes to get to the top yet seems long due to the poor ventilation, no visibility, and the desire to be out of the damn thing before you start smelling you and your just meet tram buddy. Thankfully at the top is very well ventilated.

Only a few minutes were spent at the top, there's really not much to see at 600 ft above St. Louis. The viewports are very small, maybe 2 feet tall by 4 feet long.

I kept thinking about the materials used back in the 1940s to construct it, and kept wondering what future national monuments will be made out it. How about carbon nano-tubes? The entire structure could be one big battery store.

Around 9pm we arrived into Indianapolis and checked into the hotel. Except most of the parking lot was blocked off for resurfacing. The hotel manager actually pulled his car out for us, so we could park. Oh boy.

Next stop Buffalo, NY!

Party on dudes..

Starting Point: Denver, CO
Ending Point: Kansas City, MO
Roads: I-25, I-70
Distance Travelled: ~600 miles

Denver was left behind and we slowly made our way from 5200 feet down to around 700 feet elevation. By the end of the day, all signs of high elevation effects were pretty much gone. Yah mental coherency!

Western Colorado and Eastern Kansas were fairly boring. Miles and miles of very flat unending farm land. Just across the Kansas border the speed limit dropped from 75 mph down to 70mph.

Heading into Eastern Kansas we started seeing the classic midwestern road side billboards - various Jesus signs, say no to abortion sighs, fireworks for sale signs, and the "Come See The Largest Prairie Dog" signs. A crucial adjective, "live", was missing from the later.

Oddly, we also drove past several road side adult bookstores. This also turns out to be Russell Stovers Chocolates land. There is a Stovers factory on one side of I-70, and an adult bookstore on the other. That could explain somethings about Stover's quality.

Through the Nevada side of Day 1 through Day 4, we saw maybe 3 cops at most, total. Usually, traveling in the opposite direction. In Kansas, there must have been around 5 to 6, all had someone pulled over presumably for speeding.

Porn, Religious Propaganda, Pyrotechnics, Genetic Oddities, and the Kansas Police. What a combo. So, just don't blow yourself up while trying to deal with your spawn baking in that 8,000 lbs prairie love dog of yours while speeding down the road to the church to ask for forgiveness. Or something like that. Maybe I'm having a high altitude relapse.

We crossed from Kansas City, Kansas to Kansas City, Missouri sometime around 9pm. No signs of headaches or mental confusion were present. After a very nutritious and healthy meal at Chili's (ha! mmm.. tasty fried chicken at 900 cals per serving!) we crashed at the hotel.

Tomorrow we'll try to see the Arch in St. Louis. Its hard trying to convince John the Arch is simply a metal structure and not a temporal gateway to a parallel universe.

Party on dudes.

Starting Point: Denver, CO
Ending Point: Denver, CO
Roads: Various city roads
Distance Traveled: ~20 miles between hotels

We're taking today off from driving. Tiredness and headaches are taking over.

The Residence Inn we stayed at did not have any suites available for Sunday night, so we ended switching to another one in town. This turned out to be closer to Casa Bonita.

The hotel was located across the street from an AMC Theaters and there was a 10:40am showing of Hairspray. The checkout time was at 11am, so we hi-tailed it out, went over to the theaters and watched a drag singing John Travolta make John Waters-ian love to Christopher Walken. Yah, my head was spinning too. Twas a fun movie however.

After the show, we headed over to the other Residence Inn, checked in and then drove out to Casa Bonita for a Chuck E. Cheese style Mexican food experience. The funny thing was that we both thought the other really wanted to go.

The rest of the day was spent in the hotel either napping, catching up on email, or trying to avoid headaches.

Party on dudes

Starting Point: Residence Inn, Salt Lake City, UT
End Point: Residence Inn, Denver, CO
Roads: I-80
Distance travelled: ~520 miles

This turned out to be a very long day. Weather started acting up shortly after leaving Salt Lake City. On the Utah side, the skies were rainy with the occasional blue sky break. The weather cleared up a bit as we got closer to the Wyoming border, but then turned down right ugly about 100 miles after the state line.

The weather went something like this: drizzle, rain, SNOW, SNOW SHOWERS, SNOW, rain and then clear skies. Ice did manage to form on the windshield's corners, and visibility dropped down to several feet at one point. The funny thing was when I doing some initial investigation into seasonal averages and rainfall for the various areas we might drive through, none had any precipitation averages for the first two weeks in October. Feh. So much for statistics and historical weather patterns.

The first clue about any potential weather nastiness should have been the "Highway Closed When Flashing" signs, the rail road crossing style barriers on either side of the road, and the "Return Back To _insert name of town just drove past_" with arrows. Almighty Higher Power help you if you got stuck when the sign was flashing and the barriers were down. The winter snowfall must be insane.

Despite the weather, the landscape was amazing to watch roll by. Eastern Utah has lots of valleys with ranches peppered through out with various ski lodge towns along I-80. Wyoming turns from valleys into very wide open plains with buttes everywhere. Both states are very dry at this time of year.

I would describe the land as ancient and timeless. A majestic barren landscape, pressed to the sky in a way one could fantasize the world begin here and spread outwards. Its history and secrets lost to time, with the modern world far away from its birth place, never to return.

At the I-80/I-84 junction in Utah, there is a small town call Echo with a rest area. There are 5 signs within 100 feet of each all saying 'Echo Exit' -- it would have made for a great shot. Traveling at 75mph is a little fast to try and get a camera out and focused.

According to the rest stop history display, there were 70,000 Mormons that pass through there on their way to Zion (aka Salt Lake City, not the raving orgy post apocalypse town in The Matrix sequels. Hmm.. 70,000 raving Mormons.. can't quite get my mind around that one.)

Some 30 miles before Cheyenne, Wy (not related to Cheyenne Mountain which is in Colorado Springs, Co some 200 miles south) we decided to travel the extra 100 miles into Denver. There were a few reasons: 1) better hotels, 2) the promise of better weather, and 3) the common misunderstanding at the time that the other wanted to go to Casa Bonita which turned out neither of us really had a strong desire to go there.

The high elevation was starting to catch up to us that evening. For three days running, we had not dropped below 4500 feet, and this day we had been at an average of 7500 feet. Headaches were coming on, slightly crispy and a total inability to focus to boot. Its really bad when you are stopped in an unknown Denver suburb shopping center's parking lot trying to figure out why Google Maps gave you the completely wrong directions to the hotel, and staring dumbfounded at a Triple-A map saying things to yourself like "Okay, these line thingys are roads.. oh and look there letters here.. wait those are names.. my brain hurts.. road names perhaps? yes! road names! Where's Advil? Damn, its not in the street listing.. And fuck you Google Maps! And fuck AAA maps for that matter...What the fuck?!? oh wait, Advil's a pill I should get out of the backpack for this damn headache.. not a street.. Now, these lines hit these lines over here... yah, intersections, yah.. those things.. intersections do what again?"

Party on dudes.

Its my 40th birthday (okay, technically right now, its 10+ minutes past my birthday).

And what did my back give me this afternoon? The present of throwing-itself-out-in-a-very-painful-way!

Thankfully, nothing big was planned for dinner. John was just going to make the two of us something.

Tomorrow I have a 80 minute massage to try and appease the lower back. It damn well better appreciate it!

Aging sucks.

-- Michael

Alright, here's my first in a long, long time. I've decided to eliminate brain.lionsden.com and go completely  with livejournal. Its one less thing I have to worry about and update.

Later this week, I'll be posting about various stuff, some entries might be friends locked, so get on my list if you haven't do so already.

-- Michael

Originally published at Leo Cerebellum Annotare. You can comment here or there.

A variation of the following has already been sent to a few friends. I’m posting here to try and reach a larger audience.

Do you know of any decent Windows XP/Vista programmer who could whip up an application?

I want a Windows app which would:

* Run under XP & Vista
* Sit in the background and watch when a file is updated
* Upload said file to a website and retrieve the results back
* Log the result, and notify the user if there was a problem.
* Have a simple interface which would ask for an account & password, along with a couple of preferences and provide a results log.
* Reside in the task bar.
* Be able to deal with the technophobic user

Note, the person *should not* be an existing friend — I want to keep it strictly business and not have to worry if I need to yell at someone.

Originally published at Leo Cerebellum Annotare. You can comment here or there.

For now the 4th time this year, I had a dream about slacking off on writing a SCSI device driver for Apple. Yes, its that specific.

My self-imposed deadlines for EpicMount might have something to do with it. There’s lots and lots on my plate to deal with.

The funny thing is, at Apple I did write a set of SCSI device drivers for the MkLinux project back in the 1995-1996 timeframe. All of which were completed on time with no slacking off anywhere in the entire process, and the whole thing was a blast to do! Go figure.

Originally published at Leo Cerebellum Annotare. You can comment here or there.

EpicMount.com has been up and running for a bit. Mostly its been stable, but there have been some hard snags — thankfully nothing that can’t be fixed within 10 minutes.

Since the early planning stages, I knew a decent logo would be needed. The currently logo is my own design, and something that took about a hour to come up with. Its okay, but definitely could be better. I don’t have the time or patients to do a proper design, code is my forté not graphic design.

I decided to make use of Worth1000.com to find a solution to the logo problem. The site is famous for awesome photoshop contests, both for “fun” and “corporate logos”. The “fun” contests are for site points, the corporate contests are for real money. There’s some very creative talent which appears out of the Internet-woodwork to participate.

After a few days of inquiry, and suffering through Worth1000’s first site hack, the EpicMount logo contest was placed in the queue. (The site’s content got vandalized but nothing else seems to have been touched — as a precaution the database was rolled back several days in time. Everything was lost for that period including corporate correspondences.)

You can check out the contest: here .

Submissions start today, and run until the 29th. Voting begins shortly there after. Top price is $350. Please spread the word to anyone who is interested in this kind of thing.

Originally published at Leo Cerebellum Annotare. You can comment here or there.

Last early Thursday morning, the stomach flu came visiting and hasn’t left. At first, all the symptoms pointed towards food poisoning - extremely fast onset, massive cramping and bloating, and of course nausea.

After the initial “purge” happened, my thoughts were “okay, obviously this is food poisoning..this should be done and over with in a few hours.”

A few hours passed and I was still experiencing some mild cramping and nausea. And its been that way since Thursday afternoon. All the symptoms are now consistent with stomach flu aka Gastroenteritis.

The whole thing is boring at this point - not much I can get done, way too much sleeping happening, and the whole liquid diet thing is mind numbing. And oh yah, the feeling of carrying around a cinder brick in my stomach ain’t fun either!

There is some slow recovery happening — each day is feeling a bit better than the last.. just HURRY UP DAMN IT! I have things to do!

Originally published at Leo Cerebellum Annotare. You can comment here or there.

Despite my total annoyance with WoW back in July, I decided to pick it up again a couple of months later.. with a twist.

The reason being, I was looking for a new project after retiring reviewzilla. After listening to friends complain about the websites supporting WoW guild’s outside the game, I reluctantly started looking at what was out there….

Its all crap.

Not just crap, but not even close to dot-com era crap. Hard to navigate pages, poor information architecture, bad layouts, you name it. What really shocked me was the claims some sites were making about being in business for over 5 years, and having millions of pages hit per month. Some sites are charging anywhere from $15 per year to $30 every six months for “premium services” like gallery space and no-ads.

Sooo.. if that’s all true.. why the hell does it all look like crap!?!? In all that time, the companies could hired web designers.. cheaply! or taken a course in web design, or even just copied from other sites.

Armed with my nascent knowledge of Ruby on Rails, I decided I was going to try and see what I could come up with. Several iterations, some head-banging on UI design (or what appears to pass for UI design), and one domain name switch later, I came up with EpicMount.
(I’m still not happy with the front page.. still needs a little spit and polish)

The first deadline to release the site live in mid-November came and went. The second deadline, mid-December, came and went as well. The third one by New Years — see a pattern yet?

Sunday afternoon I decided screw it — its going live, and its going live today. Damn the bugs, there’s only so much testing I can do personally, and there needs to be some real world testing. The site has been on the net for some time, and random people have been visiting it with limited success. (Sadly, I had some nasty bugs bite them..)

Once the decision was made, I went ahead and place a Yahoo and Google web ads order.

Two days later, I have around 50+ registered users and about 20 guilds created. I have no idea what the return rate is right now. Also, there’s been about 5 nasty crashes, all which are related to areas I haven’t tested after doing some major rewrites.

There definitely a sense of relief by putting it out there for real. On the other hand, I’m fretting about the issues and missing functionality that will eventually be implemented.

Originally published at Leo Cerebellum Annotare. You can comment here or there.

Hate that Christmas gift? Can’t return it? Then BLEND IT!

http://www.willitblend.com