10/29
The author’s living room. Prepping to move.
I originally wanted to write a deeper piece for this blog about the process of moving out of my current place. But really, things have been too crazy for that, so my 200th post here will mark a brief apology and a run-down on the things that have been taking a lot out of my time to write here:
1. Moving. I’ve started the process of trickling boxes out of the living room (pictured above), and into the new place. This next weekend will see a lot more of that, and I should have my current place nearly-empty by Sunday. The remainder of the moving will happen the weekend after that (the 8th) — most of that will be the big/heavy furniture that won’t fit into the Subaru or that I cannot move by myself.
2. Redesign. I’ve been overhauling the template for this site since Sunday. Really happy with the way it’s playing out, too. I hope to have the design layer finished tonight, and I’ll be busting out the HTML/CSS between now and the coming weekend. Oh, and wouldn’t you know it? Smashing Magazine posted a whole bunch of grunge tutorials. Useful!
3. Writing. Yeah, I’m back at it, despite a blow-up of a keychain drive that housed my novel. I managed to recover that fragment, but not until after I restarted from scratch. So I’m pulling in chunks of the original, and it’s working well.
4. Swimming. Going well. Last week, I kinda plateaued, after making serious progress the previous six weeks. It was a little disheartening, but I’ve got lessons again tonight. Here’s hoping that all goes well and that I don’t drown.
5. The Bike. Haven’t done as much of it this year as I’d have liked. So I’m throwing myself to the wolves and racing the Red Barn Cyclocross on Saturday. If you fancy the idea of seeing me puke up a lung, have a stroke, and die in the middle of a muddy field, now might be your chance! (I would request that ex-girlfriends and ex-spouses not show up as I don’t need anyone adding insult to injury at the moment of my death.)
10/6
I was always highly impressed with the Icepick project. It’s a neat concept, and if you don’t mind the whole world knowing that you went to the can at 3:30am, it’s even a little fun. As I’ve grown older, I’ve realized more and more that it’s highly unlikely that I’ll ever find a girlfriend/spouse that will allow such intrusions into our life.
Thus, in the name of compromise, I am going to keep my geek haus a little more low-key. I just want to have some neat stuff.
1. Free public wifi. I already have wifi in my domicile, which is all well and good. But being the generous sort, I’m all for sharing my access with the neighbors. I’m also a big fan of a.) having plenty of bandwidth, and b.) keeping my LAN secure. So the plan is to build a small Wintel box, one that doesn’t draw too much power (Atom chip?), with minimal RAM and hard drive space, that I’ll be turning into a router. Public access will be severely throttled, with some services (torrents) disabled, and a lot of sites (porn) blocked. There will be serious firewalling of the rest of the network.
2. Time-lapse webcam. This will be an external-facing camera, looking out the front window of the place. It will update on a regular basis, plus will take a picture at the exact same time every day, so I can do a cool time-lapse movie of the exterior comings-and-goings over the course of our time in the new place. (Subject to Kate’s approval.)
3. Data hidey hole. We won’t be using landlines — Kate and I are both cellular-only types. I’m going to go ahead and get an outlet plate, a decent-sized keychain drive from Micro Center, and spend a little time setting one of these up, just for the geeky factor. (Must remember to disconnect it and restore phone line before moving out.)
Any other suggestions?
10/3
So things are coming along here. When last I gave you guys the run-down on things, a little over two weeks ago, things were afoot. Since then, much has changed.
- Kate and I found a place that we’re absolutely in love with, over in NE Minneapolis, and we’ve gotten it. We take possession of the keys on November 1st, and do the brunt of the moving work on November 9th. I’ll be getting as much of the smaller stuff over there as possible in order to keep my enlisted-aid from rebelling.
- Made a huge jump forward in my swimming lesson this week — swimming! Granted, it ain’t pretty and I’m switching between face-down and rolling over into a back-float-with-kicking in order to breathe, but it’s still propulsion and I’m not drowning. Good thing, that.
- The new novel has been dropping ideas in my lap left and right. I’ve recently discovered why it’s better to host your writing on a Google App, rather than to carry it around on a USB stick — when you have the killer idea and forgot the stick, you can’t easily add it to the narrative. I know where the USB device is, I just don’t have it with me is all. Going to move the manuscript over to Google Docs again.
- The bike projects are coming along — the 29′er more than the track bike. I have all the brake parts, handlebar, crankset/BB, and grips. I will probably order the rims tonight (DT Swiss TK 7.1d), and the stem, seatpost, and seat next week.
- The Linux/WinXP box is running, and I’m getting my Civ3 fix.
So that’s about where things are at, currently. I’ve got more, but there’s stuff to be done.
10/2
Americans, regardless of political affiliation, should be insulted that any party would nominate someone as outright stupid and vapid as this idiot. It’s almost like Dubya and Dan Quayle had a love child (with a history of head injuries)…
Dan Bailey