The Woz Speaketh
Posted on 2007-04-20 at 09:12
Wednesday evening, I and a guy from work went to listen to The Woz speak for the Virginia Beach Forum. Anecdotes and some tidbits follow....
In addition to the speech, we scored tickets to the preceding, more exclusive, meet-n-greet where I got to spend no small bit of time talking with him directly.
The Woz is known as a casual guy. I made a conscious decision to dress casual. I wore a long-sleeve undershirt kinda thing and a pair of army pants. Upon arrival to the meet-n-greet, I learned that it was more correctly called a 'cocktail party'. So, I and my friend were the only ones there not dressed up. I have poor decision-making ability.
I asked him about Venture Capital because I have no shame.
He holds a magic ring made of mithril that knows which way is up. I shit you not. This ring will in the darkness bind them, if you know what I mean.
He believes in the idea of software patents, with some caveats. I will forgive him this trangression, for he knows not what he says. ;-)
He worked for two weeks to get a working prototype of a floppy disk for a tradeshow early in Apple's history. After an all-nighter, he finally had a working floppy disk. He went to make a copy of the good disk and accidently copied a bad disk image over the good one, instead of the reverse as intended. This story made me feel better about all the various similar things I've done. To Mark: Outlook Express. You understand.
The mayor was there. She was totally bogarting all of the Woz's time in the beginning of the cocktail party. I had a plan to walk up and ask the Woz about his views on illegal immigrants just to send her running away with a "no comment", but she left as I walked up. Lucky git!
Technically, there was one person dressed worse than us at the cocktail party, but he didn't know it. Dark blue blazer (miami vice cut), black dress shirt, white tie, mullett. Seriously, the guy looked like he stepped out of a Hall and Oates video. Sorry dude, but I can't go for that. No can do.
Pens. Dude had three pens clipped to his shirt and several in his pockets. Maybe it was for autographs. Maybe it was just his crazy showing itself. Either way it was kinda neat and odd.
That's all for now. If I think of more, I'll write more.
A series of Buffy music videos
Posted on 2007-03-31 at 21:03
This is Your Life: Here's a music video recap of the whole series
Bitch: Buffy kicks a little ass
End of the World: A music video montage of Willow and Oz's relationship
She's My Everything: a music video montage tribute to the relationship between Willow and Tara
Anything but Ordinary: A musicial montage of the life of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Mad World: A music video of a few important Buffy moments
Take me back to the start: A music video montage of the beginnings of the series
Fear of the Dark: A music video montage of some of the scarier and more serious moments from the series
Walk Through the Fire: A snippet from the Buffy Musical (a sort of gag episode that turned out much cooler than a gag episode has any right to be)
If the above doesn't squelch your thrist for all things Buffy at this moment (or at least your will to live) then you are insatiable.
Buffy Season 8
Posted on 2007-03-21 at 08:09
So, BtVS has been off the air for a couple of years, but Joss Whedon (series mastermind) has brought it back for an "8th season" via the medium of comic books. I have issue #1. It's a great book---solid art, and wonderful writing---but it is a very different medium. The difference in medium is evident in the story and the "feel" of the work itself as distinct from the tv series it follows.
So it you are a fan, go yourself a favor is get a copy (if you can find one!). You will be pleased, but don't expect the same audience experience you had watching the show. It goes without saying that it may be as good, but it's quite changed.
What you want, what you need: fans and endings, and narrative satisfactions
Posted on 2007-03-20 at 08:41
I had the pleasure of reading this blog entry elsewhere that was ostensibly about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but far more about the nature of being a fan, of fiction, and of the needs of the reader. It's one of the few blog entries on the Internet worth reading. PEriodically, these come into my field of view and I feel bad about just how wastefully dumb my own blog is. Go. Read. Be Edified.
Oh, and to whet your appetite:
And there's the painful part: fans tend (here's the broad brush for you) to have a hard time making distinctions between what amplifies the story's dramatic impact or meaning, and what would satisfy them as fans. Get the difference? A fan isn't just a heavy reader: 'fan' is a social category. Wanting the story to continue isn't the same as wanting to know what happens next - one desire takes the text itself (the edifice, the mechanism) as its object, one takes the world of the narrative, the series of (unfortunate) fictional events. One frustrating feature of fan discourse is just this: a lot of the time fans fail to make this distinction.
Pimp my Feet
Posted on 2007-02-27 at 20:48
Straight up, you know you are jealous of my sweet new slippers from Roses department store! These bitches are off the hook solid slipper goodness!
I walk as a god among men with my new slippers.
EDIT: As I typed this entry, Denise called to me frantic from the bathroom. I ran in. She'd left a faucet running and the floor was a pool of water. Guess what the first casualty was. That's right. My new slippers. Seriously. Why does my life work this way? Oh sweet sweet slippers of yore, would that I could take it back and never rush in to help my frantic wife and her damnable siren-like plea!
Well, when I started this entry they were really good slippers. :-(
GenCon 2006
Posted on 2006-05-02 at 08:42
The tickets are purchased, the events grabbed, the plans made.
GenCon, here we come!!! w00t!
I'm so Geek Chic
Posted on 2005-07-20 at 08:04
At least I am according to the How Geek Are You test. About me, the test had this to say:
You're a geek and you know it. You've got all sorts of fringe hobbies and socially unacceptable tendencies. Chances are, whenever possible, you hate to be grouped with other people and sometimes go out of your way just to be different.
You're smart too. You're more willing to depend on your own brainpower to solve problems, instead of relying on others to pull you through life. You probably read a lot, and generally enjoy learning new things.
So what's it all mean? You may be considered by some to be uncool, but you probably don't care either. In social situations you may be either slightly passive or slightly loud (geeks always fall into the extremes). In a nutshell, you answered enough questions correctly supporting a geek philosophy to be considered a more potent geek than 60% of the population.
My final score? 83% Geekiness. Beat that!
Honestly...
Posted on 2005-07-20 at 08:03
This is one of the funniest blog entries I've ever read.
My Geek Code
Posted on 2004-06-02 at 08:01
GC/CS/H/L/O d-(--) s: a C++(+++)$>++++ UL++>+++ P+ L+++>++++ E- W+++ !N !o K>- w++(--)$>--- O M !V(-) PS+ PE(+)>- Y+(++) PGP++>+++ t+(++) 5+ X R+++ tv+ b++(+++)>++++ DI+(++) D++ G+ e++>+++ h---() r+++ y+++
What? You say you don't know what a Geek Code is? Well, let me help you to correct that oversight.
Geek Pr0n
Posted on 2004-03-07 at 08:01
So, I'm re-reading my own blog (ego much?) and I scanned the title below "F-Spot and gThumb" and all I could think was "ewww". It's like geek pr0n. "So I was rubbing her F-Spot with my gThumb, suddenly she had a kernel panic...four times!" I got problems. :-)