Thoughts from Tim

Posted 10:59 AM by Tim Rafuse
Friday. End of the conventional week. I look forward to Fridays for no reason other than it's been bludgeoned into my head as the end of the work week. The start of my weekend. It's really not that different from other days, if you think about it.

I don't have anything specific planned for today or for the weekend. I think that I'm going to go and buy a stack of CD-Rs this weekend though. Maybe a few thin cases too. I've been trying to figure out what to put on them. It seems that CD-RWs are 74 minutes, and that CD-Rs are 80 minutes. That's not a huge difference, but it means that I could squeeze an extra song on there if I make a music CD. That's the first project really. I've been trying to collect 80 minutes worth of music I wanna listen to all at once. I realize why I never bothered to make mix-tapes... There's a lot of hassle for a recovering perfectionist like me.

I've been thinking about trying to get a weekly or bi-weekly comic out. So far, most of the ideas are for single panel comics, and mostly focused on Magic. I don't wanna give away the panels until I draw them, but I might do that if I find my art skills lacking. I just need to figure out if I can do it. I suppose the easiest way is to set a deadline, and get the work done. If I can meet the deadline (for a few weeks in a row), then I know I can do it. We'll see how that works out.

Posted 1:04 PM by Tim Rafuse
I spent a little time last night getting ready for a tournament that will be a few weeks from now. The reason I'm doing this is that my time to build decks is very limited, and that means that I have to get them done as soon as I can. Of course, I only managed to have enough time to put the main deck together. The sideboard will take me a lot longer. I first have to figure out what to put in it.

My daughter's teeth are all fixed now. Her mouth looks a little strange with the shiny metal teeth in there, but I know that it's going to be much better for her in the long run. She shouldn't have to worry about problems with those teeth again, and they'll be interesting ones to keep. None of them should fall out for a few years anyhow, so we won't have to worry about them.

Back to Magic. There have been a few local tournaments lately. I'm sort of realizing that it's not that there aren't any around here, it's that I don't have the time to go to any of them. That and a severe lack of money. I suppose that the best plan would be to get started on the daily work earlier in the day, giving me more time to go to the tourneys. That would mean probably rearranging the universe though, given the busy sechdules we've got lately.

Both Bren and I are seriously looking at the plan. See, the plan was that once the contract ended, we'd hightail it back to Canada and be done. But, now, we're looking at the possibilities of staying where we are, since we've got friends, and schools and so forth all here, that we can work with. Not that we don't want to be in Canada, but more that the hassles of moving and rearranging the lives of the family again get lower on our priority lists the longer we stay here. We'll have to see what happens as it happens.

Posted 12:42 PM by Tim Rafuse
My youngest daughter goes to get crowns on her teeth today. She's only little so we've been explaining them as "little hats". I think she's got the wrong idea. I can just see her picturing little touques or fedoras on her teeth. That must seem very strange to her.

I've been somewhat working on the Diablo character. He's up to 12th level, but it's taking longer to make those levels jump. Allocating only 5 skill points per level isn't making the job any easier either. It's hard to get the skill points up to a good level while trying to keep the character focused on his main goal (magic powers). I did finally find a Town Portal book, so now I don't need those scrolls (at least not every trip). I don't get a lot of time to play it, since there's really only about an hour free at the end of my day, but I'm still enjoying it. Jeff says that he has it, but hasn't played it before, so I'm hoping we can get some multiplayer action on... maybe if there's a dial-up feature that doesn't use the internet.

Posted 4:02 PM by Tim Rafuse
Hmm.. more random thoughts today.

Recently (this weekend, in fact), I was out at Big Lots looking for stuff for Christmas. Now, for those who don't know, Big Lots is supposed to be a really cheap place to get stuff. It is. Really cheap, that is. I find that the store is filled with kitschy junk, and that other than non-brand, common products (like chips or something), that I'd probably not wanna shop there. Of course, for Christmas stuff, it's a good place to pick up Barbie-alikes and Play Dough stuff, etc. Good for buying toys for kids without going too far broke.

Anyhow, while I was there, I noticed a few things in the "computer section". I hesitate to call it an actual section, since it comprised one side of a single short aisle. Basically, there was junk, but there were a few cool looking things there. The first cool thing was a set of flat speakers and subwoofer. Cheap at like $12. I don't see how good the sound on a set of flat speakers could be, but they looked neat. The really interesting bit was the subwoofer. A very small one for sure, but it would add a little to the bass range that I just don't get from my current speaker configuration. I'm not sure where I'd put it.

The second neat thing was a little, very cheap drawing pad. Like $19 or something. The pad looked small (about the size of a sheet of paper in total size, meaning less for the total available drawing space), and probably would be horribly underfeatured. No idea of pressure sensitivity, or even if it would work as an input device for anything better than MS Paint. If I knew if it worked with Photoshop, or something similar, I'd be tempted to get it - just as a useless peripheral that I doodle with. I might even be tempted to try to learn to draw on the computer with it. That's not terribly likely, but it could happen.

Anyhow, this sort of resparked my interest in the whole "comic" thing. Storylines was (and still is) a bit of an experiment in content generation. First, can I generate something that counts as content every day. Second, can actually make sense while generating all this content. This blog is much the same, but less restricted to making sense. So far, I think it's working. Of course, I still get very little commentary, but I feel that's because nobody's reading this. :)

Anyway, the biggest hold backs to actually doing a comic are still: 1) a story, and 2) drawing skill. I know that I only have to try to draw more often to improve at it. It's the same with anything. The more you practice, the better you'll get at it. I suppose I'll have to start drawing in the evenings again. I'll have to figure out some sort of routine. :)

Posted 2:23 PM by Tim Rafuse
So. The big question is: Why aren't I a millionaire yet?

Seem like an odd question? Well, it's not really. I've had the opportunity before. Hard to believe, yes, but it's true. People have offered me millions to do what I like doing. Programming, that is. So, why aren't I a millionaire? When I'm offered something like this, some of the people I know immediately say "it can't be as good as it sounds" and some people say "even if it isn't as good as it sounds, you should at least try it". So, why haven't I?

Well, the biggest reason so far for not taking people up on the offer of huge piles of cash is risk. Most of the ventures promising the biggest reward have had the highest risk. Along the lines of scraping out an existance on the promise of money later. Not what I want to do - especially with a family in tow. Maybe if I was some shiftless loner, who lived with a group of my friends in a perpetual bachelor-like existance, then, just maybe I could afford to waste a few years for potentially little benifit when all is said and done.

Ok, so, if other people's schemes are too risky, then why not make one of your own? Well, I tried that. It didn't work out too well, but it did nearly, almost, half cover a portion of the bills for a while. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Maybe, if I could live rent-free somewhere, I'd be able to ride out the whole "not making money yet" thing, and move on to the "now we're making money like mad" thing. Too bad that takes time, effort and a lot of work. I've seen it happen, but it's easier to do when you have no commitments.

I guess it's time to start getting ready to take over the world.

Posted 8:34 AM by Tim Rafuse
Tired today. Slept on the bus - which isn't unusual, just that I slept past my stop. Fortunately, I get off near the end of the run for that bus, so it's not too far for me to walk to get to where I wanted to be.

Today should be, well, pretty boring really. There's a chance that I'll get to a tournament at a local store. I'm bringing the deck I took to Provincials, rather than the deck I really wanted to take, because only one of them is sleeved. Yeah. Whoops! If I do end up going, I'll get a good impression of the difference between the overall power levels of decks used locally (well, at that store), and decks used at provincials. I mean, I went 4-3 at provincials, and there's only going to be like 4 rounds or so at the local, so I figure that I should be able to swing 3-1 or 4-0 if the cards flop right. Biggest threat to me would be a deck like Jeff's. He's got some bad karma there in the form of Captain's Maneuver... oh right, not everyone knows what I'm talking about, so I'll leave that to the M:TG list I post on instead. :) Suffice it to say that I just might get a game of magic on today.

A little more thought going into what I'm gonna do with the CD writer, and trying to figure out what to put on a CD that showcases my skills. We'll see what I can come up with. I figure that I've got about a week to do whatever needs to be done, but my wife assures me that it's more like 8 hours. She's probably right.

I've been playing some more Diablo. I've got to level 11, and I'm down to the 5th level of the dungeon. Gah. It's not easy getting down there, especially when you need all the magic books you can get, and nobody has any for sale! It took me until level 5 just to get a healing book, so now I don't need to rely on potions all the time for my mage. I'm still doing the dungeon cleaning trick, which has garnered me a good load of cash, but I'm desperately looking for a Town Portal book. That'll save me 200 gold each trip (the cost of the scroll to do the same).

The economy of that town has got to be really weird. I mean, I go exploring and bring up a few thousand gold, and some really valuable bits of weapons and armor and such. I'll take anything that's too good to sell and ditch it on the ground, but the rest goes to the blacksmith - who somehow manages to have hundreds and hundreds of pieces of gold on him all the time. For a town with few travellers, I'm not sure where he gets it all. I'll take most of that cash and drop it on Adria, for a book or potions on whatnot, making her fabulously rich. Cain though, he's got the racket. 100 gold and he'll tell ya what's what. Can't wait till I get the identify spell.

Posted 10:35 AM by Tim Rafuse
Now that I can read CDs in my system again, I've rediscovered Diablo. It's a very cool game, and I'd recommend it to anyone. Of course, I'm like, years out of date, or something. What with Diablo2 out for next to forever already. The thing about Diablo is that it's the kind of game I like. Long winded. Real time and challenging, but you're building up your character over time. Unfortunately, I like to play it. A lot. So, I'll happily sit in front of the screen for a few hours working on the carpal-tunnel syndrome.

I'd really love to be able to play it online, in a cooperative sense. But there's a little problem with that. My internet connection is not really letting me do that. First, I've got a 56K connection. Not too slow, but not great for cooperative gaming (try playing Quake with a 100+ ping). Second, my internet provider demands that a little "connection services" window be present all the time. And on top of everything else. I've tried playing something while online. Half the screen is covered by this little window. It's not pretty. And if the window ever manages to be hidden - the network connection is dropped. So, I really can't manage it. Until I get a new connection, I'll be unable to play anything over the net anyhow.

The first time I tried to get through the game, I went with a Rogue. She worked out well, getting me down to where Diablo was, but never able to beat the guy. He was too tough, and I wasn't. This time, I'm trying the magical route. Give me a staff and a load of magical powers and I'll be fine. He's working out better than I thought, but his main weakness comes from needing to run back to town all the time. He just cannot take the punishment I'd like him to be able to take. I've got him up to 5th ot 6th level so far, and I'm doing the "garbage collector" thing with him. Basically, grab everything that anyone drops, take it to the village and sell it. Use the cash on spellbooks and potions. Boost the character as much as possible. :)

I can't believe that there's only 4 weeks until Christmas. This means that another year is nearly gone (only 5 weeks left really). The situation has been a little tenuous here, what with work coming to an end soon and all that. Neither Brenda (my wife) or myself, have felt like leaving now that we've got all the friends and activities worked out down here. It takes us a while to get into a really comfortable routine. We're not keen on leaving a job that's helping us so much financially either.

The search continues for a replacement job however, since there's no guarantee on the length of the current contract. Pat (my "handler" - got that from watching Alias last night), assures me that all of the contractors are under the same stresses of not knowing if they'll be continued next year. I can see that, but I don't think that's true. Some projects are virtually assured to continue into the next year, while others are simply not as reliable. I put myself into the "less reliable" category, since I'm not sure of whether the project managers will need me.

Anyhow, on to another topic. Wayne has informed me of several larger tournaments happening in the near future. I'm available (sort of) to play them, but I'm not sure that going there will be the best. It's beginning to look like that will be the best option, however. I've got to get cracking on the CD resumes. :)

Posted 11:27 PM by Tim Rafuse
No storyline today.

Been working with the new CD-RW. Having a little bit of fun working out which songs I'd like to put on a total custom mix CD (almost wrote "tape" there). I'm thinking of coming up with themed CDs... Happy, Angry, Sad, etc.... I just need access to more CDs. Hmmm... is it illegal to copy music off a CD for remixing for personal use? I think it might be, but it might depend on where you live.

I find that the next step is for me to get some CD-R discs. You can get a huge platter of them for cheap, so that's probably what I'll be picking up the next time I'm able.

Posted 7:13 PM by Tim Rafuse
I went to Circuit City today to look at the stuff that was on sale. There was a 12-10-32X CD-RW drive for sale, so we picked one up. This replaces the loaner that I got from Wayne. His drive seems to have some problems with my system, but the new one works without any problems (how many times have I said that?).

I'm not sure about the storyline today. Since I"m not sure about just what to write. Anyhow, I'm now considering the possibilities for the CD writer... :)

I've got to look at getting the business cards done up.

Posted 3:35 PM by Tim Rafuse
I've been thinking about my miniature collection lately. That, and about what I'd like to buy for it, if I had any money. This is a bad train of thought for me, 'cause it goes along to "where would I get some money" and "where could I buy minis for cheap?". That's where the trouble starts. There's a few places I can get minis from, and at least one of which is close enough to home to not be too hard to get to. The real trouble comes from trying to figure out how to get money. Especially when I don't need it. I don't need minis. I don't play. Having another wouldn't get me any closer to playing either. That said, what I'd like is: 1 Reaper Bolt Thrower. These look nice, and I'd love to have 1 in the army. 1 Beastmaster. They're lords, so I don't see me having more than 1 really. 1 Unit of Executioners. That's like 20+ additional miniatures, really, but they'd be nice to have for the army. They're a rare choice anyhow, so I wouldn't need more than 1 unit. In that case, 30, counting standard, leader and musician would be perfect. I've got spare musicians, but the proper command squad would be fine.

Ok. It's good to get that out of the system. I'm still looking forward to a time when I can finally own a display case. Something just for me. That should be a few years from now probably....

I've been trying to think about things to put into the storylines section, but I haven't been having much luck. The story parts are there, I'm just not sure which scene to work out of my mind first. Well... next. There are a few battle scenes that I'd like to put to paper (as it were), but I'm not sure about some of the details in there. IT's been a long time since I thought about the battles themselves. In the same vein, I was tempted to take a look at the Challenge Battles that Wayne and I had, and use those to spark a good story. I mean, there's the villain, the hero, and a good bit of story and background for the Challenges. Maybe I'll get motivated to do a short story on them soon.

Posted 12:04 PM by Tim Rafuse
Friday. There's nobody at work, except for me of course, and only because I need the hours. I did the thanksgiving thing yesterday. And I ate a lot. Whoo... way more than I should have probably. Holidays are so hard on the diet :)

There's not a lot exciting happening lately. I'm sort of thinking about Nationals, which should be coming up soon. I've been sort of thinking about the end of the year, Christmas and just what I'm going to do with myself come January. Did anyone else notice that there's only like 5 weeks until Christmas? Woah. That sort of jumped up on me there. Good thing every store, radio station, tv and street corner reminded me, eh? Yeah. Festive and all that shiz.

I don't know how much of that was sarcasm, but I'm not really caring anyhow, since likely nobody else does either.

Let's move to a different area. Umm.. storylines has been going alright for me so far. I've noticed a few things with it that are a little difficult about it. First, I have to recall the scene I wanna write about, then think about the wording and then get it all down. I feel like I'm getting one shot at it, where if I were actually writing, I'd go and walk through the bit, then go back a few times and revise. I'd put in things, change wordings, make adjusments and all that. Just getting things to do what they're supposed to is pretty difficult.

I've managed to goad a few of my friends to read the stuff there so far, but I haven't gotten anything that I'd count as "feedback" yet. They've said things like "interesting", or "very good" or "enjoyable" and such, but I'm not taking that at face value. I'm hard on myself that way. I suppose that what I'm looking for is some combination of high praise and criticism. I'd like people to like the work enough to tell me so, but also to be critical enough to point out small errors, or possible gramatical inconsistencies. I already know that my punctuation is way out there. That's come from years of semi-misunderstood punctuation rules and internet emails. I've got a thing with punctuation strings, like "(.)." or whatnot, which is readable from intent, but not really correct. And with all the dialogue based stuff I've done so far, it's a little difficult for me to get the punctuation placed properly.

Let's steer back to Christmas. I've always liked the idea of Christmas. You know, the brotherly love and peace on earth and all that - but I've never been into the whole "buy presents" bit. Well, maybe when I was younger, but our family never had the cash to go all extravagant, so that curbed the expensive notions a lot.

One thing that I've been vocal on now and then is that I don't like the obligations that people feel when it comes to "present associated" holidays. There seems to be a lot of pressure to get something bigger or better, somehow, than whatever you gave last time. I don't like that notion at all. I really think that the giving bit should be giving, not forced. Now, there are things that I'd love to get for Christmas, and some of them are really expensive. But I'm not expecting anything like that. I'm tempted to list them here so that if my friends or family read them, they'll go and get me the stuff, but I won't. It would be totally hypocritical.

Anyhow, the point that I'm trying to make is that the holidays, to me, would seem way cheerier if people didn't feel like they were expected to do anything. We could enjoy the vacation, stay at home with the family and generally be happy about the holiday.

Posted 10:37 AM by Tim Rafuse
Semi-spoiler warning.... If you want to be surprised by the Harry Potter movie, move on.

Ok, so last night, I went to see Harry Potter. It was a good movie, with a lot of previews in front of it. Monsters Inc. did a very cute one, involving them mentioning (nearly) Harry Potter.

The movie itself was good, but, as I had heard, there were a few scenes that were changed or deleted. Most notably to me, the Dursley's were not as abusive as described, but were alright, the letter scene was pretty short, the bit about Norbert is completely changed, the meetings with the Centaurs is different again, and 2 of the 5 pieces to the puzzle of the dungeon are dropped entirely (there is a scene where there is a wall of fire which is very reminiscent of the same in Snape's part of the puzzle, but that's all there).

There are some things that are done quite well. The Quidditch match was well done, but different than I had imagined originally. The castle is very impressive, and the moving staircases is an interesting touch.

There are a lot of effects in the movie, most of which are underplayed, but visible enough to be noticed. The moving pictures, floating candles, and other flourishes are done as subtly as they can be, at least after the first grandiose display of them.

I had read a few comments on the movie that 2.5 hours was excessively long, and a few comments that that really wasn't enough time. Personally, I was surprised that we were almost finished, and couldn't believe that 2.5 hours had gone by so quickly. I could have easily sat for another 30 to 60 minutes, especially if it meant seeing more of the puzzles at the end, another quidditch match and maybe a few more things from Neville Longbottom.

With that said, we move on to today. American Thanksgiving. I actually ate today. I didn't do anything special last year, but this year, I guess I did. My youngest daughter did something funny though, she had some ice cream, and decided that she'd like it better if she pretended it was something else. Carrots. An odd choice, but that's her. She'd rather the carrots than ice cream.

Posted 10:39 AM by Tim Rafuse
Storylines. It's working out alright for me so far. Got a place for the creative juice.

I've got plans to see the Harry Potter movie tonight (I almost typed "book" there). My expectations are very high for this movie. I'm looking for consistency with the book. Heavy characterization, and all the visual effects I can handle. Hopefully largely subtle ones. :)

I tend to put up an expectation for a movie before I go to see it. At least ones in theatre. Rentals I don't care so much about, since I can see them or not whenever I want. Theatres, though, you gotta get in there while they're showing what you want to see. The list of movies I've wanted to see lately went like this:

Iron Monkey, Monsters Inc., The One, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings. I've seen Iron Monkey, Monsters Inc., and The One already. Each one met the expectation level I was looking for. For Iron Monkey, I went to see a kung fu movie with a slight sprinkle of plot and 2d or less characters. I was looking for cool combat scenes. I got it. The movie almost lost me when it included the "sleeve attack" move near the end, but I was able to get by on the rediculousness of the rest of that combat scene too.

Monsters Inc. had a lot higher to shoot for. I was looking for something consistent with what Pixar has done before. Lots of in-jokes, puns and humor on several levels. Something for adults and children without talking down or being pedantic. They did a good job of it. I saw it twice.

The One. Compared to Iron Monkey, this had a lot less to do. I went to be dazzled by effects. Storyline was secondary, and I figured I'd be making fun of the movie before it was over (esp with plot holes and deus ex machina). I wasn't disappointed. The movie gave me all I was looking for, and the tiniest glimmer of a plot (which didn't go anywhere, but certainly could have - the movie seems like it would go better as a series...)

Harry Potter is going to have a hard go of coming up to the bar. As I said, I'm expecting a lot, and I've got 2.5 hours for them to do it in. I've heard mixed reviews, with the largest complaint being things that were left out. I can't expect them to get everything in the book quite right, since there's a lot of thinking, discover and description going on there. The visuals will have to do it for me. I'm sure you'll hear about it tomorrow.

Posted 4:16 PM by Tim Rafuse
Ok. I did it. I did up a second blog. It wasn't easy. Blogger is giving me trouble. Go here for the new "Storylines" blog-page.

If you're lost, or wondering why the language there is different, well, what can I say? First, I'm dumping you into the middle of my imagination. You're gonna deal with things that I've had in my mind for some time, or that are close to the creative core (don't get too close now). Second, characters that I write aren't me. They're kinda me, of course, but they're not me. They're them, and I gotta write them like they are.

Gee... that lost half the people, and the rest are nodding their heads. Put the pot down guys. Really. I mean it.

Posted 2:52 PM by Tim Rafuse
I've been thinking about maybe starting a second blog. Something for little story snippets. Thoughts on writing and all that. I'm not really sure what I'd do with it though. I don't seem to have any problems making something to go here every day (well, at least 5 times a week for the most part), so I'm not sure about doing something story related every day. I don't know when I'd have time.

I suppose this sort of comes along the same lines as my art. I read a lot of webcomics, and that's gotten me interested in doing something. A comic. Of some kind. I took a little time to think about a title and general plotline and all that. The title would/will/could be "Agent Cain" (or Kane, I haven't decided). The premise is that Kane, is an assassin. He likes to think of himself as a secret agent, so people humor him and call him "Agent". Humoring him is good, 'cause he's basically indifferent about killing. The big hold back is storyline and art. I don't think I can pull something like that off. I don't figure that I can draw something worth looking at as far as comic strips are concerned.

Besides all that, I'd rather be ahead on strips and script before starting anything like that. I feel it would look bad on me to be one of the many amateurs who are going "whoops, didn't get the strip ready, maybe sometime next week?" That just looks unprofessional. Besides that, there's the difficulty involved with the storyline. Other than a general idea, I've got no scripts or plotline worked out. Which is partly why I've been thinking about writing something. Just to get into the habit of writing about something, using different literary devices and such. I'd have to practice, and I'd like feedback, and the net seems like a good place for all that.

Besides, most of the people who bother to read this blog are people I know. Everyone else hasn't really been informed, and I'm just not the kind of person able to attract huge traffic volumes anyhow. Maybe if I kept up to date? Or put in current news instead of all this junk that's here now.

I suppose the best plan is to just jump in and figure out how deep the water is later (don't try this with real water, it's a good way to lose important mobility).

Posted 10:03 AM by Tim Rafuse
It's the middle of November and I've just seen the first snow. Well, it's not "real" snow, since it hasn't stuck yet, but it is snow. This, of course, also means that it's cold. Really cold.

I don't mind the cold so much, if I'm properly dressed for it. Today I'm not that warmly dressed, so I'm hoping I can stay warm enough while waiting for the bus.

In other news, the CD burner still isn't quite doing what I want it to do, but the features list on the software is sounding more and more like what I'm looking for in a burner. I hope that I can get it up and running soon. The only real issue is the speed. It's very very slow, only 2X on write mode. That'll take forever for a CD burn. But it'll probably be worth it.

I've been getting the "do something" itch again, which means that I'm headed into the upswing portion of my cycle. If I haven't explained the cycle here it is: I run on a three month happy/depressed cycle. At the low point, I'm depressed, cranky and irritable, that moves into the upswing, where I get more energy, ideas and creativity. I tend to ramp that up for about a month or so when I reach a frenetic point and can't get anything accomplished. Then there's the downswing, where I cut back, reorganize and get things really accomplished. This brings me back to the low point. As I said, I'm on the upswing, meaning I've recently passed the low point (a week or so back really). If you watch the posts long enough, you'll probably see the cycle in action.

Let's review some of the things I'd like to have time to do:

Drawing, writing, painting, website, programming, study for MCP, other programming, modeling (miniatures, not me), and sports. The sports thing covers fencing, karate and maybe a little bit of swimming and weights. And that's all activities that are just me by myself (well, some of the sports need partners). If I wanna involve others then we get to add in playing Magic, Warhammer and 40K (though mostly Magic and 40K). Sound busy? Yeah, and with 10 hour work days, it won't be easy to do any of that stuff.

Well, anything worth doing is worth finding time for, right?

Posted 3:11 PM by Tim Rafuse
Spiders.

I've got this fear thing, eh? It's one of those irrational phobias that I have. Spiders, heights, that sort of thing. Why am I bringing this up? Well, today I found a spider in my cubicle. That's totally unexpected. I mean, for the most part, bugs tend to stay low to the ground, and if they do climb, they tend to stay in the void spaces of the buildings. I figure that the spider worked his way down from the air vent somehow, and just ended up living on my desk for a while. Which probably means that I should clean my desk more often.

Anyhow, once I noticed it (it was sitting still), I tried to get it on a piece of paper to take it away, but it ended up being too fast for me. It hid somewhere behind the monitor. I figured it would make another appearance in a bit and kept an eye out for it. It did, and this time I went with a jelly jar I had here. So, it's trapped under glass. I don't wanna kill it, I'd much rather just take it somewhere and leave it. I don't like the idea of killing a useful bug just because I'm afraid of it.

I've been sort of watching it on and off. It'll get up and run rampant about the jar now and then, and then just sit for a while somewhere and wait. I've been a little concerned about the amount of air in the jar, and whether it'll survive the rest of the day. I don't want to lift the jar so it can't get away, but then, I figure that the jar probably holds lots of air for a spider, they're not that big and they probably don't breathe that much. Whenever it sits for a long time, I nudge the jar and see if it'll move. It always does. This makes me wonder if I"m adding air to the jar by sliding it (somehow getting in under the bottom), or if the bottom isn't sealed enough to make a difference. It also makes me wonder if spiders sleep. I figure that they must, but I have no idea how often or for how long.

Posted 8:58 AM by Tim Rafuse
An interestring weekend. High and low points.

Let's start with the high points. First, I had a good interview. It seemed to go very well and the company seems like a nice place to work. Second, I came in first place in a Type 1 tournament, going 4-1 and squeaking first place based on my tiebreakers.

Now, the bad bits. Bren was angry at me for not coming home right away, and playing the tournament. Second, on the way home, I got me a speeding ticket. First ever. Since this was a fairly momentus occasion, let me lay it out for you all.

I'm cruising along through Ashtabula, speeding and knowing it, and forgetting the cardinal rule when making the long drive - never speed in Ohio. So, I'm going and not really watching the spedometer, and all of a sudden I see the flashing lights and I know it's me they wanna talk to. I pull off, and dig into my glove compartment to get my license (a temp) and wonder "is he gonna think I'm getting a gun or something?" I roll the window down and wait. He takes what seems like forever to get to where I am. "Do you know how fast you were going," he asks. I don't, so I tell him so. "88, 90. Didn't you see me back there?". Gah. 88 in a 65 zone. I've never gotten a ticket before, but I know this is going to be expensive.

He asks me to get my ID and get out of the car, to join him for a little chat. He takes my description, license number and all that and talk about what he's gonna do now. See, my car has Canadian plates, and usually, us Canadians will get a ticket, hightail it back to our country before anyone notices, and don't pay. That's bad for the officer that did the ticket. So this guy has the idea that rather than ticket me, he should take me in on bond. Gah. That would so suck. Fortunately, since I'm living in the US, he's sure that I'll pay and give me a ticket instead. As odd as that sounds, I'm happy about that. It's way better than trying to work out bond money.

So, I've gotta get $115US for the ticket, and drive a lot slower now. Lesson heard and learned.

Posted 10:00 AM by Tim Rafuse
Here I am in Kitchener. In the ultra-secret lair of Wayne's work actually. We're at his work doing whatever he does here. Me, I'm hogging network space and a chair.

Had me a nice interview yesterday. Seemed alright. Everyone hates it when I say that. Esp the wife and her family. They don't feel that they can trust my instincts when it comes to interviews. I tend to self sabotage for some reason. Personally, if I wanna work somewhere, I find a way to be really truthful, and that seems to shaft my ability to get the job. For this one though, I'm not really one way or the other, so I'm a lot more relaxed and less concerned about minor gaffs and such. I suppose this could be seen as confidence, but I'm of the impression that this tends to come across as arrogance.

I'm gonna hang out here with Wayne for a bit, and then move on to doing some games at a store that's local. After that, it's back home. There isn't anything else for me to do here this evening. Besides, I wanna be around for the wife's bake sale.

Ok. New topic. Warhammer. Umm... well, I've been looking at the minis again, and getting the urge to play. I've been getting the urge to buy again too. So far, I've been able to hold it off. Not having any minis here is a good deterrant. I'd need to buy so many that it would be very very expensive, and I just don't have the cash to support that.

If I got anything, it'd be the new rulebook for Dark Elves. I don't think I need it, but I'd like to have it, in case I get back to playing against Wayne. I mean, if I move, I'll be a lot closer to where he is, and we might be able to get a game on now and again. Gah. One more thing to move from hiatus to "in progress".

There's a lot of things that I would love to do if I had the time for it. There's a few apps that I'd like to program and all that, I'm just not getting enough time out of my days to do everything. Same complaint as always.

Posted 1:27 PM by Tim Rafuse
Job searching versus job hunting.

I think of looking for a job as more of a job hunt, than a job search. Job searching implies looking all over franticly trying to "find" a job. Like it was lost or misplaced. Job hunting, though, that gives me the image of stalking out a job. Learning about it, studying it and then, sweeping in to make the kill. For me, with a search, sometimes you find it, sometimes you don't. With a hunt, the odds are that once you find it, you'll probably get it.

I think that lately I've been in more of the search mode. It's a very causal way of looking for work. Low stress, low effort. In some cases, it's like reverse searching, you want the job to find you. That doesn't happen much. I've got to step up to job hunting now if I'm gonna be successful. I've got to be proactive. Go to where the jobs are and get one, not look around for a stray job that wandered a little too close to the highway. Woo... metaphor!

The hard part about the job hunt is getting the time to actually hunt. I've got a limited amount of time to do things in, and my current work really frowns on me using company time to look for other work. And there's a good reason for that too. If I spent all my time doing that, I'd never get any meaningful work done.

Keeping the hunt metaphor going, I've been known to call "going somewhere to talk to people about interviews" as going on safari. For some reason, I rarely have to explain what this means. I guess the imagery does it. Or maybe I've explained it to everyone already somewhere.

So, I'm gearing up for the hunt now. Looking for new hunting grounds and targets. I've even got a few safari's planned. We'll see where that goes.

Posted 9:58 AM by Tim Rafuse
..the one about selling stuff.

Yeah. I'm thinking about selling some stuff. I may have to go to eBay to make it work, and unload some stuff. I gotta find out the cost of dealing with eBay though. Who knows what that'll mean.

Anyhow, I'm looking to sell off (unload) a bunch of games that I don't have time to play anymore. L5R, Warlords, BattleTech and so forth. I'm looking to hold on to NetRunner and probably Vampire. Though I'd sell 'em if anyone wanted it. I'm not that attached to it.

I'm keeping the Magic stuff, and I could be swayed to sell off some of the RPG books that I have. Even the BattleTech stuff. I like it, but nobody plays. There's no sense in keeping all that if it's not gonna get used, right?

So, if you wanna buy something, give me an email. Maybe I'll have what you're looking for... or you can wait till I stick it on eBay.

Posted 6:42 PM by Tim Rafuse
And now, for some thoughts.

First, Warhammer and 40K. I've got a load of cash sunk into those miniatures, and yet I'm not getting them out and playing with them like I should. Storage has been the bigger concern for me recently. Which sucks, 'cause I did like playing - I just never managed to do it enough. There isn't enough time for everything.

That said, I do wish that I could finish off the wars against Wayne. I don't think that's going to happen though, since it would mean me buying at least the new army book and digging the minis out of storage and gluing them back together.

My, but I do miss having the army about. I liked the idea of the huge companies of troops. Strictly massive numbers of course. The fact that I had only about 50% of the planned size of the army was pretty striking though. I remember wanting to build up three full companies of troops. Blocks (like 25 minis) of Warriors and Spearmen and Crossbowmen and all that. The idea being to actually have enough to show off a full set of troops. Were I to do it now, I'd go with something like 3 blocks of Warriors, 1 of Spearmen, 1 of Crossbowmen (formed as 2 half regiments of 15), a block of Corsairs (30 strong), 1 of Dark Riders (again, as half blocks of 15), a block of Cold One Riders (also 2 15 man half blocks), a Level 1 and 2 mage, an Assassin, a Captain to lead them all, and 4 RBTs. That would be First and Third Companies. Second company would replace the Cold One Riders and Corsairs with blocks (30) of Witch Elves, and the RBTs with the Cauldron of Blood and Dark Pegasus riders. Fourth company would contain an odd assortment of troops. Beastmasters, Dragons, Harpies and assorted other devils would be in there. Fifth (the reserve) company would be Shades, More Dark Riders and at least 2 Blocks of Black Guard and Executioners, not to mention another pair of RBTs and the other Assassins. The Command Pool would have Kurgar, Mung, the 3rd level mages and the other notables, such as the Battle Standard Bearer. 1 Block of Black Guard (in half regiments) and Warriors would be here too.

Needless to say, that's a load of troops. I mean, 9 Regiments of Warriors is nearly 300 minis. Add on the Spearmen, Crossbowmen, and mounted figures and you can see the army numbers climbing rapidly. There has to be at least 600 minis in all that above ramble. On the order of $5000US. A metric buttload as we say in Canada. But, I'd love to see it. To see the masses of troops. The huge formations. I'd never be able to play it anywhere except on a multi-multi-day event on a huge table (like bigger than 10') with reserve rules and no disturbances. But I'd love to play it. Given the size of the forces, I'd wanna go at least 15 rounds. That's gonna be like 30 hours at least. We're looking at 3 to 4 days of serious, undisturbed play, or more likely, 6 days of relaxed play. Gah. It doesn't matter though, I haven't got half the force listed above. I could maybe fill out the First Company completely, and have parts of Second Company in there. Third Company would be a few Warriors and Fifth and Command would be all messed up. Fourth, being the strange stuff would probably be near capacity too, since I own a few monsters and their ilk.

Makes me wanna get a large size display case to keep all the figs in. Maybe at the next place we live. :)

Of course, given the size of the Dark Eldar forces, I'd need 2 cases. Or one really really big one.

Posted 4:50 PM by Tim Rafuse
Quick update cause this recrossed my mind today. Episode 2: Attack of the Clones. Sounds like the stupidest movie title ever, eh? Well, you'd think so, but then you've forgotten to watch Episode 4.... Early into that movie, not much past 15 minutes, when Luke is babbling to Obi Wan Kenobi, he let's slip the words "... the Clone Wars." I was sitting watching this on TV and when I heard that it snapped my fragile little mind.

I simply could not believe that the title made sense. That it actually fit in with the storyline somewhere. I mean, I (and many many others) were thinking that old Lucas had taken a few too many shots of the happy water before penning the title for Ep2. But no, it's not true, it actually makes sense and is coherent. It's still a stupid name, but it makes sense. I mean, Episode 2: The Clone Wars would be better, but I suppose that's a little undescriptive of what's really going on.

In the same vein, if you look at Ep1, you gotta think that we missed out on Episode 0. I mean, there's obviously story here that hasn't been told. Like Qui Gon Jinn, and the rest of the Jedi council. That, and all the political maneuvering and such. But I suppose that would be even more slow building and political than Ep1.

I gotta speculate here though... Episode 3: The Death of the Jedi. C'mon, it fits so nicely with Ep5: Return of the Jedi (or whichever one that is... I get them confused.

Posted 1:15 PM by Tim Rafuse
Short week this week. I feel like I'm not really getting a weekend lately. Been taking the weekly drive to Canada. Gah, but that's hard on the system.

This week I get three work days. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I'm off Friday and in Canada again. I'll be running about there for a while too. Then it's home again. With my mornings now starting at 5AM, and running 10 hour days at work to compensate for the weekends, I'm starting to get rather ragged.

Toss on getting ready for a few possible interviews and other meetings tomorrow, and a possible game on Saturday and you've got the makings of a really crazy weekend. I hope I get some sleep soon, cause I'm not likely to get much tonight.

Posted 10:07 AM by Tim Rafuse
Several days since the last post. I've got a good reason though. I was out of the country. Well, more precisely, back to my home country, but still not near an online connection.

So, the weekend. I went to Provincials. Expected a small crowd of about 50 to 60 people - there were like 140. So, three times the number of expected participants. No biggie. I spent the evening before building about three different decks before tossing out all ideas and getting back to basics. I went with UR, counter and burn. Mostly burn. It served me well, taking me to a nice 4-3-0 record for the day. I could have made it 5-2, but I made a major play error that threw the game away.

Wayne and Mike, who attended with me, went 2-5 and 4-3 also. Not great for Wayne, and less than what Mike was expecting to make. Enough of that though.

I'm planning on writing a tournament report once I get the time to type something, but we'll see how that materializes.

On to other topics. While up at Wayne's, I got hands to a CD-RW. I needed something to replace the failed CD-ROM drive I have at home. This seemed like the best thing. Normally, when I load up new hardware, the system bombs on me for an hour or so until I managed to beat it into submission. Surprisingly, there were no issues with the new drive. Freakish. I did have some fun taking my case apart though, as I'd never needed to swap drives before. I was surprised to see a layer of thich dust between the front panel and the HD. I got out the spray air and took care of that really quick-like.

I haven't had a chance to test out the write capabilities of the drive yet, but that's only because I don't have a writable CD. I'm going to nab one today or tomorrow and give the drive a good testing.

There's a lot of ideas that I have with the CD drive. I'm thinking about putting my resume on CD and giving out those over paper resumes. Normally that would be a colossal waste of space (even for a huge resume), but the idea here is that I can give them my resume in .doc, .txt, .rtf and .html formats, while including scans of any important documentation, sample applications and anything else that I can think of that would help them see what I can do for their company. Like a demo CD for myself. After all, I am trying to sell myself to the companies. Besides, I can also get the writer to do up demos for UH, once we get that rolling again.

Moving along into the realm of work, I've been looking for something new lately. Half of me wants to drop this whole work thing and go back to school. Learn some solid programming techniques at school and do some serious coding on the side. If I could nab a contract or two while I was in school I might be able to make a living at programming and school. Of course, I'm making a living right now, and we're doing better all the time, but I'm stuck where I don't wanna be right now. Let's not bog down the discussion though.

If I did go back to school, I'm not sure what I'd take. I mean, I'd love to do a 2 or 3 year stint at a university and get a masters in CS, but that's not likely to happen. At least, not in just 2 or 3 years. I'd be more likely to get bogged with something else. I think I'd like a nice refresher course in Java or C++, though Visual C++ would rock the boat nicely.

We'll have to see what's coming down the pipe though. Sometimes you just never know.

Posted 7:47 AM by Tim Rafuse
Ahh.. early morning. Somehow, I like the early morning (when I'm awake enough to appreciate it). It's quiet, and peaceful. Today was warm too, so it was extra nice. A little bit of a wind would have made it perf.

Anyhow, about the games last night. I did manage to get together with the guys for a little while. No playtesting though. I was way too interested in BRAWL. Whenever there was a spare moment it was "BRAWL?" The guys were kinda interested in it, but not too much, which was a little disappointing for me, since I like the game so much. I've been playing just Cris, and getting my butt handed to me at least 2 games out of 3. Hale has so many bases and hits that it's hard for me to keep up. The only way that I can win is to get a lead on a base, block the other side, then burn for a freeze. Gah. That makes no sense to anyone unfamiliar with the game. So - get familiar!

Anyhow, I'm headed up for Provincials. I've still got to put a deck together, but that's how all the best stories go right? I was totally unprepared, but managed to win anyhow? Yeah, except for the people who lose. I mean, why does it seem that if I go all unprepared and make like 200th place, I'm an idiot, but if I go and make a good placing, then I'm like uber-cool or something. Maybe I'm still and idiot, and just really lucky?

I can't even predict what I'm planning on playing right now... for all I know I might end up with some freakish domain thing. Whatever that would look like, I don't know. I do know that I'm pretty much banned from buying more cards at this point. Oh well, we'll see how that goes.

Posted 9:45 AM by Tim Rafuse
Another day. Looking forward to this evening really. This is the usual "guys get together and play" night. Of course, this is usually an event of sorts. All the guys get together, eat something, then play games until late. A lot of fun. Of course, the trouble is that I'm on a tight money schedule. I don't have the cash tonight, so I'll try to hook up with them after the food has been had.

I've had a bit of 40K on the mind lately. Had a nice lunch with Jeff and Scott yesterday and got to talking about the game. I'd still like to play, I simply don't have that many figures about the house anymore. They're all in storage. It seems so bad too, since there's no so many that are damaged in some way. If I ever do manage to get them out of storage, they're going to need a lot of attention and repair.

Anyway, Scott said that his wife plays Mordheim. Which is very cool. If we could only find some people who did D&D... oh wait, that's right, my wife was telling me that she met some people who play. This "community of friends" of ours is starting to work out nicely. Umm... why are we leaving at the end of the year, again? Oh yeah, work sucks.

Well, maybe, if there's something more interesting, we'll manage to stick around a few more months.

Posted 8:17 AM by Tim Rafuse
BRAWL!

If you haven't heard of it, you probably should. It's a very cool card game. They say it's a "real-time" cardgame, and it's probably as close as it gets to an actual real-time game involving cards. There's no turns, very few rules and the goal is to beat the opponent silly. Way, way, way too much fun. Of course, I'd been looking for it anywhere for months, but hadn't found anyone who carried it. I finally found it out at Warzone. Very cheap too. Only $8 for 2 decks.

Now, BRAWL! isn't a CCG, so the cards you get are set. Each pre-made deck represents an individual with their strengths, weaknesses and all that thrown in. Jeff and I tossed a few games on last night, but he managed to beat me all but maybe 1 game. Very cool indeed.

While I'm on the topic of "other" games, I should babble into maybe why I have so many different games. First, I like games. I think they're neat. Second, I like seeing how the rules and mechanics of a game work. A balanced game should be one that is very even for all players. My favourite games combine strategy and some random element. BattleTech (tabletop), Warhammer (and 40K), and such are all tops on the list. Even Risk is a game that I really like. I like the idea of getting a bunch of players at a table and playing for a few hours trying to get to some sort of world-dominating victory. Axis and Allies was always cool, though it seemed very unbalanced towards the Americans. Maybe I just wasn't very good at that one.

Posted 5:00 PM by Tim Rafuse
Free time means more babble from me.

Whether it's been apparent or not, I've been trying to get some motivation to do a little more with this site. It sucks. The colours (or lack thereof), the layout, the whole thing reeks. Of course, I've always said that I couldn't draw a straight line with a ruler. That's really not true though. I'm just not good at the art part of design (moving it from my head to paper/images, anyway), so I don't like to do it.

Of course, one never improves unless one practices. Gah. Third person singular. Ok. So, this means that I have to practice. That means getting time on the computer, which if I haven't said, isn't easy to do. So, in the interim, I've been trying to draw things on paper - sort of improve the overall artsyness of myself. You can blame all this on Nathan Williams, a wretchedly talented artist friend of mine who decided to invite me to contribute to his art show in Montreal. Talk about feeling outclassed. Especially since my art sucks for the most part. Of course, I am getting better. I just need to practice a little bit each day.

I'm starting with sketching, since it seems to be the easiest thing so far. I've taken to scanning anything that looks halfway decent, and if I get around to it, I'll try to post something here sometime. Well... somewhere on site anyhow. So far, my sketches are limited to either quick sketches of anyone who's not moving about too much, or plants and such. I'm kinda wanting to try still life - but we'll see how that goes.

My art supplies are very primitive. Sketchbook (cheapest I could find), HB pencil, and if the pencil has one, an eraser. It's taken me at least 2 weeks to get around to buying a pencil sharpener. I've got a few nice sketches in the book, and a lot of pages left, but I'm low on the time aspect. You think that I'd stop complaining about that and do something, eh?

I suppose I'm a complainer.

Ahh. Let's switch topics again. Movies. There have been a few movies I've wanted to see lately. Normally, I don't get to see a movie in theatres, I wait till it's on vid, and nab it then. The list went: Iron Monkey, Monsters Inc., The One, and Harry Potter. I've gone to Iron Monkey, which was very cool, and Monsters Inc., which was enjoyable. I'm not sure when or if I'll get to see The One, but I'm definitely going to go to Harry Potter within a few days of release.

There's a bit of backstory here, so I'll relate it (having nothing more pressing to do). When I head about the Harry Potter books, I couldn't care less. I thought that they were likely to be dumbed-down books for kids. A few people I knew had read them though, and said they were good. I don't always take the reading advice of others though, since they're not always in-line with my reading preferences. Eventually, I got the urge to read some of it, just to see what it was like. I flipped open somewhere to the middle of book 4, and started reading a little. I flipped again. And again. The book was totally not making sense. Of course, that's because there's a lot of backstory in it.

Anyhow, I had a long plane ride coming up, and saw book 1 in the airport. I didn't have any reading material on me, and knew I could not sleep for about 8 hours of flying (many little hops and waits). The book was cheap, and on sale, so I nabbed it and figured that if nothing else, I'd have something to do. I read the whole thing on a 1 hour flight (the first part of my journey). It was good. I liked it. I had a longer flight coming up, and book 2 was the same length as book 1. I nabbed it and book 3, figuring that I'd read them on that flight and while waiting in the airport for my second trip. I did. I managed to read the whole of those 2 books over the 3 hours wait. So when I landed, I only had a few minutes to make the next plane, but I swung by the bookstore and found book 4. This was getting to be an expensive habit. I only had a 1 hour flight this time, and not too much wait.

I arrived at the last airport, book in hand. Read while waiting for my luggage. Read on the commuter train to my appartment. Couldn't read and walk home at night, so I rushed home and dropped my bags on the floor. I then sat on my bed and kept reading until I was all done the book. Very good books, if you want to know. The stories are fairly rich with plot, a lot of interesting characters, and the characters grow through the stories. I haven't seen too much that's inconsistent between books, and there are a few themes and items that seem to be leading from book to book.

I got my wife interested in the books (sometimes we'll read books to each other to pass the time), and tried to get the girls interested. They might be a little young. We want to take them to the movie with us, but the youngest seems to be scared of the previews, so we're thinking about getting someone to watch her while the rest of us go on to the show.

Posted 1:59 PM by Tim Rafuse
Ok. Wow. I'm totally miffed here. I apparently didn't get the whole idea of Blogger. Missed out on the login thing all weekend. At least now I know what I'm doing.

I think.

Posted 1:47 PM by Tim Rafuse
"Monday, Monday..."

As the song says.

It's an interesting day here. Not being an American, I have no innate knowledge of holidays. Apparently, the 12 is the bank holiday for Veteran's Day. Gah. That caught me by surprise. I should be used to that by now though, I've been hit by the "random holiday" thing before. You think I'd learn just to ask before each month, and then put all that on a calendar somewhere.

With this unexpected day off, I'm now in an interesting position. With an extra day (that isn't a Canadian holiday), I've got a little more time to look for other sources of employment, etc. Going to Canada seems like a good idea. Of course, if I'm in Canada, then I can go to Provincials. Of course, I'm no closer to having a deck ready now than I was yesterday. Gah. And I'll definitely need to go get a few cards if I'm thinking of playing through more than the third round.

What I'm looking at right now is a simple BW thing with a lot of defense and discard. I'm hoping that's not going to be expected, but I can see that it's likely to be the case (BU is big, and that's discard and counter built right in).

Ok. Next topic. Me again, since that's what this is all about, right? I've been "not trying" to lose weight for a while now. Give me a sec to clarify that. By "not trying" that means that I am trying to lose weight, but in a manner which involves me not exercising more, or really eating less. The whole goal, at least so far, has been to lose weight by eating more reasonably. Cut out the ice cream, chocolate, cookies and all that junk. Drop the late night snacks, and lower the total sugar intake some. It's a small change, but done over time isn't as harsh to the system as cutting yourself off totally. Don't get me wrong, I'm not stopping to eat all the good stuff that I like, but just eating a lot less of it.

You're probably wondering if this would even make a dent in the weight of most people. Well, I think that it would. Most people are a little overweight, and eating this way would help lower the total calorie intake. For me, I've moved down from about 215 to 203. Yeah, not the "jaw-dropping 200 pounds" or whatnot that you see in those ads, but you gotta remember that those are not "typical" results. My goal weight is 180. Yep, I've still got a long way to go. Thing is, without further diet changes, I don't see me losing that weight without effort. I know I could stand to do a little more exercise, so I'm trying to ease myself into a weight-lifting routine. Not always easy, but definitely worth it.

Posted 6:45 PM by Tim Rafuse
My girls were watching Scooby Doo today. Man, that's an interesting show. I mean, I've read the "theories" that the show is drug and sex based, but it's pretty spooky when you think about it. Anyone not looking to ruin a perfectly reasonable childhood memory had best read something else and skip the rest of this.

Ok. First, the theme song: "Scooby Doobie Doo, where are you?" It's right there, "doobie". Like that isn't blatant enough. Then there's the talking dog, sthick. I mean, really. The only people who actually hear the dog talking is the gang. To stick to the point, Scoobie and Shaggy seem to be constantly hungry. And they'll eat anything and everything. They'll eat food that they find lying around in a dusty, old abandoned military base, or warehouse, or old dilapidated mansion - whatever they can find.

In fact, their eating habits extend to Shaggy being not only willing, but wanting to eat dog treats. Given that, we might assume that Scooby-Snacks are more than they appear. Maybe with a little of the weed mixed in for measure. I mean, you're not going to get the dog to smoke, right?

Despite that, lets get on with the whole sex thing, eh? First, Daphne and Fred are both wearing scarves. Normally this would just be geeky, but they are obviously involved with each other. I'm lead to believe that the scarves really mean that they're swingers just advertising quietly. Secondly, whenever the group is split up, it's almost always Fred and both Daphe and Velma. This seems a little strange and contrived. Pretty obvious though when you look at it. Scoobie and Shaggy are too stoned to really do anything.

Also, whenever Velma isn't with Fred and Daphne doing whatever it is they're doing, she always end up getting her glasses knocked off. I'm not sure about the significance of this, but it seems a little suspicious. The "Mystery Machine" however seems very suspect. First, the paintjob is screaming hippy, and drug induced. Second, the name itself is almost like a cheap porn title, so I'd be a little worried about that. The fact that the back of the van is either totally empty, or padded on the floor seems like a fair indication of the usage.

Gah. What a strange topic. No matter.

Posted 10:49 AM by Tim Rafuse
I'm heading in to work today. Trying to make up a few extra hours here and there.

There's a plan to attend Provincials this weekend. Dunno if I'll make it there or not. There's a lot of other stuff going on. Just another reason why I won't be a pro any time soon. That's probably good though.

I had an intersting set of ideas for single panel comics this morning. I think they'll be funny if I can ever manage to draw them. That's the biggest problem really, I'm not sure what to do about it all. I'm trying to get a little better at drawing, but it seems like one of those things that require practice and so forth. I really don't have the time every day to do the practice thing.

Hmm.. what else is there to say today. I'm doing some laundry. That's not really exciting is it? Well, I never guaranteed excitement.

On the music hunting front, I decided to load up BearShare. Which works using the Gnutella tech. Not bad really, but the interface is barely "sparse but functional". Anyone who programs with me learns that I'm a big stickler for eye-pleasing design withing a functional framework. I like my screens to look nice as well as be useful. That's not always the easiest thing in the world.

My current box has lost the CD-ROM drive. It'll spin but it doesn't seem to read anything. This has been a standing condition for at least three weeks. I've not had the cash to lay out for a new one. Wayne's got his hands on a CD-RW I can have/use, but I'll need to get near where he is to land it. I was hoping to do that this weekend, while we both attended provincials. Now, I don't know if I'll be able to do that.

Posted 11:26 AM by Tim Rafuse
Another day.

Another fratction of my life.

Today isn't too bad really. I'm applying for jobs. I've got one. Anyone reading this knows that. Looking for jobs isn't easy. Or really fun. There's something about looking over your life and trying to figure out which way it's headed that's a little depressing. Well, if you had any goals that is.

So, I'm trying to figure out where I wanna be.

I had a nice talk with my current employers yesterday. I'm a contractor, so I'm under contract to another company. The contract has been good. I've been there about 18 months. Not a bad place to work really, but there's too much instability. That bites my butt a little too much. So, I had a chat with the contracting company about direction and focus. Well, this means that they'll talk to the people I'm working with, and if I know my office politics, I'm definately not going to get an extension. That's fine. I wanna go home.

Let's change gears and talk a bit about hobbies.

I've got a ton of hobbies. As if the site didn't make that apparent. I program (as a hobby), do VRML, Warhammer, Magic, draw (a little bit, but more lately), and I write (and a lot of other stuff that I'm not gonna list, 'cause there's too much). That doesn't include the occasional bit of this and that that passes across my interests. All of these hobbies and such demand time, effort, money and time. Yeah, I said time twice. That's cause there's the time I'm doing the hobby, and the time I'm shuffling the hobby stuff from place to place to make room for everything else I've got.

I'm pretty hopeless when it comes to games. I love games. I've got RPGs, CCGs, board games, video games, tabletop games, miniatures games, you name it. I've gone to game cons (and would happily go again), and I've gone to tournaments for Magic, Warhammer, BattleTech and RPGs. I'm a game nut. Or nerd if you perfer. That's just the way I am.

I have no idea how my wife puts up with me. I mean, I've got this giant load of junk here in the house, and there doesn't seem to be any real purpose for most of it. I have more dice than anyone I know personally. I have over a thousand. Of course, one game requires special dice to play, and you need a good selection to bother at all, but that's neither here nor there.

I've been thinking about selling off some of my game junk, but I'm not sure who would buy it, or where I could go to sell it. I've thought about the whole "eBay" thing, but I haven't really bothered too much to think about it. That seems like a lot of hassle for a minimum of return on investment, but I might have to look into it anyhow. At least it would get it out of the house.

New gear again.

As a programmer by trade, you'd think that I really wouldn't want to be programming all my free time away either, but that's really what I'd like to be doing now and then. Of course, I have to fit it in amongst everything else. I was looking for something to replace my Napster connection, and give me some access to anime music that I like so much. I took a look at Gnutella, and found that they're claiming to be an "open source protocol" and not an application. I took a look at the specs, which I think aren't great, but are useable, and wanted to build a client (or "Servent", as they call them).

The protocol is fairly straightforward in theory, but convoluted in implementation (with little-endian, HTTP, and hexadecimal segments in the command structure). There seems to be some attempt to make the system a little bit archaic so that you have to have some skill as a programmer to actually put one together. That sounds like a challenge to me, so that's probably why I wanna build one. Of course, that means speccing the design and working out the details before I bother to put in a single line of code. Not the easiest code in the world, but it doesn't look like the most terrible either.

Gwah. All the time for now.

Posted 6:19 PM by Tim Rafuse
Ok. First a little background and general premise.

The blog here, is intended to be a way for me to easily update a little bit of the content on website each day. So, there'll be news, plans, important facts, and just plain out junk in here. Who's going to be interested? Well, probably almost nobody. But I really don't care.

That said, let's get on to today, and some general blah.

Today I had a dentist's appointment. Yay for me. Had to get an old filling drilled out, and a new one put in. That's so much fun. Yeah. Seems that my daughter is going to need extensive dental work. Apparently all her back teeth are effectively dead. Totally rotted. So, she's gonna get crowns. Yes. That should be interesting.

Also up. I'm making plans for next Friday. Gonna go play me some serious tourney magic. Provincials and all that. Still mulling a deck, but it looks like a lot of randoms so far. I think Shadowmage Infiltrator is going to be way way over priced when he gets taken by the much more affordable "nearly everything else in the block" card. 'cause, when the shebaz hits the table, the table hits the shebaz.