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Tales from Tech Support…
A few years back, I was working for staffing company, on loan to a large company, in a division that provided technical support for their point of sale devices, which were installed at retail locations. The division I was in was entirely POS support, specifically for this particular retail chain. The company had some odd
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Doomtown : Reload… I want to play it.
I really wish there was a local Doomtown league, though if there was, it would probably be happening on nights when I can’t make it out. Maybe I’ll see if I can organize something for Sunday Evenings. Conceptually, I like Doomtown. You’ve got a posse, you’re developing a town, setting up businesses, taking over businesses
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Planning to see some movies.
So, in the next week, I think I’ll go see Mad Max : Fury Road and Avengers : Age of Ultron. I’m wondering if it’s worth attempting to write reviews of these, given that at this point, most people have already made up their minds about them. It would also be nice to get some
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Some gaming, finally.
Over the weekend, Dimestore, Thike and I got together for some gaming. We had a game of Legendary Encounters Alien, where we won for a change. This was likely because Dimestore was playing the commander role and his main move was to collect up all the sergeants, allowing him to grant us an extra 2
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Do I have a face for podcasts?
Debating if I should learn podcasting vs youtubing, figured I’d ask the obvious question. Is it preferable to hear my voice over seeing me?
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Podcasts I listen to.
This will probably get converted from a post into a page, to make it easier to reference, but I was checking reddit today and was reminded of a podcast I’d listened to but I’d lost when I’d swapped phones. So, this will be a list of podcasts I recommend, which can also double as an
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Future Projects
I’m debating making changes to this site, for the purposes of making it more functional. One of the major changes I’m thinking of putting together a link to some of the content I’m more fond of, either as a header or a sidebar. I might also add in a function to sort by category easier.
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Mayday…
So, the last while… things have happened. Nothing major, beyond Gram coming back to the house for at least one night, and maybe more. That’ll be a bit different. I suspect I’ll stress in the evenings for a bit, til I get used to her being back here. Mostly just not sure she wants to
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Productivity
I’ve entered into a phase of high productivity, insomnia and mild mania. I’m unclear as to the catalyst to this state. I’ve no illusions that I understand how to maintain it, no solid predictions on the duration or the potential aftermath. I notice I’ve become less detail oriented, more absentminded, but for now this is
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True North Facts : Water Features
Before foreign architects included water features in designs for their buildings, Canadians needed to travel into the wilderness to take part in recreational ice climbing. Now that many buildings include them, urban Canadians can enjoy a nice climb during their lunch hour. The practice has become so popular that a some restaurants have included a
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I need to write more.
I’ve looked over the dates on my blogs and I’ve had a period recently where I haven’t really been writing. I’ve worked on a couple of articles for Erotic Vancouver, but I’ve only managed to publish one. I’ve got another one that needs to some work, the idea is there, but what I’m going to
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#30for30. I failed.
Well, last weekend, I managed my 30for30 on the first day off, but not the second day off, as I spend the day buried under the blankets with a sore throat, drinking fluids and generally trying to conserve energy. That carried over for a couple more days, and I didn’t continue my post work walking,
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ISLE
The Irresponsible Scientists League of Earth (ISLE) claimed responsibility today, sort of, for the horrific events of last week. They admitted that they installed the intelligence expansion devices in churches, mosques and synagogues around the world, but claim that the devices were intended to slowly increase the intelligence of attendees and not cause rapid cranial expansion. ISLE had
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Upgrading my current PC
I’ve got an invoice for a PC I built in 2012, for around a grand. I want to figure out what’s the best upgrade path. Aiming for playable Star Citizen at 1920X1080. Any thoughts would be welcome. The parts list from the invoice: EVGA GeForce GTX 460 823MHZ 1024MB 4GHZ GDDR5 SLI Ready 2DVI Mini
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Scheduling issues.
So, I thought I had a shift tonight and so I showed up at the office at 2:30, only to find all the desks were taken. But, we’ve had busy evenings lately, so they figure I might as well stick around. After about an hour, the morning shift clears out and I get my desk
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Lord of the Rings – LCG
The other day, I picked up a copy of the Lord of the Rings card game. It’s a co-op LCG, where you run a trio or sextet of heroes through a series of encounters on their way through the events of various sections of the LoTR mythology. The starter box comes with Through the Mirkwood,
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#30for30 day 16 & 17
After writing my article yesterday, I had enough time for a nice walk down past Dick’s Lumber before catching my bus. I’m not sure exactly how much time it took, but I left my place just after 1:10 and I arrived at the bus stop at 1:53. I’m used to being able to check the
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Upcoming events from Rascal’s Club.
Last year, I met up with Gem from Rascal’s club after Taboo to talk about her upcoming events. The Ms. Rascal’s Pageant and their Kinky Camping. Both were great events, and this morning I met with Gem over coffee to discuss her plans for this year. Well, that and to catch up on all the
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#30for30 Day 15 – More Gremlins
I didn’t get my full walk in before work, so I figured I’d do what I’ve done lately and walk home via BCIT, getting in a good 30-50 minutes of walking down a rather quiet bike route. This plan was sidetracked by the gremlins deciding to take the life of my celllphone. It’s stuck in
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#30for30 day 14.
Walk down towards BCIT, a 50+ minute walk. Decent speed, until I got into the maze bits where the road isn’t what the map says it should be.
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#30for30 day 12 & 13.
Day 12, I had a coffee with a friend. Well, sorta. She ordered a basic cold green tea and I did the same; instead of my usual mocha frappe. It was different, not sure how likely I am to order it again. However, still an improvement. After that, took a walk around the heights, playing
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The Society of the Ethical Top
Over the years I’ve heard my share of horror stories about the BDSM community. Many of the events that become the stories are probably avoidable though education and negotiation. An aspect that is often neglected in that regard is mediation; an attempt to discover how things went wrong and grow from them. In some cases,
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#30for30 Day 10 and 11.
Last night, I walked home from work in the rain. It was reasonably intermittent, so I didn’t get soaked. I made it down to the bus stop by Deer Lake parkway, checked the time til the next bus, it was long enough that it made sense to walk down the hill to the next stop.
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Gremlins
I’m suffering from some serious gremlins lately. The mail server at the office had issues, google thought I was in China, my cellphone just decided to crash and go into a state where it wouldn’t boot, and other tech has been acting up. Oh, and that nice ADSL outage and ERX server issue the other
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#30for30 day 9.
Longer walk tonight. Two short walks during the day to visit gram and then to get to work, then a 45 minute walk down to Goard way stop after work. The timing meant I didn’t need to wait long for the bus. Then another 10 minutes after the bus to get home. Thinking about installing
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#30for30 day 8.
Laggy day before work again. After work, headed north along a north south bike trail that goes down to BCIT. Had a nice 40 minute walk to get down here. If my bike was 100%, I’d consider riding to/from work. I need to get the chains checked and oiled before I take it on long
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#30for30 day 7.
Didn’t get a walk in before work. Work ended at 9:05. Walked down to bcit, over 30 minutes. Good enough.
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#30for30 day 6.
Took a walk this morning. Miscalculated the route, should have taken a different one to catch the 123 after I finished it. Oh well, 40 minutes is decent.
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Monday plans.
It’s Monday, the start of another work week. I’ll be working til 9pm every night this week, so that limits what I can plan. I’ve got my #30for30 going on, so I’ll need to be getting in at least 30 minutes of exercise every day. That means a walk every day before I head to
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A military academy, really?
So, this morning I woke up with memories of having taken a giant ant robot out to a military academy, by way of a golf course. While I was out there, I had to deal with a rather hardcore religious ceremony, befriended by some Ukrainian orthodox crew who had some strange rituals of their own,
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#30for30 day 5.
After work, I walked north towards BCIT and got in a good 30 minutes before finding a bus stop to catch it home.
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#30for30 Day 4. A walk around the Heights.
It wasn’t raining, so I went for a walk. Then the phone rang. Richard wanted to go to Neptune. After I spent another 25 minutes walking around, I headed out there, and spent 5 hours fixing phone systems.
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Cleaning up my categories.
Just doing some vague maintenance on the site, cleaning up the various categories that I’ve got things flagged under. I probably need to add a few more categories, especially as I add more random posts.
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Day 3 of the 30for30.
#30for30 – Well, day 3, managed 3.33kms in 34 minutes. Plus the time that I had to wait for the traffic lights to cross Hastings.
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More strange dreams
Warning. This will probably be disturbing to some readers. This was an unexpectedly violent dream. Writing in strange places, like a wooden picnic table, cantilevered over a pool. Having to adjust the table, so it wasn’t sinking into the pool. People asking for the WiFi password, and not taking the hint that I didn’t
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If I had friends…
…I’d plan to spend this weekend playing board games with them. Since I don’t seem to have friends with free time or an interest in board games, I’ll binge on netflix, play some ingress, and walk until my feet hurt. And maybe do some writing.
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Day 2 of the 30 for 30.
I woke up at 6 am, and couldn’t get back to sleep for about 2 hours. After I got back to sleep, I had a dream involving a really nice classic car, that I had helped offload into a driveway. Afterwards, I backed into it. Immediately. Then I woke up. It was around 11am. Gram
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First day of 30 minute extra exercise.
35 minutes, 3.69kms. I could post the route, if it had value to anyone.
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30 for 30.
My mother convinced me to get involved with a 30 for 30 challenge. Starting tomorrow, I’ll be doing an extra 30 minutes of exercise a day, every day. Today, I walked for about an hour, before I headed to work. Unfortunate shoe choice meant I’ve got a strange blister on my left foot today, to
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Ultrasound.
Well, that was fun. 30 minutes of poking with a rod and being told to take a deep breath and take out. Hit a coffee shop after, then headed down towards Hastings. Got in a bit of a walk, and now I’m sitting down for a bit of breakfast at the Red Wagon. Mental note,
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disrupted
Apparently I pressed the wrong button and failed to save about a page of writing that I’d just typed up. I wrote that I had a pretty quiet weekend. I helped with Noir’s setup and teardown, though I didn’t attend the event. I wasn’t really up for socializing in a loud place. I also skipped
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brief update
I need to write things more often. I’ve been slacking lately. There was some recent news regarding my liver. It scored a 16 on a test where anything above a 10 is a bad thing. But that’s been covered on my facebook, which this posts to, so most people who read this will already have
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Raspberry Pi
So, I’m definitely thinking about buying a Raspberry PI. They’re pretty cheap, pretty interesting to work on, and surprisingly powerful now. Also tiny. 85.60mm x 56mm x 21mm. I’ll need to build/find a case for it. I’m not sure what to do with it after that.
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Domlander 2015
Well, that was a fun night. I wrote a decent piece. It’s up over here, at Erotic Vancouver. And now I’m tired. Tomorrow, I’m going to wander Victoria for a bit. Maybe do some ingressing.
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Live Blog.
Well, I’m about to make another attempt to channel the spirit of Spider Jerusalem once again, and put together a live blog. A stream of my thoughts, coherent enough to be understood and interesting enough to be worth reading. If you’re curious what I’m up to tonight, it’ll be going up over on EroticVancouver.com.
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Decompression.
Well, it’s Tuesday now. I had an interesting weekend at GottaCon. On Sunday night, I got news that my grandmother had injured herself on the stairs, she’d slipped fallen a few stairs. She didn’t break anything, but has a few bruises and is obviously stiff. She’s currently walking with a walker, and will be staying
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live fire enviroment.
Testing in the laboratory is a good start. Once its solid there, then you test it under field conditions. Then you get someone else to test it; if it can survive that, then you’re ready to deploy it. Remember the key to success is being able to recognize when you’re completely unprepared and having the
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Medication
I started wondering tonight if the maturity and social awkwardness of the last few years is the result of growth or the result of the cipralex that I’ve been taking as a mood stabilizer. Prior to taking the cipralex, I was having issues with stress and a bit of anxiety. At least I think that
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Games for Gottacon.
Those that are coming: Cthulhu Wars Roll for the Galaxy Xia : Legends of the Drift System Netrunner Dead of Winter Doomtown Reloaded Evolution ? – Joe Likes Five Tribes? – Mancala Alchemists ? – Fancy Black Fleet ? – Pirates Among the Stars? – (7 Wonders in Space) Robinson Crusoe? – Co-op. – Highly Thematic. The Maybe List: Seasons?
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Sunny morning.
On my way to work on a nice sunny day. I’ve got an hour til I start, and about 15 minutes worth of travel time on my current route. So, that’s 45 minutes to wander and enjoy the sunshine. Tomorrow I’ve got a work lunch, which will be nice. Friday I’ve got the day off
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Obviously, I need to write more.
Today I decided to invest another $100 into my 2009 White Unibody Macbook. I’ve already replaced the main hard drive with an SSD to keep it functional and stripped out the CD room drive for a space to throw in a bigger storage drive. While my chromebook is my preferred machine for writing on while
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Predatory Behaviors discussion
Recently on Jezebel, there was an article about a Male Feminist being accused of rape. I brought the topic up with Reive, as something Erotic Vancouver should address. The biggest problem is, currently EV is a bit lacking in active female writers. We recently added 2ndNature, though I think she’s still getting stuff sorted out. We
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Thoughts on a rainy day
I’ve noticed that it’s been nearly a week since my last post. Well, I posted something in the meantime, but I posted it elsewhere, so that doesn’t count. It’s felt like a busy week, even though not much has happened. Mostly I’m killing time until the end of the mouth. Gottacon, over in Victoria. Gaming
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Underground
Sitting in an underground parkade, outside something that can best be described as a rave. Reminds me of a similar parties ages ago. I’m trying to have some deep thoughts, but the surface tension seems pretty solid. Just skipping stones across the surface at this point.
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Hatchets
The other night, while reflecting on the past, I was reminded of my role as the hatchet man lurking in the shadows of the community. That’s a thought that requires some explanation. I don’t know that I can pinpoint when it started or how, but I do have an understanding of why it came about.
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There will come a morning after…
I’m on the bus on the way back into the office. I’ve had an interesting weekend. Created more content than I’ve created in a long time. It can be found over on EroticVancouver. That’s the majority of the writing I did this weekend, though there’s another 50% again as many words that have been written
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Intensions (SiC)
My intentions for this blog were to write about the concept in Gaming known as Murder Hobos, the adventurers who lack moral fibre and motivation for their violent kill sprees. I was reminded of this the other day, when someone on a shadowrun podcast referred to their players as murderhobos. It reminded me of what
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The Calm before the Storm
Well, it’s Saturday morning, and I’m sitting on a couch, watching House with my Grandmother, who is currently cuddling my stuffed Cthulhu. We’ve been watching House for a few weeks now, since I had it on one night after work. Prior to that, I’d been watching it to decompress after work, and I’d gotten through
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Breakfast at Cozmos
I’m relaxing at Cozmos up on Hastings; east of the Heights, just past Kensington. Lovely little place, run by some great people. Really friendly, really welcoming. I just had a lovely Italian Benny and am getting myself mentally ready for what promises to be a pretty heavy day. At 4pm I’ll be meeting Reive, Cap’n
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Drunkard Dance 0.56
Duggan regained his balance. He was standing in a bathroom; it was somehow familiar. His attacker hadn’t followed him in, just shoved him through. Duggan turned and twisted the bolt on the door, locking it. His head spun for a moment, and he stepped towards the sink. He twisted the right hand tap, ran his
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Drinks unfinished – 0.47
Gorman held the bottle up to the light. “Well, that’s just about half the bottle. And according to the letter, I should save the other half.” He paused dramatically. “For the Future.” He raised his glass towards Duggan. “Right. The future. Does the letter mention the next bottle?” “Believe it or not, it does.” Gorman
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iCandy Thoughts
This is my attempt at a review of iCandy, a party that is thrown on Friday nights at Club 8×6, by ScottyHotty half of the [adjective not found] Plur Duo, with his partner, Markus|edge. The Plur parties have been some of the better events that I’ve attended. I’ve also enjoyed the energy on the dance floor
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Drunk man down 0.45
Despite the allegations against Gorman, he and Duggan had remained friends. They weren’t as close since the school had been putting pressure on Duggan to provide evidence that Gorman had been involved in the disappearance. That had understandably strained things between them. It was a few days after Duggan’s birthday, and Gorman had invited him
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Loading Order
Just for future reference, when I’ve brought a vehicle to an event, the loading order is thus : People I brought with me. People I consider extended family Event staff and their cargo (Human or otherwise) Drunk Friends who couldn’t get home on their own Friends People going the same direction And it’s always good
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Wormhole Descending.
It had been nearly a year since the disappearance. They hadn’t found a body, they hadn’t found any evidence or any witnesses. That hadn’t stopped the rumours. They’d had a fight, he’d blacked out, she’d gone missing. To say that people were suspicious of his story was an understatement. The hostility had grown over time,
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Navel Gazing.
Last time I checked out iCandy, I was in a strange mood. I sat in a dark corner entertaining people with the neon wand and typed up an article on my phone, something that was technically against the rules of the club. This time, I’m in the same corner, but I’ve brought along a laptop
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shower thoughts
While I showered this morning, I thought about who I am and how I communicate. In some ways, I’m a fairly private person, and in others I’m rather open about things. I try to be transparent about things, and that means it’s mostly things that I feel have no ability to harm me. Areas where
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Review – Xia: Legends of a Drift System
Background : (Why I got the game, skip if you don’t care about context) A while back, I heard great things about Xia from a couple of different people. A guy at the local Trumpeteer Gaming club was drooling over the copy he’d gotten from the Kickstarter campaign, and it was mentioned by a couple
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Drunken wormhole 0.25
“Let me get this straight, you’re pounding on his door to tell him his fiancée’s parents are going to murder him if he doesn’t get her home immediately” she paused, grinning “and he tells you that he just came out of the closet. And neither of you find that funny.” She quirked her eyebrow, “at
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Drunken Wormhole 0
“Alcohol is the cause of and solution to all of life’s problems.” – Homer Simpson – For James Arthur Gorman, it certainly started his problems. Gorman was invited out to a party to celebrate his recently published paper; not normally a drinker, the good news and lack of stress encouraged some indulgence. A whirling dance
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Post Mortem. New Years.
Well, I went out for New Years eve. And not long ago, I made it home. The last leg of my trip home was a 3 km walk, from Renfrew up to my place. During the walk, I had a decent amount of time to reflect. Right now, my gut says that it was likely
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between xmas and new years.
Well, it’s the 29th of December. On Wednesday, I’ve got a shift, and then in theory, I could go out to Noir. I’ll have friends there, and I’ll have the excuse of having the neon wand set up for demos. Though if I’m doing that, I’ll be sober. And right now, I have an odd
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Signal to Noise Ratios
I’ve long been known to rant about my frustration with the modern world in regards to the signal to noise ratios, specifically the frustration I have with the difficulty of recognising craft from dross. We are in an era where everyone can have a voice, but most haven’t developed the skills required to recognise when
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ships sunk.
This is the fourth or fifth time I’ve opened a window and stared at the page, trying to clean up my thoughts into words. The last few times I’ve decided to install Linux or browse Facebook instead of actually writing. I’m having a hard time expressing myself because I don’t consider my current concerns to
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Good news, but bad feelings
I should be in a good place. I’ve got a job that I like and that I’m good at. I’ve got friends that I enjoy spending time with. I’ve got interesting projects that I’m working on. I have been getting a good night’s sleep most nights. My back isn’t bothering me, nor is my bad
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332.6 / 33.087
I’m over at my parents place, fixing their network connections and being social. In theory, I’m here for a holiday dinner. And another one later in the week. Given how little sleep I managed to get last night, I’m a bit on the grumpy side. When I got here, I took a shower, to freshen
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Sweet Revenge.
Sometimes, you find a certain pocket of reality, a sweet spot in the the slipstream of fate. It’s a delicate little hollow, that you can only know by feeling the disruptions along the edges. As long as you ride with it, everything works. I had one of those nights tonight.
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Madness ensued.
It’s been nearly a week since I posted. The last week was a rough one. There was a bit of an issue at work which resulted in some of extra hours, and I managed to turn my cold into a respiratory infection for a few days. All in all, I’m really grateful for that lovely
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The Kinky and Geeky Munch
I can’t recall the last time I’ve been out for a munch. Probably at least 3 months. I made the time to come out to this one, expecting to go out to the TNG group to support them. However, I ended up at the Kinky and Geeky, though I’m not exactly sure why I made
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404 – Lost and Found.
I glance down at my phone. Its 4:04. Having spent far too much of my life online, the first thought that crosses my mind is 404, file not found. Then I start to reflect on my circumstances. I have a place that I reside. It isn’t home, but it’s the place where I’ve spent the
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The Tallest.
Well, I’m sitting here about to have some BBQ at Memphis Blues with our good friend The Tallest, aka Tall Alex. Earlier today, I popped onto Facebook today to check in on things and saw he was actually online for a change. His plans had been buggered, so I offered to help him out with
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Oculus Review
The other night I noticed that Oculus had shown up on Netflix. I’d been wanting to see if ever since FlayOtters a.k.a Charlie from Austin had talked about it on Horror Show Hot Dog. I hadn’t gotten around to seeing it in the theatre, though that’s no surprise. I almost never see anything in theatres
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Gottacon planning.
Well, Dimestore and I got our Warhorn clearance today. We can now register for the various festivities. Well, we could, if the site was actually letting us register, which it doesn’t seem to be doing. (After a quick email to the organizer, it is now working.) I’m wanting to do the midnight game again, as
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Publicity
I’m experimenting with adding social media functionality. I don’t know if I’ll keep it or not. In theory, it makes it easy for people to pass along my thoughts to others. But I can’t help feeling like it’s begging for more eyes, and I’m not sure I like that. Well, no, I am sure, I
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Yet More Netrunner.
There’s a tournament at Starlit on Saturday. Dimestore and I signed up for it. However, he’s got a couple’s day with his wife instead, so I’ll be going in solo. This tournament has a special prize for flatlines, so I’m working on a killer deck for a change. I’m a bit stumped on ice balance
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icandy
This is just a stream of thoughts and impressions that I’ll use to write up a review later for Erotic Vancouver. Markus had advertised the event as being more pub like than club like, but I think I misunderstood what he meant by that. Its got similar lighting as the last time I was here.
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Time slides sideways.
I’m in this coffee shop on the corner, a block away from the party I’m supposed to be at. I changed my shirt after work, but didn’t bother with anything else. I packed some gears, but gave no real thought to my appearance. In theory, one reason to attend this event is to be social.
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Insomniac
As often happens in November, my body has become an production facility for disgusting slime. The process is resulting in a combination of lethargy and disassociation; a feeling of weary calm. For many years I was a mouth breather, as my twice deviated septum and enlarged adenoids limited my nasal oxygen flow to less than
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Assemblage
Neither the hero nor the monster, but both could fit, if the bits weren’t too broken to make sense of it. Didn’t work as it was, attempted modification, without much skill. Disassembled, reassembled, jumbled and bumbled. Best they get is barely better than a wreck. Not enough of any individual design to be recognised. Adapted