Archive for the 'Home Base' Category

May 11th 2008
Mother’s Day musings

Posted under Toiling In The Pixel Mines & Should We Talk About The Weather? & ...And Baby Makes Three

More nasty storms rolled through tonight. No damage on our end, but it wouldn’t have been the first damage of the year if there had been; we finally got the write-up from our insurance company on the work to be done on the house, as well as the check to do it with. It’s not what I’d describe as a small check, and not what I’d describe as small work: new roof, new windows all around, new back door, refinish the deck…I’ll admit that I look forward to having screen windows (the paperwork actually specifies screen windows), as well as a new back door, but I was a little surprised by the new roof thing. That’ll be fun. :roll:

In other news, another round of PDF DVDs goes out the door on Monday, due in no small part to me finally openly promoting it on Digital Press and AtariAge. Both communities have a bit of a history of suddenly getting their backs up when someone starts trying to sell them stuff from within, but ya know, I think both communities also know me well enough to know that I’m not a fly-by-night spammer. (Though considering how little I’ve been on AtariAge for the past few years, they might think I am. :lol: What can I say? I just don’t quite have the hardcore Atari tunnel vision that some of the folks there do, and I feel a little out of place.) I’ll admit that over the past couple of weeks since the OKC show, it’s been kind of fun to see where I got with just word-of-mouth and a banner about the DVD in my message board signatures, but it’s time to get down to business - I need a new office chair stat. Mine’s broken and it’s driving me nuts to sit on it. :-p

Speaking of video work, I’ve been amused lately by a TV promo about a grocery giveaway that looks like something I would’ve done with the on-screen text being “printed” on “receipts” that scroll up the screen. The really funny thing? This promo is not running on a station I used to work for - it’s running on a station that’s, technically speaking, the competition. :lol: Maybe I’m having delusions of grandeur, but permit me a moment to laugh out loud at channel 5 aping some of my old 40/29 promo tricks. (Please don’t mistake this for me pining away for the old job though - one thing I’ve enjoyed about the wild weather this year is being home to take care of my family, rather than getting called in or having to stay hellishly late to wipe someone’s butt and worry my head off about my kid.)

Finally, speaking of my kid, some pictures that only a mother could love: Continue Reading »

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April 28th 2008
When Bowser Attacks

Posted under Funny Stuff & ...And Baby Makes Three

When bowser attacks

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April 28th 2008
Recovering from OEGE

Posted under Gaming & Toiling In The Pixel Mines & ...And Baby Makes Three

This code disk means FREEDOM!Sorry I haven’t had a lot to say this weekend - Saturday I was either en route to, in, or returning home from Oklahoma City all day, and Sunday I proceeded to sleep in like a madman and then go feed horses (presumably also like a madman). I took the TVs and DVD player I used in OKC back to self-storage Sunday night, which marks an all-time record for me putting away all of my “expo wares” after getting home from a show. :lol: It was a decent show, pretty quiet, subdued and small though, and I strongly get the impression that while it being an on-school-premises event is a valuable backbone for it to have, that also hamstrung the promotion of it because everything from securing sponsors to putting up a web site (the latter of which never happened) had to be vetted by faculty. Putting it right around the end of the semester might not have helped in that regard either, since it meant that faculty was probably getting ready for, or grading, finals. Still, one lives and learns, and hopefully this show will make it to a second year. I sold about a dozen copies of the PDF DVD, a link to which I’m now contractually obliged to include in nearly every blog post or message board post I write, and not all of them went to Digital Press forum regulars, which was encouraging.

There were quite a few people who asked about it and didn’t buy it, and they were just as valuable as the folks who did fork over money: they gave me a very good idea of what to say on the actual ordering page, including clearing up a very frequent question, i.e. “Is this DVD the thing that’s showing on this TV screen, or is it emulators and ROMs?” I don’t want to denigrate any potential customers, but come on. I’m in a grey enough area with the commercials that are on there, but emulators and ROMs? That’d just be a suicidally stupid thing to sell on the internet. So into the disclaimer it went: yes, this DVD is what you saw on the screen - the timeline documentary thingie. Though three minor issues with it cropped up after I’d made the copies, in general, I’m very pleased with how the PDF DVD turned out. Maybe it’s a bit of an ego trip, but after watching that whole three-hour thing, and then the animated GreenhouseFX logo at the end with the music…that little logo animation just does not get old. Not for me anyway. :-P Continue Reading »

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April 22nd 2008
Scenes from a house with a video editing suite and a baby and a bunch of cats in it

Posted under Critters & Gadgetology & ...And Baby Makes Three

Here’s a scene I saw when I came around the corner of Evan’s room the other day, just routinely checking on him:
Evan and Obi
Oooooookay. Oh, it gets better. Continue Reading »

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April 15th 2008
Like…totally?

Posted under Should We Talk About The Weather? & Home Base

Insurance SketchOkay, so maybe we didn’t skate out of the bad weather as unscathed as I thought. Apparently there was some roof damage, nothing big but also not the sort of thing you want to allow to get big over time, and - to my total slackjawed amazement - the insurance adjuster decided both vehicles were totalled. :shock: I really didn’t think they were that bad - yeah, a few dings and dents here and there, especially on the driver’s side of my wife’s vehicle which she uses to deliver the mail - but apparently the insurance company feels like spending money. So…I guess the check’s in the mail, so to speak. In the meantime, either hail or wind or both apparently managed to push our sliding door off its track, something I had to fix tonight.

It could be worse. The house in Fort Smith that everyone’s seen on the news - that one house that was compeltely demolished - is where the doula we hired to help out with my wife’s labor and delivery lives. I’m told that she and her family are in good shape, between insurance and the church they go to going all-out to help, but still…maybe I’m way too attached to all my “stuff” (not a statement I can really honestly say I’d argue with), but I can’t imagine losing my hermitag…uh…house like that.

More thoughts to follow later when I stray somewhat closer to the coherent end of the spectrum.

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April 10th 2008
Lord, here comes the flood

Posted under Should We Talk About The Weather? & ...And Baby Makes Three

Looking back at my previous blog entry, it’s easy to tell - mainly from the spelling and punctuation - how tired I was. I can’t really say I’m any less tired now, but I do have some more pictures. Continue Reading »

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April 10th 2008
Evan’s first tornado. And his second. And his third…

Posted under Critters & Should We Talk About The Weather? & ...And Baby Makes Three

Tonight was the live fire test of the emergency plan about what to do with Evan in the event of a tornado warning right over our heads.

One baby, three cats, and one big dog.

Behind Evan’s car seat, at floor level, is a cat carrier with Olivia in it; above her in their own cat carriers are Othello and Oberon. You can barely make out Xena next to the cat carriers (sorry about the dark shot; power was out. This is where the cat carriers actually stay, year-round, and we nickname it the Kittycat Hilton. And this kind of gathering is precisely why they stay there. Continue Reading »

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March 30th 2008
Early spring and lightning

Posted under Gaming & Television & Movies & Toiling In The Pixel Mines & ...And Baby Makes Three

Elizabeth Lister ObservatoryIt’s all around me, yeah yeah yeah. Odd time to be blogging, I’ll admit, being in the middle of a thunderstorm warning with quite a sound and light show going on just outside my window, but I stay awake for these things just in case they wake Evan up.

And speaking of Evan…I’ve got video for you! It’s just not the video I was trying to get. I’ve been a bit self-conscious lately of the fact that I take boatloads of pictures of the kid, and not nearly enough video, which has to be the height of irony since I’m kinda like Mr. Video Equipment. So today, before I put Evan down for his morning nap after we’d had breakfast and read some stories, I set up one of my cameras to look straight down into the crib. Now, one might just argue that the presence of a huge freaking tripod directly above one’s head might just be something that would be unusual enough to merit staying awake. But I waited until he was rubbing-his-eyes tired to put him down for his nap. Did it help? Not even the tiniest bit. I sped up the resulting 10 or so minutes of video to give you a time lapse version of what all he did instead of, oh, actually sleeping. You’d think he would be making a ton of noise while doing all that shuffling around, but no, he just gets good and stuck and then he calls for help. I have no idea where he got that.

While waiting for someone to e-mail me back a JPG or two so I could finish a video project I was working on for them, I farted up a little Doctor Who DVD intro thingie that might also amuse you fellow fans out there. You can watch that here.

I’ve gotten an invite from the Computer Arts and Technology Society at Oklahoma
City Community College to be an exhibitor at the first-ever Oklahoma Electronic Game Expo on April 26, 2008. At this point…I honestly don’t know if I’m up for that or not. There was no OVGE in 2007, which frankly was a bit of a relief (not that I didn’t miss it though), and now that I’ve got a baby that I’d have to make arrangements for, the thought of unplugging a bunch of my crap and hauling it to OKC is just a bit more daunting than it would’ve been this time two years ago. Part of me wants to go, part of me wants to just sleep. At any rate, if you’re in that neighborhood, it’s Saturday, April 26th at the OCCC campus, south of OKC near the Will Rogers World Airport. (”Will Rogers World! Will Rogers World! For all your Will Rogers needs!”) I’ll keep you updated on my decision, whenever I reach it. I might do something, I might not. OVGE folks who remember Kent will be relieved to know that he’s on hot standby for this event - I think he’s been suffering OVGE withdrawals.

Not quite last but most certainly not least, congratulations to Keir and his family on the new baby. I’m glad they got to deliver in an ambulance behind the post office instead of me - you’d think that would’ve happened to us:shock:

Finally, I have to confess an embarrassing truth: I almost pissed my pants laughing so hard at South Park’s Heavy Metal parody last week. If you haven’t already, you really need to catch the rerun of that one, or get it on iTunes or something.

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