Equivalent to a 3000 word post. 3000+, even.

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/doycetesterman/4405069829/” title=”Diaspora personal combat by DoyceT, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4014/4405069829_cb6b239f1e.jpg” width=”500″ height=”375″ alt=”Diaspora personal combat” /></a>
<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/doycetesterman/4441261668/” title=”Green Day by DoyceT, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4055/4441261668_c1593ba70a.jpg” width=”375″ height=”500″ alt=”Green Day” /></a>
<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/doycetesterman/4440510417/” title=”Scruff 001 by DoyceT, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4068/4440510417_4eb147a4dc.jpg” width=”500″ height=”375″ alt=”Scruff 001″ /></a>I

I find myself with not enough time to do the things I need to do today… all that Farscape to watch and those video games to play.

Oh yeah, and work. That. I’m actually more jealously proprietary about my work time now than I was when I was in an office.

Anyway, some quick things on my mind. This is no Painting With Shotguns, but it’s all I’ve got.

How many spaces can I move, again?
How many spaces can I move, again?

This is a phonecam shot of last week’s Diaspora game. It was our second session, and since we’d done a “social combat” the session before, I aimed to introduce the personal combat mini-game this time. It was both awesome and kind of weird. I overdid it on the map — too many zones, meaning that it took too much time and effort to get around the damned base. Still, lots of interesting stuff happened as part of the fight.

It was a weirdly ‘classic game night’ for me, because (due to the crazy map), the fight took up pretty much the whole session. Echoes of DnD, that. Ahh well.

Tonight, we play again. Lasers. In. Spaaaaaace…

Green Day
Green Day

My blue-eyed, red-haired daughter has decided that St. Patrick’s Day ranks somewhere just below Christmas and Halloween as her favorite holiday. It might or might not beat out Easter — there’s no candy, but there is themed clothing.

I got those crocs for her, by the way, when she was… 2 and a half (bought them a little big, since they have an elastic heel strap), and they remain the only pair of children’s shoes I can justify spending 30 bucks on. I’ve considered retiring them a couple times, but they fall quite firmly within Kaylee’s “from my cold, dead feet” category.

I feel I should also add: I’m a really lucky dad.

Scruff
Scruff

Let’s not dignify this with the title ‘beard’. It barely qualifies, and is hardly anything remotely Wendigian in its grandeur, but hey, it’s been all of a week.

Tim calls this “vacation face”. I call it “freelancer face”. Kate, of all people, loves it, and in fact requested it as soon as she realized (with some audible glee) that I was under no current obligation to shave.

I don’t understand girls.

“Loving Father. Devoted Husband. Never really understood girls.”

A fitting epitaph.

What else?

In the past month, I’ve played through Mass Effect 1 once, and Mass Effect 2… four times. Normal paragon mode. Hardcore renegade and middle-of-the-road. Insanity paragon. Everyone lives, though not everyone remains loyal to me. I’m probably going to play it one more time, concurrent with Kate’s play-through.

Kate finished Mass Effect 1 last night, and spent the last two hours of play shouting “whoa!” and “wow!” and “Holy. Crap. Mind. Blown.” and “I’m so AWESOME.” and “This is the best. Game. Ever.”

Afterward, she bought the super-deluxe-digital-download version of ME2 (so she could watch the behind the scenes videos), investigated the purchase of Mass Effect-related novels, and (I daresay) will no longer mock my purchase of an N7 t-shirt. I’m very much looking forward to discussing the possibility of a Quarian/Geth peace accord with her, next month.  It’s good to share obsessions. We’re watching Season Four of Farscape together during lunch breaks.

Currently, I’m playing Dragon Age, just because I don’t want to admit to running through ME2 again, then I’m going to do the original BioShock (never finished it before my old machine crashed), finish Braid, and redo Mirror’s Edge and Portal, just because all my save games were lost when my old machine died. (And because I like them.)

But not today. Today I have a training script to write and a game to prep.

Updates for the week of 2010-03-14

  • Hey guys: any of you able to tweak a flash .swf file? I've got one link inside this… flash blob needs to be changed. #
  • WordPressed my ASS off this weekend (and today). Not for my site, but I learned a lot anyway. #
  • Hey guys: anyone know of the statistics for yearly hitchhiker disappearances? Well, not *know* them, offhand, but know where to find them? #
  • "Hazard" is a really annoying word to type over and over. a-z-a is a difficult combo. My left pinky knuckle is protesting. #
  • (No, this is not for my Cletus/Deputy Enos slashfic.) #
  • WordPress people: I've got WP hosting the (non-blog) front page of a site. View thatdomain.com, it works, BUT http://www.thatdomain.com fails. Why? #
  • Ach! Sinuses! SO. MUCH. Burning! #
  • The fact that there is no available data on hitchhiker disappearances is actually more useful/interesting than the data would've been. #
  • And now it's snowing. Really, Colorado? I love you, but sometimes I think you just like having me around to pick on. #
  • Buffy (the show) is 13 years old today. @Daphneun and I are 4. It is appropriate that the two events share an anniversary. #
  • At the Dentist for my permanent crown. They can't get the temporary out. Fucking Denethor. #

Returning, briefly, to periscope depth

First of all, this is me:

allergies

Except I’m not a little red-haired girl, and there’s more swearing. Christ, allergies? Really? It’s still snowing, for fuck’s sake.

Ah, March in Colorado.

Anyway.

So, although I’ve technically been laid off, I’ve got a couple projects going on that make it seem a whole lot like I’m gainfully employed.

My assignment is simple.
My assignment is simple.

The first and foremost is a deal where I’m creating a bunch of online courses for my old job. I’m churning out about one interactive course every four days or so, which looks impossibly fast until you know that the material has already been tidily assembled, and all I need to do is write the script, voice it, assemble imagery to go with it, and code all the quizzes and final tests.

Then it just looks almost-impossibly fast.

It does provide a nice pattern, though, which has helped me with my aforementioned “when do I know I’m done for the day?” problem. On day one, I write the script. On day two, I voice it. On day three, layout, animation, and whatnot. One day four, quizzes. When I’m done with the stuff needed for that day, I stop. Voila.

That gives me time to work on the other project, which… well, it takes me back.

Mini-storytime
The first website I ever made was (it should surprise no one) for a game I was playing at the time. Like most things on the internet, even back then (this would have been around… 1992), I wasn’t the person who built it — I was just the guy who was asked to go in and fix it.

I’d never touched html before. I had to figure it all out as I went, and of course I didn’t have a manual or anything. Hell, I didn’t even have Google. I’d just poke around at stuff and figure out what I wanted to do, then horribly break something, figure out how to fix it, learn, and move on.

That website (and that game) disappeared into the mist of internet death a long long time ago; my first forays into web coding are mercifully lost in time, but that marked the beginning of my presence on the internet, and the start of my ongoing relationship with building websites. 18 years and counting. bears-cave. average-bear. random-average. Raw html in notepad. Frontpage. Blogger. Movable type. WordPress. mysql. Wikis. Forum installs, apache, php, bbcode, and god knows what else.

For me, it’s like math: I don’t know very much of it — I don’t carry the knowledge around, close at hand, the way I do knowledge of other things — but give me a few hours to refresh my memory and I can figure out a surprising amount.

Poke around random-average.com or this site or fireflywiki.org, and you might be under the impression I know what I’m doing. Or ktliterary.com, which marked something of a high point in both web design and wordpress kung-fu for me.

Until now.

One of Kate’s clients, who also happens to be a dear friend who spoke at great and hilarious length at our wedding, has this website. It’s beautifully and professionally designed, and the one time I ever looked at the code (while I was helping her set up a Ning site for her fans — Nings: did I forget to mention nings? Nings are cool), it scared the shit out of me. The layout was accomplished entirely through tables — tables nested four and five levels deep in some cases — positively labyrinthine. A sort of massive, intricate structure composed of nothing but pixie-stix filled with nitroglycerin: do so much as sneeze and the whole damned thing would explode in your face. Intimidating, is the word.

Turns out, Maureen felt pretty much the same way. As a result, with the exception of the (blogger hosted) blog, nothing really got updated on the site because it was too damned easy to break something. Badly.

So a little while ago, Maureen guest-blogged on someone else’s site and got a taste of WordPress.

You can see where this is going.

It didn’t take long before she decided she wanted some of that wordpress goodness on her own site, and she asked me if I could take the blogger template, make a wordpress equivalent, port the whole thing over to be hosted on her actual website – where all those delicate, explodey static pages were – and… you know… make it all work.

I said sure, because… well, Maureen’s a little crazy, and sometimes crazy rubs off.

This little story is getting long, so let me sum up: I didn’t port over the blogger site.

Well, I didn’t just port it over. In order to make use of the the nice widget sidebars, modular headers and footers, and really everything else that embodies WordPress Cool, I had to take apart that scary nitro-pixie-code and rebuild it in neat little parcels.

… and when I was done with that, well… it really wasn’t THAT much more work to port in all those static pages as wordpress pages, make them less explodey, and put them where they could be, you know, updated.

… and get the flash-laden front page working as part of all that…

And… you know… just port the whole damned site into wordpress, where MJ could actually have a site she could touch without losing a finger.

So I did that. It’s over here. Yeah, I know it’s pink. I know it’s not “me”. (It is Maureen, though, which is rather the point.)

It’s not my design – I’m honestly not much of a designer – but if Mordin Solis has taught me only one thing, it’s this: it’s just as hard to modify an existing Deadly Thing without fucking it up as it is to create the thing from scratch in the first place.

So I’m pretty proud of it. You should see the “Edit Pages” display; it’s tidy. I learned a LOT of cool WordPress stuff.

Best of all, MJ seems happy with it.

And I don’t know if I’d have found the time to do this much work on it if I hadn’t been in my current weird employment situation.

So, there you go: bright spot.

Now then: back to work.

Updates for the week of 2010-03-07

  • Kaylee's toys are flying to grandma's house. In a spaceship. There are evil robots! Her groovy girls are firing the 'lazer-bazer'. #soproud #
  • Kaylee is demonstrating sudden and inexplicable knowledge of ABBA lyrics. I blame @maureenjohnson — and I suspect that would thrill her. #
  • Manufacturers are now putting instructions on candy bar wrappers. Where to hold it; where to pull. Is this needed? Are we devolving? #weeps #
  • Status, King Bidgood: Still in bathtub; still refusing to get out. #justthoughtyoushouldknow #
  • My weekly workday schedule just got a LOT more flexible. :( Upside: my (ex)boss is pretty awesome. #
  • OK Go – This Too Shall Pass – Once again, a GREAT video – http://youtu.be/qybUFnY7Y8w #
  • Must. Resist. Shopping. Urge. (Want that SR2 cap BAD.) http://is.gd/9zviU #
  • 3/2/2010 (http://goo.gl/GEFd) – Pretty in green. #
  • Anyone ever played this? Thoughts? http://is.gd/9KVw6 #
  • For #ff or #followfriday or whatever, I point at @dknippling — a good person to know if you like either words or food, but especially both. #
  • Date night concludes with a couch, @daphneun, Farscape, and possible a large packet of crackers. Sometimes they matter. #
  • Heading downtown for Mary Poppins with @daphneun and the munchkin. #
  • Completely nuked @daphneun's entire photoblog in, like, two mouse clicks. I am Jack's complete incompetence. #

Laid off: not the same as Out of Work

So as some folks grokked from a Twitter post I made on Monday, I was laid off this week[1]. This was (fortunately) not something entirely unexpected; I report directly to the director of human resources and, without getting into the details too much, I had as much warning as any sane person could realistically expect and then some. I parted on good terms, exiting (I hope) with a certain amount of dignity, and garnered myself (again, I hope) no small number of positive references, should I require them.

So… how’s it going?

This joke, it turns out, is not beneath me.
This joke, it turns out, is not beneath me.
The comment made on Monday night was that the Wednesday night tabletop game should be awesome, because I’d have a lot more time to prep.

Yeah… not so much.

I’m actually kinda busy.

See, at my “final meeting”, I was offered a contract job to complete some long-term projects that my now-former employer really needed to see finished, but which they couldn’t retain me as a regular employee to work on. I took that offer for a number of fiduciary reasons (and the simple fact that, as a card-carrying Compulsive, I wanted to see the projects completed as well). The effect is that I’m working from home, collecting a reasonable check every time I wrap up one of these ten projects and (perhaps best of all) continuing to enjoy the company’s excellent benefits until I’m done. It’s not as-good-as, but as weaning processes go I have a vanishingly small amount of space in which to complain.

But… yeah, I’m busy. I’ve got eight weeks to finish up these ten projects. Also, a website transplant (“bring my blogger blog into wordpress, so I can host it on my site, and make it look exactly like all these other pages I have on the site… which were all built professionally… with lots of tables”) for another author.

And, of course, looking for another regular dayjob, which in my experience is probably the hardest job I’ve ever done or will ever do.[2]

So all of those things combine to create a kind of weird situation where I should (theoretically) be footloose and fancy free, and I’m not.

I’ve been on the internet less

trooper-google
You’d think (or at least I would), that working from home would provide ample time for idle browsing, twittering, Google Readering, and so forth, but that hasn’t been the case. I’ve been so wrapped up in my own little maelstrom of crap that I didn’t even realize I hadn’t updated the blog until someone else mentioned it. Looking over my twitter page for the last four days is… illuminating. And quiet.

I need to fix that, but first I need to remember how to “do” this kind of work, which is different from other kinds of work. There’s a lot to do, and the gestalt is hard to fully grasp.

Plus, there’s all the Mass Effect 2 to play. I mean, c’MON.

How is Work Done?

Certainly my non-day-job of writing requires working from home, but that’s different — I do that when I get home — essentially I use my play-time on more, different, work. What I’m doing now is different, and I’m not sure I remember how I should go about it.

When does the work day start?

When does it end? (That’s a big one: I find the line between “I didn’t do enough today to avoid guilt.” and “I think I’m burning myself out on work.” to be one so fine as to be nigh-invisible.)

What I’m saying is that I had my patterns and rules of measurement that let me judge how well things were going in a given day, and all those measuring sticks have been cast aside – I need new ones.

Those of you (and I know there are more than a few) reading this from the comfort of a work-at-home situation, please: share your insight and suggestions in the comments. [4]

I need your pajama-clad wisdom.
I need your pajama-clad wisdom.

Once I get properly settled (or once the first project is wrapped up), I have thoughts to share on writing and the Mass Effect 2 pause button. [5]


1 – Me and about 100 other people. Yeah.

2 – Which isn’t to say I’m not good at it. I worked for several years as a contract-to-hire guy, leaving a string of pleased and better-educated customers in my wake, so I know how to get work.[3]

3 – But it wearies me.

4 – Those of you reading this from the comfort of your regular-work-place, feel free to recommend me the next time your company needs to hire someone in training and education.

5 – I also need to schedule a post to publish one year from now, apologizing for all the Mass Effect babble I spewed back in 2010.

Updates for the week of 2010-02-28

  • Completed #ME2, somewhat by accident. Now, #amwriting some more: time to knit some sweaters and write some roadtrip. #
  • (Oh, and #ME2 was/is amazing. Even the cheesy parts were amazing. What a great game. What a good story.) #
  • Thanks my lovely wife, @DaphneUn, there's juuust enough soda stashed in the 'gaming fridge' to keep me from a run to the store tonight. #
  • Yes, we have a gaming fridge down in the comfy basement. A largish (waist high) dorm fridge, equidistant between console and gaming table. #
  • Onomatopoeia or it didn't happen! (http://goo.gl/4NDL) – This… actually sounds pretty awesome. #
  • Oh boy, I get to go to the dentist EARLY today. #goodygoodygumdrops #
  • RT @ChuckWendig Ten Rules For Writing Fiction: My (Erm, Current) List. Come. Read. Add your own! http://tinyurl.com/yl7dwkn – Good stuff. #
  • Dentist done; I am temporarily crowned. #stillnotking #
  • Soon, my mouth will be framed by a crown on either side – like the Anduin passing through the Argonath, just before Amon Hen. #nerdentistry #
  • Unless you're a spy, "the drugs are wearing off" is never a good thing. #iamnotaspy #ow #
  • shitmydadsays: "A parent's only as good as their dumbest kid. If one wins a Nobel Prize but the other gets robbed by a hooker, you failed." #
  • Revisions done. Can I get an Amen? Can I get a Hell yeah? #
  • Finished revisions yesterday, then again today (shut up). Sent em off to the superlative Agent S. As @saucy_dryad would say, "WHO'S NEXT?" #
  • Balancing The Stone (http://goo.gl/NIn4) – Wow. Weird coincidence here, as Tim and I were just talking last night about a situation where he #
  • Bugger. Used to be that sharing something in GReader with a long comment meant it wouldn't bounce to Twitter. Now it does. #donotwant #
  • You know what's kind of sad and hilarious? Playing Bioware games makes me want to get back into actual roleplaying in MMOs. #
  • Really nice wallpapers (that's right, wallpapers) http://is.gd/91qeS #
  • Random Average: Mass Effect 2 (spoileriffic) http://bit.ly/9ulSdE #
  • Oh, morning: I wish I could quit you. No, seriously. #
  • Hunting the elusive stand-alone freezer. Price varies wildly for no reason I can fathom. (I know, my life is FASCINATING.) #
  • The most recently read email in my inbox is titled "Your Connecting Point for Meat!" It's from my mom. #
  • RT @BarackObama: Watch highlights from today's #HCR meeting: http://bit.ly/b1nA7w; http://bit.ly/cFnJVS; http://bit.ly/bP01bn #
  • If You Think You Need Some Lovin http://youtu.be/z9KMgg7T_sg (I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.) #
  • I really, really, like what @chuckwendig is saying in his latest post. Read http://is.gd/9g2wz #
  • The good: weekend starting early. The bad: this is due to child throwing up at school. #
  • ME: I think you're the best kid, but I'm biased. KAYLEE: Does biased mean you think someone is best? Cuz I think I'm biased on you too. #
  • Kaylee is pleased to be at a McD play area, but THRILLED that my 'distraction book' is (630+ page) Burning Empires. #
  • Mass Effect 2 on Insanity-difficulty makes babies cry. Because I'm punching them. #
  • I wish everyone I knew made cookies as 'good' as the ones I just made; I'd lose SO MUCH weight. Even the dogs are rejecting them. #

Updates for the week of 2010-02-21

  • I just earned two "paragon" points in Mass Effect by proposing a threesome. #SpacePaladinsHaveDifferentRules #
  • Also, my 4 year ild got me Mass Effect 2 for my birthday, "so you have something to play when I'm not around." #
  • When it was time to end my lunch hour nap and head back to work, I *dreamt* I did so… and slept another 25 minutes. #stupidbraintrickedme #
  • I like it when I put a little cream in my coffee and doesn't change color, because it's too black to be AFFECTED. #concentratedjitters #
  • Adrift: I look at the vid lens and tell the station it either needs us – all of us – to help, or should shoot us. … http://bit.ly/a5zr2E #
  • Dead at 90 – Fredrick Morrison, Frisbee Inventor (http://goo.gl/uC36) – You know… for kids! #
  • Dead at 90 – Fredrick Morrison, Frisbee Inventor (http://goo.gl/Sx41) – You know… for kids! #
  • Crazy Goats (http://goo.gl/1j3f) – My mind, it is blown. #
  • A new Buzz start-up experience (http://goo.gl/70FP) – I love that Google addressed this so quickly, even if I think the 'concerns' were… #
  • Random Average: Being Immortal in Fate (Diaspora) http://bit.ly/dhbbIE #
  • Wondering what the Recovery Act has accomplished? Check this out: http://bit.ly/9ekLbu #
  • Too much to say about the end of ME1 and the start of ME2 to fit here, so I put it over there: http://bit.ly/cSnVAE – come geek with me. #
  • Random Average: Thoughts/questions about the end of Mass Effect 1 http://bit.ly/9K5dRa #
  • Twitter For Dipshits (http://goo.gl/aUHJ) – This: "I'm always adjusting, trying to tune the knobs to get more signal, less noise." #
  • 5 Google Buzz Tips for the Advanced User (http://goo.gl/TwpC) – Chrome Extension! Yay! #
  • Interesting. @Pyr_Books now accepts UNagented manuscripts in epic fantasy, sword & sorcery, and contemporary fantasy: http://bit.ly/ar7J8y #
  • New blog post coming, after I go get a tooth drilled. Here's taste, it's got Porkins in it. http://brizzly.com/pic/1HGU #
  • After we send in taxes, sure. #
  • By bouth id numb. #dentistchair #
  • DORK TOWER, Wednesday, February 17, 2010 (http://goo.gl/9iLp) – HA! #
  • children on the playground (http://goo.gl/T4Yy) – I watch Kaylee to remember how the world should be. #
  • Random Average: Diaspora, Session 1: Teacup on The Tempest http://bit.ly/aOBlAh #
  • This is what I mean when I say DRM encourages piracy, people: http://is.gd/8GF81 #
  • Man, eight hours of sleep, all in a row. http://bit.ly/diBiW7 #
  • Oh dear. @maureenjohnson is stealing @DaphneUn away for Two Whole Week(end)s!. Prepare the button. http://bit.ly/8g3Rke #
  • I might, perhaps, have inflicted a Mass Effect-related RSI on myself. Maybe. I'm not saying. #soundslikeagoodweekendforwriting #
  • Kind of staggering from a gut-punch today; the kind that promises a harder punch in the future. #
  • You know what? Everyone needs to hear this song. It's Olympic! (Also, a fine way to cheer up.) http://bit.ly/9tDWXj #
  • Awesome, whole-house "mousetrap" contraption (http://goo.gl/zZEQ) – Simply great. #
  • Adrift: It is a long, long walk to the first corner. Every step feels like the one where the PPC powers back up an… http://bit.ly/ddueVt #
  • Obama explains climate science (http://goo.gl/Ypl8) – Thank you, Mr. President. It's "Zip Code" warming. #

Diaspora, Session 1: Short version

Over on my gaming blog, I give the blow by blow from our first honest to dog game of Diaspora, which is a kind of ‘hard sci-fi’ roleplaying game, using the DIY kung-fu of the FATE system.

Someone called it “the softest hard sci-fi game out there”, and I agree.

Anyway, that post is kinda long, so let me tell you about my character give you the short version, because it makes me kinda happy.


Last night was the first real game session. I sketched out a pretty standard “free traders” scenario in which [CLIENT] needs [CARGO] carried to [DESTINATION], so we can learn the system and blow some stuff up.

The players all (and I mean ALL) have prioritized skills related to space combat. They’re flying a former pirate ship that you need military training to pilot. If there is a method in which a ship can engage in offensive action, they by-god have such method spot-welded to the hull.

I have clearly, CLEARLY been given the high-sign to start the game off with a space battle.

I do prep work: stat out the ships and the crew for the bad guys, and read and re-read the space combat rules til I’ve got em DOWN.

We start play and I foreshadow the shit out of the coming fight; I whisper the promise of attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, or something.

We get to the point where the beam weapons shall, verily, hit the fan. Bad Guys! In ships! With guns! Prepare to be boarded!

And my players basically force the situation into a Social Combat.

Which I’m totally unprepared for. Totally.

So… we do that. The opening volley of the exchange is fired via piña colada.

And it’s awesome. One of the enemy pirate captains flew away from the confrontation, put his ship in dry dock, sold it (at a loss), and took up farming on a world with carnivorous plant life… and he considers himself better off.

It was a good game, and a fine night.

*satisfied sigh*

Okay, I’m done.

Tomorrow I’ll write about staying focused. As one does, right after a tangent.