dmoonfire

Ended staying up to nearly midnight last night to finish up the responses for the petition. Even though I felt pretty comfortable with the answers, I’m still uncomfortable with what they were asking. I had one other petition rejected in the same way, for the networking class. The first round came back with a comment that my resume didn’t show heavy networking experience. So, I added five pages on the various networking I did for SIL. It came back again, with show more information about networking skills. I had no clue what they were talking about. I told them I did it, I explained all the cases where I used networking. I also couldn’t figure out what part of networking they wanted, and they wouldn’t tell me.

So, I went with one of my vices: wordy. A thirty page paper on how to do networking. It included the basic process of wiring RJ-45 plugs, including the differences between the A and B style wiring. I had tips on wiring houses and buildings, including the cases where you use PVC verses plenum wires. I went with configurations on Linux, Mac, and Windows. Basics of software firewalls and using `tcpdump` to track down errant network usage. I also even included the IPv4 firewall configurations to handle things like SYN and smurf attacks (the two I dealt with personally). Which naturally required a discussion on IPv4 and IPv6 packet headers.

As a note, I really do try to be a jack-of-trades in life.

I got it, but I still don’t know what they wanted. I just info-dumped on them and hoped it work. I did something similar to this petition, which I’m not entirely happy with. I gave them how I would honestly use the PMBOK from the view of my experiences and my own style. I gave links to where my discussions in my previous answers correlate to the PMBOK bullet points and expanded with specific examples. The one thing I didn’t do was use the section numbers and exact names of processes to describe what I did.

Originally posted on Moonfire Thoughts. Feel free to comment here or at the site.

I’m excited and worried at the same time. My weigh-in for Weight Watchers was… good. Actually, a bit too good so I’m worried that I won’t be able to lose weight tomorrow because of some quirk. Came out to almost 3 kg in a week. This reverses the weight gain in the two weeks before and then some, but I’ll have to be extra focused on walking fast, getting some excercise, and eating healthy. I’m 0.45 kg from my next star and 0.91 kg from losing 5% of my initial weight at Weight Watchers.

Fluffy is out of town for a few days, so I get to enjoy obsessing at home. This week, I’m planning on working on my third college petition feedback and then the commission due in a week or so. The commissioner is anxious to get it and I really want to see how the story turns out. It is probably one of the largest ones I’ve done from someone else’s idea, so this is going to be a challenge. While I can write fifteen thousand word stories, I do better with less than that.

My “sweet spot” for short stories is five to ten thousand words. That is where at least 90% of everything I write for myself falls into. Naturally, it is larger than most of the places looking for short stories which makes it harder to find places to submit.

Not that schedules impact writing at all *cough*, but the ten thousand mark is also the largest story I can reasonably write in a single evening. I have to be really into the story, dreaming and thinking about it constantly, but sitting down after work until bed time, I get just under four hours. Naturally, that times goes into Fluffy, animals, and housework also, but when she’s out of town, I write more.

Imagine that.

Originally posted on Moonfire Thoughts. Feel free to comment here or at the site.

Today is the fourth of July, a wonderful holiday because it gave us the country I love so much. It is one of those holidays so divorced from all the pain and sorrow that came up to it, all those years ago, but still meaningful for me. I just don’t really get into the celebrations as much (for anything actually). We have some friends coming over for board games and grilling, but nothing else really.

My dentist visit went fairly well. He said the weird feeling in my tongue should be gone in a few weeks, if it goes more than a month, then get another appointment. Otherwise, things seem to be going pretty well and I’m on the way to recovery. I suspect in two weeks, most of my discomfort should be completely gone.

Got some interesting idea to work with Fedran, my steam punk world. I’ve been slowly creating the languages for the world as I went, but struggled a bit with the writing systems. While wandering through the Unicode charts, I saw a couple really pretty script languages already in the charts, so I’m thinking about using them for my writing systems. The desert folk pretty much already use Katakana and Hiragana for the word constructions, so why not just use that for the writing system also? For the more common language, I considered Canadian Syllabics or Ethiopic. Yes, they aren’t really “fantasy” scripts, but to a purely English reader, they are exotic enough to get the feel of the language and I’m already planning on coming up with the grammar myself. I’d also use Tengwar, if I could, but it isn’t in the Unicode planes yet and I’m not entirely sure about the copyright of the scripts; the Tolkien estate seems very… rabid about legal threats but if it gets in Unicode, that pretty much says the symbols isn’t limited (and maybe that is why it isn’t there yet).

I think languages are a wonderful thing in fantasy worlds. I love playing with them, but it really seems to direct how they respond. Obviously, I’m not that experienced in creating custom languages but that is part of the fun.

Other writing news: I’m still working on chapters 1-3 of DG. I just finished the rewrite of chapter 1 and I’m a lot happier with it. It cleans up a lot of the passive voice in the original and ramps up the interesting bits a lot. It also went from six thousand words down to four. If any history is to judge, the first ten chapters are going to be the hard part. After that, I’ll start editing less on the individual chapters. My goal is to be finished with this edit by GenCon this year.

Originally posted on Moonfire Thoughts. Feel free to comment here or at the site.

One of the things I noticed while reviewing books is the differences between the books I managed to pick up in the stores and those I pick up at GenCon and less commerical places. I’m not going to say one is better than the other, because they aren’t. But, when I’m reading it, sometimes I get a nagging feeling that they are somehow “different”.

Originally posted on Moonfire Thoughts. Feel free to comment here or at the site.

This is the point where I declare that Fluffy has been slipping and it is entirely her fault that I gained weight two weeks in a row. Naturally, it is, I mean, all she did was take care of me in this last week, despite my constant efforts to get up from the couch and work out. I knew, I mean I knew that I had to do it, but she absolutely refused to let me off the couch. And fed me constant chicken nuggets and milkshakes despite my constant efforts to eat healthier and work out.

… believe me?

No, I didn’t either. This last week was not a good one for me. Gained nearly a kilogram in the last week and my excuse last week turned out to be nothing but an excuse. I need to focus on it, but it is hard to keep on something like this for such a long time. But, I guess I just need to do it.

Same thing with DG. The first three chapters aren’t quite right. They are almost there, but it still feels so weak when I write it. I’m going to work on it for a few more days, I have an idea of completely gutting the first chapter and seeing if laying it down fresh gets me over this little descriptive block. The story is fine, I just can’t seem to get the right feel for a horror novel. Well, without it being completely a cliche or just coming off lame.

Oh well, if it was easy, someone else would be a famous writer instead of me.

Originally posted on Moonfire Thoughts. Feel free to comment here or at the site.

Okay, completely and utterly obscure reference. If you like parodies, check out the Power Rangers parody, Shinesmen. Wonderful little sense of humor with quotes like:

Business cutter attack! Ineffective as usual!

Well, I just sent out the third petition for college. Only came out to 28 pages but still a pretty solid example that I know project management. Or, I hope it will be a pretty solid example. We’ll find out in 3-4 weeks. I’m not planning on waiting for this one to be accepted before finishing up number four. I want them off my priority list and to work on other, more enjoyable, things.

Speaking of enjoyment, tweaked my website design a bit further. Uses a bit more dividing lines and I got this really cool watercolor effect with some alpha channel PNG’s. It also broke up the side navigation bar from the main. I did that so I could put a textured background on the main block of the page. Normally, I’m not fond of image backgrounds at all but I think the mass of black on white needed a bit of structure.

I’m struggling a bit with the first three chapters of DG. I found some of the things that bothered me from the original draft, but my writing skills have changed since I wrote this. The introduction, which I liked before, I felt is a bit too… bland to be a good novel. So, I’m using this as a chance to clean up my beginnings and see if I can make this one really grab the reader.

Originally posted on Moonfire Thoughts. Feel free to comment here or at the site.

Got a chance to see my website with the new Firefox 3.5 Beta. I got curious since 3.5 is supposedly the first Firefox that will be able to handle web fonts, a way of putting a custom font on a website without fancy tricks. Previously, I used sIFR, but I don’t like hack solutions for changing fonts, no matter how elegant or impressive. The site looks so much better, using Underwood Champion as a font. It looks like Courier, but has a lot more character to the text and gives the entire thing a nice feel.

So, in anticipation of it coming out, and my desire to get rid of sIFR, I decided to clean up the site a bit. I switched the banner to the right and integrated the web fonts a lot more. It goes with that “important” need to have a right banner than a left; it doesn’t really manner which side but I kind of like it on the right at the moment.

Sadly, the Windows version of Firefox 3.5 isn’t as pretty as the Linux version. The Linux renders Underwood Champion beautifully but I can’t get my Windows machine to render that font without it looking like someone write it out on a moving truck. No doubt, it is settings on my computer, but I’m still holding my breath.

Still, it feels good to play around with web design and avoid what I should be doing, like working on my petitions or editing DG. I got into the third chapter of DG when my laptop started acting up last night. For some reason, I couldn’t check in any changes, but I could if I copied them manually over to my desktop. I got around it, but it took me a little bit. Things seem to be working correctly now, so I’m anxious to get started.

I also got distracted with a little short story. Just an idea I want to get out of my head. So, I’m working on that while trying not to think about my inability to eat solid food for the third day in the row.

Originally posted on Moonfire Thoughts. Feel free to comment here or at the site.

Having trouble sleeping tonight. Part of it comes from the drugs flowing through my veins. Drugs for pain and ones to prevent infections. The aftereffects of surgery were not too bad; Fluffy said was I all cute and groggy when I finished up. I managed to sleep better part of fifteen hours today, which also contributes to the lack of sleeping and me making a blog post at two in the morning.

The rest of this is just a list, probably not interesting for most people.

Originally posted on Moonfire Thoughts. Feel free to comment here or at the site.

A good number of years ago, our good friend Evyl got me this kick-ass tea mug that proclaimed “I am the queen”. Yeah, one of those quirky things about me, but I loved that mug. Large, with a strange little clicking noise when you truned it on the side with a large base and able to take half my tea pot at once. Sadly, this evening, I went to make my tea (too much creamer and splenda with Earl Gray) and it cracked right down the length. It wasn’t even that cold before I poured stuff in it, but there was a lot of good memories with that mug.

So, I’m no longer the queen of the house.

Tomorrow, I get to have my wisdom teeth removed. While I’m not worried about the normal things about dentist visits (pain, someone yanking out things wrapped around delicate and cranky nerves, or even the occasional cracked jaw), I’m still slightly worried about be put under for the entire thing. I know, logically, there is nothing to worry about and I should be more anxious about the pain, but… emotions are a strange thing.

I’ve started working on DG as my writing project for the week. Only into the first chapter, but it has been so long since I read the book that it actually new again. And I can focus on the chapters and find those stupid typos that have been there. It just took me years of setting it aside to actually see them. I had the same problem with MG and some of my short stories, I memorize so much of my writing that I can’t see the flaws until it is finally purged from memory.

Still fun to read something that is new again.

Originally posted on Moonfire Thoughts. Feel free to comment here or at the site.

Weight was not good for me yesterday. There are little tips and tricks with Weight Watchers that I know about, one of them is don’t wear jeans to weigh-in day. Those suckers are heavy. And, because of a lack of doing laundry, I did that exact thing, so I’m not exactly sure if I lost or gained, mainly because of a new variable in the mix. So, I’m holding my breath this week but still a bit down for going up.

I’m also trying not to worry about the dentist appointment on Thursday. I don’t know why I’m worrying, I like doctors and I’m not too worried about this. But, there is that stupid part of me that is just worried.

This morning, I released my MfGames CIL library. Minor little step, but just the head of a long list of dependencies which should take me through to the new year.

For my major project this week, I’m going to finish the edits on DG. They have been hanging around for better part of a year and I already paid for the chapter plates, I just need to actually come up with a list of illustrations I want. And that requires me to actually finish it and knock out 10-30k words.

This is the hard bit.

Originally posted on Moonfire Thoughts. Feel free to comment here or at the site.

A few days ago, I made a comment to Fluffy that I wanted her to park in the garage when she comes home first. I don’t know why I can get cranky after getting home, but in that case, it probably came off harsher than I wanted to. She, naturally, asked why and I said that I felt uncomfortable parking underneath the tree since some of the branches looked dead.

The next day, as I pulled into the driveway, I saw a huge branch sitting right where I parked the day before. No one got hurt of course, but it felt strange sitting at it, realizing that my gut feeling the day before was a very real thing.

Kind of cool too.

Not very productive this weekend so far. I finished cleaning up my code for MfGames CIL and a ton of documentation. I am seriously and utterly tired of documenting my library and I probably short-changed the last few pages because I just couldn’t do it anymore. I plan on getting the release out probably on Tuesday or so.

I also consolidated my emails a bit. Now, I only have my two spam collection ones (which people keep on using though I ask them not to), and one for each byline I use. It will be interesting to see how it works, but I need to have less boxes lately. I don’t check my Yahoo or Hotmail ones at all these days, unless someone tells me to. Too much spam, pure and simple.

Getting anxious to write again and I’m planning on it for this coming week. I need to ignore code for a while, except for random banging on the keyboard, and start working on my two commissions. I also need to work on my personal projects a bit, too many books that need editing (um, 4) and one to write still.

Originally posted on Moonfire Thoughts. Feel free to comment here or at the site.

(I know I said I’d talk about Glorious Saber and artwork, but I decided it sounded too whining so I just canned it.)

My mother came into town this weekend on her way up to teach a class. I was hoping it was for her other company, but… oh well, it is here life. Nice visit though, mainly talking about random things while plate after plate of sushi showed up at our table. She ordered about 30 pieces too many for the group of four, including Fluffy. I try not to over-order on sushi, mainly because the flavor changes so much overnight and my contribution to the order ended up being exactly what I could eat. Except there was only one sushi chef and they were swamped. So service took three hours for our food to show up. That gave us a chance to talk.

Nothing really meaningful, but she made a joke that actually got me worried. She’s been falling a lot. She didn’t come out and say it, but she jokes about a few nasty falls and Fluffy said that a friend of ours (who works for her) said that she is falling more often. It isn’t normal of her to keep secrets like that but in other ways, I’m not sure how much I’m going to really worry about it. I’m trying to pull away from her to get a clear head, but it is something I’m going to keep an eye on. You never know if falling turns into something worse.

In more cheerful news, I got a 93% or A on my college course. Only two more to go, including the capstone project, and I should have my masters by the end of the year. I’m still hoping to get my petition out by the end of the weekend, but I suspect the MfGames CIL release won’t be until next weekend. It is all those documentation steps I want to get done before I finish.

Technical writing is an interesting best. It is far different than writing fiction and very different from my non-fiction writing. I have a separate voice for all three types of writing, just as I have a fourth for academic writing. It is hard, actually, to write documentation for libraries like this. Mainly because it is done last, but also because it sometimes is really hard to explain why you did something that works well in code. “Just because” is a horrible thing to write in documentation. For some, I reverted to just explaining how to use it, but for others, I explained why I use it, so people understand the decisions behind what I wrote.

So, programming and writing and school this week.

Originally posted on Moonfire Thoughts. Feel free to comment here or at the site.

There is something to be said about hearing the weight loss for the entire room and getting ten percent of it. Lost about 0.8 kg last week, mostly I suspect from happily obsessing about programming and playing games that I forgot to eat. That means this week will be even harder because I need to maintain the weight loss into next week.

Found a neat feature on my tracking system for Moonfire Games. It lets me see the progress toward a release. Since I was hoping to do a MfGames CIL release this weekend, I decided to put in all the tasks that I need to complete and use that roadmap to show my progress. It is in the progress bar, for those who are interested.

It looks like a lot, at first, mainly because I didn’t enter what I completed. But, my major goals this week are to work on the petition and get MfGames CIL out the door. As soon as I get this release off my progress reports, then I’m planning on switching back to a writing project. I have two commissions sitting on my plate now and one of them is due in three weeks.

Originally posted on Moonfire Thoughts. Feel free to comment here or at the site.

I know I have some obsessive compulsive traits, I think a lot of programmers do just as much as a lot of artists and writers. It lets us ignore most distractions and actually get things done. In many ways, it is the same thing that gets someone up an hour early to finish NaNoWriMo or ignore normally basic things like eating, drinking, or going the bathroom just to finish a chapter.

Originally posted on Moonfire Thoughts. Feel free to comment here or at the site.

Late night because of work. I don’t mind the occasional extra hours helping customers, mainly because I know I can help and, in most cases, they’ll be much happier when I’m done. Still makes it a tired night though.

Didn’t do much beyond that, though. I finished most of the cleaning on MfGames CIL library and shuffling things around. I’m more comfortable with it now, which is good. Now, I can focus on MfGames.Settings and MfGames.Tools which will let me do the Unit Timing reporting tool.

I also finished my college course for this semester. This weekend, I’m going to work on getting the third petition out and try to get some pretty graphics out of my unit timing library.

That will lead nicely into the growing desire to actually write some more. I found taking a week off after a commission helps a bit with the creative juices and I’m still bribing myself with a new project or playing this computer game with getting unit timing generating useful data.

And, that nasty, icky documentation process going on. It’s taking a while, mainly because it requires a different set of gears. But, I want to get all of this nicely documented.

And, in the last little bit, I’m starting to work on a new style for Glorious Saber. It is still a lot like the old one, but it does more with arms and legs, which are the two things I’ve always struggled with. I think I’m pretty decent at backgrounds already, though I’m going to try making it look a bit more polished. And, I seriously forgot how lousy I’m at limbs; the main reason I loved the Thing Thing style, but that is me being lazy. Right now, my sketches seem a bit super deformed, which is fine. While I do have a few serious things, I want to be “not serious” about the strip and SD works nicely for there. And, like the other little bits of the comic, I’ll probably use the golden ratio (body is 1.618 the height of the head) for the main characters.

Yes, I’m a geek.

Originally posted on Moonfire Thoughts. Feel free to comment here or at the site.

In the last few days, I’ve been cleaning up some of my base libraries in preparation of messing with Unit Testing and AdvanceMath. All of this to test my theories on generics with C# and get something closer to empirical evidence of what is going on. I don’t like trusting my gut when it comes to performance numbers, mainly because performance is so subjective it isn’t even funny.

Of course, I ignored this for a bit too long so I had to clean up some Subversion repositories (my writing backup is working 100%, naturally), so I can finish checking in my cleanups so I can work on the tool library (MfGames.Tools) so I can work on the Unit Testing command line interface, all so I can do this.

I love the dependency graph of my libraries. I will admit, I really want to work on the new project, but I’m fighting with tooth and nail to finish some of my older ones before I can “play” with new projects.

The problem is, the new idea has been obsessing me for three weeks now. I want to do it, but I feel that I can’t with so much hanging over me. One reason I’m getting more productive and just getting things done. It’s like a bribe, if I do the other things I used to love, I can do the new thing that I will no doubt love just as much.

That and this is a good programming week–Fluffy is out of town until Monday.

Originally posted on Moonfire Thoughts. Feel free to comment here or at the site.

I noticed something about the doctors in the Iowa area. They are a lot more obsessed with money and procedures than the doctors both Fluffy and I had in Illinois. Things that would take only a visit seem to take two or three. And there are more tests needed to make even a basic decision. I don’t know why this is, but it really isn’t that fun. I don’t think we are really having that many more medical problems but I do think it is a reflection of the medical insurance ecosystem.

And that is kind of depressing.

Now that I’m on a HSA with a high deductible, I’m suddenly noticing that doctors really charge a hell of a lot of money to do even the most basic of things. And, since they need more visits, it is more large chunks out of my HSA because they are doing what they have to do to get the money they think they deserve. I can’t really say if they do, but it feels like a war between insurance and doctors, with the ammo being people like me.

Some of this is related to my dentist visit today, which required four signatures to explain that “yes, you must pay this bill, immediately!” and “insurance going slow is not an excuse to not pay the bill” and a few others to that same line. And this isn’t the first dentist here that is saying that.

In other, more cheerful news, my second petition got accepted, so I only have two more to go. And only a week left in class. So, that is a little spot of sunshine.

Originally posted on Moonfire Thoughts. Feel free to comment here or at the site.

A very enjoyable weekend, right up to Monday morning when I didn’t want it to end.

On Friday, I had a couple of hours, so I putz around with working on cleaning up my commission for the second round editing and sending it off. Got a response a few hours later–they absolutely loved it and thought it was worth the wait. It didn’t hurt that I remembered all the discussions I had in the last five years with this person and put in those little hot buttons that really make it personalized. I also ordered the DVD the next commission is based on; the remaining four commissions are all based on 15-40 second clips of random animes from the 80’s.

The other commissioner from the one I finished two weeks ago came back with money sent via PayPal and a request for another one. Utterly awesome since, well, I like writing and this gives me a bit of structure while I work on other stuff.

On Saturday, I worked on Prebuild and got the 32/64 bit switching working with NAnt and Visual Studio 2008 targets. This is one of those annoying things that hung around for better part of a year and I think I got something rather elegant completed. Also fixed a few minor bugs along the way.

Rob Loach, who got me into the project, sent me a quick IM to give me free reign to do what I want with Prebuild. The request I posted on the forum got another “yeah, cool idea!” and a third developer doesn’t really care. So, it sounds like Prebuild is going to find a new purpose in life.

I also worked a bit on the Unit Timing library, mainly documentation and some code clean up. My programming goal for this week is to get the command-line version up and running so I can actually do some performance testing. That will hit my MfGames library for the tool, but I still won’t require it for the attribute marking since I want to minimize that.

I’m considering splitting Unit Timing into two assemblies, one for annotations and the other for the framework to run the tests. I’m not sure if the trade-off of simplicity and code-size is worth the annoyance of two DLL’s.

I don’t really having a writing goal this week, so I’m going to stick with mostly programming. I have some editing work with prior works (DG, Flight of the Scions) or I could actually start working on Glorious Saber again.

Speaking of Glorious Saber, I’m going to mess around with graphic styles a bit and see if I can come up with a different version that is easier to work with. The Thing Thing style is nice, but I can’t help feeling that I’m missing a lot from there; of course, there is something to be said about the style I currently use. Abstracts are great for many things.

My goal for that is to finish the GS arc by GenCon this year.

Originally posted on Moonfire Thoughts. Feel free to comment here or at the site.

Oh, that high when you can write the words “END” at the bottom of the page and mean it. It is my only drug and probably one of the reasons I can’t drink alcohol or anything even remotely stronger. No chemical can come close to the buzz of finishing a story.

This specific high comes from the first draft of the commission that took forever to start. It came out to just over six thousand words, which is less than the ten thousand I aimed for, but I knew it might. This is actually a set of commissions, with a 50,000 word limit; mainly for a +100% bonus for giving me money when I needed it desperately. I have the first five stories requested, this being the first one, and I might go into a sixth or seventh by the time it is finished. It might take me a few months, but I’ll be damned if I don’t fulfill my obligations. I got paid and I will finish.

I’m also excited because I just took a 49 second clip of an anime and turned it into this story. And for those–not just the person who asked for this–who read it, it has the potential of turning that minute into something far more intense.

And that, to be honest, excites me just as much.

I’m enjoying this moment.

Originally posted on Moonfire Thoughts. Feel free to comment here or at the site.

This weekend, I worked on Prebuild, a little application designed to make it easier to work with .NET projects in the wide variety of ways needed, like creating Makefiles on Linux and Visual Studio 2008 files on Windows (or 2005 or 2003). I did a little work with Prebuild some years ago and just kind of fell into the occasional maintainer role. I used it for BooGame for a while, but right now I’m just using Visual Studio 2008 (i.e. MSBuild) files until I figure out what in the world I’m actually doing with BooGame.

I’m aiming for a release “soon”. There are some patches that were added and one more feature (switching between Any CPU, 32, and 64 bit stuff) before I can do a final release. I figured it would take me a few hours to finish, but working on this last little bit brought up questions between me and the other, currently active, developer.

Originally posted on Moonfire Thoughts. Feel free to comment here or at the site.