Giving You the Business

At the end of April I ended six months of unemployment by going back to work for a friend of mine who owns his own high performance computer company.

I was designated, "Director of Operations." I've been charged with wearing many hats, one of which is marketing. This includes designing the new company logo. A couple of years ago, I had spent some time on the company's logo, coming up with several designs. But we never finalized it, and I was soon drawn into another job.

This time, with the fast expansion of the company's business, we didn't have time to waste. We sat down, discussed the company, went through my designs and picked one. I then took it to a graphic designer to get it set up and "graphic-ized." We were pretty happy with the result.

I took the resulting files and imported them into VectorDesigner, a program I got through MacHeist for my new laptop. With that, I built our business cards and had them printed up. Here's mine:



I am very excited at this fantastic opportunity to work at a company that possesses integrity and entrepreneurship, and that affords me the chance to exercise many of my mental muscles.

A Pain in the ... Heel

Well, it's not gout.

I've been having pain in my left heel for a few days now ... about a week or so. When I wake up, it's excruciating. If I stretch out my calf, it goes down, but it comes back if I'm inactive for any length of time.

My wife's stepfather had a strange issue that was similar. He had pains in the bottom of his foot, but when he saw the doctor, they x-rayed and found that he had several broken bones in the top of his foot. I didn't think that this was my issue, but I started to have concerns as it continued day after day.

The other day I had a bit much to drink, and the next morning it was the worst of all. I began to think it might be gout, as I understand alcohol exacerbates the issue. I started thinking that perhaps having a broken foot wouldn't be so bad -- I'd rather have a cast or whatever for a short time over having a lifetime of gout pain.

Well, I thought I might just need to see a doctor to find out, but I don't really have one, so my wife emailed a friend of ours that is a doctor to get a referral. My wife described my issue and here's the response:

Classic plantar fasciitis. Pain starts on back of heel or under heel on bottom of foot. Usually it is classified by bottom of foot anterior portion of heel bone, stiffens up overnight and once he starts walking on it it naturally stretches out. I had that for awhile, mine was from shoeware, (lack of good arch supports). There are many causes including heel spur. If that is all it is tell him to try antiinflam for a week round the clock. Stretch three times a day and look at the shoes he has been wearing. May need new pair or pair with better arch supports.

Well. This is exactly my issue.

She rounded out the message with this comment:

(Tell him I am not really impressed. I thought it was something a little trickier. HAHA)

I am excited to have such a mundane and easily treatable issue over the alternatives. *WHEW*

By the way, I did tell her that the pain only comes when I'm walking in a Westerly direction while whistling the theme to West Side Story.

When you're a Jet, you're a Jet.

There you go.

A Final Walk through Shadow

Way back in 1990 or so, my friend Ronn and I went to a game convention at a local university. We saw a speech on diceless roleplaying by a game designer that was releasing a new game. We'd seen some of the games that he'd written before, but they never piqued our interest. His speech, however, left an indelible impression in my mind.

This was Erick Wujcik, and the game he discussed was Amber Diceless Roleplaying. He had with him a copy of the book yet to be published, in loose-leave format without even a cover. He was so proud of it. His seminar covered some very interesting aspects of creating and running roleplaying games, and some insights about game design that were new to me.

Specifically, he explained how the game should reflect the source material, rather than starting with a game (such as GURPS) and then shoehorning the source material into the system.

This led me to think about one of my favorite movies in this light, and then to design and create what I consider my most complete and successful RPG design, Highlander Roleplaying, based on the Christopher Lambert movie.

Erick's game, Amber Diceless, also had a profound impact on me. I have read and re-read that game countless times. I have said of it that it is essential reading for anyone who runs or plays roleplaying games. It has directed and influenced all the games I have game mastered and played in since I first read it. It has expanded my thoughts and perceptions, and changed the way I experience my hobby in the most positive way. I cannot give it more compliment than that.

On Saturday, June 7, 2008, Erick Wujcik passed away at age 57 from pancreatic cancer. You can read more about this and all his accomplishments at his website, ErickWujcik.com.

I, for one, am saddened at the world's loss.

Stupid IPOWER.

Ugh. This whole thing is frustrating.

It started with an email from IPOWER, the company that I registered my domains through. They had a special going for web hosting. It was about half what I was paying before the owners of my previous host took the money and ran, leaving all their subscribers high and dry.

I've never had a problem with the company and Ronn used to use them. So I signed up and set up my family website, like I had before.

Then I remembered that my family pretty much never used the site in the past. But what the heck. It would be there if I could convince anyone to be interested.

And then I thought I'd move my blog over there. So I went to set up WordPress in my subdomain, doug.parkspages.com. But it wouldn't go. So I contacted customer support. ONE AND A HALF HOURS LATER, and it still won't work.

I'm a bit frustrated by the whole thing, but there's not much I can do. I'm trying to manually install the crap that I want to work, but the outlook's not good.

Ah, well.

Nietzsche Family Circus

Okay. The Woot WWWoundup turned me on to the Nietzsche Family Circus. I'm now addicted to it. You should check it out and hit refresh to see a new combination. Crazy funny.

Muttered and Depressed Ramblings

I've sort of taken the last few days off. I started my new job a couple of weeks ago and I've been worrying myself sick that I haven't spent enough time working it. But I kind of took the long weekend off. It hasn't really improved my outlook, though.

Essentially, the time I've spent hasn't been that productive, and all it's given me is time to realize that I have very little passion left.

This is a post about my long-lost friend, role-playing.

When I was younger, I looked at everything through the lens of creativity, mostly in the vein of how the real world could fuel the creation of fantasy worlds and games of the imagination. I remember art history in college, and how I applied the different architectures to different fantasy races. This feeling is long gone, with only the barest dregs left to remind me of what I've lost.

I occasionally pick up an RPG -- Star Trek, or more recently, Prince Valiant and Over the Edge -- and begin thinking about them and how cool it would be to play them again. But I glance through, and the rules don't inspire me, and the setting and it's potential don't inflame my spirit with interest or desire. I think, "I'd like to play or run this game," but the feeling's fleeting, and malaise takes over.

I realize I've lost this passion I used to have, and I miss it. I read some game blogs and think of the people, older than me, who are still enthralled by the hobby, and I can't quite see how they can be.

For the first time in my life, I'm rooted firmly in the real world. And it makes me sad.

My technology -- let me show you it.

Okay. Let's skip to the chase. Back just before I left my last job (that'd be in October of '07), I had the opportunity to get a new laptop -- this time, one of my very own, not a company computer.

I had been thinking about getting a laptop for quite a while, and when the opportunity came up, I snagged it. It came from a friend of one of my mothers-in-law, up there in the Buffalo. It was slightly used by this fella's son, who was told the one he got wouldn't work and he'd need to get a new one. Consequently, it had already been opened up and used a bit, but on the other hand, he discounted it quite a bit.

It's a MacBook Pro.

Here's a shot of it with me writing this post:


I'd wanted to get a Mac for a while. I put together a new PC in '06 or early '07, but it's a monstrous desktop job with a fan that sounds like a jet engine. That was my fault, but in any case, I've been tired of fighting with Windows and dealing with the crap surrounding it. And with all the muckety muck surrounding Vista, I just didn't want to continue down that road. So I gave it some thought.

I figured out that what I use the computer for the most is:

• Doing research on the web
• Writing in word processors
  
• Email (mostly on the web)
  
• Reading books &/or watching movies

Things I also use the computer for are:

• Backing up my DVDs
• and, uh ... I dunno.

One thing's for sure -- it's not used to play games. I have an Xbox and a Wii for that. And a Super Nintendo, but that's another story.

So what this all means, is that the things that make a PC more useful versus the Macintosh are not things that I do with any great frequency.

Add to that the fact that I wanted to increase my facility with the Mac OS, and you've pretty much eliminated any reasons not to get a Mac.

So I got one. I've had it for about three months now, so much of the crazy first impressions have faded, but over the next few days I'll try to put down in words my experience with the thing. I'll tell you the things I like about it, the things I don't like, the things I absolutely loathe, as well as the things I love.

Plus, I'll tell you about some of the cool things I've discovered that make the Mac -- a relatively nice machine with a reasonably functional interface -- into a powerhouse of fancy computing ecstasy.

Stay tuned!