Fraize Dotcom

If you know where that quote came from, you win +1 Rob Reiner points.

Hai, Intarwebs! It’s me, Fraize – though you may hardly recognize me since I’ve been so absent from the blogosphere. I blame Twitter. No, really – I do! I’ve found I get my blogging yayas out by hitting my Twitter page and microblogging there, so I don’t visit the old Fraize Dotcom very often at all.

I could write several incredibly long posts about the recent goings on, but instead, I’ll just keep to a modified Twitter theme, and post some bullet-point versions of my last few weeks.

• After Sarah’s wedding, Heather and I decided to use the same place, St. John’s Episcopal Church in Centreville, as the backdrop for our wedding and reception. It’s pretty, close by everybody, and very easy going and nice people there.
• I headed up to New York City for a few days for the New York Gift Fair – a convention of people showing off their stuff in hopes the mighty ThinkGeek will buy some of it.
• While I was there, I met with the supercool and hipster-thick Buglabs. Their outreach manager took me on a tour and showed me where the magic happens.
• After that meet and greet, I headed off to NYC Resistor, a colony of hackers, and got introduced into a fascinating world of art hacks and fun mechanical and electronic projects. It was inspirational! Now I want to join the DC area version, HacDC, and make my own Reprap!
• I was supposed to stay until Wednesday, but crappy weather forced me to sneak home a day early. I avoided the ice storm with about a half hour to spare.
• I’ve been playing with Windows 7 lately, and I really really like it.
• Our gas furnace, which had been leaking gas lately, got a brand new solenoid valve. Of course, being brand new didn’t make it free from defects, so that unit also leaks gas. No heat in the house but that which glows from our collection of electronics. Ambient house temp: 69 degrees.

I haven’t done very much, blog-wise, which is terribly sad and pathetic. I mean, this is the internet’s first blog right? RIGHT?! How sad it is that I can’t even write a single word in weeks? I’m embarrassed.

I did go to San Diego for Comic-Con, which was way more work than play. I brought a camera around to document stuff I saw around the show-floor. Things I didn’t record but did see include chatting with Wil Wheaton, dinner and drinks with folks from the BBC, and the getting nearly trampled to death by Samuel L. Jackson. Good times.

Enjoy the following video, scored with some stupid heroic music I put together.

Read nothing into the Title of this post – just what I happened to be listening to a few minutes ago on iTunes.

So much has been going on lately, I haven’t taken the time to blog. Note that I didn’t say I haven’t **had** the time – I haven’t **taken** the time. I’ve got a lot going on, but not much to show for it, which can be frustrating.

I’ve been trying to pare down and simplify things at the office, at home, and in my spare time. I had lots of tiny little projects that were left 50% done that I finally finished out. Part of my success came from rediscovering good-old 7-Habits techniques of getting things done. Probably the most beneficial thing I got from 7-Habits is actually taking an hour every Monday morning to plan out my goals for the week. Then, a few minutes every morning to plan my daily tasks. Doing that gets shit done. Simple and brainless.

Doing that, I was able to get my office cleaned up, my bathroom re-done, my backlog of reading done, and some budgeting done. I get a lot of little things done, but none of the bigs – and I’ve learned that it’s the bigs that give you that big sense of satisfaction of a job well done.

It couldn’t have come at a better time, too! The next few weeks are going to be tough. It’s Thursday, now, and tomorrow, Heather and I are heading up to the Baltimore area for Shore-Leave 30. Last year’s Shore-Leave convention was a big hit with us. Maybe you remember my meeting Aaron Douglas last year? That was Shore-Leave.

These fan-conventions are fantastic. They treat the guests and fans with respect – never trying to gouge or cheat. They truly love their fans, and that respect shows. The guests are so happy, many of them are known to hang out with the fans after hours at the hotel bar! Beyond the guests, though, I have the most fun going to the panels – groups of fans who sit in a conference room and discuss their favorite bits of fandom. Comparing notes and exploring each others’ insights. It’s fascinating and fun!

A week and a half after Shore-Leave is the San Diego Comic-Con! This bad-boy dwarfs Shore-Leave many times over. Though, it’s more focused on Comic Books, there’s some really big media giants there and a chance to rub elbows with some real heavy hitters. I have plans to meet up with several license holders, negotiate exclusive contracts, and get the inside scoop on future projects. Ultra-super-fun-bonus: Heather gets to go with me! This will actually be the first time we’ve gone traveling together, outside Virginia. Plus, San Diego is a beautiful city with gorgeous weather. All the makings of epic good times.

My parents are, as I type, winging back from New Zealand. There they, undoubtedly, scurried around some Hobbit holes, charged through the Mark in Rohan, and stood at the gates of Mordor itself. Well, at least they were supposed to see the Shire. We’ll see how much of the rest they were able to do.

Heather and I decided we needed a bit of a break, so we’re packing up the car and driving down to Williamsburg to go hang with the tri-corn hat types. The weather is supposed to be unhelpful, but that’s okay. Some of our favorite things to do include indoor activities. Coffee shops! Wait, what did you think I meant?

I also just got confirmation that I’ll be going to San Diego in July for work. I’ll be bringing Heather to that sunny and mild city, too! Yay! I love to travel. I just hate travelling.

Officially, CES doesn’t open the show floor until Monday morning, the 8th of January. All the insanity won’t officially start until then. However, travelling has always had its own ridiculousness that is worth mentioning.

I awoke blearily from a dream involving unicorns or pitched space-battles or some such. It was 5:30, and Heather and I groaned as we rolled out of bed and staggered, in perfect zombie fashion, into the shower. Clean and slightly awake, we loaded up Heathers car, “Neo”, stopped for our pre-flight-ritualistic coffee and donut at Dunkin, and made good time to Dulles.

The terminal was packed. Checkin took no time, but the security line seemed awash with the unwashed. We said our tearful goodbyes, and I boogied off to my gate, where I would sit for another hour.

Soaking up the free wi-fi, I reached for my ear-buds only to find them broken. I shrugged, in a positive mood. That won’t get me down! I plodded off to buy a cheap pair from the shop. Not nearly as good as my old ones, but they would do.

The flight to my connection was normal, but the captain announced proudly that we were to land 10 minutes early! Hooray! Unfortunately, nobody told the plane that was sitting in our spot at the gate, so we sat on the tarmac for 10 minutes. Hoo-ray.

I’ve been throught he DFW airport many times, so it was easy to find my way to my destination gate. I sat patiently, waiting for my boarding time when the PA crackled to life. The staff informed us that the flight that was carrying our flight crew was late, so we’d have to wait for them. We ended up waiting for an hour. Hoo-ray.

Once on the plane, an hour late, we pushed back from the gate, paused, and rolled back to the gate. The captain told us that we had a fuel pump light on that, he thought, was an error, but we had to have a maintenance crew go check it out. So, we sat again for another 20 minutes until we could push back again.

So, here I sit in 27C, next to some very sweet people just back from a Christian convention, Hoo-ray, waiting to make it back to Sin City. This has been a bad start so far. I’m hoping things will improve. I read poor reviews of my hotel last night, so I’m expecting to be disappointed there as well.

Cross your fingers for me.

UPDATE: Hotel’s beautiful, room is great, Wi-Fi sucks. Pics here.

I’ve had so much going on these past few weeks, I’m suffering from Information Paralysis – a condition where I’ve just locked up blogging about anything due to a fear that too much information would be ignored. That happens to me quite a lot, and that’s something I hope to get over.

So let’s get caught up a little bit, shall we?

Christmas has come and gone, and it was a very satisfying Christmas! Gift-wise, it wasn’t as strong as other years, but I guess that, as I get older, that matters less and less. I had a great time hanging out with my and Heather’s families, chatting and eating.

My mom, in particular, made a spectacular meal just after Thanksgiving. Heather and I just hunkered down in the living room with plates filled to near overflowing with turkey, venison, stuffing, greenbean casserole, corn, and piles of pie pie pie.

For my birthday, she bought me two tickets to see Spamalot, which we saw a few days after Christmas. Let me tell you, I wasn’t expecting much, but that show was spectacular. Funny, even for Heather who hasn’t yet seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail!

Tomorrow (Sunday) I leave for Las Vegas to go to the Consumer Electronics Show. It may sound like fun, but I can tell you it’s going to be a lot of work. There’s lots to see, and not much time to do it. Thursday, I’ll shoot down to Austin to visit my good friends Rich and Melissa, and their new baby Sophia. I’ll try and blog and shoot pictures and video like crazy in both places.