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.

Everybody gets sick from time to time – it’s only natural. You can be Jack-frickin’-LeLane, and still get sick. Still, ever since I moved back to DC, I seem to get sick very very often. It could be a function of several things. 

First and probably foremost, I’ve gained weight. A lot of weight. When I left Austin, I was tipping the scales at 179. I was really happy there, but my middle was still a teeny bit jiggly. I had been as heavy as 206, so 27 pounds was a huge deal for me.
Moving back, the biggest difference in my lifestyle was my job. I had a 45 minute to an hour commute, each way, which limited the amount of time I was able to spend in the gym. It wasn’t much time, but it made the difference between an almost entirely sedentary lifestyle vs a mildly active lifestyle. Plus, my old coworkers and friends were very supportive when it came to the social side of eating. When we got together, we ate well, but we ate healthily.
Now, my friends and coworkers love to overindulge. Often, someone brings cookies or cupcakes into the office, and when I’m having a stressful day, which happens quite often lately, I get all snacky. That’s bad. That, coupled with two hours on the road every day cutting into my workout time, means I ingest more than I work off. So, now I’m about 198.

So that’s my weight problem in two paragraphs. 

Secondly, where I work is, to put it mildly, filthy. We have about 20 people in our little space, and because we manage returns in our office, it tends to get junked up with broken gadgets, flattened boxes, dust and packing peanuts. We’re always so busy, we really don’t have a lot of time to clean it up. Because lots of boxes of stuff from all corners of the globe move through here, and gets handled, we’re always picking up whatever bug gets smeared onto the boxes. If the killer bird flu ever burned through the USA, I’m certain we’d be a lovely little petri dish for the DC area. 

About three days ago, I started noticing our Photographer, and our lead programmer started hacking up a lung. I was certain I was about to get nailed by some kinda SARS. Last night, I started to get a little scratchy throat. This morning, I woke up with a painful hacking cough, aches and congestion. 

So, is it exposure to additional virii? Is it a weakened immune system that stems from overall poor physical health? Is it both? Either way, I feel like poo, and am loving my chair right now.

So, the good news is, CES, for me, was wildly successful. I found a strong collection of new products that I’m ready to order. I shook lots of hands, made a lot of friends, repaired one personal relationship, and strengthened others. It was highly awesome.

The downside to all that super productivity was I had nearly no time to myself. I was able to take a couple of hours here and there, but since I don’t drink much, and don’t gamble, stuff I wanted to do was across town and took me half my time just getting there and back. For example, I went to Caesar’s Palace specifically to pick up some Bacon Chocolate at Vosges, but they had run out. That whole venture sucked two hours out of my day. Boo.

Tuesday, though, I went to the Hilton and checked out the Star Trek Experience. Now that was a show! The new 3d Borg encounter was amazing! I could write an entire post on that. If you’re in Vegas, and you’re a trekkie, do yourself a favor, man. Seriously.

What’s more, the Luxor had absolutely TERRIBLE internet access. Intermittently connecting and slow, I could barely download my email. In fact, I had far more success getting my email on my iPhone than on my laptop. It was finally solid this morning, as I was packing to leave. Boo, again.

Still, Vegas is an incredibly cool city. I’d love to come back. It’s so expensive, though. If I do come back, I will have to close my eyes as I’m signing the checks. It’s painful.

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’m standing here at the Apple Store, waiting for my turn at the “Genius Bar.” My poor Powerbook G4 has stuttered and died again this morning. I’m about to do some big-time video projects at ThinkGeek, and only my little MacLappy has enough juice to do the editing. My old Quicksilver desktop I bought from Charlie doesn’t have the video capability to run Motion.

Hopefully, they won’t have my big silver slab of computer for too long. I like having it around.

Today, ThinkGeek attended the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology’s robotics competition. Imagine about 450 students, each having built and programmed their own little wheeled robots designed to navigate a simple obstacle course. They whittled it down to 7 freshmen before the “big event.”

They revealed a new course where the robots had to maneuver into a nook, pop into a balloon, and scoot to the other side. With a two minute introduction to the course, the students took their robots to a bank of laptops and attempted to program them in ten minutes.
One by one, they stood, placed their robots on the mark, and hit the “go” button.

Out of seven kids, guess how many actually were able to successfully maneuver the course? C’mon, guess!

No, I’m serious, guess.

None.

They were given another five minutes to reprogram the robots and try again. With another try, the success rate was phenomenal.

None.

There was improvement, though! Two of the seven were able to pop their balloons, and one maneuvered out of the little nook before spinning out of control, and rolling over the wall. Technically nobody won, but the girl whose robot made it out of the nook won first prize.

ThinkGeek supplied several prizes and gift certificates. I was hoping they would send all 450 robots into a giant free-for-all, which would have made an awesome video. Alas, it was not to be.

I set the wake-up call for 6:30, hoping to make it to the airport in time. My flight left at 10:00am, or so I thought. Ty and I blazed through breakfast, and hopped the taxi to the airport. The main highway by the airport had both north and south lanes diverted for the trade show, so we had to cross the city to the other highway and make our way that way, adding 10 euro to the fare.

I’m sitting now at the ticket counter, an hour earlier than I was supposed to arrive. Security is a bit weird in that before we even arrive at the ticket counter, we had to have our luggage x-rayed. Equally strange was the fact that there were no screens by the x-ray machines. I imagine they were elsewhere in the airport, but I have also read about some airports outsourcing x-ray inspection offshore. Lovely.

The flight to Amsterdam was uneventful, but our connection was already boarding by the time we landed, so we hauled ass to the terminal, past all the nice duty free shops I would have loved to have perused. We made it with time to spare, but were the last in line. Whew.

Ty pointed out a young lady boarding our plane with a toddler in a papoose.  “She’s from Ghana,” he said, pointing out her passport. Ty’s wife was from Ghana, so we found that interesting. As we moved through the cabin to our assigned seats, Ty sat down right next to the young lady from Ghana. Her child, still snoozing, would end up whining and crying through the entire flight. Poor Ty.

Also, I was terribly confused by the plane’s entertainment system. It wasn’t updated with the USA’s new daylight-saving’s time laws. It told me that DC’s local time was 1 hour earlier than it really was. So, when I saw that we were going to land an hour earlier than I expected, I figured I did something wrong, and that my ride was going to show up an hour after we had agreed. More on that later.

Speaking of the entertainment system, it was pretty cool! The Airbus A330-200’s in-seat entertainment system was choc-a-bloc full of movies, tv shows, and mp3’s. I was able to watch The Departed and A Night at the Museum. They were also playing Casino Royale, but Heather and I agreed to watch it together later.

During the flight, they passed out blue and green forms – Customs and Immigration forms. They interrupted the onboard entertainment system to play a video explaining the forms. After it was over, they replayed it one more time, just in case you slept through part of it, or were in the lavatories. Then, inexplicably, they played it yet another time. The moan that rippled through our flying aluminum tube was impressive. After the third time, the entertainment system failed to return to the movie. The flight attendants had to reboot the server (I’m told it’s Linux based – what happened to stability?).

About an hour later, my own form was filled out, but the flight attendants decided to, you guessed it, play the instructional video again. This time, the moan was coupled with genuinely angry shouts. The guy sitting next to me actually yelled at a flight attendant, only to be hushed by his wife. Too funny!

Finally, we landed. I told Heather that she should expect about an hour to get through customs. In point of fact, I was off the plane and through customs in about 15 minutes. Oops! I had to wait a bit before she was ready to pick me up.

Jetlagged as hell, I was asleep before 8:00pm. What a tiring trip.