Mark Stevens

Writer's Block: Really, Truly

2009-03-14T18:57:06Z

Do you believe in true love? What about love at first sight?

Yes for both, I think. (Though if I think about it, I'm not really sure what either of those phrases means.)

I'd say that axegrrl and I are truly in love. Though I've got a crush on another woman, that doesn't change the true love axegrrl and I share. (And, no, the other woman doesn't yet know I've got a crush on her, but she's beginning to suspect. And, yes, if she's also got a crush on me, we're both being pathetic. Why is it so much easier to tell the whole world rather than just tell her?)

Which brings me to love at first sight. I think I'd call a crush on somebody love at first sight because you're in love with each other before you've gotten to know each other. And, though I didn't have a crush on axegrrl until the second time we met, I'd still call that love at first sight.

I think true love has to be based on friendship and, to a certain degree, trust. While it helps to completely trust each other, if you really are friends and you really are attracted to each other, that's enough to work through anything but the most fundamental trust issues. Two friends of mine (they know who they are) are currently having trust issues. If they love each other enough to work through those issues, I'd call that true love.

hawkshadow @ 2008-12-11T01:19:00

2008-12-11T07:21:02Z

Which creature of the night are you? Your Result: Vampire You are a social pragmatist, as likely to kiss as to bite. Your sensuality and social pragmatism is the counter-balance to your existential angst and your tendency toward depression.
Werewolf
Sorceror
Cthulu Spawn
Incubus/Succubus
Demon
Ghost
Which creature of the night are you? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Happy New Year

2008-01-02T00:00:25Z

axegrrl and I got together for New Year's with a number of other GR folks (ashtalet , jcw_da_dmg , pensnuggles , wendyzski , and John-who's-account-name-I-do-not-know). We arrived a little late, but were able to jump into one of the better dungeon crawl games I've played (a Fantasy Flight game called Descent). I was a little annoyed that the game went on so long (Pen and Wendy arrived after us, so they got left out of the game), but overall the game was quite fun.

After that we all watched Stardust which I really enjoyed. Hadn't read the book, but I'm going to now.

We then took the El to downtown Evanston to see the fireworks. Ananda got a bit of an asthma attack from trying to hurry in the cold weather (she hasn't had an attack in years), but Wendy came to the rescue with an inhaler.

The snow clung to the trees wonderfully and just glowed in the streetlights. It was also fun to watch people goofing around with a snowball fight and toys from some party crackers that barely made a pop. And then watching the fireworks, almost as an afterthought, was kind of nice.

Most of the pictures I took didn't turn out (since I was trying to capture the glow of the streetlights and had trouble holding the camera still enough for the slow shutter speed), but I've posted the ones that did.

For pictures look at the album in the GalaxyRangers Yahoo group (For those of you who are not in the group, I believe it's adults only, so you have to log in to find the group).

Faerie Folk, Mad Scientists, and Aliens (looking for more RPG players)

2007-12-17T17:44:17Z

I've still got room for one to three more players for the role playing game I'm going to run starting next month.

I'm running the game using a unique fantasy world that I've been tinkering with since the beginning of role playing in the late 70s. The campaign is a complete rewrite of a storyline called "The City of Light and Science" which I ran for bijili , dragonbane , and kittykatkatja (when I was running before, I was using D&D 3.5 with some Spycraft and GURPS rules mixed in). I characterize the story-line as heavily inspired by Jules Verne and the Indiana Jones movies, with a bit of "filmed in New Zealand " style sword and sorcery mixed in.

This time I'm using GURPS rules. (Don't let that scare you away. When it comes down to playability, GURPS is not really any more complicated than d20 3.5.) The plan is to meet at my house in Mount Prospect on Saturday or Sunday approximately twice a month.

Right now I've got four players: axegrrl , oneleggedman , George (who some of you may know from Thursday gaming), and David (who I found on Steve Jackson's GURPS BBS).

If you are interested, send me an e-mail, post a reply, or talk to me when you see me.

For more details about the game, ask me or see my posting on the Chicago Gamers LiveJournal list.

Sir Arthur C. Clarke's 90th birthday on Dec. 16th 2007

2007-12-13T16:37:22Z

Letter from Thilina Heenatigala, General Secretary, Sri Lanka Astronomical Association

Wish Sir Arthur C. Clarke happy birthday

See Sir Arthur's birthday video message

hawkshadow @ 2007-12-11T21:56:00

2007-12-12T04:02:39Z

BBC: Mars robot unearths microbe clue

San Francisco Chronicle: Gimpy rover has turned up a surprise on Mars

Slashdot: Mars Rover Investigates Possibility of Ancient Microbial Life

FOX: NASA Tries to Save Mars Rover Before Batteries Run Out

----
Hmm. I think one of these news outlets missed the point.

hawkshadow @ 2007-09-27T19:23:00

2007-09-28T00:25:12Z

Happy birthday urban_firefly and wendyzski

Dialog with Herman from Mage game

2007-09-21T19:20:41Z

Herman's part is written by sisyphusx
I wrote Alex's part

---

Alex is out and about this evening - he's taken a walk out to one of the
parks in San Jose, and has spent the afternoon playing some pickup games
of frisbee golf. He's always liked the people of California for that
reason - so much more open and outgoing than the people he grew up with.

Alex is about to toss his water bottle in a knapsack, give his familiar
a petting to reassure, and head back to the compound when his eyes
chance to lock in on the eyes of an old man sitting on a bench not too
far away. The man has been, up until now, unutterably unnoticeable.
He's dressed in somewhat rumpled black clothing - slacks and a
sportcoat, covering a grey shirt, no tie and a black felt hat - and his
posture seems very tired. But his eyes are lively, and the hint of a
smile plays on his lips. As you pick up your satchel, he seems to
summon a bit of energy and speaks to you.

"Very handy, that - isn't it? I had one myself, a long time ago. You
never lose track of your stuff." And while any outside observer would
see him pointing towards your knapsack, you can see from your angle that
he's pointing at a specific part of the bag - the part where you
stitched in a special soft pouch so the knapsack won't be such an
uncomfortable place to hide away from prying eyes.

And the silly thing is that he's right. Every time you've lost a
letter, a small screwdriver or your keys - they haven't stayed lost
long. Just the internal need to find it has been enough of a request to
pull it out of wherever.

The old man indicates that the bench is, other from himself, vacant -
with an inviting sweep of the hand.

I look over at the man with a big friendly smile and wander over saying,
"Yes, it is handy. I'm Alex."

I sit down next to him as if I were sitting down with an old friend.
"Really nice day, but then again, it's always a really nice day at this
time of year. One thing I really miss out here is the variety in the
weather, especially the thunderstorms." I sit and watch the people.

I spot a red tailed hawk sitting on a lamp post, watching for whatever
small prey might be around. I point it out and say, "I always find it a
little bit ironic that so many people feel cut off from the natural
world, yet here it is among us in this vast urban sprawl, and nobody
notices." I sit and admire the hawk, and watch the trees and people some
more, giving him plenty of time to talk if he chooses to do so.

He nods and smiles back. "I'm Herman. Pleasure to meet you - I've
looked forward to this for a while now." He pauses - notes Alex's pause
and then his knowing smile - and continues, with perhaps a note of
impressedness in his eyes.

"I'm retired now - but that isn't to say I don't know something of
what's going on in the world. I have my privacy and I like it very
much, but I know some of the history of the Winchester House, and I know
that you and your friends are taking a closer look at it." He takes a
small handful of breadcrumbs out of his pocket and tosses them a few
yards away, where the tamer pigeons gather and make a late meal.

"I've chosen to speak to you personally as I find you to be the most
open-minded of your cabal. The doctor, the archaeologist, the thief and
the South American - they're all a bit too set in their ways for my
taste. And Frazetta - well, he's been there a long long time now, and
he's almost as retired as I am." He pauses again, waiting for his
recital of the group's members to sink in.

Again, I expected him to know details about us, but am intrigued about
his methods of gathering information. Is he alone or does he have
agents? How much of what he knows was gathered magically, and how much
was gathered through plain old-fashioned detective work. I'm also
intrigued by the possibility that he might be an independent or someone
aligned with forces other than the mage orders.

I present a satisfied look, which tries to imply a complement at his
capability and his expressed preference toward flexibility.

I say, "Yeah, my friends here have had their curiosity trained out of
them, despite their best intentions. Give them some credit though, they
do seem to be trying to unlearn that. Frazetta, on the other hand, has
let himself get dulled and worn away by smoking too much pot. I wonder
if he lives here for the same reason: to escape from something that
frightens him?"

Herman nods. "Perhaps."

"Then again, there's always more to discover, isn't there? I mean, each
step can be like a new world to find a new way in." I pause to show him
I'm pausing to observe his reaction.

"I speak not entirely of a curiosity - your friends are *very* curious.
I speak more of their predetermined perspective. Anything -they- see or
hear is automatically filed inside the picture of the world they have
already drawn. But you, Alex - I don't think you've found enough of
your way in the world yet, and you can still hear what many people say
*AS* what only they say. And I'm mostly here to tell you that not only
are you wasting your time with any notes to Los Angeles - you're burying
yourself."

"The notes are a waste of time, but I was hoping to make enough of an
effort for Los Angeles to avoid getting buried by them. I'll never fit
in with them, which is ok, but I've discovered their world. It's still
new. I'd still like to figure out how it works." Alex took a breath to
continue, but Herman's suddenly broad smile took him back.

"And that IS the problem, you know - how it all works. Has been and
will be. Because how the 'enlightened' world works is very much like
how the Fallen World works - at least in a few ways. One constant is
that those in power will always be more eager to -delete- their mistakes
rather than admit and repair them. Even mistakes as large as when an
enemy steals away a fortune from right under their noses." Herman taps
his nose lightly in confirmation. "And not a mere Fallen fortune of
money, but one of our own currency - knowledge and power." He nods.
"I've been around the block quite a few times, and in my day, I was
rather high up in the organization. I had access to some reports that
indicated that at ONE time, whatever it is you've found in the
Winchester House wouldn't have surprised *ANY* of the Los Angeles crowd.
Take, for example, the Telex that appeared in the FBI offices around the
country just two weeks before November 22, 1963, warning of an imminent
threat to the life of President Kennedy. You can't find that Telex any
more, really." He pauses to see how familiar Alex is with what amounts
to ancient history as far as a teenager is concerned.

"Hmn. I wonder how the FBI found out? I thought it was all winks and
nods and plausible deniability between Johnson's buddies in Texas and
a few nut jobs the CIA picked up." Alex smiles sheepishly, shrugs, and says,
"My mom kept coming up with new conspiracy theories, sometimes, it
seemed, on a weekly basis. But, yeah, you're right. They killed Oswald
even though he probably didn't know anything. Just to make sure. Do
you have some ideas? Certainly, I'm curious, but I'd hate to get
deleted, especially for something as trivial as their wounded pride. I
mean, there's knowledge and power at the end of this, but the odds of
getting there suck, even with a little bit of jimmying. Yet, I don't
think we can plausibly back off without arousing the same suspicions."

Herman moves a hand up to indicate, -slow down-. "I speak not of the
things that might be deleted NOW, but things that WERE deleted in days
past. What I know, from second-hand and rumor, is that sometime in the
mid-nineteen-thirties, the Winchester House just fell off the map as far
as the higher powers in Los Angeles were concerned. I have a reasonable
guess that you've asked for records - mostly what I'm here to tell you
is that there AREN'T any records of prior activity at the Winchester
House. Because the activity that WAS present at the house, whatever it
was - it was something that got past the Veil. And the gentlemen behind
those masks, they do enjoy their illusion of invulnerability - and when
that illusion is pierced, they do for free what they're normally ordered
to do - rewrite the histories, hide the reality." He coughs, takes a
sip from a brandy flask you hadn't seen before, and continues.

"At the time, there were a few that knew more - that knew that the queen
of that Mystery House had put one over on those whose job it is to put
things over on people. They were given other assignments, other
details. Told in no uncertain terms that the trick had been on THEM,
not the Veil, and that the Guardians had been behind the whole thing as
a sting." Herman shakes his head in disgust. "Utter crap, of course -
but with the possibility that iron boots can ring in the night, people
tend to agree with whatever the Supernal government says. The ones who
lived in your building before Frazetta's friends probably had an idea,
and they were one of the first to go away. The reason your group now
has such a nicely developed Hallow all to themselves is partially due to
the low resonance of the area, but also for the same reason the smarter
soldiers in Communist Russia didn't want to be prison guards. If you
get get too close to trouble, you can be sucked inside - innocent or
not."

Herman throws another handful of crumbs at the pigeons, who seem to be
growing satiated. "Right now, you've probably shown a reasonably
healthy curiosity - for an investigative Cabal on assignment. But as
you find whatever is buried in that house, you tread on thinner ice. As
you ask more and more pertinent questions, the answers will run out.
The records are gone, and anyone who remembers the time is long-since
mad or dead...only the will of silence remains, waiting for someone
naive enough to think that the Consilium is one big happy family."
Herman throws a big splat of breadcrumbs on the grass, where much of it
will probably remain until after nightfall when the birds get hungry
again.

"If you do want my ideas on how to let sleeping dogs lie - do just that.
The question is not backing off, but rather of treading carefully. It's
your *job* to investigate the house - but not to let every cat out of
the bag. Let whatever information you've received so far be 'sufficient
for the investigation', and then live off the land. If you've found
something in that house, chances are that some of whatever the Grande
Dame stole is still there, or close by. Make use of that knowledge and
power you can find, and not *outside* help, to finish your work. If you
present the entire situation as a solved package, ready to be either
reburied or finally acknowledged by the Council - you show not only the
wisdom to only call upon help when needed, but also a sensitivity to the
*political* realities."

Alex nods and says "Thanks." Alex then pauses and stares off at the horizon to give
Herman time to slip away if he doesn't feel like answering more
questions, then says, "Were you able to pull strings to keep them from
guessing you were putting the pieces together?" Alex looks at Herman then.

Herman indeed has risen, apparently having done what he set out to do. But
at Alex's words, he smiles wryly and points at the breadcrumbs still on
the ground.

"No need, really - you just hang around quietly in the back and pick up
the crumbs people drop, and soon enough you'll have a whole piece of
bread." His step is slow, and he is clearly old and tired besides.
"Good luck to you and your friends - I expect you'll need it. I only
hope you catch a break." He turns and moves on, heading back towards
the park entrance.

And then a group of teenagers passes by, having finished their own
frisbee golf game. They are briefly interposed between Alex and Herman
- and when they have moved on, Herman is gone. The wind is picking up a
bit, and it swirls the breadcrumbs on the grass. But the scent that
comes on the breeze is not one of bread, but rather of old paper. Tax
forms, insurance forms, request forms, carbons and notices - almost the
*essence* of stale bureaucracy.

Well, at least all of these are interesting

2007-09-18T01:47:59Z

Snagged from sisyphusx and
uofirob

Career Cruising Meme

1. Go to www.careercruising.com.
2. Put in Username: nycareers, Password: landmark.
3. Take their "Career Matchmaker" questions.
4. Post the top 10 results.

1. Mechanical Engineering Tech
2. Agricultural Engineer
3. Engineering Tech
4. Ecologist
5. Multimedia Developer
6. Paleontologist
7. Environmental Consultant
8. Geologist
9. Environmental Engineer
10. Hydrologist / Hydrogeologist

My actual, chosen career (Technical Writer) is number 17

hawkshadow @ 2007-09-15T22:33:00

2007-09-16T03:49:14Z

That one was kind of fun. I was thinking I'd either get this or the %d (I haven't seen anybody get that yet).

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

Power Outage, Insane Deadlines, and the Flood (continued)

2007-08-27T00:47:17Z

On the way to the train station the effects of the storm were worse. There was only one stoplight that was working. Some of them were blinking red, others were completely dark. There were patches of blackout all over. As I was waiting to cross Euclid just a block from the station my wife called to tell me the trains were running 15 to 20 minutes late. It turned out that's about how long it took me to drive that one-block stretch between where I was and the station.

I watched the clouds some more. Something that looked suspiciously like a wall cloud moved over my head and on its way toward the North Northeast. There was no rotation in this wall cloud, so it wasn't going to spawn a tornado yet.

When we eventually got home the power was still out. The basement had about 3 inches of water across the entire floor. This was above the boards we'd stacked boxes on to keep them out of the water if the basement flooded. We waded in and carried all the most valuable stuff upstairs. The power was still out.

Eventually, at about 11:30 we went to bed. The water had risen another inch or so. The power came back on about 2 hours after that. We checked that the sump had come back on, set the clocks and went back to bed.

In the morning I emailed my boss about the events and that I had not been able to get the work for the deadline done. He hit the roof. He had to be able to say my work was finished in a meeting at 2:00 that day. I believe, either money for the current contract or the subsequent contract was riding on the success of that meeting. I scrambled, took a few shortcuts and got my stuff done by 1:00, which was enough time for QA to quickly check over my work before the meeting. My boss was still grumpy about the close shave, but the meeting was a success.

The next day (Saturday), work sent me a high priority bug in my work to get fixed. About the same time, my landlords son came by and asked to get into the garage to get the ladder. I opened up the garage and went to work on fixing the problem in the documentation. It was a time consuming replacement of about 20 screen captures in the documentation. When I got that done I was feeling extremely anxious about my job. Not only had I almost screwed up delivery on the project, but the work that I'd done looked as rushed as it had actually been. Not only that, there was still a bunch of soggy stuff and pools of water in the basement.

I stepped out side, and there's my landlords son on the ladder cutting the last few branches off the wonderful pine tree we used to have in our back yard. He said they'd wanted to do that for years because they thought it was ugly, and thought they would take advantage of the State disaster area declaration to get the city to haul the branches away for free. There was nothing wrong with the pine tree. It was a nice, big tree. It had survived the storm. But, they cut it down because they thought it was ugly.

While we had been hauling stuff upstairs the night before, we had remembered to unplug all the filters and stuff that leads to the fish tank we have in the basement. I went downstairs with a power strip we'd had upstairs and plugged the stuff back in. Everything seemed to work. I started to reach into the water to fish out a feeding cone that had sunk to the bottom and zzzzot. When I touched the water I got a small shock. I quickly unplugged everything. All the wires were coated with salt from the tank, and because there was so much moisture in the air, condensation had formed. Salt+water=electrical conductivity. The electricity was traveling up the outside of the wires and electrifying the surface of the water in the fish tank. Fortunately, it was low enough amperage that it was a mild shock and the fish was unaffected.

About 9:00 that evening my boss pinged me again on chat. He had a different emergency. The client had suddenly come up with a last minute request for some documents that were going to go out to customers on Monday through email. I came up with a plan of attack and we got them finished and approved this afternoon (Sunday).

I've begun to clean up in the basement, and except for the stress, a bunch of soggy boxes with unknown stuff that we had packed away, and a nice pine tree that the landlord had turned into logs and kindling we got through it all relatively unscathed.

Power Outage, Insane Deadlines, and the Flood

2007-08-26T00:22:51Z

For the next faze of the documentation project I've been working on as a consultant, I had an absolute Friday morning deadline. I was planning on putting in 10-15 hours on Thursday, then calling it good enough wherever I got to by Friday morning.

The Windows computers I'm using for work are old and underpowered. So, I decided to work from home Thursday afternoon so I could switch between the small-screened Windows laptop, and my newer faster Mac with a larger screen. I took a quick walk in the park, did a few essential errands, then got home at about 2.

At about 3:30 I was chatting with another co-worker who was also working from home. I could hear the storm building outside.

8/23/2007
3:21:00 PM
Hawkshadow: Uh-oh Tornado sirens

3:21:04 PM
Tim Gunderson: REALLY ??

3:21:14 PM
Tim Gunderson: it does look nasty out to the west a bit !

3:21:21 PM
Tim Gunderson: SAVE EVERYTHING !

3:21:25 PM
Hawkshadow: Yeah. Mount prospect

3:21:25 PM
Tim Gunderson: ha

3:35:37 PM
Tim Gunderson: the storm is hitting down here now... WOW !

...

Then the light went out and the computer connection went dead.

The lights flickered back on. I went to put the car in the garage. Opened the garage door with the remote and was about to step outside. A wall of rain and blown leaves, hit me in the face. I decided I didn't want to put the car in the garage that bad. I Closed the door, and grabbed the remote to close the garage. The doors went two feet down and the power went out again.

The storm continued.

With no power, a flaky laptop battery, and a house-current-powered cable modem, there was no way I was going to get work done at home. I waited 20 minutes or so and watched the rain blowing into the garage where we've got furniture and other stuff stored. The storm let up. Still no power.

I decided I absolutely needed to get this work done. And, it was before 5, so people were probably still in the office. I figured out how to manually close the garage. The stuff stored there was not nearly as wet as I imagined. I drove to work.

Normally it takes 10 minutes. Stop lights were out. Trees were down. Fences were blown over. It took me half an hour. When I got there, the office was dark. There were still people in the downstairs portion of the building, so I was able to get in, and the power did work here. So I started in on the work. It occurred to me, I should probably tell my boss that the power went out at home and I was here at work. I was just composing an email, when somebody came upstairs and knocked at my Boss's office door.

"No one's there", I say.

"I'm about to close up", says a voice from the hall. A grumpy looking man, who I'd judge to be in his 60s walks into the room. "You're lucky I checked up here", he says.

I look at him quizzically.

"You would'a gotten locked in." He says.

I pack up and leave, and he follows me out and locks the door and the gate to the parking lot behind me. It's about 5:30.

On my way home, more violent storms. I watch the roiling clouds as I'm at a stoplight. It looks like a storm that might produce a tornado. My wife calls. She's taking the train that arrives in Arlington Park at 6:15. It takes me 45 minutes to get home. The power's still out. I check the basement. (Our sump is electric.) No flooding yet.

I head off to pick up my wife from the station.

... I'll write more later ...

hawkshadow @ 2007-07-21T09:49:00

2007-07-21T15:05:04Z

It looks like my extroverted score has increased dramatically over the past 10 years or so. (I was close to 100% introverted last time I took a Jungian personality test.

hawkshadow @ 2007-07-15T17:36:00

2007-07-15T23:35:27Z

For the Fourth of July Ananda and I went up to Lakeside MI to visit my parents. It was the first time I've been up there in about a year (I think we went for last year's Fourth of July too). My second cousins (or whatever you call the daughter of your great uncle and her husband) have built a huge house in what used to be a semi-wild prairie across from Mom and Dad's house. Though it wasn't as bad as I imagined, its still a big house (sort of a modern-looking ranch style rather than a McMansion).

Unfortunately, as I was getting out of our car, my arm got wrapped around a huge poison ivy plant (poison sumac also grows in this area, but that produces a rash that looks worse, but itches less). This is the worst I've ever gotten poison ivy. However, thanks to frequent use of a paste made out of baking powder and a little vinegar, it is going away fairly quickly. I still have lots of red spots and patches, but most of them are no longer being actively irritated by the poison ivy oils.

The night of the Fourth was great fun. All the little summer-home communities (who typically have lots of money) spend tons on fireworks. So, as you're sitting on the beach you get a view of 10 or 20 communities shooting off big, colorful rocket from dusk (about 9:30) until about 1:00am on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th (and, presumably some on the weekends before and after). We bought a little portable grill, so we were able to roast marshmallows, veggie dogs, and turkey brats on the beach as we watched.

I took film pictures of the woods and house and some of the fireworks, but haven't gotten the film developed yet. I'll post when I do.

My new job is going very well. They seem to like my work and want me to continue on to their next project. I might even get paid eventually (they said they will send the last 3 checks on the 13th). The work took no time at all to get used to. Since I'd been working for myself on my own projects for the last 3 years, I was a little afraid it would take some time to get back into the swing of things. It has, however, taken me a little bit to figure out when I can fit in my daily walk in the woods. I'm now leaving directly from work, going to the woods, then coming home after my walk. I still haven't made any significant progress on my programs during the week, but I have been making some progress on those over the weekends.

hawkshadow @ 2007-07-15T13:03:00

2007-07-15T18:05:01Z

The Cougar

Here's your results! Your spirit animal has a Nobility ranking of 13 out of 18.

Your spirit animal is the cougar. It is a stealthy and deadly protector. With a cougar as a spirit animal, you have nothing to fear in this world. Your life is blessed and you are on the right path. You will still have hard times, but you will pull through them, always stronger for your travails. Congratulations, few are fotunate enough to have such a spirit animal!

***Wondering how this animal was chosen for you? These questions were carefully thought out to see how important you hold certain virtues such as: humanism, self-knowledge, rationalism, the love of freedom and other somewhat Hellenic ideals. Some of the questions were very subtle. Your score was then matched with an animal of corresponding nobility. However, you shouldn't think this was a right/wrong sort of test, but more of an idealistic values test. It's ok to not hold these values, you'll just get an animal spirit of lower stature if you do!***

This test tracked 1 variable. How the score compared to the other people's:

Higher than 85% on Nobility

Link: The What is Your Spirit Animal Test written by FindingEros on Ok Cupid

Mathematical Musings on a Metric for Relationships

2007-04-14T18:44:13Z

This is just a weird idea I've been thinking about for a loooong time...

Every person has some degree of self knowledge.

You can represent the inverse of self knowledge on a scale somewhat similar to an IQ scale where 100 is the average of people in your cohort (people who are approximately the same age as you). On this scale, better self knowledge is a number below 100 and worse self knowledge is a number above 100. Call this number ISK (Inverse Self Knowledge).

When you have a relationship with someone, the complexity of the relationship is the product of the the individuals ISKs.

So, the complexity of an average couple's relationship is 100 * 100 = 10,000.

The complexity of an "average" menage-a-trois is then 100 * 100 * 100 = 1,000,000. And, if you add in a fourth it's 100,000,000, and so on.

Just a thought.

Laundered data

2007-04-07T16:45:29Z

Well, I managed to send my SanDisk key drive through the laundry again. This time it fell off the key chain in my pants pocket and it went through both the washer and the drier. I'm quite impressed that the drive and the data survived two trips through the washing machine, however, if I keep doing this, I suspect it will eventually fail.

I'm thinking I might wear the drive around my neck rather than on my key chain. Anybody have any suggestions about where to get a good cotton or synthetic fiber lanyard for hanging keys or key drives around the neck?

Jeff, you have your drive attached to a lanyard. Where did you get yours?

hawkshadow @ 2007-03-06T16:08:00

2007-03-06T22:09:34Z

Lately I've been way too anti-social, and it's been months since I've posted to LJ, so I thought I'd stop working for a while and ramble about what I've been doing, some of the stuff I've been thinking about, and show off a preliminary sketch for a scene I'm working on.

As part of my effort to re-enter the corporate world, I've been brushing up on some of my programming, project management, and web2 skills. In case I didn't mention this to someone on my friends list, I'm looking for a job as a technical writer for a software or technology company. I'll also look at Java or Objective-C++ programming jobs, and some QA or business analyst jobs for technology companies.

This, in turn, has lead to substantial progress on my 3d art program and a much clearer idea of where I'm going with my internet gaming program. Right now, assuming I get a day job within the next few months, I'm looking at an early availability release of the 3d software some time between November of this year and the middle of next year. The gaming program is going to require some substantial features I didn't initially plan on including, so now that I've mapped out what those features are, I'm putting off further work on it until a later time.

I've been regularly running games in my own clock-punk high-magic fantasy world. If you've never heard the term before, clock-punk and steam-punk are genres that typically combine a gritty near-future attitude with fantastic technology that runs off a mixture of anachronistic machinery and magic. Steam-punk tends to use machinery from the mid 1800s through the early 1900s, while clock-punk uses machinery from the early 1700s through the early 1800s.

This time, rather than working up my own, unique adventures that end up turning into a never resolving fantasy opera of interrelated NPCs and events, I've been using a pre-packaged campaign from Shadowrun. Surprisingly, the adventures translate almost effortlessly to my own world.

I've also been using Spycraft as the basis for the rules along with my own d20-derrived magic system. This mix of rules is familiar enough for people used to d20 that they can pick it up fairly quickly, but more flexible, so it appeals to people who prefer systems like White Wolf, or GURPS, or Shadowrun.

hawkshadow @ 2006-10-04T22:44:00

2006-10-05T03:45:20Z

You scored as Universal. You are a Universal Empath, you possess all the qualities of the other seven empath groups. You are what is known as an "Implicate" or Imp, a product of evolutionary design and genetic mutation. You are a psychic hybrid. (from "The Book of Storms" by Jad Alexander at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Empaths/)

Universal

100%

Artist

95%

Shaman

95%

Judge

85%

Healer

80%

Traveler

80%

Fallen Angel

70%

Precog

60%

What Kind of Empath Are You?
created with QuizFarm.com

hawkshadow @ 2006-09-23T21:12:00

2006-09-24T02:14:29Z

Happy birthday amiee_darling from axgrrl and me.

hawkshadow @ 2006-09-21T12:11:00

2006-09-21T17:11:59Z

Anybody reading this who has a Mac should check out the new version of my dice rolling software, FreeDice. I've posted it to my web page (http://www.freewebs.com/markstevens). I want to do a little more testing of it before I announce it on version tracker.

(I've also got some of my artwork and poetry on the web page, so if you haven't seen it yet, take a look.)

hawkshadow @ 2006-09-01T12:28:00

2006-09-01T17:39:13Z

Here's a really good video clip (with transcript) from MSNBC's Keith Olbermann from the closing of his show, Countdown. In this clip he shows through historical example how Donald Rumsfeld's recent speech on America facing a new form of "fascism" is analogous to speeches given by historical Nazis and their appeasers.

Pluto

2006-08-26T18:30:46Z

It looks like some scientists are trying to get Pluto voted back in here.

Apparently, the part of the definition that excludes Pluto is vague, and could technically be used to exclude other planets as well. That is, a planet is only a planet if it clears out it's orbit. That excluded Pluto, since it shares an orbit with Neptune and a bunch of icy debris in the Kupier belt. Technically, that should also exclude Neptune, since Pluto crosses its orbit. It also might be used to exclude Earth because of the Earth crossing asteroids (like the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs). There are also asteroids and comets throughout the solar system, so, technically this new definition gives us a solar system that's devoid of planets. Not quite what they had in mind :P

Here is another article that says there's a petition among astronomers to rescind the new definition.

The Old Drumming Path

2006-08-24T00:26:30Z

Just some rambling imagery I've been trying to give words to for a while. This is inspired by a walk along a trail in Green Valley Park right along the boarder between DuPage and Will counties.

As I walk across the prairie up the hill into the ancient oak grove, my feet drum heartbeats that awaken slumbering secrets. A cool breeze sings in a whispering voice in the canopy of leaves now high above my head as I wonder about mysteries that might have been. Are there ghosts of native ancestors wandering through this wood, mourning the passing of the endless sea of grass and the people who inhabited its expanse? Is there a dark faerie king chuckling at his fortune living under that great mound of garbage now towering over the woods? And what of the Seelie queen who dances among the bur oaks? Is she now consort to the Unseelie king?

hawkshadow @ 2006-08-21T13:36:00

2006-08-21T18:49:46Z

This is another "about me" survey that I got from a friend as a chain letter. You can either reply to this with your own answers, or copy the questions and post them in your own LJ.

> A) Four jobs I have had in my life:

1. Construction worker (building porches and roofs)
2. Artist (doing icons and logos)
3. Technical Writer
4. Programmer

> B) Four movies you would watch over and over:

1. Bladerunner
2. Time Bandits
3. Monsters Inc.
4. Brahm Stoker's Dracula

> C) Four places you have lived:

1. Chicago, IL (and suburbs)
2. Appleton, WI
3. Leonia, NJ (suburb of New York)
4. Lakeside, MI

> D) Four TV shows you love to watch

1. Law and Order (and variants like SVU and Criminal Intent)
2. Mythbusters
3. Dr Who
4. Brother Cadfael

> E) Places I have been on vacation:

1. Machu Pichu in Puru
2. Stonehenge in England
3. The castles along the Rhein in Germany
4. Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska

> F) Websites you visit daily:
1. AlterNet http://www.alternet.org/
2. Space Today http://www.spacetoday.net/index.html
3. Live Science http://www.livescience.com/
4. Flight Group http://www.flightglobal.com/Home/Default.aspx

> G) Four of my favorite foods:

1. Chocolate
2. Orange Beef
3. Shrimp Penang Curry
4. Enchaladas Mole

> H) Four places I would rather be right now:

1. with Ananda in Boston
2. hiking around the Rockies
3. in Waren Woods in Michigan
4. Tall Trees Grove in Redwood National Park, California

> I) Four friends I think will respond:

1. Axegrrl (Ananda)
2. Kittykatkaja (Kat)
3. dragonbane might respond
4. most of my other friends don't respond to stuff like this