Lepus Lepidus

LA is nice but we miss our old morning radio show from SF. The LA DJs are all aging fratboys making fart jokes and talking about sports and Elvis. I miss the sardonic whinings of Sarah & Vinnie. Kat found the Squeezebox and suggested we use that as our alarm clock — a fine substitute for the ancient one I’ve been carrying with me since college. It has a cassette player in it, so you can wake to a tape. That’s how old it is. But the new jam? Shiny and red. I love red consumer electronics. They’re so…not black.

So we got one and I realized, hey, this thing streams from either the internet or your home network — install server software on as many PCs or Macs as you like, and the Squeezebox seeks them out, even prioritizing iTunes so you can use the same playlists. We can use this to listen to our “bedtime stories” — old radio dramas that we’ve burned to MP3 CDs and run off a boombox with a sleep timer. And we’ve got this Mac Mini that’s just sitting on the network as a poor-man’s NAS box for data; why not load it up with a big iTunes library of old-time radio MP3s and do that? That will make things simple…right?

Continue reading ‘Radio Free Amrich’

Go check out OneOfSwords and it will make me happy. Kat designed the site and I think she did a great job. Poke around; you’ll see the origin of the name in the About section.

And if you follow OneOfSwords on Twitter by this Friday, you’re eligible to win some cool prizes. What good is working at a big games publisher if you can’t give out some swag?

Please tell every living creature you know. If telling people about this promotional event is a point of introduction for you to meet new living creatures, all the better.

I started at Activision this week. Could barely sleep Sunday night; Monday was the first day of school. It’s really cool to go to a job where you do not have the typical “new guy” vibe — I have already worked with some of my new co-workers for 15 years. The only thing different is that I no work 15 feet away in another cubicle. Continue reading ‘Week 1 and the challenges ahead’

Zazzle, I always liked you. You saw what a lousy job CafePress was doing with on-demand one-off publishing, like hats and mugs and shirts, and said, “Hell, we can do that, and we can do it better.” So you took their business plan and ran with it and it was good (and it led to copyrighted banner images like the above, which are the exclusive property of Zazzle and not me). Besides, I like supporting San Francisco businesses, even if they don’t have original ideas.
Continue reading ‘Dan vs. Zazzle (or, The Curious Case of Schroedinger’s Calendar)’

For years I’ve sworn off of New Year’s resolutions. I always felt it was a way to set myself up to fail. But for some reason, this year, I have a few.

That’s enough. Achievable goals.

I was very happy to see that the 40-page free sample of the World of Warcraft magazine was posted online at last. It was hard working on that project and not being able to show anybody what was taking so long, but nothing could be displayed until Blizzard had approved it. Now that they have, I figure the files have shipped to the printer and the physical magazine should be winging its way to mailboxes (including mine) by early January. Big props to Ryan Vulk, Josh Augustine, Julian Rignall, and the rest of the Future Plus team for weathering the storm and making it look awesome in the process. I think people who actually pick it up and give it a chance will be very impressed.

A few sites picked up the story, and as usual, most of the reader comments on those stories were the same tripe I’ve seen over and over again whenever any blog reports on any magazine. In Kotaku’s user comments, Azures said, “The internet makes them pointless on the most basic level. the internet is killing newspapers, im shocked ANY magazine is still around.”

I was going to post a long response over at Kotaku, but I’ve decided I would rather ramble and look like a crazy person on my own turf.
Continue reading ‘WoW magazine sample — and a slippery slope’

Okay, gamer rant time. There’s this thing that I’ve complained about before that is still happening and still pisses me off to absolutely no end. Apparently me ranting about it once three years ago did not make it go away so I’ll do it again. It’s the Ellipsis of Fuck You.

Scene: Kat, Ian and I are playing L4D2. It’s our first time through Dark Carnival, and even though the game is set to Friends Only, someone shows up that we do not know. That’s fine, we can use the help, we’re newbies. Section 4, right before we get to the gates of the venue, we all go down. We simply got overwhelmed, because, hey, it’s L4D2. That’s what it is designed to do.

So we all die. Our mystery teammate types “…” and nothing else.

Now, if you’re going to stop and say something, SAY something. Type actual words. But three dots — the Ellipsis of Fuck You — means exactly that. “You are such a bad player that I am speechless. I want to say that you suck beyond words, so I will not use any words. You are a poor player and you are lucky I am even in your presence. Know that you have garnered my displeasure…in silence.”

I typed back “There sure were a lot of them.” He says “horrid place to stop.” I replied “Wasn’t exactly a choice.”

Now, “horrid place to stop” is at least constructive criticism — that’s something I can learn from and use next time through. I don’t know the choke points yet; I told him it was our first time on the map. Also, it’s two days after Christmas; it’s reasonable that we might be newbies who just got the game (and Ian was; Kat and I simply haven’t had time to dig into it until now).

But “…”? No, fuck you BACK, dude. It’s a bullshit elitist gamer thing to do, and you might as well have the stones to say “boy, you sure do suck.” Get on the microphone and sigh deeply at me. Or better still, fire up your video camera and give me The Look That Goes With The Ellipsis:

At least that would be actual interaction. But enough of this “I judge you from a lofty position of greater experience” bullshit. Either insult me or give me some advice. I don’t need to see that your e-penis is three dots long.

Some guys can fix cars; some guys can chop logs; some guys can save lives. I can’t do any of that shit. What I can do is set up complicated home theater and computer rigs and get it right the first time. Kat, by contrast, likes to use complicated home theater and computer rigs, but she wants it to be easy to use. This is where my badassery comes in.
Continue reading ‘I am an A/V badass’

We made it. And just so I can convince myself that it really happened, here’s a photo account of The Move To LA.
Continue reading ‘The move (in photos)’

As I pack everything I own into what will no doubt be hundreds of small boxes (anybody who lives in LA who wants them for cheap when I’m done should get in touch), I find my thoughts wandering to what Los Angeles will hold for me. Some people have said “Don’t let LA change you.” The nicest person replied for me — “Hell, I hope he doesn’t change LA.” I know plenty of nice people there so I’m not particularly worried.

I’m honestly not all that thrilled to move to Los Angeles, but I am thrilled about the job, and we got a fantastic house — I think I’m going to be pleasantly surprised at how comfortable it will be once I find my own rhythm. Still, putting all your worldly possessions into cardboard cartons does give you time to make mental lists:

CONS:
- I have to leave all my friends. Paul Curthoys threw a farewell party last night which was filled with Rock Band and Guitar Hero silliness, good eats, great discussions, and some very fine spirits.
- Moving sucks.
- I know I’m facing an uphill battle with the job. People are going to twist my words no matter what I say, and I’m going to be seen as the enemy even when I’m talking sense or just offering an alternate viewpoint. That’s going to take some getting used to, but all I can do is what I’ve always done — take people seriously, be as clear as I can, and then let go when the haters simply want to hate. I’ve dedicated my life to being as clear as I can in my writing, so having people willfully misinterpret my words will take some serious adjustment.

PROS:
- I am purging stuff I don’t need and it feels good. It’s still too much stuff and I wish I’d purged more but I feel good about what I’d done, anyway.
- That new place is awesome. I think it’s really going to fit our mental needs, as well as the physical ones with the garage for storage and photography. We already know where all our landmarks are (banks, restaurants, grocery stores, Target, etc) and we feel comfortable.
- The short commute makes me VERY happy. Right now I have a 10-minute drive from my place to Future; it’s maybe 15 minutes in LA. I have found my life happiness is directly related to my commute time, so this was a key piece of the puzzle. And I’d love to see if I could bike it.
- We’re three miles from the ocean. And in LA, the beach has sand. Up here, it’s rocks. We might even interact with it now.
- New guitar stores. While I was down there looking for a place, I went into Truetone at the recommendation of both Scott Butterworth and Alistair Wallis. I was never happier about the move.
- Everybody knows there are celebrities everywhere in SoCal; in fact, you have to spray to keep them off your property. But I hope this means I will finally get to meet Jessica Rabbit. Toontown is around there somewhere.

Pros outweigh the cons for sure.