Showing posts with label crosslinks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crosslinks. Show all posts

Sunday, February 27, 2022

The Self-Interviews

What It Is

Sometimes when I watch or listen to one of these shows, I imagine how I might answer the interviewer’s questions.
me

I’m embarking on a new series in which I answer the questions that some of the great interviewers of our time typically put to their guests.  If you’re interested to know why I’ve decided to do this, feel free to read “The Motivation” down at the bottom.  But it’s not required.

Here’s a list of of what I’m planning to do; I’ll update these so they’re links to the posts once I write them.  Note that I’ve actually already written one of them: it I have a post from nearly 5 years ago that fits right into this theme, so I’m retroactively declaring it to be part of the series.

I may add more later, as they come up.

The List

The Motivation

So, it’s occurred to me that my blog is a bit like a diary.  My kids absolutely don’t read it now, but perhaps some day they will.  Now, I don’t know if any of you other readers much care what my answers to any of the questions posed by famous interviewers are, but I think that my children may find those answers interesting, one day ... maybe after I’m gone.  Not that I expect to be gone any time soon, but I do fully expect to be gone before my children ever get around to reading any of this stuff.

It’s a weird thing that we often want to try to connect with people after it’s too late to do that in person, instead of doing it while they’re right there next to us.  I’m sure there’s some aspect of human nature that explains this, but I have no clue what it is.  I just want my children to know that I did the same thing when I was younger—hell, I’m still doing it, though I’m finally old enough to realize I need to do better—so, you know ... don’t feel bad about it or anything.

Hopefully these posts give some insight into what I thought and felt, about life and living and all that jazz.

Caveats

I’m sure most of these questions are designed to be answered with brief responses.  I don’t do brief.

Also, there will be cursing.  Because, of course there will.









Sunday, August 2, 2020

Gaming Series


Lately I’ve started a bunch of series related to gaming, in particular my love of D&D and similar TTRPGs (tabletop roleplaying games—sometimes, in older posts, you may see me refer to them as PnP RPGs).



D&D and Me

My personal story about how I came to love the game and my formative experiences with it.


GM Philosophy

These are posts which outline my personal tenets as a GM (game master).  This is mainly to have a formal place to point players to if they want to know what to expect in my games.


Multiclassing

One D&D topic that’s near and dear to my heart is multiclassing: the ability for one character to advance in more than class.  I started a series exploring how this was handled in various editions of D&D, hopefully to culminate in some ideas about what the perfect multiclassing system might be.


General D&D 5e Musings

Occasionally I write something more general about fifth edition D&D in particular.  There’s not a lot of throughline for these.  It is, by its nature, an open-ended series.


General Pathfinder Musings

Before D&D’s fifth edition (affectionately known as 5e) came out, I was pretty big into Pathfinder.  I have some musings on that too:


General Heroscape Musings

Outside of TTRPGs, my other big gaming love is Heroscape.  Here are some thoughts about that game:


General Fantasy Musings

Sometimes I just like to talk about fantasy gaming in general, storytelling through TTRPGs, etc.  Like these:


Gaming with my Family

Of course I sometimes game with my family, and I sometimes write about it.  Here are some samples:  (Note: Most of these are about D&D, but some are about Heroscape.)

Heroscape tournament reports

Most years, I attend an annual Heroscaper tournament with a group of folks called the SoCal League.  Typically I take at least a human child or two along for the ride, so here’s a family subcategory consisting of those posts:











Sunday, February 28, 2016

Carryover post


I really, really tried to make sure you got a proper post this week.  My fervent hope was that I would complete the next round of work on my Perl module, since it’s been a month since I updated over on my Other Blog.  However, I ran into a couple of crises (one computer-but-not-work related, the other child-and-sickness related) that have conspired to keep me from being prepared to do that.  I’ll have it next week if it kills me.

My next thought was to quickly crank out the next post in my music mix series, because I rather thought I’d already started it, and therefore it would be pretty easy to polish it off.  But, alas: I had the barest shell of a post ready, and there was just no way I was going to be able to fill that out in a reasonable amount of time.

On the other hand, I would once again point you at the post that I updated last week with: Why I Left the C3V.  It really is about way more than Heroscape and the C3V; plus it’s long enough to count for two weeks’ worth of posts anyway.

Until next week.

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Series Listing: The Other Blog


I have two blogs: this one, and a technical, Perl-based blog.  When I refer to “my Other Blog”, it just means whichever one you happen not to be on at the moment.  I occasionally do series over on the Other Blog as well, so here’s a listing of those.



YAPC Reports


The first one of these was actually posted on this blog, as it was written before The Other Blog was created.  The remainder are over there though.

These are not terribly technical; mostly what I talk about are traveling, the social interaction, dragging family members along for the ride, etc.




Perl and Me


This is probably the series that I’m proudest of (and the one that more people have actually read than any other, I would guess).  It’s moderately technical, in spots, but it also contains a lot of philosophical ponderings and more abstract points.


Not part of the series proper, but perhaps a fun read nonetheless: this post (not on the Other Blog) discusses the origin of all the titles I chose for this series.




A Date with CPAN


This describes my attempts to design a new Perl module to make dealing with dates easier for most Perl scripts.  It won’t work for every possible use of dates, but it should suffice for the most common cases.  It’s more technical than “Perl and Me,” but I think it has value for just about anyone who is a programmer, even if Perl is not their primary language.  It has a lot about general design that will apply in any language, and a lot about dates that is also language-agnostic.

Series Listing: The Informals


An “informal series” is when I don’t really set out to make a post series but end up doing it sort of accidentally.  Generally it comes from revisiting a certain theme periodically.



The Mother

Meaning “the mother of my children” rather than my own mother, I often write posts about The Mother on, appropriately enough, Mother’s Day.


Happy Holidays

Often times around the end of December I wish you a “merry whatever” or occasionally a merry “christmahannukwanzaakah.”*  Usually these are labeled “partial,” meaning that they’re not what I consider a full-length post.  But some of them have interesting tidbits in them anyway (especially that second one there).  So they may be worth checking out anyway.


Animals

As I’ve always had a huge love of animals, I often find myself writing about it.  None of these necessarily relate to each other, but they all touch on that common topic.  I’ve arranged them in sort of a sensible order.  I think.


Quotes

I collect quotes, and occasionally write blog posts about them.


Nothing to Say

Sometimes I don’t do a full blog post because Real Life got busy and I ran out of time.  But, occasionally, rarely, I find that I just can’t think of anything good to write about.  I often use these opportunities to reflect on the blog so far (e.g. number of posts, number of words, is anyone really reading it, that sort of thing).  These are all partial posts, but I think they’re interesting nonetheless.


Agile Development

There are 3 posts in this 2-part series, which is sort of about agile software development, but also sort of an open letter to managers and other businesspeople who are trying to implement some form of agile at their company (and mostly not succeeding).

This series is completed.





__________

* As always, credit goes to Jon Sime for inventing that excellent word.











Series Listing: Saladosity

This a list of posts in my series about salad: why I’m eating it more often, how I manage to keep it interesting enough to eat several times a week, and what specific salads I’m eating.

This series is currently unfinished, but it has a definitive stopping point.



  1. Introduction
  2. The Nutritional Tribes
  3. My Chosen Path
  4. Choose Your Veggies
  5. Further Adventures in Produce
  6. Picking Nuts
  7. The Savory Proteins
  8. Some Condiments, You Just Want to Buy
  9. The Rest of the Cold Stuff
  10. Dry, but Good
  11. The Right Equipment
  12. Always Be Prepared
  13. Bleu Cheese and Pecans
  14. Sweet Tuscan
  15. Autumnal
  16. Mexican
  17. Chef’s
  18. Egg

Although not technically part of the series, I also did a one-shot post on salad way back when.  You might also find it interesting:











Series Listing: The Barefoot Philosophy


Barefoot Software was the business I ran for 12 years.  This series explains the culture of Barefoot, why it was radically divergent from most other businesses of its time, and how it dovetails with many of the newer business philosophies we’re seeing emerging today (in particular, comparing and contrasting to Netflix and Valve).

This series is completed.



Series Listing: Guides


This a list of posts in my series about people who have influenced my life in some way, whom I refer to as “guides.”  From the intro:

But the point is, these are the people who were my guideposts, my compasses, whether from exerting a strong magnetic force on me, or just from jerking a thumb over their shoulder and indicating a better road.  Both are important.  Both have had significant impacts on my life.  Both make interesting stories, and that’s what it’s really all about.


This series is an ongoing one, meaning it will never be truly “finished.”  I sincerely doubt I’m ever going to run out of people who’ve influenced my life in one way or another.  I also do these very infrequently: basically whenever I’m reminded of a particular person from my past.  So be prepared for long gaps in between installments.



Friday, July 17, 2015

Series Listing: Music Mixes


This a list of posts in my series about my music mixes.  You should probably start with the introduction.  The mixes themselves are listed in a spectrum order from most upbeat to most downbeat, although of course these are generalizations and indidivual tracks may buck the trend.  As explained in the introduction, each mix is divided into several volumes, and each post covers one volume.  So the volume subtitles are the links.  Where a mix has no volumes listed, that means I haven’t gotten around to doing a post on it yet, so the inclusion of it here is just a teaser.  I’m cruel like that.

Here are some phrases I use in these posts, their definitions, and links to the posts where I talk more about them (if any):


mix: A collection of songs, arranged in a particular order, that share a common theme.  Can be infinitely long.  Has a name which I invented.

volume: A subdivision of a mix, usually 60 to 80 minutes long.  Has a title, generally drawn from one track in the volume.

mix starter: The song that inspired a particular mix.

transition: The flow from the end of one song to the beginning of the next.  Very important to a mix’s integrity.  The reason why you must never touch the “Shuffle” button on your player.

bridge: A short song, almost always under two minutes, interposed between two other songs that don’t have a very good transition.

hardening: The process by which the transitions of a mix, while perhaps not perfect at first, grow ingrained over time through repeated listening, until I can’t imagine breaking them.  Contrasted with transitions that are perfect out of the gate.

No Reuse Rule: The rule that says that any given song can only ever appear on one mix.  Well, not a rule so much as a guideline, really.  There are, naturally, exceptions:
  • If I make mixes for other people, they are not subject to the No Reuse Rule.  For instance, my Mother’s Day mix may very well contain songs on one of the mixes here; likewise for any of the mixes I made for my eldest child when they were younger.
  • Also, if I were to make two different mixes for The Mother or any of my kids, I might be willing to use the same track as a previous mix for that person.  Which is subtly different from the above exception (and probably worse, so then again I might not).
  • Every once in a while I just screw up and accidentally break the No Reuse Rule.  Generally I try to rerrange things in order to fix the mistake once I find it.  Sometimes this can be difficult if the song has “hardened” (see above) in both mixes.
  • Certain mixes are just different, and they’re not considered part of the main series, so they’re allowed to use the same track as one of the main mixes (but not to repeat a track on that mix, no matter how many volumes it goes).  The prime example of this is the 80s My Way mix.  I also have 3 “mood” mixes (which is a dumb name for them, as all of my mixes are really mood mixes) called Dreamtime, Darktime, and Pasttime which used to fall under this exception.  Lately, however, I’ve been re-examining that decision, and starting to move some things around so that those mixes will also follow the No Reuse Rule.  I also have a “gaming” mix which originally I didn’t consider part of the main mix series, but it has also since come into line.
  • “Bonin’ in the Boneyard” by Fishbone is exempt from the No Reuse Rule.  It can be on as many mixes as it wants.  It’s just that good.

modern mix: A mix that was developed as a digital playlist.

pre-modern mix: A mix that was developed as a mix tape.  Any pre-modern mix in this series is actually a recreation of the original.

proto-mix: A collection of songs that was sort of randomly jumbled together on a mix tape; proto-mixes were what preceded pre-modern mixes.  There are no proto-mixes in this list because they were all crap.

transitional mix: The mixes that came between the pre-modern mixes and the modern mixes.  They were developed as digital playlists, but not with the full rigor of modern mixes.  There are 3 of these in total, and at least 2 of them are being updated to follow the moden mix guidelines.

moderately obscure band: An artist with an entry on AllMusic but no bio, and either no page or a stub page on Wikipedia.

really obscure band: An artist that can’t be found on either AllMusic or Wikipedia.

cover image: A faux CD cover generated for a mix volume out of my fevered imagination using the Gimp.  Only a few volumes have this.



In addition to the mixes themselves, I also have a few personal stories of music discovery that I’ve written:


The mixes are arranged from most upbeat to most downbeat.  I’ve tried to provide a super-short summation of what each mix conveys; these are necessarily oversimplifications and may not capture the full range of emotion the mix provides.  Mixes with no descriptions or volumes listed are still under construction.

Most Upbeat

⇓      Thrashomatic Danger Mix

loud and hardcore, to work out your aggression

⇓      Cumulonimbus Eleven

powerful songs that should be cranked all the way up

⇓      Funkadelic Bonethumper

⇓      Creeping Rageaholic

songs that start out mellow, then break into aggression

⇓      Totally Different Head

punk meets new wave

⇓      FasterHarderDarker

⇓      Distaff Attitude

female vocals with attitude

⇓      HipHop Bottlerocket

party mix

⇓      Tsunwave Tsunami

⇓      Salsatic Vibrato

brassy and upbeat

⇓      Solar Superposition

⇓      Apparently World

upbeat worldmusic

⇓      Snaptone Glimmerbeam

happy-making mostly instrumentals

⇓      Yuletidal Pools

Happy Christmahannukwanzaakah!

⇓      Tripping Flibbertigibbet

⇓      Honeysuckle Bubblegum

⇓      Stumbling Locomotive

⇓      Sirenexiv Cola

female-fronted alterna-pop

⇓      80s My Way

my tribute to 80s music

⇓      Fulminant Cadenza

rock and alternative with an operatic bent

⇓      Cantosphere Eversion

inside-out songs

⇓      Paradoxically Sized World

inspired by LittleBigPlanet

⇓      Midnight Synthesis

⇓      Bleeding Salvador

mid-tempo featuring surreal lyrics

⇓      Penumbral Phosphorescence

mid-to-high-energy goth music

⇓      Eldritch Ætherium

music to inspire gaming creativity

⇓      Candy Apple Shimmer

shimmery, ethereal, but still upbeat, dreampop

⇓      Gramophonic Skullduggery

mischievous songs with an old-timey vibe

⇓      Moonside by Riverlight

jazzy lounge

⇓      Loungeomatic Dangly Mix

⇓      Pasttime

⇓      Slithy Toves

slinky, sinuous tunes ranging from mellow to mildly upbeat

⇓      Primeval Rainlands

⇓      Zephyrous Aquamarine

desert island inspired chill-out

⇓      Smokelit Flashback

druggy trip-hop and dreampop with a noir feel

⇓      Classical Plasma

an orchestral melange of classical, neoclassical, and soundtrack music

⇓      Incanto Liturgica

celebrating chant, both religious and ethnic

⇓      Mars de la Morte

⇓      Irie Vibrations

⇓      Porchwell Firetime

folksy songs which tell a story

⇓      Tumbledown Flatland

western-tinged songs with the feel of a lonesome prairie

⇓      Dreamtime

surreal and psychedelic music that suggests a dreamlike state

⇓      Dreamscape Perturbation

surreal dreampop with a mildly disturbing vibe

⇓      Smooth as Whispercats

alterna-pop with a smooth jazz feel

⇓      Dreamsea Lucidity

lofi and trip-hop with a pschedelic bent

⇓      Mystical Memoriam

pretty instrumentals that suggest magic and memory

⇓      Plutonian Velvet

creepy alternative with unsettling lyrics

⇓      Phantasma Chorale

creepy, childlike music inspired by the soundtrack to Coraline

⇓      Darktime

dark ambient tunes that suggest nyctophobia

⇓      Rose-Coloured Brainpan

downbeat with a nostalgic feel

⇓      Darkling Embrace

love songs with dark overtones

⇓      Shadowfall Equinox

contemplative and autumnal

⇓      Numeric Driftwood

to drift off to sleep by

⇓      Wisty Mysteria

wistful, with a touch of mysterious

⇓      Tenderhearted Nightshade

poignant and contemplative

Most Downbeat


Special Mixes for Other People

Mother’s Day

for The Mother

In the P!nk

the Church of P!nk

Numeric Princess

Disney music for my little princess









Sunday, January 18, 2015

Heroscapers post #1


Remember how, just after Thanksgiving, I said I was going to post something on my Heroscape forum about the big game the boys I played?  Well, I never did.  But today I finally decided to put some time into that, and produced this post.  Check it out, if you’re so inclined.  It might not make a huge amount of sense to those not steeped in the game, but it might be mildly entertaining nonetheless.