Blog: That post about why there are no posts

So it seems inevitable that anybody writing a blog ends up missing a long stretch and then posting about why they were missing and how they're going to do better now.
This is that post.

It's been two semesters since the last time I managed to post and as far as getting excited and making things goes, I've managed to get enough things done to continue on in grad school. I've also made it through a period of low energy and stress, but I seem to be doing pretty well now.

The plan when I started this project was to use it to encourage me to stop sitting around and actually get the things I want done in life done. This has not been a huge success for the big projects (like the ones I've started here) but it has started to work for the smaller things that need to be done.

Now I would like to get myself organized to be more productive, even though there are several things related to my PhD that I will still need to focus on. Over the sumer my time can flex a little more, so for the next few months I will try to post at least one post a week here, either a blog post or a project update.

In the next few weeks I want to post some thoughts on a few of the video games I've played in the last while, particularly which parts are interesting when thinking about how to design the games I would like to design. I will also be writing a few other posts about things that interest me on the web, as well as some other software design things that have interested/bothered me over the years.

Hopefully this blog will keep being a useful tool for organizing myself and continuing to push myself forward.

Time to get excited and make something!

Blog Post: Derek K. Miller

This post is my thanks to Derek K. Miller. Derek was an amazing blogger, podcaster, musician, photographer, citizen of the web, husband, father and most of all human being.

Derek K. Miller

Many years ago, when I was just starting my Masters, I decided that while I seemed to be spending a lot of time on the internet, I certainly wasn't experiencing the best parts of it. Conveniently around that time Tod Maffin (CBC's then resident expert on the internet) was talking about good blogs that people should be following, and amongst the ones he mentioned I started following Derek's penmachine.com.

In early May 2011, Derek died. It wasn't a surprise, he'd been battling, and later living with cancer for more than four years. I followed his blog from his wait for his first biopsy results, though to his last post. I was immersed in his many informative posts, elated when good news came and saddened when the bad news came.

Derek's death was heart breaking, far too soon, with his family too young and with too many awesome things that will never be done. I am glad, that at least he and his family had some time together, to take off and do the important things, like go to Disney world, and to plan for what comes next.

This post, as you may have noticed, is late. It has been many months since Derek died and while I should have got off my ass and written something right away, but I didn't and since then I've wondered a lot about what I should write. After all, I didn't know Derek in real life, he didn't know me from Adam and his death is really the business of his family and friends. I can extend my sympathy, but really what does that do for their grief and their pain.

What I've come to is this: I am inspired by Derek. He lived his life well, did things he was interested in and excited and passionate about. He loved his family and was good to them. He made decisions that made his family's lives better. He never bogged down, even when his pain was at its worst, when the cancer or the chemo was ravaging him he kept going and when he reached the end of the road he took his rest.

I am inspired by Derek and can only say in his death that I will try to follow in his footsteps. I will try to be a good person and a good citizen of the web. I will try to produce creative things that I enjoy making. I make no guarantees beyond that, but looking at the happiness he had in his too-short life, I don't know what else someone could wish for.

Derek and his wife Air. Stylin'. That's most of what you need to know.

Project 3 : 25 books in 52 weeks

As I think I've mentioned one of the reason why I'm doing this blog is to try to stop the powerful force of my own procrastination. One of the things I've procrastinated the most about is reading, and while I mean the reading I need to do for my PhD to some extent, the reading I've really been missing out on is reading for pleasure.

So I'm starting a project to try to increase the amount of reading I get done. Over the next 52 weeks, I'd like to read 25 books. Hopefully it will take less that 52 weeks as this isn't a very ambitious goal, but I want to give myself a chance.

I've started by taking a look at the huge pile of books I have sitting around that I haven't read yet, and a few that I've been thinking of reading again. I've listed these books out below. I don't guarantee that these will actually be the 25 books I read, but at the moment they're what I'm planning to read.

Title	Author	Notes
A Short History of Nearly Everything	Bill Bryson
Agent of Change	Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
The Atrocity Archives	Charles Stross
Camelot 30K	Robert L. Forward	Re-Read
The Collected Short Fiction of C.J. Cherryh	C.J. Cherryh
The Complaints	Ian Rankin
Cryoburn	Lois McMaster Bujold
The Dragon Book
Essex County	Jeff Lemire	Canada Reads
The Fionavar Tapestry	Guy Gavriel Kay	2nd Try
Fluke	Christopher Moore
Fortress in the Eye of Time	C.J. Cherryh
Fool	Christopher Moore
Good to Great	Jim Collins	Re-read
Local Custom	Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
Matter	Iain M. Banks	Hopefully no extracted eye balls or unnecessary surgery
New Sprint	Robert Jordan
Nebula Awards Showcase 2009
Regenesis	C. J. Cherryh
Spirit Gate	Kate Elliott
The Sword of Shannara	Terry Brooks
This Alien Shore	C. S. Friedman	Re-Read
Unless	Carol Shields	Canada Reads
Will Grayson, Will Grayson	John Green & David Levithan
The Years of Rice and Salt	Kim Stanley Robinson

Blog Post: 6 Guitars

I recently went to see "6 Guitars" at the Calgary Fringe Fest. It jumped out at me from the listing because it reminded me of the film "It Might Get Loud" and it's always interesting to explore people's passions.

"6 Guitars" is  a one man show staring Chase Padgett. In it he plays 6 different guitar players, from different styles and backgrounds, including an 80-something year old blues musician, a 20-something rocker, a good 'ol boy country music guitarist, a (slightly neurotic) classical guitarist, a self satisfied jazz guitarist and a folkie. The evening unfolds as a talk given by the six of them explaining their love of guitar and their view of music.

The first thing I noticed about the show was how uncomfortable I still feel interacting in plays. In addition to being uncomfortable with Padgett's various personas interactions with audience (rock on Albert Einstein looking guy) I found the proximity to the actor surprisingly overwhelming. I spent the majority of the show watching the back of the chair of the person sitting in front of me.* While I suppose this reduced my total exposure to the show, it also helped the characters in the show cement themselves in my brain, since it allowed them to not look like the actor.

Over all the show was very enjoyable, well acted, funny and engaging. Its easy to see how it sold out all it's Calgary showings and if it's ever somewhere you get a chance to see it I recommend you to go. Despite all that, I did leave the show feeling somewhat unsatisfied, and it took me a little while to figure out why, but I think I have it more or less nailed down now.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I was attracted to "6 Guitars" because it reminded me of "It Might get Loud." If you haven't seen it, I recommend you do, (with the best available sound system you can find). It details the lives in music of The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White and their history and their love of music and ends with what must be one of the most epic jam sessions of all time.

The issue I had with "6 Guitars" (and I realize that it isn't fair to critique a piece for not being something else) was that while each of the six characters were passionate and their love of music was clear, they were only characters and somehow, even if the show was supposed to show us Chase Padgett's passion for music, the message gets muddled. I admit that may not actually be the point of the show, but the other "moral" to take away from it seems to be that "music is good," which I'm certainly not going to argue against.

So in conclusion, "6 Guitars" is a great show, that isn't quite as epic as 3 amazing guitar players jamming in an empty warehouse, but still stands very well

* fortunately the show was put on in the DaDe Lab so the chair was actually really cool. If i ever have a project making enumerated chairs, you'll know what spawned it.