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| Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 | | 5:43 pm |
CRX: Back home
Yeah. Remember all that stuff about the noble, faithful steed (little blue Honda CRX) being sent out to pasture? Please disregard. :{)} On Tuesday morning (the day after it was towed away), I thought about what Beck had said "I guess I'll never have a nice, sporty car like that again." I told her "Sure you will." But I had to ask myself "When? And how much fun will she be missing out on until then?" (Certainly it'd be easy after the boys are out of the house, but that's 10 years away.) Who knew such a thing really mattered to Beckett? But since it did, it wouldn't really cost us much to indulge that desire by keeping the old CRX, even if we didn't need it. Her response told me pretty quickly that it was the right decision. So on Friday, we'd finally worked out the arrangements with the insurance company, and gone to reclaim her beloved vehicle and bring it home. Yes, we still have the Escort as well, so are a 3-car family at the moment. We'll see if we want to do anything about that. But baby's home, and Mom's happy. Current Mood:  happy | | Saturday, November 14th, 2009 | | 11:53 pm |
Bleah
The other thing that's been taking place over the same time period as dealing with our car issues is a strange little health thing, that I just feel like mentioning. The same day as the CRX accident, I started taking a 12-day steroid treatment for reduced feeling I've had in some of my toes for a couple of years. The MRI shows bulging discs at the bottom of my spine, which could explain my symptoms, and the steroids are to help with that. But the drug has had the oddest, broadest, side effects I've ever had from a prescription. I've gotten some tingling/burning in the extremities (which I'll take as being in the right direction, although I can't claim actual improvement overall). I have also had reduced irritation in certain unrelated places that had had issues, so that's OK. But then there's the fact that my face has gotten ridiculously greasy. Yuck. And a general, light mental "off-ness". But the biggest one to me is what's happened to my sense of taste. Bleah. It kind of crept up on me during the first 5 days or so. My mouth has a sort of light slime coating it all the time, and the flavor of everything is seriously dulled and somewhat off and everything seems greasier. I found myself wanting to try different foods, to see if some things might get through to my senses better. The crispy orange chicken bowl at Applebee's was a relative winner, for instance. I had started deliberately reducing my calories a week or so earlier to try to lose some weight, so it's been kind of a mixed bag: Less to taste, but wishing all the more to enjoy what I'm getting. I have lost a few pounds so far, though. But I took the very last pill today. I hope this thing wears off quickly. I'm looking forward to being able to taste food properly again. Bleah. Gimme back my flavors. Current Mood: hopeful | | 3:56 pm |
Changing of the Car
It's been a week or two full of seemingly noteworthy stuff, so I thought I should mention it here. Monday of last week (Nov 2nd) I had an auto accident. I was a third party (car A knocked car B into me). I had been sitting still for at least 10 seconds before it happened, so I was definitely not at fault. Nobody was hurt, and my car was least damaged. It drove fine, even. But that still came to $1500, on a car whose replacement value was estimated around $2200. So the insurance company wanted to total it out, and hand me a check. Beck and I debated about it at length. See, the car that got hit is Beckett's. It's a 1991 Honda CRX. The first new car we bought was a Mazda 323, in 1989. We were recently moved to the SF Bay Area, and I drove it mostly, as I was working at Atari Games, and Beck was going to the Academy of Art via BART (public transit). By a couple of years later, she was in more need of her own transportation, and when I got a bonus check, we went shopping for her dream vehicle. :{)} I must admit that I never personally thought the CRX was a pretty car, but she loved it, and it was hers. Only time yet we paid cash for a vehicle (well, until a couple of days ago, but we'll get to that). And we got her a custom California license plate for it: ART BECO (my idea :{)} ). When the boys' arrival was imminent in 2001, we got our Honda Odyssey minivan and got rid of the Mazda. Suddenly, the CRX was my car most of the time, for commuting, while Beck used the van to take the boys around (and we used that exclusively for any family outings, of course, as the CRX is a 2-seater). Of course, I was still advertising "ART BECO" to everyone on the highways, and Beck would occasionally take her little buddy for a leisurely drive to beach photography, fancy coffee, and yarn shopping in such places as Half Moon Bay or Santa Cruz. Now we are a 4-person family, and the CRX is a 2-seater that's 19 years old; it's gotten a little more needy (and less justifiable) maintenance-wise. So it seemed wise to at least look at the replacement options. I found a Craigslist entry on Sunday for a 2000 Ford Escort: half the years, maybe 3/4 the miles, 4 seats, and working A/C, which we could get with a couple hundred left over. Uncharacteristically for me, I moved pretty quickly on this one: contacted the seller (who was laconic, but not completely unresponsive), and arranged a checkup at a Ford dealer near him on Tuesday. They said it was in pretty good shape, including the cylinder head change the owner had done (it was a buy-fix-up-and-sell thing for him). By the end of Tuesday, we were ready to buy it, but he wanted cash (not unreasonable) and the banks were closed Wednesday, so we exchanged everything on Thursday morning. The upshot is that it's kind of a lateral trade for us: one hi-mileage car's quirks for a younger, slightly-lower-mileage car's quirks. We hope to get slightly better reliability with 4 seats (which would be very convenient). We give up an old buddy of Beckett's. She sees the sense of it, but is very reluctant to get attached to the new vehicle. Farewell, dear little blue CRX. You have served us well and faithfully. | | Thursday, November 5th, 2009 | | 10:24 pm |
Healthcare Reform
Well, the AMA is on-board with the Democrats' (plus Snowe, R-Maine) proposed healthcare overhaul. And so is the AARP. Both are groups with a fair amount of pull, so that's pretty exciting. The AMA in particular, as I imagine that would cause a significant number of people to say "Really? Doctors themselves are in favor of it? Even though they might stand to lose some income? Hmm..." I've been meaning to write this entry since last week. I had a doctor's appointment, and toward the end she was talking with me about physical therapy, and how she'd recommend some number of sessions of it (13, I think), but United Healthcare (my insurer through last week) would only cover 6. I made some comment about healthcare reform, and asked what she thought about it, saying that it seemed like doctors might end up making a little less money, but wouldn't they save a lot of time and aggravation by not having to worry about what was covered and what wasn't, where and how to get reimbursed, etc? She said she spent hours on the phone every week arguing with the insurance companies over the treatments she was recommending. She'd be very glad to have a more sane system. The reaction against healthcare reform in the country has me kind of baffled. First off, it's GOING to happen, sooner or later. We can't be the last hold-out in the world against universal healthcare forever, and the longer we take, the dumber we look. Why does there seem to be such an outcry against it, even from the insurance industry, who have got to see the writing on the wall? Then a commentator on the radio pointed out that they're making billions of dollars every day. Each day they can delay the inevitable adds a whole lot of money to their pockets. So to them, even a losing fight is one worth waging, from a self-gain perspective. I found ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) catsittingstill's article a few months back an excellent perspective: "And apparently--get this--the part of the money the insurance companies take in, that gets used to pay claims (you know, the point of insurance?) is called "the medical loss ratio." And of course any good company tries to reduce losses, and they have--it's down from 90% in the 1990s to just slightly over 80% now." I keep going back to that in my mind. The baffling part, to me, is mainly in the common people who seem to be against it: the polls showing some measurable fraction of public opinion against reform. The insurance companies are against it for the obvious reason that they'll have a very hard time competing, and will make less (and possibly in the long run, no) money. And of course all the money they DO have now makes it possible for them to purchase political support for their cause among politicians. But why wouldn't John and Jane Doe want to see the insurance companies go down (as well as the rates they're paying)? People (including my father) have said "Do you want the government involved in your healthcare?" My answer is a re-sounding "Yes! Compared to having people in charge of it who have a profit motive to deny me coverage, as we do now, it sounds like a huge improvement!" Indications are that the government handles the healthcare that it does (like Medicaire) fairly efficiently. And even if not, they'd have to be AWFULLY wasteful to make up for that profit that the insurance companies are DELIBERATELY trying to maximize. But that's what the anti-healthcare-reform "movement" has to work with: fear of the government, fear that people will not be able to keep healthcare that they like, etc. There's not a whole lot of substance there, so they start making things up. The death panels thing was always so ludicrous. And then Joe Wilson's yell of "You lie!" during a Presidential address to Congress, in response to Obama's statement that the reforms would not apply to those who are here illegally. Really? Really, Rep Wilson, and those of similar mind? That's your standard? The healthcare system in this country is SO GOOD, so close to perfect, that the possibility of there not being enough enforcement in the plan to prevent a few illegal immigrants from getting through (because mind you, the plan specifically states that it will not apply to those in the country illegally, so the only thing you can be worried about is those who manage to not get caught) is enough to tip the balance for you, and cause you to prevent millions of US citizens from being made well? Perhaps Joe Wilson has never had to phone up a health insurance company to talk them into covering something they didn't want to cover. I have. (Perhaps most telling is that you don't even have to argue very hard; they're just trying for the easy extra bucks they can make from people who won't bother to call.) Very likely he never got told that although his wife's knee repair surgery was covered, the doctor who did it was not covered for all the follow-up treatment she received, and we'd have to pay that part ourselves. Also true for us. And I am lucky: I've never been without health insurance. Imagine being responsible for $60,000+ worth of medical bills to repair a broken knee all on your own. I don't know what I'd do in that situation. And I, for one, would be very happy to not have anyone be in that situation. Current Mood:  frustrated | | Monday, September 21st, 2009 | | 5:59 pm |
Thanks
Sincere thanks for the generous congratulations I got on my previous post. And I can't mention the project yet, but will when I can (next year). trektone and lord_korak noticed the following line on the company's web site: "There are also a fair number of musicians in the group who love to rock the house." Apparently it's true, but it had nothing to do with me getting the job, I'm afraid. Could make for some fun lunch hours, perhaps. gnomedude says he's sending over gnomes to party. Sounds good to me, as long as they know it's BYOB. (Fortunately, it's BrewFest time in WoW, so beer's pretty easy to come by, especially for gnomes.) And erinwrites, I'd pay to see a real squee out of your S.O. :{)} Thanks all. Current Mood: hopeful | | Sunday, September 20th, 2009 | | 1:39 pm |
News
Well, I suppose it had to happen sooner or later. I got a job. ;{)} I'll be starting work in just over a week at a game development start-up named Judobaby. It's local (very near my last employer, in fact), and although the pay is less than I was making before, I'll be getting equity in the company, which could be worth quite a bit in a few years, if everything goes according to their plan. Of course, every start-up has that as part of their plan, and not all make it. But it'd be a nifty perk. I ought to get back toward my former salary, theoretically, after the first product is released, but that won't be until Christmas of next year. For the meantime, Beck and I ran the numbers, and think we can get by (thanks in part to the extra money she's bringing in with Etsy and other freelance work). I am very ready to be employed. | | Monday, September 14th, 2009 | | 5:41 pm |
Singing for Jeff
I got to be part of something very fun on Sunday: I recorded vocals at Jeff & Maya Bohnhoff's for their new album. Specifically, for Jeff's filk of Bohemian Rhapsody. It is, naturally, hilarious, but so much more. Those familiar with the Bohnhoffs' earlier parody releases will know that Jeff favors perfect reproductions of the original songs' sound, with just the words being replaced, and even those done very close to the original style. Well, when you're talking about the magnum opus of operatic rock, that's a very tall order. Many, many layers of vocal harmonies, and doubling and tripling of those parts as well. And it's sounding great. I just love performing in a studio; the opportunity to make it "perfect" is something that I just eat up. Others may disagree, but I dig it. And it's been a little while since I've done it, so it was especially enjoyable. And I also love being in the middle of a big pile of harmony, and you can't beat this song for that. And hanging out with Maya & Vixy & Tony & Chris & Patrick was da bomb, too. So thanks Jeff, for the opportunity. Now if only Puzzlebox could find the time and money to put together a new recording... | | Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 | | 1:26 am |
Something to think about
Ever pass gas as you were taking down your trousers (or taking up your skirt; works for either gender) to sit on the toilet, sit down, then think "I just farted in my own face"? You will now. Current Mood: amused | | Monday, July 27th, 2009 | | 11:05 am |
Sham-poo, because I can't afford the real stuff
I have been having some soreness on my side/back the last few days, so I've been spending time soaking in shower and bath. The time standing in the tub has reminded me of a subject: Shampoo ingredients. Yes friends, where else can you find such diverse substances as "ammonium laureth sulfate" and "honey" living together in harmony? My old chemistry knowledge serves me well enough to be able to identify a few items like sodium chloride and even tetrasodium EDTA. But the nature or purpose of most of the constituent chemicals is beyond me. But that aside, I do have a couple of favorites that I'd like to mention. First, let me introduce you to my amazingly common friend: methylchloroisothiazolinone. Mmmm. Rolls trippingly off the tongue, doesn't it? I remember reading an article once that said "If it weren't for Americans' obsession with superlatives, the beautiful Mount Shasta would be much better known than the taller Mount Whitney." I must cop to this attitude here: I love the fact that a substance with an 11-syllable name is in the majority of shampoos (almost always, by the way, with its poor 9-syllable cousin methyloisothiazolinone.) But there's one other, less common but no less fascinating ingredient, and that's quaterium-15. Yep, it sure sounds like an element to me (particularly reminds me of the quadium bomb from "The Mouse That Roared"), and the number at the end makes it pretty clear that it's an isotope with a very short half-life. :{)} You've just got to love smearing that in your hair. Perhaps it's a large-scale experiment to see if anyone develops super-powered follicles. (I simply love Wikipedia, but I kind of don't want to look quaterium up; it can't actually be what it sounds like, and that'd be a let-down.) Current Mood: amused | | Sunday, July 5th, 2009 | | 4:39 pm |
I have turned 50
I got an awful lot of nice birthday wishes in LJ this year. Thank you all very much. Makes a person feel appreciated. I, being the introverted game nerd I am, wanted to have a little time to play some of the many games I've got lying around that somehow don't seem to get played. On the other hand, it's a natural event to spend some time with the family, especially given the fact that it falls on a family- and celebration-friendly holiday: Independence Day. What to do, what to do? I know: give myself a bonus day! Ergo, with the gracious cooperation of my fine, fine spouse Beckett, my birthday celebrations ended up being a two-day affair. Friday the 3rd was a solo game extravaganza for myself. ( Supreme Commander... )( C & C: Red Alert 3... )Then I switched over to good ol' World of Warcraft, which I'd been deliberately avoiding up til then (it seems to be about my only gaming outlet lately, so I wanted to try something different). Just for maybe an hour and a half. Finally, finished up the day with several levels of Plants Vs. Zombies. This is a casual game that I heard about during my job interviews at a few places, and decided to go over to Popcap.com and try it out. Awesome. Cutest zombie game you'll ever see. cadhla, if you're not playing this, the World just may fall out of its orbit into the sun; please don't let that happen. Zombies want to... (can you guess?)... eat your brains. To get into your house to do that, though, they need to get past your lawn. And therein lies your salvation. You can plant many fascinating varieties of flora, starting with the Pea Shooter, to destroy the zombies before they get to your house. After each level, you get some new plant or other tool to fight the undead hordes: cherry bombs, cabbage-pults, and the obligatory giant Venus Fly-trap. Unfortunately, the zombies gradually gain different varieties too, able to get past some of your defenses: pole-vaulting zombies, bucket-head zombies, dolphin-riding zombies. Mini-games include zombie bowling (with Wall-nuts, of course), Whack-a-Zombie, and of course, playing the zombies trying to get to those tasty brains (Mmmmm!). Even goofier than Red Alert, as you can probably tell. And before you know it: Oops, 4 AM. Time for bed. Saturday, after I slept in a little, our friend Marc joined us. We had a nice lunch, chatted with Marc about our respective lives, then I wanted Beck to try Plants V Zombies. (I should probably mention that the boys have been glued to the game for the past week, so she was familiar with the premise.) She did enjoy it, although she said she didn't have time to like any games. Ah well, she got an hour's worth anyway. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon in a game of Robo Rally, a great board game wherein you attempt to program robots in a race across a very busy (and dangerous) factory floor. Around 6:00, Marc left, and we started pulling things together for our trip to the fireworks in Milpitas (the nearest spot for fireworks). I was born on the 4th of July, man. I gotta have firewoks. We got there in time to get a decent patch of grass to sit on, ate our dinner while listening to the band, Riley and I played a little Frisbee, then the lights came down and the show began. I'm impressed, in recent years, how they always seem to have something new each year. I guess there must actually be fireworks developers out there working on new types of fireworks. Among things I don't remember seeing before were things that gave the impression of a giant sparkler in the air, shooting golden sparks in all directions along their trail, right from the launch. Also, some kind of rapid-fire, miniature-ish version of the big, exploding, archetypal fireworks, so that it looked like a miniature version of the finale they usually do, with 20 or so fireworks going off in rapid succession. Weee!! :{)} Just for my birthday? Gee guys, you shouldn't have. I declare myself well satisfied with my birthday. :{)} Thanks Beck. Current Mood: grateful | | Thursday, May 7th, 2009 | | 2:18 pm |
Me spoose is cool
For any who may not be aware (and I believe you're a very rare beast on my friends list), my wife Beckett Gladney is a very talented visual artist. I use the somewhat generic-sounding term because if it's something that's cool to look at, then she's probably good at making it: drawings, paintings, photographs, knitted goods, sewn goods, et lengthy cetera. I had the opportunity to work with her on one and a half games (her doing art, and me doing programming) in my career, and it was a great joy. I can tell you that she's very well-respected in the artist community. Up until now, though, it was not so easy for most people to get ahold of her artwork. She used to display her wares in convention art shows, but stopped doing that many years back now. You could specifically commission an album cover or contract her for some game art. And a few lucky people have hired her for photography gigs. But none of these were cheap. Well, Beckett-art lovers (and will-be Beckett-art lovers), you now have a chance to grab little bits of her talent for extremely reasonable prices. Ms. Gladney has opened up an Etsy shop, and you (yes, I mean you) should check it out. Ergo: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7160505If you'd like to see more of her work (mostly photographs, but also some of her other media), you can look through her Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/artbeco/[Brought to you by the "Yee-Haw That Beckett Gladney Sure is Cool" Foundation.] Current Mood: pleased | | Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 | | 9:40 pm |
Farewell, John Caspell
I'm shocked and sad to hear of the death of John Caspell. I first met John in Toronto. I'm not sure if it was my first FKO (1995) or my only Toronto Trek (a couple of years later), but I remember being very impressed with his music. I'm pretty sure he played a few songs with Jodi Krangle, which was a great musical pairing. I ran into him many times afterwards, mostly in Toronto. Then I was surprised and pleased to find him as Brooke's partner when I met her at OVFF 2006. I had the good luck to spend a weekend with both of them in a smaller setting at Pondfilk in 2007. I didn't know John well, but enjoyed his company, and loved and admired his music. He was a sort of a known friendly face at any filk event I'd walk into; I knew there'd be some good music. It's very sad to think that he won't be gracing filk those ways anymore. Hold out for a Taylor harp, John. They're worth it. Hugs and strength to those closer to him than I, to get through the loss. Current Mood:  distressed | | Saturday, February 21st, 2009 | | 8:26 pm |
Another note (har!) on music in church
In my previous entry, I mentioned playing music in church. I've done this several times before, and this month I ended up playing at two consecutive Sundays' services. The previous Sunday I' been asked to perform for the theme of "Saving Lives, Helping Families (Our Whole Lives program)". The music director didn't know what the "Our Whole Lives Program" was, so I asked for a little clarification, just so I could do something appropriate. She never got back to me. 3 days before the service, I got an e-mail from the worship associate running the service, asking what I'd be performing. I told her I'd been waiting for a description of the theme. So she pointed me to the Unitarian Universalist website for a description. The "Our Whole Lives Program" is all about healthy sexuality. Hmm. I did "God Bless the Artists" for my first song. And the second, well... If anyone had ever told me I'd be singing Christine Lavin's "Artificial Means" not only in a church, but as part of a service, I'd have laughed at them... (And, fortunately, the congregation laughed at/with me. And looked a little embarrassed as they did. But I got several positive comments afterwards.) (I prefaced with "Yin and Yang. Point and Counterpoint. The two sides of the same coin. In short, how can we reasonably speak of healthy sexual relationships without reference to an unhealthy one? Ergo, a convenient counter-example:") Current Mood: amused | | 8:11 pm |
| | Saturday, February 7th, 2009 | | 1:23 pm |
Conflikt
By the time we got to the convention, I had to run off straight away to a recording session with cadhla. Apparently the convention puts together a CD of performances by some of the attendees, and hands out copies to those who attend the Saturday brunch. So I needed to help out with guitar and vocal commentary while Seanan recorded two of her songs. It felt strange to have the car all unpacked by other people while I was elsewhere, but I could possibly get used to that, if required. ;{)} ( Let the good con roll... ) Current Mood: ecstatic | | Friday, February 6th, 2009 | | 10:29 pm |
Pre-Conflikt
I may be unemployed, but fortune can still shine on me in other ways... Beckett, the boys and I are headed home from a week and a half in the Seattle area, finishing with Puzzlebox's attendance at Conflikt 2. As we have with our past few gigs, we got together a week ahead of time, this time at trystel and tuto's house to practice and party. (I’m not sure which activity I enjoy more with Puzzlebox.) ( Here there be socialization and rehearsal ) Current Mood: ecstatic | | Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 | | 9:02 am |
Inaugural singer?
So, if you were going to be sworn in as leader of your nation, who would you have perform music at your inauguration? (Optionally, what might you ask them to perform?) Current Mood: hopeful | | Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 | | 2:00 pm |
Tumbling his way into the hearts of millions
Saturday was a family first: Casey participated in his first gymnastics competition. The hosting gymnastics academy was in Sacramento (actually, Rancho Cordova, an eastern suburb of Sacramento). We set out at 9:00 AM so that we could pick up Beck's mom (a Sacramento resident) on the way there. It turned out that she wasn't up for it, but Beck's sister Leslie and her spouse Ardyn were, so they caravaned over there with us. The gym was quite large, and it needed to be. There were somewhere around 100 participants, split up into two halves, each taking half the gym. Casey is "Level 4", which is the least-experienced level. There are 6 apparatuses: floor, pommel horse, vault, rings, parallel bars, and high bar. Any watchers of the Olympic gymnastics will be familiar with all these, although at Level 4 there are two minor differences: vault doesn't have a horse to bounce off of (they run, hit the springboard, then land on a mat), and pommel horse is split into horse and mushroom segments (the "mushroom" is a two-foot wide, short dome on a foot-tall pedastal, and this is where the spinning of one's legs in a circle happens, that you'd see more experienced gymnasts do on the horse.) Other than that, they work with the same equipment, doing routines that, while naturally simplified compared with those of Olympic athletes, are still expected to be very precise. They are expected to have correct balance, timing, postures, and to salute the judges before and after their performances. And yes, to stick their landings.  Well, the short story is that Mr. Casey Kwinn won 2nd place in floor exercises for his level and age group and 6th place overall (they gave out medals for 1st through 8th place), with a total of 5 medals. We cheered for him each time he was called up to the podium. Woooo!! :{)} 8 kids in each of 6 apparatuses, plus overall, plus the best team awards took a while.  (I'm not sure how many participants he was up against. There looked to be around 50 level 4's in his half of the gymnasium, with 3 age groups in that level, but I'm guessing there were more in his age group than the younger or older groups. So I'm guessing he was competing against 18-22 kids.) Beck wanted to take his picture outside of the gym with all his medals. He spent about 3 minutes trying to get them all turned around the right way and spread out so she could see them all. :{)}  Casey has told us before that he was "in it for the trophies", and it looks as though he's getting what he was after. :{)} Congratulations, Mr. Casey Kwinn! Current Mood: proud! | | Saturday, December 20th, 2008 | | 2:45 pm |
| | Saturday, November 29th, 2008 | | 3:15 pm |
Vehicular insight
"I'm glad I wasn't a tire on the car during the drive home; I would have had to do somersaults for 6 hours." --Casey Kwinn Current Mood: amused |
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