Some things about stuff
There’s a terribly good article here about what I spent a lot of my life doing between 1999 and 2007. I miss the ol’ collection sometimes, but recently got back into a fray in a small way to accumulate some GBA games for the boy. I’d forgotten how entertaining the hunt was – almost as fun as actually playing the games.
I’ll post some photos soon; I didn’t exactly take a glut of pictures because my hands were full of presents and goodies. He got quite a haul of clothes and goodies, and to everyone’s amazement he seemed genuinely jazzed about all of it. No “oh… yay… socks” from him. Not yet anyway. To my not-inconsiderable shame, I think he knows we’re struggling a bit financially, and the sheer amount of clothing he got was a Good Thing. I hate that he’s aware of that struggle at the age of five. But he’s also very happy about all the goodies he got, whether they were clothes or games. I’m very grateful to all the family who showed up for the big oh-five bearing gifts. I wasn’t expecting that.
theLogBook.com hasn’t been terribly active lately; I’ve had my head buried in a project that is, ironically, related to theLogBook.com. The project started out as supporting research for the webseries idea I’ve had, and then it struck me, a few days into that research, that the webseries project had indirectly provided me with an answer to the question “What’s your website about?” Which has been an elusive question, you know, for a long time. (Pretty sad when the thing has been operating in one form or another for over 20 years.) That’s when it hit me: the thing I’m working on is going to become the new main menu for the site. There’s nothing egregiously wrong with the current one, mind you, but after all this time, I’ve figure out what the site is about, and so it’s time to jump in with both feet and do this main menu revamp that nails down precisely what that is. Because it’s kind of neat.
And at that point, after all these years, I think the time will have finally come when I give up the ghost on saying “Yes, there will be regular daily/weekly updates, like clockwork,” because even with me being out of work, that’s just not happening like it should. Real life intervenes. And I’ve found that when I’m trying as hard as I can to maintain that schedule, it becomes a chore instead of a joy. This site should never be like that. It will still be updated – probably quite a lot, actually, in support of the book projects I’m working along in parallel – but the notices that “hey, I posted something new” will probably happen in the forums after that, since the main menu will be taking on quite a different form. A “most recent updates” widget will be added to Episode Guides so everyone can keep up with the most current stuff.
What exactly that form is… you’ll just have to wait and see. As usual, I hope everyone enjoys using it and reading it as much as I’m enjoying putting it together. As always, the site’s not going away, just entering a new phase where I can add stuff at my leisure.… Read more
On this day five years ago, my life changed. I had a brand new, huge responsibility. These days, I have a huge responsibility, a gaming buddy, a Star Wars-watching buddy, a music-listening buddy, a reading buddy, and just the best kiddo in the world.
A while back I asked for help in rounding up some classic Mario and Zelda related carts for the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance for my own game boy, who’s turning five in less than a month. I want to thank everyone who responded and had stuff on the list that they were willing to part with – the list really got whittled down significantly, much faster than I was expecting, and with much less expenditure on my part than expected. … 
Grab some popcorn and pull up a seat for this one.
Seems like it was only a couple of weeks ago that I was announcing Dalek Checkers would be played at my GlitchCon booth – oh wait, 
On Sunday, a couple dropped by to load up my dear old Kickman arcade machine to take it home. I have to admit I was being a bit of a “helicopter parent” to a machine that was no longer mine: I was practically grilling them about whether or not they had the necessary gear to load, secure and transport it home. “Do you have straps? Have you seen the clouds building overhead – do you have a tarp?” How they resisted the urge to tell me to shaddup and go inside, I have no idea. The point is: thanks to an inept employee of North American Van Lines, I never got to get the full enjoyment out of the machine, because he damaged it all but ramming it through the walls of my house when the machine was delivered to me years and years ago. The wording of my auction was pretty strict: don’t bother to bid on this unless you know the proper way to get it out of here. I’d rather keep the machine and not have the money than watch it get beaten up even more on the way out the door. … 
I think I’ve worked out enough kinks in my Diabolical Plan for an audience participation piece at my Glitchcon table in a few weeks to let you in on it.
In a few days, provided that the daily downpours cease for a while (not that I’m complaining – aside from the fact that the lawn has risen, zombie-like, and begun to grow again, we really needed the rain here in northwest Arkansas), the highest bidder – well, only bidder – of my eBay auction to get rid of my Kick arcade game (generally better known as Kickman) will be here to retrieve his loot. I’m grateful to him; the proceeds go a long way toward my attempt to kick (ha!) this whole self-published-author gig into driving gear. It’s fair to say that me getting that off the ground is far more important than something the size of a fridge sitting around in my room, still needing a new cap kit, still being here.
Late last night, a really goofy thought hit me about an audience participation gag for Glitchcon. It would actually be tied into this year’s Doctor Who season premiere, which – the advance publicity boasts – features every previous model of Dalek from the original series in one strange setting. I’ve now come up with an idea to place Daleks, new and old, in an even stranger (and interactive) setting. Part of me thinks it’s goofy enough that folks might walk by and stare and not have anything to do with the other stuff on the table (that would be bad, since I’m trying to sell books), another part of me thinks it’ll be irresistible (which would be good, because… ooh, look! Books and DVDs! Shiny things for sale!).