The Geeks Blog

I almost never talk about my love life on my blog. In the nearly 7 years of this, under many names, it has never been a place for me to discuss love, romance or sex. Today two of those will change. I recently met an amazing woman. Her name is Liz, and she has shown me how interesting, intriguing, and deep a person I am. She showed me every time we talked that I was someone who mattered, if only to this amazing, caring, and sweet woman. I have come to love her.

Some of those out there might think they have heard this before, but I have begun to realize in the last 48 hours that it is fact. I love Liz. I love make her smile, and laugh. I love hearing about her life and her past. I have enjoyed answering her questions and coming to realize that those little things, those things that have filled up the last 7 years of this blog and more I never wrote, all of this is of interest to one person. Liz.

I also made a mistake. I took my feelings and drove them in the wrong direction. I drove them to the lust side of things. Yeah, the men out there who have loved and lost, or loved and barely groveled a place will know what I mean. I tried to take those emotions, and that desire to hold her, and just be with her in the flesh instead of the pixels, and turned it sexual when it wasn't the place. I am not sure where she and I will end up, I hope for at least a close and dear friend. I would be honored for more. I love you Liz. 

Well, it looks done. The new look for this and many other blogs I run is finally set. This blog, Abbey to Outlands, and the site for Dwight Wallbridge Productions all get new looks, with only the long dormant Canadian Geek Podcast site still waiting in the wings. All Things Azeroth is moved over, but the look will stay the same and only the back end should change too much. Enjoy the new looks and let me know what you think!

Just letting everyone know I am testing out and will eventually move my blogs over to the new Movable Type 4.1 If you see this, then it is nearing completion. 

I was listening to the 127th podcast episode of the Harry Potter podcast Mugglecast tonight. The hosts of the show were mentioning that their site, Mugglenet, had been hacked the week before. They made a remark about poor journalism in that no other podcast or Harry Potter site had reported on the hacking of the site, which is easily one of the top 2 fan sites out there. I flashed back instantly to when, over the holidays, the podcast from the other leading site, The Leaky Cauldron, had 2 parts of an interview with the famous author of the books, Jo Rowling, and Mugglecast made not a single mention of it.

Is this common in podcast genres which are so competitive? Is it possible that the fact that Pottercast, the podcast from Leaky, got this huge interview instead of the Mugglecasters, could this be the reason that shortly thereafter Mugglecast announced they would be stopping regular production in the spring? I know that the two podcasts have always been at odds with one another, competition so to speak, but to not even both to congratulate them for their interview? That's just downright spiteful. To then complain about them not covering something that happened on your site? Entirely too hypocritical for my tastes.

No sleight on Ed Fries, but ever since I interviewed him, I haven't been able to keep a Skype conversation going longer than a few minutes. In fact, I think the sleight is on Vista. Now that I have 2 Vista machines, I know the issues are not viral or spyware related. I am working to narrow down which software apps are the same on both, because the issues I am having are just growing to be incredibly annoying. After keeping any app open for 'too long' which can be anywhere from 20 minutes to 8 hours, and text entered in the app will have characters remapped.

/ will be Shift+3 or the ~ button, ? will be Shift+6 or some place I cannot find. The / and using shift to get ? are é and É, and various other keys, seemingly at random, will be mapped different than the expected layout. Only closing the app will clear this, and it is only in the one pp, not all of windows. The app is different from time to time. Firefox one time, World of Warcaft another time, next it will be Notepad. Technically inclined folks have suggested virus or spyware, but on 2 different machines? Unlikely.

Then we have my Skype issues. It's really a video issue, but as Skype is usually the most reliable, and the only one without more banner ads than an NFL stadium, I use it. I have been trying for a week, and even with more than half CPU and RAM free on either machine, barely any network traffic, and no obvious signs of a problem, the calls I make drop. Better than 90% dropped, only maybe 2% lasting more than 5 minutes. Yeah, I am a bit frustrated. Vista is an upgrade? Since when?

So I don't know if I mentioned this here, but I am living with my parents now. I am also working a full time job which has me up at 5:00 AM on days I work. This kind of.. I dunno, hinders me, I think. You see, it is 5:19 AM and I am still up. I love it! I have been more productive these last 5 hours since I shut off my desktop monitor than I was all day. I got 2 sinks full of dishes washed(no, don't ask), I have gotten a full room in the in suite basement cleaned(no, don't ask about that either) and as a break from cleaning and washing, I have caught up on 4 different forums that I have allowed to get backlogged. This isn't even the second wind, which just kicked in, this was all on the first wind.

Now, I do not truly believe I could have done the majority of this if it weren't for the occasional 5 days off in a row that I get, one of which I am on right now, but that is neither here nor there. I have been working at AAA for about 6 months now, and I have been fighting my night owl nature the entire time, trying to force myself to bed before I am ready even on nights I do not work, but in reality, I see now that I have been only hurting myself horribly in that I have been stealing my own high productivity time away from myself. Looking back, my best and most energetic podcasts have been done when I was living on my own, often done in the early morning hours. I am a night owl, and damned proud of it. Now, if I could only find a shift at work that would help that, instead of hindering it.

This is only half the problem. My parents, over 55 both of them, are not night owls. They are in bed no later than 10, awake at 6, and easily annoyed if I am up past 1 AM. They call midnight an ungodly hour! Midnight! Blasphemy! My parents and I have been, and always will be from two very different worlds, not just generations. They were raised on what I call farmer time. I know my mother was raised on a property with far land, only a block from the city's perimeter, and I think my father must have as well. They don't see how someone could stay up until 3 or 4 AM when in their minds a normal person is up by 6. Now, as to how to solve this problem. Well, there isn't one. The length of shift at my work prevents me working an evening shift, and I just do not see my parents changing anytime soon, not after 50 some odd years.

I was at work today, and there was an encounter with a co worker. This person was teasing me like she does a lot of people, and I seemed to take it more personally than she expected. I explained it didn’t matter, as none of it meant anything to me. I went on to explain that I watch, and observe, not participate. Now, I know, you might all disagree with me. “you have this blog” you might argue. I rarely write here. “You have a podcast” other will debate. I consider it talking to myself, not others, and am often surprised when I realize there are still people listening. In fact, I did the recent National Podcast Post Month, and I am pretty sure I am the only participant who saw a drop in their audience. Mine was halved in the span of a month.

There are times I am happy when I realize that there is no one in this world who knows me. Who knows about all the types of writing I do? No one. Who know how passionate I can be? The number are fewer than the fingers on this hand. In fact, the best way for me to shock any person who has met me, is to be myself. It seems most people don’t know me, who I am, what I am capable of. When I was… 16 or 17, I was at a church thing down in North Dakota. It was my 3rd or 4th year, and so I was pretty well known. I was the short fat kid, who dressed like a slob, and was ignored, shunned, and only included at the sufferance of the cool kids or by force.

So this year, I decided to flip them the biggest bird I could. I brought my nicest, sharpest clothes, and kept them hidden away. No one knew I had them. The last night, the big Sunday service finale, after all the people dressed in their nicest had gone up to where the service was held, I went, and got dressed in my nicest. Dress pants, silk shirt and tie, suit coat, the works. I walked in, ignored all those trying to compliment me who had ridiculed me all those years, and sat in church. I was myself in that outfit. I felt like I was worth something. What they thought or said no longer mattered.

The world is a judgmental place. I found that out when I was released from a former employer for using downtime at work to express my creativity, not by shouting it from the rooftops, but putting my thoughts to pixels and keeping it to myself. Would my coworkers understand my creative stories? Or would they just think me twisted and sick? I suspect the reaction would be the same as if I have my camera. Fat old guy with a camera taking pictures of people? Must be a perverted old guy, maybe even a sexual predator! Must flee the person with a camera, even if he is just trying to take pictures of beautiful places, people, and things. This is my life. Flee, for he may not be normal.

The day's coverage began with many players criticizing the news site WoW Insider for not being willing to cover unverifiable rumors that fan sites like MMO Champion where reporting. Statements of being behind the curve and too slow to be a real source of information came from several readers, even when WoW Insider confirmed for themselves via a Blizz staff member, which is rather laughable seeing as how it proves the difference between a fan site and a new site.

Semantics and opinions aside, the big news was revealed yesterday, fueling a huge amount of hype and speculation. While I have said several times that I didn't think level 80 was enough for facing off against the combined powers of Arthas and the Lich King, and thus had predicted we'd have an Ocean based expansion first, and maybe at level 90 we'd be powerful enough for Arthas. I still think we are too weak, but I guess that is why I do not make these games.

Other highlights of the features already announced for the expansion are that we will go to Northrend, where we will face mobs such as the Tuskarr, Vrykul(15 foot tall viking like mobs), and possibly blue dragons as well. The home city of Northrend, the Shattrath of Northrend if you will, is going to be a transported Dalaran, which float above the lands of Northrend. Surprising no one, Blizz took this chance to get a few laughs with an animation of the beloved purple dome floating up to Northrend.

This expansion will bring to the game several features people have wanted, and in some cases Blizzard has suggested, since before the original launch of the game. Hero classes, starting with at least the Death Knight class, will be coming in the expansion, as well as Siege Weapons in Battle Grounds, and improve character customizations, even on existing characters. Can you say hair salons? I knew you could. Hair will not be the only customization, as dances and other features will be customizable, but Blizzard developers did say that plastic surgery would likely not be in the expansion.

From the Expansion panel, where Developers gave more details than the general publicity stuff of the main announcement, we learned the names, designs, and details about the first 4 zones of Northrend that are done right now. The main entry points to Northrend will be the Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra zones, the first being home to Utgarde Keep and the aforementioned large, evil vikings who have become corrupted by the Lich King Arthas, and the second being home to Tuskarr with Naga apparently working to melt the glacial lands of the Tundra.

The other 2 zones that Blizzard introduced where Grizzly Hills, home to some unpleasant Furbolg, and Dragonblight, the graveyard of the dragon flights, and suspected home of the Blue Dragonflight and their aspect, Malygos. I saw no information on which zone Dalaran will be in, but Blizzard did say it will be floating in the sky of Northrend, and accessible by land and by flying mounts, which will give us our first chance to control our own mounts in Azeroth. In response to a question on whether we will need new flying mounts for Northrend, a developer answered that there will be new mounts available, but old ones should still work.

As I said before, WoW players have been waiting for Hero Classes for almost 3 years, and the general consensus seems to be that while Death Knights are a good start, many hope there are other hero classes at the expansion's launch to allow players more choice and broader variations to the available hero classes. When asked about additional character slots, the original answer was no, but after much negative reaction from the audience, the devs said they would look into it.

The sense I got from what I read is that this may be simply a delaying tactic. I guess we will see. I would be happy with a different character selection screen for Heroes, but as my main server has currently 10/10 characters, if they do not have some way to add to the max limit, I would not be able to get a hero class. I would be more than a little disappointed at this. I hope we will see some news on this over the next few months.

Some of the stuff we learned about the hero class Death Knight is that it will have undead minion pets, wear plate, and have proficiency in bladed weapons. It will use runes instead of mana, with spells using specific rune combinations, each a mix of the three run types, frost, unholy, and blood. Death Knights will perform shadow spells, and will almost be a mix of the two classes Blizzard wanted to introduce in the beginning, Death Knight and Necromancer. The hero class will begin at somewhere between 55 and 70, and be a raid centric character, with the stated ability to 'hang out with Arthas'.

Some of the changes they stated that would be coming between now and the expansion is another CoT instance, the previously announced Zul'Aman, Voice chat, and Guild banks, more daily quests, dealing with stuff like cooking, battlegrounds, and at least one dungeon. We can eventually expect to see an improvement on the lowbie grind, more information on the new Inscription profession, and much more. Oh, and for those interested, Inscription can allow you to add effects and power to spells you already have.

I hope you like my summary/review of the news out of BlizzCon, and please stay tuned for the next episode of All Things Azeroth, coming sometime this coming week.

I am getting very annoyed. The computer I got is a definite upgrade over what I had, but Vista is making it run so damned slow that it is like I am running a 1 GHz PC. My mic won't work in half my audio apps. I can't run any major app while I play WoW. My graphics driver crashes every few days, taking half my open apps with it. My explorer.exe has crashed about a dozen times, leaving me with no recourse but a hard reboot. my Anti Virus application runs poorly on Vista, and I haven't a hope of doing anything while it updates or scans. To say I am unhappy would be really an understatement, but unfortunately the warranty prevents me from wiping and installing XP like I want.

I just wanted to break from my normal geekery to congratulate Milt Stegall, #85 for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, on his shattering the all time CFL record for touchdowns. Milt, who started his CFL and only ever played for Winnipeg, showed his class by thanking his opponents for their patience during the game stopping ceremony when he finally got the record. After 5 games this year, and several last season, Milt finally found coverage he could work in against the Hamilton Tiger Cats. For the first 4 games this year, including one where his daughter and son came all the way from Atlanta to see, both the teams they played, Edmonton and Montreal, made sure Milt was double covered, preventing him from any real chance at the record breaking completion into the end zone.

No, this is not a veiled spoiler for HP 7, this is a real and frustrating problem. When I began doing podcast like audio, I quickly found that I liked Adobe Audition 1.5, which I got grey market, and used that for a long, long time. When I began All Things Azeroth, I decided to try out the newer 2.0 version of the software. Now I find myself forced to look into regression back to 1.5, which ironically seems to work just fine under Windows Vista, as 2.0 is not seeing my expensive USB Mic, even though every other audio app I have on my PC does. From the research I have done in the last few days, I have come to the conclusion that Audition 2.0 is not compatible wit Vista in a lot of ways, so since I have no desire or willingness to go out and replace my mic, I have to go back to 1.5 for recording. I guess Adobe doesn't care for their users. Finally! They are Microsoft's equal in something.

I just put the book down to write this and get ready to go to work, where I hope it will be slow enough to allow me to read more of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which I am about 1/4 of the way through, and utterly shocked so far by the events that have transpired. I know, I had originally planned to have the book done by noon today, but I needed to sleep overnight to be able to go to work today without passing out at the keyboard, so the end will have to wait. I will not spoil the book for anyone in this post(that will be in my review) but so far I am shocked and overjoyed by the way the book has gone so far, and I doubt that the rest will be any different. I am smiling at every turn where the podcasters and fans had questions answered, and eager to get back to it.

Welcome to Dell, lack of logic department on the right, incomplete shipment assurance on the left. Yup, my Dell has arrived to it's new home. This is not, though, without it's problems. First problem is that while the documentation says it comes with a dual monitor cable, it did not. There is also only one video port on the back, so I cannot just plug one into VGA and the other into DVI like I planned. That aside, but not forgotten, I opened up the PC, planning to plan out the location of the 80 GB while I ghosted it to the 200, then putting the 200 GB in it's place for permanent residence, and fund that there is not a single Molex power connector in the damned thing. Whoever took 'PCI Express is the future' to mean 'don't plan that someone might have old crap' is an idiot. More soon.

It's the home stretch. One week to go. In 71 hours, a little over 7 days, I will have in my hands a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in the series, and, we hope, where we will see the Dark Lord defeated. My nephew and I are confirmed to be going to see the movie for the 5th book, Order of the Phoenix, then heading over to the park where Canadian retailer McNally Robinson will be having release party events to take part in the happy day. at midnight, we will be getting our books, and reading them like dedicated fans we are until we are done, and we know as much about the tale of the Boy Who Lived as we are likely to ever know. I hope to see a few of you at the perfect potter party in the park!

As anyone who knows me can easily predict, I have been frequently checking the Dell site for more info on the Dell that has been ordered for me. The funny thing is I was doing it through the 'order status' email sent by Dell the day it was ordered. I began to worry when there was a warning message, and no status, for more than 24 hours, so I logged into the Dell site to look. It seems I was using the order number for the first order, which has some shipping info wrong, and which has been cancelled. I can now see that the 2 things ordered in addition to the computer look like they have shipped, while the PC is 'In Production'. I have no idea where it is all coming from, whether the 2 extra parts are waiting on the PC, or what not, but I hope it's here by the 20th.

As my PC is very clearly dead, it has been decided in careful discussions and negotiations that we will be ordering me a new computer, a Dell Inspiron 350, with a 19" flat panel monitor, a 250 GB HD, a wireless keyboard and mouse set with a spare wired set in case those die, and what should be plenty of power for what I do with my computer, audio processing, WoW, and my many window habit. Not sure when it will be here, I hope within a week or two, and hopefully it'll be coming from Toronto, not Austin(the HQ for Dell) which would require a stop in Customs. I have, in the past, said many bad things about Dell, and all I can say in response to those who might find themselves questioning my apparent about face is 2 things. 1. I hope they've changed and 2. Not my call.

I was reading the Winnipeg Sun today, and was pleased to find that I was not the only one these days who is rather unimpressed with the recent displays of American justice. Two glaring cases come to mind immediately, those of Paris Hilton, and Scooter Libby. One was given a free ride by his President, and the other was given a weak sentence, attempted to get away with 4 days served, and then finally served a shortened sentence, due to ‘good behavior’, which came to be some 20 days, for a crime that many people believe offenders should spend years in prison for even on first offences.

Scooter Libby decided to leak the name of a CIA operative whose husband pissed off the Bush administration, and was sentenced to 30 months in jail for his part. Within a few hours of Libby being refused freedom by an appeal court while he waited for his appeal to be heard, the US President, who swore he would punish those responsible, commuted Libby’s sentence, essentially freeing the one person who has so far been held responsible for this leak, which could easily have caused a serious risk to the US national security. This is the same President who was the leader of the country when the events of September 11 occurred. Glad he sees the security of the country he is burdened with the task of protecting as an important thing. I wonder whether Bush would have been so eager to help his secrets to be kept if Libby had exposed more vitally secret information?

The next… shining example of the American justice system is Paris Hilton, whose crime was one which could easily have cost another life, of many other lives, and while her supporters tried to get her off with 4 days served, a judge forced her to serve her sentence with time off for good behavior. The truly ironic thing? As weak as Hilton's punishment was, it was still more than Bush felt his friend should have to serve for his lapse in national security. This is the system of justice that Dubya says should be implemented(read forced) around the world? Dubya, a dictator who was horribly lenient with his friends, sent his army to take out a pathetic dictator who was brutally violent to his people. Justice? Not in either country.

140 Years is a long time, unless you are the nation of Canada. That is the celebration today, for 140 years ago, the area known previously as British North America, became known as the nation of Canada. While it is definitely wetter than most would like, which will cause a... damper on the fireworks around the city this evening, it is none the less an important day, so I raise to you this drink, and wish you all a happy, eventful, and enjoyable Canada Day.

So I am back from my first day, which was admittedly mostly paperwork, but I am really excited about this new job. The people seem to be very nice, and the place looks like it is well run, without the hurdles of low grade, unreliable technology and untrained, commission driven management. The technology, if not top of the line, is leaps ahead of my last place, and while my last place was crowded, with many PCs in a very small area, this one has 2 PCs in the same amount of desk space. People there seem to be very nice, and willing to help out and ask questions, and I look forward to making this a long, and educational place on my resume.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Truer words where never spoken. The Red River Exhibition, a Winnipeg tradition going back to when my parents where kids, and likely further, ended tonight, and my parents and I decided to go out there, just to see what it's like these days. When I was a kid, the Ex was down at Polo Park, which is right by the Winnipeg Stadium, and the then Winnipeg Arena, since torn down. Now it is on it's own property, a place called Exhibition Park, out by the perimeter in the west corner of the city. Back when I used to go as a kid, the Ex was well known for it's mini donuts, which where just becoming popular back then. They are still there, and in abundance. I counted 5 or 6 vendor locations of those cursed and delicious donuts.

I walked all around the Exhibition Park, checked out the look of the rides, and had a chance to see 2 bands I enjoyed when I was just getting into country music back a few years ago now, Little Texas and Blackhawk, and enjoyed both of their shows. It was a nice night, making me wish I had brought my camera, if it was working, and was overall an enjoyable occasion, but it reminds me that the price of food and drinks out there is really, really high. $4 for a small slice of pizza, $3 for a 600ml drink, and more are examples of the exorbitant prices, but I guess if you can afford to go to the Ex, you usually bring enough cash to enjoy yourself and splurge a little.

I am overjoyed and extremely excited to let you all, my readers, that I have been offered, and accepted, a position with the alarm company I mentioned that I had an interview with earlier this week. I will admit I was not thinking I would get it when I had not heard anything yesterday, especially when they said they would be making a decision yesterday, but I got a call nice and early this morning while I was prepping more resumes to go out. The shift is a little different than I was expecting, day shift instead of over nights, but I am still just as excited to be starting, or on the brink of starting, a new job, with new stuff to learn, and new experiences. Now, if you don't mind, I am going to go out and celebrate a bit after I write my letter of resignation. Be well.

I just got a call and set up an interview with a local alarm company. I would rather not say, and will not say if I get the job, what company it is. Unless one is in a high profile field, the most appropriate path to take regarding revelation of employer is not to, I feel, to protect oneself and ones employer. I am excited about this interview, but I will not be posting this until after I know, in case the job falls through. I think a few of my coworkers read this at my current place of work, and do not wish to alienate anyone if I do not get it. I will try to post thoughts, and an update, as soon as I know anything.

I am a geek. I am The Geek to many. Medros to many as well. A poet to some, a well worded person to most. Then, why, do I find myself lacking inspiration? I am trying to podcast, but within days of recording, I can no longer bring myself to edit the show, and don't have time in those first few days to actually release a show. I am finding it very hard to actually create stuff. I can't find anything interesting in my photography, feel my podcast is fading quickly, and my blog is just barely on life support now. I can be eloquent, thoughtful, and thought provoking, but cannot find whatever it is within me that I need to actually produce something that is any of it. I feel like I have the creative form of writer's block. I just cannot create. I feel as if I am losing time. I feel sad.

With Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows a month and a half from release, and McNally Robinson, a local bookstore, doing a huge launch party at one of Winnipeg's largest parks, I figured I would talk here a bit about my plans for the 20th of July. About 7 or so, my nephew and I will be going to a movie theatre to watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie, which is released a week before. Then we are heading out to the park, where we will enjoy the fun of the pre release events, and wait, eagerly, for the last book in the Harry Potter series. At 12:00, I expect we will both be right near the front for the handing out of the books, followed shortly by a marathon reading session as we see how the story truly ends. Hope to see you on the flip side.

I hesitantly classify this under 'Entertainment' because neither is really entertaining to me. There is only one show on right now with new episodes that I actually find entertaining, and it is a death run show. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was cancelled by NBC after they yanked it for a tasteless and worthless show, and only brought back for a last gasp to fill slots after the end of the 'real season'. The rest of the stuff on is repeats of shows, and the dreaded reality shows. I do not wish to disrespect the audience for reality TV, though I likely will anyway, but it is the furthest thing from reality and the worst kind of crap that Hollywood puts on the air. It is a waste of bandwidth and airtime when shows like Firefly, Studio 60, and others get cancelled because people want idiots on the tube instead of real creativity.