I support the Writer’s Guild of America and their strike to get their fair share from the production companies. If you’re unclear as to the reasons for the strike, or why you should support it, just watch this video from the writers of the Daily Show.
I should have posted something here by now. It’s not like I haven’t had anything to write about; I have, but whenever I felt like writing procrastination won out. Well not this time, let’s fix this. Better late than never, right?
I was recently able to attend the 3rd Annual Podcast and New Media Expo in Ontario, California. I’d wanted to go the previous year but something came up that made me unable to go, so I’d been looking forward to this for a long time. Lucky for me it was within driving distance of my home, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have been able to go at all. Saying I had a great time that weekend would be an understatement. I felt like a kid at at summer camp that didn’t want the week to end. One of the greatest things about the podcasting community is that there is such a sense of friendship and comradery. I’ve developed some strong friendships and it’s great to finally meet these people face to face. It really underlined the discussion on Geek Cred Live about online friends: I’d never met any of these people face to face before, but it was like we were all old friends. I went and said hi to many people, but it was kind of weird being on the receiving end of that a few times. People actually listen to my show?
One really interesting phenomenon at the Expo was the use of Twitter. Many podcasters have adopted Twitter, and with so many together, it took on a new level of usefulness. It became an incredibly useful tool to have impromptu get togethers along with letting people know what you’re doing so people can hook up and hang out. While I was eating lunch, I checked Twitter on my phone, and I saw a tweet from Douglas E. Welch only a few minutes previous saying that he was eating, and sure enough, I turn around and he’s right behind me. The sheer number of people there using Twitter on their smartphone or laptop was amazing. And there were a lot of smartphone users there, specifically iPhone owners and a fair number of Treos as well.
While it was cool to wander the show floor and see what companies were showing off and who you might run into, after hours is where things really happened. The convention center kicked everyone out of the Exhibit Hall at 4PM. Podcasters sure know how to party! Just ask the LibSyn/Wizzard Media guys. The joke now is that it’s not a LibSyn party until it gets shut down by the cops. It was great just to hang out and socialize with people you consider friends and other like minded people who share your passions. I spent some quality time with Chuck Tomasi and Kreg Steppe, Douglas E. Welch, and the rest of the Friends in Tech guys, among with others. (If I didn’t mention you, please don’t be offended, there’s just so many of you I had such a great time with, there’s too many to list!)
The whole thing was an amazingly fun experience that I will never forget. Somehow, some way, I’m going to make it to the Expo next year, in Vegas. Even if that means eating nothing but Ramen noodles between now and next August.
On the first ever Geek Cred Live which I hosted on Saturday, one of the discussions we had was about online friends. Through forums, games, or IRC chat, you can meet great people, and becomes just as good friends with them as with people you know in real life. Life can have a cruel sense of irony. Last night I lost one of those dear friends, Jim Vestal. Jim was a textbook example of a great friend you can have online. I first met Jim years ago, on EFNet. Jim was a very special person who didn’t judge you, and would welcome anyone to his channel with open arms. He loved computers, and practically lived on IRC, as Narnia777/Jimmy777/Jim. He was admitted to the hospital a few days ago with chest pains and passed away late last night. In another cruel bit of irony, his IRC client is still online, holding ops in his channel, but there’s nobody home now. I will miss the late night conversations and words of encouragement. It’s hard for me to say goodbye, especially so abruptly, and so before your time, but I know that you are in a better place. Here’s to you Jim.
R.I.P. Jim Vestal, 1965-2007
No, that last blog post wasn’t a one time thing where I would post and return once again to obscurity, I am still active and posting.
So here I am, home alone. Got up at the miserable time of 5AM on Sunday to take the parents off to the airport, and now I have the house to myself. They’re off on an Alaskan cruise for a week for their 25th anniversary. It’s not like I haven’t been home alone before, but it’s been a while, and it’s weird having it this quiet. Last time they went out of town for only a couple days was before Maggie died, so I was never completely alone, she was still around to keep me company. Not that I’m lonely, it’s just weird. I don’t have to worry about bothering my folks or waking them up doing something because they go to bed so freaking early. I can play my music loud or chat on Skype without someone getting on my case. It’s nice. I could get used to this.
Wow, has it really been so long since I last posted? About 4 months, wow. That’s too long, time to get back into things.
I was poking around on the Internet today, as I often am, and to my shock discovered that the domain riekeberg.com is registered, which is kind of sad considering there are only a handful of people with that last name in the world, and nearly every result from Google is me. Not only has a squatter from South Korea taken riekeberg.com, but they have also taken riekeberg.org, riekeberg.net, riekeberg.info, and riekeberg.biz. Not only that, riekeberg.com was registered back in 2004. As much as I despise them, I can understand domain squatting to a point I guess, but this one really leaves me scratching my head. It’s not like they’re going to get much (if any) advertising money from it, and with the few Riekebergs there are in the world, much less on the Internet, and the ridiculously high asking price of 9,900 euros ($13,455), it’s not like anyone is going to buy it. I might have registered it just to have it, if only for an e-mail address, but it’s really not that important to me, I sure wouldn’t buy it even if it was (relatively) cheap. At one point I did let my domain lapse inadvertently and a squatter picked it up, but it was released not long after. I assume it wasn’t worth it. I just can’t wrap my brain around why a squatter would want riekeberg.com, which should probably have even less value.
So there’s been another school shooting, this time at Virginia Tech. Not to detract from what a horrible event this is, but invariably, someone will try to blame this on video games. Because video games make people violent, right? Even if the gunman just played a game of Quake 5 years ago, people in the media will use that to claim that video games caused the terrible shooting. It’s happened before, and it will happen again. I wonder how long it will take Jack Thompson, to come out of the wood work.
Don’t get me wrong–do I think a 10-year-old should be playing Grand Theft Auto? Of course not. But this knee-jerk reaction against video games is ludicrous, considering that violent crime has been down among teenagers for years. But God forbid somebody use some common sense and actually look at the facts! After all, it takes a video gamer to know how to point a gun at someone, right? It’s not like people haven’t been shooting each bother with guns before video games. Video games don’t kill people. Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.
Well, as of 9:07PM Pacific Time, I am 20 years old–no longer a teenager. Still trying to wrap my brain around that one; I’ve been a teeenager for so many years, so I guess it’s something that I’ll get used to. No that it’s really much of a difference. I’m a year older–so what? It’s not like I’m any different than I was yesterday, when I was “only” 19. Sometimes I wonder why our society values birthdays so much. But on the other hand, it’s always nice to have that special day.
Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m a geek. I am passionate about computers & technology, science, science fiction, and video games. Something else I love is podcasts. I barely watch any traditional television, and never listen to the radio. Instead of force fed garbage, I get quality content and can listen to it on my schedule. When you really “get” podcasting, it changes the way you consume media, and I have been subscribing to podcasts for some time now. One of the things that I happened in my time away from blogging, is going from just a podcast listener to a podcaster. I host my own show called Geek Cred, which covers the whole gamut of geek topics that I love with interviews, trivia, and commentary. I just released episode #4 tonight and I have had a blast doing the show. I have gotten the opportunity to interview some really cool people and to get to know other podcasters who are just as passionate as I am.
So far I have interviewed J. Marcus Xavier from the science fiction podcast audio drama Silent Universe, J.C. Hutchins, author of the podcast novel trilogy 7th Son, Cali Lewis, host of the technology video podcast GeekBrief.TV, and Tee Morris, author of Morevi: The Chronicles of Rafe and Askana and Billibub Baddings and the Case of the Singing Sword.
Well, it’s about time to dust this thing off already. Yeah, I know it’s been quite some time since I’ve posted here. I could probably come up with a ton of excuses, I’ve been to busy or something, but although I have been busy, it’s not like I was so busy I couldn’t take a few minutes and post here. It’s not like I haven’t had anything to write about, I could’ve posted many times since my last entry, but I’ve just been lazy. Well, I’m finally ready to get back into posting. Here’s a little bit that’s happened since.
Well, my grandfather wasn’t the first death in my family. I wrote about my precious dog Maggie’s near-death a few months ago. Well, on January 18th she was vomiting up blood, so we took her to the vet. The vet thought she had probably somehow gotten into some rat poison (who knew where from, we didn’t have any) and gave her a shot and sent her home. She seemed to be a little bit better until later that night, when she went into the other room and laid down in her air kennel–face first. She didn’t move for a while, and we got worried. We opened up the air kennel, and she was unresponsive, so we rushed her to the animal hospital across town. Well, unfortunately, we were too late. She had stopped breathing by the time we’d gotten a block away from home, and she was pronounced dead when we arrived. She had suffered from “bloat” a condition not uncommon in older large-breed dogs. It was sudden, but fortunately she never suffered; she just went to sleep. As devastated as I was at losing her, realized that she spent every waking moment thinking about this. In the twelve years we had her, we received more attention and affection that many people received more attention than many people receive in their entire lives. Rest in peace, puppy.
Unfortunately, losing my dog wasn’t the only loss that life had in store for me. On New Year’s Eve, my 94-year-old grandmother (on my dad’s side) suffered a heart attack and stroke. Miraculously she survived, but she never recovered. She was sent home from the hospital to die. The doctor thought she had a week. She didn’t even make it a full day. She passed away early in the morning on the 20th of January, 2 days after losing Maggie. That same morning, we scattered my grandfather’s ashes at sea. At Christmas she said she knew it was her last one, and we knew her passing was coming, but it didn’t make it any easier. On top of that, we no longer had Maggie to comfort us.
In posting this, I’m not looking for pity or encouragement. I’m just posting about what’s happening in my life. Sure, it’s been hard. Sometimes you think you’ve had it hard, until life gives you everything you’ve got. All you can do is take it the best you can. It’s a hard road, but once you make it through, you come out a better man. It’s those though trials, and how you take them, that make you who you are. As hard as it’s been, I’m a better man for it.
OK, this is probably my longest post ever, by far. I have plenty more that I could write about, but I’ll leave that for another post.
As a kid I always looked forward to Christmas, and it always seemed to take forever for that special day to arrive. I normally look forward to Christmas, not so much for the reason that I’ll be getting presents (though that’s always nice) but I’ve always enjoyed the season itself. This year, however, it’s all really snuck up on me. It just doesn’t seem possible that the Christmas season is here, much less believable that Christmas is a mere 6 days away. I guess ever since the death of my grandfather it seems like things have been moving in slow motion.
Recent Comments