Long time no blog. There's a good reason...really there is. My birthday was this weekend...and work's been crazy. I have a new boss....a cool guy, but we did just get an entirely new set of goals for the year....weeeeeee

I've discovered that I lead a very nerdy life. At work--for fun mind you-- we're making bots to fight eachother. Basically I'm writting a small arena server and the other developers are writing bots for the simple tank-like game to kill eachother. Last time we did this it was for a dice game--Squelch. Of course the VP of Strategic Developement is also a programmer...and his Squelch bot was an evolving neural network....needless to say it won 90+% of the time. This one is a bit different since it's real-time in nature....hopefully I'll win :-)

It's always fun to have 5 business developers fight about a game design so seriously...."no, you need to send XYZ information with this call!!" But we actually designed all the interfaces and communication in about 5 hours....a team record :-) I really enjoy my job, and I'm always curious if I would be having this much fun if I had gotten the MS job...probably so.

We spend 25 man hours working on a bot for fun...and then complain when we have to work a bit of OT to finish a project...BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Song of the Blog: RHCP - Scar Tissue

Well, I've been working on the game stuff more...and it looks like it just might work :-)

Here's a link for all you RPG players out there. It's an awesome character generator...I'll be using it to make some default graphics for characters...and suggesting that players go and make their own!

Nothing of interest happening really...just work, sleep, getting sick, etc...the usual.

Well, I'm back at work. I took my pills this morning...and I forgot how much they suck. Basically I had a coughing fit in the car...and now I have a huge stomach-ache. I had both these problems at home after I took my pills the first 2 times, I guess I just forgot about much it sucked.

I might have to go home early if I don't get better...ugh.

<cough, wheeze>
Doctor told me I have Bronchitis (sp?). It sucks. I don't know if I'll be at work tomorrow.

<could I have more water and your phone number?>
Lisa and I ate at Bennigans tonight...our waitress was attractive. Lisa and I passed the time by talking about setting her up with Kolb or Downing. We didn't get any contact information, since "hey, would you mind if a friend of mine calls you" doesn't seem like a good introduction...and Kolb might not appreciate it. Oh well, just gotta make sure that Kolb is with us next time we go to that Bennigans (@ I-35 and Hebron for the curious among the readership).

<nerd stuff>
The plan is gelling nicely, after a day of testing different technologies I've decided to try something a bit business-like in the game. I'm going to use .NET remoting to establish connection and session information. So basically I won't have to manage anything, the client will create objects on the server to communicate. Someday I'll post a schema diagram to explain to my fellow nerds what I'm talking about. :-)

<history anyone?>
I started programming with Kolb and Jarrett in 7th grade (8 years ago? are we really 20 years old?). Since then, they have pretty much dropped hardcore coding...but I'm a paid pro. I guess I just enjoy it more than they do...although occassionaly Kolb talks about doing projects together (the MUD I'm working on was his idea.) It's wierd to see the people that introduce you to something you love kinda drift away from it. Anyway, I'm just being random.

<Song of the Blog>
They Might Be Giants - XTC vs. Adam Ant

I didn't go to work today...I'm sick. I've got a Doctors appt tomorrow, so no work until Thursday at the earliest. Hope I have enough vacation time.

We rented Star Wars: Episode 1 DVD....lots of special features...too much to watch in one sitting.

Now for something completely different...
<nerd stuff >
I've decided to drop the whole "non-special" client stuff, and stick with a really simple, SIMPLE client...something that is just a little smarter than a telnet client. I just got fed up trying to get the telnet client to work exactly how I wanted, I need a bit more control. With the rate of change soon the client will be so complex it'll be a peer-2-peer mud...lets hope the current plan gels to my liking.

Today was an all-day event with Lisa's family. Whew were we glad to get out of there. Her little half-sister still has head lice, which is really really really really disgusting...but her parents just won't take the time to fix it. Pathetic.

Lisa's test is over, but she's still stressed...it'll be at least a month before she gets her grade.

Tux shopping went well...even though I woke up late. That's why I have friends with alarm clocks, because me and my Best Man forgot about the scheduled rental time. But everything worked together, and we even had time for childish games. We actually threw berries into each other's mouths for about 15 minutes...fun, sad, and true....Dave got 1 in Downing, Downing got 1 in Kolb.

Song of the Blog: Rednex - Cottoneye Joe

Well, I was told immediately after my interview that I did not get the job. The reasoning was simple: they're only hiring senior consultants right now because they bring in instant business...and we all know I'm not a senior consultant. I'm more of a code monkey than a sales/architecture/etc guy. So, at least I'm not nervous anymore, just a bit bummed. *sigh*

I guess I'll just have to make myself more vocal at work, speak out for design concepts I like and try to influence long-term decisions. I've been holding back since there was a possibility that I'd be leaving soon....but since that has dried up....I guess I'll just have to do my job better, darn :-)

Lisa's EXCET exam is all day today (Saturday), if she doesn't pass this she doesn't get to be a teacher. Apparently it's a really hard exam...she barely passed her practice test (yikes!).

Song of the Blog: Thunder!

Microsoft interview today at 2. I'm a little stressed. I hope I don't throw up...

There's a writing portion to this interview, I hope I write better for that than I do for this blog. I've re-read some of previous posts, and at times I write like a 3rd grader. As luck would have it I also have the handwriting of a 3rd grader...so as far as they know a 3rd grader is applying for a job. But at least I get to dress spiffy and try to talk smart :-)

On a lighter, less stressful note I got new contacts, so now I can see! My vision is horrid, I found out from the doctor that I'm blind without my contacts. Apparently "legally blind" is when--with your best correction--you can only see 20:2200. Without my contacts I'm at least 20:3000...they can't measure me since I can't even read the big E (which is 20:2400). Hopefully I never get where contacts can't fully correct my vision...that'd suck...

Song of the Blog: My knee's knocking together

Where oh where does the time go? I swear, while I'm at the computer time flys in unnatural ways. I looked at my watch: 8:31pm.....again: 8:37pm.....again: 10:44pm...someday I'll look down and it'll be a different year, I'll have kids, and life will have passed me by.

<nerd stuff>
Off and on I've been fiddling with creating a MUD (multi-user dungeon)...mainly because deep down I want to be a DM (dungeon master, aka the boss). Of course I'm currently having to learn the telnet protocol...since all versions of windows have a telnet client. Although I'm about ready to ditch that idea, and use an HTTP-based solution. Maybe even with a full web interface...since a web-browser would still fit my "no special client" goal. Damn I'm a big nerd.

I updated the links section to reflect the site rotation that I methodically go through whenever I open up a browser. I wonder if I could convince Lisa to start a blog...add another site to my rotation...although she's about 10,000,000% overworked so I don't see it happening any time soon. Did I mention that Lisa is extremely attractive? and I....uh...have a good personality....someday I'll have pictures posted and eveyone will know why I'm a lucky bastard.

Song of the Blog: Wild Cherry - Play that Funky Music White Boy

My first post from work...I try not to "waste time" posting at work, but it's been really slow around here. I'm currently waiting on another group to get back to me...so free-time is the name of the game.

I need to pick up some more DV video tapes for my camera, so I can record randomly and have something more-than-text up on this site.

I made another small investment in DVDs the other night, 6 this time. 3 for Lisa (VeggiTales stuff, Wizard of Oz, and Sound of Music) and 3 for me (Simpsons season 1, Goonies, and High Fidelity). I'll talk to Kolb to see if he wants to buy High Fidelity from me...he liked it more than Lisa or I did.

Song of the Blog: Keyboard tapping of 20 programmers

Hey hey, the site has actually been updated in a manual way. I added a menu and some room for non-blog-related growth. I'm sure it'll sit for a while, but it's better than nothing. I'm a busy guy :-)

I really need to study for my MS interview...and pay bills...

Song of the Blog: Three Dog Night - Jeremiah Was a BullFrog

My final interview with Microsoft is this friday.. *gulp*

Kolb has posted some pictures...none of them include me, which is fine because I've seen the frightening pictures he's taken of me. I'm sure he'll be gentle when he posts pictures of his friends. I'm twice his size so he doesn't want to piss me off :-)

A guy at work is in a band, Vibrosound. He invited me and my friends out to a gig...I figure it's a good way to get into some sort of social strata. Maybe Kolb and Downing will agree and we can actually get out of yuppie-land for a while [note the intense irony of ME calling this yuppie land, considering I'm a yuppie of the strongest sort]. I wonder if they read this anyway...

Song of the Blog: AC/DC - Back in Black

It's October...my favorite month. I was born this month, the weather in Texas turns colder, and free candy is passed out liberally...what's not to love?

This month (soon) I have to go with my groomsmen to pick up Tuxes for my wedding. Lisa's only requirement is that they don't suck...and are black. So no blue tuxes with bright pink ruffled undershirts for me....darn :-)

I got a new amp this weekend: an early 80's Peavey Deuce VT. My first tube amp...and I now know why solid-state digital amps are popular...this thing weighs like 120 pounds. It sounds good though, very clean if need-be and cool tube distortion. It's also VERY VERY loud...the people in the apartments are going to hate me. All the more reason to invest in a nice accoustic guitar, or a sound-proof room :-)

I had a mock interview with Dave this evening. I did ok, but he has to help me with the vocabulary a lot, I guess I'll just have to get used to the MS contracting lingo. I hope I get this job, it'd be cool to get away from the nasty code I currently have to deal with at work.

Song of the Blog: N/A...the whir of the computer fans.