shawnp0wers

I'm a bloggy blogger who blogs.

Disconnecting My Inner B0rg

by

Sadly, one eye implant wouldn't be enough for me. My right eye is almost blind too. Perhaps I could be a Borg with a cool Transformeresque name, like "GoggleBot"...I have a deadline. Mind you, this isn’t just a regular deadline I’ve pushed off until the last minute (rest assured, I have one of those for Monday. Seriously.) This is a monumental project that has been delayed due to a myriad of reasons. Some reasons good ones, some reasons not.

But it’s a deadline. So I’ve decided this weekend is The Weekend Of Productivity, or TWOP. During TWOP, I will be disconnecting myself from the Internet hive mind. I will be putting my cellphones in the “off” mode. Actually, I’m not even sure they have an off mode, but I’ll at the very least put them in another room.

If you see me online any time after 4PM today — please scold the crap out of me. Without going into boring detail, my goal for this weekend is 15. I’m currently at 3. Unless I claim (in a believable way) that I’m done up to 15, please shun me.

If you need to get in touch with me, drop me an email. If it’s an emergency, well, chances are I’m not the person you should be calling anyway. I’m not exactly the type of person to rely on during emergencies. If the servers crash at work — it’s a school. They’ll wait. If my children catch on fire, my wife will handle it better than me anyway. And if the Internet runs low on snark, well, lets just say that’s unlikely.

Wish me the best, and if you want to contact me — you’ve only got a handful of hours to do so. That said, I hope your weekend is TWOP too! 🙂

In Which I Pimp My Own Interviews

by

I’m sure it makes me horribly narcissistic, but I’m just so humbled that people actually want to hear what I have to say, I thought I’d pass the links on to you. In case, you know, you’re one of those people. 😉

First: Back at The Ohio Linuxfest, I was interviewed by Aaron Newcomb from The Source. It’s a video interview, and my section starts around 18:45 (not that you shouldn’t watch the whole thing, I’m just sayin…)

Second: I was asked to do an interview via Twitter, and was happy to do so. Jacob Kuehndorf (@BIOSShadow) posted me as his celebrity interviewee. I find that incredibly flattering. The interview is HERE on his site.

That’s it. Just wanted to give some linkage.

Brain Flood

by

Warning: This is all about me. More so than usual. If you’re here to hear about notme things, well, turn back now. You have been warned…

First off, you should know about my accident. Reminiscing about childhood memories is much less significant unless you have acute amnesia. That said, even with amnesia (yes, it still sounds to me like something out of Jerry Springer too), Google Street View shouldn’t really have such an effect on me 10+ years after my accident. Yet, here I sit all strange-ified.

Here is the house I grew up in. The odd part is that I remember the house. The even odder part is I only remember weird fragments from the house. I remember a bungie-corded milk crate attached to one of those posts in the front that we used as a basketball hoop. I remember that fire hydrant being illegally opened so the kids in the neighborhood could play in the water. But I don’t actually remember any of the people. I remember walking to this library, but I don’t remember the actual trip. I know kids used to hide their knives in these bushes before going into Munger Middle School so they didn’t set off the metal detectors. But I don’t remember going into the school. (Don’t get me wrong, I could probably take you to my locker — I just don’t remember ever opening it. SO WEIRD.)

So while this evening I’ve been walking around my old neighborhood with Google Street View, and remembering things like Stan’s Whip and Whirl, they’re all hollow memories. I wish I could explain it better, but it’s as if I’m remembering a setting with no characters.

And yes, it creeps me right friggen out. That library I linked earlier? I know where the good books are inside. I know the smell of the back room full of grown up books that only the nerdiest kids ever checked out. Sadly, it’s all an odd, empty, lifeless memory.

Except that back room. I think I could sit in the old leather chair and smell that book dust for hours. I might drive there just to smell that smell one more time. 🙂

Great Balls of Fire!

by

We went to Salvador Molly’s here in Portland, and I took the “Great Balls of Fire” challenge. It’s 5 habanero fritters with habanero salsa. If you “win” you get your photo on the wall of flame. Kyle Rankin took video of the event: