Blame Daniel Glazman, it’s his fault.

1. Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
2. Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

Let the self indulgence begin!

1. Building on Dan’s medical theme
   • As a child I had some severe migraine headaches. They’d last for days, and I’d just sleep the whole time, but they’d also be accompanied by incredibly high fevers above 105°F. I’m told by doctors it’s a miracle it didn’t cause any brain damage.  I’m told by friends it most certainly did.
   • In 2006 I got to enjoy the agony of gallstones. I mentioned that, and the subsequent removal of said gall bladder. I have a rather high tolerance for pain, you see. My major attack in October had been increasing in discomfort and pain for about 18 hours before I finally went to the ER. I thought it was bad gas or indigestion. This had happened twice before and passed long before it felt this bad. I was crossing the street, and nearly passed out, so I grabbed a cab home and called 911 (I was still caring for my mother at home and wanted her in the ambulance with me so she didn’t worry, here’s why). Turns out I had developed acute pancreatitis and was in shock. Apparently shooting pains throughout your abdomen is a bad sign, and you should get help. Lesson learned!
2. I used to run a Mozilla news site called Mozilla News. It’s gone now, the domain lapsed, but you can read our old stuff via Internet Archive. I broke some news a time or two that some people weren’t happy about, but over all, I think we did a lot of good for the community. Also, we had the first animated favicon ever.
3. I was engaged once.
4. I got to meet and shake hands with Bill Clinton during his 1996 campaign. He came to Pittsburgh in August and had a rally in the Sewall Center at Robert Morris College (now Robert Morris University). Amazing guy.
5. My first computer was a TRS 80 Model 100 (I had the printer too!). I loved that computer. It was very light and incredibly portable, ran on 4 AA batteries, and had a built in 300 baud modem. Once I bought the modem cable and started checking out local BBSes, my entire world changed forever. I bought a second one, cut off one modular connector and attached alligator clips, and went phreaking. Some of the best times of my life.
6. About a decade or so ago, I got hit by my own car. I was at a motel and someone tried to steal my car. I heard it start up, ran out, and stood in the middle of the parking lot. He drove right into me, and I rolled up the hood, over the windshield, and off the side. I hurt my back, but no broken bones or cuts.
7. I’m a published author. I’ve been published in a couple poetry reviews, a technical book, and most recently tech-edited a book for Wiley, HTML, XHTML, and CSS: Your visual blueprint. I’m also about 170+ pages into a novel, but that’s another story. (Get it? Another STORY? Ha-ha! (that one’s for dolske))

So, now I need to harass seven other people about this.

1. Justin Dolske because he’s a punny guy.
2. Chris Thomas because he’s a really smart guy.
3. Josh Soref because he’s a genuinely nice guy.
4. Jeff Walden because is hard to find.
5. J. Boriss because I’m still looking for Natasha.
6. Sean Umphlet who is a good guy and will not give you up nor let you down.
7. Tim De Pauw who is my favorite waffle (and a good musician).

Fin.

No spoilers here. I just have to say there has never been a better TV show. We’ve just entered Act 3 of a three part epic. The past several episodes have had some serious foreshadowing, but as usual, it never plays out as you expect. There’s little point in trying to figure out where the show is going, because, much like life, it’s not entirely linear. Just because it looked a certain way doesn’t mean that’s the way it is, it just means our assumptions were wrong. Or in the case of this show, our preconceptions are being challenged in a whole new way, a way that TV rarely dares to try. It’s not trickery, it’s not deus ex machina, it’s a genuine method of engaging the audience in a new way. We keep trying to project our experiences on these people because in so many ways they’re so like us, but that’s just a hook to help the writers show us a new point of view.

Keep it up. I can’t wait to see how Act 3 ends. I know it’ll be worth it.

The miniseries was incredible. The first season was so fracking huge it didn’t end until six episodes into the second season. The last 5 minutes of the Season Two finale took my head and twisted completely around.

The season premier of Season Three completely blew me away. Best TV show ever. This is why God invented TV.

Don’t be fergittin’ that today, the 19th o’ September, be Talk Like A Pirate Day! Ye best be talkin’ like a Piratical sort if ye knows what’s best fer ya! I just though I’d be a warnin’ ya, in case ye be a little lax on the calendaring of yer holidays! Arrr! I’m off to find me some wenches and rum and drink me-self to the bottom o’ a barrel!

— Pirate Bob the Sword Test Dummy

Well, I’ll let everyone else determine it’s art value, but I will say I love exactly how it turned out. This is actually a rewrite, something I so rarely do that it’s truly an occasion. But this is what I needed it to say, as opposed to what it said before. I haven’t been this exhausted after writing in years. I feel wrung out, drained, but good; like I’ve just sobbed out a heartache all night and woken up the next morning. I’ve missed this, too. Believe it or not, I’ve actually been at this for hours. It doesn’t feel like it, but it’s been hours. I’m going to go sleep now, or try to at least.
]]> http://burntelectrons.org/2005/07/from-great-pain/feed/ 1 http://burntelectrons.org/2005/07/discoveries/ http://burntelectrons.org/2005/07/discoveries/#comments Sat, 02 Jul 2005 02:11:07 +0000 Grey [ music | Tori Amos - Silent All These Years ]

Long ago, I used to write, a lot. Some of the best stuff (and a few of the not-so-best but fun) is over in The Museum, if you’ve never been. I wrote pen on paper. I have to use paper for some things, or it comes out flat. I saved every one of those papers (and a few more…) Well, I stopped writing a while later, when I buried my passions. During those long, cold years, when I was someone else I didn’t like, I don’t remember writing much of anything. Certainly nothing of value. I know I wrote many things I immediately discarded.

I began writing again recently, when I began singing again, when I let me out of my cage. I just went looking for some of those new things, and found a few things from those silent times, tiny sparks in the dark, only embers now, but enough to see that that fire was always there. I think I’ll put them in The Museum soon. But two I had to share now. They’re not my best, but they show a little promise… There’s hope for me yet.

Stupid

Back when we were stupid
we'd scream around town in the crappy car
we bought.
We'd tear around in the dark,
turn off the headlights,
turn up the radio,
and laugh our heads off.
We'd drive absolutely everywhere and get nowhere.
Back when we didn't know better,
we'd hit a mall and act like idiots,
sneak in the movies,
throw popcorn at the screen,
challenge little kids at the arcade.
We'd stay out an hour too long,
get in trouble, and do it again next week.
We'd stop in the parking lot,
and kiss each other's soul.

Back when we were stupid, we'd have a blast.
Back when we were stupid we'd live everyday to the edge.
We'd run around on tilt,
get goofy for no reason.

Back when we were stupid.
These days, we need to get stupid more often.
Wanna go get stupid?

( December 2003 )

At Night…

I love the night.
When I was a young man,
younger than I thought I was,
I loved to be out in the night,
alone or in a crowd,
it didn't matter.
But I loved to be out in the night.

I loved to take a walk in the small hours.
I'd walk alone, or just with a single friend.
The cool, soft breezes of the night,
The slight fog that would swirl about in the fall,
It was quiet, but it felt more alive than anything else.

I got older, but still younger than I thought.
I loved the night even more.
To walk in those same small hours
with a girl,
one who just glowed with life.
We would walk, and the air between us crackled
with the energy of a thousand years,
invisible silent lightning.
The night was magic.

I still love the night, even though I'm older.
I'm also still younger than I think, but I'm learning.
I still go walking in the night,
in the small hours.
I'll walk alone through that swirling fog,
but the memories walk with me now.
The night is still alive.
I'll walk until the earth yawns,
and the sun starts to peek out over the blankets.
I can look into that dark sky at night,
and see so much more than I should.
The more you learn, the easier you see how much really is possible.
The night helps me see that.
It takes the dark to help me see clearly.

( October 2003 )

This year, Rick Berman and Brannon Braga stepped back from running the daily operations and writing duties of Enterprise. They brought in the fantastically talented Manny Coto to run the show. Since then, the quality of Enterprise has skyrocketed. Season one had promise. Season two broke that promise. Season three finally had purpose, and was watchable. This season, Season Four, has been the best Trek in years, it’s some of the best Trek ever. We finally, after the squandered riches Voyager could have been (although it had it’s moments), the magnificent but unloved stepchild of DS9, we got some of the most wonderfully original and yet TOS-respectful Star Trek ever. It was like water to a man in the desert.

Viacom co-CEO Les Moonves cancelled Enterprise on February 3rd, 2005. Millions of Trek fans, myself included, were crushed. I can understand Les Moonves’ position from a strictly numbers perspective. But, the numbers don’t take into account the change in leadership. Rick Berman has had good ideas for Star Trek over twenty years, but he doesn’t belong in a Producer or Executive Producer role. Brannon Braga has had some good ideas for Trek as well, but more often than not, he’s just better just writing other people’s ideas. He has no business producing a high school play much less a TV and movie franchise. If Les Moonves wants to do some firing, tell Paramount to fire B&B, and put Manny Coto in full control of the show. Then Les will get something else he wants, quality TV that produces good ratings. Even with the move to Friday nights, Enterprise has delivered steady ratings, when most moves to that night watch their ratings dry up.

The core audience is there, Mr. Moonves, the talent is there, and a fantastically rich mine of stories is there. Fire the inept managers, and let the miners deliver you the gold. Save Enterprise!

In short, Tim Hutton’s character J.T. Neumeyer (a physics professor, which makes him cool from the start) comes across a briefcase very carefully intended for him, with evidence he’ll be murdered in five days. He now has to figure out if it’s real, and if so, how to stop it. This all happens on June 7, 2004, which is when you’re watching it. Meaning he’ll die on this coming friday. This is an additionally cool feature because it’s carefully planned to fit into the real calendar we live in while watching the film, which deepens the sense of reality and puts the viewer in the same timeline as our protagonist.

All the little pieces of the puzzle (he loves puzzles, like the huge jigsaw puzzle on his table at home) fit wonderfully, and are revealed to us in an unpredictable manner. It’s not braindead linear like many mysteries. Clues revealed to us come at seemingly random times, and may not be understood till much later. Really good. Like an excellent novel. I can’t wait for hours 3-5.

Ignore what Melanie McFarland, of the Seattle Post Intelligencer says. I don’t know what movie she was watching, but it wasn’t this one. Yes, it’s got a Sci-Fi bent to it. Wow, figure that out, a sci-fi movie on the SciFi network! Larry Niven called sci-fi a literary ghetto due to it’s total lack of respect from the outside. And yet science fiction has produced some of the greatest books ever, it’s even infiltrated our language and culture. If you check your sci-fi prejudices at the door, you’ll love this mini-series.

Update: Someone at the New York Times knows what I’m talking about. Thank you Virginia Heffernan!.