Mark Daniel Martinez

Oekaki Centralized

2011-12-04T16:35:00.001-05:00

Going to revisit this Oekaki thing today. Have never tried it with a tablet before, but I remember finding it interesting. Looks like they purged my old account. It was several years ago. I guess they require pretty active memberships. Too bad. I had one in progress that I was really looking forward to going back to.

One of Those Days

2011-11-24T15:03:00.001-05:00

Mahogany had BOTOX scheduled for her ankles yesterday. We do this because there's a bit too much tension in her feet and they don't stay in neutral position on their own. So the BOTOX an area on the leg and cast her feet for a few days or weeks. She's had this a half dozen times already, and even though no actually cutting is involved, it still counts as outpatient surgery due to the anesthesia administered.

Only thing is, there's this rare, low percentage of a chance that she, or anyone, will have an adverse reaction to anesthesia. Either your chest will become rigid, and therefore you won't breath well, or your throat can tighten up, again, not allowing you to breath well. Well, one of those happened to Mahogany yesterday.

Happened on the initial dose. Her breathing got bad, and her heart rate started to drop, so they started doing chest compressions for under a minute. Ended up having to take her across the street to Brenners' PIC Unit. Scary thing seeing your kid loaded into an ambulance on a stretcher with a breathing tube down her throat. Especially as sudden as it all happened. But, once we got across the street, we saw that she had awoke in the ambulance and was expressing her displeasure at her breathing tube. The EMTs had a time trying to roll her through Brenners' labyrinthine corridors and keep her hands away from her assorted attachments. Once we got to her room in PICU, they had a ten-man team waiting for her.

They were going to need it.

We waited in the Waiting Room while Mahogany tossed the staff around room and she finally settled in. Once they got the tube out, she went to sleep and seemed stable. She was already stable pretty much before they even called the ambulance, but they needed to be sure, and they wanted to see her temperature go up. She seemed a little cold, which isn't the norm for her. After a few hours she woke up, eat some apple sauce and jello, drank and was ready to go home before 6 PM.

The reaction to the anesthesia is something that happens rarely, but is unexplained. It's a side effect, and doesn't have anything to do with allergies or age or environment. You could have taken the same thing a dozen time before or since, and only that one time will be the result. Ironically, they had another boy in PICU that week who'd had the same reaction, and also went home that day. Those two times were the only time Mahogany's doctor had ever even seen a case of it happen. Even so, from now on, any future BOTOX injections will be done at Brenners, rather than at her Orthopedist, just to be on the safe side.

The Way We Weren't

2011-10-28T08:10:00.000-05:00

The Eon Press Presents blog will be restored to it's former purpose of updating you on, well, Eon Press Presents stuff. So I'm moving some, but not all, of the Alternate Realities content over to my Disney Blog: http://re-imagination.blogspot.com/. This blog will remain my personal place to rant and rave about general nonsence, while I'll put the EPP blog up on the main page of www.eonpresspresents.com, where it should be.

In the meantime, here's a video of floppy disk drives performing the closing theme to Portal:

Windows Has Detected Your Blog is Old as Crap

2011-09-12T03:44:00.001-05:00

So since my last update, which was back when elderly white people weren't completely insane (read: pre-Obama), a lot has happened here. I've moved to Winston-Salem, my wife has a new and better job and the general stress of our life has toned down somewhat, though not completely. Mahogany is still nutty, and this is only exacerbated by the fact she can crawl around on our now carpeted apartment floor and break, hide and steal things in a way you wouldn't have thought a disabled child can do. I'm still pretty sure she put my technical pens up for sale on eBay.

Our anniversary rolled around and I got to take my wife to one of them fancy eatin' places in Greensboro. You know, the kind with table cloths and where they frown on you crushing peanuts on the floor? We dressed ourselves up, pulled the ticks out of the baby's hair and I was able to present my wife with a nice gift, which I caught on video.

Miranda is working in the school system, and I'm still at home with the baby. But in the coming months, I'll be setting up a new website where I'll be selling my custom vBulletin styles. Don't know how well that's going to go, but I'm invested in it. Considering a couple of other forum softwares that I might develop for, such as XenForo and IPB, but we'll have to see what the workload for one software is like before I even consider looking at a third or fourth. (Third and forth, in that I'll be designing for two different versions of vBulletin.)

Other than that, not much is up. There's much left to do, and we still have to settle into our new life. There's decisions to be made, and bills to be ignored. Thankfully, I have a smart phone now, so I can answer the phone and hang up on people automatically. Who knew there was an app for THAT? The bugs in Winston are larger than I'm comfortable with, so they're going to have to go. You think I'm kidding.

Testing Ping Blogging Functionality

2011-09-12T03:03:00.001-05:00

Just testing some HTML formatting. Nothing to see here. Move along.

I thought I said move along. Don't you listen? Do I got to go get my pepper spray?

Okay, it's actually a bottle of paprika and I just blow on open lid, but you get the idea. Now move along!

Disabled or Otherwise

2011-06-09T19:20:00.001-05:00

From my point of view, the key to a disabled child's happiness is simply treating the child the same way you would treat any child. If you treat her like a bother, like a burden, it won't matter how much YOU think she doesn't understand, she'll pick up on that. Any child will feel and act in the same manner in which they are treated. And if it takes that much more effort to convey your feelings to them, make the effort.

It takes no effort to make a child feel like a burden. So work that much harder to make them feel special. If she could walk, talk, do everything on her own, you would have happily made that effort anyway.

Disabled or Not

2011-06-09T19:00:00.001-05:00

From my point of view, the key to a disabled child's happiness is simply treating the child the same way you would treat any child. If you treat her like a bother, like a burden, it won't matter how much YOU think she doesn't understand, she'll pick up on that. Any child will feel and act in same manner in which they are treated. And if it takes that much more effort to convey your feelings to them, make the effort. It takes no effort to make a child feel like a burden. So work that much harder to make them feel special. If she could walk, talk, do everything on her own, you would have happily made that effort anyway.

Get Off My Lawn!

2010-11-16T09:45:00.001-05:00

I think I was pretty nice about it, considering I don't do well with people first thing in the morning...or ever. If they try again tomorrow, I'll be letting my wife handle it. She's purchasing a baseball later today. For totally unrelated reasons, I assure you.

Hang Tight - Indefinitely

2010-10-17T15:46:00.001-05:00

So the way I understand it, thanks to the internet, demand for these went up. So the SOLE builder of hangs pulled them from the distributors, closed his website and requires you to go to Switzerland to meet with him to have one built.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rXcdcDB2S8

The Beatitudes for Friends of Exceptional Children

2010-10-08T23:14:00.001-05:00

Blessed are you who take time to listen to difficult speech,
For you help us to know that if we persevere, we can be understood.
Blessed are you who walk with us in public places, and ignore the stares of strangers,
For in your companionship, we find havens of peace.
Blessed are you who never bid us to "hurry up",
And more blessed are you who do not snatch tasks from our hands to do them for us,
For often we need time rather than help.
Blessed are you who stand beside us as we enter new and untried ventures,
For our failures will be outweighed by the times we surprise ourselves and you.
Blessed are you who ask for our help,
For our greatest need is to be needed.
Blessed are you when you assure us,
That the one thing that makes us individuals is not in our peculiar muscles,
Nor in our wounded nervous systems,
Nor in our difficulties in learning,
Nor any exterior difference.
But is in our inner, personal, individual self which no affirmity can diminish or erase.

Author Unknown

Just a Thought

2010-08-15T15:54:00.001-05:00

You know, if by some conceivable stretch of the imagination at some point in my life I'm stuck in grocery store and there are hordes of blood-thirsty bugs/dinosaurs/zombies/gerbils/bunnies clawing at the doors who whose intentions will result in my untimely and grisly demise, I hope and pray that I'm trapped with people who have seen multiple monster, horror and sci fi movies and NOT with every moron within a 100 mile radius:

http://ping.fm/1dFxC

Yeah, dinosaurs and giant killer cicadas flying around the room and I'm going to go look for my dad. Even at ten, I wasn't that stupid.

The Twain SHALL Meet

2010-05-20T15:05:00.001-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diTpeYoqAhc&feature=player_embedded

I've always said, inevitably this would happen. That television and the internet would not be the separate entities they are today. They're too much alike. And they're becoming more and more similar all the time. For the last three years, I haven't watched more than ten minutes of television at a time that wasn't a DVD or old home movies. The wife and I had been considering getting Satellite TV, but as time has waned on, we haven't really had need to. Most everything I want to watch is available online in some manner. And it's becoming easier and easier to find what I'm looking for quickly. With Google TV on the horizon, the bridge between television and the internet become significantly more solid.

Now don't get me wrong. The process of watching videos on the internet is not perfect. Not hardly. Hulu comes the closest to getting it right of any website I've seen. But Hulu is ultimately limited by an entertainment industry who just doesn't seem willing to accept that it's going to need to change its business model if it wants to survive. Their demise is certainly not eminent. Not by a long shot. But as the next generation of entertainment seekers turns more often than not to the internet for their e-fix, and more of my generation turns away from cable/satellite in disgust, Hollywood's business sector will have no choice but to face the music. (The one coming from their mobile device and not the radio.) They will be forced to and may even be required to take a hit to their overall income just to stay in the game.

Right now even the best of the video sites who share television and movies legally are victims of streaming rights that limit the amount of time their allowed to keep certain properties up. The wife and I just got finished watching "Stargate: SG-1" in its entirety because someone had the foresight to put the popular series on Hulu.

For six months.

Keep in mind, Stargate ran for 8 Seasons. Sure I could have added the boxed sets to my Blockbuster Queue, but that's also becoming less and less reliable. I've had "The X-Files" Season 7 in my Queue for 3 years now. (When they said "Extremely Long Wait", they weren't kidding!) And when I complained for the third year in a row, they finally sent me some DVDs...out of sequence. So watching Stargate on Hulu was more convenient than dealing with an unreliable Queue and waiting for it in the mail. But even so, cramming 8 seasons into six months was somewhat of a feet for people with little time to watch things, much less as a family.

And even Stargate is an anomaly. Hulu, TV.com and all the network websites shows are by and large subject to that show's limited streaming rights. This means that you only get about five shows of the current season of series posted at a time. (If you're a "House" fan, you have to wait two weeks before they're post the most recent episode.) If you can't catch up in that amount of time, you're out of luck. If it's the type of show were you really need to watch from the beginning, well tough luck. Buy the DVD if you can afford it. Rent it, if you can find it. Watch it, if you happen to have the time to go look for it. And this applies to old shows as well. When it came time to watch "Stargate: Atlantis", well, Hulu was only allowed to cycle through eight episodes of Season 5. Really, why even bother?

With all that said, we are getting there. And I think we'll be there shortly. Technology moves at a rapid pace, and business is invariably forced to keep up. Remember those commercials advocating the importance of using email and the crusty old CEO declaring that Edison or some other historical figures never used email? His secretary tells him patiently that they would today. Who even has to bother to make that argument now? Hopefully, Google's foray into the TV business (TV App Business?) will open up the doors and eyes of Hollywood execs to the potential and inevitable demise of cable/satellite and the rise of the internet being your primary entertainment venue.

You've Got The Cutest Little Koobface

2010-05-05T14:52:00.001-05:00

I've been seeing several Status Updates warning about the Koobface virus on Facebook. I think it's important to know what Koobface actually is, and how it actually gets into your system. It does not infect your system in the manner that the copy and pasted Status Update suggests and can come from anyone you know and trust, not just the illusive "SMARTGRRL15".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koobface
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-20002112-83.html

Copy and paste campaigns often leave out the most crucial information about malware/virus warnings and often specify details that were likely the personal experience of the initial poster. Details that were not necessarily important to protecting themselves or others from the virus to being with.

Be wary of copy and paste campaigns that incite concern in ALL CAPS. Often these are started just for the sake of seeing how broadly they can get their comment spread. If the origin of the warning doesn't come with links to reliable sources on the information, then more often than not the information is inaccurate at best; misinformation at worst. In other words, it's a hoax. Take as an example all these long running gags, some of whom coincidentally also use the infamous "SMARTGIRL15":

http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/hackermail.asp

While you obviously can't tell who's lying and who isn't on an information smörgåsbord like the internet, there are credible online resources that can be used to double check the facts of certain situations. Snopes is a good debunking website, but generally speaking, if it came from a Status Update, an email chain or a Facebook group/fan page, and not something like Facebook's own Official Page (http://www.facebook.com/facebook) or doesn't come with its own links that attempt to back up its claims, then you're likely looking at a hoax meant to play on your fears and lack of knowledge about a given subject or medium. In the case of the Koobface worm (worm, not virus), the copy and pasted message ultimately does more harm than good, since it leaves out any relevant way to protect yourself from the worm, like keeping your basic sense security software up-to-date or how the worm has changed since its inception. Instead, it talks about a user who doesn't exist and a video link you may or may not receive by that name. (Think about it. SMARTGIRL15? Facebook accounts require a first and last name. It's mandatory, you can't get around it. If the virus is so deadly, why didn't they include the full name?)

Lastly, just remember this. You can't get a virus from anything on Facebook. Your Facebook account can't get a virus. It doesn't work that way. Only your computer can only pick up malicious software and only from links that take you away from Facebook, so there you should use your common sense. Some Facebook applications violate Facebook's Terms of Use by doing things with your profile they shouldn't, but again, that's not a virus. That's someone being a punk, and Facebook is usually pretty quick about removing the app, provided enough people use the little "Report Application" link on the apps' Fan Page. Protect your password, and if it looks like your account has been compromised, just try changing the password instead of doing anything drastic or panicking. Be wary of hoaxes that play upon your fears or lack of understanding about the internet and computers, as this is often the method used to actually compromise your security.

Eon Press Presents Under Development

2010-04-05T11:50:00.001-05:00

Eon Press Presents is under official and regular development as of April 5th, 2010. The current website will slowly be migrated away from just a portfolio for my artwork, and become what it was originally intended to be, a comic website devoted to my series of online and paper comics. Stay tuned to both this website and http://www.eonpresspresents.com for more information.

The Baddest of them All

2010-04-04T16:38:00.001-05:00

So this Friday we made plans to visit Winston-Salem with the intention of just looking around for the day, eating and then heading home. We wanted to get started early (for us, anyway) and more or less got started on time around 10 AM.

That's when baby's brain decides she's going to have a seizure.

It wasn't a "good" seizure, but it wasn't the worst kind we've seen, either. She had some trouble breathing, and after a short time we went ahead and administered her Diastat. (http://www.diastat.com/2-Administer/) One of her doctors had told us a long time ago that we shouldn't put our life on hold because she has seizures at odd times. Mainly because she wouldn't want her life put on hold because of it, so why should we? She seemed pretty upset after the whole thing, because she had been looking forward to our trip that day, and she knew that we usually stay home when she has attacks like that. We decided it would be for the best if we went ahead with our planned trip.

She slept the whole way down, as expected with Diastat in her system. These days, though, she sleeps it off after a couple of hours. We make it to our first destination, and because of an incident with my ID, I'm not able to get into the place we were going to look at, so I let Miranda go ahead and I waited in the lobby with baby. About five minutes waiting and baby has another seizure while asleep on my shoulder.

This one was short and not too bad. No breathing issues, and she went back to sleep, so we decide to head to our next location. Baby wakes up after a time and is fine for the rest of the trip. She eats with us, plays in back of the car, smiles at the most inexplicable things. For some reason, she found drinking apple juice from Starbucks the funniest thing in the world. I think she figured she was having her coffee, too.

Then right around sunset on our journey home, at the midway point between Winston and the house, she has a third seizure. This time, she's not breathing to where I can hear it. And it's not stopping. We're not allowed to give Diastat more than once every 24 hours, and only in the event the seizure doesn't stop after ten minutes and/or she isn't breathing. So even though I can't hear breathing, she's not turning blue like she usually does. That a sign she's still getting oxygen. However, after about ten minutes she starts with the clipped breathing. The seizure hasn't stopped and her color starts towards the blue hue. We go ahead and call 911 from the gas station we stopped at.

Good thing we got the GPS system when we did, because we had no idea where we were in order to give the ambulance an address. I had almost decided against getting one, considering we had other things we needed to buy. I guess, I hadn't considered things like this.

To make, at least a portion of a long story short, we make it to this local hospital (they didn't want to take us to Brenner's Children Hospital in Winston, for urgency's sake) and it's a typical visit to the ER with Mahogany. I follow the ambulance, I rush in and make it to the room before the baby actually get's there. The baby's cuteness get's fussed over and we make the staff laugh at our generally silliness and ease with the situation. All typical stuff, along with the hours spent just keeping an eye on her oxygen, heart rate and the nap I usually get lying at the edge of the bed. (Hey, I had to drive home.) About an hour into all this, we remember we still had three cartons of Coconut Milk in the car, which the nurses were willing to keep in their fridge for us. (We had bought it right when we left. It was on sale in Winston and it's for baby's dietary needs.)

The doc finally comes in and, to our surprise, he finds out what's wrong with her almost immediately. She has an ear infection. Her first. And fevers, which you can sometimes miss when you're out and the weather is warm, are seizure triggers. He prescribes an antibiotic and gives her her first dose there in the ER. Baby is sleeping this whole time, her seizure having stopped in the ambulance on the way there and around midnight, we're finally discharged and sent on our way. We pack the milk and the baby back into the car and I pull out the GPS to try and find someplace to pick up some food on the way home, because we were already hungry when all of this started. It's right when I reach for the zipper on the GPS pouch that baby has a fourth seizure.

A horrible scream came out of her mouth. Not like the usually baritone scream she usually makes when she has a seizure, but more like a shriek of pain. She ground her teeth so hard, I had to yank a plastic wring holding a trash bag dispenser from her diaper bag and stick it between her teeth. It sounded like she was going to grind them into powder. She bit down on the ring like a vice, as I couldn't get it out or even budge it for several minutes.

Keep in mind, we hadn't eaten for a long time, and we had been up since 6 AM that morning, so we weren't exactly thinking straight. Baby was breathing, but drooling profusely. Not something I'm used to seeing in her seizures. Another ten minutes, and it only seemed to be getting worse. Miranda and I argued about something neither of us can exactly remember, and I remember saying something like "This is stupid. We're right outside a hospital." If I remember correctly, I think Miranda thought we would have to go wait in line behind all the other people and that we should go get something to reduce her fever, whereas she might have to wait for hours in the ER. Like I said, we weren't exactly in our right minds, because it took me a minute to gather my wits and remember that children with medical emergencies almost always get priority in an ER. I'm glad I remembered that. When I carried her in, she was turned sideways to keep from aspirating her drool. She was still, her eyes locked on something distant above and to the side of her head. Yeah, they weren't going to make us wait, even if that didn't look pitiful enough. I wasn't going to be getting in any line.

That was really all it took to get us in, though. Miranda thought she heard one of the receptionists say that she had to get in a waiting position. The nurse looked up and said, no, that this baby was their priority now. In retrospect, I think we waited all of 30 seconds before they had us in another ER room.

This room was different then the last one. It was bigger, and there were a lot more gizmos in it. She now had a staff of people surrounding her, putting on her oxygen mask and wrapping all the wires and leads that keep track of her vitals. Something had changed at this point, and it was evident in her face. She had a look neither of us had ever seen before. This wasn't the relaxed, wait and see kind of stay we'd only just finished up a few minutes ago. It was now a scene from a bad TV movie, with doctors and nurses huddling around the patient, nattering medical terms you don't fully understand, while the parents were pinned to the back wall trying to stay out of their way. And it was only to get worse from here on out.

Mahogany's seizure continued for more than an hour that night. Her oxygen remained fine, but convulsions started setting in and at one point, I saw my daughters eyes start to bulge out her head. And then they kept bulging. And then the convulsions started getting worse. It's been a long time since I've called for the nurses in an ER in a fit of panic, but something was definitely wrong. I don't recall why the doctor came so fast. I guess his desk was right by this particular room, because he was in there right away, and I remember he and the nursing staff looking a little freaked out. It wasn't long before he left and came back in with a dose of Valium for her IV (which is the same thing as Diastat, just a different brand name and dispenser.) Her convulsions and eye popping subsided, but she still had this circular rowing motion she kept doing with her shoulders. It was like she was pretending to swim in slow motion.

That night, they came and took us to Brenner's ER around 1 or 2 AM. We got a room sometime around 5 or 6AM. I remember finally laying down to get some sleep as the sun was coming up Saturday morning. She was discharged at about 11 AM, giving us barely a handful of hours sleep before having to pack it all up again and go home. I somehow managed to keep the Coconut Milk from spoiling all this time, thanks in large part to cooperative hospital staff at each hospital. Mahogany is now on a new seizure med, a Klonopin wafer or Clonazepam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonazepam), that, as we currently understand it, is only meant to be given when she gets sick and has high fevers. It's pretty strong stuff, and she can't just stop and start it cold turkey. She has to be weaned off each time.

Suffice it to say, we were tired when we got home. Then we find out that nobody in town has Clonazepam. Three pharmacy visits and ten phone calls later, we finally find it at Walgreens, who just may very well turn out to be our new pharmacy. I've slept a lot the last couple of days. But, on the bright side, baby is doing fine, if needing to sleep all of this mess off. She gave me big grin last night before we both fell asleep on the couch watching internet videos. I think she'll be fine, she just needs to overcome this infection, and we now know what her brain is going to do when she gets sick. It was a rough weekend, but she had fun when she was conscience, which is really what it was all about. Until the next dramatic event (or the next time I want to complain about something), this is Digital Jedi, saying good night, and rot's a ruck.

BLAURGH!-ing Again

2010-03-13T04:26:00.001-05:00

I've noticed that since I started P90X, I haven't really blogged much. It really took up a significant portion of my time. Not so much the exercise, as the change in mentality. Learning to eat better has made things better for me. Digestion, for one thing, is no longer a painful experience. I guess I just assumed that all food made me sick, when it was just bad food that wasn't sitting right on my stomach. That's a lifestyle change right there, and one that requires a fair amount of effort to make habitual. Especially for two people. Add to that, the baby's dietary needs have also changed, and the better part of my day is prepping baby for the day, and then prepping breakfast, lunch and dinner. I sometimes wonder if the extra energy the food is giving me is just so I can spend more time fixing it.

Somehow we've managed, and I figured I'd get a blog post in before bed tonight. That, too, has changed a little. I've been forcing a sleep tab down my gullet each night for the past month. I'm pretty sure it hasn't changed the condition of my sleep disorder, but it is kind of nice to go to bed sleepy -- actually sleepy -- several nights in a row for a once.

Now that I can think a little bit clearer and move a little bit faster, I've got some projects that were in eternal limbo (also know as Claremont) on a stable track. Not a fast one, but a progressive one. I'm finally in a place where I can say, I'm moving forward. City of Gamers (http://ping.fm/k4Mb2), for one, will be experiencing some shake-ups in the coming months.

We're starting a podcast, which will cover a variety of subjects, mainly TCGs and predominantly Yu-Gi-Oh! It will be an audio podcast starring (who else?) me, as well as some CoG Affiliates and interviews from the TCG crowd. I'm currently composing a song for the intro.

The Simple Texts Project will be at the forefront of CoG's Wiki, which will be a group effort at creating a database of commonly misunderstood card effects by "errata-ing" them with, say it with me, simple texts. Those of you who remember my "DJ's Erratas That Make Sense" thread will get the idea right away. Credit goes to our own Maruno for coming up with the concept and having done the bulk of the work.

We've beefed up our Articles section with more content. YouTuber cyberknight8610 (formerly dragonmaster8610) has joined our pantheon to help promote the site with YouTube videos and articles directed at the "YugiTube" crowd. We intend to bring in more enthusiastic folks like him into the fray.

There are a number of other related projects for CoG which are also in the works, but they are too new to mention right now. Suffice it to say, they will change the way you look at card games on the internet. For now, we only need to polish our ideas and keep moving forward.

As for Eon Press Presents? That's also gone into an active status, and you'll be seeing more solid work from this mystery comic book company in the coming months. Things are finally taking shape, and moving along. The pace is slow, but deliberate. There are no longer any excuses or apologies for delays. There is simply using what time I have wisely. Hopefully anyone who has been reading these blogs is patient enough to wait, just a little bit longer.

This is Digital Jedi. Good night, and rots a'ruck.

Book Nook

2009-12-22T11:17:00.001-05:00

I had a chance to play with Barnes and Nobles eReader the other day, the Nook (http://ping.fm/bD88H). And while I wasn't expecting the screen to be as clear and as easy on the eyes as it turned out to be, I was deeply disappointed in the amount of time it took just turn a page. Each time I clicked the forward or back buttons, it too ten seconds or more for the next page to load. Forget trying to jump multiple pages.

I didn't get to look for too long, so maybe my font size had something to do with it. The Nook handily beats the Kindle and the Sony eReader on the number of available titles, at least for now. And I haven't had a chance to handle either of those personally, yet. But unless the slow page turn is a universal limitation of the current technology, that's a deal breaker for me. Even if I have to limit the number of books I have access to.

Yes I Can

2009-10-16T09:02:00.001-05:00

Busy last couple of weeks for me and baby. We had to do a ton of running around, between going to the chiropractor, therapy and just general business. On top of all that she was agitated with the preliminary effects of an oncoming seizure the entire time. Hopefully she sleeps today.

I'm going back to bed. Only slept around two hours last night. Better try and get some rest while the boo is still out. Of course, I'm going to have to disturb it here in about a half hour to give her her medicine. Blargh!

Strangely, I managed to find time to write this over these two weeks. Posted two new articles on my other blog (http://ping.fm/zVQ2b) and you can find a link to the other one where I did some reader contributions to Re-Imagineering. That has been interesting.

Sorry guys, no AME update for you this week. But I'll get back on track soon.

Retiring Tomorrow

2009-09-13T14:04:00.001-05:00

--

DATE: 13 Sept 2009.

Dear customer,

You have a Package that is registered with us for shipping. However, the content is a Bank Draft worth is $886,000 USD (Eight Hundred and Eighty Six Thousand US Dollars).Reg .Number: P-01-402761625/Reg Date: 09/13/2009.
Your package is registered with us for mailing by your colleague who is currently undergoing survey project with NNPC (Nigeria National Petroleum
Company). We are sending you this email because your package is registered on a
Special Order. What you have to do now, is to contact our Delivery Department for immediate dispatch of your package to your residential address. Note: As soon as our Delivery Team confirms your information, it will take three (3)
working days (72Hrs) for your package to arrive at your designated destination.
For your information, Shipping charges as well as Insurance fees have been paid
by your colleague. However, the only payment you are to make is £210 GBP to the FedEx Delivery
Department being full payment for Customs Duty Certificate and Tariff. Please Note: All registered package with us have a time limitation and you
are to meet up with this payment to facilitate immediate attention toward the delivery of
your package. Note: Your colleague did not leave us with any further information. We hope that you respond to us as soon as possible because if you fail to respond until the expiry date of the foremost package, we may refer the package
to the British Commission for Welfare as the package do not have a return address. Contact the delivery department (FedEx Ship Manager) with the details given below:
Contact Person: Mr. Richard Raynor
Email: fedex.express_nig@w.cn
Tel: +2348066879532.
Kindly complete the below form. This is mandatory to reconfirm your Postal address for clarification.
FULL NAMES:
TELEPHONE:
POSTAL ADDRESS:
Zip/Postal code:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
As soon as your details are received, our delivery team will give you the necessary payment procedure for Customs Duty Certificate and Tariff.
As soon as they confirm your payment of £210 GBP USD .they shall immediately
dispatch your package to the designated address with the attach Tracking Number. It usually
takes 72 Hours being an express delivery service.
Ensure to contact the delivery department with the email address and ensure to fill the above form as well to enable successful reconfirmation.
Yours faithfully, Mrs. .Mary Maxwell
FedEx Management Team.
All rights reserved. © 1996-2009 FedEx.

Mind Over Matter....And, Boy, Do I Have a Lot of Matter!

2009-08-24T00:25:00.002-05:00

And so it begins; my venture into that dark and shadowy realm that few men dare to enter. A path of danger and harrowing fate. A journey into the darkest recesses of man’s agonizing horror.

Yes, I'm talking about P90X (http://ping.fm/Sb9h6).

Alright, so maybe I’m being hyperbolic. We already started the diet plan three weeks ago, and it's more food than my wife and I normally eat. With that said, we already lost around 10 lbs each. That's before we even started exercising.

"What?" you say, "you're doing the diet, too?" Yes, we bought the whole shebang and we're doing it as closely and as accurately as possible. I found a cheap pull-up bar for the door jamb and I already had a few weights lying around from the previous millennium. We also had a resistance band from a previous futile attempt at Slim in 6, and then one came with the P90X package.

I'll tell you why we didn't just bootleg someone’s DVDs or go the cheaper route like I normally would have for a product this expensive. I watched the P90X commercials and infomercials for some time after it came out. I watched it carefully, making sure to catch the little caveats that they generally don't want you to notice. Infomercials NEVER impress me. This one did. This one, while still succumbing to the elevator/adult film background music, talked about things like “muscle confusion” and showed people actually straining with effort to accomplish the routines. Much more than that, it spoke about the whole spectrum of exercise, weight training and dieting like… oh I don’t know, like I was an actual grown-up who can read past a third grade level.

But I knew from watching the programs that me and the wife were never going to get any benefit from the program if we didn't go the whole nine yards with it. One thing the diet book that came with the package emphasized in big, giant bold letters was that YOU HAVE TO EAT TO MAKE THIS PROGRAM WORK. And you have to eat well. That much I was already sure of. But I also knew we had to get the whole kit n' caboodle if we didn't want to once again spin our proverbial wheels.

So for the past three weeks, while we couldn't get it together to get the exercise going right away, we started shopping for the P90X diet. Really, seriously, shopping like people trying to eat healthy. My wife and I are on different calorie intakes and Phase plans, but it's easy enough for me to cook for both of us and we just eat the portions we respectively need to. I never in my life thought I would be buying Whey Protein, much less drinking it, but I started that today. It's not bad, actually, depending on what you mix it with. I've always loved protein bars since I was a kid, so that wasn't a problem. And we learned that chocolate milk makes an excellent recovery drink. (No, seriously: http://ping.fm/1DBEa) Only tested this personally yesterday, but it seems to have worked.

The diet is actually more food than I'm used to, but that is largely part of most people's problem with weight control. We've been trained over the decades to think dieting is something as simple as calorie, carb, fat, or sugar watching - that it’s just grabbing the box or carton that says low-insert-bad-sounding-evil-ingredient-here or mult/nutra/natural/mega/vitamin-insert-healthy-sounding-ingredient-there - when it's far more complex than that. It's a combination of these things in different measure, not just the absence of one or some. Like an instrument, everything needs to be fine tuned, or when you start to play, something is going to strain or snap.

We’ve made a few mistakes along the way (don’t even ask me about the vegetable soup that went horribly, horribly wrong) and even broke down and fell off the wagon a couple of times (a certain chocolate chip cookie, that I might mention, I didn’t buy or ask for, comes to mind, but I digress), but nothing ever too serious. I find that if I put effort into it – serious, concerted effort – I can come up with decent, good tasting, even filling, meals for the family. Once we started figuring out what goes well together, we got into a riff. It’s just like being newlyweds all over again (without the screaming, yelling and holes in the wall), with trying to find the right balance of things to buy vs. things we won’t eat. I find I feel better and have a bit more energy than before. I never really craved junk food to begin with, so the challenge for me is not trying to avoid bad foods, but eating under a prescribed meal plan. That’s where I got into trouble to begin with, and why, while wearing a suit, I started looking like a really pale version of Heavy D. (Look it up kids. Know you’re hip-hop history and pop cultural roots.) For Miranda, I think it’s more what most people would be up against; not eating some of the sweet or fatty foods that she loves. But even she’s astounded with the results she’s gotten out of it.

We start the exercise program in earnest tomorrow. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s necessary. Mahogany is getting heavy, fast. It doesn’t look like she’ll be walking anytime soon, and even if she does start walking in the next three or four years, she’s still going to need a lot of help moving around, as well as having to handle all her equipment. Plus, if we don’t do something now, there’s really no reason under the sun that we’ll be around to take care of her in the next few years if we keep going the route we’re going. This country is one of the most obese in the world. Two years ago the World Health Organization listed us as #9 in a list of countries with the most overweight people. I know we’re somewhere on another bad list where people are dying far too soon in life. It’s one trend I don’t intend me or my family to be a part of anymore.

It’s all well and good to be happy with what you are and how you look. But you have to be sensible and reasonable about it. You can’t just accept who you are, if what you are is endangering you’re health or the health of your family. You also don’t have to have self-esteem issues to think you need to improve upon it. I refuse to think that I’m doing anything but the best for my family by making them work for a better inner and outer body. I want to feel better, have more energy and more mental alertness than I currently do. I want them to, too. Things don’t get done when you don’t feel good on the inside. You can’t just bemoan how fat you’ve become, and then chronically repeat the habits that made you that way to begin with. You can’t come up with excuses. It takes time and money that are both tight at the moment. But I won’t get any richer, or extend my life any longer if I do nothing but the same old same old. I can pray for that to change every day, but God is not going to send the solution to me on the wings of a dove. I have to work for it. I have to work to help my little family attain it, too. This is our investment in the future. This is our stimulus package.

And so, I reiterate, it begins tomorrow, by hook or, as they say, crook. (Why they say that, I don’t know. I’ll have to look it up.) As a practical matter, I now know the diet works, and I know it doesn’t starve us; rather the opposite. So the exercise can only help, as much as it’s going to physically hurt. Here’s to feeling better and becoming one of those annoying guys who likes to walk around everywhere with his shirt off. I’d do that now, but people keep chaining bikini clad slave girls to me. It ticks Miranda off.

Until next time, Yang chas Solo chone Wookiee!

Un-Convention-al

2009-06-25T03:53:00.003-05:00

We're going to have to do something different for next year's District Convention. We've been fortunate enough to get the hotel across the street consistently each year, thanks in no small part to my wife's due diligence in reserving rooms early. But as evidenced by this last weekend's Convention, location is not enough. Habits need to be changed.

For one thing, while walking from the hotel to the convention center is still the better option to driving such a short distance, we still have to drive all over creation just to find something to eat in the afternoon. I'd much rather walk to one of the eating places by the hotel and grab something real quick, rather than struggle to find parking at the hotel later that night. Plus, any way to limit the number of times the wheelchair has to be lugged in and out of the trunk is a good idea.

Another thing we need to work out is making sure the wife and I can get in touch with each other when the baby has to be changed in an emergency. There's no Father's Room at the convention center, so when Miranda was away from her seat, I had to try and change baby in the grass out back behind the building under the blazing sun. Not really the most comfortable, nor private place to change a five year old, not to mention having to deal with curious insects and other curious little children. I don't like sitting in the grass as it is, much less in my good suit.

We also need to stop unpacking everything we bring just to end up repacking it a day and half later. There's some things that we can just pull from the suitcase when ready to use and some stuff we can take out. But packing and repacking the entirety of our luggage in such a short period of time just wastes time and energy that could otherwise be conserved.

Add to all that, we need to stop eating so much. I think Miranda subconsciously realized that before we even left for our trip, as she only packed snacks for lunch. It took me a couple of nights with severe heartburn to realize that breakfast at 8:30 and lunch at 12 noon is just to close together for me. I never even used to eat breakfast before I got married, and I still only do so when out with the family such as on trips like these. By the last day I had sense enough to just skip lunch and was fine until ready to eat that afternoon. I was overfilling myself and paying for it come nighttime. Didn't think to bring any Mylanta.

Overall, I'd say we do better then we used to. I'll never understand why we used to show up at the hotel with five Wal-Mart bags and ten suitcases. I'm glad we didn't do that too many times. But baby is only going to get heavier and ganglier the older she gets, and we can't presume that she will walk during a given year, even if that is our goal for her. We, of course, need to work on our own health and strength in line with that reality just generally speaking, as well as for assemblies and conventions. But aside from that, we also need to consider just how inefficient we're being in the meantime. While my wife has done a good job learning how to pack fewer bags over the years, I think it's time we start learning how to pack better bags for our trips. Sometimes two mid-size bags are better then jamming the contents into one giant, cumbersome bag that requires a back brace and winch to get out of the trunk. Conversely, the baby doesn't need both jumbo plush Nemo dolls, when a couple of compact rattlers will do.

Next year will be different. It always is. We always learn something with each passing year. One day we'll get it almost perfect. Then maybe, we can have enough energy to stay alert for the session, and have enough strength to keep baby from chewing on the back of the head of the people in front of us.

The Eleventh Doctor

2009-06-09T18:08:00.001-05:00

Just so you know, the wife and I have been starting the Doctor Who saga over. And I mean over. As in William Hartnell over. Most Americans were introduced to Dr. Who during the Tom Baker years, but once it gained popularity here, they threw a few of the Hartnell/Troughten episodes on the air and that was pretty much it. Since I'm a completest kind of person, I've been putting the cursed Blockbuster account to good use and playing catchup on some stuff I've been wanting to see. So with that said, I'll probably be caught up with the current series sometime around 2015. (That is, provided Blockbuster starts filling in the missing DVDs they don't have. It's bad enough most of the Hartnell stuff is missing, much less having to skip through what little does exist.)

Here's the thing. I was looking at an article about the new guy. And I guess it was an American website, because the nimrods in the comment section of this site kept making jokes about how they were going to crossover Doctor Who with Twilight and 90210 and some such nonsense.

As I said, here's the thing.

They were insinuating that the show was coping to the teen/Twilight crowd because they picked this real handsome young guy.

Yeah.

Young, surely. Bloodless, maybe. But handsome? Twilight handsome? Is there something about the "leave a comment" button that just turns on every dim bulb in the world and forces them to say something, even when it doesn't make any sense?

It's Just Another Manic Friday?

2009-05-23T04:49:00.001-05:00

Baby has not been having a good two weeks. She's constantly been having her sleep disturbed by what we could only describe as small crying seizures. It's tough to sleep when you seize the whole night. And you can't stop having seizures if you can't get a good night's sleep. Ever seen the movie Catch 22?

Since we've been running to the doctor and calling Wake Forest over and over again, her neurologist started getting a little concerned and had us run to Winston-Salem for an EKG at Brenners. Short notice, otherwise I would have tried to sleep last night, which I didn't do, which I wish I had, which I made up for later. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

At Brenners they attached a bunch of electrodes to her head, drugged her up and then expected her to go to sleep. That went well... Baby doesn't like sleeping in public. She's too nosy.

After having to pin her down to get the electrodes PROPERLY attached we wrestled with her for what seemed like an hour to get her to go to sleep. Lots of screaming ensued. Lots of electrodes did not remain attached properly. Finally I took her and laid down on the bed with her over my shoulder and she could no longer resist. She had one seizure during the scan, which was a good thing, as they were able to rule some things out. And, well, it was a pretty comfortable bed and I hadn't slept in 24 hours, so...

I felt like I was there to have this baby-shaped tumor removed from my chest. Remember that movie with the little dude attached to the other dudes chest with all the wires sticking out of his head? Yeah...

In any event, the doctor ruled out what she was afraid it might be. Infantile Spasms Seizures I believe was the correct name. She figured she was too old for them, but just wanted to be sure. As it turns out, we just need to put baby back on the Keppra, which we had just weaned her off of prior to my Grandma's funeral, and was right about when all the trouble started. Right when I started blogging regularly again. We figured as much, but she has a good neurologist, so we waited to see what she thought.

Baby is asleep now, thanks to the sedative they gave her and she's been sleeping all day and night. No crying. The wife's been asleep since this evening, and I slept till about 2am. I got hungry. Plus I closed City of Gamers last night to do some much needed maintenance and upgrades, so I'm really behind on that. I'm sure Maruno would like back into the Wiki at some point. Not to mention, those extensions I keep promising him...

Mouse Ears

2009-05-17T02:16:00.001-05:00

On the subject of parents who force their kids onto rides, I brought up a few points that I thought were being overlooked over at the Mousestation Podcast. My email got read on the air, about 30 minutes in if your not interested in listening to whole show (which was a good show by the way) and seemed to be received positively, even if I did come off a little snippy in retrospect. http://ping.fm/uiiQW

Sorry, But You Don't Like Movies... Bub

2009-05-04T04:21:00.001-05:00

Saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine yesterday. As usual, the internet and all it's sages are atwitter with just why the movie sucked. Tomorrow it will be Star Trek. And after that Transformers 2. And after that, everyone will say how the Wachowski Brothers can't make movies anymore. And after that, someone will call M. Knight Shyamalan a one trick pony. And so on, and so forth, etc, et al.

After many years of consideration and consternation, I've come to one inescapable conclusion. The vocal majority of people who go to see movies, don't actually like movies. I mean it. I think people have gotten so accustomed to the culture and tradition of going to the movies and renting DVDs that they don't realize they actually hate them.

It's one thing to have an opinion and to even have the right to voice it. Why, however, do you feel the need to inundate the internet with expressionless, pointless, redundant articles that to read are more painful and time consuming then watching Superman IV: The Quest for Peace...in Spanish? Are you adding something that the hundred other bloggers, who hated the movie six months before they even saw it, didn't? Are you contributing anything to the vast repository of human knowledge that is the internet, other then gathering people who hate anything and everything around a rallying cry?

If you're going to critique something, be articulate as to why. Do you're research before you say ANYTHING about the special effects or the director or the actors or, well, ANYTHING. And please, for the love of all that's not repetitive or redundant, stay away from these phrases, as they're essentially meaningless and only diminish your credibility as a "critic":

"It sucked." - Easy there Shakespeare. Wouldn't want to go over my head now.

"That's two hours of my life I'll never get back." - I'm sure your work on the Nobel Peace Prize will still be there when you get back.

"Don't waste your money." - Yes, in a struggling economy desperate for consumers to consume product, this is great advice. While you at it, why don't you elucidate me on how spending quality time with you family by going to bad movies will cause cancer.

"Over-hyped" - Really, stop watching the trailers already. Over-hyped means the advertisers went way beyond the pale trying to make you think the movie was going to be great, even though it wasn't. You discussing it with your friends whilst playing Halo 3 for six months does not count as part of that advertising system.

"Cheesy special effects" - I don't care if you can tell it's CGI. You've never seen a ten foot, 1000 lbs green indestructible behemoth. So how do you know he doesn't look "real"?

"drek", "crap", "steaming pile" or other clever epithets - Yes, there was a pile of dinosaur crap in the movie, and you comparing the movie to the crap scene is utter genius. As is your imaginary conversation about the movie execs sitting around the table and conversing about how to make the movie suck. You're a regular Seinfeld, er, without the humor part.

Stop going to movies, already. I mean it. You're only causing yourself unnecessary pain and cluttering up the already cluttered up internet with ACTUAL meaningless drivel. Think about it. You and everyone who agrees with you just spent hours of time and thousands of dollars worth of bandwidth just further bringing attention to something that you don't think people should be wasting time and money on. Is that not the definitions of irony?

Movies are a billion dollar industry, and they don't seem to be changing anytime soon. You're not seeking the improvement of the movie making industry and you're not offering any tenable suggestions or solutions of you're own. So what the heck are you doing?

Really, you're a lactose intolerant Ice Cream taster. Re-evaluate why you even bother doing something which is bringing you so little joy. You've assumed that the millions of people who go see these movies are just brainwashed into liking anything. Maybe you've been brainwashed into thinking that you have to watch movies, because everybody else does. Just because you like a few movies is no indication that you like the whole. You can love Calzones and still hate Italian Food. You can rave about IE8 and still think Microsoft is the Antichrist. But when you hate the larger part of a whole, you don't immerse yourself in the experience every time the opportunity arises, just because everyone else does. Then blog about how much you hated it later. How much sense does that make?

I hate to tell you this, bub. But on the whole, you hate movies. And if that's the case, the movies will only hate you back. Actual paid movie criticism is barely journalism as it is. Ask yourself what you're contributing to the world, or to yourself in the pursuit of interests that only seem to be causing you physical pain and outbursts of clich�d humor. Try taking up a hobby. I hear their doing some interesting things with tea bags in the Midwest...

Close Encounters of the Dumb Kind

2009-04-12T16:06:00.001-05:00

I didn't get to mention what happened on the way back from Florida right as we're about to enter North Carolina. I finally got see some friggen' UFOs.

Now, before you start getting excited/indignant and start inundating me with emails of both the negative and nut job variety, allow me to explain. We saw three things (Objects) in the night sky (Flying) and we had no idea what they were (Unidentified). Hence: Unidentified Flying Object. I didn't say they were alien space craft. I'm just saying they weren't anything I've ever seen before.

Here's the story. I'm on I-77 going North and I'm making some off the cuff jokes about just about everything. It's late, I've been driving for hours and this is my way of not getting to the point where I start dozing on the road. I see three lights off in the distance and I joke to my wife that those stars seem kind of funny, and my wife jokes back that this is because "they're not stars, dear." Lame joke having served it's purpose, we move on.

Thing is, those lights where still there twenty to thirty minutes later. As we approach, I notice lots of planes or choppers (things with actual lights blinking on them) flying around them, seemingly trying to get in for closer looks. The three soft blue lights moved and glided smoothly from place to place, and for some instances seemed to disappear only to reappear again right around the same spot. All in all, I thought it was pretty cool, and my wife enjoyed the site, too.

Of course, all the trappings of a classic UFO sighting where there: The digital camera was full, and my wife couldn't seem to figure out what to delete to make room. I finally grabbed the camera from her hand and deleted a random video I had taken during the trip, but by that time, the view was shoddy. The camera is kind of crummy anyway, so the footage we did get is of black sky with me going "Did you get it? Did you get it?" How convenient. There were no reports that I could find searching Google News, but you know how people are about "strange light sightings". Even when it's something, it's nothing.

Suffice it to say, I had a good time and I made another off the cuff joke about checking the clocks for lost time. Funnily enough, all the clocks at the house were off by an hour when we got home, so apparently, aliens just like to jerk you around.

Personally, I would have been thrilled to find out they were "unexplained" lights, as I have see no logical reason to conclude that there aren't other forms of life of out there, and that they couldn't possibly be more advanced then us. I'm a Christian, but I don't recall any anti-alien clauses in the Scriptures, or for that matter, in any religious beliefs that I've studied. The discovery of life out there would only reinforce my beliefs, rather then "shake them to the core" as the media and a few zealots would have you believe. Se la vi, I suppose. The lights I saw might have just been air balloons, choppers, military test craft or Tinkerbell and her forest friends. I for one, am just happy I still have the imagination at my age to wonder "what if..."

Scream 4

2009-04-11T22:06:00.001-05:00

We tried taking the baby to a gathering today, because she seemed to prefer being out and about then being kooked up in the house all day.

Didn't seem to work for very long.

She was screaming again after the first thirty minutes or so. We tried. We're going to have to take her to the doctor again if she doesn't calm down within the next day. She seems to be at peace for the moment, now that she's working on her sippy cup. Hope she, and the rest of us, can get some sleep tonight.

Blog? BLARGH!! (The Sequel)

2009-04-10T01:23:00.001-05:00

Friends and Foes alike who are into that kind of stuff, can now keep up with my Blog updates on Facebook, Live Journal, Blogger and Bebo. No need to join all of them, the blog posts are the same and update simultaneously. Still working on getting MySpace to update.

Facebook: http://ping.fm/0kiMe
Blogger: http://ping.fm/4LHPF (also accessible at http://ping.fm/t1i5W)
Live Journal: http://ping.fm/qgi7p
Bebo: http://ping.fm/KQks3

A Tumultuous Time of Year

2009-04-10T01:03:00.001-05:00

My Grandmother passed away on this first of this month, which meant the wife and baby were going to have to run on down to Florida with me on short notice. This was somewhat of a strain on our already tenuous budget, as we knew it would be, and was one of the reasons why we hadn't been able to see Grandma for some time. But we had set aside some funds for emergencies and were able to make the sudden trip with little planning difficulties. A friend loaned us her GPS, which turned out to be more useful then I originally imagined it would be. And I was already dealing with my sleeping issues better the in previous months, so I was not as worn out prior to starting the trip, as I may have been had we had to make it a few weeks earlier.

The old adage is "When it rains, it pours". Despite the initial good start we got, baby had a seizure halfway down - the bad kind that requires administering Diastat to get her breathing again. The crummy Jeep we rented, aside from having virtually no room Mahogany's equipment, had a break peddle that sat about two inches higher then the gas, which meant I had to lift my entire leg to get the car to slow or stop, and that usually meant plastering everyone against the windshield unless I concentrated real hard. Bad seals in the door frames meant we had to practically yell the whole trip down just to communicate, and by the time we reached Orlando, my throat was sore. By the time we reached my sister's house, I was definitely sick.

I managed the trip okay, though, and managed to stay alert and keep the family on track for the whole lot of traveling we had to do in those five days. Hauling the wheelchair and the baby in and out of the car is tiresome during an average week, but somehow we pulled through. Baby seemed to enjoy the trip, not understanding the reasons we were down there for. The family seemed to like being together.

We got back home safe and sound, but it was about then that I finally realized how sick I had been and had just been enduring. I haven't slept this much in years. Mahogany must have eaten something she shouldn't have on the way back, because she screamed for two days straight after the trip trying to clear the rock hard ball in her stomach. Plus, the lack of sleep she got doing all that screaming triggered two more seizures during that time. She finally moved whatever it was in her stomach just a few hours ago and is trying to sleep. If she's not better in the morning, she's going to the doctor. Sadly, I won't be able to go with her, because I know I probably won't be able to wake up in the morning. Wifey is going to have to care for both of us for a while until I get back on track.

2009-03-27T08:14:00.001-05:00

Looks like the blog posts are still not going to MySpace. Hopefully that fixed sometime soon.

Around the World in 8 Seconds

2009-03-27T08:10:00.001-05:00

Or less, really. Depending on where you're reading this, you're probably wondering why I'm taking on such an "article " like tone. That because I've interconnected my blog and social networks using a nifty little website called Ping.FM (http://ping.fm). The site allows me to update blog posts, as well as status updates to a wide range of social networking sites, blogs and messengers.

Right now I'm just hooked up to Blogger (which displays in an iFrame at Eon Press Presents), MySpace, FaceBook, Bebo and Twitter. But I intend to expand that reach in the future, especially as I want to reach out to try and generate a fan base for Eon Press Presents. In the coming months, I hope to have a lot more projects moving towards completion as me and the misses work to get better organized.

The only downside to all of this is I really like my Netvibes Twitter module, which I was using to update my FaceBook status. But this is far more reaching, and I'm sure Netvibes will catch on soon enough. Until then, see you around the webz.

Peace,
-Mark Daniel Martinez
AKA Digital Jedi
(Still trying to find the "any" key, so I can continue.)

Once Again...

2009-03-27T07:52:00.001-05:00

Let's test this Ping.FM blogging feature.

Testing Blogs Again

2009-03-27T07:42:00.001-05:00

Don't mind me. Just testing the Blogs again.

Testing Ping.FM Blogging Feature

2009-03-27T07:37:00.001-05:00

Just testing the Pin.FM blog feature. If this works, this will be one of the most useful social networking tools I've seen.

What The Heck Are You Doing?

2009-02-11T12:03:00.003-05:00

As part of my massive steps towards getting things together, I'm updating Twitter status from a NetVibes module, which updates at the top of this blog as well as updates my status on FaceBook.

In Memory of a Friend

2008-05-28T05:11:00.003-05:00

In March of this year, a long time member of City of Gamers, probably a member longer then I have been, sent me a private message offering his services as moderator for our video game section, called the Virtual Village. I just happened to be needing some new mods, having lost a lot of our old ones after the change in ownership, and Alex, aka Slither, was more then eager to take on the role. It didn't take me long to realize that I had a previously untapped resource here, as his articles and eagerness to contribute to our forums was nothing like I had ever seen. He was truly happy to be a part of the CoG Community and even happier to contribute to it.

On April 6th, while shopping with his family, Alex was shot twice while trying to get his family to safety after getting caught in the middle of a shooting incident between police and unknown gunmen. He went into a partial coma, and finally succumbed to his injuries on May 10th, 2008. He would have turned 27 the very next day.

I've posted a memorial of sorts on the home page of City of Gamers to commemorate our good friend and gamer, Slither. You can view it here: http://www.cogonline.net/

Digital Jedi Style

2007-12-31T13:11:00.000-05:00

This site may be undergoing a massive overhaul soon. In the event that I remove some of the more non-comic related links from the main page, I decided to create a link database of all my ongoing projects. Something nice and neat to keep it all in order. In time, I may just move this page there. While I will still post news related to myself here, you will find the projects indexed at www.digital-jedi.com until further notice. You may now return to your regular scheduled intranets and comprutas.

2007-10-15T12:10:00.001-05:00

Couple of big things I'd like to add to the blog today.

First up, a couple of weeks ago it was announced that the server hosting the forum where I moderate and admin, City of Gamers, was now going to be shut down, and that the forum would be closing down with it. What wasn't known by the general public at the time was a that a new server had already been in place for a few months, and all that remained was for someone to move the database. Along with that, ownership of the domain, cogonline.net, was being given away. I cared too much for CoG to let it fade into the ether like that, and the former owners happily handed over the domain to me, and the owner of the new server is letting me continue to host it there. We've upgraded the forum software we were using (and may do so again, since it's a little behind too) and made a number of dramatic changes to the look and feel of the site. I'm proud to be the new owner and look forward to continuing the tradition that the former regime started.

Next up is the formal announcement of an ongoing comic strip I've started at CoG called Pwnd! Pwnd! is the story of a group of Yu-Gi-Oh! players and their (quasi)adventures at the comic shop where they meet to play. The main character is a skinny little blonde kid named Scott, who doesn't quite have the grip on reality that the rest of his friends do, and frequently makes a doofus of himself in furtherance of that perception. Other characters include the tattooed Latino store owner, Hector, the half Vietnamese/all attitude Sara, the chunky, yet lovable Fiend lover, Gary, and lastly the level-headed, yet high hairdo-ed African-American, Jacob.

Later on I plan on introducing Scott's younger brother, Phillip, who has watched so many episodes of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, that his perception of reality is warped even beyond his older brother's. You can keep up with Pwnd! either at this link on the City of Gamers website, or you can see it here at http://pwndcomic.blogspot.com/ and take advantage of Blogger's built in Atom feeds.

On another related note, I've added a section to the forums just for publication of my comic, as well a sister section for the much loved Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series by LittleKuriboh. Yes, I'm shamelessly trying to use the series' popularity to draw attention to my comic. How do I sleep at night? Tylenol PM and Whisky.

Listen

2007-07-24T07:46:00.000-05:00

Listen

To the song here in my heart
A melody I start but can't complete

Listen

To the sound from deep within
Its only beginning to find release

Ohh the time has come for my dreams to be heard
They will not be pushed aside and turned
Into your own, all 'cause you won't listen

Listen
I am alone at a crossroads
I'm not at home in my own home
And I've tried and tried
To say whats on my mind
You should have known, oh
Now I'm done believing you
You don't know what I'm feeling
I'm more than what
You made of me
I followed the voice, you gave to me
But now I've gotta find my own
You should have listened

There is someone here inside
Someone I thought had died
So long ago
Oh I'm screaming out
And my dreams will be heard
They will not be pushed aside or worse
Into your own
All 'cause you won't listen

Listen
I am alone at a crossroads
I'm not at home in my own home
And I've tried and tried
To say whats on my mind
You should have known, oh
Now I'm done believing you
You don't know what I'm feeling
I'm more than what
You made of me
I followed the voice, you gave to me
But now I've gotta find my own

I don't know where I belong
But I'll be moving on
If you don't, if you won't

Listen!

To the song here in my heart
A melody I start, but I will complete

Now I am done believing you
You don't know not what I am feeling
I'm more than what you made of me
I followed the voice you think you gave to me

But now I got to find my own - my own

In Good Time

2007-07-20T01:12:00.001-05:00

Not much to say this post. Just that it's getting to be about that time.

Sleeping With the Enemy

2007-07-14T06:37:00.001-05:00

So I've apparently become everything I've ever hated. What I mean is, I've become obsessed with tweaking one of the most superfluous wastes of time to ever emblazoned the digital landscape that is the world wide web. That colossal waste of time is know as MySpace.com.

So I've apparently felt the need to customize the darn thing, complete with coordinating colors and a clever manner of presenting my interests. I guess I'm now doomed to say things like "Thanks for the add" and post pictures of kittens in implausible situations saying "Have a Super Forth of July!" in sparkly lettering. [sigh]

Oh well. At least the one good things that came of this obsession is the discovery of the Project Playlist MP3 player. Which is the reason your either now listening to an R&B hit from somewhere within the last 30 years, or the opening theme to a TV show from that same era. Lucky you.

Anyhow, the player is the newest addition to my website (much to your chagrin) and it's going to stay until some random authority decides it's illegal. Enjoy.

Oh, check out the gallery of images I posted at MySpace in my albums, recent sketches I've done that you can't find on this site, as well as the other personal pics and information that are really none of your business. [sigh] You can find me at www.myspace.com/digital_jedi

Oekaki Art

2007-04-25T01:43:00.000-05:00

I meant to post this ages ago. This was my first and only attempt at drawing in Oekaki. Shi-Painter, specifically. I don't have a tablet, so this was done with a mouse on my old '98 computer. Not bad, considering. I chose not to color it.

I'm still looking for a hack that will incorporate this into vBulletin. If anyone knows of one, please hit me up.

Want to try this out, then go to www.oekakicentral.com and visit the Training Grounds for your first attempt(s). It's loads of fun, just don't expect to sleep or eat any time soon after starting.

Revisionist History

2007-04-06T21:07:00.000-05:00

I was asked by someone if I could absorb the Bruce Timm style into my artwork and make it my own. I said, I didn't think that would be a problem, being that I've swiped Timm a few times and really enjoyed it, and found it quite natural. Of course, I was presuming this was so because of the simplicity of the Timm style, a style firmly rooted in a long animation career.

So what I did was I studied the style for a while, took a few jabs at drawing in it freehand, explored some aspects of it I hadn't yet tackled, and in the process I came to a startling discovery.

I already draw that way.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm no where near the artist Timm is, and certainly don't have the tenure or quality of art composition. But that said, all artists of any skill level channel another artist who has had a great influence on their artistic lives. Thing is, all this time, I'd been fighting it. I came into comics around the Death of Superman and the launch of Image Comics in the early nineties. So my first and greatest influences where Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Scott Clark, Travis Caret, and all those cats. Very dynamic, very realistic artists.

All this time, I've been trying to channel these guys, incorporate their art principles into mine, and for some reason, it hasn't really been working. Well, I finally figured out why working on this project. Apparently, I've been subconciously channeling Bruce Timm for years. Each time I tried to move away from that, add a greater sense of realism, and leave the clean animated style behind, I ended up leaning more and more towards it.

What's funny, is I was reading Modern Master: Bruce Timm and how Jack Kirby was probably the greatest influence on Timm's artistic style. So much so, that even where he was attempting to deviate from that style for a given project, he would invariably channel Kirby without even really trying. I feel I've come to a similar turning point.

So in an attempt to experiment further with this style and to make some older art projects more appealing, I'll be revising some old art, attempting to redraw some older pics in this new style. Some of it is stuff you may be very familiar with if you've followed some ongoing projects I have running on City of Gamers. Don't know what I'm talking about? Here's a sneak preview:

Eon Press Presents Online Community

2007-01-25T03:59:00.000-05:00

I'm going to go ahead an open up the Eon Press Presents Online Community forums to the public. There is virtually nothing there that you cannot find here on this site, but making the forum available for sign-ups now will save me some work in future.

Please feel free to sign up and ask questions. Of course, please abide by the forum guidelines (don't worry, their very simple.) I will be fielding questions about my comics and Alternate Realities there, as well.

Haley's Comics Finally Lands

2007-01-21T05:35:00.000-05:00

Well, it's almost three years later, but it's finally available to the public. The first comic coloring job I ever got to do is now available, online. You can view my work at www.digital-caps.com by clicking on the" Haley eComics" link. I did the digital colors for issue #5 of "Haley" called "Landing Strip" in which the time hopping Haley possesses the body of young stripper circa the 1980s.

Once I was done coloring that issue, I was inspired to whip up the picture you see here as a submission to the gallery book Jaymes was going to do for this series. I also penciled and colored one for his gritty crime/superhero drama, Krystal. I may add both of these to my gallery in the near future, but, for now, you can click on this image for a closer look.

A New Year, A Careful Outlook

2007-01-02T05:31:00.000-05:00

It's a new year and everyone is making resolutions, whether they realize it or not. For 2007 I hope to see a more structured and definitive development of Eon Press Presents as a comic company.

Your probably wondering why you've never seen much original content on the site. Your also probably wondering why it's taking so long for the actual comics to get off the ground. Two reasons really, one of which I won't go into here. But the primary reason is that I'm very cautious with the actual content I reveal. I don't want to do something like Wetworks, where you see previews and content, but no actual comic for over a year or more. I also don't want to pull a "Battle Chasers" and have some great work and buzz come of it, only to fizzle out after a few issues. I really want to grab presence with EPP, and make it a great comic company, and not a great company that once was. I want to have, and I really hate this term, but it's the only one that applies, "all my ducks in a row."

You can't fault Whilce Portacio for the lateness of Wetworks back in the 90s, though. His sister passed midway through the project and Image was still a fledgling company; artists trying to get a grip on both the business and artistic ebbs and flows all at the same time and with not a lot of experience in one. Joe Madureira, on the other hand, I can't really say anything about. Near as I can tell, it looks like he just lost his fire, his passion for the project. Plus I believe there was some illness on his part, though I may be getting my backstories confused.

Nevertheless, I learned a good lesson from both these creative talents. It's important to not only have contingency plans in place for the unexpected twists and turmoils that life inevitably sends your way. There's no way to predict it, but there are ways to mitigate damages as much as possible until your ready to return to your project and face the pad again. But it's also important to keep your passions burning. And the only way to do this, is to carefully examine what lights your fire. What turns you on artistically and gets those juices on your creative side going? When you look at that, and endeavor to pinpoint the triggers that get you all fired up, set up the appropriate "cushions" in the event life gets in the way and makes you falter, you can create a formula that uniquely suits your needs and schedules. A formula that will maximize efficiency and quality above all else.

DAZ|3D

2006-08-03T04:10:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally got that new computer I've been clamoring for. As such, I've been fully immersed in learning everything I can about DAZ3D and their various software utilities, now that I have a system powerful enough to handle their programs. There is no greater resource for 3D artists then DAZ3D. Absolutely none. The following are links to their various utilities and software. Why am I pimpin' software in my Update Blog? Simple.

THIS STUFF IS FREE! FREE! FREE!. That's right. DAZStudio offers their DAZStudio 3D rendering program and base content characters for no charge or catch whatsoever. Aside from all that, DAZ is the current developer of the Bryce 5.5 software, a 3D renderer that creates landscapes and environments from land, sea and air. I recently purchased their 5.5 version, which is on sale for a limited time. You can try this or you can download v.5 for free, also for a limited time. Both of these programs are worth a great deal of moola and there's no risk with signing up and investing your time trying them out. Especially since this isn't trial software. These are the full versions with no time-out on how long you can use them. Their yours to keep and use commercially. I'll never regret the time I took to research these products.

*Images removed since they were added to the main index.

Once you've looked around and settled into the place, make sure to look into their Affiliate Program, which is another reason I've posted these banners here. All in all, I'd say DAZ3D is one of the most giving companies I've ever dealt with, particularly since we're dealing with software. Generally, things like these are expensive and hard to understand. DAZ does everything it can to make it accessible to those who have limited budgets and help you understand it's function. Did I say I'd never regret researching and downloading DAZ products? Yeah, I'm THAT excited. :-D

The ability to use this program has greatly changed my outlook on Eon Press Presents and how I plan on presenting my comics. Expect to see more from along these lines in the near future. Until next time...

Peace,
-The Jedi
Mark Daniel Martinez

The Consummate Businessman

2006-04-29T03:55:00.000-05:00

Been doing a lot of research about the Disney Company and its history lately. Like Walt, I consider myself a storyteller above anything else. But Walt was also a consummate businessman. I snagged this article from the Re-Imagineering Blog set up for Pixar and Imagineering professionals to "offer tenable practical solutions in hopes that a new wave of creative management at Imagineering can restore some of the wonder and magic that's been missing from the parks for decades."

In my opinion, Walt Disney was more then a skilled storyteller, but a skilled businessman who knew that quality would win out above anything else. Walt reinvented the industry of his time with concepts like keeping the park clean, having friendly helpful staff, putting expensive, attractive finishes that contributed to the park's ambiance, beautiful landscaping and innovative attractions that were not only kept up, but expanded upon and improved on over time. Walt created the concept of the "Theme Park" and did it all in the faces of an industry that said he'd loose his shirt trying to do it his way and told him to "stick to cartoons".

In my endeavor to create a successful comic company, I feel I may have lost site of that which Walt knew so well. Quality is what will drive people back to your product again and again. I've been attempting to do things as cheaply as possible and hope that no one will notice my financial shortcomings. For a time, I felt this was the only path open to me, but it appears I need to reevaluate that philosophy. I certainly want to put as much energy into my creations as possible, but there has to be a point where you need to spend money to bring the quality of your product to its fullest flower. Only then can you cycle your returns into making your product even better the next time around.

But I've babbled enough. On to the article. If you want to read my reply to this article (which is moderately lengthy :)) you can visit http://imagineerebirth.blogspot.com and click on "(#) Comments" on this particular blog entry. You'll find it posted under my nom de plume of Digital Jedi.

Peace,
-The Jedi

Walt Disney Talks His Business
Philosophy

The following interview with Walt Disney was conducted by NBC in 1966. On the surface, in his highly informal, friendly way, Walt's business philosophy seems relatively simplistic. Translated, however, it provides an understanding as to why he was so highly rated by the business world.
NBC: Walt, why did you pick Anaheim as the site for Disneyland?
WALT: The Disneyland concept kept growing and growing and it finally ended up where I felt I needed two-three hundred acres. So, I wanted it in the Southern California area, there were certain things that I felt that I needed, such as flat land, because I wanted to make my own hills. I didn't want it near the ocean, I wanted it sort of inland, so I had a survey group go out and hunt for areas that might be useful. And they finally came back with several different areas and we settled on Anaheim because the price of the acreage was right. But there was more to it than that. And that is that Anaheim was sort of a growing area. The freeway projection was such that we could see that the freeway would set Anaheim as sort of a hub. Well, that's how we selected Anaheim.
NBC: Do you feel Anaheim has lived up to expectations?
WALT: In every way, the city fathers have been wonderful. They've given us wonderful cooperation right from the start and they are still cooperating.
NBC: What has been your biggest problem?
WALT: Well, I'd say it's been my biggest problem all my life - it's money. It takes a lot of money to make these dreams come true. From the very start it was a problem of getting the money to open Disneyland. About 17 million dollars it took. We had everything mortgaged, including my family. We were able to get it open and for ten or eleven years now we've been pouring more money back in. In other words, like the old farmer, you've got to pour it back into the ground if you want to get it out. That's been my brother's philosophy and mine too.
NBC: What plans for the future do you have at Disneyland?
WALT: There's a little plaque out there that says, "As long as there is imagination left in the world, Disneyland will never be complete." We have big plans. This year, we finished over $20 million in new things. Next June, I hope, we'll have a new Tomorrowland; and starting from the ground up, building a whole new Tomorrowland. And it's going to run about $20 million bucks.
NBC: What steps have you taken to see that Disneyland will always be good, family entertainment?
WALT: Well, by this time, my staff, my young group of executives are convinced that Walt is right, that quality will win out, and so I think they will stay with this policy because it's proven it's a good business
policy. Give the public everything you can give them, keep the place as clean as you can keep it, keep it friendly - I think they're convinced and I think they'll hang on after - as you say, "after Disney."
Thus, in the space of a brief, four-minute interview, Walt Disney covered no less than eight business considerations which went into the decision making process affecting Disneyland. Masterplanning... analyzing alternatives... evaluating costs... growth potential... working with government... taking risks... looking at investments and re-investment... up-grading, continually improving the product.
There is an old adage in the film industry... "You're only as good as your last picture." Actually, in business anywhere today, the standard is even tougher: "you're only as good as next year's results." Success today is not a vaccine for future economic ills. Many great businesses at one time or another, practically institutions and permanent fixtures on the American scene, have fallen by the wayside. Ironically, among the publishing giants on hand in 1955 as Disneyland struggled through its "Black Sunday" press opening were Look magazine, Collier's, The Saturday Evening Post, and Life. And among the cars in the parking lot were new Hudsons, Studebakers, Packards, and DeSotos. In 1955, they all had a vital, thriving part in the American scene. By 1975 they were all gone... along with dozens of other companies with long histories and great traditions.
Realistically speaking, what guarantee does the Disney organization have that some competition, perhaps not even in existence as we know it today, doesn't surpass us or worse yet... gain control of our organization? Walt Disney developed his own guarantee. He always said that we could never stand still. He had to explore,innovate and experiment and he was never satisfied with his work.
"If any of you starts to rest on your laurels, forget it," he told his staff. That was his guarantee for the future.
(The above was an archival article originally published in the mid-1970's).
http://imagineerebirth.blogspot.com/2006/04/walt-disney-talks-his-business.html