Thoughts

This Blog

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I know I haven’t posted much lately. I’ve been back in a phase of discovering who I am. And in that process, I think I’ve lost my connection with the term “Bub”. Maybe not. But sometimes it feels like it.

It’s not like this blog is even hosted on bub.org anymore. I moved it when I decided to list the old domain for sale. Speaking of which, if you know anyone interested in dropping 4-5 digits on a very old 3 letter .org domain, let me know.

So, I probably won’t be posting here much in the future. It’s not like I ever did. I’ve moved my creative writing elsewhere, and when I figure out exactly where and how I’m going to land, I’ll put some links here. But barring anything truly unexpected happening, this will probably be my last post here. I’ll keep the address active for a few years, and then it, too, shall fade away.

Live long, and may the force be with you, always.

Thoughts

On Protest

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We talk a lot about the way people protest.  When a group rallies to protest, we complain that they’re blocking traffic or impeding normal day to day life.  When those protests turn violent (either by circumstance, intent, or outside manipulation) we argue that they’re criminals, why should we listen to them?  When students walk out of their own graduation in protest, we call them disrespectful or crybabies.  When a professional football player takes a knee to silently but visibly protest about something he believes strongly, we call him unpatriotic.

I say “we” in this because sometimes I have those knee-jerk reactions.   They’re always very brief, but I still sometimes have them.  I personally, have only a few things that I could protest that affect me directly.  I’m not black, I’m not gay, I’m not a woman, I’m not transgender, I’m not hispanic.  But I am human.  And I am affected by changes to our education and healthcare policies, so I do have a few things to “personally” protest.  So I’ve been thinking a lot about protest lately, and the way that change is enacted.

Protest doesn’t work at all if the person(s)/idea(s)/organization(s) being protest isn’t(aren’t) inconvenienced in some way.  An invisible protest isn’t a protest at all.  Nobody would have noticed or commented, if 100+ graduates simply hadn’t shown up.  If that football player had waited to take a knee when he got home, would we have talked about the issue he raised at all?

We complain about the way people protest, and we condemn the moment that protest turns violent.  But we also have to think about why protests do turn violent.  Sometimes, it’s a plan B.  Sometimes, something happens to escalate it into violence.  Someone is attacked, something is thrown, someone is pepper sprayed, etc.  Violence leads to more violence.  Sometimes groups infiltrate peaceful protests to incite violence, and make the protesters look bad.

Violence is never the answer, but it happens.  We need to look at ways to keep protest from becoming violent.  The first and second reasons I listed above can be mitigated.  The third, I just don’t know.

So what’s the answer?  You know as well as I do there isn’t ONE answer.  But I think I may know one way.  We, those of us who aren’t disenfranchised in one or more ways, or even those of us who are disenfranchised in different ways, need to be able to listen to and understand what protests are saying.  And be willing to learn, and be willing to talk, and be willing to change.

We can’t complain about the method of protest, if we’re not willing to provide avenues that WILL work.  And that’s on us.

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My Personal Weight Loss Challenge – Day 1

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My pants don’t fit anymore. I had gotten down in size, and replaced most of my pants. None of those fit, and the ones that I kept ALMOST don’t fit. I’m not going to buy a larger size.

So… it’s time.

I don’t have a specific plan. I didn’t the last time, either. But that’s ok. I know what I need to do.

  • No more “occasional” sodas. They’ve become less “occasional” lately, and more “sometimes”. None. Gone.
  • No more Gatorade. If I can’t find the Powerade Zeros that I used to like, I’ll find a new one to like.
  • Cut down on the carby snacks. I’m not giving them up completely, at least not until the Lays contest is over, and they get rid of the Tikka Masala kettle chips.
  • More walking.  I used to get more exercise at my job, and I’ve gotten lax on that.
  • More biking.  I miss my bike.  It’s time to get it all back in shape, and start taking the kids for rides.  I hope the weather clears up in the next day or so.
  • Back to salads for lunch.  I went on a stint of eating a carb-heavy, but cheap, lunch every day, and those are all now gone (Blast you and your crazy sales, Kroger).  So it’s time to stop eating like crap.
  • Make an effort to keep track of how much I’m eating.

My current weight is XXX.  Once a week, I’m going to weigh in, and note how far I am from that original, undisclosed number.  When I get to my target, I’ll reveal the numbers.

Also, sorry for dropping the ball on the creative writing.  I was hoping to build off of feedback, but didn’t get any.  I should have known that, though 🙂  My readership is probably a single digit number 🙂

Anyway, my project starts about 20 minutes ago.  I’m back on the salad track with today’s lunch.

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Writing challenge thoughts

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I’m obviously lagging behind a bit. But I’m ok with that. I won’t be done in 30 days, but I feel like I’m getting somewhere with what I am writing, so I’m gonna stick with it, but at a pace I can work with.

I’ve fallen behind on a number of things, my two programming projects being at the top of the list. As it’s probably obvious to anyone who knows me, these stories are tied heavily to my Gestalt card game project. It’s helping me find my focus and get back into the swing of things.

I am hoping to start generating a bit more feedback, though. I’d like to know if anyone thinks the characters are interesting, or if there’s something I’m not addressing. Of if I’m too concerned with the passage of time. (five years ago, three years ago, etc. Is it really that important to create such a distinct timeline?)

These are mostly just random thoughts, I just knew I wasn’t getting any stories written tonight, so I wanted to at least write something.

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Day 03 – Brief

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The U.E.C. colonies are a collection of city-states on planets, moons and asteroids in the Sol and neighboring systems. While a few of the planets and one moon were subjected to terraforming that have made them habitable, it was discovered that the terraforming experiments had a significant impact on the orbits of the planets. Deeming further experimentation too dangerous, the remaining colonies have been developed using sealed biospheres either on or within the world. The terraformed worlds are now known as the Core of the U.E.C., or United Earth Colonies.

Belarus is about as far from these core worlds as is currently possible. It has the distinction if being the farthest and second farthest colony from Earth. It shares this distinction with Caliope, another moon orbiting the same gas giant. Their orbits carry them in and out of this rank at various times during an 11.2 year cycle. Belarus is slightly better defended than most of the other mining colonies, as it is the home of the imaginatively named Belarium, which is an integral part of current starfaring research.

While common belief has led mankind away from the notion of life “out there”, the U.E.C. is not without its predators. A few colonies have left the U.E.C. and fringe groups of raiders have developed ships capable of attacking less defended colonies for their supplies. These attacks are very infrequent, but it is quite possible that they have prepared these outlying colonies for a far more dangerous threat.

Brendan knew all of this. He knew that he might help defend Belarus against a raider attack. But his thoughts were far from the nature of Belarus as he continued up the high street into the entertainment district. It would be a joke to call Belarus a thriving metropolis. The buildings within the biosphere are very utilitarian, though there are a number of entertainment facilities to keep the miners happy. So far, Brendan had made one friend, and if he was going to find him anywhere, it was here. If he had any hope of finding his brother’s jacket before something happened to it, he was gonna need Dak’s help.

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Writing Challenge, My Way

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I’ve been thinking about doing one of those 30 day writing challenges, but I looked though several pages of suggestions, and nothing struck my fancy.  As I was drifting off to sleep, an idea popped into my head.  So now, rather than sleep, I’m going to get the idea down here, so I know where I’m going with it.

As I started to write this, it was still Saturday, May 7.  I’ll set the challenge to begin on Sunday, May 8, and run until Tuesday, June 7.  We’ll see how well I stick to that.

The premise:  Each day, I will tell a portion of a story.  Each portion will not necessarily be told in order, but by the time it is all done, there should be at least a coherent narrative.  Each day’s segment will establish something new about one of the characters or about the setting.

Here’s where my friends and readers come in:  After each segment, I would love feedback from you.  It may influence future segments.

Ok, now that I have that down, I must retire for the night.  Mother’s Day is upon us, and I need to try to rest up so I can try to make the day pleasant for the mothers in my life.

I’ll leave you with this, the first (pending) line of Sunday’s Day 1 installment.

It wasn’t even that nice of a jacket.

Thoughts

Something, Something, Something, Networking.

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I’ve been wanting to write for several weeks now, but the time just hasn’t been right.  A lot of private things have happened, that are beyond the scope of what I like to write about here, but they involve loss , grief, and general sadness. Those are not the reasons I’ve been wanting to write.

This also isn’t going to be an update about my family.  That one will come soon. (Spoiler alert:  Kids grow up too fast.)

My emotional state has jump started me back into working on my projects that I’ve been not giving enough attention to.  I’ve jumped ship from my previous development platform, though, and am now trying my hand at Unity.  I have to say, it’s pretty powerful, and does a lot of what I want to, and a lot more.  But I feel like I need to learn a lot to really excel with it.

One of the things that I really want to get right with my software is networking support.  My game will support asynchronous online play, and far too many of the games that I play don’t get asynchronous play right.  I’m looking at you, Catan.

I have a very clear vision of how Asynchronous play will look in Gestalt, and it’s a model that has worked very well for games like Ascension and Penny Arcade.  When you load the game, if your credentials are saved, the app connects to the game server.  The server stores a list of games that are active or recently completed, as  well as a move history, the contents of each deck, and individual information about the players.  The contents of hands, discard piles, decks, as well as keeping track of the last move the player participated in.

When you join an existing game, it will set the board to the position it was in the last time you played, and then send you each move that has been made since.  Each of those moves would be displayed to you, then you’ll be able to play your own moves, if it’s your turn.

So I’m spending a lot of time making sure that the routines to handle the network are all in place.  I want to be able to store exactly what I need and retrieve it properly.

I feel like I’m learning a lot every day, but I also feel like the process is going a lot more slowly than I’d like.

I know this is probably my most boring post to date, but I just want to get down some of my thoughts about what I’m working on.

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On the Ancestry of Imaginary Tigers…

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I admit it… I love Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. Betty loves to watch it, and I loved Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood (She watches that with me, too). one of the things I love about the show is how they’ve made allusions back to the original Neighborhood of Make Believe.

If you’re not familiar with Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, it takes place in an evolution of the Neighborhood of Make Believe from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. Daniel Tiger is the son of Daniel Striped Tiger. His friends are the children or nephews of Mr. Rogers’ mainstays. Miss Elaina is the daughter of Lady Elaine Fairchilde, O the Owl is the nephew of X the Owl, Prince Wednesday is the son of King Friday XIII and the younger brother of Prince Tuesday. Katarina Kittycat is the daughter of Henrietta Pussycat. Henrietta and X still live in the same tree, and Daniel Striped Tiger (Daniel’s dad) works in a clock factory. Daniel’s mom (known only as Mom Tiger) was not one of the original series characters.

Some liberties have been taken with the characters, of course. Grandpere, in the original show, lived in the Eiffel Tower (west of King Friday’s castle), and had a granddaughter who lived far away, named Colette. Grandpere was never related to Daniel Striped Tiger, but now he is his father. There are a few others, but this is the “discrepancy” that I’d like to address.

While Grandpere has been established as Daniel’s paternal grandfather, I have an alternate theory. One of the characters who has not returned is Ana Platypus. In the original show, Ana once looked into a crystal ball and saw that Daniel Striped Tiger would eventually marry Colette.

My theory is that Grandpere is not the original Grandpere, but the *son* of the original, and the father of Colette (or “Mom Tiger”).

So, as you can see, I have far too much time to think about the Neighborhood of Make Believe.

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Holidays and Family (or vice-versa)

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I’ve said it all before, I’m sure.  I didn’t grow up with a large extended family, and even after meeting the rest of my family, it was a long time before I ever really got close to any of them.   Jamie came into my life nearly 9 years ago.   I can’t even count the ways that she’s made my life better, but I can certainly appreciate them.

One of the things that could almost be considered a side effect of becoming a part of her life is that I now have this large extended family, that likes to get together frequently, sometimes in small groups, but usually in medium to large groups.  It took me a while to adjust to that, and I may never completely adjust to it, I think it has helped bring me out of my introverted shell.

I’ll probably always be quiet, but since we moved up here, it has become a lot easier to carry on casual conversations with friends, colleagues and family, and I think having this family is a big part of that.

This will probably be the last Christmas we have where we don’t decorate heavily.  We have a small tree, and some decorations, but next year, we’re going to need to go all out with the festivities, I think.  It will probably be the first Christmas that Betty will remember as she grows up.

I didn’t make a post at Thanksgiving time, as I generally don’t think to tell other people what I’m thankful for, but I’m thankful for a lot of things.  I’m thankful for my wonderful wife, who’s probably trying (and failing) to sleep well while I write this.  My wish for her this Christmas is a few good nights of sleep.  I’m thankful for my mother, who made the last legs of our journey with us, and has stood by us daily.  I’m thankful to my new(ish) extended family, who have helped us get to (and stay) where we are.  I’m thankful for my daughter; she makes me smile no matter how crazy my day has been. And I’m thankful for my son, whom I can’t wait to meet.

Sorry this has been kinda rambl-y.  I’ve just had several little things on my mind, and tonight I really just wanted to get some of them out.

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Random thoughts about Doctor Who

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I’ve been watching the original series lately, going all the way back to the 1963 series, and William Hartnell’s performance, misspoken dialogue and all. And while some of the stories would be considered “hokey” by today’s standards, so are some of the new series.

Last year, they did a dramatized recounting of the creation of the series, starring David Bradley as William Hartnell, who really did a wonderful job portraying the actor. This left me thinking: The current series now has the opportunity to cross the current incarnation with his “original” self, with David Bradley portraying the First Doctor. This would allow them to revisit some of the iconic early stories, like the first encounter with the Daleks, or the Keys of Marinus.