I’ve created a page for keeping track of all the miniatures I have painted, plus what I’ve bought, prepped etc. Hopefully, this will help me not duplicate purchases, and inspire me to keep things moving through the pipeline. Every time I finish a miniature I’ll update this page.
I’ll keep the blog posts for when I finish a unit, or reach some other significant milestone.
I find myself in a situation I’ve never encountered before. I’m not only unemployed (which has only happened to me twice in the past), but I’m unable to work. Through a quirk of immigration law, I’m allowed to stay in Canada, but not allowed to work until I get some paperwork approved, which is likely to take a couple of months.
So I find myself thinking about what I should do during that time. The first priority is of course my family. I’m fortunate enough to have enough savings that we won’t be homeless or starving, so that’s the main worry out of the way. I’ll get to spend a lot of quality time with my kids, which is also great. However, I have to look at this as a period in which I can do something and maybe come out the other end of this time with something to show for it.
Some ideas that have been on my to-do list for a long time:
)Of those that look like work, I wouldn’t be able to make any money doing them (at least not until after my residency issues are resolved). My only alternative to this situation is to leave Canada.
So I’m trying to view this as an opportunity. I just don’t know for what, yet.
I like writing code in Python, as much as I’ve enjoyed writing code in any other language (and I’ve written in a bunch commercially).
I got to thinking today about what it is that really makes Python a great language. In fact, it’s missing some features that I like (e.g. closures). Obviously it has a whole bunch of cool features, but then so do most of the other dynamic languages (like Ruby, PHP or Perl) — for those of you who don’t know me, I’m much happier in a dynamic/interpreted language environment than a static/compiled one (and yes I know those pairs don’t strictly go hand-in-hand)
After thinking it through, I realized that it’s the maintainability of Python that makes it great. I can read through any Python that someone in my whole company has written and understand it and know why it’s working the way it is. And so can anyone else on my team, even without huge depth of experience in the language. The choices that have been made about its structure and support make it inclusive for anyone to be a part of the community, rather than inadvertently excluding certain types of people.
So, Python is now officially my language of choice, because more than any other language, it makes my team a happier place and wants me to be part of its community.
My buddy James and I came up with a game last year, and with the help of our friend Chris we formed a games company and published it. It’s called Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot and we’ve made an online version that we’ll be releasing pretty soon too.
I spent (wasted?) a lot of time playing and eventually administering a MUD back in the 90s and early 2000s. The big draw of the MUD wasn’t necessarily the game aspect, although that was important, it was the people that I got to hang out with while on there.
In fact, the two guys that started the MUD worked together at Inktomi (now owned by Yahoo!) and got me a job there in early ‘99 that I was in for almost 4 years.
I’m still in touch with a few of the guys from the MUD, and of course Facebook and other popular social networking tools make it a lot easier to get back in touch.
Digging in my various archives, I discovered the source code for the MUD. It doesn’t easily compile any more, so I got back in touch with John who was the original coder … 10 minutes later he was trying to get the thing to compile so we can keep the spirit of Razor’s alive!
I’m still rooting through bugs, but things will be up and running soon. Once they are I’ll post an update.
I’ve decided to start an Open Coffee Club in Saskatoon. You can read more about Open Coffee on their Ning site. We’ll be meeting at Broadway Roastery on Tuesday Feb 9th at 8pm. If you’re interested in chatting about startups, maybe as an entrepreneur, a developer, or just someone with an interest in the topic, feel free to come along and bring anyone else.
by Rhonda McAvoy of The Boston Globe
March 18th, 2002
The Prudential Center was subject to a brutal attack this morning at around 8am. Three robotic figures burst out of one of the iconic “Duck Tour” tour buses to go on a deadly rampage through downtown commuters. The three were finally put down by new WatchTower recruits, most notably the terrifying destructive powers of Sapphire and Trace.
17 Bostonians were killed during the attack, and over 80 were injured before WatchTower’s new “B” team arrived on the scene. While it’s unclear what roles the team members play, the two women on the team both used their disintegration powers to great effect, taking care of all three robots in under a minute, and saving us from further death and destruction.
The origin of the robots is still unknown, although an anonymous source at the WatchTower lays the blame at the feet of the Downward Spiral group, known to have been terrorizing important religious sites on the east coast. While many a shopper may worship the almighty dollar at the Pru, it seems unlikely that an anti-Christian group would attack there.
Originally written for lategaming.com.
Sunday March 17, 2002 (St. Patrick’s Day)
From the log of Karl Maclean, WTNE Controller
8am: New recruits have lasted 24 hours without injury or fatality. Void seems to have settled into a leadership role, and may make a decent long-term recruit should we choose to extend their contract. Seven seems somewhat unreliable and bears closer scrutiny – he’s already made it into the media and seems to bask in attention. Kimono is more reliable but suffers from severe cultural disadvantages here in the US: this is somewhat counterbalanced by his immense powers. Trace is, as expected, insufferably young.
10am: Fifth recruit arrived today from Texas. While he looks good enough to eat, he’s sadly lacking between the ears.
4pm: New team reports a lead on the whereabouts of the old team, due to a tip-off from The Chancer. A previously unknown exotic with dimensional powers trapped and abandoned them in another dimension, with seemingly no way of recovering. Kimono negotiated some kind of agreement with the guy, but it sounds like he was conned. I don’t think Mr Canning will be happy, but then again, I doubt he’d be happy even if they brought back the old team safe and sound. I’ve e-mailed him.
7pm: Got word that we have a sixth exotic joining us tomorrow. No idea who she is or what her abilities are. Christ, it’s like superhero kindergarten.
3am: Yes, Canning is not happy. Big fucking surprise. I’m drawing up permanent contracts just in case.
Originally written for lategaming.com.
by Rhonda McAvoy of The Boston Globe
March 17th, 2002
Three new WatchTower operatives were spotted yesterday in and around the greater metro area. While no information has been forthcoming from the New England franchise, the identity of one of the new recruits has been confirmed as Vanja Mestrovic, also known as Void. Void’s intimidating black and featureless body was seen in Stoughton yesterday morning and in Hingham yesterday afternoon. He was accompanied by two old men of Asian decent, and all were wearing WatchTower clothing.
“Void’s a good guy,” says Jimmy Cortez, who worked with him at Devon Energy, an oil company. “It takes a while to get used to him having eight eyes, but he’s got a heart of gold.” Whether that’s true remains to be seen. Katherine Simmons, manager at Ikea in Stoughton, told us that he was very intimidating. “He walked in here, butt naked, with his two crazy friends and I gotta tell ya, I was scared.” Simmons wasn’t able to tell us anything about why the trio visited her store, as the investigation is still ongoing.
The sightings in Hingham were centered around the Old Ship Church. One of Void’s companions, who identified himself to local tourists as “Seven” levitated up over the church to survey the roof. The third man, wearing a thick Japanese kimono bearing the WatchTower logo, is still to be identified. The minister of the church, Rev. Kenneth H. Read-Brown stated that the WatchTower was there as a precautionary measure, given the recent spate of anti-church exotic crime on the East Coast being perpetrated by the so-called Downward Spiral group.
Does this mean that WTNE has decided to hire more operatives? While it has long been the opinion of this reporter that six is too few, why choose now to recruit? And why the secrecy? As of yet, no-one at WatchTower New England or HQ in San Francisco has been willing to comment on this development.
Originally written for lategaming.com.