OK, I find myself in possession of some extra MIX t-shirts – and little room to store them. So I’m going to do a quick contest – Find me at one of the events I attend, show me you’re subscribed to my blog (laptop or screen shot if you’re not mobile) and one of them is yours. One per person, your pick from what sizes I have on hand, and I’ll do it through the end of June 08 (have to have some rules – I can’t keep the car full of shirts forever. 
)
Posts Tagged Life in General
Personalities
May 29
Tess was watching some old shows of Xena, and I walked by. What’s that got to do with the post? I could have sworn I heard Morgan Sheppard’s voice on the show, though a quick check on IMDB informed me I’m wrong.
That got me to thinking. I’ve been a bit annoyed at a lot of the media outlets and communities making assumptions on what shared context I have with the rest of the world. I’m not someone that cares what Paris, Brittany, Brad, or whatever personality you can name is doing. The people I list as celebrities are very different. I’m fascinated by what Paul Darrow, Morgan Sheppard, Tim Hunkin, Ron Gilbert, Richard Hatch, Mike Sinz, Anders Hejlsberg, and lots of other people that most of the mainstream media doesn’t remember that well are doing.
Sorry, just a random post – maybe there’s some value here noting that the obsession with “Hit stars” doesn’t just end with the record or movie industry. It happens everywhere, but it’s not a very accurate picture of what most of the people you’re trying to communicate are interested in. It’s just a least common denominator.
(Disclaimer – this post has been written by someone that has never seen an episode of “American Idol”, “Lost”, or “The Office” but can tell you the name of the bomb that Slim Pickins rode down on, and how the phrase “Reverse the polarity of the neutron pulse” came about. Take it with whatever spice you feel appropriate. There’s a reason it’s in the “Life in General” category.)
I just saw that Steve Jackson Games (I remember meeting him for the first time in Meridian MS – Car Wars and LARPs were king back then) is keeping track of cons. I used to keep track of some of the major ones through my Analog subscription but due to the Pinball Effect I rarely get to the con listings of a particular issue in time to be useful.
SJGames Con listings – http://www.sjgames.com/con/
He said it
May 22
I normally try not to do too many link posts, but Hugh has it exactly right.
(If you’re not following him, go subscribe right now. gapingvoid isn’t always totally financial institution work safe, but it’s always fun, irreverent, and more consistently insightful than just about any other blog I can name. http://www.gapingvoid.com/ )
Filk
Apr 29
I’ve been looking for a good location for Filk music – my old Pegasus recordings just aren’t holding up as well as I’d like. Well LazyCoder just distracted me with a tweet, and I had to go and find a link to one of my old favorites.
I still haven’t managed to find a place that has Leslie Fish’s “Suprise” though. Prometheus has the “Russian” version, but I still remember her singing it and enjoying it more.
You can also find the lyrics to another 3 of the true classics (you can still find me humming “Three things never trust in…” every so often or “Don’t push that button”) over at Duane’s Filk page.
Where’s Phil this week?
Apr 27
Due to popular acclaim (Tim) over the week of our Dallas Launch event, I figured I’d drop a couple more schedule posts. For short notice schedule changes, watch my twitter stream for last second updates.
Monday will be conference call day, but I’ll also be working on some more shows (I have a couple of ideas, plus I want to get some RoboChallenge show content up, it’s just that cool.)
Tuesday will be writing code – I’ve got my template work to do, some prep API tests for later on in the week, and some new demos I want to get in place for a couple of upcoming presentations. Later that night, I’ll be downtown with the Agile Austin crowd and Geek Austin doing their social meet up. I had to miss the last Geek Austin event because of SxSW activities, so it’ll be very good to get back to see everyone again.
Wednesday will be a road day as I’ll be doing conference calls on the way up 35 to Dallas. I’ll be headed up there to take part again in the Sabre Hackday, a great exercise that they do to keep their developers some time to try out new technologies and generally take some time to prove out innovative new ideas that they might have to really affect the company. Have to stock up on the Red Bulls, Yerba Mate, or maybe talk Caleb out of some Monster drinks.
Thurs will be finishing up Hack Day, present, and view hacks and then continue prep for our Software Plus Services event in Houston on the 22nd with David Chappell.
Friday will be meetings, it’s fairly rare for me to have a couple of hours in Dallas, so I’m hoping to be able to meet some people I’ve been missing the last several packed trips up there.
Saturday will be Houston Techfest – there are a lot of great presenters scheduled and I may even turn out to be one of them. Then the drive back down to Austin to start prep for ArcReady in Austin the next week.
Tweets
Apr 27
Quick note – I was informed that I haven’t mentioned that I do jump on to twitter a couple of times a week. If you’re interested in listening to my intermittent twitter storms, you can follow me at http://www.twitter.com/pwheat
Where’s Phil?
Apr 8
I had a couple of people ask me that yesterday, so I thought I’d give a rundown. Today (Tuesday), I’ll be at the Dallas Triple Launch at the convention center. If you’re attending yourself, come by the DPE booth (we’re in the back corner) and chat – I’ll have a number of cool demos going (including the robot for Robotics Studio.) Tomorrow, I’ll be speaking at our Austin SharePoint User Group (panel.) I’m looking forward to the topic as we’re discussing the SharePoint and Office Developer conferences this year and answering questions for those who couldn’t make the time or budget to attend themselves. And Thursday I’ll be at DorkBot! I had a number of people inform me that since I missed the excitement at BarCamp Austin (because I was running around SxSW with booth duty) that I HAVE to go. I kind of agree since I haven’t seen them since the joint GeekAustin/DorkBot social. And Friday I’ll be vegging. New BSG AND Dr Who, plus I think Torchwood, and now Sara Jane Adventures. All I need is a new season of Burn Notice and I may not give up on TV today after all. (Note that is a MAY – no commitments there.)
ARRRGGGGG!!!! (almost)
Apr 7
OK, I now know I’ve been trying to pay attention to too much. I JUST saw that the Nebula Awards Ceremony is happening in Austin. In two weeks! I almost missed it!
Cognitive Dissonance
Apr 4
Does it mean you’re a veteran speaker when you pull out your secondary backpack and when several speaker badges fall out, your first thought is – “I really need to clean up all this junk!”?
