What's New?

January 31, 2007

Recently, I achieved a breaktrhrough and success in my efforts to digitize a cassette. After some additional research (a bit more thorough this time), I realized that I didn't need to buy an A-to-D converter or a cassette player. I can use the mic/line-in input on my PowerMac G5 (the sound card has a built in digitizer), and my existing stereo equipment. I moved my Kenwood dubbing cassette deck to my computer desk. For software, I originally used Apple's GarageBand package (part of the iLife creativity suite), but I've since switched to Audacity. Audacity is free (available in Windows, Mac and Linux flavors), and it has a few features (file segmentation using track labels) and advantages (save as MP3) not available in GarageBand. The only thing I had to buy was an RCA Y-adapter stereo cable in order to get the music into my Mac.

With this success, I'm on my way to digitizing my rapidly aging cassette collection. The cassettes aren't getting any younger sitting in my drawer, and the media is degrading rapidly. Granted, my time is worth a good sum of money, but I'm determined to preserve these pieces of my glorious past. Once I've got all these cassettes digitized (something like 200 or so), I'll completely scrub my music collection page/database. This is going to take some time.

More snow?!:
It's Wednesday, the 31st of January, 2007, and the snow is falling again. So much for global warming, I'm starting to believe that Colorado is entering a new ice age. I'm not sure how much we're going to get, but it doesn't look bad at this point. The snow is very light, and it isn't coming down very heavily. Update from later in the day. We ended up getting about two inches. I guesss I'll have to do some shovelling tomorrow.

D&D update:
We played D&D on the 27th of January, 2007. The party has completed the a training and recovery phase, following their last adventure. "X" has returned from his extended absence, and he kicked the party out of the manor. The party parted on good terms, and they've moved into some new digs. After completing their training, they reviewed a few possible adventures. They selected an adventure with a lot of personal investment, but no promise of reward. Wasting no time in preparation, the party booked passage on a flying ship, and off they went. During our last meeting, they continued that journey. On their way to Longbridge, they encountered a few hostile monsters, and one informative Satyr. What lies in store around the next corner? Stay tuned for danger, stay tuned for mystery, stay tuned for adventure! With the party beginning a new adventure, I completed the following house rules updates:

3ecampaign.html:
I updated the campaign page. This is the first stop for information on the campaign that I'm currently running. Here you'll find information regarding our next meeting (updated to reflect next game date), some notes, and an index of web pages and documents that are important to our campaign.

ajournal.html:
I updated the adventurer's journal. The journal is an index to all the party's individual journal entries. Each entry on this page provides a short synopsis to each of the party's adventures, and a link to the individual diary entries for that adventure.

innfloorplan.pdf:
Building 212 in Whillip: The party purchased a Tavern/Inn on the 4th of Marcav, 1003. They occupy the rooms on the 3rd floor, and use part of the basement to store various items. Aside from using the Inn as a place of residence/headquarters for their adventuring company, they operate the Inn to generate additional income. They’ve hired a manager to run the Inn, and have set up a separate bank account for all financial matters related to the operation of the Inn. The official name of the Inn is, "Meat Tea or Inn".

ajournal07.html:
The tale of our adventurers. A series of journal entries from various party members. This document contains details of their encounters. Victory, defeat, desire and glory. Here is the tale of S.C.R.E.W.O.F.F.S, a group of adventurers who set forth from Whillip seeking fame, fortune and the defeat of evil in these lands. Today's entry is another page from Solmar's journal. This entry relates a good deal of information regarding the new adventure. If you're interested in the party's adventures, be sure to check out this entry.

3ewhoswho.html:
With the beginning of a new adventure, I had to make several updates to this page.

* I added a list of all the party's new employees. All these folks work at the Inn that the party bought.
* I added a separate entry for Raven Thurinough. Raven is the manager of the party's new Inn. She's smart and pretty!
* I added an entry for Nigel Stormcloud. Tanar's father. The current adventure, has the party searching for this missing magic user.
* I updated the entry for Tanar. We still had Nicholas listed as the player for Tanar. Stephen took over Tanar a long time ago. Now all we need is some background for Tanar.
* I updated the entry for Garivek. Garivek is a high priest of Helm. During the recent ' time of troubles', Garivek was slain by the forces of C.O.E.P.A.S. Recently, the church has paid for his resurrection. Garivek is alive again, and back in charge of Helm's presence in Whillip.

The " Who's Who?" page is a listing of characters, both player characters and non-player characters.

wherenow.html:
With the beginning of a new adventure, I had to make several updates to this page.

* I added a new entry for the party's new Inn. Recently, they moved out of X's manor, and bought an Inn/Tavern, which they now use as their headquarters in Whillip.
* Now that the party has moved into their own place, I updated the entry for the manor.
* Added a new entry for Silverymoon. It's a very large city in the north of the world. It was one of the first stops on their new adventure.
* I added an entry for Sundabar. Another city that the party stopped at during their journey.
* Created an entry for Longbridge. A small town at the center of the latest mystery. The last place where Nigel ( Tanar's father) was seen alive.
* The northern shirelands. The name of a northern region of towns. An area of hunting and farming communities surrounding the town of Longbridge.
* Citadel Adbar (also known as 'The Fort') is a large Dwarven fortress with a labyrinth like underground complex, and a large citadel above ground.
* At the edge of a great desert lays Ascore, a ruined Dwarven city that was once a great sea-port.
* The Quickstep river is foul with sulfur, and few fish inhabit the warm flow. Due to underground volcanic activity, this river never freezes solid in the winter.
* Added an entry for the region/nation where the latest adventure takes place. The Silver Marches are a region in the North-west of the realms. The Silver Marches generally includes lands west of a great desert, which is bounded to the East and North by two large rivers. The area to the south is bordered by a series of mountain ranges, including the Nether Mountains.
* The Nether Mountains are volcanically active, but there are no volcanoes with open domes, and no eruptions have ripped the land for many centuries.
* Firestorm Peak is the central mount of the Nether Mountains. Ripping the sky at a height of more than 18,000 feet. No one is quite sure how tall this mountain really is. Although Firestorm Peak is not an active volcano, there is volcanic activity here. Vents abound and the smell of sulfur is strong.

"Where Now?" is a listing of various places the party has visited. Whenever the party starts a new adventure, I end up adding several new locations to this page. As the adventure progresses, I'll likely refine these entries (see wherenow.html for full entries), and possibly add some new ones.

That's a lot of new material. Every time the party concludes an adventure, or starts a new one, I end up adding a slew of new material. This time around is no exception. Our next gaming date is 10 February, 2007, and I'm sure that there will be lots of thrills and excitement in the months to come. Look for more updates to come; including another journal entry from Solmar, more monster encounters, and some new NPCs.

Fighting Spam:
<rave>Recently I received an email from Anthony Edwards, an employee at Easynet UK, a British ISP. The email I received was sent in response to some spam that I reported (through SpamCop). Anthony wrote to thank me for reporting the spam sent through their network.

"Thank you for your report concerning this Unsolicited Bulk Email incident. The account concerned has been identified and suspended under the terms of our Acceptable Use Policy".

I report more than a thousand spam messages per month, but I almost never receive thanks, email or any sort of reply from the ISPs where the spam originated. I was surprised, impressed and glad to see that someone still cares. Kudos to Easynet UK for helping fight spam.</rave>

Movies:
I purchased three movies during the month of January (purchased from DeepDiscountDVD.com). So what are the new movies? One foreign film and two American movies. Below is a short synopsis of the movies I bought. If you'd like a full review, see my movies page.

Foreign movie: The bad sleep well: A Japanese drama directed by Akira Kurosawa (My favorite director). This is a film noir style story of corporate corruption and a culture which protects the guilty. Hollywood productions: Serenity: A sci-fi, action flick based on the television series, 'Firefly'. High Noon: (1952) Masterful movie work by Fred Zinnemann. A real-time western drama that unfolds in a little under 90 minutes. With these new purchases, I updated the main movies page, my 'must buy' list, the listing of my movie collection, the reviews page, and an alphabetical index (see the ' angry critic' entry above) that I'm working on.

Software favorites:
A few of my favorite pieces of software recently released updates. GraphicConverter, Transmit and The Logo Creator. Three products that make web design and publishing easy on the Mac.

GraphicConverter:
One of my favorite programs released two upgrades recently. The developer released a new beta version (5.9.5b0), in the past few days. GraphicConverter is an image converter and editor. A fantastic piece of shareware that is well worth the price ($35.00). I use it to convert image formats into web standard formats, to create and edit image maps and other graphics. I've been singing GC's praises for many years now, and I'm not sure I would do without it. The best part about GC is it's author. Thorsten Lemke is completely committed to his customer base. Constantly and Continuously responding to customer recommendations and bug reports. GC is a dynamic, evolving, application. Always on the cutting edge, an absolute must in any web developers tool box. At a fraction of PhotoShop's cost, this photo editor puts a huge wrench in your toolbox.
<http://www.lemkesoft.com/xd/public/content/index._cGlkPTE5Mw_.html>

Transmit:
An FTP tool that does it all. Anyone who publishes web pages eventually needs a way to upload their pages to a web site. I've found that stand alone FTP tools are the best for this task. Transmit has a clean and easy to use interface, and some really nifty features, like the ability to resume a transfer that's been interrupted, site synchronization capabilities, iDisk integration (It's way faster than the finder!), drag-to-dock sending, column views, a built in text editor, and secure ftp transfer (in various different flavors) capability. The most recent update moves this software up to version 3.5.6.
< http://www.panic.com/transmit/index.html>

The Logo Creator:
The Macintosh version of this software recently underwent an upgrade to version 5.1. Many Mac users (myself included) reported problems getting the updater to run. This update had a broken download link, and a execution problem. After some analysis, I was able to figure out what the execution problem was. I corrected the problem using Unix commands, and my updater ran successfully. I went back to the forums and posted my solution. Hopefully the developer will incorporate my remedy into a new download for other users.

The Logo Creator is exactly what it says it is. Software for creating eye catching graphic logos. I use the software to create banner graphics/titles for my web pages. The interface isn't the greatest, but the included logo elements are great and there are several pre-built templates to chose from (you can purchase additional add-on logo packs). Use a pre-built template or start from scratch. Aside from pre-set graphics, you can apply and manipulate a vast array of effects on all the elements of the logo. This software will allow you to create great looking title graphics for print or the web. Here are links to some of the pages containing title graphics/some of the titles I've created using this software: mymusiccollection.png, myreviews.png, southlands.png, photopainting.png
< http://www.thelogocreator.com>

Music conversions:
Here's a list of some of the music I recently acquired. I discover new music by using a fantastic music service called Pandora, visiting 3hive.com and consuming a few different music podcasts (iTunes new music tuesdays and indiefeed). I buy most of my music (now) from emusic.com. The music below was all converted from cassette using Audacity and my Mac.

* Agnostic front - Liberty & Justice...: (11 songs) 1980's New York Hardcore band. Delivering social and political rage in the form of bitting lyrics and rapid fire instrumentals. This was a damn good album.
* The Alarm - Eye of the hurricane: (10 songs) A Welsh punk/acoustic band that sounded far too much like U2. Belting out punk inspired anthems, this band was a pretty good contender.
* The Alarm - Standards: (13 songs) A Welsh punk/acoustic band that sounded far too much like U2. Belting out punk inspired anthems, this band was a pretty good contender for the coveted pop arena. This album is a compilation of the best of their 80's tunes.
* The Alarm - Strength: (10 songs) A Welsh punk/acoustic band that sounded far too much like U2 for their own good. Belting out punk inspired anthems, this band tried to remain loyal to their inspiration, but the overproduced albums (in the 80's) smelled of sellout. This album is my favorite (non-compilation) of theirs. Unfortunately, time has ravaged this conversion, and some of the tracks are damaged. It's a good thing I've got the compilation.
* The B-52's - Party Mix!: (6 song EP) The B-52's put out a lot of EP's and singles. This is one that came on a 2 in 1 cassette (and CD). Party Mix! tried to pump up some previously released B-52 songs. Since they were already very danceable. It didn't have much impact. Much editing was needed in order to separate out these merged tracks. These tracks were produced by Chris Blackwell, and they aren't as good (imho) as those produced by David Byrne.
* The B-52's - Mesopotamia: (6 song EP) Springing up out of the Athens, Georgia college scene. The B-52's was a party band, and they had the country hopping in the 80's. This EP was produced by David Byrne (of the Talking Heads), and he moved the band away from their overly humorous sound into a more somber mood.
* Big Bam Boo - Fun, Faith, & Fairplay: (10 songs) A British vocal duo that just didn't take off. A one hit wonder so to speak. Reminds me of Aztec Camera. They had some good vocals, and the acoustic guitar fit well with the keyboards. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything distinctive enough to separate them from the rest of the creamy 80's pop that was burying us with glib, substance free ear-candy.

These are just some of the items I added to my music collection during the month of January. Since revamping my music collection back in September of 2005, I've been slowly adding, revising and updating the collection. If you have a comment or a question regarding my music collection, please don't hesitate to send me an email. Don't bother with reporting errors. The collection/listing is full of errors. Now that I've started to converting my cassettes into digital, I'll be weeding out the errors, omissions and unwanted duplications. Eventually, I'm going to completely scratch the current listing, and start all over.

January 28, 2007

Even more snow:
On Saturday (27 Jan 07) we got another inch of snow. I'm starting to believe that we're entering a new ice age. I actually had to buy a snow rake the other day. A what? A snow rake. To rake snow off the roof. We've got a huge drift on one side of the roof, and the melt from it is causing some serious ice build up on the gutters. So, another inch of snow. Thankfully, it stopped snowing around noon. No impact on our scheduled D&D session. I went out and shoveled. Not enough for the snow blower, but enough to make my back ache a little.

Veterans get a break:
<rave>It's about time. I'm one of the many disable veterans in the U.S. who've been dismayed by a policy that has recently changed. Prior to 2004, veterans had to choose whether to receive their retirement pension (mind you this only applied to retirees with 20+ years in the military), or their disability payment. So, if you were eligible for a monthly pension of $2,500 and a disability payment of $1,000, you would only receive the $2,500 pension. Your taxable retirement pay would then be reduced by $1,000. As of 2004, that all changed. After congress authorized 'concurrent receipt', a phased plan went into effect. Veterans would now receive both payments. The phased program is quite complex, but a few days ago, I received a letter from the VA. That letter indicated that my retirement pay would be increased by an amount equal to my disability pay, and I've started receiving back pay for some of the disability pay.

So, veterans are now receiving both payments. A pension for serving 20+ years, and disability compensation. It's about time. I know I could use the money, and there are plenty of disabled veterans who are far more deserving of a disability compensation. If you'd like to read more about this incredibly complex issue, please do a search, or point your browser at this article by military.com.</rave>

So much for the snow show in Breckenridge:
<rant>I thought I'd write to tell you (members of the Breckenridge Business Advisory Committee) about our experience on Sunday. As recent residents of Colorado (my wife and I moved here after I retired from the Air Force in 2005), we're doing our best to enjoy the regional sights, sounds, and festivals. Winter is sometimes a difficult time of year to get out and enjoy the scenery, but we thought we'd give it a try.

On Sunday (27 Jan 07), we decided to go and see the 'International Snow Sculpture Championship'. We've been to one such event, the Sapporo Snow Festival, in Japan. It was an amazing display of skill and craftsmanship. That was back in 1999, and we thought we'd get the chance to see some amazing snow sculptures this year. We'd been planning the trip for about a week. When the snow cleared out on Saturday, we knew we'd be good to go for Sunday.

We packed up the Volvo, charged up the digital camera, topped off the gas tank, and bought a couple of sub-sandwiches to eat - just in case. When we left Aurora, we were really looking forward to the event. The drive was a little congested (along I-70), but it wasn't too bad. It took us about two hours to reach Breckenridge, that's when things started to look down. The town was packed. Apparently, everyone in Denver had the same idea we had.

We drove around for over an hour looking for a 'legal' place to park. There weren't any. People were parked everywhere, and you can't tell me that they all had permits. The only 'available' parking was: Reserved parking, No parking, Permit parking, Absolutely No parking, Customer parking only, Resident parking, Handicap parking, and Illegal parking. None of the 'Pay Parking' was available either - Including the exorbitant $10.00 Parking. Rather than risk the 'Boot' ($100.00 to have it removed), we opted for the 'Leave town and don't come back' option. I saw no signs saying 'Free Parking'.

We drove to the nearest gas station. Parked in their parking lot, used the filthy bathrooms, and ate our cold sandwiches in our car. We washed it down with water from a canteen, and proceeded North to I-70. So much for the Snow Sculpture Championships.

Apparently Breckenridge doesn't want us as visitors. So much for our planned outing. So much for the photos I wanted to take. So much for the T-Shirts we might have bought. So much for the fun we might have had. I guess I'll have to suffice myself with the photos at the web site.

Breckenridge could have provided parking, but they didn't. The town could have set up some remote parking - with shuttle services, but they didn't. They could have listed the available parking on their website (http://www.gobreck.com/page.php?pname=events/ISSC), using a map, but they didn't. They could have put up signs that said 'Free Parking', but they didn't. They could have prepared for this event properly, but they didn't.

The ride home (at 1300) was pretty bad, a lot of stop and go, so that didn't help things any. When I return to work tomorrow. I'll be sure to tell all my friends; 'Don't bother with Breckenridge. Unless you live there, or you know someone who does. You can't park there.'

I'm sure it was a great success for the folks who found parking, illegal or otherwise. For me, I obey the law. When I see a sign that says 'No parking', I figure it applies to me. When someone doesn't make parking available, I get the feeling that I'm not wanted. I can take the hint.</rant>

Mac OS 10.4.8 security update:
Another security update released by Apple. This time the update addresses a particular security concern. An intentionally crafted web site could take advantage of a flaw in QuickTime. This flaw could have caused a buffer overflow of the Mac OS in order to reveal information that the computer owner does not authorize. You can read more about the update at Apple's website. Keeping my Mac safe from malicious hackers and such.

Recently, I achieved success in my efforts to digitize a cassette. After some additional research (a bit more thorough this time), I realized that I don't need to buy an A-to-D converter or a cassette player. I can use the mic/line-in input on my PowerMac G5 (the sound card has a built in digitizer), and my existing stereo equipment. I moved my Kenwood dubbing cassette deck to my computer desk. For software, used Apple's GarageBand package. It's part of the iLife creativity suite. So far I've had no use for it, but thousands have raved about it's audio editing and production capabilities. A couple days ago I bought an RCA Y-adapter stereo cable in order to get the music into my Mac.

Success! Yes - I achieved success. I have successfully digitized the first of many audio cassettes. The first cassette was 'Adam Ant - Manners & Physique'. Not one of his better efforts, but nonetheless, this achievement (my achievement) demonstrates the culmination of an idea. I can digitize my old cassette collection with a little effort, and very little additional investment in equipment or software.

In using GarageBand 3.0.4, I've encountered one particularly nasty problem. While attempting to save the edited audio tracks (save to disk or export to iTunes), I've run across a " Result code = -47" error. What the? After some intesive research. I found out that this was some sort of I/O file error. Apparently, the application is attempting to write the file, but it is stuck in an 'Open for editing' state. There are a couple of things which helped clear this error.

* After completing your edits, save the file. Then attempt to save.
* Empty your trash. Then attempt to save.

Some had recommended repairing permissions, reinstalling GarageBand, iTunes, or both. I did not find this necessary. An I/O file error can usually be resolved by saving the current work, thus closing any open I/O connections/states. In addition, any deleted edits could also cause an open I/O state.

Music downloads:
Here's a list of some of the music I recently acquired. I discover new music by using a fantastic music service called Pandora, visiting 3hive.com and consuming a few different music podcasts (iTunes new music tuesdays and indiefeed). I buy most of my music (now) from emusic.com. All of these downloads came from the iTunes store.

* The Beauty Shop - Yard Sale: (5 songs) An alt-country band. A sound that's fresh and heartfelt. Slowly moving lyrics and a clean, crisp, instrumental sound. Here's a good pick from 3hive.com. I downloaded two songs from 3hive.com, and others from the band's web site.
* Adam Ant - Manners & Physique: (10 songs) From a cassette, digitized using an AtoD method I researched and implemented on my Mac. See above for details. Manners & Physique isn't one of Adam Ant's better albums - Sounds a bit to mainstream dance. Not as socially sarcastic as the Adam Ant that I love. A blast from the 80's past.
* The Good, The Bad and The Queen - Herculean: (Single) The single of the week download from Apple's iTunes Store. Etheral, ambient, rythmic. With some subdued lyrics, this little tune has a good mix of electronic and humanistic elements.

These are just some of the items I added to my music collection during the month of December. Since revamping my music collection back in September of 2005, I've been slowly adding, revising and updating the collection. If you have a comment or a question regarding my music collection, please don't hesitate to send me an email. Don't bother with reporting errors. The collection/listing is full of errors. I'm planning to purchase a cassette player and an A-to-D converter, which will be used to digitize my old cassette collection. Once that's done, I'll start to weed out the errors, omissions and unwanted duplications.

January 22, 2007

Yet another snow storm!
On Saturday (20 Jan 07) it started snowing, and it finally stopped on Sunday night (21 Jan 07). Another heavy storm hit our area. Most of the precipitation came while I was working a twelve hour shift (and I didn't have time to check the weather) so I really didn't get to see too much of it. I heard occasional mumblings about the snow, concern about us getting snowed in. That sort of thing. Before this storm hit, we still had a good inch and a half on the ground. Due to various reasons, I never got around to shoveling. Now we've got another eight inches plus (our driveway is a Northern exposure, so the drifts pile up a bit). I've got the next two days off. I'll bet you can guess what I'll be doing this morning!? Here's a few photos I took after the latest snow storm.

NetFlix news:
<rave>I rent movies through the mail using NetFlix. NetFlix is awesome. It's easy to use - Point-N-Click to pick your movies on the web. It's inexpensive - Only $17.99 a month (for three movies out at a time). It's flexible - If you don't watch as many movies as me, you can choose from one of ten subscription plans. Surely there's one that fits your viewing habits. In August of 2006, Kim and I saw 32 NetFlix movies (We're using the 5 at-a-time plan - which costs $29.99 / month ($32.42 w/tax)). If you calculate the cost per movie, that comes out to approximately $1.02 per movie; a significant savings over the other retail based options. It's convenient - No need to drive to the rental place (there's some more savings!). It's got a huge variety of movies - Over 70,000 at last count. It makes recommendations (when you rate movies that you've watched), and the recommendations get better as you rate more movies. I recommend it to all my movie watching friends.So, what's the news? Now you can watch movies instantly on your PC* Say what? Watch movies on my computer? Yes, watch the movies right on your computer, no need to even wait for the post office to deliver the movies. NetFlix 'Watch Now' downloads feature allows you to download/watch one hour of movies for every dollar of your subscription plan. The downloads won't cost you anything extra (over the cost of your normal plan). Once you've downloaded the movie, you can watch it using your browser. There's no standalone viewer/extra software required. Right now there's a limited number of people who can use this new service. However, over the next six months, NetFlix will be adding more subscribers.</rave><rant>*Unfortunately, this new 'Watch Now' feature is only available to owners of Windows PCs. There's no Mac support! You have to use Windows XP or Vista, and IE6 or higher. I can only hope that NetFlix will eventually add support for the Mac platform.</rant> Once/If they add support for the Mac, I'll buy myself an AppleTV. Now that would be an awesome combination!

* Black Lips - Various: (4 songs) Four tracks from their 'Let it bloom' album, and a live single from a show in Tijuana. A garage band that's still in the garage. The psychedelic alt-rock is fresh, bluesy, raw, and full of authentic lyrics. The music reminds me of VU instrumentals, infused with the spirit and vocal style of the Fleshtones. Discovered with 3hive.com.
* Art Brut - Nag Nag Nag Nag: (Single) A single from a band that sounds a lot like the Fall. This british post-punk band has enough energy to make the lyrics combust from friction alone. Raucous, rebellious and ready to take on the world. Long live rock and roll - Sex Pistols style! Discovered through an eMusic free download (2006 Pitchfork Music Festival).
* Bridges and Powerlines - Bridges and Powerlines: (4 songs) Downloaded three songs from 3hive.com, and one from eMusic.com. One song left off this five song EP. A new talent rising amongst the raucous of Alternative. Discovered using 3hive.com. An American band making power-pop alternative with a british post-punk sound. Reminds me of Killers, the Rakes, Gang of four. Good stuff.

These are just some of the items I added to my music collection during the month of January. Since revamping my music collection back in September of 2005, I've been slowly adding, revising and updating the collection. If you have a comment or a question regarding my music collection, please don't hesitate to send me an email. Don't bother with reporting errors. The collection/listing is full of errors. I'm planning to purchase a cassette player and an A-to-D converter, which will be used to digitize my old cassette collection. Once that's done, I'll start to weed out the errors, omissions and unwanted duplications.

A-to-D cassette conversion project:
For some time now (since September of 2005), I've been planning to convert my aging cassette collection into a digital form. I want to move all those old cassettes onto my computer. Once I've done that, I can back them up, add them to my iTunes library, put them on my iPods, and rediscover the musical roots of my past. The project's been moving rather slowly. At first, I thought I'd burn CDs from the cassettes. I've got a stereo component CD burner, and it works rather well. Unfortunately, that method has some disadvantages. It's slow, requires constant track to track monitoring, consumes CDs, is physically located in an inconvenient location, and I'd still have to rip the resulting CD in order to get the music onto the computer. Instead, I'm planning to convert the music directly into digital form. I did some preliminary research, and made some preliminary plans. Unfortunately, that initial plan had me shelling out some bucks and ordering things through the mail. I was planning to buy a cassette player, a USB based A-to-D converter and some cables. Well, the costs and the additional research required, combined with procrastination to pretty much stall the project.Today (22 January '07), I broke through the procrastination barrier. I'm moving closer to realization on the A-to-D conversion project. After some additional research (a bit more thorough this time), I realized that I don't need to buy an A-to-D converter or a cassette player. I can use the mic/line-in input on my PowerMac G5 (the sound card has a built in digitizer), and my existing stereo equipment. I've moved my Kenwood dubbing cassette deck to my computer desk. For software, I can use Apple's GarageBand package. It's part of the iLife creativity suite. So far I've had no use for it, but thousands have raved about it's audio editing and production capabilities. All I need now is an RCA Y-adapter stereo cable in order to get the music into my Mac.

D&D update:
We played D&D on the 13th of January, 2007. The party has completed the a training and recovery phase, following their last adventure. "X" has returned from his extended absence, and he kicked the party out of the manor. The party parted on good terms, and they've moved into some new digs. After completing their training, they reviewed a few possible adventures. They selected an adventure with a lot of personal investment, but no promise of reward. Wasting no time in preparation, the party booked passage on a flying ship, and off they went. What lies in store around the next corner? Stay tuned for danger, stay tuned for mystery, stay tuned for adventure! With the party beginning a new adventure, I completed the following house rules updates:

D&D books:
I recently purchased a new rule book for my favorite game. The latest acquisition is 'The Complete Scoundrel'. It's the second book in the second 'Complete' series. This book introduces several new prestige classes, feats, spells and equipment. One set of feats that we will not be using are the 'Luck Feats'. A set of feats that are incompatible with our 'Heroic Luck' house rule. A new set of rules 'Skill Tricks' will bring a slew of new variations to the 'Skills' rules. As a result of this purchase, I updated my D&D books page. I also updated the listing of permitted rules in our House Rules document.

House rules:
I've updated some of our House Rules. I added a new rule regarding the retraining or rebuilding of player characters. In accordance with new rules introduced in Player’s Handbook II (pg’s 191-203), players may rebuild their characters. The Dungeons & Dragons game offers a great deal of flexibility in character creation and advancement. When you make a character, you can choose from a wide variety of feats, skills, and proficiencies. Once you’ve made those decisions, they cannot be changed. Most of the time those early decisions work out fine, but sometimes you might regret your previous choices. Maybe you didn’t fully understand the ramifications of the choice you made. Maybe a house rule has changed the abilities, limitations or capabilities of your character. Maybe you constructed a character around a great concept, but in play, the particular set of circumstances that would let your character shine never crop up. Even if you built your character to perfection, each new supplement presents new classes, feats, spells and special abilities, many of which might better serve the needs of our character or the campaign than those you previously selected.In addition to the addition of this new house rule, I also made some other updates to the House Rules. I made a few format changes in order to keep page counts consistent. I added a new line to the table of contents, I updated the rules regarding prestige class advancement (adding a level of prestige class counts as adding a level of it's base class for the purposes of our 'singular combat' house rule).

Expanded skills:
I added more detail to the Expanded Skills section of this document. This change incorporates additions to the skills presented in the PHB. In addition to the expanded skills listed in this document, the players may want to note that some official rules supplements offer expanded skills. In particular (but not limited to), the Complete Adventurer offers several Expanded Skill descriptions (see CA, pg’s 97-114). Player’s are permitted to make use of these official expanded skill uses. Even more on expanded skills. Players may also take note of the ‘Skill Tricks’ introduced in the Complete Scoundrel. (see CS, pg’s 82-90). Player’s are permitted to make use of these official expanded skill uses.

In addition to the expanded notes, I also added an update to the 'Diplomacy' skill. This update details the overturn of a rule in the DMG. Previously, NPCs were not permitted to use the diplomacy skill on player characters. This ruling overturns that rule. See the 3enewfeats.pdf document for full details.

Our next gaming date is 27 January, 2007, and I'm sure that there will be lots of thrills and excitement in the months to come. Look for more updates to come; including a journal entry, information about the group's new headquarters, more monster encounters, and some new NPCs.

January 14, 2007

D&D update:
We played D&D on the 13th of January, 2007. The party has completed the a training and recovery phase, following their last adventure. "X" has returned from his extended absence, and he kicked the party out of the manor. The party parted on good terms, and they've moved into some new digs. After completing their training, they reviewed a few possible adventures. They selected an adventure with a lot of personal investment, but no promise of reward. Wasting no time in preparation, the party booked passage on a flying ship, and off they went. What lies in store around the next corner? Stay tuned for danger, stay tuned for mystery, stay tuned for adventure!With the party beginning a new adventure, I completed the following updates:

Concordium:
Updated the " Adventurer's Concordium", also known as the "Articles" - A document used to help administer our group of adventurers. The changes dictated by our players have been incorporated into this document update. If you're a player in our campaign, or simply interested in such a document, you can download a copy from here.

House rules:
I've updated some of our House Rules. Now that we've completed the move away from the old 2nd edition model of monster identification, the players will now be expected to make Knowledge checks in order to identify monsters. See the 3enewfeats.pdf document for full details. Although I changed the 'monster identification' rules in the house rules and new feats documents, I forgot to update the section regarding experience points for monster identification. This recent update corrects that discrepancy. I've removed the special rules for experience points awarded under the old monster identification rules.

Monster identification is now a skill based check. You'll need ranks in the appropriate Knowledge skill in order to ID new monsters. There will no longer be any d% rolls to ID monsters. Experience points (for successful checks) will be awarded only when a failed check would have resulted in a detrimental effect (i.e. someone could get hurt). Since many monsters are hostile, you'll get XP when identifying a hostile monster.

What's with this weather?!
When will it stop? Is Colorado experiencing a little ice age? It started snowing (again) on Thursday night (the 11th of Jan, 2007), snowed all day Friday and finally stopped on Saturday. I shoveled on Friday night and again on Saturday morning. We accumulated approximately 2 inches over those three days, but that's not all. It's snowing again. As I write this (14 January, 2007), it's been snowing since we woke up this morning (at 0830), and there doesn't appear to be any end in site. We've already accumulated another 3 inches, and who knows how much we'll have by morning. The temperature started dropping on Friday, it fell from the 20's down into the teens, and now it's in the single digits. Overnight, we're supposed to have temps as low as -10F. There's something very odd about this weather. When will it stop?

Monster music download:
Here's a list of some of the music I recently acquired. Most of these are emusic downloads (Emusic.com is 100% legal, and it's a lot less expensive than iTunes. It's a monthly charge on my credit card, but considering the fact that I was dropping a minimum of $22.00 a month at the iTunes music store, this isn't to bad. For $19.99 a month, I can download 90 songs (90 credits per month / typical cost is one credit per track). That's more than enough for me. Their library isn't huge (only a 1.4 million tracks, 1400 artists!), but they've got an extensive collection of independent artists. Since I've never been a mainstream kind of guy, the selection has proven to be compatible with my tastes. This is gonna be great!) , but I also downloaded some music from a variety of newsgroup sources. I know they're a bit outdated, but they're a far more reliable source of downloads than peer-to-peer sharing. I discover new music by listening to Indy tracks, using a fantastic music service called Pandora, visiting 3hive.com and consuming a few different music podcasts (iTunes new music tuesdays and indiefeed). I buy most of my music (now) from emusic.com.

* The Call - Red Moon: (10 songs) A newsgroup download. Here's a rock band that I enjoyed back in the 80's. Powerful, explosive vocals with heartfelt lyrics. This band produced 9+ albums through the 80's and 90's. This album marked the end of a great series of three. The group broke up after this album, and didn't get back together until the late 90's.
* The Call - Let the day begin: (11 songs) A newsgroup download. Here's a rock band that I enjoyed back in the 80's. Powerful, explosive vocals with heartfelt lyrics. This band produced 9+ albums through the 80's and 90's. This album was marked by excellent keyboard work.
* Devo - Total Devo: (11 songs) A newsgroup download. The grand daddy of New Wave. This band produced 16+ albums from the 70's through the 90's. This album isn't one of their better ones, but I own a copy, so I figured I'd grab the digital version.
* The Ramones - Halfway to sanity: (12 songs) Another newsgroup download. The original American punk rockers. The Ramones pour on the powerful guitar chords during this slam-fest. With 30+ albums to their name. This group helped shape American punk and hard rock for decades.
* The Dream syndicate - Out of the grey: (11 songs) Another newsgroup download. At it's best this group has a somber blues flavor, layered on top of a sensible alternative instrumental base and a strong vocal style.
* The Velvet underground - Another view: (9 songs) Yet another newsgroup download. Here's a compilation album from one of America's premier rock bands. 60's rock, the American way.
* Bossanova - Hey Sugar: (9 songs) Discovered using 3hive.com, here's a pop/alt band with some great instrumentals. Soulful vocals, and a sound that borders on New order crossed with Interpol.
* Drag the river - It's crazy: (12 songs) Who would have thunk it? Some veteran punkers are cranking out catchy cow-punk alt-country tunes in Fort Collins, Co. Right in my back yard. Here's something I discovered through an emusic.com sampler. Free music has turned me on to some great bands.
* Gary Numan - The Pleasure principle: (17 songs) Back in the 80's I heard several cuts off this album, but never knew who the artist was. Flash forward to the present, and a voyage of musical discovery that brings me back to the 80's through the present. Here's an artist that was way, way, way ahead of his time. The amazing tracks on this album live in every club/techno tune made since. Remember I was vapour...
* Jeremy Enigk - Been here before: (Single - off the 'World Waits' album) A 3hive.com download. Orchestral rock, haunting lyrics with a powerful instrumental backing.
* Love spit love - Love spit love: (12 songs) Psychedelic furs under another name. Downloaded from emusic.com. Trying to reinvent themselves in the 90's. If you like the 'Furs, this is a must have.
* Propaganda - A secret wish: (10 songs) An accidental discovery on emusic.com. I think someone recommended a band called Propagandi, and I found this. Maybe this is what they recommended all along. In either case, it's a worthy discovery. 80's techno pop with an orchestral edge.
* The Vandals - Sweatin' to the oldies: (18 songs) I was searching for a Vandals tune called 'Urban Struggle', when I discovered this album. A classic punk rock band - Live and unexpurgated!
* VNV Nation - Praise the fallen: (12 songs) A friend (Troy) introduced me to this band, and this is my second download. Spell binding synthesizers, wave after wave of unrelenting club dubbing dance grooves. A pure and simple sound machine. Thriving on the edge of synthesized adrenaline - Pounding out a rhythm of ecstasy.

Thirteen albums! My music collection is exploding. These are just some of the items I added to my music collection during the month of January. Since revamping my music collection back in September of 2005, I've been slowly adding, revising and updating the collection. If you have a comment or a question regarding my music collection, please don't hesitate to send me an email. Don't bother with reporting errors. The collection/listing is full of errors. I'm planning to purchase a cassette player (got that) and an A-to-D converter, which will be used to digitize my old cassette collection. Once that's done, I'll start to weed out the errors, omissions and unwanted duplications.

January 10, 2007

Movies:
A big part of my life. I watch a lot of movies (or at least that's what other people tell me). This morning (10 December 2006), I spent some time updating related pages. I spent a significant amount of time updating my movie reviews page. It's now constructed using frames. This will allow me to better manage the website as I add more reviews in the years to come. I also spent some time updating an alphabetical index (see the ' angry critic' entry above) that I'm working on.

D&D update:
We played D&D on the 16th of December, 2006. The party has completed their most recent adventure. Into the lair of COEPAS/The Chaos of COEPAS was a year long campaign that pitted the city of Whillip and our heroes against a cult of racist Elves bent on the overthrow of the cities leadership, destruction of law and order, the death of non-Elves and who knows what else. Led by two powerful Elves and a mind controlling creature called the 'Taxini', the party fought valiantly, lost one of their own in the battle, but eventually overcame all the obstacles. With the Taxini slain, and the leaders C.O.E.P.A.S. on the run, Whillip is released from the thrall of subversion and fear. The good citizens of Whillip are no longer enslaved by a mind-controlling fiend. While the city struggles to restore order, the party has completed another hard fought adventure. They've returned to Whillip, and they're currently engaged in a training and recovery phase. What lies in store around the next corner? Stay tuned for danger, stay tuned for mystery, stay tuned for adventure!With the completion of this adventure, I completed the following updates:

3ewhoswho.html:
I made two updates to this page. I moved Greven to the former party members section. He has left the party and joined another adventuring group in Whillip. In addition to Greven's departure, I added an entry for Brock, the latest party member to join the SCREWOFFS. Brock is a Human Fighter/Barbarian played by Jon Miller. The "Who's Who?" page is a listing of characters, both player characters and non-player characters.

Character update:
As no one will be playing Greven as the game moves forward, I created a new page for this former party member, added him to the Hero's Gallery, and updated the " Who's Who" page to reflect the change in the party.

ajournal07.html:
The tale of our adventurers. A series of journal entries from various party members. This document contains details of their encounters. Victory, defeat, desire and glory. Here is the tale of SCREWOFFS, a group of adventurers who set forth from Whillip seeking fame, fortune and the defeat of evil in these lands. Today's entry is another page from Solmar's journal. This is the first entry of the new adventure, and as such, I've also updated the root journal page.

Our next gaming date is 13 January, 2007, and I for one am looking forward to it. It'll be our first meeting in a month, and I hope to get the next adventure started. Be sure to check back to find out the parties latest adventure. With the completion of the most recent adventure, the campaign is moving forward into a whole new phase. Now that I've retired from the military (on the 1st of January, 2005), and I won't be relocating every three years, I'll be able to run the campaign past the 8th level. It's something I haven't been able to do since the early 80's, and I'm excited by the possibilities. I hope that the players in group are enjoying the game, and I hope that I can carry the campaign forward into this new phase without any problems.

January 9, 2007

What's New?
What's New. That's what's new. This year I'm introducing a new method for implementing my " What's New?" web log. I'm going to run a monthly log from now on. That year long log became rather unwieldy, and the size of the file was causing plenty of problems. I had originally settled on a format where each month would be it's own stand-alone page. Well, I've decided to go ahead with the framed approach that I had originally rejected. It took me a while to figure out the implementation of this framed approach, but I'm pretty sure that it will offer the easiest site management option in the long run. As a result of this format change, I also had to change some elements of the page layout. If you notice any errors in the implementation of this framed layout, I would appreciate your feedback. In addition to implementing a framed layout (by month) for the " What's New?" page, I'm also planning to implement a similar method with my movie reviews. It'll take a while to complete the project, but in the end, I believe that it'll result in a better experience for site visitors, and a more manageable site for me. Oh yeah, I'm still working on my movie reviews index, and there will likely be other changes coming in the new year.

Even more snow!
Unbelievable. Colorado is just getting hammered this winter. On the 4th of January, 2007, it started snowing (again!). It didn't stop until the 5th. This time we got another eight inches. It sure is pilling up. This is very unusual for Colorado. It's the most snow I've seen since we moved here in 2001. Thankfully, someone cleared my sidewalks for me, but I didn't have time to clear the driveway until Monday (the 8th of January, 2007). Working 12 hour shifts sure makes it difficult to do anything outside of work.

January 5, 2007

* Le Disko - Shiny Toy Guns: (single) The single of the week download from Apple's iTunes Store. Pop, punk, hip-hop rhythm, synthesizers. A formula for foot taping dance music. Makes you wanna groove.
* Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand: (16) This is the Special Edition version, containing four bonus tracks. Razor sharp lyrics, catchy drum beats and groovy guitar chords. Could you ask for more? A Scottish band that puts some pressure on the Brit pop I'm so fond of.
* I wanna be a cowboy - Boy's Don't Cry: (single) One version of a great song. Not the one I'm looking for (by the Vandals), but it's very catchy new wave disco noir from the 80's.

Other Games:
Over the last week, Kim and I managed to play one of our 'Other Games' (The Great Brain Robbery), and I bought a new game to add to that collection. As a result of these activities, I updated the Other Games page. I updated the content, and tweaked the page layout a bit. What are 'Other Games?'. Well, you'll just have to visit the page for the full story.

iPod Shuffle problems:
I received a 2nd generation iPod Shuffle as a Christmas gift, and I've had a few problems with it. I couldn't get the thing to stay mounted. It kept connecting, disconnecting, and generally misbehaving while I was trying to update my playlist. The other problem I was having was with the name of the device. During set-up, I named it "Robert Vaessen's Shuffle", but the desktop icon was showing up as 'ROBERT VAES'. Below are the solutions to those problems:

* Shuffle won't stay mounted: By checking the 'Enable disk use' option, I was able to force the iPod to remain mounted at all times. In order to use the iPod as a storage device, it has to stay mounted at all times. This will prevent continuous scanning by Norton, prevent the sound I hear every time it mounted and dismounted, and keep the icon on my desktop where I want it.
* iTunes won't launch: If the Shuffle is connected before I log in, iTunes will lock up, requiring disconnect of Shuffle and reboot of machine. This is very inconvenient. The only solution that I've found so far, is to connect the Shuffle after I've logged in.
* Limits on the iPod's icon name: Unfortunately, there's no easy solution to this problem. The reason that my Shuffle icon is in all caps, and looks like something out of MS-DOS.. Well, it is something from MS-DOS. In order to make the device more compatible with Windows computers, Apple has decided to restrict the disk format (for the iPod) to FAT32 format. That's a Windows disk format. This limited disk format prohibits the use of several characters, limits the icon names to ten characters, and forces it to all upper-case.

All of these problems make me glad I don't own a Windows machine. Unfortunately, in it's effort to make the iPod cheaper and more 'Windows friendly', they've made it less 'Mac like', and more buggy. I don't like it. I don't like it one bit. I think it's a bad idea. I want HFS disk format. I want my iPod to be an 'Apple' iPod, not a 'Windows 95' iPod.

January 1, 2007

Happy New Year!
Kim and I have had a very good year. Life is only as good as it gets, and this year has been one of the very best. Kim and stayed home and enjoyed a steak and lobster dinner. While we ate dinner, we watched a movie. As midnight struck we toasted the new year. We can only hope that it's as good as the last. Don't miss the "What's New?" entry for the end of 2006.

Holidays:
Kim and I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.

What's New?
What's New. That's what's new. This year I'm introducing a new method for implementing my "What's New?" web log. I'm going to run a monthly log from now on. That year long log became rather unwieldy, and the size of the file was causing plenty of problems. The new format is a new page for each month of the year. If you know anything about HTML, you might be asking 'Why not use frames?', the answer: Too complex/difficult to implement, not enough standardization in browser interpretation, and a lack of knowledge/experience in coding. I believe that independent pages for each month will work better than a framed implementation. I'm planning to implement a similar method with my movie reviews. It'll take a while to complete the project, but in the end, I believe that it'll result in a better experience for site visitors. Oh yeah, I'm still working on my movie reviews index, and there will likely be other changes coming in the new year.

Software favorites:
One of my favorite pieces of software recently released two updates. GraphicConverter moves ever forward. Two more steps towards perfection. Another product that's always getting better.

One of my favorite programs released two upgrades recently. GraphicConverter released a new beta version (5.9.4b2), and a full release version (5.9.4) in the past few days. GraphicConverter is an image converter and editor. A fantastic piece of shareware that is well worth the price ($35.00). I use it to convert image formats into web standard formats, to create and edit image maps and other graphics. I've been singing GC's praises for many years now, and I'm not sure I would do without it. The best part about GC is it's author. Thorsten Lemke is completely committed to his customer base. Constantly and Continuously responding to customer recommendations and bug reports. GC is a dynamic, evolving, application. Always on the cutting edge, an absolute must in any web developers tool box. At a fraction of PhotoShop's cost, this photo editor puts a huge wrench in your toolbox.
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