blacstag

blacstag @ 2008-04-27T00:19:00

2008-04-27T04:19:29Z

you are mediumauqamarine
#66CDAA

Your dominant hues are cyan and green. Although you definately strive to be logical you care about people and know there's a time and place for thinking emotionally. Your head rules most things but your heart rules others, and getting them to meet in the middle takes a lot of your energy some days.

Your saturation level is medium - You're not the most decisive go-getter, but you can get a job done when it's required of you. You probably don't think the world can change for you and don't want to spend too much effort trying to force it.

Your outlook on life is brighter than most people's. You like the idea of influencing things for the better and find hope in situations where others might give up. You're not exactly a bouncy sunshine but things in your world generally look up.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Spring has sprung

2008-04-19T13:49:54Z

Well finishing another week in New York. Since the city is short of flora and fauna, we have to look for other signs of the changing of the seasons. Observing closely, one will notice few jackets and sweaters, lower neck lines, higher heals and the migratory pattern of hem lines going north. It is a beautiful city.

Saw one of the most amazing things on Monday evening walking to the hotel room. A fire broke out somewhere around 36th and 7th on the second floor of one of the buildings. When I got there, there had to be over 30 fire trucks I could see including no less then 8 meat wagons plus additional support vehicles. I could not count the vehicles going up and down 36th. The flames were out but the movement of 40 or 50 firemen were visible in massive spotlights over the 2nd and 3rd burned out floors.

I always wondered why people made a big deal about the NYFD. I know 911 was the biggest disaster we have faced in this country and they were the team that responded. But there are brave heros all over this country that risk there like and deserve the same recognition. While that is true to a point, the reality is that comparing the NYFD to a fire department is like comparing the local sheriff to the Marines. It was awe inspiring to watch these men and women work.

By the way, the next morning, the building was washed and temporary windows were in place, completing the facade for another day of business in the city.

unbelievable.

So, when after my first cache solo in the city. Let me tell you, this city brings on some new challenges to this game. I went after the Bryant Park cache. This cache has you find a benchmark on the New York Metropolitan Library which backs up on the park. Once you have the benchmark, you are give some relative measurements to find the cache.

Remember how I said spring had made it to the city. Well they set up a temporary bar for people to enjoy the park. You know where they set it up? Yup, on the benchmark and there were hundreds of people there. So I took a pass on this one. I was about to attempted the "Empire Strikes Back" cache when I got a call from a horde of panic blacksmiths. Oh well, next time.

Also this week, I was offered a full time position as part of our New York team. I have been kind of hesitant to make this jump, not because of the work or responsibility, but because I am paid well where I am and folks in CA have be comfortable to tell me I make a lot compared to the others on my team. Well, sat down with my new boss who basically said that I am under paid, he will get me a bonus for last quarter and functionally gave me a 33% raise. This does not suck.

So I am now work in Manhattan. No, I do not want to move to the city. I will be talking with the ex of my Master smith who wants to move to the city and offer to sub lease a room from her if she moves to a place interesting to me. I will commute into the city and stay in that room when I am there. While I do expect to be in the office every week, I do not expect to be there for the whole week. We have a lot of remote work to be done and that is the same from MA as it is from NY.

OK, OK, OK, planes do not suck completely...

2008-03-31T23:16:59Z

It was cool to meet someone and have a conversation for the quick trip between Columbus and Cincinnati. She was bright and happy, which I think was actually the effect of stress overload. She is planning to get married to an older gentleman that has several older children. The ones she talked about were 17 and 23 and living at home. If she was she was in her 30s she did not look it. She knew she was going to have a rough time, especially with the 17 year old, to be part of their house, but she knew what she wanted todo and was traveling to go do it. It was refreshing.

I was still grumping about the whole plane/train thing and she told me about Ernest Warther (http://www.warthers.com/carving.htm) with a passion and excitement of a true connoisseur. She gave me a great gift by letting me see this through her eyes.

I did not get her name, but I wanted to say thank you and to share the gifts she gave to me.

The belt does nothing...

2008-03-31T22:58:13Z

If anyone ever asks you if you want to go somewhere by train or by flight and it will be the same price, there is only one correct answer.

The TRAIN.

I know everyone has heard the stories or has had experiences worse than mine. But damn, planes are not worth the harassment and the discomfort. Not to mention the overall awkwardness of "security". I am happy I have lost a little weight, but taking my belt off for "security" is becoming a logistical challenge. It is tough to unpack and pack my luggage with one hand since the other hand is holding up my pants.

I should take a lesson from the BlueFly commercial, but I am not that sexy or that female......well.

*SIGH*

Then they put me on a small plane in a window seat then decided to keep us at the gate for over an hour while they did some maintenance. joy.

For sukima_tenchi

2008-03-15T15:20:08Z

Using terms other then practical (ie spiritual, mythological, metaphorical, etc.) how would you describe some differences between your favorite computer languages

Fantastic question. Instead of using you adjectives I would like to give you the ideas/images invokes by the languages I have touched. This may or my not mean that I have programmed in the language or that I am any good with it.

Assembler: This is the language of the ancients, the old ones. Theirs is the oldest magic and the magic that trumps all others.

Fortran, Pascal The forgotten tongues. Great cultures that have hit a mystical end. While the idea was great and powerful they could not keep up with the evolution of the world.

Cobol (Yeah, that's right, you heard me) Gaelic. It is not a forgotten language and it is the most effective tool in its place. A lot of history and tradition that is still important today.

C The language of the common heros. These are the construction workers, police, fireman, EMTs and soldiers. This is the language that makes our world. This is the unsung magic of the everyday and the heros that no one knows about.

Perl This is the language of wonder goo. Perl fits in all the places that nothing else does. It is malleable, strong and intuitive. I has its costs in that it is not durable or scalable, but makes the most amazing things fit together.

PHP, Python The next generation of perl. The compromise of C and Perl.

Mark up Languages (HTML, XML, SGML) Babble. As in the ancient common language. Everyone speaks it and can understand it.

Small Talk Thought stuff. A language of pure idea.

C++ Chaos. The language of a mob.

Java Mass productions. If languages were cheap and common they would be Java. A language that has no music in it just the drone and din of one more "good enough" thing being made.

Objective C What Java should have been. The next generation of Small Talk that is more accessible and malleable to the world today. Like its predecessor, limited on where it can be spoke, a pure language of ideas.

Ruby If OO language had a Perl, this would be it's Python. This is the new generation. The inspiration and youth.

APL The language of the Platypus. APL is my first love. As you can see I am geeky enough to list procedural languages then OO languages. APL was the evolutionary dead end of Matrix computing. It is so foreign to anything else today that it is truly alien.

This was wonderful. I think I might revisit this a couple of times. I think the language you were looking for is in my application of these languages not the languages themselves. I will repost from that perspective soon.

Thank you

For ashkes_muse

2008-03-14T21:11:05Z

How did you get into computers, and specifically the job you have now?

Technology has always been second nature to me. Both of my parent were deep into technology starting in the early 60's. My father was in the artificial intelligence labs at IBM and my mother lead software development software teams. This gave me access to high end technology for as log as I can remember. I remember several times when baby sitters could not be found, I would go with my parents to datacenters for installation and migration of new hardware and software.

This got me understanding and using mainframes when I was six and programming when I was 8. When I was 10, my Father had early access to the first IBM PC and my hard core hacking had begun.

So I finally get a colleage job with Dow Jones, doing simple work at their Charlotte press. A manager said that he wish he could track jobs (pages) through the pre-press process. I said ok and built a system to do it. This is want got me on the team at Knight Ridder, converting the Charlotte facility from Cold Type to Soft Type. Knight Ridder is where I teamed up with my hardware salesman and we went off and started an Internet Service Provider. In 6 months we captured our market and we were purchased by the local phone company. Woot, I am now a professional hacker with access to the phone switches. This gave me the opportunity to lead the technology team at EMusic. This was definately the high point. We had a great idea and we were implimenting it the right way and riding the boom. The problem came when the money dried up and we had to sell to vivendi. While we had aquired several properties and combined them (EMusic, Good Noise, IUMA, RollingStone.com and Downbeat.com), Vivendi wanted to break us apart. This caused me to become redundant as my VP had to choose one of these properties to stay on the team. Being out of work in the San Fransico area is not a pretty thing, especially for about a year. We had a chance to move to Mass and I ended up working for the hardware compay from above. That company was sold to the owner's sister and she sold to an investor of the original compay.

So that is the history. I guess a shorter answer is that growing up with the technology made it common place. I do not know if that turned me into a big idea, analitical, abstract thinker or if I was all of that and found technology a place where I could play and create with thought stuff.

For miashell

2008-03-14T12:05:10Z

what would your dream house be like?

I would play this game all the time when I was growing up.

The easy answer is, centered on the kitchen.

I have always wanted to create a space where several households came together and formed something greater. Today some people call this idea co-housing where people have both private and common space. So my dream house would be about half a dozen comfortable private houses surrounding several common buildings. Again, centered on a professional level kitchen that opens up onto a sunken great room. I would like a bath house with showers that would put the one in the hotel here to shame and indoor and outdoor tubs. Good workshops for wood and steel. I would want common office space with a small technology area. There should also be a couple of apartments for friends and family. This whole space should be deep in the woods but no more than 90 minutes from an airport. I am not too worried about the style of the architecture, but it would need to be something with some personality. I think I also would like a roof high up, where folks could gather and lookout over the space.

Thank you, this was fun and brought up a lot of good memories. Happy to share more sometime.

For fire_spirit1

2008-03-14T02:50:35Z

What got you interested in blacksmithing? (Is blacksmithing a word?)

If blacksmithing is not a word, we can make it our own special word.

I have always had a fascination with metal work. Wanted to take classes in high school, but was always discouraged by parents and teachers from learning "trade skills".

When EMusic was sold I was laid off and could not find another job. I moved to Massachusetts for a job I really did not care about. I was depressed and looked back at everything I had created; the blood, sweat, tears and time invested in something changing the world and realized that it all went away. There was nothing to show for it and that no one would know my part in it.

So I wanted to be positive and get out of my funk. I needed to create and this time I wanted to create something with some permanence. So I looked around and saw a craft school teaching blacksmithing in Brookfield. I was still fairly new to Mass and told myself that is near by, I will do it. One should not get too excited too quickly and one should find out what state the town of Brookfield is in before one pays for classes.

So there I was in Brookfield, CT learning from an old school smith and a guy my age doing a lot of innovating things. This time got me really excited about me and gave me two fantastic perspectives on smithing with a lot of great skills. I also made a friend and have been working with the younger of the smiths ever since. While time is tough to find, it is a real joy every time I can fire up the forge and create something real, practical and aesthetic from fire and rocks and know that when I am done it will always be there, even if I go away from it.

For pinksbrat

2008-03-13T11:54:24Z

What is your favorite holiday, and why? :)

This is a tough one for me. All of the Sabats are very important to me. Both the practicality and the mysticism surrounding them. From the wealth and generosity of Lughnasahd to the creativity and passion of Imbolc. Samhain is a time for me to remember and appreciate everything I have and Beltain gives me hope and excitement and who does not love a pile of sweaty people writhing in pleasure.

My favorite has to be my holiday. As you know, I was born on the day without a name, the darkest day, the day of the Stag. Yule will occasionally fall on my birthday, a celebration of people surviving together, the building of family and community.

What the hell

2008-03-12T12:28:48Z

Stolen from lil_laurel and a lot of cool people:

Everyone has things they blog about.

Everyone has things they don't blog about.

Some of us rarely blog.

Challenge me out of my comfort zone by asking me about something I don't blog about, but you'd like to hear about, and I'll write a post about it. Ask for anything: latest movie watched, last book read, political leanings, thoughts on lima beans, favorite type of underwear, favorite classical artist, etc.

Repost in your own journal so that we can all learn more about each other! I promise I'll answer the questions publically.

meme day

2008-03-05T13:05:13Z

yup, another meme

2008-03-05T12:47:08Z

Your Score: Tigger

You scored 15 Ego, 9 Anxiety, and 16 Agency!

And as they went, Tigger told Roo (who wanted to know)
all about the things that Tiggers could do.

"Can they fly?" asked Roo.

"Yes," said Tigger, "they're very good flyers, Tiggers
are. Strornry good flyers."

"Oo!" said Roo. "Can they fly as well as Owl?"

"Yes," said Tigger. "Only they don't want to."

"Why don't they want to?" well, they just don't like it
somehow."

Roo couldn't understand this, because he thought it
would be lovely to be able to fly, but Tigger said it was
difficult to explain to anybody who wasn't a Tigger himself.

You scored as Tigger!

ABOUT TIGGER: Tigger is the newest addition to the Hundred Acre Wood, and he lives with Kanga and Roo, because Roo's strengthening medicine turned out to be the thing that Tiggers like best. Tigger is bouncy and confident -some of his friends think he is a little TOO bouncy and confident, but attempts to unbounce him tend to be fruitless.

WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT YOU: You are a positive and confident person. You feel capable of dealing with anything and everything, and funnily enough, you usually ARE. You don't worry about much, and you love to go out and find new adventures.

Your friends and family might sometimes be a little exasperated by your boundless enthusiasm. You don't like to admit your mistakes, and when you find yourself in over you head, you tend to bluff your way out of things. You would be surprised, however, at how happy the people around you would be if you would actually admit to a mistake. It would make you seem more human, somehow.

Link: The Deep and Meaningful Winnie-The-Pooh Character Test written by wolfcaroling on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test
View My Profile(wolfcaroling)

oil up the froggies

2008-02-29T14:05:48Z

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

All the cool kids are doing it

2007-09-21T21:02:12Z

1. Computer Engineer

2. Landscape Architect
3. Set Designer
4. Lighting Technician
5. Recording Engineer
6. Costume Designer

7. Multimedia Developer
8. Broadcast Technician
9. Avionics Tech
10. Pilot
11. Money Manager
12. Helicopter Pilot
13. Certified Public Accountant
14. Computer Support Person
15. Research Analyst (Financial)
16. Actuary
17. Mathematician
18. Water Treatment Plant Operator
19. Corporate / Commercial Lawyer
20. Economist
21. Website Designer
22. Special Effects Technician
23. Enlisted Member of the Armed Forces
24. Oceanographer
25. Film Processor
26. Industrial Designer
27. Power Plant Operator
28. Purchaser
29. Venture Capitalist
30. Environmental Consultant
31. Interior Designer
32. Desktop Publisher
33. Computer Programmer

blacstag @ 2007-08-05T12:34:00

2007-08-05T16:34:27Z

What Form Would Your Patronus Take? (With 10 Excellent Results & Pictures)

Your Patronus would be an Eagle!
Take this quiz!

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blacstag @ 2007-05-15T12:45:00

2007-05-15T16:45:48Z

You are The Magician

Skill, wisdom, adaptation. Craft, cunning, depending on dignity.

Eleoquent and charismatic both verbally and in writing,
you are clever, witty, inventive and persuasive.

The Magician is the male power of creation, creation by willpower and desire. In that ancient sense, it is the ability to make things so just by speaking them aloud. Reflecting this is the fact that the Magician is represented by Mercury. He represents the gift of tongues, a smooth talker, a salesman. Also clever with the slight of hand and a medicine man - either a real doctor or someone trying to sell you snake oil.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

My Xmas Stocking

2006-12-19T13:41:28Z

Xmas Stocking

leave a gift for blacstag

get your stocking