Self Portrait for January 2009.

Hey Hey, it’s 2009! I am hoping for the best and a better year than 2008.

Here’s my recap, and because my memory is crap I will use the internets to remember things that I did or that happened to me in 2008.

In January we had DrupalCampWisconsin and it was cool. Personally, I was still getting over the passing away of my Dad the month before…

I spent February recording songs for the 2008 RPM Challenge. That was a lot of fun… an experiment in forced creativity. I’m not 100% pleased with what I produced, but more pleased that I did it. I will do it again in 2009.

March brought us the first MilwaukeeDevHouse, held at Bucketworks… People showed up and had a good time. All good…

Then there was April… I worked on a fairly large project, a Behind the Scenes video which premiered at the Majestic Theater in Waukesha… that was a trip! It was also when I decided to produce a documentary film (see Balancing Act) of course to offset all that, my cat was diagnosed with skin cancer, and needed surgery I could not afford, but got anyway… Luckily, she’s been good since then (and the fingers are crossed!)

Up next… May! We ended up moving in May. That was a major pain in the ass, and I miss living near the lake, but we are in a better place now, and the neighbors are not completely insane.

Now June, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times… We took a nice trip out East to visit relatives and to take an actual vacation. (Gasp!) I know… me? vacation? Yes, it happened… I got to play in the ocean, and do other vacation stuff, it was all good… Until my birthday, the worst birthday I’ve ever had. We missed our flight, I had to buy new tickets, Emma lost her camera, we had to go to Chicago instead of Milwaukee and have Milt pick us up… Disaster Birthday. Oh also, Bucketworks got destroyed in the flood, just like others in Wisconsin (and elsewhere) so hey, good times all around!

In July I spent every waking minute working to make up for taking a vacation in June. I don’t remember much… Oh wait, I think I remember being on hold with the IRS for 2 and 1/2 hours. That was not cool… Taxes? Paid off? Estimate 2010.

August saw the gang at Z2 building a new office. Any minute we didn’t spend doing client work, we were on ladders, hanging drywall, painting, putting in flooring, and packing and moving things. The office turned out great, so that’s all good. Oh wait, August is also when I decided to volunteer at a non-profit to help them rebuild after storm damage and dislocated my elbow (and toe) when a ladder I was on slipped. This made August officially worse than June, and I still can’t straighten my arm, and I’ll probably be paying medical bills until 2010. August sucked it so bad.

September was very depressing. I was dealing with having only one working arm, and living in fear of the medical bills to come, and setting up our new office, and planning for BarCampMilwaukee3, and… ugh, it just sucked, ok?

BarCampMilwaukee3 happened in October, and that was good! I learned a lot, and met new friends, and made new connections, and Bucketworks held up fine (except for the toilet exploding at 2AM, which I fixed) and my arm was doing a little better (out of the splint but still weak and not straight.)

November brought me a DSLR camera, which I love, and we had MilwaukeeDevHouse3, and that was fun, and hey, it brought the United States an election, and change, and so on, so now I am getting hopeful, even though my arm still hurts. I sure do like taking pictures though. Oh, Maddy and I missed Thanksgiving because she was sick, so we sat on the couch all day.

Along comes December, the end of the year. December seemed to go really fast. I took a crazy trip to New York/New Jersey which was crazy, and maybe it’s just me and traveling that is crazy, and maybe I shouldn’t. The holidays came, and they were ok, the best part was spending time with family. And the Wii. Definitely the Wii.

So without the cancer, and the injured arm, and the medical bills I can’t pay, and the taxes I still owe, and losing things, it was an OK year I guess…

(Dear 2009, please kick 2008’s ass in the AWESOME! category.)

Atomic Records, a mainstay of Milwaukee music, is closing…. and it makes us sad. Not just us, but pretty much anyone who loves music, and has been a customer some time in the past 24 years. For many of us, who first went there in the early years, it was the way we got music. (There was Ear Waves, Atomic Records, and Rush-Mor… and soon just Rush-Mor will be left.)

I started going to UWM in 1987, and it seemed like a weekly occurrence to walk down to Atomic and see what was going on… what fliers were up, what zines where out, what records we could find. Yeah, records… on vinyl… or tapes, lots of tapes from local bands, or 7″s from punk bands from wherever… you get the idea.

So it’s with great sadness we say goodbye to Atomic. (I tried to save them, really I did…) I’m sure if I go through my collection of vinyl, tapes, and even CD’s I would find a good amount that I got from Atomic Records. It’s weird, but I even remember specific events, like seeing about John Makay (teenage runaway from high-school) right across the street when everyone we knew thought he was in California or something… or the time Scott Schoenbeck saw me there, but didn’t know it was me cuz I was wearing blue jeans or something weird like that… Just crazy stuff that doesn’t mean much, except to me.

Atomic, we will miss you… you played an important part of my life, and the lives of many in Milwaukee (and surrounding areas where there were no record stores) when we needed it… Thanks!

The Doctor and I have been showing the kid’s movies from the 1980’s every few weeks, and we call it “80’s Movie Night” of course…

So far we’ve seen such classics as The Muppet Movie, Gremlins, Ghostbusters (1 and 2), and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. (The kids aren’t ready for The Breakfast Club yet, and yes, they have seen The Goonies…)

My next suggestion is Meatballs (even though it came out in 1979) but if you’ve got a suggestion for a 1980’s movie, let me know, and we’ll add it to the list.

Still snowing in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. I will attempt to move some of the snow using my “snow flapper” but it’s electric and the long extension cord is in Maritime’s practice space in downtown Milwaukee. Also, the dentist called and canceled my appointment for today. Bummer. I still need to get to the bank, but may have to postpone that. Office Holiday Party is tonight, roads should be cleared up by then, and tomorrow shooting another interview for the documentary.

For all you people who like to freak out when it snow… now is the time to do it.

I finally feel like I am getting into a comfort zone shooting with the Nikon D40 now… The shot above was taken yesterday morning as it was freezing cold, along Highway 67 in Dousman, near the Bark River. I just dropped the kids off, and on the way to work, it looked amazing so I took a shot. Oddly enough, I took about a dozen, but the first one turned out the best.

Also, PortalWisconsin.org used it on their home page on December 5th, 2008. I liked that so much, I took a screen shot of it… :)

Who ya gonna call?

It’s been a full year since I got an Asus Eee PC, so I thought I would review…

We can start with my first impressions of the Eee PC.

Throughout the year the little computer has served me well. It’s almost always in my backpack and ready to use. Being just 2 pounds is a definite plus for something you always carry around. Lightweight is definitely a top feature. As for battery life, well… I really expected better. With wifi on, I typically see under 3 hours, which isn’t great, but again, small computer = small battery, so I can live with that. The power adapter isn’t too big, so I always carry that around as well. The battery does seem to drain more than it should in sleep mode, so I typically turn if off when not in use.

Connecting via wifi was only an issue at my own house where I had a weird setup (which I’ve since fixed) and anywhere else it worked fine. One annoying issue is disconnecting an external monitor/projector. The Eee PC thinks it’s still there and you can’t see the parts of the screen you want to because it assumes some higher rez display is there, it’s annoying, and worse case, requires a reboot to fix. (I’m used to the way the Mac dynamically deals with monitors being connected/disconnected and does the right thing.)

As I wanted a unit that “just worked” (as much as a Linux computer can) I stuck with the default Xandros OS on it. I contemplated trying Ubuntu a few times, but things like “recompile the kernel for wifi to work” or other such warnings turned me off. Besides, for the way use the thing, I didn’t think I’d see much benefit from a different OS.

So after one year how am I liking the Eee PC? There have been a few small issues, but none I couldn’t deal with. For the price, it was worth if. Of course today you can get a much better little PC for even less money. It served me well through Web414 meetings, and BarCamps, and anywhere else I needed a computer on the go. (Unless I needed Mac-specific applications, in which case, it was totally useless.) The screen is small. I’m glad to see that 1024 pixels wide is what the newer machines are using, as 800 pixels just doesn’t cut it. All in all, I’ve been pleased with the Asus Eee PC. (I’ll be following up with another post specifically about how I hosed it all up.)

A sewing kit is a handy thing to have if you need to repair something, or tie something, or poke a hole in something…

Hey, we did it…. another MilwaukeeDevHouse event.

Bucketworks hosted about 30 to 40 people throughout the night, and besides such craziness as “ghost riding the whip” and “knitting” we all survived unharmed.

We had a project board that listed what people were working on (note: photo needed!) and we had food and drink and what not to keep us going. The event was sponsored by Paladin Web Services, and addition food/drink was provided by 2XL Networks, SmallSharpTools.com and Ashe Dryden.

My own personal project was not as successful as I had hoped. I did succeed in getting gPhoto working on the Eee PC with a Nikon D70, as well as a Nikon D300, but my own Nikon D40 did not work, due to it being a newer model, so I spent much of my time trying to get a newer version of gPhoto installed… to no avail.

Besides my setbacks, I had a good time, and met some cool people. It was a great atmosphere to just hang out and chill, as well as get some work done.

We’d like to do it again, and if you’d like to make it happen, get it touch with me about sponsoring the next MilwaukeeDevHouse event.

It’s almost time for MilwaukeeDevHouse3… it’s happening Friday, November 21st, 2008 at Bucketworks in Milwaukee, Wisconsin…

So what is a DevHouse? It’s a hackathon event that combines serious and not-so-serious productivity with a fun and exciting party atmosphere…

People show up and either have an idea of a project they want to work on, or look for ideas, or other people to work on things with… But it’s not all serious work. It’s a party atmosphere, so you can hang out and just chill with other folks, discuss whatever, do whatever…

Since it’ll be at Bucketworks, you should also be able to use the FabLab to build something (maybe a desk?) or just create some art… (I’m actually going to be working on getting the screen printing machine up and running for part of the night.)

The main project I want to work on is exploring gPhoto, which can be used to control over 1000 cameras via connecting to a Linux computer with a USB cable. I want to use my Eee PC as an intervalometer, but also see what we can do at Bucketworks using the software and digital cameras…

So come down to MilwaukeeDevHouse3 at Bucketworks. It’s a free event, put on by Web414 and sponsored by Paladin Web Services. Food and drink and hacking and geeks… what could be better?

(Update: I got gPhoto running on Mac OS X… oh, and on the Eee PC too, it was much easier than I thought it would be.)

I picked up The Production Assistant’s Pocket Handbook recently, and I pretty much read it all in one sitting. I’m really not that interested in becoming a P.A., but the book sounded neat, and as a PDF it was just $3 from LuLu.

Caleb, the author, has a web site for it which you can check out.

I had my last doctor visit for my elbow dislocation follow-up recently. I had stopped going to occupational therapy before that because I can’t afford it. Luckily the doctor says it’s looking good, and should heal up well, and I should get back my full range of motion eventually. (I’ve been trying to do my own therapy, but I skip the exercises too much.) The doctor did warn me to still take it somewhat easy and avoid any Winter sports like sledding, skiing, snowboarding, ice skating… anything where I could fall and smack my elbow, or get it pulled back and hyper extended. Sucks! And seriously, he couldn’t add shoveling to that list?

So in case you are keeping track, I got injured on August 23rd, 2008 (and again 4 days after that) and then got a crazy splint and then got that off and now I’m on the road to recovery. But the road is long, and the climb will be steep…. but we will never surrender, even in the face of Armageddon!

Things are gonna change I can feel it…

This is the first election I’ve really felt that things are going to change. For so many years I was convinced that voting was always the choice between the lesser of two evils, and that no matter who won, it would always be the old rich white guy.

I’ve never really been loyal to my sorrowful country, Blind patriotism always leaves me feeling ill, and after years of buying American made cars and seeing them fall apart, I got sick of it, and started to buy Japanese cars. But in the past few months, I started to turn… I’d actually like to see the U.S. build better cars, and I’d like to someday own one.

I still like to think of myself as a citizen of the world, and not some mindless flag waving fool, but maybe it’s OK to be a bit proud of this country. Sure, the U.S. has done a lot of evil things, but I like to think we’ve done some good things as well, and can do better thing in the future.

Anyway, I’m feeling very strange right now… sort of happy, sort of anxious, and sort of in a state of confusion.

I continue to hope for a better tomorrow…

Knellotron told me to check out Amie Street, an innovative music site where you pay for music with prices that correlate to an artist’s popularity. So I checked it out…

I put my album "Snowbound" from the 2008 RPM Challenge up there to see what would happen. So far it’s a bargain at 27 cents! It was free until Gabe came along and recommended 3 of the songs… Still, I think 27 cents is a real bargain, but snap it up now before the prices goes up!

I like the concept of Amie Street, where you get rewarded with low prices by finding new (and unpopular artists) and the artists get rewarded proportionately to their popularity. I told a friend of mine she could fine unpopular music for cheap and she got really excited, saying “I love unpopular music!”

I managed to get 4 albums of surf music for less than $3, and 3 of them were free. One of them is actually pretty good too.

Take a look at Amie Street if you are interested in finding new music. Hey, you can even look at my artist page if you want to…