I’ve been plagued for roughly my entire youth and adult life with the desire to create. I found out quick I’m definitely not good at drawing or any like form, I’m decent at playing guitar and singing but I’ve never had the poetic streak to write halfway decent lyrics, I don’t really have an eye for photography, I haven’t tried my hand at motion film but I just don’t get the vibe, I can sorta write but not in a compelling way that will get you to read past page 10, and … hmm I think I ran out of art forms. Well what I’m mostly good at is taking a problem given an innumerable amount of variables, and perceiving the solution, then executing it. So what is that? It feels like creating, it’s not an art form I guess, but sometimes it feels that way. But what really is it, and how can I channel this creative bug I have through it?

From an early age I knew that what I was good at was something like what I now refer to as Sherlock-Holmes-Skills. And also early on I realized that the most logical career path for those skills was either software, mechanical, or electrical design. I mean, they have the word “design” in it, that should assuage my creative urge, right? But when you look up “List of artistic mediums” in wikipedia none of those things really fit. So I dabbled over the years in all those things I listed before. I was met with, not what I would call success, but barely something you would “put up on the fridge”. Early in my adult life I kind of “fell” into the website development industry. I didn’t wake up one day and say “I’m going to build websites!”, it just happened over the course of a couple years. I never finished school, mostly as a casualty of my successful career, so I effectively never gave myself the chance to really find that perfect niche for me.

I think though most people don’t find that niche. And if it seems like I loathe my job, I certainly don’t. I get to go into work every day and effectively put puzzles together. It’s quite enjoyable. But more often than not at the end of the day, as accomplished as I might feel, I often don’t feel like I’ve created something.

So, that’s a lot of words to say: I haven’t found that medium for myself yet. As crazy as websites get, I don’t think they’ll ever fulfill that creative need completely. A lot of me is saying it’s video games, to be a cog in the creative process of making games. If you asked me 6 years ago, I would have said “yes oh yes”. Ask me today, and I’m not so sure. I’ve got friends in the industry, and it seems like they worked so hard to get into that one company, or that one job, and now it’s all about making more money or working at a more plush company. Not many of them still have that passion. They complain about all the things I complain about in that it seems like my job is the same as their job.

Don’t get me wrong I really want to be part of that game-creation-machine. If I wasn’t so happily married to my current company, I would be taking pay cuts, going back to school, and even possibly moving my family, to land that first job at a game developer. But what I don’t know anymore is if video game development would really 100% satisfy that itch I have to create. I don’t know if it would be all that I think it would be. But maybe it is.

Our lives are complex.  Our jobs are complex.  In fact, I’d be willing to bet that your job is more complex than most of the jobs at NASA in the 60′s.  We’ve got project schedules, implementation goals, deadlines, deadlines and more deadlines.  Business is moving faster and pushing harder than ever.  Fortunately, we have a bevy of tools to help us stay on top of things…right?

Because I couldn’t execute on a project without Microsoft Project, and I couldn’t get through my day without an inbox and a ticketing system and about a thousand ever-so-slightly-tweaked drafts of this plan or that diagram, all piled in a corner to make room for this other diagram or that other plan which was, for the moment, higher priority, oh and you do remember which revision was the most recent, right?  After all you did print five copies in 20 minutes last week and now it’s Tuesday and you need final sign-off on the updated diagram and business plan before you can launch Phase 1, and the meeting is upstairs but there’s a new high priority ticket that just came into the system, so maybe if you just….

It feels like it’s easier to reach critical mass these days.  All the tools that are supposed to be making it easier to communicate and easier to stay on top of things can take on lives of their own, and before you know it you’re buried by the very things that are meant to save you from ever having been buried again.

I just watched an exceptional speech on Inbox Management by Merlin Mann, I highly recommend it for anyone who, like me, has no idea what’s at the bottom of their inbox, or how to make sense of it.

The video got me thinking about productivity pitfalls.  The biggest one for me is this: often, I get lost in the woods.  Instead of identifying the path and then doing the work of putting one foot in front of the other, I’m overwhelmed by the size of the trees, the density of the forest, or the roughness of the terrain.  I seize up, and where I could be taking the first small step of many, I only stand and stare at the massive task in front of me, as if my only options are to finish it all at once or to quit altogether.

What are your productivity pitfalls?

It’s been exactly two months since I logged into the World of Warcraft. Under any normal circumstances “real” people would high-five, or more likely, fist-bump me for such a feat of self control. But for me, every time I think about it, I get a little sad.

See I had (have? what do i say there?) a friend, more like a brother, and we shared a lot of things. The same birth year, the same name (Jonathan), we shared our parents, our siblings, our church, we both married girls who at one time were best friends, we shared our group of friends (the Grey Hats), and we shared “gaming”. It’s almost silly now to think that of all the things Jonathan Glyer and I shared, the one we focused on the most was games. It is clear to me that “gaming” forged the bond I had with my brother, however lame you may or may not think that is, it was a strong one.

We started with games and we ended with games. I met Jonathan in 2001. I began attending his church, and somehow our nerd radar found each other out, because within a month we were together spending $2.50/hr at “Cyberzone” pwning n00bs in counterstrike. That was 9 years ago. From then on I could write my “gaming” history side-by-side with my “Jon” history. We constantly talked about what was coming out, what we liked, what we didn’t. We frequently “LAN”ed at his or my parents house (his house aptly named “1.0″).

The “golden age” culminated, I think, when the crew rented an apartment together in downtown Fullerton, lovingly called: “the 2.0″. Three of us were working, and Jon was finishing college. It was the best of times. I remember Jon, out of all the guys,  was the most anal about cleanliness. We all snickered when he’s get upset that the sponge was left in the sink or when he’d complain about “David’s side of the room” (David and Jon shared a room). It was that year, in that apartment, that we all began playing World of Warcraft, it was 2005.

Over the next two years our group began “falling apart”. Well maybe just from my -emo- perspective. Couples broke up, couples married then turtled (guilty), and people just started walking different paths. Then Jon moved to Seattle. I never really talked to him about it, one of the few actual regrets I now carry around. I was hurt, like a kid in a divorce, I blamed myself. But I was stupid not to broach the subject with him. I think he knew how I felt, but with Jon you never really could be certain what he thought until you asked him. With him leaving it was one last final blow to the crew. David and I still stayed in close touch, but mostly everyone found their own paths.

So there I was, Jon 1,200 miles away, my other best friends were having kids or living in completely different worlds. I myself moved 30 miles away from the people that cared for me. And then an awesome thing happened. I don’t really know if it was a commitment Jon put on his own plate, or if he was just lonely for his friends in California or what, but within months of him moving to Seattle we started playing games and talking at least every other day, it was 2007.

For two full years I was able to spend time with my brother, Jon, over this silly internet, with these silly games. Thinking back, if I didn’t have that, all we would have had were the visits. Visits can be great, but the level friendship I had with Jon relied on constant contact. Over those two years we accomplished the following:

• Won WW2 for the allies, sometimes the nazis, 100x over
• Killed tens of thousands of Zombies
• Saved the middle east from the East, or the West, sometimes both
• Conquered the future with Space Marines sometimes a Masterful Chief and sometimes a big Jerk
• Captured and held the Fortress with our Team
• And most of all, we raided countless keeps, castles, dungeons, and lairs. Striking down evil and passing out the loot

After all that: I would count myself blessed for the time I spent with Jon. But I count myself doubly blessed, because on June 9th, 2009 at 10:53pm we started a podcast, and I’m proud to say Jon named it. Here’s the record of inception:

Jonathan Glyer: oh jeeeez. how about, All the Good Names Were Taken. I’d say Geek Cred but it’s impossible to say.
me: afk 1 min
Jonathan Glyer: Nerdageddon
David: Nerdlinger? haha
Jonathan Glyer: Borked
David: http://www.geekcred.net/
Jonathan Glyer: The Podcast for Dorks.
David: haha
Jonathan Glyer: we could even go with Borkt
David: Borq’t? haha Borked is workable
Jonathan Glyer: hehe wow ya, something with it
David: it’s just, such a common term
Jonathan Glyer: dorkcast, taken of course. This is Geektown
David: hahahahaha
me: sounds like toontown, maybe because I was just there
David: You missed Borked, jon
me: I saw. Borkedcast

As “The Borkedcast” we recorded 20 podcasts before Jon’s accident. The podcasts may be entertainment for you, but for me they were like being back in “the 2.0″ in downtown Fullerton. Sipping on a beverage and talking about stuff with the guys I cared most about in life.

The last I spoke to Jon was two nights before he died. We played World of Warcraft. It was good.

Here’s where I get emo: 20 recordings wasn’t enough. Countless raids, dungeons, zombies, and nazis wasn’t enough. 9 years wasn’t enough. Living with him for a year wasn’t enough. It’s been 2 months since he died, and it’s not enough to stop me from crying my brains out writing this last paragraph. I miss my friend so much. Everything is a little less bright in my world because I can’t share it with him. As much as the pain hurts right now, I never want to forget it, or really lose it. It’s a reminder of all the things I wrote in this blog, and so much more. Jonathan Glyer was kind of a big deal, I’ll never forget that, and I’ll never let you forget that, it’s the least I can do.

- the rev

David posted his thoughts on Jon G here: http://www.davideagle.net/2010/02/20/jonathan-glyer

Yesterday, January 29th 2010: GreyHats, the brotherhood of few, lost a pillar. Jonathan Glyer, Tesson / Archer / Ember / Jonga / Jay took a fatal blow in an accident at work. We are all reeling in shock. I’ll leave you with a reposting of a message his wife wrote this morning:

His Facebook (public now): http://facebook.com/jglyer

His Twitter: http://twitter.com/tesson

An amazing man. The best husband a girl could ask for. Yesterday I lost my true love. I had him for ten years, three-and-a-half of which were spent as his wife.

Jonathan was tragically killed yesterday while doing what he loved, metal working. Something went wrong and he was killed instantly. Please be at peace knowing that Jon did not feel any pain. Jon woke up in an amazingly good mood. He made eggs for breakfast (which he never does on a work day) and was bright eyed and bushy tailed the whole drive there! Jonathan was working on his lathe, which is his favorite machine to use. He was proud of the project he was working on. Jonathan’s last day with us was a great one and I know he would have no regrets if he were to look back on his own life.

We all had the honor of having Jonathan around for 27 wonderful years, and he is now at home with his Eternal Father, Jesus Christ. Please rest well knowing that Jon is in a far better place and I’m sure loving every minute of it.

I have made his Facebook page public so anyone can friend him or write to him. I will post through my own Facebook as well as his to keep you all updated on the memorial service. For those friends and family in California who cannot make it to Washington, we will also have a service in Southern California.

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers.

(Please feel free to send this to anyone who knew Jonathan)

I went to Comic-Con, not really expecting to get much other than a fun time walking around the booths. However I was pleasantly surprised by the following awesomeness:

Autographed “Penny Arcade 2″ by the PA boys.

This was a SPECIAL treat. I love all things Mike Mignola, and was not expecting to even see him at the con. As we were about to leave, we walked by a booth, and I saw a few guys milling about in front of Mike! I walked over, cursing myself for not bringing my Hellboy vol. 1 with my anyway. Luckily he had some special ’08 Con prints, and I was able to get this personalized. Horrah!

This was another special treat. Lego + WB teamed up and had people visit 3 booths to play the upcoming Batman LEGO game. Each booth gave us a part of Joker. Once each was collected you turned Joker in to get this box and Batman! Cool!

Anyway, Thanks Tim for bringing us!

and it was pretty interesting. mainly, I’ve found that when you expect it to react in a certain way, it already does (ie. muting conversations). we’ll see how it grows on the web and me. hit me up! http://www.plurk.com/user/revoked

Ever since Freakonomics stopped putting their full-text of articles into their RSS feed, I pretty much stopped reading their well written articles. However, that is not why I am writing this post today.

Today, I did click into a post (this one: http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/a-nuclear-president/) It spoke of how the Nuclear option is becoming more and more of a possibility for America’s (and the world’s) future power resource. I for one am “a-ok-lets-go” on the Nuclear solution (until we figure out perpetual energy, yeah.. anyway..), however that’s also not why I wrote this post.

What the Nuclear subject got me thinking about was the affect that the lack of energy will do to our lives. In my opinion this change would initially center around transportation. Over the years, change in transportation has always come about because of growing population, however this coming change will be caused by dwindling access to cheap energy. Normally you would come to the conclusion “well you have to get from one place to another don’t you?”, I mean “everyone has a car payment” right? Death, Taxes, and a Car Payment. Well, what if the only reason you had to deal with transportation was to get food.

Consider this, digital communications has come so far, so fast, that nobody seems to be completely caught up with it. We have not only plain-jane voice communications (zzz boring), but a myriad of video communication options, and excellent text communication. On top of all of this, we have had (for YEARS!) secure point to point communications. What does all of this add up to? In my opinion, a move forward in not only employers allowing their employees to “tele-commute”, but also friends and family communicate more and more via ip communications. I mean, it’s already happening!

I recently had a discussion with a friend who is now allowed to tele-commute once a week, and she works at a pretty well known company. I can only see this spreading as the cost of transportation goes up in not only time, but now cold hard cash, at dramatic rates (see here and here).

Ok, so we’ve all seem the movies. Video communications has been around since a Space Odyssey, and so far either retail offerings have been craptastic, or lackluster. Well, what happens when it costs you $15 or $20 to drive 30 miles to see your family? Maybe you’ll just call them on the videophone this week (hey nintendo, make a video-phone on the Wii dangit!). Or how about going to work? What about all those people driving over 50mi a day to work? It will become completely unaffordable, forcing employers to allow their employees to work from home.

So, what does all of this lead to? It leads to me to the conclusion that I with have a job for a long time, that’s what. At-home workers means more and more ip-based communications, from text/speach/video, to asset and document sharing, all types of collaboration software from planning your next housing development, to planning your next company party; it will all need to be online. In fact, I’ve seen a few condo/townhomes lately with secluded office counterparts to the main house. I think we’ll see that more prominent in the next 10 years. And THAT to me is exciting. Screw jet-packs! The internet ftw!

ps. if you want to see an excellent portrayal of a digital-based future, check this out.

So, last summer we cancelled cable. We had gone three months with watching a total of 3 hours of entertainment. With our television costing ~$100/month, that was $100/hr for those three hours. That didn’t add up for me, so we started The Grand Experiment. That experiment being a media-centered couple, removing the few hundred odd channels of 24/7 media from our lives. The idea was, with that extra $100/mo replace it with purchasing digital copies of our media and streaming them to the television, in addition to purchasing dvds of shows.

This went well for the first couple of months. The downside was that not all of our shows were in digital format we could (legally) watch on our tv. So we thought hey, download the media, then we’ll make sure to buy the dvds when they are released. This sounded like a good idea, however in practice we didn’t realize the toll it would take on us.

First of all, we were required to use less-than-desirable means to procure said content (ie. Bit-torrent, Usenet). The issue was, we started worrying about plotting ourselves on the MPAA road-map of litigation. So we started using applications such as Peerguardian, to cover our tracks. The lowdown of all of this was that it really took a toll on us, on top of that we worried about our “vote” being counted, and then there was the X factor of channels like Discovery, National Geographic, Etc. that had very interesting programs unavailable outside of the cable/dish networks.

SO, the experiment is over, I picked up our cable-boxes again and we’re back to regularness. It was very weird to get rid of cable, and now it’s weird to pick it up again. I feel sort of bad that we failed. I don’t like cable companies, and I think that their fees are high. But, I don’t really see any other alternatives. leh sigh.

note: I would have switched to directv, dish, fios, etc. however my apartment doesn’t see the south sky, and verizon hasn’t offered fios at my complex.

Since my blog doesn’t see much traffic and this might actually be useful to some of you (though I’m sure most of us know all about it) I figured I’d duplicate some content. Content injection in t-minus 1 second. Bam!

I’m no photoshop wizard, far from it. So if I overlook anything, please comment. The purpose of this tutorial is to share a very basic aspect of photoshop that made a huge difference in my photo editing process once I found out about it. I’m not suggesting this as a solution for a multitude of problems, it has a specific implementation and there are other tools in photoshop that do different things more efficiently, but this one is certainly handy. Also, screenshots! That’s worth the price of admission, isn’t it?

This tutorial is done in Photoshop CS2. It should be the same in previous versions up to Photoshop 6, prior to that I have no idea. Quickmask allows you to use the paintbrush (or pencil, or airbrush, or any coloring tool) to create a selection area.

Step 1. Load your image into Photoshop. I know, right? Defies all reason.

Step 2. On the left hand toolbar there are two rectangles below the Color Selection area, each rectangle has a circle inside it, and the colors are the inverse of the other rectangle. The rectangle on the left is “Standard Mode”, the one on the right is “Quickmask Mode”. Toggle Quickmask Mode by clicking the rectangle on the right.

Find it? Ok, good. Once you’ve entered Quickmask mode, it’s on to step 3.

Step 3. Select the painbrush tool. Determine the properties of your paintbrush based on the level of detail you want to select. (1px for very fine edge work, 100px for insanely broad strokes, as you know) then, you…well…Paint. Just so:

Step 4. Got that? Great job! Having painted your area go ahead and click back to “Standard Edit Mode” (the rectangle on the left). The first thing you will notice is that the area you had painted is actually the only area of the photo NOT selected. The QuickMask masks an area OUT, and selects the rest of the photo. It’s important to keep that in mind, because if you start changing hue or desaturating and you realize it’s doing everything but the area you wanted it to do, you may say some unpleasant words that really don’t reflect your personality, and could be taken amiss by passers-by. I’m sure you’ve guessed Step 5.

Step 5. Click on Select>Inverse to change your selection. When you have inversed your selection you have only the area you wanted it to select, the area you “painted”. Tres magnifique! Now perform whatever madness you’d intended for this swath of image. If it’s a well lit structure in a photograph that had a very long exposure time you might try adjusting the lightness, or desaturating it, or overlaying it with an opaque black layer. You understand that with this selection method and layers there are a multitude of pretty tricks that can be performed. Here’s what I did:

Perhaps not the best use of hue and saturation, but you get the idea. Ignore the poor quality of my selection, that’s the “quick” and “dirty” portion of the tutorial.

So, I’m messing around with the new Windows Live Writer and it’s pretty good (so far). Lets see I’ve got insert link, picture, and map. Lets try them out:

sweet, photo edges. Oh wow, we’ve got photo manipulations! Watermark, effects. Pretty Snazzy.

Now, how about a map.

Ohmy, VERY nice integration with maps.live.com. we can do road, aerial, AND birds eye view.

Lets try some block quotes.

Blitz is a smelly belly

And to top it off, thank the Lord for spellchecker. Set the post category, change the post options (comments, trackbacks, link, keywords, publish time, nice!). Time to publish, lets see how this baby performs.

-note, bug found, I had the year set to 2006, however it saved it to wordpress w/ 1969 (nice) it’s beta folks, so keep that in mind.

-note #2, map doesn’t work in FFox, will try aerial + road as well later.