dober_woman, posting in penguicon:
Ron Blanchett will be hosting our next SMOS Dinner, tonight at 6:00PM! Please email me for their address.
 
This will be a pot luck dinner! So if you can, please bring a dish to pass along!  Ron will be providing the main course which is Ribs and Steak\Veggie Kabobs. Drinks are BYOW(hatever). Grill will also be open for those that don't want/like meat.!

Ron wanted me to let everyone know in that there is no parking on the sides of the road in his neighborhood, parking in his yard/driveway is first come first serve and other parking options are available.
 
Please email me if you have any questions or if you are interested in hosting a SMOS dinner yourself!

jer_:

Hrmm, think I'm going to take a nap...

On an unrelated note, tingly and numb left big toe, cold left foot, and sore left calf is annoying in combo... I wonder if I did something stupid to myself yesterday, or if I have a thrombosis or something.

Bleh, I'll worry about it post-nap.

jer_, posting in penguicon:

As many of you know, I'm taking a "vacation" for the summer. Of course, vacation, when housed between those sarcastic little double-quotes, really means that I will do just as much work, but for no pay; I am truly a glutton for punishment. As such, I am adopting two new projects. I'm birthing them unto Penguicon, if you will. I am extraordinarily excited about both of them, so enough with the introductory foolishness, and on with the explanatory foolishness...

What is Penguicon, the Book

This idea defied convention by finding its birthplace during an actual meeting, initially. Several of us were discussing blurbs that we could use to describe Penguicon "in a nutshell" as it were, and coming up miserably short. I mean, how do you describe something as huge, sprawling, and diverse as Penguicon? Really, all that any of us can do is effectively describe what Penguicon is to us. After a few discussions, an idea formed.

A book, working titled "What is Penguicon?", featuring essays describing Penguicon from the point of view of the founders, board, past chairs, committee members past and present, staffers past and present, any Guests of Honor or Nifties that wish to contribute, and (and here's the important bit) you. You see, nobody can really describe Penguicon as thoroughly and convincingly as you can, and we would love to share your views of the con with everyone, in the form of a handsome book to be sold at approximately cost in the Dealer's Room at the con, at SMOS Dinners, and other Penguicon events, as well as making a beautiful gift for future Guests of Honor.

But for this to happen, we need your views. We need your essays. Now for the boring details. Essays should be no less than 250 words in length and no more than 1000. This is not high school, nobody will be counting words, these are mere guidelines. Obscenity should be kept to a minimum (and realize, I recognize the irony in ME making this statement). The work should be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License or a comparable license that will allow us to A) Edit or create derivatives of the work and B) Sell the work so long as we attribute the work to you. Please realize, you can include your work anonymously as well, or under a pen name. The important part is we want you to get involved in this project in the spirit of the community that makes Penguicon so awesome!

Now, there are ways to get involved that don't involve writing. I need people who want to help read and select these essays (in the event that we get too many to publish all of them). If you know a publisher, or someone that can give me information about book publishing, that would be of inestimable help as well. I need people to help with editing, layout, and all of the myriad other tasks that are sure to come up during the course of this project that I have no way of foreseeing. Questions, offers of help, book title ideas, and essays can be emailed to jer (at) penguicon (dot) org. Likewise, you can see me at SMOS dinners and other events. I look forward to hearing from you!

Penguicon.net

The second idea is no less grand, and no less outside of my core competencies. What I want to build is a development community for open-source software devoted to creating con-running software. Let's face it, there are a TON of developers involved in many of these cons. Likewise, there are infinite ways that we could improve the running of a con with an appropriately written software package; registration, web templates, programming planning, resource management, online stores... all are areas that can be improved with some software-- and I know there are millions of ways that I haven't even thought of.

So what I want to do is create a genre-specific version of something like Sourceforge.net at Penguicon.net, where we will host, for free, software packages that are open source and devoted to the improvement of the running of conventions large and small. Now, much like the book project, this is the sort of thing that requires YOU if it is ever going to work. In short, where do we go from here? What management system should the website run? Is there someone who wants to manage the technical aspects of this? Are you interested in developing software, or do you have software you'd like to add to the directory for crowd sourcing? Email me at jer (at) penguicon (dot) org

SMOS Dinners

As you can see, we have some exciting times at Penguicon, and they're made more exciting by the community and the ideas generated by that community. If you want to become a part of a community that thrives even outside of the walls of the convention, it couldn't be more simple. Show up at a SMOS dinner (like the one coming up this Friday in Monroe, join our LiveJournal Community, join the Penguicon Mailing List, keep an eye on the Penguicon Calendar of Events, and, if that's all not enough, listen to the SMOScast. We love hanging out with you all at con, and we would love to see more of you outside of con!

I hope to see you soon!

(Crossposted to jer_ / ibloviate.org)

jer_:

As many of you know, I'm taking a "vacation" for the summer. Of course, vacation, when housed between those sarcastic little double-quotes, really means that I will do just as much work, but for no pay; I am truly a glutton for punishment. As such, I am adopting two new projects. I'm birthing them unto Penguicon, if you will. I am extraordinarily excited about both of them, so enough with the introductory foolishness, and on with the explanatory foolishness...


This idea defied convention by finding its birthplace during an actual meeting, initially. Several of us were discussing blurbs that we could use to describe Penguicon "in a nutshell" as it were, and coming up miserably short. I mean, how do you describe something as huge, sprawling, and diverse as Penguicon? Really, all that any of us can do is effectively describe what Penguicon is to us. After a few discussions, an idea formed.

A book, working titled "What is Penguicon?", featuring essays describing Penguicon from the point of view of the founders, board, past chairs, committee members past and present, staffers past and present, any Guests of Honor or Nifties that wish to contribute, and (and here's the important bit) you. You see, nobody can really describe Penguicon as thoroughly and convincingly as you can, and we would love to share your views of the con with everyone, in the form of a handsome book to be sold at approximately cost in the Dealer's Room at the con, at SMOS Dinners, and other Penguicon events, as well as making a beautiful gift for future Guests of Honor.

But for this to happen, we need your views. We need your essays. Now for the boring details. Essays should be no less than 250 words in length and no more than 1000. This is not high school, nobody will be counting words, these are mere guidelines. Obscenity should be kept to a minimum (and realize, I recognize the irony in ME making this statement). The work should be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License or a comparable license that will allow us to A) Edit or create derivatives of the work and B) Sell the work so long as we attribute the work to you. Please realize, you can include your work anonymously as well, or under a pen name. The important part is we want you to get involved in this project in the spirit of the community that makes Penguicon so awesome!

Now, there are ways to get involved that don't involve writing. I need people who want to help read and select these essays (in the event that we get too many to publish all of them). If you know a publisher, or someone that can give me information about book publishing, that would be of inestimable help as well. I need people to help with editing, layout, and all of the myriad other tasks that are sure to come up during the course of this project that I have no way of foreseeing. Questions, offers of help, book title ideas, and essays can be emailed to jer (at) penguicon (dot) org. Likewise, you can see me at SMOS dinners and other events. I look forward to hearing from you!


The second idea is no less grand, and no less outside of my core competencies. What I want to build is a development community for open-source software devoted to creating con-running software. Let's face it, there are a TON of developers involved in many of these cons. Likewise, there are infinite ways that we could improve the running of a con with an appropriately written software package; registration, web templates, programming planning, resource management, online stores... all are areas that can be improved with some software-- and I know there are millions of ways that I haven't even thought of.

So what I want to do is create a genre-specific version of something like Sourceforge.net at Penguicon.net, where we will host, for free, software packages that are open source and devoted to the improvement of the running of conventions large and small. Now, much like the book project, this is the sort of thing that requires YOU if it is ever going to work. In short, where do we go from here? What management system should the website run? Is there someone who wants to manage the technical aspects of this? Are you interested in developing software, or do you have software you'd like to add to the directory for crowd sourcing? Email me at jer (at) penguicon (dot) org


As you can see, we have some exciting times at Penguicon, and they're made more exciting by the community and the ideas generated by that community. If you want to become a part of a community that thrives even outside of the walls of the convention, it couldn't be more simple. Show up at a SMOS dinner (like the one coming up this Friday in Monroe, join our LiveJournal Community, join the Penguicon Mailing List, keep an eye on the Penguicon Calendar of Events, and, if that's all not enough, listen to the SMOScast. We love hanging out with you all at con, and we would love to see more of you outside of con!

I hope to see you soon!

(Crossposted to penguicon)

matt_arnold, posting in penguicon:
Hey everybody! This Friday, the Fourth of July, is going to be a big day at the home of Ron Blanchett in Monroe. We'll meet for a cookout at 1 PM, have the July Penguicon Concom Meeting at 3 PM, and the SMOS dinner will be at 6 PM. Thanks for hosting us all day, Ron! Email me at chair at Penguicon dot org for the address.

Sorry for the late notice, folks. We're putting backup measures in place to make double sure our events get on the mailing list and this blog in plenty of time.

bensinclair1, posting in lj_spotlight:
housematehorror
Horror stories from the world of shared living spaces. EEK!

dober_woman, posting in penguicon:
Ron Blanchett will be hosting our next SMOS Dinner, 07/04/08 at 6:00PM! Please email me for their address.
 
This will be a pot luck dinner! So if you can, please bring a dish to pass along!  Ron will be providing the main course which is Ribs and Steak\Veggie Kabobs. Drinks are BYOW(hatever). Grill will also be open for those that don't want/like meat.!

Ron wanted me to let everyone know in that there is no parking
on the sides of the road in his neighborhood, parking in his
yard/driveway is first come first serve and other parking options are
available.
 
Please email me if you have any questions or if you are interested in hosting a SMOS dinner yourself!

jer_:

These aren't related; not even a little bit. But to me, they feel related. They're both funny, but in completely different ways. I don't know why, but to me they feel rather bound together.
This video is courtesy of kobold of Something Positive fame. I am now in love with this girl.


And this was shared by calamityjon. I don't know who Matthew Harding is, but I love his dance.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

jer_:

Well, it is currently the month of my birth, and I've decided to use this proximity to the anniversary of my entry to this world to talk about the things I've been gleefully lusting after lately. Consider this a form of a birthday "wish list", save for the fact that I've purposely only included big ticket items to ensure that this list will be taken for what it is, not as a pandering grab for loot. I don't want loot-- if that's what I was after, it would be easier to send you off to my Amazon wishlist-- no, I want you to be enamored by my wit as you share with me a leering gaze aimed at the products that make me wish to rob liquor stores, sell plasma, and pimp out fiances.

• Nintendo Wii - I know, way lame and way cliched at this point, but who does not currently want a Wii? Wii owners, that's who. We all know the problems-- lack of storage, online play that is an afterthought at best-- but none of that outweighs the fact that it is just FUN to play with. The Wii-mote concept changes everything. I, personally, am not a big video gamer. The last video game that I beat was on the Dreamcast, and the last that I played on a console was probably Fable on the XBox; but I adore the gameplay of the non-traditional games, and the Wii has them in force. I love Boom Blox, desperately want a Wii Fit, and could probably really get into the new Zelda game. Unfortunately, the bloody thing rings in at $250, and is virtually un-find-able at that price.



• Xbox 360 with Rock Band - I know, I know, you can get rock band for the Wii. The reality of the situation is that Ger and I will probably be getting a Wii with her please vote conservative money err, economic stimulus check and Rock Band for that platform, but it is simply better on the 360. Why? Downloadable content. One of the things that really excites me about Rock Band over, say, Guitar Hero, is the downloadable songs. Just scanning through the list of currently available tunes over at sheryl67 and rbradakis's place last week was enough to get me all excited about the game again. The Wii version's lack in that department makes me sad. Hopefully, they'll fix it soon. Of course, at $350 for the system and another $150 for the Rock Band setup, I can think of a million places I'd prefer my $500 to go ahead of a video game.



• MSI Wind NB-Linux - I've been back and forth so much as to whether I want a full laptop or an ultraportable. The full laptop is simply too big for me to be sure I'd carry it very often, which is, at the end of the day, its purpose. The ultraportable generally has less power and a super small keyboard to go along with its reduced size, so even if I carry it, it won't always be useful to me. Enter the Wind with a 90% sized keyboard, a 10" screen, built-in wireless networking, and an 80G drive (mechanical drive, admittedly, but that's not all bad). I want this thing. The $500 that this baby will run is a far better buy than the Xbox/Game combo.



• Ovation 1861LX (or 1771LX) Balladeer Acoustic-Electric Guitar in Black - When I was looking for a new guitar, I stopped at a LOT of stores and just played with what they had in stock. I didn't look at price, or brand, or what looked good... I just played around with different guitars to see what I liked the sound of. At no less than four different stores I ended up with my heart really set on an Ovation Balladeer Acoustic-Electric of one sort or another. It has a nice, warm sound, it fits well on my lap, it is comfortable as hell, and it plays brilliantly. Oh, and it is just flat out pretty. At $1000, though, it certainly should be.



• Toyota Prius - Face it, gas is not going to get much cheaper; and whatever price drops we can look forward to will be limited in length. Hybrids simply make sense. I know, I know, hydrogen power is right around the corner! Unfortunately, that corner is rather far away, and does nothing for me right *now*, and now is when I need financial relief and a nice, fun, reliable car. The Prius provides all of those things. At 40+ miles per gallon, how wrong can you go. Well, for $25,000, it will take a good couple of years to recoup my losses, but I'll be spending those years looking like a dirty hippie making outrageous claims about Republicans and spotted owls! How can you beat that?



• A Home Theater System - Now, the link isn't necessarily to the one on which my heart is set, it is merely to one I was most recently looking at. I want a component system that will give me loud, clean surround sound. I want a system into which I can plug my PC as well. And I want to be able to add a media server to it down the road. Oh, and it would be awesome of all of this was sub-$1000.

There you go. This year's Lust List. Now, I have just to become independently wealthy and I'm on my way.

li885:
( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

matt_arnold:
(1.6 MB PDF file)

A useful read, all the more so because it gets to the point quickly.

I wish I could say the same of the nonfiction books that clutter my shelves. I don't make it through one or two chapters of the typical professional book, no matter how the topic electrifies me, no matter how much I respect the author. I get bored out of my skull, because the amazing central idea has to be fluffed out with filler to turn it into a publishable book. "Good grief, I got the point twelve examples ago!" I am deciding right now not to even try to sludge through them, ever. They will not waste one more minute of my life. I don't think I want to read any more professional books.

Give me a quick pamphlet like "Time Management for Creative People" any day.

jer_:

I don't feel well... and I'm not good at it. My head has been throbbing pretty much all day, so much so that I didn't even want to eat.

So I ate a bunch of Aleve. I threw them up, of course, but apparently my body absorbed some, so the headache abated somewhat.

Then I ate leftover pizza. Well, needless to say, my body didn't care for that one little bit.

I napped for a bit.

Now my body feels fine, but my head still is still throbbing.

Fortunately, I've managed to keep a handful of Aleve down, so I should be feeling pretty alright shortly.

I suck at being sick.

bensinclair1, posting in lj_spotlight:
dwseason4
A journal where the alternative fourth season of the TV show Doctor Who is being written.

bensinclair1, posting in lj_spotlight:
lol_comics
Keep youself smiling at the little things with some funny comics.

bensinclair1, posting in lj_spotlight:
bikes
A community for everyone who loves bicycles, motorbikes, and more.

landley, posting in penguicon:
Penguicon 5 GoH Randy Milholland just posted the following under today's Something Positive:

I've mentioned Tom Smith here more than once. He's a great filk singer (no, I didn't misspell "folk") and genuinely one of the nicest people alive. He's also having a lot of medical problems, and that means medical bills. Cartoonist and filker Rob Balder is spearheading a project to help raise money for Tom's bills. Give a donation and you'll get access to over 40 songs, all covers of Tom's stuff by other filk singers. If you're into the filk scene, this is a pretty nice deal. If you've ever had the fortune of meeting Tom at a convention, you know just want an impressive and giving person he is. If you can help out, all of us who love him would greatly appreciate it.

You may remember Tom Smith's performance of "March of the Penguicon" at P5's opening ceremonies, or the many filk concerts he and Rob Balder have given at Penguicon over the years.

jer_:

Ger and I are sitting in an Italian joint in Mentor, OH waiting for a much needed meal before we finish the last few hours of our trip home.

The trip has largely gone well, despite brief torrential downpours during which visibility was barely a car length.

fromrain2smiles:

So I cut my hair. About 6 inches off, choppy layers and long bangs. Thank you Jess for suggesting bangs. I love them. I'll post pics soon.

matt_arnold:
Look, I'm sorry if this clip makes you feel bad about yourself, because that's not the point. It's the world we live in. If the shoe fits, wear it, and make your religious expression more sophisticated. If the shoe doesn't fit, I'm not intending to make it fit you. Not everything is about you.

atdt1991, posting in penguicon:
I saw this in mrissa's journal, and I thought it was something I'd like to discuss with the Penguicon peeps:

When jimhines asked for advice for first-time convention-goers, one of the things I advised was to have the fun you're having. Don't worry about whether someone somewhere else in the con is having additional fun. This will almost always happen, and if you are having all possible fun at that con, it's a pretty small or pretty crappy con. If you're enjoying what you're doing, don't worry about whether you're missing something else you might enjoy; and if you're not enjoying what you're doing, do something different.

What say ye?