Dan Z

Return

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 05:58:05 GMT

I return.... again to the LJ stage of life.
I seem to drop out and reappear (dramatically I hope) every few months.
Just returned from seattle at the penny-arcade expo (PAX for those select few). Great time. Nerds abounded. I was painfully aware of my earlier life as a nerd by those around you. You remember that right? That stage where you were finally okay with being geeky until death, and you had to let everyone know it. Your conversations were loud in hopes others would overhear and perhaps add to the forray some comment to the merrits of hex based ips or perhaps they would yell at you and call you a geek. Both actions would cement your place in this world.

However, when you are at my place in the world, reasonably comfortable with a great many facets of life, you don't typically feel the need to define yourself by a single trait. That trait (in this case) was extreme geekiness. At one point, I defined myself by the kind of booze I drank (rum, totally the rum guy). Point is, many geeks are comfortable in their social click. That's great. That is wonderful.
However, the next step is to just be comfortable, no clicks, no labels of geeks, no need to proclaim to the world that you are, indeed, a huge nerd.
So, that covers how I, at the age of 26, was the crabby old man at the con.
Still, tons of fun. Check out the PAX section of www.penny-arcade.com if you aren't already familiar.
Outside of that, I have two batches of mead nearly ready to go (about 4 or 5 more weeks). One will be a cyser (apple juice and cider mixed with fall spices to create something to warm the belly). The other... is interesting. It contains a base of smartwater, local honey, ginsing, ginko, red tea, green tea, mugwort and wormwood. Yes, a caffinated mead that should give you an intereting time while drunk (on so many levels) and should ease the next morning as well. I'm excitd.

Standard rant

Sun, 05 Mar 2006 22:46:51 GMT

I'm sure many many others have had this little discussion or rant, but I need to add to it.
Heard someone mention the liberal conpiracy again. That drives me nuts. Where the hell is the conspiracy, and how do I sign up? Seriously, I think if such a cabal of people existed I would have an in somewhere. And just exactly what are they conspiring to do? Horrid things I'm sure. I want to conspire to increase funding for public education. I want to conspire to fund the arts and to give better health care. I want to conspire for better working conditions! Seriously, I want in on this thing, so if any of you already know the secret handshake, please let me into the club.

Okay, got that done. Next:
Something else I'm sure many have seen before, or perhaps even posted, but one good turn deserves another.
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/geeks

Speaking of geeks, I must be off to roll up a new Mage character. Later.

Not what I expected when I woke up

Sun, 05 Mar 2006 05:59:29 GMT

I'm starting to realize just how rare it is for me to update this journal. Not only that, but I still only read others when I update. Makes a guy feel a bit disconnected.
So tonight I ended up riding a mattress down a ski slope with 3 women while garbed as a pirate. Seriously not what I thought I'd be doing this evening.
I'm sure many of you are familiar with the charity I speak of that does this fund raiser. I was not. So getting the call asking me to do this took some explaining, but being the good sport I am, I raised the will (and the pirate outfit) and sallied forth with two of the better looking parts of the Menomonie contingent.
Tons of fun it was. When all was done, we followed proper protocol and went to taco bell.
Also, turns out that a cousin of mine is the godmother of a friend and fellow mattress sledder (which sounds like such a euphamism). So my world also shrank just a bit.
Everything considered, it was a fun day. Now I must return to finish the post-mattress ritual and finish watching Tank Girl.

Standard adventures

Sun, 26 Feb 2006 03:27:57 GMT

Not only have I not been updating this thing, I really haven't been reading it. Looking at old entires from friends now I feel just a tad disconnected.
When I started working at the middle school I wondered about some of the rules that are common place. One such rule was the 'walk' rule. No kids are allowed to run. I started to think how odd it is that someone rushing around an office is a go-getter or at least trying... why discourage it in kids? Trust me here, it only takes one little thing to change your mind. For me it was the sounds of two sixth grade faces hitting each other. Kind of a dull/squishy thud when one student took a corner too fast and sharp. I am now a supporter of the walk rule.
Finally got out into the woods today. It's been a while. I think I need to go again but at least I got a few hours in. Every so often one needs to go enjoy nature, or talk to fairies or escape the rat race or whatever you want to call it.
Next week is a nice short week for me. Only two days of work. Knew there was a reason to work in education.

End Ramble.

Wow

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 02:15:16 GMT

So it turns out I have a livejournal... kinda forgot about it for a while. No biggie.
Not much to write, teaching plods on. Just exercised so I feel pretty good and horribly out of shape at the same time.
And it's time to go watch The IT Crowd... which is a british sitcom everyone in the world should watch.
Dan out.

Small Time News

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 01:49:29 GMT

Wonder of wonders, joy of joys, I made it to the Dubliner last night. That always feels like a victory.
My next minor victory was getting Mepis Linux installed and running. That's about the 3rd or so distro I've tried. Must say, I really like it. It runs KDE (my preference) and has some easy setup. Hooked up to our local home workgroup pretty easily. In no time I was streaming episodes of "My Name Is Earl" from the machine on the other side of the room to the linux box (in divx format) just because I could.
So, to share a guilty pleasure: http://www.mediagab.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1187
It's not exactly high quality cinema, but ever now and then all it takes to entertain me is a catchy beat and references to some movies from the 80's. Throwing in "Snakes on a Plane" didn't hurt either (look it up on IMDB.com).
So, I had more, but meh. Apathy.

Home from the Walker.

Fri, 06 Jan 2006 06:46:10 GMT

Just returned home from the Walker. It was my first time going since the renovations.
While wandering around several thoughts kept pushing their way forward:
1: Beautiful people go to museums. This was pointed out to me by Laura, and I must agree.
2: I seem to have some sort of instinctual loathing for women who wear a specific type of eye makeup. I noticed this after the third of forth time I looked at a woman and felt a small rush of intellectual superiority. I realized I was basing it on their eye makeup for some reason. It wasn't just heavy makeup, but also stylized in a way that kinda just screamed 'superficial' to me. Which is odd after I thought about it a bit. After all, there were several women I noticed with very elaborate eye makeup that I felt were simply beautiful and expressive people. Just something about that style I guess. At least I noticed it. Perhaps now I can move toward getting rid of that little assumption.
3. "I don't know art, but I know what I like." I don't know where that saying comes from, but it does not apply to me. Don't think I'm claiming to know art, not in the least. I mean to say that I don't know what I like. I almost feel unqualified to make any kind of assertion about art, even if it is as simple as "I like it." After reading a bit about the artist, or hearing what they were trying to convey with their art, then I can perhaps start to slide towards a decision. Otherwise I'm stuck trying to decide what the art means to me and realizing that doing so is seemingly nigh impossible. Ah well. No big deal I suppose. My education has been mostly technical. Anything related to the arts at all was confined to the performing arts. Still, I would like to believe that anyone should be able to view art and make the assertion "I like it" without doubting it's the right thing to say.
4. I definitly don't get minimalism. Which is not to say I dislike it, I'm just struggling with the concept behind it. (Note: My education concerning the subject of minimalism in art is limited to what I read on the wall of the Walker as I entered the exhibit). As I understand it, the art is not made to convey a feeling, or emotion. It doesn't exist as decoration or as a conversation piece. The artist has no purpose and the art must just be taken to exist with no special feeling or meaning. Okay... so it's not for decoration, and the artist is not trying to say much of anything. It's just THERE. I can go with that... but then I try to figure out 'okay, it's there... how did it get there?' The design for the art, the conception of it had to come from somewhere in the artist's head. It had to exist in thought before it took form, or it could even take form gradually, but it had to come from somewhere. That means that the form of the art has a history inside the artist's head. That life experiences somehow shaped this thing that is supposed to be taken without special meaning. I can't handle that quite yet. Of course, I am basing this on two paragraphs that were written by someone with a much deeper understanding of the subject. My guess is that the author of those two paragraphs would shudder to think of someone basing their entire understanding of one broad classification of art on the two paragraphs they used to summerize years of study.

So that was my trip to the walker. Aside from my slight disgust at how one exhibit treated African Millipedes and Hissing cockroaches (kept them under a bright light with little to no humidity and nothing to hide under... the roaches will live, the Millipedes won't exactly thrive (used to raise the critters)).

Right. I have work in 5 hours. I'm off to bed.

And another thing!

Wed, 04 Jan 2006 05:39:48 GMT

Very few (read: No) people have responded to me with ideas about Banjos (see a post a few rants down). Fair enough. Perhaps I could get some help with places to shop. Where are some good places to shop for musical instruments in the cities? Sadly Menomonie and Eau Claire are a bit... yeah.
Anyway, ideas are welcome, I'm shopping for a banjo within a week or so.

Another day...

Wed, 04 Jan 2006 05:36:09 GMT

Missed the Dubliner again... dammit. First day back at school after the break took a bit more out of me than I had anticipated.
On the plus side, the Walker is free on Thursdays.

I am a King of Vagabonds

Fri, 30 Dec 2005 19:11:27 GMT

Note #1:
Tuesday night at the Dubliner was fun. Got to hear the reincarnation song again. Although I was really quite glad that I had heard Howie play it before. The bar was a bit much for that particular song.
At any rate, a giant Menomonie contingent was there (8 of us I think). Of the people joining me in revelry, 2 were male 5 were female. I actually didn't take notice of this fact until I needed to use the bathroom. Whilst voiding my bladder I was greeted by a strange chap entering the restroom. He saw me and and asked "how's the harem?" Me, being the type of man who is generally dense in matters concerning the fairer sex, responded with a resounding "'scuze me?" (note: The irish car bombs did not enhance my cognitive facilities in the least). He told me that he had been watching me and wondered how I managed to hang around with so many women, all of whom were cool with having their butts patted. Truly, I was the man of the moment... in the dubliner... in the restroom... at that time.

Note #2. I was reading "The System of the World" (Volume 3 of the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson) when I reached a point of revelation. Nothing earth shattering, just a secret that the author revealed about a certain character that vibrated the pillars of the world my mind had created around the book (seriously, amazing author, great books). Anyway, this was at about 2 am or so. I needed to keep reading until dawn, or find a distraction. So I found a distraction. I started playing with the PDA that had been given to me for Christmas. Nice little device. I found that it included a small program for reading ebooks. Not surprising. So I started to fiddle with it and found that it already had "Last of the Mohicans" loaded on it. So I took a look. There was also a 'bestsellers' list. So I browsed. The list had hyperlinks embedded to excerps from the books listed. Fun. I was quite surprised to see "The system of the World" in the list. So I clicked into it. So somewhere around 2:39 or so, I realized that I was sitting in my computer desk chair, reading a book from a 3 inch screen in the middle of the night when the print version was sitting next to my bed where I had forced myself to put it down a half hour earlier. I went back to reading the print version.

Meh

Tue, 27 Dec 2005 15:29:08 GMT

Ahh, the holiday season, fraught with relatives (an average of 2.8 new cousins a year by birth or marriage over the past 7 years*) and potatoes (average of 6.5 kinds of potatoes at the family christmas over the same amount of time*).

Me and Laura still do our own family christmas stuff for the most part. She was able to join in the gathering of my mom's side. That's when about 90 (give or take 5) Norwegiens storm the Woodville legion hall and eat a lot for about 4 hours before they retreat to their select corners of the midwest again. Not a bad time to be sure.

Family time on Dad's side: Quite a bit smaller. There are only about 14 people at that one. Instead of a legion hall we meet in a tiny town that nobody has ever heard of that is located in Northern WI. The place is a cousin's farmhouse. The older folks contented themselves with Dominoes. Save my uncle Ron (not really an uncle, but my father's older cousin). Who had just taken a trip to Australia. He's in his 60's and looks it. He's also of a generation that is used to getting hit by the younger generation for letting his racial point of view slide too far into the 1950's. Be that as it may, sitting in the enclosed porch, Ron was able to teach me the didgeridoo. It's an odd feeling to be sitting with the vista of a farmhouse complete with Christmas trees inside and out on a bland winter day enjoying the quiet, only to violently vibrate that quiet to bits while a white haired guy with a bum hand tries to teach you circular breathing.
There's just something about christmas I guess.

*= Totally not kidding about these stats. Got bored and did the math on the cousins. The potatoes are more of a guess, but there's never been more than 7 kinds present and having only 5 is rare.

Advice

Sat, 24 Dec 2005 02:06:13 GMT

Just about a week ago I found out that a good friend has Luekemia. She's currently in Rodchester. It's acute (which means a better survival chance) and she's pretty healthy otherwise.
A while ago I had asked her what she wanted me to get her when I won the lottery. She said she had always wanted to learn the banjo (seriously). So some of us have taken up a collection to buy the girl a banjo. Problem: None of our friends seem to know the first thing about banjos. Go figure.
So, I need advice about what to look for. The idea was to simple pick up a fender banjo and keep the fingers crossed. Are there other kinds out there that are better? Bear in mind that she is a beginner and we have a price ceiling of 270-ish or maybe 325 if people get generous.
So yeah, any banjo/folksy music-y type people out there with input, I'd love to hear it.
Since she isn't on LJ, I suppose the surprise won't be ruined, I hope.
Anyway, I don't think any of you know her, but if I'm mistaken and you do know Katie Lee, feel free to toss in with the effort. I'm the one collecting money (and the one who must figure out what the hell makes a good banjo).

before I go to work

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 12:51:20 GMT

I feel like I must be navigating LJ wrong somehow. The liberal use of my browser's 'back' button is just uncomfortable.
Last day of school for a while. The kids are like little barometers. They know the weather will change, it's almost creepy. Just stand in the lunchroom, the noise is inversely proportional to the relative air pressure. I swear it's true.
Anyway, changing of weather along with last day before vacation means an interesting day. I must decide if I want to let them run free and not worry about it, or if I should give them an impromptu test, just to quiet them down. I wonder if my teachers made decisions about what to do a couple of hours before school.
Wonder if my professors did as well...
Dear Lord! Were my parents just improving my whole childhood?!
Wait, what was I going to do today again?

bedtime

Wed, 21 Dec 2005 05:18:16 GMT

So I started this journal about 4 hours ago. I now find that I have four friends. Very cool.
Tried to get to the Dubliner tonight. Lack of interest and badly scheduled work meetings meant I would have to go it alone. Rather than succumb to the temptation of whiskey (a temptation only made worse by irish music)and find myself unable to return to wisconsin, I find myself succumbing to the temptation of drinking at home while watching the Beastmaster and eating Bison Meat pizza. Also, managed to secure a couch for the house and a truck to relocate the trebuchet from the driveway to a storage room at work. Life ain't bad.

First Post!

Wed, 21 Dec 2005 02:39:16 GMT

It occurs to me that if I was posting on Fark that 'first post' would be changed to 'boobies'.

So, in short, we'll start with a little exchange.

Setting: Outside the cafe.
Characters: Claire and I.

Claire: It's cold.
Dan: Yeah, but tomorrow it's supposed to hit the 20's.
Claire: That'll be really nice.
Dan: Yeah.
Both: "..."
Claire: That may be the most Northern Wisconsin conversation I ever had.

So there you have. My first one act play. Go me.