Until then:

• My fantasy team is sucking.
• I’m changing apartments in three weeks.

In regards to the latter, I’ve taken to browsing ebay and the internet at large for furniture, artwork, things of that nature.  Over the last few years I’ve managed to collect a small smattering of inspirations – a few hundred postcards, a reproduction of Jean-Léon Gérôme’s Bonaparte Before the Sphinx, various Batman memorabilia, a small model pirate boat purchased from Lake George.  I don’t have all that much – clutter is the inspiration of madness – but I have a few things that amuse me.  In weeks of rolling around EBay I’ve yet to find more than a handful of auctions even worth  following.  I don’t know exactly what I’m looking for…only that I haven’t especially found it.  The only criteria is that I know it when I see it.

Mostly, I want something cleanly evocative.  Landscapes, for example.  They show something vast, and say nothing more.  My Bonaparte Before the Sphinx is like that.  Two figures, lots of desert, history in a print.  It’s not busy and it doesn’t try to say too much.

I’ve tried to find some background art from Bladerunner.  I don’t especially want a movie poster.  Too many words, lots of names, all the usual stuff that goes on posters.  I’d prefer to just have a portrait of the background as the Spinners drive through future LA.  Haven’t found it.  It’s a silly complaint not having things to spend money on.

Otherwise no news.  I obviously haven’t written much.  I might soon but there’s plenty of other things to get at.  Work, Creekside, eventually moving.  I’ve got lots of plausible excuses not to get anything finished.  I do hope to finish the novel.  It’s brimming with failure…always edit away from being worth reading.  I need get to that one of these days.  Also, there’s a dozen unfinished chapters.  That doesn’t help either.

A topic for another day.  I’ve got portraits of the desert to skim.

I actually like fantasy baseball more than football.  It lasts longer so there’s more time to catch up.  There are more players so there’s less luck involved with injuries and streaks.  There’s also, and I find this peculiar, almost more coaching strategy to fantasy baseball than there is real baseball. In any given week my lineup of players competes head to head in runs, home runs, runs batted in, stolen bases, batting average, and on base percentage, also wins, saves, strikeouts, holds, earned run average, and walks and hits per inning.

With two utility players (any field position) and four pitcher spots (either starting or reserve) I can move players in response to the strengths of the team I’m opposing.  If we’re evening matched batting average, I might add a good leadoff hitter to my utility spot to help me win that category.  If the opposing team has me way beat in steals, I might pull my fast guys and throw in power hitters – no point competing where I can’t win.  Same thing in pitching – I can mix and match starting pitchers and closers to maximize the categories I can likely win.  There’s quite a bit more personnel management involved than there is in actual baseball.

Usually anyway.  With four injuries, all to good guys, I’m stuck with four bench players I can’t do much with.  Do I drop them and have them used against me when they get better, or do I keep them and wait it out?  Why are all my pitchers losing? Sigh, one more frustration for this year.

More to come – it’s a long season.  For the curious, here’s my team:

C             Alex Avila
1B           Pablo Sandoval
2B           Michael Cuddyer
3B           Jose Bautista
SS           Jimmy Rollins
OF          Jacoby Ellsbury
OF          Andrew McCutchen
OF          Nelson Cruz
Util         Aramis Ramirez
Util         Jemile Weeks
BN          Emilio Bonifacio
BN          B.J. Upton
BN          Ike Davis
SP           Tim Lincecum
SP           Zack Greinke
RP           Brian Wilson
RP           Brandon League
P             Yovani Gallardo
P             Joel Hanrahan
P             Carlos Marmol
P             Ervin Santana
BN          Drew Storen
BN          Chris Carpenter

1. School

I injudiciously chose to do 15 credits including the highest level classes and including an independent study.  The first class (only 7 weeks because its all Saturday) was easy.  The class that took its place (a second 7 weeker) comes with a case discussion, a test, and a case writeup, along with an expansive group report contrasting two companies along a few dozen different criteria.  Instead of letting my group members chose something they would jump at, I strong armed a set of companies that struck me as more interesting, and better to report on.  Result – I’ve  become the face of a project I have no time to support.

The statistics class is relatively tame – a group report and a individual report.  I have to home this will go smoothly, but it takes its time.  The corporate finance class is a nightmare x3.  The case was 35 pages – took me 4 days to generate which ruined every other plan.  I botched the first test pretty bad – which just means I have to spend that much longer studying numbers 2 and 3.  It doesn’t help that the teacher and class are painful and that the homeworks take some 2 hours to do, but count for almost nothing grade wise – not well motivating.

Lastly, for class, there’s the independent study.  Instead of asking 12 questions and calling it a day, I asked 125.  I’ve spent 8 weeks pretending I’ve got months of time left…and now have no time left.  I need to actually go through these reams of data and figure out what exactly is going on.  At least the sample is small, but I’ve made so many promises to so many different people and organizations that it’d be not just a bad grade but an epic embarrassment to let it fall through now.

2. Work

I got promoted.  All the things I’ve bitched about are getting fixed.  Awesome!  Except, of course, the concerns don’t end at the door, nor do the projects.  I’m in twice as many meetings, have three times as many projects, and have to care many times over even about the ones I’m not part of.  Work is creeping past the office door…something I’ve always been especially careful to guard against.  I can only complain so much, things are much improved and I have a great deal of flexibility with my hours, but drags on the psyche nonetheless.

3. Freelancing

Overflowing clients.  I don’t know when where or how they all showed up.  I even tried to back out of a job I saw growing in scope – then they asked more and nicely and I agreed.  Individually none of it is all that difficult, but I’ve never had to rely on patient clients.   The work should be done better and faster.

4. Routines and Minutiae

I’m moving in  two months.  I’ve found a new place, thankfully, without all that much searching, but there was some and it is stressful.  Today I finally turned in my security deposit so I shouldn’t have much to do until June.  That doesn’t do anything, however, for the grocery shopping, vacuuming out the car, throwing out batteries… and various other errands that seem so simple until they get stuck between larger priorities.

5. Hobbies

And here’s where it all hurts.  One way or another the work above gets done, but it comes out of the writing, reading, and video games.  Almost never, not in five years or longer, have a taken routine hobby items off my list in order to get work done.  I’ve removed items on behalf of vacations, once I even removed items because I was sick.  Never have I done so for school, or work.  It feels like some sort of profound failing to toss away aspirations on behalf of obligations – like priorities have been skewed somewhere, gone wobbly, fallen off the boat.  I haven’t written in months – except in short bursts like here – but I’ve maintained my few side items for so very long…and this weekend I crossed them off, forced them to next weekend.  It’s gross.

Hopefully this all resolves itself shortly.  Come the end of May, everything returns to normal.  I gain back some 12 hours a week, plus all the time spent on homework.  At work, one of my part timers should hopefully be full time.  Creekside will be…well…exactly where it is now,  I’ll just be better poised to respond.

Maybe then I’ll write?  We’ll see I suppose.  For better or worse, I don’t expect I’ll ever be quite as productive as I have been the last three months.  I just hope to carry half the enthusiasm I’ve had for the stuff I have to do to the tasks I want to do.  If I can manage that much, I don’t expect any problems at all.  Time will tell.

Overdrive is a digital download service used by hundreds of libraries to provide their patrons with free content. So far, Overdrive supplies its content on nooks, kindles, iOS devices, windows and mac computers, and pretty much any other device one can come up with. The titles are individually quite expensive, but collectively the libraries or consortia of libraries have growing collections that offer really the only free and legal way to access digital content.

Kindle access has only been a recent development. Overdrive partnered with Amazon to allow for kindle versions of ebook titles in a process that takes people over to Amazon. The deal here is clear: Amazon offers Overdrive kindle titles, while Overdrive funnels patrons over to Amazon to attempt the up-sell. Amazon takes advantage of this by giving patrons clear ways to purchase a book as their digital loan expires.

Publishers have pushed back – some are changing the rules on how their titles can be downloaded. Others do not allow their books in a digital format at all or only in certain arbitrary ways. The market is inconsistent and unclear – it’s young and the players are many.

Digital Publishing is suffering many of the same problems that music and television experienced in recent history. Movies and television remain, themselves, an immature market but that is in part a reflection of technological problems. Ebooks and audiobooks do not require sustained bandwidth and mobile digital readers have matured substantially in the last few years. The only thing that does not currently exist is a strong unified marketplace akin to iTunes for music (perfect example) or Netflix online for movies (a weaker example). Amazon appears the closest to providing this service. Their Kindle line, especially the fire, is a strong move toward making amazon as ubiquitous for ebooks as iTunes is for music.

There are other players in the game – Apple may move into this field. Google has their digitalization initiative. Barnes and Nobles has their Nook and associated marketplace. Microsoft likes to spend money on services they can’t integrate. Some tablet maker may want to enter the software market. Things could float in a few different ways, but my money is on Amazon.

Where does Overdrive come in?

Amazon already uses them as a way to feed readers to their paid content. Right now it’s a nice business arrangement, but eventually Amazon will want to control the marketplace. By purchasing Overdrive they can continue to support other company’s devices, but make Amazon the best known location for digital books. This gives them leverage against the other companies. Further, it lets Amazon target directly the strongest market for readers: library patrons. Sure library patrons like free, but plenty will pay a little for instant access. Amazon is the only company that might have enough leverage against the publishers to provide access to a broader catalog of books. Once Amazon has more digital product, a strong marketing link to library readers, and a unified market pushing people to Amazon’s devices, they will have created what Apple has: a ubiquitous digital market place for that type of product. This takes Barnes and Nobles and the Nook out of the game: brick and mortar is dead. It strengthens Amazon’s hardware initiatives (would you rather buy a device for books or music?), and it forces Google to go big or go home as far as a digital market. Overdrive is just one piece in a larger play.

I have to think that within ten years there will be two, or at most three, major providers of music, movies, and ebooks. Amazon, Apple, Google, Netflix, and Hulu are currently in the game. One of these will become the Walmart of digital entertainment, another the Target. The rest will be the 2nd tiers that survive on promotions and special discounts. Their days are inevitably numbered, or at least, that’s my prediction.

Even so, games are where it began. I recall Age of Empires, Asheron’s Call, Donkey Kong & Lufia on the SNES etc, like others might recall treasured books or poems. This is where my inspiration was really born.

And now, my two of my absolute favorite games are being remade!

Simcity 5 is coming! It’s been years since Simcity 4 came out, over a decade since Simcity 2000. I’ve played both not all that long ago. They still feel like they have infinite promise…seeing acity spring up based on a few simple clicks. It’s addicting and enthralling. Whatever interest I have in architecture and civilization comes more from Simcity than anytime actually spent living and driving.

Baldur’s Gate

Curiously coinciding with my purchase of an ipad, one of the all time greatest RPGs is being remade. That’s a little less exciting than Simcity…I beat Baldur’s Gate on five or six separate occasions, but I’ll never pass up an opportunity to delve into the mines and save Xan from infinite boredom, or kill gnolls with Minsc, or unmask doppelgangers in Candlekeep…

It also suffers from a more fatal flaw – whatever I might be able to elucidate clearly in text, I can only babble about awkwardly when recorded. I’m dreadfully unable to clarify my thoughts fast enough to make anything of them. What follows is, in essence, the edited version of the ideas I tried to speak my way through to little avail.

—

I am not an early adopter. As an IT guy, I have a professional obligation to remain reasonably abreast of changes in the technical magisterium, but knowing about and being personally vested in remain leagues apart. I got an iPod half a decade after they were released. I had a dumb phone until three years ago. When I did finally get a smart phone (an iPhone), it was a full two years after they had been released. Now I’m the proud owner of a iPad (the new one), but iPads have been around themselves for two years and tablets around forever.

The point of all this is that I am not, as a rule, obsessive or even that excited by technology. It’s a tool, I support it, I work with it, and I solve problems with it. Beyond that it’s expensive, frustrating, and brings out the worst in humanity. I prefer a good hike to any product unveiling.

That said, I love when a person niche gets filled.

What is the iPad? For me, it replaces my laptop. It simplifies my morning routine. It makes the easy things faster.

Already I can check my email on my phone, and that’s great, but when I want to check websites it’s a painful experience on a four inch screen. Now I can do that without having to turn my computer on. Instead of waiting for Big Blue to boot up I can grab the iPad. Instead of rushing to turn on my computer before class – I can quickly check the iPad. Instead of squinting at work notes and writing on my phone screen, I can see it on a surprisingly clear and responsive display. Am I in love with the iPad – no more than any other gadget prone to problems and tech support – but this saves me time. It doesn’t hurt that it really is a gorgeous piece of hardware.

I’ve in essence just described the use of a tablet – but I’m a late adopter. I don’t generally buy into the marketing hype or the sales-pitch promise. I don’t expect technology to solve the problem. I really am surprised when it does. Today, I’m impressed.

That said, I do have some criticisms. Firstly, it’d be great if all the apps that want an email login could look through my email accounts and give me those options without me having to type them in. It seems stupid, but why does Dropbox, for example, need me to type my whole email when I’ve already done so another 15 times. It’s a stupid critique, but noticeable when you’re registering app number 12…

Dropbox. It’s probably my favorite internet service these days. It gives me complete access to all my files anywhere in the world. It has solved the issue of backups, of emailing documents to myself, to forgetting to save files where I thought I had, etc. What it apparently does not do is work all that well with Pages – Apple’s Word equivalent. I suspect this is more on Apple’s side than Dropbox, but it really is a bummer that I can’t grab my Dropbox files, load them into Pages, make changes, and save them back. There are apparently other apps that manage that – I’m still looking – but I was hoping it would be easier.

Lastly – the leather cover is kinda hokey. It’s probably just me, but it doesn’t feel as secure as it should. Maybe I’m using it wrong? I did read the directions though…

That’s it for now. This is my first Apple product un-boxing since an iPod 4th generation some six years ago. It’s been rather fun – but no reason to obsess over it. Tomorrow I’ll be using it for real – no turning on the computer, instead I’ll check my news from bed. Not only will it save me a few minutes, but I’ll get to enjoy my covers for a few minutes before grabbing a shower. At the end of the day, whatever lets me sleep in a few extra minutes was well worth paying for.

—-

Text To Speech – either I’m moronic or it’s got a ways to go:

For the first time ever I am using my iPad to write my service and matter what I just received the new iPad not called the iPad 3 just called the iPad as sort of self birthday present him and now I’m using it to write my article the interesting part here is not the use of the device but rather that I’m doing this entire article him by speaking aloud

Hey it’s a strange sort of experience to write by speaking not particularly experience with best but I I wanted to at least attempt it and see how well the voice recognition works so far it appears to be acceptable I’m I’m deathly I have to edit this before goes anywhere but this might be an interesting way for me to get my ideas on paper

Now the topic in this case is of course I will predictably the iPad itself I am not by nature an early adopter I got an iPhone bout to read a half years after iPhones have been released and it’s almost a decade after smartphones use and now I’m getting an iPad full two years after they’ve been releasing first tablets of been around for a decade as well I am basically the exact opposite of an early adopter

The fact I would I would have to consider myself a late adopter I prefer to purchase things when they are in their mature face I don’t like to see kind of unfinished products I had to practical for that little too pragmatic as interesting as technology is I’m too frustrated into inpatient and Tucci I want to see something working and she kiss on the brand-new product really doesn’t hold quite as much older for me that said I when holding a brand-new products shiny beautiful it’s really quite excited out I spent almost 2 and half hours playing with this little device and I’m having an asset class it’s it’s really quite wonderful I am a it doesn’t hurt minutes of the graphics are phenomenal and I don’t mean videogame graphics provided the text is for the clearest I’ve ever seen it’s very Smoltz about the size of book I’ve been using it for hours and the battery life is imitating watch videos on already on it he feels this infinitely practical niche that appears real

Fabulously practical form I finally the reason I got the iPad was to fill the sort of a use case niche I have a laptop my laptop is getting older and it’s never been a good travel size and it’s it’s really quite heavy really quick Boquillas not particularly fun to travel with and going Fairbreeze my laptop for use checking email checking my to do list and checking account. Sites is not a gaming machines and web design machine on it’s use is it almost casual in nature any iPad itself is that is a D nice I’m finding that it’s it has a few flaws of the one notable flaw is that wall your dropbox I have access to all my documents I’m trying to be somewhat pernicious to edit I have a copy of pages on the Mac equivalent of word it’s it’s gorgeous and in writing a brand-new document it seems to be quite effective but it doesn’t link as nicely for some of these other apps as one would expect on that’s that’s my main complaint at the moment

Probably speaking however this device sort of Sauls my laptop problem I can use in the morning if that attorney my computer on a use this to check my email check handful website it will save me time in the morning and give me access to my list of my documents and websites and awake I happened before instead of having to turn my computer all I can grab this I’m only have to use my computer for some more hard-core type activities it is me a lot of time and simplifies my device structure to just remind

I haven’t actually seen it myself – I’m still waiting on my author copy, but I do believe this is my first brick and mortar publication.

I’m in the midst of my independent study, immersed in New York State education law and a few dozen related matters, and utterly baffled by what I see. It’s ugly, it’s disjointed, and there’s absolutely no consistency.  To anyone who is forced to immerse themselves in this stuff, I’m probably almost assuredly preaching ancient truths, but as someone whose prior interaction with ‘law’ was the occasional municipal parking ticket, it’s a foreboding experience.

One harmless but revolting example taken from Wikipedia in regards to the Uniform Commercial Code:

Although the substantive content is largely similar, some states have made structural modifications to conform to local customs. For example, Louisiana jurisprudence refers to the major subdivisions of the UCC as “chapters” instead of articles, since the term “articles” is used in that state to refer to provisions of the Louisiana Civil Code. Arkansas has a similar arrangement as the term “article” in that state’s law generally refers to a subdivision of the Arkansas Constitution. In California, they are titled “divisions” instead of articles, because in California, articles are a third- or fourth-level subdivision of a code, while divisions are always the first-level subdivision. Also, California does not allow the use of hyphens in section numbers because they are reserved for referring to ranges of sections; therefore, the hyphens used in the official UCC section numbers are dropped in the California implementation

                What I’ve take from this, is that the same law may be arranged by articles, chapters, divisions, and/or sections and hyphens may or not be found – and again this is a uniform code that basically exists everywhere.  In just this one law, I can go across the border and find myself dealing with different terminology, and this is actually one of the most nicely standardized sets of laws.  Between town, village, county, special district, advisory groups, a bewildering array of executive agencies ay both the state and federal level, as well as a myriad of legislative activities, I’m finding it to be absurdly pernicious to track down ‘what rules govern x’.

Now, in reality, I am not terribly surprised.  The United States has historically consisted of wide divisions in responsibility.  The Federalism of our history, constitution, and government makes it quite clear that states retain a great deal of sovereignty .  I still find, with disdain, how little continuity there is between places.  How much money and time is wasted simply because there’s no consistency, no unified responsibility, and no collected authority for seemingly almost everything (the Uniform Commercial Code governing sales and commercial transactions is actually a reassuring exception)?  It’s no wonder that lawyers are so expensive, legal disputes take forever, and our code systems drag into the sunset.

This is what happens when a particular form of anti-government fear forms the unifying basis for a country.  Instead of a design based on increased unity, we have a government where every single entity wants and expects to be sovereign – I’m frankly surprised that every two-ditch municipality hasn’t got its own embassy and marching band.

And somehow this has managed to work.  All these overlapping sets of laws and guidance do largely seem to arrive at a functioning nation.  It’s baffling to me and offends my sense of decorum (Why isn’t there a nice Index of Government with everything in it – Hong Kong has one: http://www.gov.hk/en/about/govdirectory/ and http://www.gov.hk/en/about/govdirectory/govchart/) but I guess it works.

Hideous or not, I really am impressed.