Author: katster

a rare time I actually use my amateur radio license

1 Comment

So, one of those little known facts about me is that I hold one of those amateur radio license thingies. I rarely use the things, but occasionally, it comes in handy.

You see, I’m sitting at home not just to clean my room, but to also be the emergency contact between my sister’s Brownie troop and the various Brownie parents. Of course, Little Grass Valley is way the heck up in the woods, where the wonders of modern communications devices fail to work.

But a good old fashioned amateur radio and two folks with licenses (that would be my dad and me) and we have a secondary channel of communication that doesn’t involve somebody driving into La Porte, which is about the edge of cellphone signal land.

Of course, I don’t plan to have the thing on all the time — there’s only so much battery power, after all. But it’s still kinda nifty.

[No, I’m not procrastinating; I’m out here because I just finished the 1 PM call.]

the cleanapolypse

Leave a comment

So my folks and my sister and my sister’s Brownie troop have headed up the hill to go camping at Little Grass Valley for the weekend. This leaves me here to dig out the room.

referred to this process as “The Cleanapolypse”, and I like that so much that I’m stealing it.

If you don’t hear from me by Monday, send the search teams in.

[Edit: Also, the mystery of my $16.39 payment to Baycon has been solved. It’s approximately what a fifteen dollar shirt would be with the 9.25% sales tax in San Jose added on. So, it was my payment for my staff shirt that I got to buy because I was a busy busy gopher. This is totally unrelated, but it makes me feel better.]

flotsam, jetsam, and detritus from my mind

2 Comments

In no particular order:

  • I’ve been looking forward to this weekend for a while. You see, while my parents and sister go out of town on a camping trip, I’m staying behind. This means that I can dig out my room which, although not quite matching the destruction wrought by my namesake hurricane, explains why my mom gave me the sobriquet back in the 1980s. So yeah, my big goal this weekend is to dig it out and hopefully keep it from descending into entropy again.
  • The other thing I want to get done this weekend is to write is my much delayed Baycon report, so that I can stick it in At Ungodly Hours, my contribution to one of the APAs I belong to. After it goes out there, I’ll probably post it to the blog as well, so you all can read it. I know you’re all looking forward to it.
  • Speaking of which, I noticed that there doesn’t seem to be any mention of who received this year’s Baycon gopher awards. While I didn’t expect one for me, since I do gophering because I really like helping out and the rewards are somewhat immaterial, I’d really like to know which of my fellow gophers was crazy enough to earn such things. So I’m sad that I haven’t heard since it’s usually announced by now, or so I thought.
  • Also, bringing up my APAzine means that I want to mention that I’ve got a soft deadline for assembling the pieces of the first issue of Rhyme and Paradox. That date is July 15th. The issue will be somewhat art-short (which is okay), but I figure I need to get started somewhere. I don’t expect to reach levels of fanac, but I think it’s important that I get going on this, or I’m never going to do it.
  • That said, I have been absolutely lousy about getting back to those of you who expressed some interest in what I’m doing. So here’s the short of it. My ‘zine is called, as noted above, Rhyme and Paradox, and it’s a zine written for the subculture I belong to, which is science fiction fandom. You can see many examples of these ‘zines at efanzines, a wonderful resource ran by Bill Burns, who deserves all the mad props that he gets. In specific, R&P is going to be on the border between a genzine and a perzine (general fanzine and personal fanzine, for those who aren’t up on the terminology), and it’s going to be a hybrid, which means it will exist both electronically and in print — the latter because there are folks in the community who either don’t use the Internet (I know, heresy, but…) or prefer paper. It’s definitely not-for-profit — I fully expect that it’ll be a hobby and thus an endeavor that will, in financial terms, always be in the red, although I will gleefully accept money thrown my way for helping with postal/printing costs. Um, yeah, I think that’s about it for the moment. Feel free to ask questions below and I’ll try to be better at answering them. And for those of you who say “I am intrigued by your ideas and wish to subscribe to your newsletter”, you had better mean it.
  • Also, while I say that it’s a cross between a genzine and a perzine, I’m totally open to anybody who wants to write or draw for it. That’s part of the fun of doing this. Also, here’s the best part — it doesn’t necesarily have to be about science fiction as long as it’s interesting. There’s some folks in the community who are die-hard pro wrestling fans, for example. Doesn’t have much to do with science fiction (although it seems to fit rather well into fantasy, I think), but it’s in sfzines. So the field is pretty much wide open. My due date for R&P1 is, as I said, July 15th, and I think R&P2 is going to be early/mid October. (Yeah, I’m looking at quarterly production schedules for the moment.)
  • Other than that, things seem to be going fine in regards to the day job, although there are times I wish I had more time in the day. I also wish I had more time to write, but that’s never going to go away, so…
  • Also, unrelated, I wish I were going to Montreal for Worldcon or SJ for WFC, but you know, I’m a grownup now and have car payments, which means that, well, fun but expensive trips are out of the question for somebody who is only part-time at their job.

Anyway, if there’s anything else you want to know, I open the floor for questions.

Wow, that was some party.

Leave a comment

I’m sitting here making sure the checks I wrote to various people during Baycon have cleared my bank account (answer: yes), and in looking at that, I found a new puzzlement: trying to figure out just why I have a charge of $16.39 from Baycon itself. I’m sure there’s some absolutely sane reason it’s there; I’m just not coming up with it.

(The $45 charge later on is from buying Ei’s membership — I earned my 2010 membership with hard work and had the money aside to get hers cheap. We may end up having to sell it, but at the moment…)

But anyway, that must have been one heck of a party if I can’t remember what the hell it’s for.

state of the katster

1 Comment

The state of the katster is a rapidly falling apart California.

Oh, wait, I screwed that up again, didn’t I? Well, here it is. I’m…I guess the best word for what I am is okay. It’s not awesome, but it’s not depressingly miserable either. I attribute the fact that it’s not the latter to the fact that I’ve actually, you know, been bothering to take my meds. But it’s not all light and sunshine either, which is a reminder that being happy is tougher than it looks.
Read more… “state of the katster” →

The day I was a superhero

Leave a comment

Yesterday, on my walk between the parking garage and work, I found the following juxtaposition of signage:

The chalked message up close, so you can read it:
What the chalked message said...Photo by retstak

It was one of those moments where I just had to pause for a moment and laugh (and of course, take a picture). Somebody has a sense of humor in this town, and it’s those sort of wonderful serendipitous moments that I love very dearly. So yesterday, I walked past the message, head held high, as I obviously was a superhero. Only superheroes may pass. The sign said so. Thus, by passing it, I must have been a superhero, no?

I wasn’t a superhero today. We had a spectacular light show and plenty of rain last night, and the chalk was washed away. Mundanity returns. So sad.

At the new office…

Leave a comment

It was very strange this morning after I dropped my mom off at her work in Rancho Cordova. Instead of doubling back to Folsom Blvd and following it all the way back down to the office at the corner of Watt and Folsom, I instead got on Highway 50 and headed for downtown. Yeah, the office moved downtown, very close to the corner of 5th and Capitol here in downtown Sacramento. Today’s the first day for the company at the new office. It’s going to take some getting used to.

I’ve already had to move cubes once today as the first cube I chose was driving me absolutely crazy — I’ve found out that I really don’t like sitting exposed with my back to the rest of the office. I’m not sure if it’s involuntary reactions to the times my mother sat quietly behind me watching me do things when I didn’t know she was there or if it’s just the occassional bout of paranoia that I’m prone to. Anyway, I’m much happier in my new cube, where I can see most of the office and don’t feel like everybody’s staring at me when I’m not looking.

Another thing that keeps striking my brain as wrong is the cubicals. Instead of the old full-high cubes, our new cubes are half-height, so if I lift my head, I can see across the office. (This also may have played into the involuntary twitch reaction.) They’re also beige instead of the blue-grey our prior cubicals are. For the most part I like it, as it’s nice to have line of sight to the far end of the office, but I miss the storage space up above the desk that our old cubes had.

But anyway, some normality is returning to my world as Luigi and the bad dudes are now adorning the top of my cube again, the binders with my ESX guides are sitting on my desk, and the only thing I’m waiting on to make my cube fully my own again is to hang up some important papers on the walls. It’s still a bit bare, though. I should find a good Cal picture (or maybe a pennant) to hang in the corner and make this cube even more my own.

Awwww for the day

Leave a comment

I’m still at work and thus unable to do massive content posts. So here, have a kitty picture:

(found with this story: Shelter Sounds “Cat Crisis”.)

A quick note

Leave a comment

I aren’t dead.

Seriously, Baycon got extraordinarily busy from Saturday afternoon on, and then I had to make a sudden and sharp return to reality from the alternate dimension I had been inhabiting all weekend. Then work has been extraordinarily busy as well this week, and what time I haven’t been at work, I’ve been sleeping. Add to this the news from CA last Tuesday and the fact that if I fail to take one specific pill I’m supposed to take, I spend the next day in an absolutely foul mood (and unable to concentrate to boot), I wasn’t exactly coherent enough to make much sense.

I’m just starting to get my equilibrium back to the point where I can converse like a reasonable human being as opposed to an ogre, and so I’ll begin typing up some of my impressions of last weekend. I’ve got a bit to say. So stay tuned, folks.

Saturday morning sleepiness

1 Comment

I’m typing the following on my BlackBerry in the hotel lobby. I’m not entirely awake yet, but I’m not exactly happy to discover that my gopher shift is not nine to noon, but ten to one. The more astute of you will notice that this cuts into broadcasting hours at Baycon. So to make up for it, I’ll be going from as soon after one as I can get to the fanzine lounge. Ohd course, there still are caveats, as I haven’t actually broadcast from hotel space yet.
Other than that minor annoyance, things are going well. More when I’m actually at my computer and can type easier.

Wow, it’s been a day.

1 Comment

Current ribbon count: 31, plus gopher ribbon, plus three I haven’t attached to the badge yet, for a total of 35.

Current fun being had: Loads.

Permission for live broadcasting from the Fanzine Lounge: Authorized.

Picture taken of me: Possibly for the newsletter, need to get somebody to snap me with my own camera, probably in my natural habitat (in front of a door).

Things that are crucial: Make up signs for the unofficial Sactown BOF in the consuite tomorrow.

Things that have made me feel really awesome: Getting a nice note from the lady who cleaned our room since we left her a tip. Getting mentioned at ribbon panel as having one of the possibly hot ribbons of the con.

And that’s about it.

More later, or you can always check my twitter feed as I can get to that on my phone and may be inclined to update it more frequently. Or not. I mean, as it is, I’ve made more posts this week than I have in weeks…

Here in Santa Clara…

Leave a comment

Made the hotel last night, got a decent amount of sleep — although stupid me forgot to close the windowshades, which made my roommate get less sleep than anticipated.

I’m about to go downstairs and wander through convention space, although the convention hasn’t technically started yet. My plans for the day involve going to find Chris Garcia, attending a panel, and maybe a couple other things. No plans for broadcasting today, but that might change. Watch Tuckerverse for details and sudden updates.

Also, if you’re at Baycon, and want ribbons, come find me and ask nicely.

(Also, rumor has it that I might have installed Skype, and might even be listed under the username ‘retstak’, but you know you shouldn’t count on unsubstantiated rumors.)

It’s ribbon time again!

Leave a comment

Sorry I’ve not been around to update the blog. Life just has eaten me alive, and it’s been easier to keep the twitter feed up to date. At some point, I’ll sit down and try to catch y’all up, but this post is because Baycon is next weekend, so I went and picked up my ribbon order today.

This is the collection of this year’s ribbons:

  1. Yes, that’s my feet.
  2. A couple of these are special: the green one is for gophers, the one that reads “Ascended Master” is for those who catch me in the right place.
  3. The Gopher Local #42 is a joke from last year’s hoax newsletter about the gophers (convention volunteers) going on strike. So I figured, the gophers need a union. And of course, it’s science fiction, so the Local # had to be 42.
  4. My streak of bad Baycon/bacon puns continues.
  5. I can’t *wait* to see the reactions to “this ribbon intentionally left blank”
  6. White and silver are hard to tell apart. (For the record, Gopher and winning move are printed with white, left blank in silver
  7. Is it Baycon yet?

As I said, if you’re at Baycon and you want one of these ribbons, just hunt me down and I’ll give it to you. In fact, just like last year, I’ll be indiscrimately handing out the katster ones.

Friday Cat Blogging, Shiny Happy Spring Edition

Leave a comment

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for cat blogging! So here, have a shiny photo of Ebony-kitty outside on a beautiful spring day this week.

those who would be different

2 Comments

Welcome to social deviance! The place where you end up when you realize that you don’t quite fit in. Social deviants serve several important functions, but mostly we serve as a horrible warning, “See what happens if you aren’t a good girl lil susie? You end up like that woman down the street who paints obscene things and lets weeds grow all over the yard!”

You sound like you’re in a tricky, unhappy place, where things are changing a bit too fast, for that I’m sorry. No advice or anything, just pull a chair up to the freak table, grab a pint and realize you aren’t alone.

‘ish, in response to this post on Enter the Jabberwock

I stumbled across this as I was trawling through my Google Reader looking for something to read, since my brain has decided that writing isn’t going to happen tonight. (That, and I’m without my computer.) And I read the post, which is about why God would bother condemning somebody to hell, and it wasn’t bad, but the gem was here in the comment section.

So I pass it along with no further commentary.