Fair warning, this could get geeky.

My favorite part is the horrible clone brush job in the upper right hand corner

Ah yes. The Electric Challenge of the Powerslaves, a title that was not only a reference to the Go-Bots, but also Iron Maiden’s seminal 1984 album, Powerslave. Oh, here’s a live video of the title track. Better still, the entire background of the flier is the cover from Dio’s The Last in Line album. These fliers are a great time capsule of my Photoshop skills in college. I had probably only just learned the program at this point. Oy. I did this show with my buddy Erik.

The “premise” of this show, even if there was ever such a thing, was a combination of late night talk radio and music. All three of our listeners enjoyed it. In all seriousness, one of our friends commented that he enjoyed our varied musical tastes. Erik would play some Joy Division and I would follow it up with Iron Maiden. Hilarious.

Moving on.

This one was a bit better, look at all those images in the text!

Next up was Büllit Bëlt, my “old school” heavy metal show. This was a solo affair and a decent step in my Photoshop know-how. I had learned how to add images to text (and how to bevel/emboss said text). I seem to remember painstakingly cutting that flying V guitar and the ring of fire out of their respective original images. I also tracked down a Metallica font (called Pastor of Muppets, I believe) as well as an Iron Maiden font (Metal Lord?). For those curious, the images in the text are L to R: Eddie from Iron Maiden, the Motorhead logo, the cover of Dio’s Holy Diver and a Slayer album.

Next!

This is probably the best looking of the three, design wise.

Oh, Blades of Steel. My darling hockey talk show. Interestingly enough, it was a fairly landmark show at the time. WCKS was mainly music and a little bit of talk, but no one really did a sports show, let alone on hockey. They even did a story on me for the school paper. Obviously, this is just an ad for the Blades of Steel video game for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. I didn’t have to do much, which was probably a good thing, but I did change “game” in “the hottest game on ice” to “show.” That took some creative Photoshop work. I got the S, H and O from “hottest” but I had to swipe and flip the M from “game” to complete show. I was pretty happy with that.

Ah, college radio. Good times, good conversation (well, not really, except when Erik was around). Doing LansingNext with Julielyn is bringing back some of those memories and that is part of the reason I am enjoying the show so much (and like a million times more people are listening).

To Listen: click on the gray play button below.

To Download the MP3: Right Click on the Download link, choose Save Target As or Save Link As from the menu and then choose where to save the .MP3 on your hard drive.

Show Notes

First Segment
00:00-03:36 (News, Ads). We start at 03:36.

03:36 – 14:00 Ignite Lansing, Daniel’s presentation, John Schnider’s article about Ignite, the ensuing backlash and Ari Adler’s response.

14:00 – 16:00 We chat about Jillian Granz, the MSU student who designed a dress for James Cameron’s wife to wear in the red carpet at the Oscars.

Second Segment
16:00 – 28:00 Interview with Ivy Hughes about Capital Gains, traveling and being a transplant from Colorado.

Third Segment
33:50 – 45:50 Interview with Ryan Knott about Lansing Happy Hour Club (you can search for the #lhhc on Twitter too), and as a performing singer/songwriter we ask him for advice on what not to eat or drink before going on stage (count how many times he says mucus).

Fourth Segment
48:30 – 59:59 Reading Month is the topic and here is  Daniel’s pick, Trizophrenia: Inside the Minds of a Triathlete by Lansing native Jef Mallet , who also draws the comic strip Frazz.

Julielyn talks about the Nook by Barnes and Noble and Daniel makes a terrible joke about “Waiting for the Schuler Schnook.” Julielyn’s book is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

After the books, Julielyn talks about March also being National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month – and the importance of being screened.

What’s on Your iPod? – Daniel’s pick for this week, David Bowie’s Moonage Daydream (Live). Julielyn then subjects us to the Glee! version of Don’t Stop Believin‘ by Journey. Daniel is not amused.

Daniel and Julielyn share some of their favorite afterwork activities and we read some listener ideas off Twitter (use the #LansingNext tag) and Facebook.

Capital Gains development stories: (listed newest to oldest)

Grand Ledge Receives More Than $400,000 To Rehab Downtown Rental Lofts
3/10/2010

New Prep School Targets Young Professional Parents in Downtown Lansing
3/10/2010

Replay Entertainment Exchange Owner Adds Online Apparel Service
3/10/2010

Fabinelli’s Handmade Candy Shoppe Opens in Downtown Williamston
3/10/2010

Haze Art Gallery and Studio Move into New Buildings in Old Town
3/3/2010

New Vendor Features Great Lakes Fish and Special Orders in the New City Market
3/3/2010

Gravity Works Design & Development Open for Business, Plans Move to TIC
3/3/2010

South Lansing Brunch House Offers Traditional Breakfast and a Lebanese Flair
3/3/2010

Salon 130 in Mason Expands to 3,000 Sq Ft, Offers New Services
2/24/2010

Log Jam in Grand Ledge Gets Renovation, Goes Smoke Free and Updates Menu
2/24/2010

Law Offices of David L. Zoglio Move to New Old Town Location
2/24/2010

AnnaBelle’s Pet Station Adding Staff, Introduces New Day Care Depot
2/24/2010

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Episode of LansingNext (I don’t know yet when episode 004 will be available for download, but I’ll keep everyone updated).

Episode 003 (listen or download)

Listen-o-tron! :: Downloaderize!

I arrived on scene at 6:00 PM as the speakers were told to do, the interior of the Knapp’s Building was a buzzing hive of activity. Lights. Lasers (yes, laser). Cameras. They were all alive.

I had my pre-show briefing with show runners (Nick, Ben), the MC and the stage manager, Melissa. I was happy to see I could use a hand held mic, as I wanted to be mobile during my speech.

Around 7:00, the floodgates opened and attendees started arriving. It was energetic chaos (I mean that in a good way). Dozens filled the line for the Cravings Popcorn bar (my LansingNext co-host Julielyn helped as a volunteer).

The evening was pretty much a blur for me until I had my cue to head for the stage around 9:00 PM. I was in Group C, the last of the three groups of presenters. The crowd had thinned a bit by this point, but it was still very much a packed house.

I was pumped, primed and ready.

I took the stage and killed. My choice to go for the silly, crazy presentation worked. Had a lot of great crowd reactions (although my spork joke at the open didn’t seem to go over that well). I’m glad I decided to wear an eye-patch and to do a “character voice,” the crowd ate it up.

Five minutes later, it was all over. I received scores of compliments afterward, both in person and online.

Better still, I took First Place for my group. Bam.

I think I had third place overall. I don’t know when the video will be on YouTube, but I will post that asap once it becomes available.

Thanks to everyone at Ignite Lansing for putting on a great event!

This scene from ERNEST SAVES CHRISTMAS inspired my presentation a bit.

For those unfamiliar, the Ignite events are held around the world and the idea is you get people together and share ideas in five minutes.

That’s right, five minutes.

Five minutes, 22 slides, 15 seconds a slide. That’s a lot of information to cram into such a brief amount of time.

And of course, being the crazy person I am, I signed up to be a presenter. Visitors to the Ignite Lansing website voted on which presentations they wanted to see. I was fortunate enough to be chosen.

I am equal parts nervous and excited about this opportunity. I’ll be speaking in front of a group of hundreds in the building, as well as being streamed online. Afterward, the presentation will be archived for all to see on YouTube. The presentations can be watched at video.ignitelansing.com (I go on at 9:15 PM EST).

So yes, I’ll be speaking in front of a crowd nearing 600, not to mention many more watching online. This is quite a bit of pressure, but I’m up to it.

My presentation is called How to Survive Writing a Novel.

Now, I do not plan for this to be a five minute promotion of the Magic of Eyri, I am not that shameless of a self-promoter. I do list myself as the author of it on my title slide, but I felt it was necessary to show the audience that I actually wrote a novel.

I am taking a very funny, zany approach to this and I don’t want to give too much away ahead of time. Although I have been dropping hints here and there, especially on this week’s episode of LansingNext.

My goal is not to be boring. I am treating this as more of a performance piece than a presentation, if that makes sense. I’ll be digging into my improv comedy toolbox a bit, and just having fun.

If I can share information and entertain at the same time, awesome.

I shall post a link to the YouTube video once it is online. Wish me luck!

If you aren’t in know, it is a weekly talk show I do with Julielyn Gibbons. It streams each Wednesday at 11:00 am (EST) at TalkLansing.net.

To Listen: click on the gray play button below.

To Download the MP3: Right Click on the Download link, choose Save Target As or Save Link As from the menu and then choose where to save the .MP3 on your hard drive.

Here’s a quick breakdown of each of the segments.

Segment 1
-Downloads, fans, feedback.
-Olympics and Ryan Miller, pride of East Lansing.
-Google fiber follow-up.
-Knock out JL as Mayor of Cravings Popcorn by March 28th and win popcorn for a year.
-JL and pay it forward (no, not the movie).

Segment 2
-We talk to Kelly Steffen about Eve of Ignition, Spotlight Campus and the Hatch.

Segment 3
-We talk to Carla McWherter about Lansing Give Camp.
-Carla and JL talk about how much they adore Daniel’s hair.

Segment 4

-Ignite Lansing 3.0
-Daniel presenting at Ignite.
-The lolrus. Seriously. Kthxbai.

Segment 5
-We Rick Roll our listeners (per another’s request).
-”What’s on Your iPod?”
-Shout outs.
-MI Entertainment Oscar Party this Sunday at Lansing Mall Cinema.

Ingredients

• 1 good size eggplant (a large one will feed three people easily, if not four.  Check for damage first)
• 1 container of Italian style bread crumbs (these have the extra seasoning.  you can make your own with basic bread crumbs, just add oregano, dried garlic, etc).
• Extra virgin olive oil – you’ll need a lot, so get a good sized bottle. Darker the oil, the better. It’ll add a lot of flavor.
• 1 chunk of parmesan cheese (skip the powered container junk, get the real thing). Go to a place like Horrocks Cheese Room, where the price is based on weight and get only what you need (little goes a long way). Make sure you have a cheese grater.

Steps

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Slice eggplant into thin slices, the thinner the better as they’ll soak up more of the olive oil. You can do thick slices if you want. I keep the outer skin on.
• Salt eggplant and layer them in a colander, place colander in the sink with a heavy plate on top for 20 to 40 minutes. This draws out some of the bitter flavor of the eggplant. Use kosher salt if you have it.
• After eggplant sits, rinse and pat dry with paper towel.
• Pour a decent amount of olive oil in a large bowl (big enough that a eggplant slice fits into it). Season the olive oil if you want, I usually do with garlic (not too much) or oregano.
• Pour a decent amount of the bread crumbs onto a plate, next to the bowl of olive oil.
• Dip eggplant slices into olive oil, covering both sides, and then into the bread crumbs (again, both sides). Do that one at a time. NOTE: this is a bit messy, be prepared to have your hands covered in oil and bread crumbs.
• Layer slices (don’t stack) in either a baking dish or cookie sheet (cookie sheet makes them a bit crispier).  You may want to spray baking dish or cookie sheet with nonstick spray. Do this until you either run out of eggplant or think you have enough. If you run out of olive oil and/or bread crumbs, just pour out more.
• I season the slices before putting them in the oven with a little bit of extra oregano and the Outrageously Garlic seasoning by Two Sisters Gourmet (dried garlic, onions, etc).
• Bake for 20 minutes or so and keep an eye on it–especially if you have thin slices on a cookie sheet.
• Remove slices, put on a plate (careful! they are HOT), grate cheese over slices and serve right away! You can also cover them in pasta sauce (either buy pre-made or make your own). Simmer the sauce on the stove top while you are prepping and cooking the eggplant.

Extra Credit

• Pair with garlic bread and a nice red wine, pinot noir is my favorite (I don’t care if that is “right” or not ) and you got yourself an easy, tasty dinner that can feed quite a few people.
• Refrigerate leftovers for a tasty treat later–cold, breaded eggplant is yummy. They make a great sandwich (I’ll put cold pasta sauce on the sandwich too).

A weekly Internet talk show focusing on the people, issues and events affecting Lansing’s next generation.

We recorded this Monday night and we totally hit it out of the park. It was the exact opposite of how the recording of the first show went (there was a bit of a learning curve for JL and I). This episode was recorded “live on tape,” meaning we did everything in order as if it was going out live. The first show was done out of sequence and sort of pieced together.

In today’s episode, we talk about a super-high speed Google Internet fiber possibly coming to Michigan and Google Buzz in the first segment (I also make a reference to the film Short Circuit in hopes of explaining technology running amok to Julielyn).

After the break, we interview Chad Jordan of Cravings Popcorn, a company based right here in Lansing (Twitter, Facebook).

In the third segment, we chat with craftbeer enthusiast, John Palmer (Twitter, Facebook), about microbrews and beer breweries in Michigan (and I accuse Julielyn of setting the Guinness Brewery in Ireland on fire). I also share the legend of the Nain Rouge of Detroit.

Online security and such is the subject of the fourth segment, including Julielyn’s “Microphone Rule” when it comes to social networking. But, we shift gears and chat about the Team USA v. Team Canada ice hockey game. Which was AMAZING.

Our last segment features JL and I sharing favorite recipes and the always  popular, “What’s on Your iPod?” segment. JL picked “Call Me” by Blondie. My choice this week was a medley of music from the video game Contra, done as a high-energy heavy metal song by Lansing band Year 200x (Twitter, Facebook).

I believe that starting next week, the episodes will be hosted on TalkLansing.net and they’ll be on iTunes sooner than later.

To Listen: click on the gray play button below.

To Download the MP3: Right Click on the Download link, choose Save Target As or Save Link As from the menu and then choose where to save the .MP3 on your hard drive.

Check our first episode here.

Building a Healthier Lansing – a feature article for Capital Gains about the Power of We and AmeriCorp doing it what they can to make Lansing a healthier city.

Last week’s development stories for Capital Gains (I write four a week):

• Entrepreneur Institute Moves to 1,000 Sq Ft Space in Downtown Lansing
• Replay Entertainment Exchange Thriving, Expands Space
• The Tin Can Opens in Downtown Lansing
• Cravings Popcorn Moves to Old Town

Here is a nice bio that Capital Gains wrote about me to announce my taking on the development writer role.

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Now, onto the aural realm:

Last week’s episode of The Magic of Eyri Podcast.

Last week’s episode of LansingNext (featuring  Julielyn Gibbons and myself)

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]]> http://danieljhogan.com/home/2010/02/23/last-weeks-articles-and-more/feed/ 0 http://danieljhogan.com/home/2010/02/22/the-k-in-5k-stands-for-crazy/ http://danieljhogan.com/home/2010/02/22/the-k-in-5k-stands-for-crazy/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:01:37 +0000 Daniel http://danieljhogan.com/home/?p=512 2010 is the year I’m trying different things and kinda going wherever life leads me. With that in mind, I agreed to sign up for the Lansing Race for the Cure 5K run in April.

There is another reason I opted to do this: my mom is a 20-year breast cancer survivor.

Both my mom and my sister have been very involved in the Detroit Race for the Cure for years. I’ve helped out here and there, such as (in)famously offering to be stage security for former-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick a few years ago.

A group of friends here in Lansing started chatting about the Race via Twitter a few weeks ago, and I decided “oh, why not?” Thus, Team Thanks for the Mammaries was born (if you’re in Lansing and wish to join, search for the #LoveLansing “company” name on the race website).

It hit me last week that I actually needed to train for this thing.

I am not a runner. We tend not to get along. But, some members of my team pointed me to the Couch to 5K training program and sang its praises. After looking over the schedule/routine, I decided “hey, I can do this.”

While studying the routine, I quickly realized why I never had much luck running in the past–I was doing too much, too soon. I liked that this routine has you starting out with a “jog for 60 seconds, walk for 90 seconds” plan.

Thinking back on the past times I’ve tried jogging I remembered that I did nothing like this at all–I just ran and ran for the whole time, without working up to anything.

No wonder I felt like I died each time doing.

Yesterday was my first training run and it was, as the they say in Italian,”non ce’ male.”

Yes, it was cold and I hated having to wait for traffic lights, but darn it, I survived. Better still, I didn’t feel sick afterward.

The only problem, training for running in winter is going to be a challenge (read: snow and/or ice) around here, but I’ll make due.

I opted for the fancy race registration where they give you a chip (not potato) to track your time. So, I guess I am ‘competing.’

Yikes. Wish me luck.

They are handy when it comes to promotion and stay connected–I have one for the Magic of Eyri Podcast.

I bit the bullet and made one for myself over the weekend.

Why? Shameless self-promotion.

Well, OK. That was only a little bit of it–the two main reasons are:

A) I wanted to lay claim to the name on Facebook.

B) I’m getting more and more folks I don’t know asking to be ‘friends’ on the site, so I’m hoping this is a way to stay in contact with people, but keep my main Facebook account for people I actually know.

And it is (yet another) place to post links to things I’m doing.

Honestly though, reason A was the biggest reason.

My name is very common, and I look at this as branding and trying to make sure that searches for me actually lead to me and not the many other Daniel Hogans out there.

I will confess that I felt a bit odd creating a fan page for myself.

To Listen: click on the gray play button below.

To Download the MP3: Right Click on the Download link, choose Save Target As or Save Link As from the menu and then choose where to save the .MP3 on your hard drive.

We talk about Smoke Free bars/restaurants in Lansing, urban chicken farming and Foursquare. We also talked about Ignite Lansing 3.0 with Nick Kwiatkowski and Lansing’s global appeal with Suban Nur-Cooley.

Keep in mind this is very much a work in progress, so things are a bit rough around the edges. I also apologize in advance for all my horrible jokes.

Heads up, there are commercials with our sponsors (and PSAs) and, full disclosure, Julielyn and I do get a cut of that money.

Lastly, unlike the Magic of Eyri Podcast, I was only the “talent” for this show–I didn’t do any of the engineering or production duties. I gotta say, it was nice not to have to worry about any of that for a change.

Make sure to become a fan of the show on Facebook.

LansingNext is an Internet talk show I am doing with my friend Julielyn Gibbons for the brand new TalkLansing.net

TalkLansing was started by a few local radio personalities as a way to go after the “iPhone Generation.” All of the shows will be streamed online (and available for download eventually).

I was honored when Julielyn approached me to co-host the show with her and I’m excited about this unique opportunity. Our slogan is:

A weekly Internet talk show focusing on the people, issues and events affecting Lansing’s next generation.

That gives us a bit of wiggle room when it comes to topics, and we’re already having a lot of fun. Julielyn and I are quickly developing a great on-air (…on-net?) dynamic, with me already falling into the comic relief role (which is fine by me).

The shows are pre-recorded (as I can’t do a live show on a Wednesday morning) and while the first one was a bit rough around the edges, we are getting the hang of things at a blazing speed.  Parts of the first show took me back to my college radio days when I actually had a co-host.

We also have a Facebook fan page.

And speaking of such things, I made one for myself a couple days ago. More on that later, as I plan to blog about it.

So tune (click?) in to TalkLansing.net today at 11 AM to give us a listen. Feedback appreciated, as this is very much a work in progress. Once I get an .MP3 of the episode, I’ll see about having it available to download from one of my sites.

Our first episode will feature a pair of guests and we’ll also talk about Foursquare, the iPad and smoke-free bars around town.

MS Word adds some kind of crazy coding that shows up when it is pasted into blogging software–I have the same issue here with WordPress and on the software the Examiner.com uses.

So, the other day I had a some text selected and did the ol’ Right Click and noticed the ‘Speech’ option, followed by the ‘Start Speaking’ command.  I had been aware of Mac’s text to speech in the past, but never used it. I figured, why not?

I greatly enjoyed listening to my iBook read off my short article to me–but then I realized this could serve a helpful purpose: proofreading.

I am a fast reader. Very fast. And because of this, I tend to mentally “skip” words when I don’t read aloud (this is pretty common actually).  I’m good about reading stuff aloud when proofreading, but even then I go too fast at times.

Because the Text to Speech voice reads at much, much slower pace it helps me stay on track. Plus, there is the addition of the computer just reading aloud, which helps if I missed a word while writing (I also type very fast) or mistype a word.

I also noticed that it helped with some of my word flow a bit. I would listen to a section and think “I don’t like how that sounds” and rewrite it.

If you are a Mac user, play around with the Text to Speech option in TextEdit, it is an easy way to aid your proofreading.

I’m toying with using it to record a character voice for the Magic of Eyri Podcast. We’ll see! It isn’t a perfect system, as the Text to Speech has problems with words such as “live” (as in “to live”) and “live” (as in “live at the Fillmore”).

Listen-o-Tron! :: Downloaderize!

I had the portable amp out because I plan on dressing up as a Spider from Mars for an “intergalactic” birthday party (which is why I was learning Moonage Daydream).

This idea came to me when I was curious if I could run my iPod Shuffle or DSi through the amp in case I didn’t want to try and play the song.

I decided against the Shuffle quickly because it has “issues.” It is doing this thing where one of the sound channels keeps cutting in and out and it is very sensitive to any cord movement–it pauses right away if the sound cord giggles too much.

So I went with the DSi.

I ran it through my distortion pedal and then my chorus pedal and messed with the tone and distortion on the amp itself.  It made for an interesting sound.

You can tweak the pitch and speed of the songs via the DSi, which I of course did. Listening to Rush’s Working Man sped up, distorted and in a chorus was  something out of this world.

I liked being able to tweak the output of the song live via the pedals and the DSi interface.

Does this have any sort of practical application? I doubt it, but it was fun.

The little Marshall, with its built in belt clip, makes for a great portable speaker if I need sound for a costume however.

I am going to have the guitar and amp with me for my costume and I am toying with attaching one of the pedals (maybe the distortion) somewhere on my costume, as the OD (overdrive) on the little amp leaves a lot to be desired.

The funny thing here is that when I turned the story in, perhaps early Fall, I was single–but, by the time it ran, I had a new girlfriend. I kind of had a gut feeling that would happen, which was why I agreed to write the story (and make fun of myself quite a bit).

I enjoyed writing this story a lot because I was allowed to go first person and showcase some of my humor a bit more–although my editor did cut my favorite joke, which was about me wearing my Chewie Is My Co-Pilot t-shirt while trying to pick up geeky girls.

Or something.

The shirt was designed by R Stevens, creator of one of my favorite webcomics, Diesel Sweeties.

I did manage to wear my Threadless, A Simple Plan shirt for the photo shoot however.

I kind of regret not wearing my Chewie shirt, but since the photos were being taken at Pinball Pete’s Arcade in East Lansing, the Space Invader referencing shirt won out (another option I considered was my Yooper Steez shirt, designed by all-around-awesome Lansing dude, Justin “Bugsy” Sailor).

I caught some (friendly) flack from those who knew I had a new girlfriend, yet was writing about being single.  The girlfriend in question was fine with it, as I told her about the story way before it ran.

But the story isn’t so much about my being single, but more how I went about meeting people, expanding my circle of friends and places to go on dates around Lansing.

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Speaking of Lansing Capital Gains, I was brought on to be a weekly contributor recently.  Starting on February 17th, I’ll be writing four development stories a week.  These are very, very short–only 200 words at the most–so it equals out to less than a feature article (1,000 words) a week.

There will be a bit of a learning curve for me, as I have to find leads and such, but I’m getting a lot of help from my editor and fellow contributors.

I consider myself the furthest thing from a journalist, but I am very happy to have this opportunity to see if I can handle the rigors of a regular writing gig. So far, so good.

And if you live in Lansing and have any leads for me, drop me a line.

Listenotron! ::  Downloaderize!

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In podcast news, I was looking over the download stats yesterday and I saw that so far this month, the first episode of the podcast (A Shameless Summer) already has over 150 downloads.

That’s over 150 people starting my podcast. Over 150 new listeners. Man, that is great.  Will all of them stick around after that first episode? I dunno, but at least they gave me a chance. That reminds me, I need to start advertising online again and soon.

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Speaking of promotion, I decided that I will be going to Penguion 2010 in April.  I contacted them yesterday and hopefully I’ll be on panels like I have been for the past two years. I had a blast last year, as I always do, and I certainly know more about podcasting this time around than last year (I think I had maybe three episodes or so up at that point).

Copywhat? Copyrights! Open Source Licensing in Literature – we chat about copyright issues, especially when it comes to Internet.

Show notes and Listen :: Download

Selling Your Soul – Marketing Your Work on a Limited Budget – we chat about marketing your own stuff while trying not to break the bank (features Jim C. Hines and David Crampton)

Show notes and Listen :: Download

Guerrilla Marketing — The Art of Self-Promotion – along the same lines of the panel above, but touches on other marketing ideas (features Michael “FREON” Andaluz).  I found this one via some sort of MP3 grabber site (and was alerted by Google), so I have the audio hosted on my site, as I can’t find an entry for it on any of Rick’s websites.

Download

(all audio recordings are © 2009 Rick Jackson)

Give these a listen and enjoy!  I love being on panels and talking about these subjects.  I’ve certainly learned plenty about promotion over the past few years.

This piece is about using video games as educational tools and (hopefully) leading to job creation and talent retention around Lansing.

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In other news, I rode a horse last Monday.

This was my first time riding a horse that wasn’t attached to a rope on a pole and walked in a circle (best guess, that happened when I was under the age of ten).

A friend rides weekly (but not weakly…Ugh.  Sorry) at C.H.U.M. (Children and Horses United in Movement) Therapy near Lansing (not to be confused with C.H.U.D.).

My friend (nor I) does not ride for therapy reasons, she just attends weekly riding lessons.  She asked if I wished to attend, and always looking for real-life experiences to enrich my writing and self, I said yes.

It was quite the experience.

I certainly used a few muscles I never knew I had (which I was told is part of the idea behind riding as physical therapy).  The next couple days after I rode had me hurtin’, but I enjoyed myself.

I gotta say–horses are BIG up close.  Being on top of my mount, Gunny, was equally thrilling and terrifying (at first).

He was standing still when I took this, relax.

But, Gunny was a friendly horse — and he certainly liked it when I fed him a few carrots after he was done carting my bony butt around for a couple hours.

What did I take away from this experience? Aside from realizing how big these animals are (’specially when you are only average height like me), I was glad to experience what it is like to ride something that is very much alive and has a personality of its own.  If Gunny wanted to slow down–he slowed down.  If he wanted to ignore my “go faster” commands, he did.  That’s a world of difference from a bike or a car.

Learning how to steer was a good education too–not that I plan on writing volumes of fantasy involving tribes of horse riding people any time soon, but it was a nice addition to the ol’ writing tool box.

Would I go riding again? Certainly.  They run a tight ship over at C.H.U.M., and while I was nervous at first, I felt very safe and eventually learned to just enjoy the ride.

The brief hiatus during December was nice. It gave me a chance to get a little bit ahead, although not as ahead as I was hoping for–but that’s the holidays for you.  Still, I’m glad I gave myself a bit of a break.  It was nice.

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I’m still going strong with the Year in Pictures challenge on Flickr. Here is today’s picture, taken at the Fish Ladder in Old Town.

You can see the rest of my Year in Pictures here.   I’m having so much fun doing this project, I’m very happy that I decided to give it a go.  I’m taking photos daily and messing around in Photoshop on a regular basis, which is a great thing.

And I’m experimenting more/taking chances as well when it comes to photos.  Case in point, this picture below, in which I used a “texture” in Photoshop.

Someone had a bunch of free textures on their Flickr page, so I decided to use one.  I like this picture a lot (even if it is a bit creepy), I may get it printed and framed for myself.

Very cool.  Betsy shared one of the tips I mentioned when I spoke about podcasting at DemoCamp Lansing. In this case, it was the using dog training clicker to mark mistakes in your audio track.

I use this when recording episodes for the Magic of Eyri Podcast and it is super helpful.  The click creates a pair of spikes in the audio’s track, making the mistakes easy to spot.

I can’t take credit for coming up with this idea however, it was shared with me by the fellows at EscapePod while talking shop at last year’s Penguicon.  I’m happy to of had the chance to pass this tip on to others though.

If you are a podcaster (or do anything with sound recording), I can’t recommend this tip enough: it’ll be the best $3 you’ll ever spend (you can also tap the microphone or snap your fingers, but the advantage of the clicker is that the spike will always look the same).

I’m a fan of this zoo and I usually go at least a few times a year. I love going in the late fall not only because it is free, but because a lot of the animals are more active due to the colder weather (I usually throw a couple bucks in the donation box even when it is free, and I’ve adopted animals in the past).

I went into the “cat house,” where the lions and tigers are kept–and I happened to be there around feeding time (I saw a few of the smaller animals being fed).  I approached the lion exhibit and saw one of the lions (a lioness, I’m pretty sure) pacing back and forth.

She knew it was feeding time and she began roaring.

I gotta say, having only a few inches of glass (OK, maybe more) separating me from a hungry, roaring lion was quite the experience.

It made me think a bit too, just how we kind of take this stuff for granted.  Here is an amazing animal that I would never see in Michigan under normal circumstances, mere inches from me.  I watched the lion continue its pacing and its roaring, and took it all in–what an amazing creature.  Nature is awesome and scary.

And as it tends to do, my imagination began to drift to thoughts of this animal chasing after prey in the wild.  Then I thought of it (or any lion really) chasing after me and how helpless I would be.

I know a lot of people don’t take the time to savor the sights of  animals at a zoo, I’ll watch people stop for a second and then move on to the next exhibit.  I try to be good about stopping to study the animal and watch it for a little while. I like watching how the larger animals move–it is great research for writing and other creative outlets.

I certainly recommend spending time at a zoo if you ever write about animals, made up or real.  Sure, you can find a zillion and a half videos of animals on YouTube, but some times you need to see an animal eye to eye.

Potter Park Zoo is a great resource and I’m glad it is here in Lansing.

The concept is that you take and upload a photo every day, for 365 days.  After the end of the year, you have a nice little collection of your photographic adventures.  Never one to back down from a creative challenge (says the three time finisher of National Novel Writing Month), I jumped at the chance to take part.

First Coffee of 2010, drank from my Attack From Outer Space mug.

I created a set on Flickr to hold all of my own photos, so keep checking that out every day for a new picture.

Will I miss days? Probably. Stuff happens and I’m not going to worry about it if I miss a day or two.  This is for fun and a good excuse to get me out there and take more pictures.  Photography is one of my favorite hobbies and I’m happy for a chance to do it more often.

This project may be the push to get me to finally buy a decent SLR camera.  I’m just using my Sony point-and-shoot for these.  I’ll probably have a few taken by my phone, but I don’t want to do too many of those.

I’m having fun so far–I was up nice and early, taking photos of my old typewriter and messing around with the manual settings on my camera.  I haven’t used the manual settings in a long while.  Then I played around with the picture in Photoshop.

picture of my Underwood typewriter. I do not know its age.

I deleted every color channel except blue in Photoshop and then messed around with the shadows and highlights.  I like the black and white look more, it fits the old time look of the typewriter.

This is exactly why I wanted to do this project: it is making me experiment with photos more.

Happy New Year!

The last two panels were more-or-less the same conversation I had with the phrase in question’s creator. I finally made use of Flipnote’s “onion skin” feature and when drawing the last two panels–namely when drawing the lady, and it shows (I’m not great at drawing the same thing twice on my own, case in point–look at how my characters change in each panel).

And whenever I think of Kafka, I think of this great episode (and song) from the cartoon, Home Movies.

Tomorrow night (12.15.09) I will be presenting at DemoCamp Lansing in Harper’s Brew Pub in East Lansing.  I’ll be talking about podcasting. I have five minutes to rap about podcasting to a room full of (mostly) strangers. It should be interesting, as I have yet to really work out my battle plan.

Speaking of making it up as I go, I found out today that I made it to the Sweet Sixteen of PowerPoint Karaoke 2009, which really surprised me (thanks to everyone who voted for me, you are all awesome).

The idea of PowerPoint Karaoke (aka BattleDecks) is that you give a presentation–but you don’t know what your PowerPoint slides are going to be about.  In our case, we knew our topic (mine was the economy).

Watch the video below (or watch it on the YouTube).

If you like what you see, please vote for me. If I make it to the next round (the Elite Eight) I get a prize of some kind. Awesome.

Read at own risk, this could get stupid.

This was fun, I enjoyed coming up with a way to spoof some of Dune’s characters and such. And yes, I know it isn’t Paul who eventually becomes God Emperor. Hooray for stupid comics.  When doing these, I try not to edit (too much) and to just go with my first idea. If anything, these are a good ‘think on my feet’ exercise. Man, I can’t even begin to tell you how many I hours of my youth I wasted spent playing Dune II on our old PC.

Oh man, this was pretty bad.  But, I was inspired. Had to run with it. I pieced everything together in Photoshop (and added the date/URL).

I also added the dino saying “burp” because I realized after the fact that it may not be apparent that he ATE them–did not want a reader to think something else had transpired.

This was fun. I’ll try and do more. You can probably guess I drew this in like ten minutes, it certainly shows. I enjoy doing stupid comics like this, it is fun to draw something silly once in a while.

I went back and forth between getting the newer DSi and the slightly older and cheaper DS Lite for a spell, but I am very happy with my choice.

Why? For starters, it has an SD card slot and it’ll play music files, thus filling in until I get a new iPod.

The other reason was the downloadable games available only for the DSi.  Seeing as how downloadable content is where the industry is going, I decided that I did not want to be left behind.

One program in particular was the deciding factor–Flipnote Studio.  It is actually free (came pre-installed with mine) and all kinds of fun.  It is a simple drawing and animation program, but what I love most is that I can export my (horrible) drawings as .GIF files so I can subject all of the Internet with more of my terrible sketches.

My first drawing with Flipnote, a rendering of two cartoony hamsters.

That’s suppose to say “Hams Without a Cause.”  A narrative involving two rebelous hamsters, I reckon? I have no idea.  I was inspired and went with it.

I’m still getting used to the stylus and drawing on the screen but I it is a lot of fun, and being a person that likes to doodle, I see all kinds of potential here (…potential to make hundreds of lameo drawings).

The animation process is pretty fun too–and you can export your “toons” as an animated .GIF file. Neat.

The music player also impressed me greatly, especially with the ability to alter songs in real time (I messed with the speed and pitch of Pink Floyd’s  Comfortably Numb and it was a hoot).

So yes, I’m having fun with my new toy.

Just got done reading your blog. Kudos.

Prior to that I was watching “Shine a Light” & had a thought. At my eulogy, you could open with:
My Dad & I were roadies for the Rolling Stones. He was in the pit, I was on sound crew. The stories
we could tell.

You can take it from there.

Have to get back to the garage to dry my wood.
dad

My dad is obsessed with having the coolest funeral ever. I’m not making this up. I have an envelope containing his final wishes.

Not that Dad is dying or anything.  He just believes in being prepared.

He also speaks the truth.  We were both “roadies” for the Rolling Stones half-time show at Super Bowl XL at Ford Field in Detroit.  He was part of the crew that assembled the stage and I was part of the team that setup the giant speakers and ran the connector cables to them.

The best part? I got to be on field during the few minutes of the 2nd and 4th quarters–and I was mere feet from the Seahawks and their cheerleaders. Dad and his crew were stuck in the bowels of Ford Field until half-time.

Here’s where we were:

I was on the side lines and dad was in the middle under the "tongue" of the stage. Image © original source.

As you can see, I was off to the side and dad was in the center of the action.  The cool part was that we got to go to Ford Field for dress rehearsal a few days before–and the Stones drove within a few feet of me on golf carts, smiling and waving to our team. Very cool.

That stage is actually a bunch of tall metal carts that had to be snapped together in very little time.

Being downtown for the Superbowl was magical.  Nothing else describes the feeling or look of the city.  People filled the streets and there were millions of interesting things going on around me.

It was worth getting a call from Dad at 6 AM on a Saturday morning telling me to go online and sign up to volunteer.

You can buy that special someone(s) a copy of my novel, The Magic of Eyri, through Lulu, Amazon and Barnes & Noble (you can even go in any physical book store and give the ISBN 978-0615145280 and they should be able to order it for you).

A friend made my week by ordering ten copies to give out as gifts.  Any day I have to sign ten copies of my novel is a good day.

signing ten copies of the magic of eyri at once.

So don’t hesitate, g’head and order a few dozen copies of your own. And if you live in Lansing and want ‘em signed, let me know.

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In other Magic of Eyri news, episode 015 of the free podcast version, “Every Which Way but Uth,” is now online.  Download!

And remember that I’m not releasing any episodes in December (trying to build up a stockpile of episodes and to give myself a bit of a break).  Episodes will resume on the first Wednesday in January 2010 (the 6th).

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Here’s a digital digest of my other writings wandering aimlessly ’round the Internet:

• Save money by ordering a la carte at Los Tres Amigos, Examiner.com, 11.24.09
• Make the lunch buffet at Mumbai in East Lansing a regular stop, Examiner.com, 11.25.09
• And now for something completely different-breakfast at the Holiday Lanes bowling alley,
• This week’s High Noon Fantasy Hockey, IllegalCurve.com (11.23.09)

The month off from releasing episodes will help me built up a bit of a buffer so that I’m not worrying about releasing episodes week by week.  My goal is to have at least two episodes totally finished by the first of the year, if not more (or at least some more scripts finished). I’ve been going full throttle on my free podcast since last Spring, so I figured I’ve earned a break. The less stress around Christmas, the better. I am looking forward to giving myself a bit of a breather–in a way, it is a Christmas present to myself.  I may take that time to re-record episode 001 (“A Shameless Summer“) as well.  It could certainly benefit from it, as I’ve become much better at producing episodes since then (if I do that, I’ll still keep the original version online, so one can compare and contrast).

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And here’s your weekly round-up of my various writings running wild around the back alleys of the Internet:

• Divide and conquer your hunger with the soup and sandwich combo at Soup Spoon Cafe, Examiner.com (11.16.09)
• Hold the cow and grab a spicy black bean burger at Michigan Brewing Company, Examiner.com (11.18.09)
• Find a fast, spicy lunch at Bangkok House, Examiner.com (11.19.09)
• This week’s High Noon Fantasy Hockey, IllegalCurve.com (11.16.09)

My stats, let me show you them:

Numbers don't lie--China uses more of my bandwidth.

Yes, I have more page views and hits in the U.S. of A than anywhere else, but the bandwidth usage in China is nearly twice the amount of the USA.  I brought this up with some writer pals at ConClave back in October, and one mentioned that fantasy stuff is really popular in China right now.  I mentioned this to a friend, and she asked a Chinese student she tutors  and the student told her that podcasts are a popular method for learning English.

Oh boy.

I am equally amused and concerned that there might be scores of folks in China (or other places) learning English via my horrible Michigan accent, silly voices, made up words, and amateur voice acting.  If you’re ever toolin’ round Shanghai and hear someone talking like this, then I’m probably to blame.

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The big news of this past week is that the first draft of my next novel, working title Night of the Lonely Werewolf, is done. Yep, all 94,000+ words of it are finished.  I opted to print the dang thing out (all 499 pages of it, double-spaced at 12 point font) as I go through the editing process.  I’m glad I went this route, because I’ll at least have a hard copy of the first draft, and I like taking notes as I do that always important first read-through.  I may need to invest in more red pens.

I'm oldschool. Markin' up the paper with a bunch of red marks.

This is the novel I started for last year’s National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo).  Not happy that it took me almost a year to write the last 44,000 words after cranking out the first 50k in less than 30 days, but “thems the breaks.”

“Life happened” right after the holidays last year and I fell off the writing horse for a few months–but I dusted myself off and get right back on, spurs an’ all.  Getting that first draft finished is key, after that, things kind of fall in place.  But reaching that final goal of a workable first draft–no matter how good or bad it is–is super important.

I didn’t want to become a writer with a few half-finished novels lying around, so I’m happy that I soldiered on and finished this thing.  The interesting thing is that I got some of my better ideas after that six month dry spell, life’s funny that way.  I actually enjoy editing my novels and watching it change into something even better.

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And here’s your weekly round-up of my various writings infesting other parts of the Internet:

• Lansing’s International Flavor, Capital Gains (11.04.09)
• The Big O Mess at Grumpy’s Diner will put a smile on your face, Examiner.com (11.10.09)
• Photo tour of the Michigan Brewing Company Brewery, Examiner.com (11.11.09)
• Sip some apple cider at Decker’s Coffee Company, Examiner.com (11.12.09)
• This week’s High Noon Fantasy Hockey, IllegalCurve.com (11.09.09)

Some more great news: I am now doing a weekly column about fantasy hockey for the hockey blog IllegalCurve.com. My first column went online today. They pop up every Monday at noon (I turn them in Sunday night-ish).

I know what you’re thinking: where can I get an awesome hat like this dude? How the heck can he do all of these side things, along with his other freelance work, the podcast, his in-progress novel and his day job?

Answer: I’ll make it happen. There will be a bit of a learning curve as I get used to these added duties, but I think once I get in the habit things will get smoother. Also, as a person who works better under pressure and with deadlines, this will strengthen my time management skills.

I’m already getting better–I set up a Google doc today to act as a note pad for my hockey column during the week. I read about hockey daily anyway, and this way I’ll have a running tally of news and ideas–unlike last night when I had to spend a lot of time looking for stuff while working on my first column.

My second Examiner story went way smoother today as well.  I made the mistake of using the advanced publishing tool for the first story and it resulted in way more work than I needed to do. Heck, I wrote all of the Soup Spoon story and started a new story tonight while at the laundry mat. I’m confident I’ll do fine.

For those unfamiliar. Examiner.com is a network of local bloggers that focus on a certain topic for each city.  These bloggers are usually based in or near a big city.  Michigan has sections for Detroit and Grand Rapids, but not Lansing specifically–however, there were a few I saw.

They proudly display ads on the site asking folks to apply to be an Examiner of whatever topic they wish.  So, being the crazy ambitious person I am, I filled out a form and pitched bloggin’ ’bout restaurants in our fair capital city.

I’ll post a link to my page once it gets set up, which could be a few days.  They ask that I aim for three to four posts a week, but they can be short–between 250 to 500 words.  Heck, I write more than that in Twitter updates on any given day.  The goal here is frequent, short posts.  I can do that.  I enjoy dining out and any of my friends know I’m a big foodie.  Also, I have prior experience writing about such things thanks to my freelance work with Capital Gains.  However, my style for Examiner will be a bit different than how I write for Capital Gains.  I’m going for more of a loose, witty, goofy style for Examiner.  I try to keep the Capital Gains stories a bit more on the serious side, to match the style of the rest of the website.

The other interesting thing is that the Examiner stuff is done pretty much without a net (my first post will be reviewed however), so it’ll all be on me in regards to editing and style (which isn’t any different than this blog post).

Yes, I get paid.  My payment is based on traffic (page views, subscribers, etc).

I’m excited.  I’m not expecting to make any a bunch of money doing this, but the way I look at it, I dine out any way, I might as well get the writing experience and exposure.  I learned about Examiner via my pal Kevin, who is the Chicago Comic Books Examiner.  I love his funny style, it is something I want to try and emulate–which I think would make my subject more fun to read about over more traditional restaurant reviews.

This episode, and the next two, have plenty of action. Uncle Shameless dukes it out with the bounty hunter Zeroth. Good times are had by all.  Uh, well maybe not.

In Fistful of Dollars costume news, my metal chest plate is finished, mom mailed me my vest and scarf and I picked up some cigars last night (don’t tell mom).  I did buy a hat yesterday, but after getting it home I hated it and realized it just wasn’t going to work. Sigh. That’s $10 I’ll never see again. I’m going to suck it up and buy a nice felt hat for around $30. At least it is something I can wear after Halloween. It won’t be 100% the same as Clint’s, but it will be close enough.

I will do a proper blog update about the progress of the costume later.

After surveying whom I got stuck with after the auto-pick draft, I started making a bunch of changes to the ol’ roster. As of today, I’ve made 11 moves (which I think counts both dropping and adding a player as separate counts). Here’s the list, the top being most recent and so forth.

I've been busy. I lead my league with transactions.

Yeah, I picked up some folks and then dropped then soon after. ::shrug:: It happens. You have to go with who is hot and cut ties with those that are bringing you down, or ain’t on a streak any longer. I was happy to get Steve Sullivan at first, as he’s a proven 60+ point scorer and has been Nashville’s best forward…hm…ever. However, Sully is off to a slow start, as is most of Nashville, so I had to move on.

Derek Morris was on my team for maybe 48 hours before I saw how great Matt Carle is doing while being paired with Chris “How Many Different Teams Can I Take to the Finals” Pronger. Samsonov–slow start and inconsistent. Gone. Kostitsyn, slow too.

Other cuts: Sykora, a slow start, groin problems and being placed on injured reserve. Bye. Hated to cut Lenio, but, Benn from Dallas has been doing a lot better. I think Lenio might pick it up eventually, as the Red Wings are now dealing with losing Franzen for several months, and having Datsyuk out against the Avalanche didn’t help matters at all. I’m keeping an eye on Lenio. If he starts to pick up, I’ll try and grab him again.

The free agent pick ups:

D-men – Johnson, 7 points, +4. Doughty, 6 points, +1. Carle, 8 points, +5. Doughty, 6 points, +1 is reaping the benefits of LA having a hot start. Carkner, 2 points, +6, is still on probation, as I just picked him up at the end of my first week. He’s on pace for over 200 PIMs this season, which is something I need–and better still, he’s eligible to play at RW or D, which is great. He’s getting around 19 minutes a night with an Ottawa squad that seems to be surviving losing Dany Heatley (5-2, at the top of the Northeast division).

Wingers – Justin Williams, 9 points, has been one of my better waiver wire steals so far this season. He is clicking with his linemates Smyth and Kopitar big time. He’s a much better RW option than what I started with. Benn, 7 points, has been tearing it up with follow Dallas rookie James Neal, 7 points–another pick-up of mine.

Neal is taking a bunch of shots, 27 so far, and is third behind Malkin on my team (36–who had 12 last night alone, yikes) and Vrbata (32 shots). Heatley, my goal leader with 6, only has 23 shots on goal so far. Brunette has been a great addition too–he’s second on my team with 5 goals (8 points total), but his +/- could be better (-5).

Goalies – If’in it ain’t one thang, it’s another. Two of my goalies, Gustavsson and Theodore, were injured early on. Thankfully, Theodore was only day to day (he should be back soon) and at least The Monster was put on IR, allowing me to snatch a new goalie without dumping someone. I picked up Atlanta’s Ondrej Pavelec (3-1, 2.37 GAA, .929 SV%) and I am glad I did. I might try and hang on to him after the Monster comes off IR. Carrying four goalies might be overkill, but with neither the Monster nor Theodore for sure starters, it probably ain’t a bad idea.

Bumps an’ Bruises: The big news this week is that my top D-man, Sergei Gonchar (8 points, 5 of which were on the powerplay) is injured and could miss 4 to 6 weeks. ARGH. I’m hoping he gets put on IR and that I can drop him down there at the same time Schneider comes off (which should be soon), meaning I wouldn’t have to cut someone or try to find a new d-man.

Aw, Man: Boston’s #1 center, Savard, is out–I don’t have him, but I have his wingman, Marco Strum. Savard is out 4 to 6 weeks and this means Strum’s value drops big time. Playing with a center who averages 80 assists a season makes Strum a decent LW, but without Savard’s playmaking, how good will he be? (case in point: Boston beat Nashville tonight 3-2 , Strum had zero points and one shot on goal)

The sting here is that I cut Lenio over Strum for the reason that Strum plays with Savard (and there is no guarantee that Lenio will play with Datsyuk or Zetterberg).

Standings after week one: 11th place (5-10-2) out of fourteen teams.

I got destroyed in week one, 10 to 5. Weak goaltending, aided by two goalies getting injured, and Heatley having a bad week, did me in.

Through Tuesday, I am leading in this week’s match-up, 9 to 6. I’d like to get above .500, and soon.

Marked for the Chop:
Marco Strum, LW. See above.

Scott Gomez, C, (4 points in 8 games) really needs to kick it up a notch (bam?). But then the same could be said of the rest of the Canadiens. I’d hate to cut Gomez, as he at least gets a bunch of face-offs won, but I’m center-heavy and would like to get rid of one eventually (ideally, via a trade for a winger).

Radim Vrbata, RW, 4 points in 7 games. Despite being second on my team with 32 shots, Vrbata is on a 5 game point slump–he hasn’t scored a point since the second game of the season. However, he gets special consideration (to a point), since decent RW’s are hard to come by. But he better get it going. If he got the token goal against the Red Wings on Thursday (and the Wings won) I’d be happy.

Tomas Kaberle, D, 4 points in 7 games, -4. OK, the Maple Leafs have yet to win a game this season, which is reason enough to cut someone. But, Gonchar going down this week will probably cause me to keep Kabbie around for a bit longer–and he’s a fairly consistent scorer over the years, averaging 0.58 points a game over his career. Not bad. And things could pick up if/when Kessel finally skates with his new team. (Yes, Ryan Whitney, another of my d-men, has the same amount of points in as many games–but Whitney is +3 and gets penalty minutes).

Escaped the Ax:
Derick Brassard, C, 5 points in 7 games–but he’s on a four game point streak, including two points in one game on the 20th. Nice. He plays with Rick Nash, how can he not rack up the points?

Days Until Halloween: 15

Part One :: Part Two :: Part Three

My boots arrived this week–the pair I won on eBay last week or so.

Boots with the spurs I bought.

I’m pretty happy with ‘em.  The good thing is that they are already broken in, so they comfortable to wear.  I’ve been wearing them (sans spurs) while out and about this week to get accustomed to how they feel–and I gotta say, I like it.  Not having to worry about shoe laces is nice, but they are rather warm which is great for the chilly weather as of late.

And they make me a bit taller.  Which is a plus.

The white whale of this costume remains the hat.  I stopped at a couple places today, but had zero luck.  I’ll hit up another shop or two I’ve been to before and figure something out. It may come down to getting a hat that I have to reshape the brim to make it close.  I’d prefer a brown hat, but I’m afraid I might get stuck with black hat, which, horror of horrors, would clash with the brown leather of the rest of my costume. Oh well.

In perhaps the best news of 2009, Amazon has made most of Mojo Nixon’s albums available as free .MP3 downloads.  If you enjoy crazy rockabilly music, then look no further. Mojo does not disappoint. Heck, he even gets a shout out in the song Punk Rock Girl by the Dead Milkmen.

Oh and you might also remember him as Toad in the Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Or maybe that’s just me.

Anyway, most of his albums are hard to find in stores or online (at least in my experience), so do take this opportunity to enrich your musical library with such classics as Elvis is Everywhere or Don Henley Must Die.  I had the sheer luck of finding a new copy of Whereabouts Unknown at Flat Black and Circular in East Lansing about a year ago, and quickly purchased it.

I read this is in support of Mojo’s new release, Whiskey Rebellion, which is a neat concept–but given that Mojo hasn’t been in the eye of the mainstream for…uh…awhile, I can see why this happened.

Or better yet, in the man’s own words:

“Can’t wait for Washington to fix the economy. We must take bold action now. If I make the new album free and my entire catalog free it will stimulate the economy. It might even over-stimulate the economy. History has shown than when people listen to my music, money tends to flow to bartenders, race tracks, late night greasy spoons, bail bondsman, go kart tracks, tractor pulls, football games, peep shows and several black market vices. My music causes itches that it usually takes some money to scratch.”

Days Until Halloween: 19

Part One :: Part Two

I won a pair of cowboy boots on eBay last week, which I’m happy about.  They have not arrived yet–and part of me is worried they did while at ConClave this weekend and that the postal person left the box outside my door and they were whisked away by some troubled youth.  We’ll see.  However, I did pick up a pair of spurs and I can’t wait to wear them with the boots.

Jingle jangle? You BET.

I tried them out with a pair of work boots I have and I had a hard time taking them off–I was having too much fun walking around (stately Hogan Manor) with them on.

Additionally, I solved the orange-tip issue with my non-firing Colt SAA replica.  I found a dart for a toy gun that fit inside the barrel.  Easy.  I tried to glue the flared sides of the suction cup down, but alas that did not work.  I may pick up some orange tape or something and tape up the tip a bit, up until the aiming blade.

"Thanks for the tip."

Lastly, Mom is hard at work making me a vest and scarf.  I saw what she had thus far over the weekend, and she really hit it out of the park.  I just asked for a simple brown vest, but she also got material to do the lining.

Clint's vest in Fistful. Image © United Artists

And what Mom has so far:

Not made of real gorilla chest.

The scarf is tied around the neck at the back and I’m glad it is a thin material, as I’m sure this is going to be a hot costume to wear between the shirt, poncho, vest, scarf and something referencing Eastwood’s improvised bulletproof vest.

Oh, Clint! He's so crafty.Image © United Artists

I don’t plan on wearing a piece of sheet metal under the poncho, but I’ll rig something up.  Maybe a cookie sheet from Goodwill that I’ll beat the heck out of or something else.  My concern is weight and comfort.  I had a thought of just using duct tape to make it, you know sticking it to itself. It’d have the look and be light weight, as well as flexible.

As a bit of a joke, I’m thinking of including the Heart Breaker logo Scud the Disposable Assassin wears somewhere on whatever I come up with.

I’m pretty much set except for the dang hat.

I can't find anything close to this around town. Image © United Artists

I came close to something last week, but it was over $30 and didn’t look that good on me.  I gotta find something, but this is proving to be a bit of a challenge. I may say the heck with it and get the $30 hat, although it is a bit of a stretch in appearance.  If it was dead on, I wouldn’t hesitate but is is only slightly similar.

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]]> http://danieljhogan.com/home/2009/10/13/fistful-of-costumes-three/feed/ 1 http://danieljhogan.com/home/2009/10/11/freelance-conclave-and-werewolves-oh-my/ http://danieljhogan.com/home/2009/10/11/freelance-conclave-and-werewolves-oh-my/#comments Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:54:00 +0000 Daniel http://danieljhogan.com/home/?p=388 My latest feature article for Capital Gains is now online, I interview someone who moved to the Lansing area from China.  I have two more stories in the hopper, I’ll post when those get put online.  I also have two new assignments–one of which deals with being single in Lansing.  Should be interesting.

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I had the pleasure of being a guest at the science fiction and fantasy fan convention, ConClave once again this weekend.  I had a great time like always,  running into  Jim C. Hines, who was there promoting his latest release, Mermaid’s Madness, and the always entertaining M. Keaton.

It is fun to reconnect with writer friends and to make new ones at these conventions.  I was a part of nine events, including the Writer’s Workshop (I read and critiqued stories), panel discussions (ranging from zombies to werewolves to comic books) and I was even a contestant in a Last Man Standing Sci-Fi/Fantasy Trivia Contest–and I came in 2nd place.

My prize for coming in second is that my name will be used for the name of the president of the CDC in an upcoming zombie novel (The Ravening) by Stewart Sternberg. Stewart said that there will be a quote at the start of a chapter, which will be attributed to said CDC president, so something along these lines perhaps, to give you an idea:

“I see no reason to panic. As long as none of them bite you, you’ll be just fine.  Oh, and wash your hands.  Seriously, people.”

- Daniel Hogan, President of the CDC.

I’m excited to see what Stewart comes up with–he’s threatening to make it something that will cause an angry mob to show up at my door. Hey, I can use the publicity.  The novel will be available in stores and obviously I’ll do a post once that happens.  The grand prize winner will be made into a character that gets ripped apart by zombies.  Lucky.  Amusingly, I lost my shot at first place by not knowing the name of Barbara’s brother in the original Night of the Living Dead (Johnny).

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Speaking of Mr. Sternberg, we were on a panel about werewolves at ConClave, which I recorded for this week’s podcast.  Check it out. I’m glad I recorded it, because between late nights at work this week and getting ready for the con, I didn’t have the next episode of the Magic of Eyri finished. Hooray for filler. Give the panel a listen, it is a fun time. Jon David, Rick Moore, Charles Zaglanis and William Jones join us as well.

Thankfully, I’m in a league with at least a few people I know, unlike the league of strangers I was in last time (note: League of Strangers is a cool name for something, must remember that one…)

I’m in a head to head league–meaning, all of my players’ stats go up against my opponent’s players’ stats for the week, similar to the way most Fantasy Football leagues are run (ex: I have 10 goals at the end of the week, Player B has 7, I win that category). In the past, I’ve mainly done what are called rotisserie leagues–your points fluctuate based on your ranking regarding each stat, usually based on how many teams in your league (ex: if I’m leading in goals at the end of the day in a 14 team league, I earn 14 points. But, if I drop to third the next day, I only have 12 points in that category).

Each type of league has its advantages and disadvantages. It is easier to come from behind in a head to head league, as if you have a great couple of weeks you can jump to the lead. But in a rotisserie league, if you get in a rut from the start, you might never climb out.

We had an auto-pick draft for our league, forgoing a live draft due to our crazy schedules. However, I customized my pre-draft rankings and I think I did pretty well considering we had a fairly large league of 14 teams.

I drafted 2nd overall–which is good, but also bad. The draft order is serpentine, meaning that while I get to pick second in round one, I pick second to last in round two, 27th overall (the person picking 14th overall gets two picks in a row: 14 and 15). By the time I get my second pick, 26 other players have already been picked (assuming my math is correct).

My crew, in the order drafted:

The Yellow Scarfs

My team’s logo and patron Saint, Proto Man. Image © Capcom

(my team name, named after Proto Man, which in turn inspired the character Zeroth in my novel/podcast The Magic of Eyri.  Zeroth also wears a yellow scarf)

1. (2) Evgeni Malkin – MVP candidate last season, keeps getting better and better.

2. (27) Dany Heatley – Disgruntled sniper that demanded a trade to a new team. 50 goal scorer.

3. (30) Joe Thornton – Great set-up man, line mate of Dany Heatley. Wins lots of faceoffs.

4. (55) Steve Mason – Rookie of the year winner last season.  Goalie.  Getting a great goalie or two is key in fantasy hockey.

5. (58) Sergei Gonchar – Scoring defenseman.

6. (83) Scott Gomez – Capable center playing on a line with two sniper wingers, could be the center of one of the best lines in the league.

7. (86) Henrik Sedin – Another high scoring center.

8. (111) Tomas Kaberle – Decent scoring defenseman.

9. (114) Mikko Koivu – Developing scoring center, 60+ points last season, wins lots of faceoffs.

10. (139) Petr Sykora – New team, could be a sleeper winger. I’m hoping he is.

11. (142) Mathieu Schneider – Scoring d-man, hoping playing with the Sedin twins will help him rack up a bunch of points.

12. (167) Marco Sturm – So-so winger, but Boston has been playing really well as of late.

13. (170) Andrei Kostitsyn – Another so-so Left Wing. Sub-par season last year. Hoping he rebounds.

14. (195) Ryan Whitney – Scoring d-man, will get more minutes with Pronger not being on the team any more.

15. (198) Jose Theodore – An OK goalie, probably good for 30 wins. But, could lose his starting gig to a young upstart rookie goalie.

16. (223) Derick Brassard – Was in the running for Rookie of the Year until injury/surgery shortened his season.

17. (226) Mike Comrie – Meh. A prime example of someone I wouldn’t have drafted had I been running the draft live.

18. (251) Sergei Samsonov – Another possible sleeper winger.

19. (254) Ville Leino – One time scoring leader of the Finnish hockey league, now a rookie with the Red Wings.  After losing three wingers to free agency, it is looking like Lenio will have lots of chances to step up.

20. (279) Radim Vrbata – Back with Phoenix, had  a great season the last time he was there (27 goals).

21. (282) Jonas Gustavsson – The Monster.  Could steal the starting goalie gig on the Maple Leafs.

22. (307) Andrej Meszaros – Lame season last year with the Bolts. Will probably drop him.

23. (310) Andrej Sekera – Will be dropped ASAP.

I’m happy with the results for the most part, by my last two picks irked me a bit, as both are rather lackluster defensemen. The problem was that my list was based on us originally have 16 teams drafting, but then we dropped to 14 at the last minute, which changed things a bit.

The problem with the auto-draft is that while it follows your order, it also looks to fill what you need how it sees fit–and I don’t know how it decides. For example, there might be a great Right Wing available, but it sees that you need a Left Wing and skips down to that, avoiding the better player. I think this is why I have a bunch of Centers. The advantage of a live draft is that you can make calls like that on the fly “Oh, that guy’s still available…I really need a Right Wing, but this Defensemen is awesome…”

Where my strategy paid off was with picks two and three–Heatley was ranked lower this year because of a crappy season in Ottawa. He was recently traded to San Jose, and plays on the top line with Thornton. The good thing here is that I could be doubling my points on a given night–if Thornton assists on a Heatley goal, I get both of those points.

I also got some nice steals in the early and later rounds, mainly Brassard (a rookie of the year consideration last season until having season ending surgery: 25 points in 31 games, not bad) and Gustavsson (a goalie nicknamed The Monster because he is so big).

And I’m really happy I was able to get Leino from the Red Wings. After Heatley though, I’m fairly weak when it comes to wingers, but a few of my guys could be sleepers. Penalty Minutes is one of our categories, so I gotta pick up some goons.

…How the heck did my last two picks both end up being guys named Andrej?

And I leave you with this:

Part 1

My non-firing Colt Single Action Army replica (say that ten times fast) arrived Friday afternoon, along with the leather gun belt/holster and 28 solid brass dummy cartridges.

I aim to misbehave.

I am very happy with the gun, as it looks just like an original Colt–and I think it weights the same too, as it is rather heavy. I’m glad I opted for the longer barrel (that’s what she said), but I imagine “spinning” and quick drawing the shorter barreled version would be easier.

Loading gate open, dummy rounds loaded.

Everything on the gun works, which is really neat. The hammer has two positions, half-cocked (loading) and full cocked (firing). The loading gate pops open and the ejector tube works, although the dummy rounds will usually just fall out if the gun is tilted upward with the gate open (which is the case with a real Colt, I’m sure).

Eject!

My only point of concern is that the gun does not have an orange tip, which I think it legally has to for me to wear in public. I can rig something up, I’m sure.

No orange tip, which could make carrying this in public a problem.

The dummy rounds are OK, but I thought they would be a bit longer–but they suit the task they were designed for. Some are difficult to eject from the cylinder of the Colt, as they seem to get wedged in a bit. I think once the gun/rounds get broken in a bit more everything will be fine, everything is already starting to work a bit smoother after a couple days of use.

I may not “load” the gun with the dummy rounds when carrying it in public, out of concern of misunderstandings. Better safe than sorry, but we’ll see. If I’m at someone’s house for a party indoors, that’s one thing–but if I’m walking around a convention or something, well I may leave the dummy rounds out.

The belt and holster however, were a big disappointment–not in regards to the construction, which is fine, but the decoration. The bad job is down right horrible. In the photos I viewed online, the paint job appeared more blended in and uniform. With my belt, it looks like someone just ran a black brush along the edges–or that a the last step was skipped. Considering I paid a little over $40 for this belt, I was not happy. But in terms of functionality, the belt/holster work just fine.

I am not happy with the lameo paint job on this holster. The pictures on the Internet led me to believe these colors would be blended in a bit better.

The loops don’t always keep the cartridges secure, but I knew about that ahead of time. I picked up some putty that I’ll use to secure the cartridges in the belt. I’m torn as it if I should keep the entire belt filled or only about half or so–with several empty loops between cartridges. I think the look of having less cartridges might be a bit more interesting, as it hints at some of the ammo being used.

I also picked up the a poncho at a local Halloween shop (which upon spotting some weeks ago was the inspiration for this costume). Yes, this isn’t the exact same thing Eastwood wears in Fistful of Dollars, but I don’t care. It is close enough and at least a similar color (yes, it is green despite sometimes looking brown in the films).

Not the exact design, but it'll do.

My next quest is finding a decent hat and a pair of boots. For these, I want to go cheap–which I quickly realizing might not be an option. After visiting three resale places and a slew of shoe places, I am currently trying to get a pair of boots on eBay. Again, they don’t have to be exactly what Eastwood had. I just want an affordable pair of boots I can wear spurs with (which I found at a store, but haven’t bought yet).

The hat is a whole other challenge. Eastwood doesn’t wear a typical cowboy hat in Fistful of dollars and finding anything even remotely close is proving to be expensive. I have some options locally, so I’ll hold of