Chicago bound!

Leaving for Chicago this evening, and I have the paralyzing fear that I’m forgetting something. Spent last night frantically packing: Toothbrush, check. Clothes, check. Camera, check. Floggers, check. Handcuffs, check. Rope, check. Needles, check. Shampoo, check. Crops, check. Njoy probe, check.

It’s going to be a very busy trip. There are a bunch of you folks I’d like to see, and dayo and I were thinking about a big dinner get-together thing on Monday. scathedobsidian, amorsalado, purplebard, does that work for you? (I already know cunningminx won’t be there.) Anyone else on my flist in the Chicago area interested?

We’re also planning to be at GD on both Friday and Saturday night. (whee!) Also, looking forward to spending a bit of time with sulenda, who charmed my socks off last time I was there. (whee!)

And oh, such evil as has never been seen under the sun must needs be done to dayo, oh my yes. Mad scientist jacket and rubber gloves, check.

But I still feel like I’m forgetting something…


[EDIT] minniethemoocha nailed it. I forgot my phone charger! Frack! Now I have to stop by the apartment again on the way to the airport.

In which Franklin gets all Medieval on the weekend’s ass

This has been a hella productive past few days, and I am well and truly pleased.

The first chapter of the book on polyamory is done, finished, put a fork in it. Proposals have been sent out. Chpter 2 is started. Chapter 3 is halfway done.

Downed the first two bosses in Serpentshrine Caverns and the first two bosses in Tempest Keep with my new raiding guild. My mage rocks like a rocky thing. It’s just a pity she’s Alliance.

Got a surprise phone call on Friday. The attacks against iPower Web, which are not only ongoing but are getting more sophisticated (since I wrote that last, the number of compromised iPower sites has surged again), are coming to the attention of iPower’s customers. I received a phone call from a woman whose site had been hacked (twice!), and she had iPower on the phone when she called me.

The tech support monkeys at iPower told her that–get this–there’s no vulnerability on their servers, and that her account was compromised because the attackers brute-forced her FTP password. Which was…err, sixteen characters, both letters and numbers, long.

*blink*

Anyway, she gave them the what-for and pulled all her sites off iPower. Maybe if they start losing enough customers, they’ll fix their damn security.

And on the subject of Web sites, I’ve updated mine. I don’t know what I’m going to do when I have a book in print and can’t keep tinkering with it.

Last night, David and I tried playing as a team against six computer opponents in Age of Empires II. High difficulty, lowest resource setting. It was a humiliating debacle. We well and truly got our asses handed to us. Barely made it into the Imperial Age before the computer’s armies closed around us and systematically scraped us off the map.

In two weeks I’ll be in Chicago; planning to be there from the 19th through the 24th. Looking forward to spending time with dayo and scathedobsidian, I know you’ll be around. amorsalado, purplebard, will you guys be available?

I did a BAD THING…

…I installed a copy of the old-school (circa 1997) real-time strategy game Age of Empires II on David’s computer, then networked his computer with mine.

I suspect neither of us will be sleeping tonight. “Now, watch! Watch as I smash your village with my siege onagers of DOOM! Hear the wailing of your women and children; they are as music to my ears!”


Quote of the day (via Shelly):

“You are entitled to your own opinion. You are not, however, entitled to your own facts.”


And finally, via physicsduck, recreation for people who think that base jumping is too boring and safe. Dear God. I can’t believe that this actually worked, and nobody died.

Almost moved!

Got nearly everything moved to the new apartment, and I’ll be finishing the last of the stuff today. I’m moving into a (much) larger apartment located perhaps two hundred feet from my current place, and for the first time in my adult life I’ll have a roommate who isn’t a lover.

That ought to be interesting.

Anyway,the new place is far larger than the old, and ideally set up for hosting gatherings–something I used to do all the time but haven’t really had the space for in years.

So David (the roommate) and I are planning a hosewarming party sometime in the next few weeks. I’ll be in Chicago the weekend of June 20th, and will be playing host to the lovely zaiah during the first week in July, but other than that have no concrete plans. Anyone (a) intersted in attending and (b) have any preferences for when?

[Edit]: I’ll also be camping with Shelly, Fritz, datan0de, and femetal the second weekend in July, so that’s out too.