Joe Day

I never met Joe Murphy in person, but I did hear his voice on various podcasts. He was a cool guy, and he died this day in 2007 of cancer.

I post this in memory of him and offer these links for those who are unfamiliar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Murphy_(podcaster)

Edited to add: If you are moved to contribute, please visit the Leiomyosarcoma Direct Research Fund site at http://lmsdr.org

(Thanks, PG!)

Help name the new ISS module! Name it Serenity!

From here - please vote for the name "Serenity"!

Huzzah!

I'm quite happy that the man I voted for got elected, and now, today, he's going to take office. As much as I don't believe he's a miracle worker, I think he is the best choice for the job today, and I'm heartened by his intelligence and his drive.

I hope all the naysayers will give him a honeymoon period to prove himself before they weigh in against him.

I'm picturing in my mind the same scene that happens at the end of The West Wing TV show, where Bartlett leaves the White House for the last time while the new president moves in. This is going to be a great day for the nation!

Obamicon Me!

Get yours here.

Happy birthday, Genevieve!

My beautiful, talented, and creative daughter, Genevieve, has turned 17 this day. I remember that cold December night she was born; how her mother was in labor for a long time over the evening, how we walked and walked and walked during the labor, stopping every so often to press hard into her mom's back to relieve the back labor pains. The Chieftains' Christmas album played over and over and over on our little CD player and I was so glad I was able to be there to help. I welcomed my daughter into the world that night. She was the sweetest baby in the universe!

I hear from her mostly though Facebook these days, she's living with her mom in the Bay Area, but I am very happy to have that Facebook thread. I hope she has a most excellent day. She was a wonderful Solsticetide gift to us, and I love her so much, no matter where she is in the world.

Get that man a Blackberry that works for all of us.

This is my challenge to the technology sector.
I don't really know why this is not a no-brainer. Barack Obama wants to have a communications device as President that is a.) secure, b.) in keeping with the law and c.) allows him to have access to the outside world.
You're telling me that we can't create a secure Blackberry? Come on, guys. You're saying to me that we can't create something with Blowfish encryption, something that constantly changes its Machine Address Code, something that whips up and down the available spectrum like a crazed mongoose on steroids, something that isn't necessarily available to civilians but that could be made available to the Commander in Chief to be?

If I had glasses, I would be looking over their rims at you, Tech Sector. Give me a break. Get the man a new Blackberry. Why is this hard? He could probably even put in a good word with the FCC for you, get the thing approved early.

Mr. President-Elect, I would like to say that I think you should ditch the Blackberry and hire a tiger team of Google Android nerds who could do just that for you on the new Google phone. Their platform is more open, anyway - the only way we're going to be certain your security is good is if you publish the platform and have all the security experts try to break it.

I wouldn't even bother try to get RIM to play ball; this is a company with a glacial change strategy and an awful proprietary system.

Good luck, President-Elect Obama. Keep fighting for your own tech, your own personal working style. I'm rooting for you.

They don’t make 30 year old windows…

Google 411 is dangerous. Used to be, when I got a wild hair and would want to know a random fact, I would have to wait until I was in front of a computer to search for and get a number. Now, however, all I have to do is hit up Google 411 on my cell.

With a little judicious hacking around, I can find any number I'm looking for.

Today, I finally got an answer for a question I've been asking myself every time I've come to work.

"Why is the Peachtree Plaza Hotel still looking like it has just been in a tornado?"

I asked that of the front desk person and she said that the reason was that the windows on the Peachtree Plaza Hotel are all 30 years old, and nobody makes 30 year old windows.

Nobody is able to create a replacement window that will exactly match the tone of the windows around it.

Isn't that amazing?

As a result, the hotel looks like a tubular version of those old time computer punch cards with lots of punches taken out of it.

Apparently the only working strategy to repair the look of the hotel is to replace every single one of the windows on the outside of the structure. Can you believe that? Every single window replaced!

If it were me, I'd hire an artist to turn the bad windows into some kind of cool design.

Anyway, this could be definitely a big symbol. It means you can't fake authenticity. It means you can't replace old things for new and not suffer.

But it could also be a symbol for a lack of planning. Didn't the hotel think they might one day want replacements for these windows? If so, why didn't they lay in a stash of windows? I suppose they would've needed to be exposed to the same environmental conditions or something, to be exactly the same.

It is definitely a symbol for the current economic times. In younger days, they would've replaced all the windows right away and damn the expense! Not today. Hotels, especially big tall hotels, are probably not as profitable as they once were.

This hotel was for a short time the tallest hotel in the world - it's not at all anymore. It rises up and dominates the Atlanta skyline, though. I love that hotel, and I hope they get it back to looking right again. But I have a feeling it's going to take a few years.

But at least now I won't be wondering every time I pass it by!

Writing on Heart of the Hunter Finished!

The writing of my second novel, Heart of the Hunter, is done.

Here's the tale of the tape:
27 Chapters
112,874 Words
303 Pages 1.5 spaced 12 point Times New Roman

Writing Time:
Background writing (for character studies) took place in November, 2006, over NaNoWriMo.
Writing the novel itself started January 9, 2007
Writing duration: 1 year, 9 months, 14 days

Now, I just have to record the last few podcasts, and I am done.

So what's next you may ask? Editing! Then Agent Search!

And more writing!

Oooh, to talk about that, I'll have to wait until I get the URLs secured

Cuil Ego Search nets….????

When I ego search Cuil I get a crapload of completely useless links:

<a href="http://www.cuil.com/search?q=%22Sam+Chupp%22">http://www.cuil.com/search?q=%22Sam+Chupp%22</a>

My home page isn't even on there! None of my blogs! None of my podcasts! Man, what a waste.

Not that, you know, anybody but me is going to be doing this search.

Oh! Another thing! Internet Explorer hates WordPress? What? I can't post to WordPress through IE7. Ballmer must've ticked off the WP guys.

In case you don't listen to <a href="http://heartofthehunter.com">Heart of the Hunter</a>, my fantasy audio book, I have announced that there will be a Heart of the Hunter "Gypsy Tea" event at Dragon*Con. 3:30 p.m. on Sunday at the Hilton.

All but the Tlini Tana are invited (and the Tlini knows who they are, or should by now!)

I've been re-listening to the book and I gotta say there are some bits that I really want to go back and re-record. Especially an episode that was either recorded in the rain or during a particularly fierce period of <a href="http://technomom.com">Technomom</A> typing.

I hate not being able to talk about the book to people because it's spoiler city for those who wanna read it. There are, I'm told, people who are waiting until the entire thing is done before they'll listen. OK. Maybe I'll have a Sekrit Forum somewhere that I'll use to discuss the book after it's up in its entirety.

Eep at the time. I'm gonna have to go to work now. Bye!